Regiments in Foreign Service
Irish, English and Scots regiments serving in the armies of Foreign Powers between 1639 and 1660. Primarily these comprised the French, Spanish and Dutch armies.
Scots regiments had hitherto played an important part in the Thirty Years' War serving in the Swedish army, but by 1639 were mainly returning home anticipating war with England. Irish Catholic units had a long history of service with the Spanish army in Flanders, which also attracted a number of English Catholics. Protestant English tended to join the Dutch armies. France employed Scots, Irish and English, briefly featuring a small Royalist army under Prince Rupert after the First Civil War and more famously Hepburn's Regiment, ancestors of the Royal Scots.
