The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
A Scots slaughter remembered
IT IS A forgotten chapter in Scottish history when an army of about 300 men from Dundee and Caithness were slaughtered in an inglorious bloodbath while on a trip to Scandinavia.
Few Scots have even heard of the ill-fated Scottish expedition which came to a bloody end at the Battle of Kringen 400 years ago this week.
A militia of Norwegian peasants intercepted a Scots army on its way to fight for the King of Sweden in a long-running conflict between that country and Denmark-Norway.
Yet this week, the descendants of the Norwegians from the mountainous region of Gudbrandsdalen have been celebrating what they regard as the most iconic battle in their history – and a lasting reminder of their nation’s fledgling fight for independence.
Dundee City archivist Iain Flett believes the battle can only have happened due to “tragic misunderstandings” and, with Dundee doing serious trade with Norway at the time, Dundee merchants would have been “dismayed” by the economic fallout from the battle.
He told The Courier:”I think academic historians now consider the entire Scots force to have been about 300 and to have been virtually wiped out, bar some high-level ransoms, by a peasant militia of about 500.
“It’s understandable that four centuries of Norwegian folklore, poetry and song have now put the Scots at 1,000.
“From the Dundee shipping lists, which give us burgh import duty on incoming voyages – but not outgoing – the Rebuke arrived in Dundee from Norway on August 1 with her skipper Andrew Black delivering 200 sawn planks, 300 trunks, 24 sawn oaks, six fathoms of kindling, being the property of various Dundonians.
“If the Rebuke could hold this much timber in her hold then she could have taken the Dundee share of around 150 soldiers on board, possibly with woolpacks for export to make their journey slightly more comfortable, if she was returning to Norway or the Baltic.
“Scotland had no purpose-built troop carriers, so commercial vessels which would have been lightly armed against pirates would have been adapted for troop carrying use, as in the Falklands War 370 years later.
“At the same time, Dundee had been negotiating since February with King James VI’s Privy Council for a grant to repair the harbour, the lion’s share of which would come from a tax on ‘every sort of timber imported from Norroway’.”
Author Billy Kay has also written about the battle in his book the Scottish World.
Quoting from his book, he said in 1612 the relationship was severely strained when Scottish mercenaries set off in numbers to join the forces of Sweden, then at war with Denmark-Norway.
“The last thing James VI wanted, cosy in his marriage union with Anne of Denmark, was his Scottish subjects rocking the boat and fighting for the enemy of his ally.
“Worse was to come when a force of these outlawed levies numbering around 300 with wives and families tried to reach Sweden by crossing hostile Norwegian territory.
“At Gudrundsdal, they were ambushed, attacked and killed or taken prisoner.”