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only possessed one regiment of Scots, including the officers
Colonel Rutherford, Captain Learmonth, Wauchope, and
Greig, who commanded the artillery. Urged then by
necessity, the king applied to Sir James Spens (or Spentz),
in a letter dated November 1611, in which, after having
referred to the promises made by Spens to his father, and
to the services which the latter had required of him, he
urges him to hasten his return from Scotland with the
“ promised three thousand soldiers of proved faithfulness
and bravery.” He added that he wished them to be
infantry. With these Spens was to sail for Elfsborg by
the month of April 1612. He was to be paid 20,000
Imperiales at Hamburg, and promised that any further
expense should be carefully considered. Gustavus
Adolphus continues: u Furthermore, we thought it right
to let you know that we have arranged with our general,
Joh. Moenighovius, that he is to transport his 1000
infantry from Holland to Elfsborg in the beginning of
spring, so that if you could combine your fleet and
army with the ships of the aforesaid Moenighovius, we
should be extremely glad.”
From the following it will appear that Spens took no
active part in these levies himself; the organiser was
Colonel Andrew Ramsay, a favourite with King James L,
who calls him the u chief of the business.” His brother
John, as one of the royal pages, had saved the king’s life in
the Gowrie conspiracy. Now, while Moenighovius’s
expedition landed not far from Trondhjem on the 19th of
August with four Dutch ships, and succeeded in
reaching Stockholm in safety after having suffered great
hardships on the road, the Scottish levies were doomed
to a more terrible fate. From the first, great difficulties
had presented themselves to the recruiting officers. The
Court of Denmark had, through “ secret channels,
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