| Royal Scots Navy Royal Scots Navy (RSN) | |
|---|---|
| Cabhlach Rìoghail na h-Alba | |
 Royal Arms of Scotland (1603–1707) | |
| Active | Middle Ages – 1707 |
| Disbanded | 1 May 1707 |
| Country |  Scotland |
| Allegiance | Monarch of Scotland |
| Type | Navy |
| Role | Coastal defence |
| Part of | Scottish Military |
| Motto(s) | In My Defens God Me Defend ("In My Defence God Me Defend") |
| Colours | Blue, White, & Red |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Lord High Admiral | David Wemyss(last) |
| Insignia | |
| Civil Ensign |  |
TheRoyal Scots Navy (orOld Scots Navy) was thenavy of theKingdom of Scotland from its origins in the Middle Ages until its merger with theKingdom of England'sRoyal Navy per theActs of Union 1707. There are mentions in Medieval records of fleets commanded by Scottish kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. KingRobert I (1274–1329, r. 1306–1329) developed naval power to counter the English in theWars of Independence (1296–1328). The build-up of naval capacity continued after the establishment of Scottish independence. In the late fourteenth century, naval warfare with England was conducted largely by hired Scots,Flemish andFrench merchantmen and privateers. KingJames I (1394–1437, r. 1406–1437) took a greater interest in naval power, establishing a shipbuilding yard atLeith and probably creating the office ofLord High Admiral.
KingJames IV (1473–1513, r. 1488–1513) put the enterprise on a new footing, founding a harbour atNewhaven, nearEdinburgh, and a dockyard at the Pools ofAirth. He acquired a total of 38 ships includingGreat Michael, at that time, the largest ship in Europe. Scottish ships had some success against privateers, accompanied the king on his expeditions in the islands and intervened in conflicts inScandinavia and theBaltic Sea, but were sold after theFlodden campaign. Thereafter Scottish naval efforts would rely on privateering captains and hired merchantmen. Despite truces between England and Scotland, there were periodic outbreaks of aguerre de course.James V built a new harbour atBurntisland in 1542. The chief use of naval power in his reign was a series of expeditions to the Isles and France.
TheUnion of Crowns in 1603 ended Scottish conflict with England, but Scotland's involvement in England's foreign policy opened up Scottish merchantmen to attack from privateers. In 1626, a squadron of three ships were bought and equipped for protection and there were severalmarque fleets of privateers. In 1627, the Royal Scots Navy and privateers participated in theSiege of Saint-Martin-de-Re with a major expedition to theBay of Biscay. The Scots also returned to theWest Indies and in 1629 took part in thecapture of Quebec. After theBishop's Wars and the alliance withParliament in theEnglish Civil War, a "Scotch Guard" was established on the coast of Scotland of largely English ships, but with Scottish revenues and men, gradually becoming a more Scottish force. The Scottish naval forces were defeated byOliver Cromwell's navy and when Scotland became part of theCommonwealth in 1653, they were absorbed into the Commonwealth navy. After theRestoration Scottish seamen received protection against arbitraryimpressment, but a fixed quota of conscripts for the English Royal Navy was levied from the sea-coastburghs. Royal Navy patrols started to extend their routes into Scottish waters, and in theSecond (1665–1667) andThird Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–1674), between 80 and 120 captains took Scottish letters of marque and privateers played a major part in the naval conflicts. In the 1690s, a small fleet of five ships was established by merchants for theDarien scheme, and a professional navy of three warships was established to protect local shipping in 1696. After theAct of Union in 1707, these vessels and their crews were transferred to the British Royal Navy.
