‘Betwixt the hours of eight and nine in the morning, there appeared
a phenomenon in the open firmament, which was looked on by many as
a presage of some future calamity. The sun shining bright, there
appeared, to the view of all people, as it were three suns; one
be-east, and the other south-be-west the true sun, and in appearance
not far from it. From that which lay south-west, there proceeded a
luminary in the form of a horn, that pointed north-west, and carried
as it were a rainbow, in colour gray, but clearer than the rest of
the sky. Whether these signs were ominous or not, manifold were the
calamities which then prevailed.[5]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JUNE.]
[Sidenote: OCT. 10.]
Just before this time, a large body of men, variously stated at 3000
and 4400, was raised in Scotland by Sir Donald M‘Kay of Strathnaver, ‘a
gentleman of a stirring spirit,’ and Sir James Leslie--supposed to have
been of the Lindores family--to assist Ernest Count Mansfeldt in the
Bohemian army against the Emperor of Germany. This being the Protestant
cause, and likewise the cause of the king’s brother-in-law, the Elector
Palatine, who had accepted the crown of Bohemia, the enlistment
received the royal sanction and patronage, £2000 being disbursed
to Sir Donald, and £600 to Sir James, while a further sum of £400
was promised to be at the service of the troops on their landing in
Hamburg.[6] The movement harmonised with the feelings of the people of
Scotland, to many of whom an honourable military service with pay was
convenient and agreeable on less exalted considerations than that of
religious sympathy, as the industry of the country was then too little
advanced to hold out a gainful occupation to all who were anxious for
it. The estates and influence of Sir Donald being in Sutherlandshire,
it naturally fell out that a large portion of the officers of the
corps were from that county and the adjacent districts of Ross and
Caithness--Monroes, Mackenzies, Rosses, Gordons, Sinclairs, and Gunns.
The greater number of the recruits embarked at Cromarty in October, and
had a prosperous voyage to the Elbe; but their commander, Sir Donald,
was detained by sickness till the spring of the ensuing year. Owing to
the death of Count Mansfeldt, the corps took a new destination, though
adhering to the same cause, for they entered the service of the King of
Denmark, their own king’s uncle, who had engaged in the war against the
emperor.
[Sidenote: 1626.]
The exploits of these Scottish levies have been recorded in a curious
but confused narrative, the production of one of the officers, and
now a great rarity, entitled _Monro his Expedition, with the worthy
Scots Regiment called M‘Kay’s Regiment_, &c.[7] The author, Colonel
Robert Monro, states that he composed it at his spare hours, ‘for
the use of all worthy cavaliers favouring the laudable profession of
arms.’ He gives a long list of officers, all bearing familiar Scottish
names--as Forbes, Monro, M‘Kay, Sinclair, Ross, Gordon, Stewart, Innes,
Seton, Dunbar, Hay, and Gunn. In the ranks were included a small band
of Macgregors, who had been lying for some time in the Tolbooth of
Edinburgh, on account of their irregularities, and who are said to have
proved good soldiers under regular discipline and with a legitimate
outlet for their inherent turbulence and courage.
One portion of the Scots Regiment was sent to join the English
auxiliaries under General Morgan. Another was put to a severe duty in
defending the Pass of Oldenburg against Tilly’s army. The latter are
described as shewing a remarkable degree of firmness and gallantry in
that trying situation, from which they had to retire, after a loss of
four hundred men. Another party, of four companies, under Major Dunbar,
defended the Castle of Brandenburg in Holstein against 10,000 men
under Tilly, with such desperate and sanguinary pertinacity, that, on
the place being ultimately taken, they were all put to the sword. On
many other occasions, these valiant Scotsmen distinguished themselves
greatly, insomuch that they came to be called the Invincible Regiment.
It was greatly owing to them that Stralsund made such an obstinate
defence against Wallenstein. Here they lost 500 men in seven weeks,
only about 400 being now left. When the Danish king was forced to
evacuate Pomerania, the Scots defended the bridge at Wolgast, till he
was safe. So early as January 1628, Sir Donald M‘Kay had to go home for
fresh levies. He returned in July with as many as raised the corps to
1400 effective men. But before any further remarkable service had been
performed by the regiment, the King of Denmark was glad to make peace.
[Sidenote: 1626.]
The regiment then transferred itself to the service of Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden, who had now put himself at the head of the
Protestant interest against Catholic Germany. Throughout his
remarkable campaign in Pomerania and Mecklenburg, our brave Scots were
on incessant service, and were usually employed on posts of peculiar
difficulty or danger. The waste of men was enormous; and in February
1631, Lord Reay--for so Sir Donald M‘Kay was now styled--returned
home once more for fresh levies. He was detained in England by some
circumstances of an unpleasant nature, which enter into our national
history; but the levies were sent out notwithstanding, and the
efficiency of the Scots Regiment, or rather regiments, never for a
moment flagged. At the brilliant capture of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, when
so many of the imperialists perished, and so much of their wealth fell
into the hands of the Swedish king, our countrymen had a distinguished
part. In the subsequent transactions ending with the splendid victory
of Leipsic, by which the Protestant world was for the time liberated,
they were ever in the front, doing and suffering much. And so it
went on, even after the death of the king at Lutzen in 1633, their
great losses being continually made up again by the arrival of fresh
levies from Scotland. Amongst many gallant officers who received their
training in these wars, were two men destined to take prominent parts
in the history of their country--namely, Colonels Alexander and David
Leslie.[8]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: JULY 19.]
Amongst the preparations for war at this time, the Privy Council,
reflecting on the inconveniences of being wholly dependent on foreign
countries for gunpowder, empowered Sir James Baillie of Lochend,
knight, to see if he could induce some Englishmen to come and settle in
Scotland for the manufacture of that article.--_P. C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: SEP.]
[Sidenote: 1626.]
Mr Thomas Ramsay, minister of Dumfries, was unusually zealous against
popery, probably by reason of its peculiar abundance within the bounds
of his cure. One day, as he and some co-presbyters were passing along
the bridge over the Nith, they encountered a person on horseback
whom they recognised to be ‘ane mess priest by whom numbers of the
country people are pervertit not only in their religion, but in their
allegiance to the king’s majesty.’ ‘Having used their best endeavours
to have apprehendit the priest, it fell out that, by the help of some
excommunicat papists, who was in company with him, he escaped.’
They, however, secured ‘his horse and cloak-bag, wherein there was a
number of oisties, superstitious pictures, priests’ vestments, altar,
chalice, plate-boxes with oils and ointments, with such other trash as
priests carry about with them for popish uses.’
Mr Thomas Ramsay and his friends immediately came to Edinburgh, and
presented themselves before the Privy Council, who, according to their
wishes, passed an act of approbation in their favour, and ordered them
to make a bonfire at the market-cross of Dumfries, and there burn all
the popish ‘trash’ excepting the silver articles, which were to be
melted down for the benefit of the poor.--_P. C. R._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: 1627.