Scottish military involvement in the Dutch Revolt, c.1572-1609

Abstract

This thesis examines the military involvement of Scotland in the Dutch Revolt, arguing that between c.1570 and 1609 Scotland’s principal military partnership was with the emergent Dutch Republic. Scotland’s military contribution to the Revolt grew from a few individuals in c.1570 to the permanent establishment of the Scots-Dutch Brigade which would survive well past the start of the Twelve Years’ Truce in 1609. This thesis analyzes three themes: recruitment, deployment, and the intersection of loyalty and authority. The Scots-Dutch Brigade was central not just to Scots-Dutch relations but was of critical importance to James VI’s wider European purview, and the thesis includes analyses of the involvement of Patrick, Master of Gray in England at the outset of the Anglo-Spanish War in 1586, the Brigade’s deployment to France between 1592 and 1595, and the Scots-Dutch diplomatic crisis wrought by the reprisal case of Colonel William Stewart of Houston up to the mid- 1590s. The upkeep and survival of the Scots-Dutch Brigade was contingent on the continuing diplomacy between Scotland, Scots and the Dutch Republic, based above all on trust and practical experience. This developing relationship between Scotland and the United Provinces drew on a long history of trade and intellectual exchange but represented a pivot from Scotland’s traditional military alliances with France into its post-Reformation alignment with the Dutch Republic, Denmark-Norway, and Sweden. The Dutch Revolt was, above all, an international conflict which involved much of Western Europe. By drawing on a wide range of sources in England, the Netherlands, and Scotland, the thesis demonstrates that the Scots-Dutch military relationship can only be understood in its widest international context.