Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Brentford

Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Forth and 1st Earl of Brentford (c. 1573 – 2 February 1651) was a Scottish nobleman, general, and diplomat.

Patrick Ruthven was a descendant of Sir William Ruthven, 1st Lord Ruthven in a collateral line. A lifelong professional soldier, Ruthven earned his reputation in the service of the King of Sweden, which he entered about 1609 and left 1637. He had been forced into exile to retain his family name which had been outlawed in Scotland by act of Parliament in 1600. As a negotiator he was very useful to Gustavus Adolphus because of his ability to "drink immeasurably and preserve his understanding to the last", and he also won fame on the field of battle. By 1621 Ruthven served as colonel for the Småland infantry regiment with which he campaigned in Livonia (Latvia). He took as his second in command Alexander Leslie, later promoted field marshal and one of Ruthven's opponents in the English Civil War. Ruthven was one of four Scottish colonels to be knighted by Gustav II Adolf of Sweden in 1627, the others being Alexander Leslie, David Drummond and John Hepburn.

His service in the Thirty Years' War was impressive. He became governor of Ulm in 1632 and as promoted to major-general the same year. The following year Ruthven campaigned along the Danube where he captured a number of Bavarian Horse outside Erbach which earned him his promotion to lieutenant general. He thereafter campaigned as second in command to the Swedish field marshal, Johan Banér, campaigning along the Rhine throughout 1634 and 1635. He was given a large share of the credit for the routing of the Saxon general, Wolfgang Baudissin at Dömitz, where some 2500 of the prisoners he took were pressed into the Swedish army. However, all was not well between Ruthven and Banér. The latter accused him of negligence at Halle in 1636. Rutheven thereafter returned to Scotland on a recruiting trip, but having made up his mind to quit Swedish service. Although Ruthven remained on the Swedish pay-roll for another year he travelled home via France where he claimed he was offered a field-marshal's baton by Louis XIII. Although he never served in this capacity, the rank appears on his English certificate of elevation to the nobility.

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