Fischer, the Scots in Germany
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The Scots in Germany http://studienstelleog.de/download/ScotsGermany_Fischer.pdf The Scots in Germany - Preface http://studienstelleog.de/download/ScotsGermany_Fischer.pdf The Scots in Germany The Scots in Germany Being a contribution towards the history of the Scot abroad Preface by Th A Fischer (first published in 1902) My thanks for Gregory Lauder-Frost for making this book available to us. WHEN I several years ago commenced to write this book, voices were not wanting advising me to abandon the idea, chiefly on account of the vast area from which the material had to be gathered and the almost total want of preparatory inquiry into this particular branch of Scottish History. l Preface l Commerce and Trade - Part 1 When I nevertheless persevered in my task, though experiencing to the full the truth of those l Commerce and Trade - Part 2 Cassandra voices, it was owing not only to an interest which warmed with the increasing difficulties, l The Army - Part 1 but to the very kind and active help that friends of historical research both in Scotland and in l The Army - Part 2 Germany have afforded me in supplying copies of records or other sources of information, or in l The Church - Part 1 reading proofs, or in acting as guides through the labyrinths of their libraries. It would be too long to l The Church - Part 2 mention their names; my thanks are due to them all, in particular to the librarians and keepers of records in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St Andrews, Fort Augustus, Dundee, and in half a l Statesman and Scholar hundred places in Sweden, Germany and Austria. l Appendix I l Appendix II That notwithstanding this kind co-operation the present book is still far from complete, I am only too l Appendix III - Lists of Scottish Names painfully aware. l Appendix IV - Lists of Scottish Names There is more than enough of material to be found among the Records of Konigsberg and Danzig alone for a contemplated second volume, to be devoted to the Scottish settlements in Prussia only, of Return to our Online Books page which we have given a sketch in the First Part of the present work. Such a volume ought to be written. Print page Back to site Printed from http://www.electricscotland.com/history/germany/scotsndx.htm Perhaps some Society like the Scottish History Society or the Society of Antiquaries would think it worth its while to originate and stimulate research in this direction. So many old barrows have been ransacked, so many old Ogham stones been read, so many old Charter Chests been examined at their expense and instigation. Here then is a new field; quite as interesting to the Scottish historian, a field altogether neglected hitherto, but full of the promise of the most interesting and surprising results! It must be left to the future with more or less confidence to point out and smooth the way towards the happy consummation of a task, towards which the present volume only forms a contribution. I regret very much that my search for the portraits of Alesius and Dune has hitherto proved fruitless. To the courtesy of Baron Johnston in Silesia, of the "Historische Verein" at Hanau, and of the Rev. King Hewison at Rothesay I am indebted for the three portraits reproduced. In conclusion, let me say that I am still collecting the likenesses of famous Scots in Germany and that I shall be grateful for the direct communication of any criticisms or alterations concerning the form or the substance of the present, as well as for any suggestion or help towards the writing of the contemplated second volume. THE AUTHOR. 20 SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH, February 1902. Return to Book Index Print page Back to site Printed from http://www.electricscotland.com/history/germany/preface.htm Seite 1 von 1 Seite 1 von 1 The Scots in Germany - Commerc... http://studienstelleog.de/download/ScotsGermany_Fischer.pdf The Scots in Germany - Commerc... http://studienstelleog.de/download/ScotsGermany_Fischer.pdf The Scots in Germany Tideman v. d. Osten and Hanneke Schole made good their flight and arrived home safely by way of Flanders. Commerce and Trade (Part 1) On the other hand the captain of a sloop from Hamburgh sells the cargo of a plundered ship THE commercial intercourse of Scotland with Germany dates almost, if not quite, as far back as that consisting of wax and other goods in Scotland (1309). In the year 1316 a citizen of Berwick with Flanders, where already in the commencement of the XIIlth Century a Scotch Settlement at complains, that on a "Tuesday before Easter" a ship of his destined for Berwick, with