ECW Historical Guides: Scottish (Covenanter and Royalist) and Irish Uniforms and Flags

[Black Watch 1745]

Covenanters:
The Army of the Solemn League and Covenant was raised in the late 1630’s in opposition to the King’s religious policies in predominately Calvanist Scotland and within a short time they were practically running the country. The flags of the Covenanters are well recorded mainly due to their defeats at Preston (1648), Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651) where many were captured and recorded. Before 1647 the Covenanter colours generally bore the motto ‘Covenant, For Religion, Crown, and Country’ (spelling varied, u and v are interchangeable and the letter e often appears on the end of words like ‘Crown’). As in England each company had its own colour and whilst the Colonels Colour would usually be plain or have some sort of device most of the Captain’s Colours would bear the Scottish saltire with the motto in each quarter:
http://imgur.com/qaj9qEH
Colours varied, the cross could be in blue, yellow, red or pretty much any colour, the same with the field. Here is one example:
http://imgur.com/0DytZMc
Some regiments did have one device that would be used to show which company was which (1 star for the first captain, 2 for the second and so on) but in most regiments each captain had his own device on his colour, for example at Dunbar, in Kerr’s regiment the fourth company had some sort of bird, another had a star, another a fleur de lys etc.
After 1647 the motto on the colours changed to ‘Covenant, For Religion, King, and Kingdoms’ (again spelling varied) although some regiments may have kept the old motto.
The uniforms of the Covenanters consisted of blue bonnets and uniforms in ‘hodden grey’. Unlike English regiments where it was (at least at the start of the war) up to each Colonel to uniform his regiment the Covenanter armies were generally centrally uniformed. ‘Hodden grey’ became the norm (the tone of the colour varies; some suggest it is more a blue/grey others brown/grey). There are some exceptions to this rule. The Covenanters sent an army to Ulster in the early to mid-1640’s to fight the Irish and whilst there they received clothing from the English Parliament which sent over red uniforms. There is also evidence that at Worcester the1651 the Lifeguard (the forerunner of the modern day Scots Guards) were issued red uniforms (the town was only recently paid for the uniforms). The other exception is ‘Sir Arthur Erskine of Scotscraig’s, the Ministers’ Regiment of Foote’. It is alleged that the church provided uniforms for this regiment which consisted of black cloth usually meant for priests garments. Whether the regiment was actually in black uniforms is not clear.
The Covenanters wore little to no armour throughout the war, the only major units that did were small detachments of ‘halberdiers’ that were added in 1647 but there were not many of them. The colour of their sashes is largely unknown. At the start of the Bishop’s Wars in 1639 they are mentioned as having blue sashes. It is likely this practice continued. White has also been suggested by some since it is the other main colour of the Scottish flag. It is possible that after 1647 red sashes were worn more since by then they were on the King’s side.
Royalist Scots:
This refers the handful of units that fought in the army of the Marquis of Montrose, the King’s leading general in Scotland. In 1644 following the Covenanters alliance with Parliament, Montrose, a Scottish nobleman who had initially served with the Covenanters in the Bishops War but became disillusioned and went to England to fight for his King, was sent north with practically nothing but a warrant from the King to raise an army and draw the Covenanter forces away from England. In his first incursion he was aided by one troop of horse from the Earl of Crawford's Regiment, made up of many Scots including a Captain Frances Dalziel, the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Carnwath. The King could not spare anything else.

In regards to this 'Captain Frances Dalziel' I have not come across any other mention of her. As the Earl was born in 1611 she can have been no older than seventeen in 1644 (the Earl's eldest son was born in 1627) when the troop went north. Some sources say she was a 'Mrs Pierson' and one says she was the Earl's mistress! Is it a case of she pretending to be his daughter? There is no mention of her after she went north and, from what I gather the troop was down to about 44 men by the siege of Aberdeen out of the original 150 at Tippermuir which was only two weeks before. I would be suprised if she survived the war.

