The French monarch not only found his career of conquest arrested, by the efforts of the sovereign of Great Britain, but the towns he had captured were also being re-taken, and it became a point of great importance to him to detach England from the confederacy, which could only be accomplished by re-placing King James on the throne. For this purpose measures were privately concerted for exciting a rebellion in England; the Duke of Berwick, and several other English officers in the French service, were sent across the Channel in disguise, and through their persuasions a number of men were prepared to rise at a moment's notice; at the same time a conspiracy was formed in London to assassinate King William, and fifty men were engaged and prepared with arms to commit the diabolical act: a French naval and land force was also held in readiness for a descent on the English coast, and King James was at Calais prepared to embark. At this juncture, the Fourteenth, and a number of other regiments, received orders to return to England, and they arrived at Gravesend in March, 1696. The conspiracy was, however, discovered; a British fleet was sent to blockade the French ports, and the designs of the King of France being thus defeated, King William was left at liberty to prosecute the war for the security of the civil and religious liberties of the nations of Europe. Several of the corps which had arrived from Flanders returned to the seat of war immediately; but the Fourteenth was one of the regiments selected to remain on home service; it landed at Gravesend on the 22nd of March, and proceeded to Canterbury and Feversham, from whence it was removed to London in November, and took the duty at the Tower.
1697
In 1697, King William saw his efforts for the preservation of national independence attended with success; the French monarch was humbled, and the treaty of Ryswick fixed the balance of power in Europe.
1698
Soon after the restoration of peace, the regiment received orders to proceed to Ireland, and it landed at Belfast and Cork in March, 1698; at the same time it was placed upon a peace establishment.
1701
1702
King James died in France in 1701, when Louis XIV. proclaimed the Pretender King of Great Britain by the title of James III.; this event, with the elevation of the Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., to the throne of Spain, in violation of solemn engagements, was followed by a sanguinary war with France and Spain, during which the continent of Europe, and the peninsula of Portugal and Spain, became theatres for the display of British valour, but the Fourteenth Regiment was selected to remain in Ireland. The proclamation of the Pretender, and the death of King William III., in March, 1702, revived the hopes of the partisans of the Stuart family, who were conspiring to elevate the Pretender to the throne, and Queen Anne deemed it expedient to detain a few trusty corps, of approved devotion to the Protestant interest, in Ireland.
1703
Although the honorable distinction of being selected to remain in Ireland, prevented the regiment acquiring laurels in the field, yet it sent several drafts of men on foreign service, who had opportunities of distinguishing themselves. In the autumn of 1703 it furnished a draft of fifty men to complete Lord Montjoy's, and another draft of the same strength for Colonel Brudenel's regiments, (afterwards disbanded,) on their embarkation to accompany the Archduke Charles of Austria to Portugal. The regiment was in garrison at Dublin from the 7th of August to the 31st of December, 1703.
1705