Ebook: Swords for Hire: the Scottish Mercenary

Cover; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Note on text; Maps; Family tree showing Leslies who sought armed service in Europe; 1 'God knoweth it greeved me much'; 2 'bandis of men of weare'; 3 'these proude Scottes'; 4 'mony zoung and valzeand men'; 5 'university of war'; 6 'a Company of pedeling knaves'; 7 'Your Majesty will need soldiers'; 8 'sure men hardy and resolute'; 9 'a rude and ignorant Souldier'; 10 'new conditions from a new Master'; 11 'betwixt the Devill and the deepe Sea'; 12 'nothing els but fire and smoke';In 1612, George Sinclair, an illegitimate son of a Caithness laird, became a Norwegian national hero. Along with almost 300 of his followers, Sinclair was killed in an ambush in Norway while marching to join the king of Sweden's army. Sinclair has legendary status in Norway but has been almost totally forgotten at home, just as the memory of thousands of other Scots who served as mercenaries in the armies of Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries has faded into obscurity. In this book, James Miller tells how a considerable proportion of the able-bodied male population of Scotland at one ti.