ABSTRACT
Between 1550 and 1650 the government in Scotland, whether as the monarch or as the Privy Council acting in the royal name, permitted more than sixty levies of troops to fight in continental Europe. This occurred throughout the period of study but with peaks in the 1570s and the 1620s-1640s, corresponding with periods of fighting in the Low Countries and later in the Germanic lands in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). This is summarized in Table 6.1. As the raising of soldiers to fight overseas also took place before and after these dates and as there were unofficial levies, despite attempts to stop them for fear of unrest or political embarrassment, the true extent of recruitment of men to fight overseas may never be fully known. The size of a licensed levy varied considerably, from as few as sixty men in the licences granted to Patrik Murray on 25 March 1602 for service in the Low Countries and to Thomas Moffat on 23 July 1635 for Swedish service in Prussia, to as many as several thousands. In at least some instances, for example for the 3,000 men each to Robert Earl of Nithsdale, Alexander Lord Spynie, and James Sinclair of Murkle on 3 April 1627 for Danish service, these ambitious targets were not reached; and in the case of others, for example to Robert Stewart for Poland in 1623, very little, if any, recruiting took place. The more usual figures mentioned in the licences are 200 or 300 men. With a proviso in mind about the accuracy and reliability of these figures, it has been estimated that during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), when the recruitment of soldiers for overseas service was at its height, as many as 50,000 Scotsmen bore arms in European conflicts. 2 A summary of some recruitment of soldiers in Scotland between 1550 and 1650 to join continental armies, as detailed in the Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (RPCS) and other sources. Some of the levies failed to achieve much or to reach the designated target numbers.
| Year | Destination | Number of men designated in the source, with name of senior officer or recruiter in some instances | Source (all RPCS * unless otherwise stated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1552 | France | 300 footmen and 400 cavalry, followed by recruitment of “2 ensigns” (Gilbert Kennedy, 3rd Earl of Cassilis) | I, pp. 131-136 |
| 1564 | Denmark | 2,000 | XIV, p. XLVII |
| 1568 | Denmark | Unknown (Captain Moncur) | I, p. 640 |
| 1573 | Sweden | 1,600 (Archibald Ruthven) | II, p. 235 |
| 1573 | Sweden | 300 (Captain Campbell) | II, p. 238 |
| 1573 | Low Countries | 900, under three separate licences; it is likely that many more went without licence | II, pp. 237, 256. |
| 1577 | Low Countries or Flanders | 13 licences issued – numbers of men not specified but possibly 3,500 | II, p. 643 |
| 1577 | Danzig | 150 (Captain Rentoun) | II, p. 621 |
| 1578 | Low Countries | 200 | III, p. 23 |
| 1578 | “Protestant service abroad” (Low Countries?) | 100 | III, p. 213 |
| 1602 | Low Countries | 460 (including licence to Patrik Murray) | VI, p. 721 |
| 1602 | Sweden | Unknown (Colonel Thomas Ogilvie) | Fischer, p. 70 ** |
| 1605 | Sweden | 1,600 foot and 600 cavalry (Sir James Spens) | Fischer, p. 71 ** |
| 1607 | Sweden | 200 cavalry (Robert Kinnaird) | Fischer, p. 71 ** |
| 1610 | Sweden | Unknown | VIII, p. 619 |
| 1612 | Sweden | 300 (Andrew Ramsay’s illegal levy) | IX, p. 430 |
| 1620 | Bohemia | 1,500 (Sir Andrew Gray) | XII, pp. 255-259 |
| 1621 | Unknown | 100 | XII, p. 412 |
| 1622 | Low Countries | Unknown (Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyle’s recruitment for Spanish service) | XIII, p. LVI |
| 1623 | Poland | 8,000 (Robert Stewart) | XIII, p. LVII |
| 1624 | Sweden | 1,200 (James Spens) | XIII, p. 478 |
| 1625 | Count Mansfeld’s army (Palatinate) | 300 | 2nd ser., I, p. 49 |
| 1626 | Denmark (later Sweden) | Possibly 3,000 (Sir Donald Mackay, Lord Reay) | 2nd ser., I, p. 244 |
| 1627 | Denmark | 9,000 (probably fewer than 5,000 recruited) (Nithsdale-Spynie-Murkle levies) | 2nd ser., I, p. 565 |
| 1628 | Sweden | 300 (James Spens) | 2nd ser., II, p. 397 |
| 1629 | Low Countries | Unknown (Hay of Kinfauns) | 2nd ser., III, p. 99 |
| 1629 | Sweden | 1,200 (Alexander Hamilton), 1,200 (Sir George Cuninghame) | 2nd ser., III, pp. 136, 208 |
| 1631 | Sweden | 2,000 (Sir Donald Mackay, Lord Reay) | 2nd ser., IV, p. 218 |
| 1631 | Sweden | 6,000 (Sir James Hamilton, Marquis of Hamilton) | Burnet, p. 5 *** |
| 1632 | Sweden | 1,400 (Sir James Lumsden) | 2nd ser., IV, p. 483 |
| 1632 | Sweden | 200 (Lt Col McDougall) | 2nd ser., IV, p. 525 |
| 1633 | France | 1,200 (Sir John Hepburn) | 2nd ser., V, p. 65 |
| 1635 | Sweden | 60 (Thomas Moffat) | 2nd ser., VI, p. 65 |
| 1636 | Low Countries | 300 (Lord Almond) | 2nd ser., VI, p. 225 |
| 1637 | France | 1,120 (Captain Robert Hume) | 2nd ser., VI, p. 401 |
| 1637 | Sweden | 1,200 (Cuninghame, Monro, Stuart) | 2nd ser., VI, pp. 458, 484 |
| 1638 | France | 1,000 (Andrew, Lord Gray) | 2nd ser., VII, p. 103 |
| 1639 | France | 2,000 (Colonel Alexander Erskine of Mar) | 2nd ser., VII, pp. 106, 136 |
| 1642 | France | 6,000 (James Campbell, Earl of Irvine, and others) | 2nd ser., VII, pp. 247, 281, 302 |
| 1656 | Sweden | 2,500 (William, 3rd Lord Cranstoun) | Fischer, p. 122 ** |
Register of the Privy Council of Scotland (1545-1689)
Fischer, The Scots in Sweden
Burnet, The Memoires of the Lives and Actions of James and William Dukes of Hamilton and Castleherald etc.
