History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army

by Archibald K. Murray

And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile.”

Undaunted by these disasters, Gustavus refused to quit the field, although, for the present, he changed the theatre of war into Pomerania. From the wreck of the Protestant army, he carefully selected a chosen body of his favourite Scotsmen, which, in 1625, he constituted a regiment, conferring the command on Sir John Hepburn. In the war with Poland which ensued, the Scots enjoyed, as their gallant demeanour in every instance well merited, the unbounded confidence of the King. Subsequently, the King of Denmark sent two Scots regiments, which had been in his service, to aid the Swedish monarch; and, in 1628, he further received the very welcome reinforcement of 9000 Scots and English. The following incident, occurring about this time, serves to illustrate the cordial relationship subsisting between this renowned prince and our adventurous countrymen:—“In a partial action between the advance-guards, a few miles from Thorn, Gustavus’s hat was knocked off in a personal encounter with one of the enemy’s officers named Sirot, who afterwards wore the hat without knowing to whom it belonged. On the succeeding day, two prisoners (one a Scots officer named Hume) seeing Sirot wearing the King, their master’s, hat, wept exceedingly, and with exclamations of sorrow, desired to be informed if the King was dead. Sirot, being thus made acquainted with the quality of his antagonist in the preceding day’s skirmish, related the manner in which he became possessed of the hat, upon which they recovered a little from their anxiety and surprise.” The success of the Swedish arms at length achieved a favourable peace, which enabled the King, espousing the cause of the persecuted Reformers of Germany, once more to try the issues of war with the Imperialists, and so, if possible, redeem the disasters of a former campaign. At this period no fewer than 10,000 Scots and English exiles were in the Swedish army, and the King had just concluded a treaty with the Marquis of Hamilton, who had undertaken to enlist an additional force of 8000 in these Isles.

Next in seniority to the old Scots regiment of Hepburn is that of Monro, who has written an interesting account of the achievements of our countrymen in these wars. This last narrowly escaped an untimely end—a watery grave—having been shipwrecked near the enemy’s fortress of Rugenwald, on their passage to Pomerania. Lurking in concealment among the brushwood on the shore during the day, Monro’s soldiers at nightfall boldly assaulted the defences of the enemy, and, by this unexpected attack, succeeded in capturing the fortress, where, by great efforts, they maintained themselves against a vastly superior foe until the arrival of Hepburn’s Scots Regiment relieved them. These two regiments, along with other two Scots regiments—those of Stargate and Lumsdell—were at this time brigaded together, and styled the Green Brigade, so celebrated in the military history of the period. In 1631, at the siege of Frankfort, this bold brigade accomplished one of the most daring feats of arms upon record; where—charged with the assault upon this all but impregnable fortress, defended by the best troops of the empire—they undauntedly entered the breach, and—despite the repeated attacks of the foe, especially of an Irish regiment, who, amongst the bravest defenders of the place, twice repulsed the assailants, and fought with the greatest heroism until nearly all were either killed or wounded—they, by their valour, effected a lodgment within the walls. Furiously charged by the splendid cavalry of the Imperial cuirassiers, our Green Brigade resolutely maintained the ground they had won. The trophies of this conquest were immense. The Green Brigade, after having aided in the reduction of the many strongholds of Germany, had penetrated with the army into the very heart of the empire, where they were destined to play a very conspicuous part in the memorable and momentous battle of Leipsic. On this occasion, kept in reserve, the Green Brigade was only brought into action at the eleventh hour, when the ignoble and cowardly flight of the Saxons, who had been impressed into the Swedish army, rendered the position of the army perilously critical. Then our brave Scots, sustained on either flank by Swedish horse, advanced, speedily checked the progress of the enemy, retrieved what the Saxons had lost, and throwing the enemy into confusion, changed the fortunes of the day. The Imperialists, no longer able to withstand the repeated and impetuous attacks of our Scottish brigade, and charged by the Swedish horse, who completed their ruin, broke and fled. Thus their mighty army, lately so confident of victory, which a momentary success had promised, was utterly cut to pieces or dispersed. A variety of sieges and minor engagements followed this great battle, in nearly all of which the Swedes and Scots proved triumphant. Yet, notwithstanding these series of successes, and the several and sore defeats of the enemy, the position of Gustavus was becoming daily, by every new advance, more critical; away from his arsenals, whilst the enemy, within his own territory, had ample resources at hand with which to repair defeat, and thus was becoming hourly more formidable. At Oxenford, the heroic monarch had only an army of 10,000 men around him, whilst the Duke of Lorraine was at hand with a well-equipped force of full 50,000. Still, such was the terror inspired by the marvellous deeds and the known resolution of this little band of veterans, that, although the enemy was in the midst of many advantages, he durst not venture an attack, and feared to arrest the King in his career of conquest.

Bavaria had now become the scene of the contest. Soon that important kingdom was over-run, and—with Munich, its gorgeous capital—surrendered to the northern army. The death of Gustavus Adolphus, at the fatal battle of Lutzen, ruined the hopes of his gallant little army, now sadly reduced in numbers. The Green Brigade was not present on this disastrous day. By a process of transfer, not at all uncommon in those times, the remnant of Swedes and Scots were taken into the pay of France, and, under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, laboured to maintain the cause of the Protestant princes, which had, for ends of her own, been adopted as the cause of France. Colonel Hepburn, some time previously, had, by permission of the King of Sweden, returned to Scotland with the Marquis of Hamilton. His parting with his countrymen in his own regiment is thus quaintly described by Monro:—“The separation was like the separation which death makes betwixt friends and the soul of man, being sorry that those who had lived so long together in amity and friendship, also in mutual dangers, in weal and in woe, the splendour of our former mirth was overshadowed with a cloud of grief and sorrows, which dissolved in mutual tears.”

Returning to France in 1633, Hepburn was appointed colonel to a new regiment of Scotsmen. By a combination of events, he at length met with his old regiment in the same army, and the relics of the Old Scots Brigade. These were subsequently merged into one large regiment, whose history is hereafter one with that of France, and whose representative is now the First Royal Scots Regiment of Foot. By this union, which occurred in 1635, the regiment so constituted attained the extraordinary strength of 8316 officers and men. In the following year they had to lament the loss of their gallant Colonel, who was killed at the siege of Saverne; he “died extremely regretted in the army and by the Court of France.” He was succeeded in the command by Lieut.-Colonel Sir James Hepburn, who survived his illustrious relative only one year. Lord James Douglas, son of William, Marquis of Douglas, was promoted to the vacant Colonelcy, and thereafter the regiment is known as “Douglas’s Regiment.” In the service of Louis XIII. of France, the regiment had entered upon a new theatre of action in the Netherlands, destined to combat the Spaniards, who then were esteemed to form as soldiers the finest infantry in the world. Against this redoubtable foe our Scotsmen conducted themselves with credit, being present at the siege of St Omer, the captures of Renty, Catelet, and at Hesden, under the eye of the monarch himself. During the minority and reign of Louis XIV., known as “Louis le Grand,” the regiment was destined to share the glories of a splendid series of triumphs, successively won by the illustrious chiefs that then commanded the armies of France. In 1643, led by Louis le Bourbon, afterwards Prince of Condé, a leader possessed of all the heroic qualities of the good soldier, and at the same time graced by all the rarer virtues of the true man—under him the regiment served with great distinction in the Netherlands and Italy. Nine years later, when the factions of “the Court” and “the Parliament” had stirred up among the people a civil war, we find the Douglas Regiment, with characteristic loyalty, on the side of “the Court,” serving their royal master under that great adept in the art of war, Marshal Turenne, whose abilities sustained the sinking State; and although opposed to that justly celebrated soldier, the Prince of Condé, at length, out-manœuvring the foe, accomplished the salvation of “the Court,” and, by an honourable peace, secured their restoration to power. Meanwhile a somewhat analogous civil strife in England had wholly overturned the old monarchy of the Stuarts, and inaugurated a new order of things in the Commonwealth, under Oliver Cromwell, the Protector. Charles II., and his royal brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James II., as the surviving heads of their ancient, unfortunate, and infatuated house, had sought and found an asylum at the French Court. In those times of war, employment was readily found in the French armies for their many adherents, who had been driven into exile with them. They were formed into several regiments, who bore an honourable part in the contest then raging between France and the allied might of Spain and Austria. In 1656, the fickle Louis, deserting his old friends, the royalists of England, concluded an alliance with the more powerful Cromwell—the exiles, in consequence, changing sides, threw the weight of their arms and influence, or such as they might still be said to retain, into the scale with Spain. Many of the British royalist regiments, hitherto in the service of France, on the command of Charles, exchanged with their prince, into the service of their late foe, now their friend. Louis, who could ill afford such a serious desertion of troops, which had hitherto proved themselves to be the flower of his army, had taken the precaution to remove, into the interior, the older Scots regiments, and amongst others, that of Douglas, which he had justly learned to value very highly, lest they might be induced to follow their royalist brethren.

PRINCE DE CONDÉ.

In 1661, immediately after the Restoration, Charles II., with a view to strengthen his unstable position on the British Throne, strove to establish an army, and Louis being then at peace, and, moreover, on good terms with our King, the regiment of Douglas was called home to these isles, where it has since been generally known as the First or the Royal Regiment of Foot, although for a time it was popularly styled the “Royal Scots.”

MARSHAL TURENNE.