Ireland and the Low Countries, 1575-1825 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780806360676)

Many Irish merchants settled in the Low Countries, attracted by the major trade markets there for goods and raw materials from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Irish scholars were attracted to the Low Countries universities, such as Leiden. But most of the Irish migrants in Flanders or elsewhere in the Netherlands arrived as soldiers, some in Spanish service, others in English or Dutch service. King Charles II took refuge in the Netherlands after being defeated at the Siege of Worcester in 1651. In a reverse migration pattern, after his restoration to the thrones of England and Ireland in 1660, he encouraged the settlement of Protestants from the Netherlands and Flanders, as well as French Huguenots in Ireland.