LESLIE, JAMES [SSNE 395]
Text source
Sir James Leslie raised his first levy for Count Mansfeldt in June 1625 when the Scottish Council provided him with a warrant. He seems to be the captain Leslie referred to in the Perth council register, showing that Leslie was already busy recruiting men locally prior to the Privy Council warrant. On 9 May 1625, Perth council ordered the drum to go about the town ‘for wptaking of men of weir to capitane leslie to pas to flanderis for being of ane guaird to mainsfeildis p[er]sone’. It was a company of 300-400 infantry men. However he was so certain of obtaining 400 that he signed a bond promising to pay 30 s. for each man under the 400! Once on the continent, the English mercenary, Sydenham Poyntz, recorded that he joined James Leslie's soldiers in Amsterdam in the winter of 1625-26 and that the Scot had 'two or 3 regiments' under his command. The editor of his memoirs tried to correct Poyntz's narrative by saying that he must have meant Sir John Leslie, a Lieutenant Colonel of Sir John Ruthven's Dutch regiment. He clearly did not know about James Leslies's levy of 1625. The following year, Leslie was exempted of the prohibition against navigation abroad 1626, as he was to sail with his company of 400 men for King Christian IV of Denmark-Norway's and Count Mansfeldt's service. He received between £500 and 550 for his expenses
A T S Goodrick, (ed), The Relation of Sydnam Poyntz 1624-1636 (London: 1908), p.47; T. Riis, Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot (Odense, 1988), II, p.114; L. Taylor (ed), Aberdeen Council Letters I, p.253, 27/9/1626; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 1st series, XII, p.55 June 1625; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, 2nd series, I, pp.xxiv, lxiv, 313, 355, 363-4, 430, 30 July to 26 September 1626; Perth and Kinross Archive, Register of Acts of Town Council B59/16/2, fo. 23r.
This entry was kindly updated by Dr Thomas Brochard.
Service record
- BOHEMIA, MANSFELD'S ARMY
- Arrived 1625-01-01, as MAJOR
- Departed 1626-06-30, as MAJOR
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
- DENMARK-NORWAY, DANISH ARMY
- Arrived 1626-01-01, as MAJOR
- Departed 1626-12-31, as MAJOR
- Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY