History of the Scottish Regiments in the British Army

by Archibald K. Murray

Throughout the long and sanguinary wars which ultimately resulted in the deliverance of Holland from the dominion of Spain, the valiant behaviour of the Scots was very remarkable, and is honourably recorded in most of the old histories of the period. The brigade was originally commanded by General Balfour, and under him by Colonel Murray and Walter Scott, Lord of Buccleugh. It learned the business of war under those great masters of the art, the Princes Maurice and Frederick Henry of Orange. Its early history is one with that of the present Fifth and Sixth Regiments of the line, which then constituted the English Brigade, long commanded by the noble family of De Vere, afterward the illustrious House of Oxford. “King James VI. of Scotland having invited the States-General to be sponsors to his new-born son, Prince Henry, on the departure of the ambassadors, fifteen hundred Scots were sent over to Holland to augment the brigade.”

At the battle of Nieuport, in 1600, the firmness of the Scots Brigade saved the army of Prince Maurice from imminent danger, and contributed largely in attaining the victory gained over the Spanish army of the Archduke Albert of Austria. “After having bravely defended the bridge like good soldiers, they were at length forced to give way, the whole loss having fallen on the Scots, as well on their chiefs and captains as on the common soldiers, insomuch that eight hundred of them remained on the field, amongst whom were eleven captains, and many lieutenants and other officers.”

At the siege of Ostend the Scots, by their unflinching steadiness, helped so materially in the defence that the giant efforts of the enemy under the Marquis Spinola, one of the ablest of the Spanish Generals, failed to accomplish its reduction by force of arms. A capitulation, honourable alike to besieger and besieged, was agreed upon; “and the garrison marched out with arms, ammunition, and baggage, drums beating, and colours flying, after having held out three years and three months.”

“According to a memorial found in the pocket of an officer of Spinola’s suite, after he was killed, the number of slain on the side of the Spaniards amounted in all to seventy-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-one men. The loss on the part of the States was not less than fifty thousand. When the remaining garrison, which consisted of only three thousand men, arrived at Sluice in Flanders, Prince Maurice received them with the pomp of a triumph; and both officers and private men were promoted or otherwise rewarded.”

The gallant conduct of Colonel Henderson, who commanded the brigade in the defence of Bergen-op-Zoom in 1621, is worthy of note. At the siege of Bois-le-duc in 1629 we find the brigade composed of three regiments, respectively commanded by Colonels Bruce, Halket, and Scott (Earl of Buccleugh, son of the Lord of Buccleugh previously mentioned). We do not pretend here to follow the narrative of sieges and battles in which the brigade was at this period engaged. We shall only further mention that at the siege of Sas-van-Ghent in 1644, Colonel Erskine, at the head of one of the Scots regiments, won great renown by his excellent bravery, being foremost in effecting the passage of the river Lys; and again, at the siege of Ghent, Colonel Kilpatrick and another Scots regiment fulfilled a similar mission with equal credit. The peace of Munster, concluded in 1648, gave an honourable issue to the contest in favour of the Dutch, who, for a little while, were permitted to enjoy repose from the horrid turmoil of war.

The British Revolution, which drove Charles II. from the throne of his father and established instead the Protectorate of Cromwell, occasioning his exile—a king without a kingdom or a throne—his Scots partizans, sharing his banishment, greatly recruited the Brigade, where many of them gladly found refuge and honourable employment.

Cromwell, in the plenitude of power, insisted upon the Dutch Estates declaring the exclusion of the House of Orange from the Stadtholdership, thereby hoping to break what appeared to be an antagonistic power to his rule, because of the bond which, by marriage, united the families of Orange and Stuart, imagining, in the blindness of bigotry, thereby to crush out the last remnant of Jacobitism, and extirpate the creed which had inflicted so many and grievous evils upon his country. The effect of this unfortunate exclusion Act was immediately felt throughout the States of Holland in the confusion and distress which it entailed. Taking advantage of these circumstances, and the imbecility of its rulers, the crafty and ambitious monarch of France, Louis XIV., without provocation, and with no other aim than his own aggrandisement, at once invaded Holland with three vast armies, under three of the greatest soldiers of the day—Condé, Turenne, and Luxembourg. With these difficulties and dangers the embarrassments of the State so increased that its feeble rulers in this hour of terror implored the aid of William, Prince of Orange, readily restoring all the rights they had formerly despoiled him of, and conferring upon him the powers of a Dictatorship. The genius of William proved equal to the emergency. At once he set to work, restoring the army to its ancient vigour, and reforming all manner of abuses which had crept into the government.

We are happy to record that, however weak and faulty the Dutch army had become, the Scots Brigade retained its effectiveness, despite the languor of the State, and, in consequence, particularly enjoyed the Prince’s confidence on his restoration. It was commanded by Colonels Sir Alexander Colyear (Robertson), Graham, and Mackay, in 1673. United into one British brigade, the three Scots and the three English regiments served together under Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, throughout the wars with France. On the death of the Earl of Ossory in 1680, the command was conferred upon Henry Sidney, Earl of Romney.

On the outbreak of Monmouth’s Rebellion in England and Argyll’s Rebellion in Scotland, King James II. sent for the three Scots regiments, then serving in Holland, which, on being reviewed by the King on their arrival at Gravesend, drew forth the following compliment, expressed in a letter of thanks to the Prince of Orange for his prompt aid—“There cannot be, I am sure, better men than they are; and they do truly look like old regiments, and one cannot be better pleased with them than I am.”

Colonel Hugh Mackay, who commanded the brigade on this occasion, was promoted to the rank of Major-General.