CHAPTER V.
“Caledonians, brave and bold!
Heroes, never bought or sold!
Sons of sires, who died of old
To gild a martial story!”
SCOTS FUSILIER GUARDS—SCOTTISH CIVIL WARS—REVOLUTION.
Whilst the Grenadiers and Coldstreams were unwilling witnesses to the profligacy and lewdness of the Court, the Scots Foot Guards, since their establishment in 1661, were more especially the witnesses of its cruelties. The inquisition established by Royal Commission, and presided over by the then Duke of York, rioted in the shedding of the blood of “the faithful,” and with merciless cruelty persecuted and tortured our Covenanting forefathers. In 1679, the Scots Foot Guards were called to make their first essay in arms in the defence of Glasgow. Their firm front, as they withstood the army of the Covenanters, may be said to have stemmed the torrent of rebellion, and saved the Government and the royal cause from the ruin which threatened it. At the battle of Bothwell Bridge they were charged with the attack upon the bridge, which, although desperately defended, they ultimately carried. This single achievement was victory; the terror, the panic it inspired in the still formidable army of the Covenanters, led to a disorderly flight, even before the royal troops could be brought across the river and formed in line of attack.
The Scots Foot Guards continued to be deeply involved in the strifes of these unhappy times. Towards the close of their sojourn in Scotland, 200 of the regiment, under Captain Streighton, associated with a portion of the Scots Greys, were employed in taking summary and merciless vengeance upon Macdonald of Keppoch and his unfortunate clan, because of their recent raid upon the Macintosh. Immediately thereafter, the imminent danger to the Crown, caused by the threatened irruption of the Prince of Orange, which was so soon to overthrow the existing dynasty, induced James to draw together to London the whole reliable forces of the kingdom. Accordingly the Scots Foot Guards, under their colonel, Lieutenant-General Douglas, marched with the Scottish army southward. Arriving in London towards the close of October, the regiment, 1251 strong, was quartered in the vicinity of Holborn. Advanced with the royal army, the Scots Foot Guards were stationed at Reading. Here, becoming tainted with the general disaffection then prevalent, a battalion deserted to the Prince of Orange. The events in the sequel, bringing about the dissolution of the authority of the King, and the establishment of the House of Orange under William and Mary, speedily reunited the battalions of the regiment under the new authority, and it is hereafter to be regarded as the Scots Fusilier, or Third Regiment of Guards. The title of Scots Fusilier Guards was conferred on them as late as the 22d April, 1831.
The ambitious views of Louis XIV.—“Le Grand Monarque”—of France were for the moment paralysed, as he found himself outdone in his calculations by the unexpected turn of events in England—the overthrow of the Stuarts and the splendid triumphs of the House of Orange. Nettled by these disappointments, he readily entertained the schemes of James, not so much that he desired the restoration of that imbecile monarch—even although, as hitherto, enjoying the shadow of independent power, he should continue the tool of the Jesuits of France—but rather that he might find a favourable pretext to trouble the House of Orange, whom he had been long accustomed to regard as his natural and mortal foe. He aspired, moreover, to unite the Netherlands—the hereditary dominion of the Stadtholder—to France, perchance to reduce these sea-girt isles of ours to acknowledge his authority and become an appanage of his Crown. Whilst James—encouraged by the fair promises of Louis—laboured to fan into flame the discontents of the English Jacobites, the Scottish Clans, and the Irish Papists, Louis prepared formidable armaments by sea and land, with which he speedily assailed the Netherlands. Meanwhile, aided by the natural reaction which generally follows the outburst of strong feelings, James succeeded but too well in his malignant purpose; in Scotland, by the rebellion of the Highland Clans, under Viscount Dundee, and in Ireland, by the rebellion of Irish Papists, under Tyrconnell. It required all the firmness and ability of William to meet this formidable coalition, which threatened his dominions at home and abroad; but the King, who could point to times in his eventful history when, with far less promise of a successful issue, he had overthrown more powerful foes—sustained now, too, by the veteran experience of Schomberg and the rising genius of Marlborough—promptly prepared to uphold his new-gotten and extensive authority as the Champion of the Protestant cause, a title which he had long enjoyed, and a faith which, despite the wrathful persecution of kings, he had owned and protected.
