Heroes, in your ancestral line,
Hallow the shades of “Auld Langsyne;”
Men who in their country’s story
Shine brightly on the page of glory,
Noo sleep in bonnie Scotland.
ANCIENT HISTORY—882–1660.
As we approach the history of this venerable regiment we cannot help
feeling all those sentiments of reverence and respect which are the
becoming tribute to an honoured old age—a history which well nigh
embraces, as it awakens,
“The stirring memories of a _thousand years_.”
Consistent with the bold and adventurous spirit of the Scotsman, we find
him pushing his fortune in almost every land under the sun; with a brave
and manly heart going down to the battle of life; blessing, by his
industry and enterprise, many a clime wherein he has settled, and so
climbing the loftiest pinnacles of greatness; or, by “diligence in
business,” earning the kingdom of a merchant prince. Of all the many and
varied departments of life in which the Scotsman has been distinguished,
he is most pre-eminent in the honourable profession of a soldier. Driven
from his beloved country by the cruel tyrannies which from time to time
oppressed her, or exiled by the hard necessities of a pinching
poverty—wandering in many lands, the Scotsman nevertheless gratefully
retains the recollection of his fatherland, and, in spirit, returns with
fondness to the endeared associations of home—
“The bonnie blithe blink o’ his ain fireside.”
Such is the ruling passion which lives in his soul. “Home, sweet home,”
exerting a hallowed, chastening influence upon his daily life, has
nerved the soldier’s arm, and, by its magic charm, awakened the energies
of the man. As a “guiding star,” it has pointed out the path of
honour—like a “ministering angel,” its soothing influence has at other
times calmed the troubled sea of life, and, though it be but for a
moment, has given something of peace to the weary, as it is intended to
be a foretaste of the blessedness—
“A something _here_ of heaven above.”
Already volumes have been written on the martial achievements of the
Scottish nation, and we are fully impressed with the magnitude of our
undertaking when, in these brief pages, we propose to illustrate the
heroic tale of our ancient glory. Nowhere is there a more perfect
representative of our exiles who have been soldiers, amongst “the
bravest of the brave,” in many lands, than is afforded us in our present
sketch of the _First or Royal Scots Regiment of Foot_. Many and
conflicting have been the accounts given of their early history. Some
have imagined the present regiment to be the representative of the
Archers of the Scottish Guard, which, in the days of Bruce, had been
associated with Royalty and the defence of the Scottish throne; others
have given their origin to the Scottish Guard, which had for many years
been the Body Guard of the French kings; but the most complete and
authentic account, derived from many sources, is that given by Richard
Cannon, Esq. of the Adjutant General’s Office, in the admirable
Historical Records of the Royals, wherein the origin of the regiment is
traced to the ingathering of our exiles, who had hitherto served with
great credit as soldiers, nay as Royal Guards, in the armies of France,
Denmark, Sweden, and the States of Holland, to be formed into one, the
present regiment of First Royal Scots Foot. As early as the year 882
A.D. Charles III., king of France, had selected from among the exiles a
body of Scottish gentlemen, conspicuous for their fidelity and valour,
who enjoyed his special favour, and were incorporated as a Royal Guard.
