Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Sidor ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
and I shall hold myself bound to return to the service of
the Crown of Sweden as soon as the disagreement between
the two nations shall be terminated.”
If we add to these voluntary cases of quitting the
Swedish service those involuntary ones where protracted
wars claimed their victims, we can understand why the
“ personnel ” of the Scottish officers was so entirely different
after the Thirty Years’ War from what it was as long as
it lasted or previous to it. The famous and heroic
defender of Hanau dead, having at last, a lion at bay,
succumbed to treachery ; dead after terrible agonies from
wounds and imprisonment, and buried secretly and
igno-miniously, so that to this day his grave is unknown;1
General Major Ker or Karr, dead (1637) after having been
severely wounded near Munich and again in the Battle of
Leipzig;1 2 General King also dead (1652), after having for
the last time penned his letters of complaint to the Queen
or the Government, not even his dying wish to be
buried quietly and inexpensively having been fulfilled;3
1 See Scots in Germany, Part II. The fate of this “ Son of Mars and
the Muses,” as Grotius calls him, one of the most attractive figures in the
whole list of Scottish officers during that time, is particularly tragic. To
what has been said in the book quoted a short letter of Grotius may here be
added : “ Je prends,” he writes from Paris on the 30th of October 1637,
il je prends part a tout ce qui sert a votre honneur tant a cause de
l’obliga-tion que je vous ay, depuis que j’ay eu le bonheur de vous cognoistre, que
pour ce que cela redonde a l’honneur de la Suéde qui vous a donné ce bel
employ duquel les histoires ne se tairont jamais. . . .” (Histor.
Handlingar, xiii. 2, p. 45).
2 There is a kind letter of Banér on his behalf to Oxenstierna, asking
to find some other suitable employment for Ker, should he recover
(Banér’s Bref. till 0., p. 372).
3 The expenses of his funeral amounted to more than 1500 Riks
Thaler. For the painting of “ hufvud-banners ” (hatchments) alone
200 Thaler were paid. At the desire of Queen Christina, King was
interred in the Riddarholme Kyrka (1652). His debts in Sweden
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