For a time, in Scotland, victory seemed indecisive, but after the death of Dundee at Killiecrankie, the cause of James, languishing for a while, was at length abandoned as hopeless by the Clans, and in 1691 the rebellion terminated by their submission. In Ireland, the success of James was complete, with the exception of Londonderry and Enniskillen, which, being resolutely and gloriously defended as the last bulwarks of Irish Protestantism, still held out. Even the arrival of Schomberg, in 1689, at the head of a considerable number of newly-raised regiments of English and French Huguenots, aided by a Dutch force, failed to do more than awe the rebels. In the following year William himself joined the army, with large supplies, and by his presence revived the spirit of his troops—now increased to 36,000. A battalion of the Scots Foot Guards at the same time recruiting the royal army, led by their colonel, General Douglas, were present at the battle of the Boyne, where they materially contributed to the overthrow of the Irish rebels. They were also present with the army, under Ginkel, which ultimately dispersed the troops of the malcontents, driving James from the throne of Ireland, and so united the island once more to the British Empire.
While these events were taking place at home, Marlborough had been sent in command of a British contingent, which comprised, with other troops, a battalion of the Scots Foot Guards and one of the Coldstream Guards, to act with the Dutch and German allies, under Prince Waldeck, against the French in the Netherlands. It is interesting to note this, as being the first effort in arms of the Scots Foot Guards upon a foreign shore and against a foreign foe. In the first action of the campaign, fought at Walcourt, our Guards were present, but occupied no very important post, the brunt of the battle having been sustained by the Coldstreams, under Colonel Talmash, the Sixteenth Regiment of Foot and the First Regiment of Royal Scots, under Colonel Hodges. Although forming a part of the Scottish brigade, the regiment, indeed the army, achieved nothing of importance until 1692, when King William, having effectually secured peace at home, placed himself at the head of his forces, infusing by his presence new energy and life into the war. Notwithstanding the enthusiasm which pervaded the troops when William assumed the command, they could make no impression upon the French army, directed by the abilities of the Duc de Luxembourg. On the contrary, the allies were doomed to suffer severe defeats at Steenkirk in 1692, and Landen in 1693. In the latter, Corporal Trim, in Sterne’s renowned “Tristram Shandy,” is represented to have been wounded whilst serving with his master, the kindly-hearted Uncle Toby, in Leven’s regiment, now the Twenty-fifth King’s Own Borderers. The after campaigns are unmarked by any decisive event. The death of Luxembourg, and the incapacity of his successor—Villeroy—enabled the confederates somewhat to retrieve the disasters of the past. Soon the almost impregnable fortress of Namur—bravely defended by Marshal Bouffleurs, and as bravely assailed by our troops—was, after a fearful carnage, lost to France. In 1697, weary of a war which had been fraught with no decided success on either side, the peace of Ryswick put an end for the present to a further waste of blood and treasure.
The Guards, returning to England, enjoyed but for a short space a respite from active service. France having for a moment tasted the sweets of victory, having largely recruited her armies, thirsted for more blood, longed for new worlds to conquer; whilst her ambitious lord, grasping, through minions of his house, the vacant throne of Spain, once more roused the allied wrath of Europe. During the previous reign our country had groaned under a shameful vassalage to France. The gold of the crafty Louis had outweighed the feeble sense of honour which yet lived and lurked amid the corrupt Court of James. But the accession of William to the throne put an end to these traitorous traffickings for the independency of the land. The new rule and healthier administration of the House of Orange dispelled the night of slavery, revived the drooping spirit of liberty, and restored the nation to its true manhood. Even now did she begin to assume that position of first importance among the continental powers which she has never ceased honourably to retain. Her alliance was anxiously courted, and her enmity dreaded by all. With becoming majesty her ministers may be said to have presided in the councils of the nations. With terrible might she threw the weight of her sword into the scale as an arbiter—the defender of the right.
