Note 5 — Chapter I

The origin of the Scotch Guard goes back to the Hundred Years’ War. In 1420, five years after the battle of Agincourt, when Henry V was in possession of all of northern France, the dauphin, Charles VII, sent the count of Vendôme to Scotland to ask for assistance in virtue of the ancient league between the two nations. In 1421 a body of 1,000 Scots arrived in France under the earl of Buchan. They fought at Baugé in Anjou in that year, but were almost all destroyed in 1424 in the furious battle of Verneuil. The remnant, in honor of their services, became the king’s own guard. See Skene, The Book of Pluscarden, II, xix-xxi, xxvi-xxix; Houston, L’Escosse françois (Discours des alliances commencées depuis l’an sept cents septante, et continuées jusques à present, entre les couronnes de France et d’Escosse), Paris, 1608; Forbes Leith, The Scots Men-at-Arms and Life Guards in France, from Their Formation until Their Final Dissolution, 2 vols., 1882. The Guard consisted of the principal captain, the lieutenant, and the ensign, the maréchal-de-loges, three commis, eighty archers of the guard, twenty-four archers of the corps; the pay of whom amounted annually to 51,800 francs, or 6,475 pounds sterling.—C. S. P. For., No. 544, December, 1559.