During the Crusades these followed Louis IX. into Egypt. They were of
infinite value to France, at a time when the disastrous battle of
Agincourt, fought in 1415, had prostrated her power, and all but reduced
her proud and haughty people to be the vassals and subjects of
triumphant England. The Scots Guards were retained in the service of
Charles VII., and a few years later were joined by a body of 7000 of
their countrymen under the Earl of Buchan, whose abilities as an officer
and valour as a soldier won for him the thanks of a grateful country,
who at the same time conferred the highest compliment and most splendid
military distinction it was in their power to award, in creating him
Constable of France. The Scottish army in France was subsequently
largely increased by farther instalments of adventurous exiles from “the
fatherland.” These helped to break the yoke of England upon the
Continent, and specially distinguished themselves at the battles of
Baugé, 1421, Crevan, 1423, and Verneuille, 1424: so much so, that
Charles, appreciating their worth, selected from their ranks, first in
1422, a corps of Scots Gendarmes, and thereafter, in 1440, a corps of
Scots Guards. On the fair plains of Italy, so cruelly desolated by the
rude hand of war, and so long the favourite battle-field of princes,
whom the poet fitly styles
“Ambition’s honoured fools”—
was afforded the scene where, during the wars of Francis I., our
Scottish Guards, by brilliant exploits, earned a great renown. The story
of their fidelity and devotion is written in their blood, and
illustrated in the fatal defeat of Pavia, 1524, where, in defence of
their master, the chivalric Sovereign of France, whose exclamation of,
“We have lost all, save honour,” has become a household word,—they
nearly all perished, and honourably rest in “a soldier’s grave.” The
relics of this old Scots Guard returning to France, remained the
nucleus, the root, upon which was formed and ingrafted a new corps of
Scots Guardsmen, whose character and history have been aptly described
by Sir Walter Scott in “Quentin Durward;” whilst in his “Legend of
Montrose” we trace the yearnings of the mighty soul of the patriot,
conjuring into life, by the magic of his pen and his rare gifts, the
story of our exiled brave, represented in the gallant veteran of
Gustavus Adolphus, “Dugald Dalgetty.” The martial qualities and gallant
bearing of our countrymen had attracted the notice of Gustavus Adolphus,
the warlike King of Sweden, and induced him to invite to his standard
our adventurous soldiers, who, under so renowned a leader, were destined
to add new lustre to our military annals. On no occasion did the Scots
respond more heartily, or muster so strongly in the foreign service of
any country, as in the present instance. The army of this “Lion of the
North” at one time comprised eighteen British regiments, of whom
_thirteen_ were Scottish; moreover, his principal officers were
Scotsmen.
[Illustration: GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.]
In the marvellous feats of arms which distinguish the masterly campaigns
of Gustavus, our countrymen had ever a prominent place. Having humbled
the pride of Poland, and crippled the power of Russia by successive
defeats, on the restoration of peace, Gustavus, declaring himself the
champion of the Protestants, turned his arms against the formidable
coalition of the Roman Catholic princes of Germany, headed by the
Emperor. The campaign of 1620 proved unfortunate, by the total defeat of
the Protestant army at Prague, their consequent retreat, and ultimate
disbandment in Holland—
“O sacred Truth! thy triumph ceased a while,
And Hope, thy sister, ceased with thee to smile.”
Undaunted by these disasters, Gustavus refused to quit the field,
although, for the present, he changed the theatre of war into Pomerania.
From the wreck of the Protestant army, he carefully selected a chosen
body of his favourite Scotsmen, which, in 1625, he constituted a
regiment, conferring the command on Sir John Hepburn. In the war with
Poland which ensued, the Scots enjoyed, as their gallant demeanour in
every instance well merited, the unbounded confidence of the King.
Subsequently, the King of Denmark sent two Scots regiments, which had
been in his service, to aid the Swedish monarch; and, in 1628, he
further received the very welcome reinforcement of 9000 Scots and
English. The following incident, occurring about this time, serves to
illustrate the cordial relationship subsisting between this renowned
prince and our adventurous countrymen:—“In a partial action between the
advance-guards, a few miles from Thorn, Gustavus’s hat was knocked off
in a personal encounter with one of the enemy’s officers named Sirot,
who afterwards wore the hat without knowing to whom it belonged. On the
succeeding day, two prisoners (one a Scots officer named Hume) seeing
Sirot wearing the King, their master’s, hat, wept exceedingly, and with
exclamations of sorrow, desired to be informed if the King was dead.
Sirot, being thus made acquainted with the quality of his antagonist in
the preceding day’s skirmish, related the manner in which he became
possessed of the hat, upon which they recovered a little from their
anxiety and surprise.” The success of the Swedish arms at length
achieved a favourable peace, which enabled the King, espousing the cause
of the persecuted Reformers of Germany, once more to try the issues of
war with the Imperialists, and so, if possible, redeem the disasters of
a former campaign. At this period no fewer than 10,000 Scots and English
exiles were in the Swedish army, and the King had just concluded a
treaty with the Marquis of Hamilton, who had undertaken to enlist an
additional force of 8000 in these Isles.