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By the late Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Scotland participated in two related maritime traditions. In the West was the tradition of galley warfare that had its origins in the Vikingthalassocracies (sea-based lordships) of the Highlands and Islands and which stretched back before that to the sea power ofDál Riata that had spanned the Irish Sea. In the east, it participated in the common northern European sail-driven naval tradition.[1] The key to the Viking success was thelong-ship, a long, narrow, light, wooden boat with a shallow draft hull designed for speed. This shallow draft allowed navigation in waters only 3 feet (1 m) deep and permitted beach landings, while its light weight enabled it to be carried overportages. Longships were also double-ended, the symmetrical bow and stern allowing the ship to reverse direction quickly without having to turn around.[2][3] The longship was gradually succeeded by (in ascending order of size) thebirlinn, highlandgalley andlymphad,[4] which, wereclinker-built ships, usually with a centrally-stepped mast, but also with oars that allowed them to be rowed. Like the longship, they had a high stem and stern and were still small and light enough to be dragged across portages, but they replaced the steering board with a stern rudder from the late twelfth century.[5] The major naval power in the Highlands and Islands was theMacDonaldLord of the Isles, who acted as largely independent kings and could raise large fleets for use even against their nominal overlord the King of Scots. They succeeded in playing off the king of Scotland against the kings ofNorway and, after 1266, the king of England.[1]
There are mentions in Medieval records of fleets commanded by Scottish kings includingWilliam the Lion[6] andAlexander II. The latter took personal command of a large naval force which sailed from the Firth of Clyde and anchored off the island of Kerrera in 1249, intended to transport his army in a campaign against theKingdom of the Isles, but he died before the campaign could begin.[7][8]Viking naval power was disrupted by conflicts between the Scandinavian kingdoms, but entered a period of resurgence in the thirteenth century when Norwegian kings began to build some of the largest ships seen in Northern European waters. These included KingHakon Hakonsson'sKristsúðin, built at Bergen from 1262-3, which was 260 feet (79 m) long, of 37 rooms.[9] In 1263 Hakon responded toAlexander III's designs on the Hebrides by personally leading a major fleet of forty vessels, includingKristsúðin, to the islands, where they were swelled by local allies to as many as 200 ships.[10] Records indicate that Alexander had several large oared ships built atAyr, but he avoided a sea battle.[6] Defeat on land at theBattle of Largs and winter storms forced the Norwegian fleet to return home, leaving the Scottish crown as the major power in the region and leading to the ceding of the Western Isles to Alexander in 1266.[11]
English naval power was vital to KingEdward I's successful campaigns in Scotland from 1296, using largely merchant ships from England, Ireland and his allies in the Islands to transport and supply his armies.[12] Part of the reason forRobert I's success was his ability to call on naval forces from the Islands. As a result of the expulsion of the Flemings from England in 1303, he gained the support of a major naval power in the North Sea.[12] The development of naval power allowed Robert to successfully defeat English attempts to capture him in the Highlands and Islands and to blockade major English controlled fortresses atPerth andStirling, the last forcing KingEdward II to attempt the relief that resulted at English defeat atBannockburn in 1314.[12] Scottish naval forces allowed invasions of theIsle of Man in 1313 and 1317 and Ireland in 1315. They were also crucial in thesiege of Berwick, which led to its fall in 1318.[12]
After the establishment of Scottish independence, King Robert I turned his attention to building up a Scottish naval capacity. This was largely focused on the west coast, with theExchequer Rolls of 1326 recording the feudal duties of his vassals in that region to aid him with their vessels and crews. Towards the end of his reign, he supervised the building of at least one royalman-of-war near his palace atCardross on theRiver Clyde. In the late fourteenth century naval warfare with England was conducted largely by hired Scots, Flemish and French merchantmen and privateers.[13] KingJames I of Scotland (1394-1437, reigned 1406–1437), took a greater interest in naval power. After his return to Scotland in 1424, he established a shipbuilding yard atLeith, a house for marine stores, and a workshop. King's ships were built and equipped there to be used for trade as well as war, one of which accompanied him on his expedition to the Islands in 1429. The office ofLord High Admiral was probably founded in this period.[13] It would soon become a hereditary office, in the control of theEarls of Bothwell in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and theEarls of Lennox in the seventeenth century.[14]
