IT is intended to give, in this work, as far as
possible, a faithful record of the worth and valour of those military
adventurers, the "Quentin Durwards" and "Dugald Dalgettys" of other
days, who carried the name of Scotland with honour under every European
banner, from the earliest period; but more particularly of those who, in
the seventeenth century, by the force of circumstances such, for
instance, as the union of the Crowns, which brought temporary peace at
home were enabled to offer their swords and services to the monarchs of
other countries.
The number of these Scottish Soldiers of Fortune was
very great, and in detailing their adventures and achievements during
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, not only individuals, but in
some instances entire regiments, almost armies of them, will have to be
dealt with; as there were fully 13,000 under Gustavus Adolphus, "the
Lion of the North" (as Dugald Dalgetty has it). About the same number
went at various times to Denmark, 3,000 were in Russia, some 6,000 in
Holland, 3,000 in France at least, and others in Prussia, Spain, and
Italy, making more than 40,000 Scottish soldiers on the Continent,
exclusive of 3,000 sent to the Isle Rhe under the Earl of Morton.
Their achievements will form, it is hoped, a stirring
addition to our military annals, omitted in Scottish history, and will
further show how our people, in whatever land they are cast, rise above
those by whom they are surrounded, as surely as
oil rises above water, to quote a writer who certainly was no friend to
Scotland or her fame; and how many of them won the highest honours,
civil and military honours which many of their lineal descendants hold
in the lands of their adoption.
It will be shown how Scotsmen trained the armies and
founded the fleets of Russia; how for generations the old Scots Brigade
of immortal memory was the boasted "Bulwark of Holland"; while second to
none in war and glory were the Scottish Guard of the French Kings that
Guard of which only four were left alive when Francis I gave up his
sword on the field of Pavia. Moreover, in this new mine of Scottish
history, many, it is hoped, may discover the names of ancestors,
relatives, and clansmen hitherto unknown to them.
