Thomas Michell

“ On the strength of all these facts and considerations we arrive, in all humility, at the conjecture that the [65] three hundred Scots were not all armed, and that the body of men described in the Sagas as the "vanguard" was most likely the contingent of "honest men's bairns and servants," and some of the men out of jails, forcibly pressed by Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay, and who were being driven captive into Sweden by Caithness men under Sinclair and Hay, armed, it may be conjectured, principally with swords, the officers perhaps wearing armour and carrying pistols as well as swords. ”

“ It must be acknowledged that four hundred Bönder, only partly or imperfectly armed, could not have been an equal match, even in the early part of the seventeenth century, for the smallest admissible number of Scots—namely, three hundred—that documentary evidence will allow us to admit, and especially if they had been well-armed, trained soldiers. Some of those Scots, those raised by Sinclair, were apparently Caithness men, whose principal occupation had no doubt been warfare. ”

“ But Sinclair and his men were not destined to escape so easily as Munkhaven. The Fates ordained that they should all, with the exception of a few, find a grave among the mountains of Norway. The reason why both Munkhaven and Sinclair landed in Norway, instead of proceeding direct to Sweden, was that the approach to the small stretch of Swedish coast on the North Sea was closed to them after the Danes had occupied the fortresses of Elfsborg and Gullberg, at the mouth of the Gotha river. Moreover, the Danish fleet had the mastery on the seas. ”

“ According to tradition, Audon or Ingebrikt Skjenna of Sel also received as a reward of his bravery the gift of the farm of Sel, of which the present occupiers are said to be his descendants. The girl Guri, says tradition, had the farm of Rindal in Vaage, subsequently called Pillarvigen, given to her as a recompense.
The battle at Kringlen [135] will ever remain a remarkable event in our history. It is certainly not remarkable on account of the number of the combatants or the magnitude of the defeat, but for the manner in which the enemy was annihilated. ”

“ The Bönder in Nordre Sel had fastened oxen to the fences, in order that the enemy should not burn down their farms. Some say that the Scots remained a day at Sel before they proceeded further. "Now begins prosperity; it will be better still over in Hedemarken," Sinclair is reported to have said to his people. In the morning, before he marched up from Sel, a few hours previous to the battle at Kringlen, he is said to have burned some powder on the palm of his hand, in order to ascertain whether his march would be successful or not. ”

“ Among Danish historians, Niels Slange was the first of any eminence to reproduce the now palpable errors of Puffendorff and Widikindi, in a History of Christian IV., written in 1732.
In 1782, the subject of the Skottetog first became popularized in Norway by the publication, in a periodical journal called the Dansk Museum, of the spirit-stirring poem by Edvard Storm, which Norwegian children still learn by heart and in song, and which has even been well circulated in the English and German languages. [3]
THE LANDING OF THE SCOTS IN ROMSDALEN, 1612. ”

“ It was necessary for the Bönder to divert the attention of the Scots from their ambuscade, and to ascertain when the main force of the enemy was below it, for that would be the time for them to begin the battle. With the latter object one of the Bönder was ordered to remain on an island called Storöen, in the Laagen; and then riding on a white horse out of gunshot of the enemy, he was to keep in a line with the [101] enemy's main force, or with the head of it, and when it reached the appointed place to give notice by suddenly turning round. ”

“ This deposition was transmitted to Denmark, King James ordering Sir Robert Anstruther to say that Andrew Ramsay's "fault being of that nature as doth not forfeit life or limb, and the custom of declaring Schellum" [44] (which the King of Denmark had evidently suggested as a punishment for the breach of his parole not to serve Sweden) "being not with us in use, we have by our warrant under our hand banished him out of all our dominions; which next unto death is the highest punishment we could inflict." ”