Montrose was soon aided though by reinforcements from Ireland and by the Highlanders.
The Highland clans had been fighting each other for centuries and Montrose tapped into that rallying many to his cause. They varied from proper regiments with pike and shotte to effectively mob’s armed with claymores, axes and even bows and arrows. The main dress for them was the Breacan-an-fheilidh or Belted plaid, as seen here in this print of Highland mercenaries from the Thirty Years War (note the original print claims they are Irish but this is most likely an error):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Scottish_soldiers_in_service_of_Gustavus_Adolphus,_1631-cropped-.jpg
Again blue bonnets were probably common. Some regiments such as the Strathbogie regiment were equipped as conventional regiments and most likely uniformed in a similar fashion to the Covenanters. It is known that some regiments did switch sides and join Montrose uch as Gordon's Horse.
We know very little about Montrose’s Army. It is known that as the King’s lieutenant in Scotland he carried the Royal banner of Scotland consisting of a red lion rampant surrounded by a red border on a yellow field. One mention is made of the Strathbogie regiment carrying a colour with a red lion rampant (the field is not recorded but it is most likely yellow) with the motto ‘For God and the King, Against all Traitors, God Save the King’, again I am using modern spelling. It is possible then that this was the standard colour for most of Montrose’s regiments.
The Irish:
Of all the armies that fought in the Civil War the Irish forces are the least well known in temrs of uniforms and colours. In 1641 the Irish rose in rebellion and by 1642 most of the country had formed what was known as the ‘Irish Confederacy’. During the First Civil War their only major conflict was with the Covenanters in Ulster, the only involvement they had with the Civil War at this stage was the Irish soldiers who had enlisted in English Regiments recalled to serve the King’s cause and the famous ‘Irish Brigade’. This brigade was sent by the Earl of Antrim to Scotland and soon became the foundation of Montrose’s Army. It consisted of three regiments (plus a ‘Lifeguard’ of three companies made up of men drawn from the Highlands that protected the commander), Colonel Manus O’Cahan’s Regiment of Foote, Colonel Alexander MacDonnell’s Regiment of Foote and Colonel James MacDonnell. The Earl of Antrim wrote a letter detailing the officers of the brigade. From this we can gather that O'Cahan's and James MacDonnell's had six companies, Alexander MacDonnell’s may have been larger as there is mention of 13 captains and the Sergeant-Major (the Colonel and Lt Colonel being absent) meaning that there could have potentially been 16 companies in this regiment. The brigade numbered around 1600 when it arrived, so there were roughly 500 men in each regiment (not including the lifeguard, and of course Alexander MacDonnel's may have been a double regiment with that many companies). It was commanded by Alastair MacColla who soon became one of Montrose’s right hand men.
Despite its name a number of Ulster Scots served in the Brigade (MacColla himself had links with the highlands) and even one company that was apparently drawn from Anglo-Irish soldiers from the Pale around Dublin, the majority of its men were Irish Catholics. The only mention of Irish flags in the entire war relates to one vague pamphlet from about 1644. Many details are disputed but it seems though that most of the flags had a red saltire (St Patrick’s Cross, often associated with Ireland) on a yellow field in the canton. Directly beneath the canton would be the motto ‘Vivat Carolus Rex’ or ‘Long Live King Charles’ in English and directly beneath that would be the crown and ‘CR’, the King’s cypher. Since the men were Catholic their colours were decorated with Catholic imagery ranging from images of the Virgin Mary, Jesus carrying the cross and other images. A motto, again in Latin, would be directly beneath these. Another reference is made of a dark green colour with a large red Celtic cross in the centre with the crown and cypher above and the motto ‘Vivat Carolus Rex’ below which has been interpreted as some as being the Colonel’s Colour. Here are some interpretations of what the Irish flags looked like:
http://imgur.com/GK5Bplh
http://imgur.com/rXhMAt4
http://imgur.com/m1WR8Uw
Uniform wise there is pretty much nothing other than conjecture. They would probably have been uniformed in the English fashion, possibly Monmouth caps may have been popular. A light green is possible for their uniforms since that colour is often associated with the Irish but it could also have been varying shades of brown and grey. Some have speculated that, as Montrose’s campaign wore on, the men’s uniforms wore out and they replaced it with whatever they could get their hands on, which would inevitable be captured Covenanter blue bonnets and Hodden grey uniforms. The re-enactors oppose this view stating that they were well supplied and would probably not want to adopt the uniforms of their enemies anyway although again it is all speculation. Some of the men had fought as mercenaries for the Spanish previously so it is possible they adopted their styles of clothing as well.
Sources:
S. Reid, ‘Scots Armies of the Seventeenth Century 2: Scots Colours’, Partizan Press, Newthorpe (2001) (reprint from 1988)
P. Haythornthwaite, ‘The English Civil War 1642-1651, An Illustrated History’, Arms and Armour Press, London (1994) (reprint from 1984)
The BCW project: http://wiki.bcw-project.org/start
Project Auldearn 1645: http://auldearn1645.blogspot.co.uk/
The flags are my own although some symbols have been adapted (for example from the Auldearn blog)