The Coldstream Guards. The very epitome of London,
Royalty and Englishness. and yet the town of Coldstream...
is Scottish. Does that seem strange to you?
I m travelling for a week in a campervan on the Scotland England border
to bring you history and heritage and today I want to deal with the
curious quirk of history that led to a London regiment having a Scottish name.
So if you re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history
then click the subscribe button at the bottom right of the screen.
In the meantime, let me tell you a story. It s Sunday, and this morning I woke up in
a camper park on the edge of the village of Coldstream.
The campervan was kindly lent to me by Perthshire Campervan Hire,
so if you re looking for cost effective travel in your own wee hoose give them a bell.
Coldstream sits right on the banks of the river Tweed.
The Scottish English border runs along the midpoint of that river.
If there is a more border Border town than this, I don t know what it is.
But the question somebody once asked in the comments section was:
Why is it, if Coldstream is a Scottish town that the Coldstream Guards are an English regiment?
If you ve watched a royal parade you ve probably seen the Coldstream Guards marching, trotting
and generally surrounding the Queen with spit and polish,
and of course protection. The Queen s Household Guards are made up of Horse
Guards of the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards. In the Foot Guards you ll find units of Scots
Guards, Welsh Guards and Irish Guards how wonderfully unified is our Kingdom
but also the Grenadier Guards AND the oldest continuously serving regiment in the now
British army the Coldstream Guards.
Their Regimental Headquarters, are at Wellington Barracks, London
So how did this most English of regiments get a Scottish name?
During the tumultuous period that we know as the war of the three Kingdoms,
starting and ending in Scotland and people the other side of this
bridge may call The English Civil War one of Cromwell s key generals was General Monck.
Cromwell gave him permission to form his own regiment in the New Model Army
and Monck s Regiment of Foote were formed on 13th August 1650
and immediately invaded Scotland. Monck and his regiment were a key
part of Cromwell s conquest of Scotland. They were involved in the Battle of Dunbar,
which was followed by some of the most horrific treatment of prisoners imaginable .
They besieged Tantallon Castle, Blackness Castle, Stirling Castle, Dunottar Castle
(I made a video about that). The point is that they besieged just
about every tourist attraction in Scotland And they stormed and massacred
the town of Dundee. I made a video about that too.
Then they were garrisoned in various places during the Cromwellian occupation of Scotland.
But when Cromwell died and the wind started blowing back in
the direction of the Stewart monarchs, who was in position to negotiate Charles
II s way back on to the throne, but good old General Moncke.
On New Year s Day 1660 Monke s Regiment of Foote crossed the river Tweed here
and marched to London to support the restoration of Charles II.
Helping with Charles s restoration and putting down a puritan rebellion
meant that when Charles II disbanded the New Model Army that had done for his dad,
Monke s Regiment had to put down it s weapons but in a choreographed ceremony,
immediately took them up again as The Lord General's Regiment
of Foot Guards, hurrah! This was in 1661, but in 1670 when
Monke died a new commander was needed so, under the Earl of Craven,
the regiment was re-named after the place the regiment crossed the border
on its way to London to support the restoration of the monarchy
so they became Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards and to this day The Coldstream Guards are Foot
Guards in the Queen s household regiment. That s why one of the most English of British
Regiments has a Scottish name, If you d like to hear more stories
from the Scottish English border then there s one coming up on screen now