5. Scots in the French and Dutch Armies During the Thirty Years' War
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5. SCOTS IN THE FRENCH AND DUTCH ARMIES DURING THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR Matthew Glazier Remarkably little attention has been given to the role played by Scottish soldiers in the armies of France and the Dutch Republic during the period of the Thirty Years' War. This is surprising since both nations retained Scottish military units as integral features of their armed forces before the war began in 1618. The premier unit of the personal bodyguard of the kings of France was composed of one hundred Scottish gentlemen; the unit had existed since 1449. From the early 1630s France became an increasingly important des tination for other Scottish soldiers entering military service abroad. Due to the collaboration of Charles I's queen, Henrietta Maria, and her mother, Marie de' Medici of France, service in that country ulti mately became a loyalist, Royalist gesture by supporters of the cause of Charles I by the mid- l 640s. Yet Scottish military involvement in France throughout the 1630s can help to explain the continuity of Scottish service in that country throughout the period of the British Civil Wars. For Scots the traditional associations of the Auld Alliance also fostered military and civil connections with France which con tinued to operate throughout the period of the Thirty Years' War. This was particularly true as the Scots sought French support during the Bishops Wars of 1639-1640. A quite different story can be told of Scots in Dutch service during the Thirty Years' War. Ever at the cutting edge of technological developments in the art of war, the Dutch attracted a steady stream of professional officers, and career soldiers, throughout the entire period of the war. In the Dutch Republic, like France, there existed traditional military units which specifically required Scottish soldiers to fill their ranks, particularly in the erroneously named 'Anglo Dutch' Brigade. This was not an exclusively English unit, but con sisted of three English and three Scottish regiments. The brigade had been in existence in the Dutch Republic since the 1580s, giving it a good three generations or so of existence before the outbreak of hostilities which led to the Thirty Years' War. 118 MATTHEW GLOZIER Given the existence of the two particular Scottish units in armies engaged in the military struggles that dominated the first half of the seventeenth century, a comparative review of their impact is well overdue. I The ongms of Scottish military service in France can be traced to the middle ages and the formation of the Garde Ecossais, or personal Scottish body guard of the king of France, in the fifteenth century which ratified what was perceived to be the ancient connection, or Auld Alliance, between the two kingdoms. This alliance fostered Scottish military involvement in France as well as links between the two countries based around the establishment of religious houses. 1 The Garde Ecossais was founded in 1449 from the remnants of the force originally raised for service in France by the earls of Buchan and Wigton, and by Sir John Stewart of Darnley.2 It was manned entirely by Scottish gentlemen, twenty-five of whom were exempts while the remaining seventy-five were archers. 3 The household guard of the French king consisted of four bodies of one hundred men each, of which the premier unit was the Scottish guard. The Garde Ecossais was the only one of the four units which was allowed to remain constantly by the king. The Garde was the catalyst for a reasonably significant settlement in France of its Scottish members, who founded noble families in that kingdom. However, the Scots guard had a significantly less Scottish membership after 1620 and the position of its members was often ambiguous in both kingdoms.4 By the mid seventeenth century 1 A. Mirot, Souvenirs du College des Ecossais (Paris: 1962); J.-L. Carr, Le College des Ecossais a Paris (1662-1962) (Paris: 1962) and J.F. McMullin, 'The Innes Brothers and the Scots College, Paris', in The Stuart Court in Exile and the ]acobites, ed. E. Cruik shanks and E. Corp (London: 1995). 2 G. Donaldson, The Scots Overseas (London: 1966) 25. 3 W. Forbes-Leith, The Scots Men-at-Amzs and Life Guards in France, 1458-1830, 2 vols. (Edinburgh: 1882) and A. Houston, L'Ecosse.franfoise (Paris: 1608); E.A. Bonner, 'The First Phase of the Politique of Henri II in Scotland, its Genisis and the Nature of the "Auld Alliance", 1547-1554', unpublished Ph.D. (Sydney: 1992) and E.A. Bonner, 'Scots in France and French in Scotland', in The Scottish Soldier Abroad, 1247-1967, ed. G.G. Simpson (Edinburgh: 1992). 4 RPCS, second series, II, 221. .