Next in seniority to the old Scots regiment of Hepburn is that of Monro,
who has written an interesting account of the achievements of our
countrymen in these wars. This last narrowly escaped an untimely end—a
watery grave—having been shipwrecked near the enemy’s fortress of
Rugenwald, on their passage to Pomerania. Lurking in concealment among
the brushwood on the shore during the day, Monro’s soldiers at nightfall
boldly assaulted the defences of the enemy, and, by this unexpected
attack, succeeded in capturing the fortress, where, by great efforts,
they maintained themselves against a vastly superior foe until the
arrival of Hepburn’s Scots Regiment relieved them. These two regiments,
along with other two Scots regiments—those of Stargate and Lumsdell—were
at this time brigaded together, and styled the _Green Brigade_, so
celebrated in the military history of the period. In 1631, at the siege
of Frankfort, this bold brigade accomplished one of the most daring
feats of arms upon record; where—charged with the assault upon this all
but impregnable fortress, defended by the best troops of the empire—they
undauntedly entered the breach, and—despite the repeated attacks of the
foe, especially of an Irish regiment, who, amongst the bravest defenders
of the place, twice repulsed the assailants, and fought with the
greatest heroism until nearly all were either killed or wounded—they, by
their valour, effected a lodgment within the walls. Furiously charged by
the splendid cavalry of the Imperial cuirassiers, our Green Brigade
resolutely maintained the ground they had won. The trophies of this
conquest were immense. The Green Brigade, after having aided in the
reduction of the many strongholds of Germany, had penetrated with the
army into the very heart of the empire, where they were destined to play
a very conspicuous part in the memorable and momentous battle of
Leipsic. On this occasion, kept in reserve, the Green Brigade was only
brought into action at the eleventh hour, when the ignoble and cowardly
flight of the Saxons, who had been impressed into the Swedish army,
rendered the position of the army perilously critical. Then our brave
Scots, sustained on either flank by Swedish horse, advanced, speedily
checked the progress of the enemy, retrieved what the Saxons had lost,
and throwing the enemy into confusion, changed the fortunes of the day.
The Imperialists, no longer able to withstand the repeated and impetuous
attacks of our Scottish brigade, and charged by the Swedish horse, who
completed their ruin, broke and fled. Thus their mighty army, lately so
confident of victory, which a momentary success had promised, was
utterly cut to pieces or dispersed. A variety of sieges and minor
engagements followed this great battle, in nearly all of which the
Swedes and Scots proved triumphant. Yet, notwithstanding these series of
successes, and the several and sore defeats of the enemy, the position
of Gustavus was becoming daily, by every new advance, more critical;
away from his arsenals, whilst the enemy, within his own territory, had
ample resources at hand with which to repair defeat, and thus was
becoming hourly more formidable. At Oxenford, the heroic monarch had
only an army of 10,000 men around him, whilst the Duke of Lorraine was
at hand with a well-equipped force of full 50,000. Still, such was the
terror inspired by the marvellous deeds and the known resolution of this
little band of veterans, that, although the enemy was in the midst of
many advantages, he durst not venture an attack, and feared to arrest
the King in his career of conquest.
Bavaria had now become the scene of the contest. Soon that important
kingdom was over-run, and—with Munich, its gorgeous capital—surrendered
to the northern army. The death of Gustavus Adolphus, at the fatal
battle of Lutzen, ruined the hopes of his gallant little army, now sadly
reduced in numbers. The Green Brigade was not present on this disastrous
day. By a process of transfer, not at all uncommon in those times, the
remnant of Swedes and Scots were taken into the pay of France, and,
under the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, laboured to maintain the cause of the
Protestant princes, which had, for ends of her own, been adopted as the
cause of France. Colonel Hepburn, some time previously, had, by
permission of the King of Sweden, returned to Scotland with the Marquis
of Hamilton. His parting with his countrymen in his own regiment is thus
quaintly described by Monro:—“The separation was like the separation
which death makes betwixt friends and the soul of man, being sorry that
those who had lived so long together in amity and friendship, also in
mutual dangers, in weal and in woe, the splendour of our former mirth
was overshadowed with a cloud of grief and sorrows, which dissolved in
mutual tears.”
