Flags for the Earl of Sutherland's Regiment

All of the covenanter regiments that have been completed to date, with the exception of Sutherland's, have been done by Roy, and Roy hand-paints his flags on tin foil to terrific effect. Roy's method for flags was shared in a couple of earlier posts including a great tutorial on painting covenanter flags and a later 'gallery' of Covenanter Standards .

Anyone who has followed the Royalist progress knows that I prefer to prepare the flags on photoshop, print on paper and then fully re-paint the design and that is the same way I have approached Sutherland's flags.  They were both made in photoshop and can be printed for use in your own armies. 

The white sheet above is a Colonel's colour with the Sutherland coat of arms in the centre. There is no surviving description of Sutherland's Civil War colours, so this design is purely speculative. The Sutherland arms with there golden stars on a red field is actually an earlier version of the arms which predates the civil wars by over 100 years.

Prior to 1530 the Sutherland family went by the rather grand ancestral name of 'de Moravia', a Norman french rendering of Moray or Murray. Throughout this time, the arms of Sutherland was the 3 golden stars on a red field. 

In 1530 Elizabeth de Moravia, 10th Countess of Sutherland and only surviving heir, married Adam Gordon, son of George Gordon, the 2nd Earl of Huntly and ancestor of Royalist rabble rouser George Gordon, the 2nd Marquis of Huntly, Montrose's reluctant ally. By right of marriage the title of Earl of Sutherland passed to Adam Gordon, who became the 10th Earl of Sutherland. 

From 1530 until the 1800's the Sutherland Arms were actually quartered with Gordon of Huntly Arms. The Gordon Arms can be seen on the blog post for Gordon of Monymore's Regiment. However, given that I was going to place a small coat of arms in the centre of each sheet, I stuck to the simplicity of the original Sutherland Arms. Anyway, the Gordon's have had plenty of attention already, and are set to get a whole lot more when I get to the horse.

Copyright held by www.europeanheraldry.org

Anyone interested in seeing how the Sutherland Arms evolved over the years can see pictures of them at European Heraldry, an excellent online resource for flag designs.

The Earls of Sutherland were Gordons in name down to 1733, when William Gordon, the 17th Earl of Sutherland changed his surname to Sutherland to distance himself from the Gordon's of Huntly who were incurable Jacobites, and attracting a lot of unwanted attention from the government security apparatus for anyone thought to be associated with them.

The second flag is a traditional Scots Government company colour with blue field and white saltire. The absence of any contemporary record means this is also entirely speculative. Scots company colours of the time almost exclusively used the Scots Saltire, either full size or in the canton, however they were not always the traditional white cross on a blue field. 

Given the absence of information and the strong covenanting tendencies of the 13th Earl, I decided to use the traditional national flag colours. I have used an archaic text for the covenanter script which predates the standardisation of the text inscription in 1650. 

I have also added a Sutherland crest in the centre of the saltire. It was common at that time for nobles on both sides of the conflict to include an element of their family heraldry on their flags, and this flag, although speculative, follows contemporary design conventions.

More photos and information about this regiment can be found in the blog post on Sutherland's Regiment.

The Earl of Sutherland's Regiment

"Thair cam also of country people in to him,

the Erll of Suddcrland in persone with his pour..."

Spalding on Hurry's army at Auldearn

As the name suggests this regiment was raised by John Gordon, the 13th Earl of Sutherland, in support of the covenanting government forces. Sutherland was without doubt the most loyal covenanting land-owner in Northern Scotland. An unwavering supporter of the covenant, he first raised this regiment in 1642, due to mistrust of his neighbour, the Earl of Seaforth, who professed loyalty to the government but was suspected (with good reason) of strong Royalist sympathies.

In 1644 the Scots Government authorised Sutherland to raise 1600 men for the Scots Army in England. His troops were ordered to be on the English border at Berwick on March 10, but MacColla landed his Irish in July and Sutherland's men went into the field, together with the other Northern Clans, to oppose Montrose. 

The regiment did not see any major action through Spring 1645, and the Northern force was more of deterrent to Montroses attempts to sway the northern clans over to the royalist cause.  In May 1645, The regiment was at Inverness with Seaforth's Army when it was ordered to Join Hurry's Army for the march to Auldearn. The regiment does not seem to have been heavily involved in the battle but both the Earl and his troops survived the rout and appear to have retreated north in good order. 

Sutherland and his men do not feature prominently in events again until 1650 when Sutherland was part of the Government army that defeated and captured Montrose at the Battle of Carbisdale, bringing to an end Montrose's ill-fated 1650 campaign. In an interesting twist of fate, also captured after Carbisdale was the luckless Sir John Hurry, former covenanter General and Sutherland's commander at Auldearn, who was now serving the Royalist cause with Montrose. Both Montrose and the unfortunate Hurry were executed. Harsh judgement for a professional soldier like Hurry, but his luck finally ran out and this time he was not able to switch sides to get out of trouble.

Sutherland's levies were raised from amongst his northern clansmen but seem to have been conventionally equipped with pike and shot by 1644, however in previous years some of the levies are described as armed with bow. As such I have modeled the unit in predominantly highland clothing, with plenty of plaid, but they are armed with pike, musket and the occasional longbow. 

There are surviving records from 1646, documenting Sutherland's expense claims to the government for reimbursement of the cost of raising his regiment. In these claims he includes uniforms, which suggests this highland regiment may actually have been equipped in the standard issue hodden greys. 

I am currently painting up a unit of covenanter infantry, originally intended to be Buchanan's but Roy has long since taken car of that unit. So this next unit is destined to be finished as Balfour of Burleigh's Regiment, garrisoned in Aberdeen in 1644, and destroyed by Montrose at Justice Mills in October 1644. This unit could also be fielded as a uniformed Sutherland's Regiment. More to follow.

When Roy and I started this project, we looked at the OOB and divided up the painting between us. I took all the Royalist forces, plus 2 covenanter regiments; Buchanan's detachment and the Earl of Sutherland's Clan Levies. Roy managed to knock out Buchanan's detachment as a commanded shot using some extras from his other large covenanter regiments, and it does double duty as dismounted Scots Dragoons. 

That left Sutherland's Levies for me, and I could see an opportunity to create a unit of highland clan regulars that, with a change of command, could do double duty as both Farquharson's Royalists and Sutherland's Covenanters.

  

It should therefore come as no surprise that if unit looks familiar to followers of our blog. It is the same unit used for Farqhuarson of Monaltrie's Regiment with the addition of an alternate Covenanter command stand.

  

The figures are mostly Eureka Highland Musketeers and Pikemen from the 17th Century Scots range, but also includes a number of Perry ECW scots in lowland clothing, plus a couple of old Foundry pikemen from the Perry sculpted Elizabethan range. More photos and details can be found in the blog post on Farquharson of Monaltrie's Regiment.

The covenanter command stand is from Perry Miniatures. I particularly like this officer pointing out the Royalist foe, and thought he would make a terrific highland peer. I have painted him with tartan breeks suggesting he is playing up his highland culture to inspire his clansmen.

The flags include both a white colonel's colour with Sutherland arms and motto, together with the traditional Covenanter company colour of blue scots saltire, in this case adorned with Sutherland's arms. Both colours are speculative but respect the convention of the times and are based heavily on known colours of other scots covenanting lords.

  

More information will be provided in a separate blog post on Sutherland's flags. Next new unit from me will be Balfour of Burleigh's/Sutherland's (in uniform) covenanting regiment of foot.