The Abbreviated Story of the Garde Ecossais, Part I

10:34 pm, 3/5/06

The Abbreviated Story of the Garde Ecossais, Part I
With Tartan Day (actually, with the massive growth of celebrations, it's now considered Tartan Week in NYC, and I anticipate going this year) ceremonies coming up in roughly four weeks, I may as well observe a sort of unofficial "Scottish History Month". So starting this weekend, I'm doing a two part bit on the little-known Garde Ecossais and their associated supporting regiments, several centuries of Scottish warriors who guarded the French monarch and, in several instances, single-handedly saved France from being wiped off the map. Then, in a final heroic gesture, one stood alone to stop France from turning to the Dark Side. So here's your history post for this weekend:

The Hundred Years War between England and France is widely remembered as something of an English Vietnam, as English troops, who won almost every engagement, were still eventually crushed by epic feats of arms largely attributed by history to Joan of Arc, the teenage she-knight who saw God, etc. This isn't, however, entirely the whole picture, and is somewhat warped by the English version of events.

It was wide custom in Europe at that time to choose foreigners (often from far, far, abroad) as royal bodyguards, as they had little stake in national politics and thus were thought less likely to betray the monarch. The Byzantine Emperors of Constantinople had their Varangian Guard taken from among the Vikings, and even today the Pope is protected by Swiss mercenaries.

(Brief note about the Swiss Guard: Swiss mercenaries, like those of Scotland, were the terrors of late medieval European battlefields, like Scottish mercenaries would be a century or two later. When the Vatican was seized during the Sack of Rome in 1527, only 42 of the 189 Swiss Guardsmen survived, those only because they were forming up Clement VII's vanguard as he was evacuated to an ancient fortress through a secret tunnel. The remainder died fighting on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica, holding the elevated ground in front of the High Altar in brutal hand-to-hand combat against thousands of rampaging Spanish troops. Today Switzerland's only mercenaries are in the employ of the Vatican, and while you wouldn't know it to look at them, any of the guys in those colorful uniforms are worth three of any of us in a barfight, know how to use their swords and halberds, and are quite handy with submachine guns.)

The French embraced the same practice as many other nations, but made a unique choice: It's thought by some that the legendary King of the Franks, Charlemagne, was the first to bring Scottish soldiers, scholars, and theologians to his court, allying himself with the King of Scots Archaius and, as the legend goes, as a symbol of that alliance and the associated mutual defence pact authorized the use of the French lily or fleurs-de-lis around the heraldic Scottish Lion as a symbol that his kingdom would help defend the Scottish nation, one of the first coherent European nations based on a concept more sophisticated than hereditary tribal allegiances since the fall of Rome.

In any case, it would be two generations later, in 882, when Charlemagne's grandson, Charles III would establish his personal bodyguard from the best archers to be had in Scotland, making them the oldest regiment in the French military. They eventually came to have been around for so long that their second fiddle for elder status, the Regiment of Picardy, jokingly referred to them as "Pontius Pilate's Bodyguard", since it was believed that in ancient times Pilate had sent for Caledonian Scots to serve as the Temple Guards in Jerusalem.

Fast forward about six centuries: The late medieval world is strikingly different from the Dark Ages. Scotland's alliance with France has continued, formalized in treaty in 1295 under the banner of the "Auld Alliance" to solidify Scotland's position during the Scottish War of Independence (the war depicted, however erroneously, in Braveheart) after a plotting Edward I of England attempted to steal the Throne of Scotland for himself through a rather bizarre serious of political machinations. Scots enjoyed numerous priviledges under the treaty, including recognition as honorary French citizens in their travels in France and the first choice from among French wines in trade, a treat that essentially crippled England's access to quality wines for centuries.

Scotland had long since won the Scottish War of Independence, issued in 1320 their "declaration of independence" from the Catholic Church as a response to the entire nation being excommunicated for resisting the English against the Pope's wishes. (The Declaration of Arbroath was unique in that it was the first of the kind to state plainly that the purpose of a nation's government was to enforce the people's freedom rather than to be served by the people, and to plainly state that if the government failed to do so, the people had the right to destroy it and choose their own king, free of Papal interference. Thomas Jefferson would, several centuries later, use it as a model for the Declaration of Independence.)

The military situation in Scotland was somewhat interesting, as well: Feudalism never really took in Scotland, but immediately following the War of Independence, laws changed to encourage improved military parity with the English, with militia laws created to mandate shortbow practice for all able-bodied males after church each Sunday, starting at the age of 12. Of course, some men would always be inept at archery, and exemptions for the noncompetents were created to allow them to train in axe, shield, and spear. Those who showed up at church unprepared to fire off six volleys on the range were fined to pay for the afternoon's supply of alcohol, making it a good time to be had by all except for the poor sap who forgot his quiver. Training and ownership of arms was enforced by seasonal "wappenshaes", or weapon shows, when clan and village leaders from even the more far-flung parts of the country would bring their men out to meet up at designated places and demonstrate their archery skills for a touring government inspector. (The January, 2006 issue of Scots Magazine, in the article "To Arms!", implies that those who owned property of a value less than the going price of a cow were exempt from these laws, but I can't verify that.) The net effect of this was to provide an impressive ready force of fire support and skirmishers to back up the King's regular men-at-arms.

