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Scots At War

Historically, Scotland has a long military tradition that predates the Act of Union with England. Its armed forces now form part of those of the United Kingdom and are known as the British Armed Forces.

Main articles: Royal Scots Navy and History of the Royal Navy

The Scottish Red Ensign, flown by ships of the Royal Scots Navy

A model of the Great Michael in the Royal Museum

The first recorded Scottish Naval force was created around AD 1000 by King Kenneth III to combat Viking invasions. Initially it consisted of Longships, some captured from the Vikings. After the signing of the Treaty of Perth, the navy fell into perpetual neglect, only becoming properly re-established in the wake of the Scottish Wars of Independence. The Navy steadily increased in size and strength through the reigns of the Stewart Monarchs, from King James I to that of King James IV, who established the Royal Scots Navy which consisted of a fleet of thirty-eight vessels, including the carrack Great Michael. After this point the Royal Scots Navy entered into a steady decline, and only consisted of three vessels when it merged with the English Royal Navy in 1707.

Scottish armies

Main articles: Warfare of Scotland in the High Middle Ages and Gaelic warfare

Before the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in 1644, there was no standing army in the Kingdom of Scotland. Prior to that, troops were raised by the King when required, a development of the feudal concept of fief (in which a lord was obligated to raise a certain quota of knights, men at arms and yeomanry, under greater control of the King). Gallowglass mercenary clan soldiers also formed a significant part of Scottish Armies at the time. After the Wars of Scottish Independence, the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France played a large part in the country's military activities, especially during the Hundred Years' War. In 1650, part of the New Model Army invaded Scotland to fight Scottish Covenanters at the start of the Third English Civil War. The Covenanters, who had been allied to the English Parliament in the First English Civil War, had crowned Charles II as King of Scots. Despite being outnumbered, Oliver Cromwell led the Army to crushing victories over Charles's Scottish army commanded by David Leslie at the battles of Dunbar and Inverkeithing. Following the Scottish invasion of England led by Charles II, the New Model Army and local militia forces soundly defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Worcester, the last pitched battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. During the Interregnum, Scotland was kept under the military occupation of an English army under George Monck. They were kept busy throughout the 1650s by minor Royalist uprisings in the Scottish Highlands and by endemic lawlessness by bandits known as mosstroopers. Following Cromwell's death, the Restoration of Charles II saw the New Model Army kept as a standing force, and the King raised further regiments loyal to the Crown. On January 26, 1661 Charles II issued a Royal Warrant that created the genesis of what would become the British Army, although the Scottish and English Armies would remain two separate organisations until the unification of England and Scotland in 1707. The Crown still officially controls the use of the army. However the Claim of Right Act 1689 stated that: "that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law...". Successive British governments were able to circumvent the intent of the Bill of Rights through annual continuation notices, and the technical legality of the British Army, in times of peace, still rests on these annual notices. A large standing army had come into existence by the time of the Napoleonic Wars; the British government of the day continues to command the British Armed Forces and both declares and wages wars.

Wars and battles