KingJames II (1430-1460, reigned 1437–1460) is known to have purchased acaravel by 1449.[1] Around 1476 the Scottish merchant John Barton receivedletters of marque that allowed him to gain compensation for the capture of his vessels by the Portuguese by capturing ships under their colours. These letters would be repeated to his three sons John,Andrew andRobert, who would play a major part in the Scottish naval effort into the sixteenth century.[15] In his struggles with his nobles in 1488James III (r. 1451–88) received assistance from his two warshipsFlower andKing's Carvel also known asYellow Carvel, commanded byAndrew Wood of Largo.[13] After the king's death Wood served his sonJames IV (r. 1488-1513), defeating an English incursion into theForth by five English ships in 1489 and three more heavily armed English ships off the mouth of theRiver Tay the next year.[16]
James IV put the naval enterprise on a new footing, founding a harbour atNewhaven in May 1504, and two years later orderedAndrew Aytoun to construct a dockyard at the Pools ofAirth. The upper reaches of the Forth were protected by new fortifications onInchgarvie.[17] Scottish ships had some success against privateers, accompanied the king in his expeditions in the islands and intervened in conflicts inScandinavia and theBaltic Sea.[18] Expeditions to the Highlands to Islands to curb the power of theMacDonaldLord of the Isles were largely ineffective until in 1504 the king accompanied a squadron under Wood heavily armed with artillery, which battered the MacDonald strongholds into submission. Since some of these island fortresses could only be attacked from seaward, naval historian N. A. M. Rodger has suggested this may have marked the end of medieval naval warfare in theBritish Isles, ushering in a new tradition ofartillery warfare.[1]
In 1509, timber was cut in the forest ofDarnaway for the king's ships.[19] James IV acquired a total of 38 ships for the Royal Scots Navy, includingMargaret, and thecarrackMichael orGreat Michael, the largest warship of its time (1511).[20] The latter, built at great expense at Newhaven and launched in 1511, was 240 feet (73 m) in length, weighed 1,000 tons, had 24 cannon, and was, at that time, the largest ship inEurope.[20][21] It marked a shift in design as it was designed specifically to carry a main armament of heavy artillery.[1]
In theFlodden campaign the fleet consisted of 16 large and 10 smaller craft. After a raid onCarrickfergus in Ireland, it joined up with the French and had little impact on the war. After the disaster at Flodden the Great Michael, and perhaps other ships, were sold to the French and the king's ships disappeared from royal records after 1516. Scottish naval efforts would again rely on privateering captains and hired merchantmen during the minority of James V.[18] In theHabsburg-Valois war of 1521–26, in which England and Scotland became involved on respective sides, the Scots had six men-of-war active attacking English and Imperial shipping and they blockaded the Humber in 1523. Although prizes were taken by Robert Barton and other captains, the naval campaign was sporadic and indecisive.[22]
Scots privateers and pirates preyed upon shipping in the North Sea and off the Atlantic coast of France. Scotland'sAdmiralty court judged whether a captured ship was a lawful prize and dealt with the recovery of goods. As the court was entitled to a tenth of the value of a prize, it was a profitable business for the admiral. The privateers Andrew and Robert Barton were still using their letters of reprisal of 1506 against the Portuguese in 1561. The Bartons operated down the east coast of Britain from Leven and the Firth of Forth, while others used the French Channel ports such as Rouen and Dieppe or the Atlantic port of Brest as bases.[23] In 1507 Robert Barton withLion took a Portuguese ship, but was detained by the Dutch authorities atVeere for piracy. James IV managed to engineer his release, but in 1509 John Barton withLion took a Portuguese vessel that was carrying Portuguese and English goods. In 1511 Andrew Barton headed south withJennet Purwyn and another ship to continue the private war, and took prizes that he claimed were Portuguese, but contained English goods. He was intercepted in theEnglish Downs byLord Thomas Howard andSir Edward Howard. Barton was killed and his two ships captured and transferred to the English navy.[24]
