Bizarre Moments in History #1

The Battle of the Boyne

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Boyne

A particularly absurd creation of European dynastic struggles, the battle of the Boyne was fought in Ireland in 1690, amidst the turmoil of Catholic and Protestant interests battling in the British Isles. It saw the Dutch king William of Orange leading the English army (composed mostly of Dutch, French Huguenot, and Danish troops) with the blessing of the Pope defeat the English king James leading French royalist troops and hordes of Irish Catholic peasants with the support of France...

Reliably, the Dutch and Danish troops performed admirably, and the Irish peasants armed with low quality muskets generally deserted the utterly incompetent though King James, thus cementing the success of glorious revolution and ending Catholic hopes for domination of Britain and Scot/Irish hopes for independence from the English.

All in all, this qualifies for a B+ in terms of absurdity. 