1591
1595
The occasion of these Scots companies being raised and sent to France in the reign of James VI., was the succession of Henry of Navarre, a Protestant prince, to the throne of France, in 1589, by the title of Henry IV., when a sanguinary war commenced between him and the combined Roman Catholic princes and nobles, called the Leaguers, who opposed his accession to the throne with all their power and influence. Queen Elizabeth furnished the French monarch with auxiliary English forces; the King of Scotland permitted his subjects to aid the Protestant cause, and several companies of Scottish foot were raised and sent to France. The British troops highly distinguished themselves under the Lord Willoughby, Sir John Norris, Sir Roger Williams, and other commanders. The English afterwards quitted France, but Henry IV., having discovered the value of these companies of hardy and valiant Scots, retained them in his service.
1609
1610
In 1609, and the early part of 1610, Henry IV. made preparations for engaging in a war with the House of Austria; but he was murdered in the streets of Paris on the 14th of May, 1610; and, after his death, his son, Louis XIII., being a minor, the preparations for war were discontinued, and part of the army was disbanded.
Leaving the Scots companies in France, where they appear to have been employed in garrison duty for many years, the Record commences the narrative of the services of another body of Scots, under the King of Sweden, of which the Royal Regiment is also the representative.
1611
1613
Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who was designated "the lion of the north," succeeded to the throne in 1611, and he soon began to take an important part in the affairs of Europe. Having heard of the valour of the Scots, he procured, in 1613, a number of companies from Scotland and from the Netherlands,[13] and formed two Scots regiments. He also hired fifteen ships from the Scots nation, which took the town and district of Drontheim, and sailed afterwards to the southernmost shores of Sweden.[14]