James V entered his majority in 1524. He did not share his father's interest in developing a navy, relying on French gifts such asSalamander, or captured ships like the EnglishMary Willoughby. Scotland's shipbuilding remained largely at the level of boat building and ship repairs and fell behind the Low Countries which led the way into semi-industrialised shipbuilding.[23] Despite truces between England and Scotland there were periodic outbreaks of aguerre de course in the 1530s with at least four of a known six men-at-war were royal naval vessels on the Scottish side.[25] James V built a new harbour atBurntisland in 1542, called 'Our Lady Port' or 'New Haven,' described in 1544 as having three blockhouses with guns and a pier for great ships to lie in a dock.[26]
The chief employment of naval power in his reign was in a series of expeditions to the Isles and France. In 1536 the king circumnavigated the Isles, embarking atPittenweem inFife and landingWhithorn inGalloway.[27] Later in the year he sailed fromKirkcaldy with six ships including the 600 tonMary Willoughby, and arrived atDieppe to begin his courtship of his first wifeMadeleine of Valois.[28] After his marriage he sailed fromLe Havre inMary Willoughby to Leith with four great Scottish ships and ten French. After the death of Queen Madeleine, John Barton, inSalamander returned to France in 1538 to pick up the new queen,Mary of Guise, withMoriset andMary Willoughby.[29] In 1538 James V embarked on the newly equippedSalamander at Leith and accompanied byMary Willoughby,Great Unicorn,Little Unicorn,Lion and twelve other ships sailed toKirkwall onOrkney. Then he went toLewis in the West, perhaps using the newly compiled charts from his first voyage known as Alexander Lindsay'sRutter.[30]
During the Rough Wooing, the attempt to force a marriage between James V's heirMary, Queen of Scots andHenry VIII's son, the futureEdward VI, in 1542,Mary Willoughby,Lion, andSalamander under the command of John Barton, son of Robert Barton, attacked merchants and fishermen offWhitby. They later blockaded a London merchant ship calledAntony of Bruges in a creek on the coast of Brittany.[31] In 1544 Edinburgh was attacked by anEnglish marine force and burnt.Salamander and the Scottish-builtUnicorn were captured at Leith. The Scots still had two royal naval vessels and numerous smaller private vessels.[32]
When, as a result of the series of international treaties,Charles V declared war upon Scotland in 1544, the Scots were able to engage in a highly profitable campaign of privateering that lasted six years and the gains of which probably outweighed the losses in trade with theHabsburg Netherlands.[23]Great Lion was captured off Dover in March 1547[33] by SirAndrew Dudley, brother of theDuke of Northumberland.[34]Mary Willoughby andGreat Spaniard were blockading Dieppe and Le Havre in April 1547[35] whenMary Willoughby was recaptured byLord Hertford.[36] In 1547Edward Clinton's invasion fleet of 60 ships, 35 of them warships, supported the English advance into Scotland. The naval superiority of the English fleet was demonstrated when theMary Willoughby was recaptured, along withBosse and an English prize,Anthony of Newcastle, without opposition offBlackness. In successive campaigns, the Scots had lost all four of their royal ships. They would have to rely on privateers until the re-establishment of a royal fleet in the 1620s.[37] However, as the English fleet retreated for winter, the remaining Scots ships began to pick off stragglers and unwary English merchantmen. In June 1548 the situation was transformed by the arrival of a French squadron of three warships, 16 galleys and transports carrying 6,000 men. The English lostPansy in an engagement with the galley fleet and their strategic situation began to deteriorate on land and sea, and theTreaty of Boulogne (1550) marked the end of the Rough Wooing and opened up a period of French dominance of Scottish affairs.[38]
The Scots operated in theWest Indies from the 1540s, joining the French in the capture ofBurburuta in 1567.[39] English and Scottish naval warfare and privateering broke out sporadically in the 1550s.[40] When Anglo-Scottish relations deteriorated again in 1557 as part of a widerwar between Spain and France, small ships called 'shallops' were noted between Leith and France, passing as fishermen, but bringing munitions and money. Private merchant ships were rigged at Leith, Aberdeen andDundee as men-of-war, and the regent Mary of Guise claimed English prizes, one over 200 tons, for her fleet.[41]