In 1701 and 1702 the British army was being assembled in the Netherlands, and posted in the vicinity of Breda—the Guards forming an important part of the force. Meanwhile the Dutch and German auxiliaries were drawing together their several contingents. Difficulties arose amongst the confederates as to the officer who should assume the chief command. Happily, however, these were at length overcome. The Earl of Athlone, as the senior, waving his claim, the command of the allied army was conferred on Marlborough, who, in the campaigns which were about to open, should win laurels of a mighty fame. From the great number of strong fortresses which studded the plains of the Netherlands and guarded the frontier, the campaigns were, in consequence, largely made up of perplexing manœuvres and sieges. It is, however, worthy of notice that in each year the might and energy of the combatants were concentrated into one great fight, rather than a succession of minor engagements. The character of the country, no doubt, helped to this mode of warfare. Thus we record, in succession, the great battles of Blenheim, in 1704; Ramilies, in 1706; Oudenarde, in 1708; Malplaquet, in 1709. It is unnecessary to detail the marchings and counter-marchings of the Guards as they waited upon the several sieges; sufficient be it to say, they did “the State some service.” At Nimeguen, with the First Royals, they rendered essential service in repelling an unexpected attack of an immensely superior French force, who had hoped to surprise and proudly capture the allied chiefs in the midst of their deliberations. In 1703 the strongholds of Huy and Limburg capitulated to the allies. During this campaign the Guards were brigaded with the Fifteenth, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Regiments under General Withers. But the succeeding year was destined to witness a far more magnificent achievement—the sudden and rapid transference of the British army from the plains of the Netherlands to the valley of the Danube; a movement which, affording timely succour, and graced by the triumphs of Schellenberg and Blenheim, restored the sinking fortunes of the Imperial arms, and proved the deliverance of Germany. Associated with the First Royals, the Twenty-third Regiment, with detachments from other corps, the Guards sustained a terrible fight and suffered a severe loss in storming the heights of Schellenberg. Their valour on this occasion was most conspicuous. The furious and repeated assaults of their gallant foe entailed frequent repulses; still their firmness was unconquerable; again and again they returned to the attack, until their perseverance was at length crowned with complete success in the utter rout of the enemy. But this defeat on the part of the French and Bavarians was only the prelude to a more terrible disaster. The allied army of Germans, Dutch, Prussians, and British, driving the enemy before them, at length halted in the neighbourhood of Blenheim, where the French and Bavarians, largely recruited and strongly posted, under Marshals Tallard and Marsin, had resolved to try the issue of battle. In the action which followed, the Guards had six officers killed and wounded. After the siege and surrender of Landau, which immediately followed this victory, the Guards returned with the army to the Netherlands, where, in the succeeding campaigns, they were hotly engaged, forcing the enemy’s lines at Helixem, and more especially at the great pitched contests of Ramilies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. In 1712 the peace of Utrecht once more restored them to their native land.
Meanwhile the Spanish Peninsula was the scene of a conflict, although conducted on a less gigantic scale, embittered by the personal presence of the rival sovereigns—Philip of Bourbon and Charles of Austria. France having espoused the cause of Philip—which was really the cause of the people—had so vigorously pressed the allies, that notwithstanding the presence of a British force, they could hardly maintain a footing in the Peninsula for themselves, or for Charles as claimant to the throne. The war is remarkable as developing the military abilities of two most illustrious soldiers who successively directed the French armies—the Duke of Berwick and the Duc de Vendôme. In 1704 Gibraltar had been captured by a party of British sailors. A portion of the Guards garrisoned the fortress, and heroically withstood all the efforts of the Spaniards to recover it. In the following year the British fleet arrived, and forced Marshal Tessé to raise the siege, in consequence of which the Guards were withdrawn to form a part of the expedition under the Earl of Peterborough, which landed in Catalonia and captured Barcelona. Soon, however, this transient success was dissipated by the return of the French and Spanish armies, who in turn besieged the British. After enduring many privations, and making a gallant defence, the besieged were relieved in the eleventh hour by the presence of a British squadron with reinforcements. But this temporary aid only served, by elevating the hopes of the garrison, to induce a more serious disaster, in the utter rout of the allies at the battle of Almanaza which shortly followed, and virtually gave the kingdom to the House of Bourbon. Urged by Marlborough, the British Government were roused to prosecute the war with greater vigour in Spain than hitherto, as being a diversion of the utmost importance to the allied operations in the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. Accordingly, in 1709 two formidable armies were sent out, one to act in Portugal, under Lord Galway, and the other in Spain, under Generals Staremberg and Stanhope. The latter of these included a battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards. Advancing upon Madrid, everything seemed to promise success to their enterprise—the speedy downfall of the Bourbon dynasty, and the establishment of the House of Austria upon the throne. Their advance was distinguished by the victory of Saragossa, in which the British captured thirty standards and colours. The French General retiring, waited his opportunity, when, with recruited ranks, and the popular opinion on his side, he returned and forced the British, under Staremberg and Stanhope, to make a precipitate retreat, in course of which General Stanhope, at the head of 6000 troops, including the Scots Fusilier Guards, was overtaken at Birhuega by a superior force of the enemy. The British for two days heroically defended themselves, but were ultimately forced to surrender. General Staremberg, however, somewhat repaired the disaster by defeating the enemy in the battle of Villa Viciosa with great slaughter, and thus secured for his wearied yet gallant troops a safe retreat.
In 1715 the Scots Fusilier Guards were placed in garrison in Portsmouth and Plymouth. Notwithstanding the rebellions in Scotland of 1715 and 1719 the regiment continued to be peacefully employed in the south. In 1722 the colonelcy was conferred on General St Clair.