“ When read in connection with the Reports of the Swedish agents at Amsterdam, first discovered and made known by Dr. Yngvar Nielsen in 1877, the letters of Steen Bilde, C. J. Jude, and J. Pederson [23] afford a credible and fairly complete account of that expedition. Those collective documents show that it was not composed, as alleged by Niels Slange, of "about fourteen hundred soldiers, or Scots," enlisted in Scotland, but nominally of twelve hundred men raised in the Netherlands under the circumstances already described. ”

“ It has been already shown that Mönnichhofen was to have supplied arms for the Scottish levies, with which he failed to combine. Moreover, the Swedish agent at Amsterdam reported that he feared the projects of General Halkett (one of Ramsay's confederates) would fail, "because of the lateness of the season, and because the men had no weapons, while everywhere in Norway the people were up in arms." [58] The deposition, taken at Copenhagen, of Alexander Ramsay, the leader of the expedition, also shows that Mönnichhofen was to have supplied the Scots with arms from Holland. ”

“ The above-mentioned Lauritz Hage, having made his arrangements and perceived his advantage, attacked, together with another lensmand, Peder Rankleff of Ringeböe, and with all their men together they fired upon the foreign troops and shot them to death during an hour and a half. Those who were not shot jumped into the river to save themselves, but were there drowned; and those of them who got alive over the river were quickly killed by the Bönder on that side,—all of which happened and occurred on the 26th of August last. ”

“ Steen Bilde affirmed that the lagmand had to "ride and walk about the whole of the night to get those peasants and ill-disposed persons into order; and yet nothing can be accomplished with them, as they do not stand, but run away at once when they see the enemy." He urged in his own defence: "I did my best, diligently, according to the counsel and means at hand, and according to what could be accomplished with those peasants. God comfort those [28] who have no other help than peasants on such an occasion!" ”

“ The young warrior and statesman refers to promises made by Sir James Spens to Charles IX., and to the services which his father had required of him, urging him to hasten his return (evidently from Scotland) with the "promised three thousand soldiers of proved faithfulness and bravery." He wished them to be infantry, not cavalry. The main object was the arrival of Sir James Spens at Elfsborg, by the 1st of April 1612, "with the before-mentioned number of troops, properly equipped with the needful accoutrements." ”

“ Moreover, before pronouncing judgment on the inhabitants of Gudbrandsdal, we must remember that wars at that time, and the Calmar War as a whole, were conducted with much cruelty, and we must take into consideration the spirit of the age. Nor should we forget that more than two centuries lie between them and us. A far higher stage of culture has been attained of later years, and yet they have produced not a few examples of similar barbarity. ”

“ Sir James Spens was the son of "Spens of Wormiston," who made Lennox, the regent of Scotland, captive at the seizure of Stirling by the forces of Kirkaldy in 1571, and who was slain at the same time while protecting his prisoner. The personage in question, so high in the favour of Gustavus Adolphus, was a prominent type of the Scottish adventurer of that age. ”

“ That he knew nothing about Stuart's letter of safe-conduct; that Stuart had received nothing except his food; that he was going to spend the winter there; that Stuart was not an ambassador; that the country people indeed called him so; that he had seen Stuart for the first time in Sweden.
That the Swedes were thoroughly panic-stricken; they were deserted by their soldiers; after the session was over envoys would be sent here (to treat for peace) ; that King Charles was execrated by the people; the ships at Stockholm were manned with peasants, not sailors ”

“ According to Kruse's Report, the Scots made two Bönder prisoners in Romsdalen, and employed them as guides; and Slange likewise states that they compelled some Bönder to go in advance and tell the peasantry to supply provisions at certain places and at a time indicated, under threat of killing and burning if this was not done. From Omdals-næs the Scots marched some miles along the ordinary road up the Romsdal. At a cottage called Aagerreiten, on the estate of Aag, close to Omdal, a small building was being erected. The workmen fled when they heard of the enemy's approach. ”