The re-fittedMary Willoughby sailed with 11 other ships against Scotland in August 1557, landing troops and six field guns onOrkney to attackKirkwall Castle,St Magnus Cathedral and theBishop's Palace. The English were repulsed by a Scottish force numbering 3000, and the English vice-admiral SirJohn Clere ofOrmesby was killed, but none of the English ships were lost.[42] In July 1558, two Scottish warships from Aberdeen, owned by Thomas Nicholson, theMeikle Swallow andLittle Swallow, attacked an English fleet off Shetland. The Scottish sailors took cattle and other goods belonging toOlave Sinclair onMousa. Sinclair claimed compensation in the Edinburgh courts.[43]
When the ProtestantElizabeth I came to the throne of England in 1558, the English party and the Protestants found their positions aligned and the Protestants asked for English military support to expel the French.[44] In 1559, English captainWilliam Winter was sent north with 34 ships and dispersed and captured the Scottish and French fleets, leading to the siege of the French forces inLeith, the eventual evacuation of the French from Scotland,[40] and a successful coup of the ProtestantLords of the Congregation. Scottish and English interests were re-aligned and naval conflict subsided.[45]
AfterMary, Queen of Scots was captured at theBattle of Carberry Hill, theEarl of Bothwell took ship to Shetland. ThePrivy Council sentWilliam Kirkcaldy of Grange andWilliam Murray of Tullibardine in pursuit in August 1567. Some of their ships came from Dundee, includingJames,Primrose, andRobert.[46] They encountered Bothwell inBressay Sound nearLerwick. Four of Bothwell's ships in the Sound set sail north toUnst, where Bothwell was negotiating with German captains to hire more ships. Kirkcaldy's flagship,Lion, chased one of Bothwell's ships, and both ships were damaged on a submerged rock.[47] Bothwell sent his treasure ship toScalloway, and fought a three-hour-long sea battle off thePort of Unst, where the mast of one of Bothwell's ships was shot away. Subsequently, a storm forced him to sail towards Norway.[48]
When Mary's supporters, led by Kirkcaldy, heldEdinburgh Castle in April 1573, prolonging civil war in Scotland, the guns fromStirling Castle were brought to Leith in four boats.Regent Morton hired two ships in Leith with their masters John Cockburn and William Downy and 80 men for eight days. These masters of Leith sailed toBerwick upon Tweed to meet and convoy the English ships carrying the guns to bombard Edinburgh Castle.[49]
James VI hired ships for his ambassadors and other uses, and in 1588James Royall ofAyr, belonging toRobert Jameson, was fitted out for SirWilliam Stewart ofCarstairs to pursue the rebelLord Maxwell with 120 musketeers or "hagbutters". In October 1589 James VI decided to sail to Norway to meet his brideAnne of Denmark. His courtiers, led by theChancellor of ScotlandJohn Maitland ofThirlestane equipped a fleet of six ships.[50]Patrick Vans of Barnbarroch hiredFalcon of Leith from John Gibson, described as a little ship.[51]
Maitland's expenses detail the preparation ofJames Royall, which was equipped with cannon by the Comptroller of OrdinanceJohn Chisholm for the use of the royal gunner James Rocknow, usually based at Edinburgh Castle. The guns were probably intended for firing salutes. The sails ofJames were decorated with red taffeta. James VI sent Robert Dog from Denmark toLübeck to buy gunpowder which he shipped to Edinburgh castle.[52] James VI sent orders from Denmark to the town of Edinburgh requesting the council hire a ship for his return. They chose theAngel of Kirkcaldy, belonging to David Hucheson, and this ship was painted by James Warkman.[53] When Captain Robert Jameson died in January 1608James was at Ayr, unrigged and stripped of its furniture.[54]
After theUnion of Crowns in 1603 conflict between Scotland and England ended, but Scotland became involved in England's foreign policy, opening up Scottish merchant shipping to attack. In the 1620s, Scotland became engaged in a naval conflict as England's ally, firstagainst Spain and then alsoagainst France, while simultaneously embroiled in undeclared North Sea commitments in theDanish intervention in the Thirty Years' War. In 1626 a squadron of three ships was bought and equipped, at a cost of at least £5,200 sterling, to guard against privateers operating out of Spanish-controlledDunkirk and other ships were armed in preparation for potential action.[21] The acting High AdmiralJohn Gordon of Lochinvar organised as many as threemarque fleets of privateers.[55] It was probably one of Lochinvar's marque fleets that were sent to support the English Royal Navy in defending Irish waters in 1626.[56] In 1627, the Royal Scots Navy and accompanying contingents of burgh privateers participated in themajor expedition to Biscay.[57] The Scots also returned to the West Indies, with Lochinvar taking French prizes and establishing theScottish colony ofCharles Island.[39] In 1629 two squadrons of privateers led by Lochinvar and William Lord Alexander, sailed for Canada, taking part in the campaign that resulted in thecapture of Quebec from the French, which was handed back after the subsequent peace.[58]
