Scots Guards (1642)

This article details the history of the Scots Guards from 1642 to 1804. The Scots Guards (SG) is a regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army. The Scots Guards trace their origins back to 1642 when, by order of King Charles I, the regiment was raised by Archibald Campbell, 1st Marquess of Argyll for service in Ireland, and was known as the Marquis of Argyll's Royal Regiment. It spent a number of years there and performed a variety of duties, but in the mid-1640s, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the regiment took part in the fight against James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose who was fighting on the side of Charles I. In 1646, Montrose left Scotland upon the defeat of the King in England.

In 1650, a year after the execution of King Charles I, his son, Charles II, arrived in Scotland to ascend to the throne of Scotland. That same year, the regiment became the Lyfe Guard of Foot of His Majesty King Charles II. In July that year, Oliver Cromwell, a leading figure of the English Civil War, and now leader of England, led an army into Scotland. Late that year, the Scottish Royalists, led by David Leslie, confronted Cromwell's English Army at the Battle of Dunbar. It would turn into a victory for Cromwell's Army, and resulted in over 3,000 men of Leslie's Army being killed and many thousands more captured. The following year the regiment took part in the invasion of England which was led by the newly crowned King Charles II of Scotland. The regiment took part in the Battle of Worcester which again ended in a defeat for the Royalist forces, with King Charles II subsequently fleeing to France. The regiment ceased to exist.

When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658, his son Richard Cromwell succeeded him but proved to be unsuccessful and abdicated in 1659. The following year, Charles II returned to England upon the Convention Parliament declaring him to be King. In 1661, the regiment was reformed as the Scottish Regiment of Foot Guards. That same year, Archibald, 1st Marquis of Argyll who had been ordered to raise the regiment by Charles I, was executed for high treason. The regiment was used against the Covenanters in Scotland who had begun an uprising in 1666 in response to many oppressive measures taken towards them by Charles II. That same year, the regiment took part in the Battle of Rullion Green which ended in a defeat for the Covenanters. In 1679, the regiment once more confronted the Covenanters in battle, at Bothwell Brig, which also ended in a defeat for the Covenanters.

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