“ Under the Danish law of that period every able-bodied Bonde was compelled to provide himself with a musket or arquebuse; but it is most probable that the men who had not been taken away to fight the Swedes remained, to a great extent, armed only with pikes, crossbows, and axes, of which an illustration is given at page 106.
[59] That Captain Hay was killed is not stated either in the official documents or in the Sagas; but as he was not amongst the prisoners forwarded to Aggershuus, he must have shared the fate of George Sinclair. ”

“ Another of the prisoners remained in Vaage, where he got a piece of land to cultivate, and which clearing is now a farm called Skotlien.
Either at the engagement at Kringlen or during the affair at Solhjem one of the Scots is said to have saved himself by swimming over the Laagen, whence he took to the mountains. In the evening (the mountains being only a Norwegian mile across) he came down to Ellingsbö farm in Hedalen, and his appearance bespoke fright and hunger. The farmer, who, according to [118] Gram's Census, was called Christian, placed food before him. ”

“ But this conjecture is scarcely right, for "Lö" undoubtedly comes from the ancient name of the district—Lo, Loar (see Snorre Sturleson) ; moreover, the men of Lom tolerate their being called "Löer," which they certainly would not do if any disgrace attached to the appellation.
[88] Slange calls Guldbrand Sejelstad the "lensmand" at Ringebo, but in Kruse's Report, as well as in Hjorthöi's work, in the part above cited, that title is given to Peder Randklev. The name of the latter occurs likewise in Gram's Census, where, however, the name of the former is not to be found. ”

“ Various weapons and other things still remain after the Scots in many parts of the valley. Thus at the farm of Mælum in Bredebygd is a drum, which is called the "Scots' drum." It was brought thirty or forty years ago from Ringebo, where it was likewise known under the same name. [127] At Nordre Bue farm are a musket and a sword which belonged to the Scots. At the farm of Söudre Kringlen or Pladsen a spur and a knife were found a short time ago on the hill where the battle took place. In the parish of Vaage, at Lunde farm, is a dirk which had belonged to the Scots. ”

“ According to the deposition of Alexander Ramsay, General Halkett, who was to have raised one thousand men in Scotland for the joint expedition, had been at Amsterdam some time in the month of August, and had hired a ship to sail to Edinburgh, in order, as he gave out, "to take to Sweden the men whom Spens was to have caused to be engaged in Scotland." ”

“ The Sagas of Gudbrandsdal, collected by Dean Krag, begin with a stirring account of the patriotism of Peder Klognæs or Klungnæs, the occupant of the farm of that name, who is popularly supposed to have prevented the two Scottish vessels from proceeding higher up the fiord, by representing that there was not sufficient water for them. ”

“ If indeed these pistols really belonged to Sinclair, the above initials possibly point to a family connection between him and the Danish nobleman Anders (Andrew) Sinclar, who in 1607 emigrated from Scotland to Denmark, where his race died out at the end of the seventeenth century. Moreover, persons of that name lived in Norway a couple of centuries before the arrival of George Sinclair: thus David Sinclar is named as a civil officer of high rank at Bergen in 1416; and Anders Sinclar as a chief commander in Bohuus Castle from 1461 to 1464 ”

“ He is therefore credited with the skilful deception of having induced the Scots to march two Norwegian miles (about fourteen English miles) out of their way, round the Iisfiord, over mountains and marshes, and through [49] roadless forests intersected by almost impassable streams; all which delayed their progress, and enabled Peder to send a message to the authorities and to the Bönder, to save their goods in advance of the troops. ”

“ On the advice of Arne Nedre-Gunstad from Ringebo, [96] the least capable of the men who had met there were stationed on Storöen, in order to deceive the enemy by a feint attack, and thereby to draw off his attention from the place where lay the real force of the Bönder. They further sent a girl of the name of Guri, generally called Pillar Guri, who knew well how to blow a horn, [97] to stand on Selsjordskampen, a mountain point on the left side of the Laagen, from which she could see the surrounding country and the approaching enemy. ”