CHAPTER FORTY ONE
PREFACE
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century the British with an array of coalitions fought the Napoleonic wars, directly after the French revolutionary wars, when Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in France. Napoleon Bonaparte attempted to annex Europe, England and Russia with French sovereignty. This was a time of incredible history. In 1803 England became the United Kingdom with the amalgamation of Ireland after years of bitter bloodshed. The Spanish Inquisition was under democratic scrutiny and eventually abolished. By 1815 the United Kingdom defeated the French in the war of the seventh coalition with allies Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands defining the borders that are now modern Europe. A major factor in this defeat of the French was the superior strength and experience of the Royal Navy. With huge forests of oak, seasoned ship builders and brilliant seaman Britannia ruled the waves.
In 1807 British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce was successful in introducing a bill The Slave Trade Act outlawing the carrying of slaves on British ships. It would take until 1833 to have The Slavery Abolition Act passed in the House of Lords which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire just prior to the death of Wilberforce. This period in history also saw the formation of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the start of the industrial revolution.
The Irish had struggled through years of war with England and those opposed to British rule as part of the United Kingdom formed the Society of United Irishmen collaborating with the French to bring down the British and regain Irish independence. This story begins in Bantry Bay Ireland in 1796 with the disastrous expedition d'Irelande by the French in an attempt to land French troops on Irish soil. A young farmer's son Fial McMurrin twelve years old witnesses the mayhem with much of the French fleet destroyed by savage storms in Bantry Bay and along the adjacent coastline of Ireland. His parents are killed by the British but Fial McMurrin survives hidden by his parents and found by friends, he is taken to Cork. He is a natural seaman and learns the ways of the Royal Navy. He becomes a notorious pirate when the time is right exploiting weakness he found in ships of the line and their battle tactics. A chance meeting with William Wilberforce changes his life.