This work reveals the hitherto unrepresented relationship that developed between Scotland and Sweden during the second half of the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth centuries. Sweden's emergence as an independent Nordic, and indeed European, power required continual military and economic growth, which in turn necessitated a constant supply of manpower. The initially piecemeal migration of private individuals from Scotland bringing both martial and mercantile skills to Sweden gradually grew into an informal alliance, albeit officially sanctioned by the Swedes, based on personal...

Migration is a fundamental feature of human experience. This extraordinary collection of essays focuses on a particularly intriguing sequence of migrations: those of Scots during the period 1600-1800. The book first considers the "near-abroad" (Ireland), the "middle-abroad" (Poland and Lithuania), and the "far-abroad" (the Americas), and then details a number of acutely revealing case histories of Scottish communities in Bergen (Norway), Rotterdam and the Maas (the Netherlands), Gothenburg (Sweden), Kedainiai (Lithuania), and Hamburg (Germany). Then, concentrating on the Netherlands, the...

First full-length assessment of the role of the herald in medieval Europe.