Le Armee D’Ecosse 

The French Connection

In 1415 during the course of the Hundred Years War the French army suffered a crippling defeat at the hands of the English on the field of Agincourt.  Once again out armoured and outnumbered archers decimated a larger force of heavily armed and armoured mounted knights and men-at-arms.  With the subsequent loss of Normandy to the English and the fall of Paris to the Burgundians the French were in a perilous situation.

  In 1419 the Dauphin approached the Earl of Douglas for military aid, not small companies of Scots soldiers (some of which were already serving in France) but a large ready made army.  The Scots already had a fearsome reputation on the field of battle and the Douglas family were renowned across Europe.

  The Scots army of 6000 that left the shores of the west coast from ports such as Greenock, Inverkip and Ayr was not like armies of the past.  The Scots had long learned their hard lessons at the hands of English archery and in response two thirds of the army was armed with the longbow.

  During the period between 1419 and 1424 some 15,000 Scots served in France and they gave the English their first defeat at the receiving end of the longbow.  So successful was this army that many Scots nobles were given gifts of land in the Loire valley and Douglas was made the Duke of Touraine (the area of Loire was known as “little Scotland”) and the soldiers were well rewarded with enhanced pay, plunder and gifts.  Pope Martin V was said to have exclaimed that “the Scots are truly and antidote to the English scourge”.

  Although the main host of the Armee d’Ecosse left France in 1424 many companies remained in French service until the end of the war.  One in particular under the command of Lord Kennedy was present at the siege of Orleans where they mention being under the command of “a Maid sent by God”.  Once again the Scots played the key role in raising the siege.

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