"Scottish generals in Swedish service?" Topic

Scots such as Alexander Lesley or John Ruthven: would they have fought wearing Scottish clothes or Swedish?

I have a mind to add a bonnet wearing, plaid-covered figure to my Swedish FoG TYW commanders.

If campaigning around Germany, I would presume that they would have been more affected by German than Swedish fashions of the day.

Except among the peasantry there was no such thing as "Swedish fashion", native military men, particularly those of senior rank would dress in various German fashions and German fashion was also pretty much the standard among the senior Scots officers as well.

It's worth remembering that men like Alexander Leslie and Patrick Ruthven spent decades in Swedish service and in Sweden before the TYW. (Leslie had been in Swedish service since 1608!) They were thoroughly integrated into Swedish society by the 1630's and both men in fact spent long periods commanding native Swedish regiments.

The next generation of Scottish officers like John Ruthven (nephew of Patrick) who arrived in Swedish service in the late 1620's had often encountered German military fashion while in Danish service. (In fact Christian had his Scottish regiments reclothed several times to replace old and worn out clothing so it is doubt full much scottish dress survived by 1630 or later)

When there are rare reports of Scottish clothing worn by units in Swedish service it is always the rank and file that wear the "outlandish" garments. There are never any remarks made about the officers.

As with most officers they wore what they liked.

I have never see any evidence of senior Scottish officers wearing bonnets in the Covenanter army or in foreign service.

Daniel,

Are the comments on this subject in the Osprey MAA on GA's infantry on the mark? It suggests that most Scottish and Irish recruits were so ragged when they joined up, that they had to be given new clothes by the Swedes, and some even had to be given clothing for the voyage from Britain to the Baltic. The well-known drawings of "highlanders" often (a) depict Irishmen/Redshanks, and (b) depict men who had not yet been re-clothed due to a temporary shortage of uniforms at the Swedish end of the recruitment process.

It is not wrong but the subject is complex enought that you really have to look at it by regiment or group of regiments to get all the details right.

For example there is no evidence that the two "Old" Scots regiments in Swedish service (Spens & Ramsay) wore Scottish clothing while serving in Livonia & Prussia during the 1620's yet two companies of new Scots recruits were wearing borh bonnets and probably tartans as well when Hoppe saw them in 1629. (I.e a case of the men being sent into action before proper uniforms were available, something which also happend to some the native Swedes and Finns who ended up serving in their distinctive native peasant clothing)

The Ex-Danish regiments on the other thand had not only been issued uniforms while in Danish service but were issued cloth for new uniforms before the invasion of Germany.

And so on.

It has been convincingly argued that the famous Stettin print link does not show Scots troops in Swedish service but rather the "English" army of the Marquis of Hamilton which began as an allied force rather than an integrated part of the Swedish army. The time and location fits with the arrival of Hamiltons men as does their mixture of arms and lack of armour. The 'regular' Scottish units in service by this time been reclothed several times, many just before the invasion of Germany. And they were all fully equipped as proper pike & shot units. Last but not least none of the "regulars" were in Stettin at the time as far as we know.

Thanks.