History of the Scottish expedition to Norway in 1612Michell, Thomas
History
History of the Scottish expedition to Norway in 1612
Michell, Thomas
Norway -- History -- Scottish Expedition, 1612
III.
SUCCESSFUL MARCH OF MÖNNICHHOFEN THROUGH NORWAY.
According to the Report of the same Swedish agent, Mönnichhofen
sailed at last on the 14th July from Amsterdam,[22] and landed five
days later in Stordalen, on the coast of Norway--at that time united
with the Crown of Denmark--without combining, as originally intended,
with the levies made in Scotland, although measures for their
detention were taken only on the 4th August following.
The ships (evidently Dutch) which had transported his troops to
Norway returned safely to Amsterdam with the information that
Mönnichhofen had disembarked "three or four miles above Trondhjem, in
Moersdall," and that his men had landed in such an ill-conditioned
state that they "could not reach Sweden without great difficulty and
danger."
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.
The burgomaster of Trondhjem (who, like Bilde and the other Danish
officials, was interested in over-rating rather than in under-rating
the strength of the invaders,) reported, on 15th August 1612, that
the expedition consisted of "eight hundred soldiers, besides their
women and boys;" and according to Cronholm,[24] Gustavus Adolphus
himself wrote that the number of those men, when they arrived in
Jemtland, out of all further danger, amounted to eight hundred.[25]
The four small Dutch ships could scarcely have carried more,
especially if the men were accompanied by their women and children,
as alleged by the burgomaster.
The Swedish and Danish historians relate that Mönnichhofen took his
men to Scotland, and sailed from thence, in command of a combined
force, for the coast of Norway; but all these statements only serve
to prove yet more conclusively that the true history of the foreign
levies made for Sweden in 1612 has until quite recently lain hidden
in State Archives.
Mönnichhofen sailed from Amsterdam on the 14th July 1612, and having
landed in Norway on the 19th July, could not possibly have carried
out the original plan of joining his levies with those made in
Scotland. Besides, the documents now brought to light prove that the
small portion of the intended Scottish contingent that escaped the
vigilance of the Scottish Council of State did not sail for Norway
until the 2nd of August.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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