Mosstrooper
Mosstroopers were robbers who wreaked havoc in Scotland during and after the Commonwealth of Nations.
history
The Mosstroopers were discharged or deserted soldiers from one of the Scottish armies of the War of the Three Kingdoms . The Mosstroopers were men who kept their weapons after the war and pursued the life of a robber. They attacked civilians as well as Republican soldiers to support themselves during the royalist revolt from 1651 to 1654 . During this period Scotland was occupied by Republican soldiers led by George Monck .
The Mosstroopers usually operated in small bands either in the foothills of the Highlands or in adjacent regions. Many of the Highland Lairds accused the Mosstroopers of stealing their cattle and repeatedly carrying military repression into the Highlands.
Some of the Mosstroopers were both political and selfish - knowing that they opposed the Cromwell occupation of Scotland and their oppression in Ireland. Their fighters in Ireland were known as "Wood Kerne" or " an tóraí ".
Word origin
Mosstrooper is made up of the two words moss and trouper . The former is an allusion to the mossy , the mossy character of the area in which they were staying. Trooper stands for soldier and marksman. Moostrooper is commonly used as a term for a Scottish highwayman.
See also
literature
poem
The Moss Trooper's Lament
(Text by Sir Walter Scott, possibly based on an older folk song)
Oh! a 'ye gallant Borders!
Ilk water, moss and fell,
To a 'your weel kent nooks and crooks,
Forever, Oh! Farewell!
For we'll go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
We'll go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O we'll go no more a roving!
Oh when the Har'est moon shone
What blithe times did we see!
On wanton naigs, wi splent on spauld,
We rade sae merrilie!
But we'll go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
We'll go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O we'll go no more a roving!
Our King's gane o'er the Border
In London for to dwell;
And friends we maun wi 'England be,
Sin' he reigns there himsel:
And go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
We'll go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O we'll go no more a roving!
O how shall I, tether'd,
On Yarrow banks abide!
That far as Trent and Humber
Hae scour'd the Southrons wide.
Oh! to go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
We'll go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O we'll go no more a roving!
And how shall I follow
A droning plow's tail,
And how now break my bonnie Brown
To harl't like a snail!
And go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
We'll go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O we'll go no more a roving!
But when the blithsome Borders
Hae lost their riders gay,
The Scots will miss their hardy men,
And cry, Alack the day!
That they go no more a roving,
A roving in the night,
They go no more a roving,
Though the moon shine e'er so bright.
O they'll go no more a roving!