Excavated dusagge from near Culloden site

[Jim McDougall]

This article from Man at Arms Feb.2024 shows an excavated dusagge said to have been dug up from an area near the Culloden battlefield site. It was suggested that as these swords were from the 16th century they would have been too archaic to have been used in these campaigns.

One factor with the Culloden battle and the campaigns of this period with Jacobite uprisings was that these forces were not just Highlanders, but constituents from England, France and of course the Lowlands. Also included were groups of borderers long known as 'reivers' (the term Border Reivers was not used until 1802 by Sir Walter Scott) in earlier centuries, and by 17th century as 'Moss Troopers'. While essentially not recognized as 'entities' by the time of Culloden, the clans and families descended from these border groups still existed and remained largely independent of any national loyalty.

These groups still carried on their local traditions in independent life, warfare, raiding etc. and as their forbearers, still used the hereditary weapons that had traditionally become their armory. These border regions and groups may easily been seen as part of the conduit between the evolution of the basket hilt from English regions into Scotland, as well as lowlands into Highlands or vice versa.
The dusagge, and its variations from North Europe are considered to have had considerable influence on the Scottish basket hilt, and it seems likely these remained in use in the northern English areas well past the 16th century and through the 17th.

Weapons often a century or more old during wars and conflicts are hardly uncommon, though somewhat anomalous.

This is a great example of the kinds of swords which had a place in the scope of British basket hilts in degree. The 'reivers' are even known to have had some schiavona, but here it must be noted, these are not considered as part of the development of the basket hilt, but independently evolved.

[urbanspaceman]

Border Reivers' swords???
Peter and I have been positing this explanation for a long time now:
One of the solutions to Border Reiving was to encourage the leaders to remove the problem.
In 1603 Walter Scott of Buccleuch took 2,000 Reivers to fight “The Belgic Wars” and to become mercenaries in Europe’s religious and political conflicts.
In the 30 Years War the great Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus ascribed much of his military success to the “steadfastness and grit of his Scottish mercenaries”. He made their leader Alexander Leslie a field-marshal in the Swedish army.
n.b.
Walter Scott of Buccleuch – ‘The Bold Buccleuch’. Leader of Kinmont Willie’s raid.
Alexander Leslie 1st Earl of Leven.
Too much to post here; look up these Guys on Wikipedia.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by urbanspaceman

Border Reivers' swords???
Peter and I have been positing this explanation for a long time now:
One of the solutions to Border Reiving was to encourage the leaders to remove the problem.
In 1603 Walter Scott of Buccleuch took 2,000 Reivers to fight “The Belgic Wars” and to become mercenaries in Europe’s religious and political conflicts.
In the 30 Years War the great Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus ascribed much of his military success to the “steadfastness and grit of his Scottish mercenaries”. He made their leader Alexander Leslie a field-marshal in the Swedish army.
n.b.
Walter Scott of Buccleuch – ‘The Bold Buccleuch’. Leader of Kinmont Willie’s raid.
Alexander Leslie 1st Earl of Leven.
Too much to post here; look up these Guys on Wikipedia.

Had you guys EXACTLY in mind in posting this!
These rugged clans were formidable warriors who lived independent of national loyalties, and would often align with certain powers much in the manner of the landsknechts of Europe who were actively mercenary forces.
Their excellence as light cavalry with the small 'Galloway' ponies and use of a broad spectrum of arms and armor from Europe remained in their use long after their recognized 'heydey'. .....and they continued as always despite being less formally organized.
While groups of men recognized as 'Reivers' are not specifically documented in records of Culloden, their ancestors certainly were there in some numbers. It is likely that these men may well have had old family weapons with them on the field, or in any of the ensuing actions before and after the battle which of course would have occurred in the environs. Of the thousands of Jacobite forces in the battle proper, after the battle only 191 swords were recovered from the field. This begs the question....where did the rest go???

There was more than camraderie among the Jacobite forces, these men were far more than just clansmen, but families. Fathers, sons, brothers who fought together, and of those who fell, they would not leave their sacred family swords on the field, and they were it appears in large part taken away. Of these 191 swords somehow left, these suffered the travesty most feared, and as many as 138 were dismounted, the blades fashioned into a garish fence for an English estate at Twickenham. In 1894 these were discovered and Lord Archibald Campbell wrote about them in his book, "Scottish Swords from the Battlefield at Culloden", with many of these blades cleaned and somewhat restored. As far as I have known these blades are held at the castle at Inverary to date, and none have ever been formally studied or published.