Vasa

Gustavus Adolphus, who Walter Scott’s "A Legend of Montrose" character Major Dalgetty served during the Thirty Years’ War, built a navy to patrol the Baltic.  The Vasa was to serve at sea, joining land efforts of men such as Dalgetty in this same war.  Many know the story, of how this top-heavy vessel sank, minutes into its maiden voyage, on August 10, 1628.  

Thankfully, the Vasa was salvaged, in 1961.  For those of you who have not yet seen the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, it is well worth the trip (Link:  http://www.vasamuseet.se/en/The-Ship/ ).  

Vasa is a family name, a family of which Gustavus Adolphus (Gustavus II of Sweden) was a member.  Scott met Prince Gustav of Vasa, who is descended from a different line than Gustavus Adolphus, when that prince resided in Edinburgh, in 1820.  From John Gibson Lockhart’s “Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott”:

‘…In a letter, already quoted, there occurs some mention of the Prince Gustavus Vasa, who was spending this winter in Edinburgh, and his Royal Highness's accomplished attendant, the Baron Poller. I met them frequently in Castle Street, and remember as especially interesting the first evening that they dined there. The only portrait in Scott's Edinburgh dining-room was one of Charles XII. of Sweden, and he was struck, as indeed every one must have been, with the remarkable resemblance which the exiled Prince's air and features presented to the hero of his race. Young Gustavus, on his part, hung with keen and melancholy enthusiasm on Scott's anecdotes of the expedition of Charles Edward Stuart. — The Prince, accompanied by Scott and myself, witnessed the ceremonial of the proclamation of King George IV. on the 2d of February at the cross of Edinburgh, from a window over Mr Constable's shop in the High Street; and on that occasion also, the air of sadness that mixed in his features with eager curiosity, was very affecting. Scott explained all the details to him, not without many lamentations over the barbarity of Auld Reekie Bailies, who had removed the beautiful Gothic Cross itself, for the sake of widening the thoroughfare. The weather was fine, the sun shone bright; and the antique tabards of the heralds, the trumpet notes of God sate the King, and the hearty cheerings of the immense uncovered multitude that filled the noble old street, produced altogether a scene of great splendour and solemnity. The Royal Exile surveyed it with a flushed cheek and a watery eye; and Scott, observing his emotion, withdrew with me to another window, whispering—" Poor lad! poor lad! God help him." Later in the season, the Prince spent a few days at Abbotsford…’

Lion of the North

"It came slow, my lord, dooms slow," replied Dalgetty; "but as my Scottish countrymen, the fathers of the war, and the raisers of those valorous Scottish regiments that were the dread of Germany, began to fall pretty thick, what with pestilence and what with the sword, why we, their children, succeeded to their inheritance. Sir, I was six years first private gentleman of the company, and three years lance speisade; disdaining to receive a halberd, as unbecoming my birth. Wherefore I was ultimately promoted to be a fahndragger, as the High Dutch call it (which signifies an ancient), in the King's Leif Regiment of Black-Horse, and thereafter I arose to be lieutenant and ritt-master, under that invincible monarch, the bulwark of the Protestant faith, the Lion of the North, the terror of Austria, Gustavus the Victorious."

Gustavus Adolphus, or Gustavus II, of Sweden was considered by Napoleon to be one of the eight great captains the world has known.  The Lion of the North, as he was nicknamed, died on November 6, 1632, during the Battle of Lutzen.  The loss of Gustavus II’s life was detrimental to the Protestant cause during the Thirty Years’ War, though the Swedes won the day at Lutzen. 

Sir Walter Scott’s character Captain/Major Dalgetty invokes the name Gustavus throughout his speaking parts in “A Legend of the Wars of Montrose”.  Many Scots fought alongside Gustavus against German soldiers in the Thirty Years War, including David Leslie, who later fell to Cromwell's forces at Dunbar (1650).  It was another military man who influenced Scott’s novel.  According to the historical note in the Edinburgh Edition of this work, one of Scott's primary resources was a book about the military experiences of one Colonel Robert Monro, who fought for Gustavus.  Dalgetty’s words are taken after Monro’s.  Monro’s book has an enormously long title: “Monro his Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment (called Mac-Keyes Regiment) levied in August 1626…”.  Scholars have even found Scott’s annotation on a volume that was in the Advocates Library during his lifetime. 

Scott’s Montrose is less than 200 pages long.  What better way to spend Gustavus Adolphus day?