Returning to France in 1633, Hepburn was appointed colonel to a new
regiment of Scotsmen. By a combination of events, he at length met with
his old regiment in the same army, and the relics of the Old Scots
Brigade. These were subsequently merged into one large regiment, whose
history is hereafter one with that of France, and whose representative
is now the _First Royal Scots Regiment of Foot_. By this union, which
occurred in 1635, the regiment so constituted attained the extraordinary
strength of 8316 officers and men. In the following year they had to
lament the loss of their gallant Colonel, who was killed at the siege of
Saverne; he “died extremely regretted in the army and by the Court of
France.” He was succeeded in the command by Lieut.-Colonel Sir James
Hepburn, who survived his illustrious relative only one year. Lord James
Douglas, son of William, Marquis of Douglas, was promoted to the vacant
Colonelcy, and thereafter the regiment is known as “Douglas’s Regiment.”
In the service of Louis XIII. of France, the regiment had entered upon a
new theatre of action in the Netherlands, destined to combat the
Spaniards, who then were esteemed to form as soldiers the finest
infantry in the world. Against this redoubtable foe our Scotsmen
conducted themselves with credit, being present at the siege of St Omer,
the captures of Renty, Catelet, and at Hesden, under the eye of the
monarch himself. During the minority and reign of Louis XIV., known as
“Louis le Grand,” the regiment was destined to share the glories of a
splendid series of triumphs, successively won by the illustrious chiefs
that then commanded the armies of France. In 1643, led by Louis le
Bourbon, afterwards Prince of Condé, a leader possessed of all the
heroic qualities of the good soldier, and at the same time graced by all
the rarer virtues of the true man—under him the regiment served with
great distinction in the Netherlands and Italy. Nine years later, when
the factions of “the Court” and “the Parliament” had stirred up among
the people a civil war, we find the Douglas Regiment, with
characteristic loyalty, on the side of “the Court,” serving their royal
master under that great adept in the art of war, Marshal Turenne, whose
abilities sustained the sinking State; and although opposed to that
justly celebrated soldier, the Prince of Condé, at length,
out-man[oe]uvring the foe, accomplished the salvation of “the Court,”
and, by an honourable peace, secured their restoration to power.
Meanwhile a somewhat analogous civil strife in England had wholly
overturned the old monarchy of the Stuarts, and inaugurated a new order
of things in the Commonwealth, under Oliver Cromwell, the Protector.
Charles II., and his royal brother, the Duke of York, afterwards James
II., as the surviving heads of their ancient, unfortunate, and
infatuated house, had sought and found an asylum at the French Court. In
those times of war, employment was readily found in the French armies
for their many adherents, who had been driven into exile with them. They
were formed into several regiments, who bore an honourable part in the
contest then raging between France and the allied might of Spain and
Austria. In 1656, the fickle Louis, deserting his old friends, the
royalists of England, concluded an alliance with the more powerful
Cromwell—the exiles, in consequence, changing sides, threw the weight of
their arms and influence, or such as they might still be said to retain,
into the scale with Spain. Many of the British royalist regiments,
hitherto in the service of France, on the command of Charles, exchanged
with their prince, into the service of their late foe, now their friend.
Louis, who could ill afford such a serious desertion of troops, which
had hitherto proved themselves to be the flower of his army, had taken
the precaution to remove, into the interior, the older Scots regiments,
and amongst others, that of Douglas, which he had justly learned to
value very highly, lest they might be induced to follow their royalist
brethren.
[Illustration: PRINCE DE CONDÉ.]
In 1661, immediately after the Restoration, Charles II., with a view to
strengthen his unstable position on the British Throne, strove to
establish an army, and Louis being then at peace, and, moreover, on good
terms with our King, the regiment of Douglas was called home to these
isles, where it has since been generally known as the _First or the
Royal Regiment of Foot_, although for a time it was popularly styled the
“_Royal Scots_.”
[Illustration: MARSHAL TURENNE.]