a cargo of Bruges was known under the name of "Scottendyk." The oldest document relative to Scotch-German victuals had been seized by vessels from Lubeck, Rostock and Stralsund. He himself had been taken trade is the famous letter of William Wallace, the national Hero and champion of his country ’s liberty, prisoner, his men killed; only by paying the sum of 50 marks as a ransom had he been able to which was discovered in 1829 by the German Scholar and Antiquarian Dr. Lappenberg among the procure his liberty. He now prays the King for power to bring the miscreants to justice. archives of the Free City of Lubeck, the renowned chief of the Hanseatic league. It bears the date of 1297 and runs as follows: "Andrew Moray and William Wallace, leaders of the Scotch army, and the In the month of December 1462 a citizen of Danzig called Kilekanne is accused of piracy before the commonwealth of the same kingdom send to the prudent and discreet men, our good friends, the Scotch Admiral Sir Alexander Napier. Thereupon the Danzig Magistrates address a long Latin letter Senate and the commoners of Lubeck and of Hamburg greeting and a continuous increase of sincere to Edinburgh and send a certain Letzke to assist the accused in his trial. Examples of this kind could affection. We have been informed by trustworthy merchants of the said kingdom of Scotland, that you easily be adduced in great number for centuries afterwards. In the public accounts of the city of on your own behalf have been friendly and helpful in counsel and deed in all things and enterprises Aberdeen in the year 1596 we find an accurate statement of the expense of executing four pirates concerning us and our merchants, though our own merits did not occasion this. We are therefore the who had plundered a ship from Danzig. more beholden to you, and wishing to prove our gratitude in a worthy manner we ask you to make it known among your merchants that they can now have a safe access with their merchandize to all harbours of the Kingdom of Scotland, because the Kingdom of Scotland has, thanks be to God, by If one adds to this a great many taxes and heavy duties of export, especially on wool and skins, the war been recovered from the power of the English. Farewell. Given at Hadsington (Haddington) in bad construction of ships, etc., all of which tended to cripple and delay a satisfactory development of Scotland on the eleventh day of October in the Year of Grace one thousand two hundred and ninety trade: it is not to be wondered at, that the best and most liberal intentions of the Scotch rulers as to the commercial intercourse of Scotland with other countries were only partially realised. And no doubt seven." some of the best Kings of Scotland had the trade and the shipping of their country very near at heart. William the Lion (1165 - 1214) granted "liberum ansum" to the northern towns of his kingdom and "We also pray you to be good enough to further the business of John Burnet and John Frere, our Robert Bruce, the great patron of shipping and ship-building, towering high above the men of his time merchants, just as you might wish that we should further the business of your merchants. Farewell. by his far-reaching intelligence and his practical genius as he excelled them in martial Given as above." accomplishments, in a letter to the Magistrates of Lubeck, dated April 22nd, 1321, promises all merchants of this or any other city of "Alemannia," who "wish to visit Scotland on account of trade, As will be seen, the letter was written immediately after the victorious battle of the Scots near Stirling favour, assistance and protection of the customs and liberties granted to them by former Kings of and the advance of the army into Northumberland. Scotland. Previous to this date we can scarcely speak of a regular trade between the two countries; and even The Earl of March desires the Magistrates of Danzig to make efforts for the revival of the trade up to a much later date the development of commercial intercommunication is slow. This is but between Prussia and Scotland, which had been interrupted by the emprisonment of a certain Caspar natural, when we consider that piracy and the almost ceaseless wars between England and Scotland, Lange. The letter is undated but belongs very probably to the end of the XIVth Century. and later between the Hanseatic League and the Kingdoms of the North, must be added to the already universal want of safety of the traffic on land and sea. King James II, so well known by his own energy and public spirit, takes the merchants of Bremen with their servants and ships under his protection and asks his friends and allies to treat them well.