|
The Scottish Guards (French: Gardes Écossaises) was a bodyguard unit
founded in 1418 by the Valois Charles VII of France, to be personal
bodyguards to the French monarchy. They were assimilated into the Maison
du Roi and later formed the first company of the Garde du Corps du Roi
(Royal Bodyguard).
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 takes 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.
Scottish warriors were believed
to have fought for Charlemagne(1) and later in the
Armies of Charles the Simple in 882. It is only after 1295, however, and
the agreements that would become known as the Auld Alliance, that there
is documentary evidence of French soldiery in Scotland or Scottish
soldiery in France. From the outset of the Hundred Years War, there were
Scottish companies officially fighting for Philip IV of France. At the
Battle of Poitiers, the
1st Earl of Douglas and the future 3rd Earl of Douglas
fought for John II, where the future 3rd Earl was
captured along with many Scottish knights, notwithstanding the French
king himself. In the 1360s there were Scotsmen to be found in the army
of Bertrand du Guesclin. In the early 15th century France was split into
Armagnac-Burgundian civil strife following the descent into madness of
Charles VI. Henry V of England saw his opportunity and allied himself
with John the Fearless and invaded. The Dauphin despairingly sought
allies, and found them amongst the Scots and the Castilians.
In
1418 Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany appointed his son, John Stewart, 2nd
Earl of Buchan, Chamberlain of Scotland to command the Scottish
expeditionary force, the largest army that medieval Scotland had ever
sent abroad. 7000-8000 men arrived at La Rochelle in October 1419 and
made their way to Tours to greet the Dauphin. The first thing the future
Charles VII did was to shower munificence upon the Scottish nobles.
Buchan received Châtillon-sur-Indre, the Earl of Wigtoun(2)
received Dun-le-Roi, Sir John Stewart of Darnley received Concressault
and Aubigny, and Thomas Seton the castle of Langeais. The Scottish
leaders were persuaded to return to Scotland to recruit more troops. The
Scottish leadership returned in 1420 with another 4000-5000
reinforcements. While their leaders were at home the Dauphin assigned
the Scottish contingent throughout his armies and garrisons and picked a
number, roughly one hundred of the best warriors, to be his personal
body guard. The Scotsmen fought with distinction throughout France with
a notable win at the Battle of Baugé
in 1421, where the Duke of Clarence was said to have been felled by
Buchan's Mace. The Scots faced a calamity at the
Battle of Verneuil in
1424, when they lost 6000 men. Although saddened by the loss of so many
of his loyal Scotsmen, Charles VII continued to honour the survivors.
The Scots had a further setback at the Battle of the Herrings in 1429.
The Scottish Army in France fragmented into free companies (a headache
for the French state), and also into Compagnies d'ordonnance within the
French Army.
The King kept about him his Garde Écossaise. The
Scottish Guards had likely protected him during the murder of John the
Fearless at the bridge of Montereau, and rescued him from a fire in
Gascony in 1442. Scottish Guards fell at the Battle of Montlhéry
defending their King, Louis XI of France, in 1465.
The Garde
Écossaise survived until the end of the Bourbon monarchy as the senior
or Scottish Company of the Gardes du Corps (Body Guards). There were
four companies of Body Guards and a detachment of them accompanied the
French King wherever he went, posted guards on his sleeping place and
even escorted his food from kitchen to table.
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".
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 Scots.
In 1632, the Earl of Enzie began to rebuild a Scottish regiment in
France. There is sometimes confusion as to which unit actually held the
title of Garde Écossaise, with several regiments in service often being
conflated, especially those commanded by Sir John Hepburn, James
Campbell, 1st Earl of Irvine (later commanded by Sir Robert Moray) and
Colonel James Douglas. As an example some works recording Scots in
action have simply applied the Garde Écossaise name, although referring
to the Regiment de Douglas.
By the reign of Louis XV the Scottish
Company numbered 21 officers and 330 men in a mounted unit which last
saw active service when they escorted Louis at the Battle of Lawfeld on
1 July 1747. On this and other occasions the Scottish Company carried
claymores with steel basket guards instead of the swords of the other
French heavy cavalry. They were distinguished from the other companies
of the Body Guards by wearing white bandoleers garnished with silver
lace.
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.
All four companies of the Body Guard
were formally disbanded in 1791, although the aristocratic personnel of
the regiment had dispersed following the closure of Versailles as a
royal palace in October 1789. They were re-established at the time of
the First Bourbon Restoration under an ordinance dated 25 May 1814.
Until their final dissolution in 1830 the Senior Company retained the
title of "les fiers Ecossais" (the proud Scots).
Notes:
1.
In the year 773 king Charlemagne started a military campaign against the
Lombards in Italy, because they were not respecting an agreement made
with Pepin the Short, Charlemagne's father, to give part of their land
to the state of the Church. He asked for help from king of Dál Riata
(Western Scotland) Eochaid IV (1a).
The latter asked his cousin Count William of Douglas to recruit and
bring to France a brigade of 4,000 men, which he did. But soon
thereafter he had to return to Scotland to govern the family clan,
leaving his command to his younger brother Marius Douglas, who at the
time was described as courageous, tall, strong and with a reddish
beard.(1b)
2. Archibald Douglas. 5th earl of Douglas, was Earl of Wigton.
3. Guillaume (William) Douglas married Marguerite de
Pratulo and had a son,
Jean (John) who was an 'Archer of the Scottish Guard' of King Louis XI
(1638-1713)
|