The situation to be found for France in 1420, however, was bleak: Smashing the French at Agincourt, English armies had conquered much of France, the country a shambles with no clear legitimate government and the French King Charles IV had slipped into madness. Paris had fallen to the Burgundians. Rightful King of Scots James I was being held hostage by the English, locked away in a tower somewhere, and had been for some years, but despite this, in keeping with the Auld Alliance Scottish troops began to pour into France, and, indeed, were virtually the only troops available to France. Starting with 150 men-at-arms and 300 archers in 1419, thousands more soldiers would shortly funnel through the port of Glasgow at the order of the Scottish Parliament, putting the spine into French military action for the next decade.

This came to a head in 1421, when Henry V of England went home to raise new funds for the war and his brother Thomas, the Duke of Clarence led an army of 10,000 south to the Loire valley. The English now sought to destroy the remaining center of power, and as they prepared to besiege a castle at a place called Bauge just before Easter, they were confronted by the 6,000 Scots under the Earl of Buchan. Instead of immediately joining combat, they held a truce for Easter, and the English promptly retreated, but then changed their minds and attempted to return to the field, hoping it would be a surprise.

The Scots, detecting this through their scouts, rallied a sort of rapid response force of several hundred and met the English at a bridge, holding them long enough for the remaining force to retreat into a city where English archers and heavy cavalry would effectively be nullified, the urban environment both shielding the Scots from archery and breaking up any mass cavalry charge.

This left only one option for the English if they wished to engage the Scots: Bloody personal combat. The Duke of Clarence himself killed when a Scottish knight, Sir John Carmichael, unhorsed him, breaking his own lance from the force of the blow. When the Duke tried to climb to his feet, he was cut open by the axe of a Sir Alexander Buchanan. (The Carmichael clan badge bears the image of a fist clutching a broken lance in honor of the battle.) The defeat for the English was quite severe, their heavy cavalry, the core of the English army of the day, almost obliterated. At least one lineage of English nobility was made extinct.

When Pope Martin V learned of the victory, he is said to have commented that "the Scots are a proper antidote to the English". English histories, on the other hand, downplayed the battle and the consequences thereof, but by that summer, the Dauphin had gathered his own forces and was able to stage a campaign to retake the land north of the Loire.

Fortunes turned somewhat in 1424 when a contingent of 10,000 English troops met a larger force of 16,000 Scottish knights, Italian crossbowmen, and French knights and foot troops at Vernuil. Command of the French and their allies was given to the Earl of Douglas, while the English were led by the Duke of Bedford, and most of the day was spent by both sides trying to form up their substantial forces. The lines were traditional for late medieval combat, with rearguards of archers set up astride a road, fronted by "three armies". The battle began badly in the afternoon with an intense hail of English longbow fire that killed many of the horses and crippled the Franco-Scottish supply train. Worse yet, the French were set upon by infantrymen led by Sir John Fastolf, who led the action personally, wielding a two-handed battleaxe. "Combat" was apparently too much for French troops, who promptly fled the field (setting a precedent that would plague allies of France for the next five centuries). The Italians attempted to plunge their own cavalry into the English supply trains, promptly finding themselves cut down and swept away by 1,000 English archers who had set up to defend the English baggage park. The Scots, however, did not break combat, and were deeply engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the Earl of Salisbury and his forces as other English formations broke away from the Italians and French to join him. The situation grew increasingly grim until English cavalry returned from chasing the French off the field to smash into the rear of the Scots lines. There was no recovering from this: Nearly all of the 6,000 Scots on the field were killed, making up the vast bulk of the 8,000 casualties on their side. Most of the few survivors were hanged as mercenaries.

Joan of Arc and the Scots Guard, John Duncan

Despite their catastrophic defeat at Vernuil, the Scots had bought the Dauphin valuable time. Without the intervention of Scottish armies, France would have been destroyed. In gratitude, the Dauphin created a regiment of Scottish men-at-arms to join the ancient Scottish archers, as well as, according to some sources, a lesser-known unit of Scottish light cavalry. Numerous Scottish officers were given titles and lands in France and many stayed on to form a distinct community among French nobility. Sir John Carmichael, the aforementioned fellow with the broken lance, was elected Bishop of Orleans in 1429. James I was also ransomed and set free in 1424, and, perhaps a bit grumpy from his captivity, immediately went about renewing the Auld Alliance and dispatching another 6,000 troops to France.

This was actually just in time: The English were again marching from Normandy to take Orleans, taking us into the bit of this war we all learned in school.

Tune in next weekend for more! The latter part of the story is definitely more personal and interesting than simple battle accounts. Nostradamus is involved, boogity boogity boo!