History of the Scots Guards (1642–1804)

In July that year, Oliver Cromwell, a leading figure of the English Civil War, and now leader of England, led an army into Scotland.

Late that year, the Scottish Royalists, led by David Leslie, confronted Cromwell's English Army at the Battle of Dunbar.

The following year the regiment took part in the invasion of England which was led by the newly crowned King Charles II of Scotland.

The regiment took part in the Battle of Worcester which again ended in a defeat for the Royalist forces, with King Charles II subsequently fleeing to France.

[1] That same year, Archibald, 1st Marquis of Argyll who had been ordered to raise the regiment by Charles I, was executed for high treason.

In 1695, the Guards regiments displayed unswerving courage and ferocity during the Siege of Namur, which ended in September with the Allies capturing the city, in what is now Belgium, from the French.

In 1707, England and Scotland, with the Act of Union, joined to become the Kingdom of Great Britain, with Queen Anne becoming the nation's first Monarch.

In 1709, a number of years after the War of the Spanish Succession had begun, the regiment deployed to Spain and in 1710 took part in the Battle of Saragossa which ended in a victory for Great Britain against Franco-Spanish forces.

That same year, the regiment took part in the Battle of Brihuega, when a British force was surprised by the enemy and defeated despite putting up a valiant fight.

The regiment was soon back in the Low Countries though, and in 1747 took part in the Battle of Lauffeld which ended in a defeat for Britain and her Allies who had been outnumbered by the French.

A second expedition was launched in August, and British forces, including the 1st Battalion, 3rd Foot Guards, landed near the port of Cherbourg in Normandy.

On 12 September, the British rearguard, consisting of over 1000 Guards as well as the Grenadier companies of the infantry battalions, were attacked by numerically superior French troops.

The rearguard stoutly defended their position but they were only delaying the inevitable and eventually they fell back, rushing to embark about the ships.

The British lost several hundred men killed, wounded and captured during the engagement, including the commander of the rearguard.

The 2nd Battalion also saw service abroad, being part of a Brigade of Guards force sent to Germany where they fought under the command of John Manners, Marquess of Granby.

General Cornwallis made the difficult decision to fire grapeshot into the intermingling masses of the British and American troops.

The 1st Battalion took part in the Battle of Famars on 23 May and the Siege of Valenciennes (1793) which began that same month, with the town eventually falling to the Allies in July that year.

The Foot Guards advanced valiantly and professionally on the freshly captured village, coming under horrendous artillery and small-arms fire, suffering heavy casualties.

The locks were destroyed, but due to unfavourable winds preventing re-embarkation, the 1,300 men of the army contingent under the command of Major General Coote were captured by the French.

An Anglo-Russian force took part in the campaign there, which had the intentions of restoring the exiled Dutch King, with the hope that the population of Batavia would be keen on such a move after suffering bad times economically due to France forbidding any trade with Great Britain.

In 1800, the 1st Battalion took part in the expeditions against the coastal Spanish cities of Ferrol, Vigo and Cádiz, the latter of which would become more prominent during the Peninsular War only a few years later.

In 1798, France invaded Egypt intent on conquering the country, a move that would have posed danger to Great Britain's position in the Mediterranean as well as to India.

In 1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed and just a few months later the 1st Battalion was part of a British Army expedition, under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to Egypt, landing at Aboukir Bay on 8 March, with the amphibious landing being very successful despite being opposed by French defenders.