1685
In the early part of 1685, King Charles II. died, and was succeeded by his brother, King James the Second of England, and Seventh of Scotland. The King being a Roman Catholic, some disaffected persons supposed the people would not submit to his government; and the Earl of Argyle and the Duke of Monmouth, who were both in exile on the Continent, for their political conduct, agreed to raise the standard of rebellion,—the former in Scotland, and the latter in England. The Earl of Argyle landed in Argyleshire in May, and assembled a body of men; when the Earl of Mar's regiment was again called into the field. The King's troops were commanded by the Earl of Dumbarton; and on the night of the 19th of June, the two armies encamped in sight of each other. The rebels attempted to avoid an engagement, by a night march; but they were led into a bog in the dark; alarm and disorder followed; and the insurgents, proceeding some in one direction and some in another, left the Earl of Argyle without an army; he was captured and executed. The Duke of Monmouth met with a similar fate, and the rebellion in England was suppressed without the Earl of Mar's regiment being required to pass the border.
1686
The Earl of Mar was succeeded in the colonelcy of the regiment, in 1686, by Colonel Thomas Buchan, from a regiment of horse.
1688
When the attempts made by King James to establish papacy and arbitrary government had alarmed his subjects, and the Prince of Orange was preparing an armament for the invasion of England, the regiment was one of the corps which marched from Scotland to support the authority of the King; and in the early part of November, 1688, it arrived in the vicinity of London, when it was ordered to occupy quarters in Spitalfields and the Tower Hamlets. The Prince of Orange landed on the 5th of November; King James discovered that he had alienated the affections of his subjects, both civil and military, and he fled to France. Colonel Buchan's regiment was ordered, by the Prince of Orange, to occupy quarters at Witney, in Oxfordshire.
1689
The Prince and Princess of Orange were elevated to the Throne by the titles of King William and Queen Mary; and Colonel Buchan having adhered to the interests of King James, King William conferred the colonelcy of the regiment on Colonel Francis Fergus O'Farrell, by commission dated the 1st of March, 1689.
From Oxfordshire, the regiment marched to Gravesend, where it embarked for Holland, and joining the Dutch army commanded by Prince Waldeck, served the campaign of that year with the division under the Earl (afterwards Duke) of Marlborough. The regiment took part in a sharp action with the French troops, commanded by Marshal d'Humières, at Walcourt, in the province of Namur, on the 25th of August, on which occasion the French were repulsed in their attacks on the allied army, with considerable loss.
1690