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Thank you for your replies.
Briefly the background politics - King James 6 and 1 was
married to Anne the sister of the Danish King Kristian 4. He therefore had some
loyalty to the Danish throne. Norway at this time (c.1600) was under the
authority of Denmark. Kristian 4 had long wanted to gain control of Sweden as
well. Apparently Kristian had been trying to stir up a fight with Sweden to give
him an excuse to try and take over.
The Danish army was largely made up of Norwegian peasant
farmers and Swedens were mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe. In Feb 1612 the
Danes were beaten and the Swedes were particulary cruel to the Norwegian
soldiers. Karl 9 , the Swedish king was still looking for more mercenaries and
this is where the Sinclairs become involved.
Captain George Sinclair of Caithness had promised several
companies.These were mainly locally pressed ganged and from the Borders a large
group of criminals who joined to avoid imprisonment.
Now King James didn't want his countrymen to be fighting for
the Swedes against his brother in law, so he tried to stop them, but he was
unable to stop all the ships leaving. At least 300 did leave Wick on 2 Aug
1612., a large number being children and women!
The force landed in the Romsdal area in Norway and seized a
local fisherman as a guide.The plan was to travel down the Gudbrandsdal to meet
up with the Swedish army.The guide was able to give warnings to call the farmers
to arms.The Scots were able to get as far as Dovre, by this time they were tried
and hungary. On the morning of 26th August 1612 with bagpipes playing they
marched straight into an ambush set by the Norwegian farmers in a narrow valley
near Kringen. Only 134 of the original 300 survived and surrended.
It was planned by the Norwegian leaders to take the survivers
to Oslo, but the peasant farmers were still enraged by the treatment their
fellow countrymen received at the hands of the Swedes earlier in the year. They
knew that the Scots were on their way to join that army.
So the following morning they lined up the remaining 134 Scots
up against the wall and shot & speared them. It was to be a moment in
Norwegian history that would go down in shame.
Only 18 soldiers were spared and these were sent to join the
Danish army.
Thank you for your interest.
The Scots Magazine can be found at www.scotsmagazine.com.uk
Slainte Mhor
Donald Sinclair
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