Scottish Guards (France)
The Scottish Guards (
In 1450, King James II sent a company of 24 noble Scots under the command of Patrick de Spens, son of his custodian. This company took the name of archiers du corps or gardes de la manche. On 31 August 1490, this company, these of Patry Folcart, Thomas Haliday, and a part of the company of Robin Petitloch, became the first company of archiers de la garde du roi under the command of Guillaume Stuier (Stuart). At the beginning la compagnie écossaise des gardes du corps du roi included 100 gardes du corps (25 bodyguards and 75 archiers). Each bodyguard had four men-at-arms under his command, (a squire, an archer, a cranequinier and a servant), one of them acquired the name of premier homme d'armes du royaume de France. They were finally disbanded in 1830 at the abdication of Charles X.
History
Overview
Scottish warriors were believed to have fought for Charlemagne and later in the armies of Charles the Simple in 882. Only after 1295, however, and the agreements that would become known as the Auld Alliance, is there documentary evidence of French soldiery in Scotland or Scottish soldiery in France.
From the outset of the
La Grande Armée Écossaise
In 1418,
The Royal Bodyguard
The King kept about him his Garde Écossaise. The Scottish Guards had likely protected him during the murder of
Later history
The Garde Écossaise survived until the end of the Bourbon monarchy as the senior or Scottish Company of the
During the reign of Francis I the garde were held up by blizzards near the Simplon Pass after a defeat at the Battle of Pavia in 1525. Some of the men reputedly settled there and their descendants became known as the "Lost Clan".[2]
From the 16th century onwards, recruitment of the unit was primarily from Frenchmen and the Scottish element gradually died out. The name was retained as were certain words of command which had originated in
By the reign of
The Scottish Company provided a special detachment of 24 Gardes de la Manche (literally 'Guards of the Sleeve') who stood in close attendance to the king during court ceremonies. The name indicated that they stood so close to the monarch as to be brushed by his sleeve. The Gardes de la Manche were distinguished by a heavily embroidered white and gold cassock which they wore over the blue and red and silver uniform of the Body Guard.[7]
Final disbandment
All four companies of the Body Guard were formally disbanded in 1791, although the aristocratic personnel of the regiment had dispersed following the
Notable Guardsmen
- Jean Stuart, earl Darnley, lord d'Aubigni and Concressault, killed in 1429 at Orléans
- Robert or Robin PetitLoch, sénéchal des Lannes (1419–1461)
- Christin Chamber knight (1425–1447)
- Patris Folcart (1449–1461)
- Patrick Neiven - Killed at Orléans in 1429
- Thomas Haliday(1449–1461)
- Patrick de Spens, Lord of Bohapple and Estignols,écuyer des écuries du roi (1450–1485)
- Guillaume Stuyers, Lord of Maulleon,écuyer des écuries du roi (1461–1464)
- Thomas Stuyers (1465–1472)
- Robert Coningham (1475–1478), Lord of Cherveux and Villeneuve.
- Jean de Coningham, bailly de Chartres, conseiller et chambellan du roi (1479–1492)
- Berault Stewart or Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, conseiller et chambellan du roi, knight of the order of Saint-Michel (1492–1508)
- Godebert (Cordebert Chandeber(t)) Carre (Carr), lord de St Quentin and Perrigny, brother in law of B. Stuart, captain of Amboise (he sold this charge to Pierre de Rohan, Marechal de Gie in 1497) and participated in the wars in Italy (Capitano de la Rocca of Milan)
- Robert Stewart or Robert Stuart, Lord of Aubigny, maréchal de France in 1515, knight of the order of the King (1470–1543)
- Jacques de Motgommery, lord de Lorges, conseiller et chambellan du roi (1543–1556)
- Gabriel, comte de Montgomery, lord de Lorges (1530–1574), who mortally injured King Henry II in a jousting accident.
- Jacques de Montgommery, lord of Lorges, knight of the order of the King (1555–1561)
- Sir John Hepburn
- Sir Robert Moray
- Charles de La Vieuville, Captain of the Guards, later Superintendent of Finances
- Robert Sempill, Ensign in the Guards
- Sir Donald Cameron, Lord Lochiel, an exiled Jacobite chieftain, Knight of the Order of Saint-Michel (1746-1748)
- Antoine de l'Hoyer, a Knight of the Order of St John and a Knight of the Order of St Louis, also a notable guitarist and composer (1768–1852)
The Garde Écossaise in fiction
- Quentin Durward by Walter Scott
- Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Tale of Fontenoy and Culloden by G. A. Henty
- Queens' Play by Dorothy Dunnett
- La Guarde Ecossaise by Kirsteen M. MacKenzie, a series of novels featuring John Hamilton.[10]
See also
- Auld Alliance
- Battle of Culloden, 1746
- Flight of the Wild Geese
- Gallowglass
- Mercenary
- Swiss Guards (French)
- Walloon Guards (Spanish)
References
- ISBN 0-85045-850-1
- ^ Keay and Keay (1994) p. 639
- ISBN 2-203-14315-0
- ^ David Stevenson, "Gordon, George, second marquess of Huntly (c. 1590–1649)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2006 accessed 19 Nov 2010
- ^ Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years' War, 1618-1648 (London, 2014), pp.65, 108, 154, 161, 172
- ISBN 1-85532-602-7
- ISBN 1-85532-602-7
- ISBN 0-7043-2424-5
- ISBN 2-203-14324-X
- ^ Ruaridh Britton, 'Aberdeen author unveils historical fiction novel with connections to north-east Scotland', Aberdeen Live, 9 June 2023
- Forbes-Leith, William, The Scots Men-at-Arms and Life-Guards in France, Edinburgh, 1882, 2 vols.
- Brown, Michael. The Black Douglases, War and Lordship in Late Medieval Scotland. Tuckwell, East Linton, 1998
- Keay, J. & Keay, J. (1994) ISBN 0-00-255082-2
- MacDougall, Norman. An Antidote to the English-The Auld Alliance 1295-1560. Tuckwell, East Linton, 2001
- Douglas, Robert. Baronage of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1798, at rootsweb.com
- http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jean-claude.colrat/ecossais.htm (Scots with Joan of Arc, in French)