During theBishops' Wars (1639–40) the king attempted to blockade Scotland and disrupt trade and the transport of returning troops from the continent. The king planned amphibious assaults from England on the East coast and from Ireland to the West, but they failed to materialise.[59] Scottish privateers took a number of English prizes and theCovenanters planned to fit out Dutch ships with Scottish and Dutch crews to join the naval war effort.[60] After the Covenanters allied with theEnglish Parliament they established two patrol squadrons for the Atlantic and North Sea coasts, known collectively as the "Scotch Guard". These patrols guarded against Royalist attempts to move men, money and munitions and raids on Scottish shipping, particularly from theIrish Confederate fleet atWexford and Royalist forces at Dunkirk. They consisted mainly of small English warships, controlled by the Commissioners of the Navy based in London, but it always relied heavily on Scottish officers and revenues, and after 1646 the West Coast squadron became much more a Scottish force.[61] The Scottish navy was easily overcome by the English fleet that accompanied the army led byOliver Cromwell thatconquered Scotland in 1649–51 and after his victory the Scottish ships and crews were divided among theCommonwealth fleet.[62]
Although Scottish seamen received protection against arbitraryimpressment thanks toCharles II, a fixed quota of conscripts for the Royal Navy was levied from the sea-coastburghs during the second half of the seventeenth century.[63] Royal Navy patrols were now found in Scottish waters even in peacetime, such as the small ship-of-the-lineHMSKingfisher, which bombardedCarrick Castle during theEarl of Argyll's rebellion in 1685.[64] Scotland went to war against the Dutch and their allies in theSecond (1665–67) andThird Anglo-Dutch Wars (1672–74) as an independent kingdom. A very large number of Scottish captains, at least as many as 80 and perhaps 120, took letters of marque, and privateers played a major part in the naval conflict of the wars.[65]
By 1697 the English Royal Navy had 323 warships, while Scotland was still dependent on merchantmen and privateers. In the 1690s, two separate schemes for larger naval forces were put in motion. As usual, the larger part was played by the merchant community rather than the government. The first was theDarien Scheme to found a Scottish colony in Spanish-controlled America. It was undertaken by theCompany of Scotland, who created a fleet of five ships, includingCaledonia andSt. Andrew, all built or chartered in Holland and Hamburg. It sailed to theIsthmus of Darien in 1698, but the venture failed and only one ship returned to Scotland.[66] In the same period it was decided to establish a professional navy for the protection of commerce in home waters during theNine Years' War (1688–97) with France, with three purpose-built warships bought from English shipbuilders in 1696. These wereRoyal William, a 32-gunfifth rate and two smaller ships,Royal Mary andDumbarton Castle, each of 24 guns, generally described as frigates.[67]
After theAct of Union in 1707, the Scottish Navy merged with that of England. The office of Lord High Admiral was subsumed within the office of theAdmiral of Great Britain.[14] The three vessels of the small Royal Scottish Navy were transferred to theRoyal Navy.[67] A number of Scottish officers eventually left the Royal Navy for service in the fledglingRussian navy ofPeter the Great. These included the captain ofRoyal MaryThomas Gordon, who became a commodore in 1717 took service and rose to be Admiral and commander-in-chief of theBaltic Fleet.[68]
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The most accessible work on the Old Scots Navy and Scots naval matters, before 1649, isN. A. M. Rodger,The Safeguard of the Sea (1997), which provides extensive coverage in context, particularly for the Wars of Independence and the reign of James IV. The bibliography provided by Rodger is considerable, and includes works on the Early and High Medieval periods. The second volume of Rodger's history,The Command of the Ocean (2004), offers comparatively little coverage of Scotland.
Norman Macdougall,James IV (1989) is the standard life of the king most important to the history of the Royal Scots Navy, and does not stint on naval coverage. Works such as R. Andrew McDonald,The Kingdom of the Isles (1997), Colm McNamee,The Wars of the Bruces (1998), and Sean Duffy,Robert the Bruce's Irish Wars (2002), may be helpful to expand the context provided by Rodger.
Jamie Cameron'sJames V (1998) adds detail from published and manuscript sources to the stories of the king's voyages and gives a detailed analysis of their historical context.
