James Ramsay

Sir James Ramsay (1589 – 11 March 1638), known as "Black Ramsay", was a Scottish soldier in the Swedish service. Biography Ramsay a native of Scotland, born about 1589, was the eighth of nine children of Robert Ramsay of Wyliecleuch. James was nearly related to John Ramsay, viscount Haddington and earl of Holderness. A brother David is noticed separately. James accompanied James VI to England on his accession to the English throne, and was an attendant in the privy chamber of the king and Prince Henry. Subsequently he sought military service abroad and under Gustavus Adolphus. At the battle of Breitenfeld, Ramsay, as eldest colonel, had the command of three regiments of chosen musketeers forming the vanguard. At the capture of Würzburg in October 1631 he headed a storming party, and was shot in the left arm. The wound prevented him from accompanying his regiment during the rest of the campaign and the succeeding year. Gustavus rewarded Ramsay with a grant of lands in the duchy of Mecklenburg and with the government of Hanau. In 1634 Sir George Douglas, ambassador from Charles I to Poland, visited Ramsay at Hanau. In 1635 the imperialists besieged Hanau, which Ramsay defended with the greatest skill and pertinacity. The besieged were reduced to feeding on cats and dogs, but in June 1636 William, landgrave of Hesse, aided by the Swedes under Sir Alexander Leslie, raised the siege. Ramsay utilised the respite which this victory gave him to victual the place against a new siege, and to send provisions to the French garrison of Ehrenbreitstein or Hermanstein. In June 1636 Hermanstein surrendered, and in the following month Hanau was besieged by the forces of the elector of Mainz and the bishop of Würzburg under Baron Metternich. At the same time Philip Maurice, count of Hanau, made his peace with the emperor, and relinquished the Swedish cause. Seeing the impossibility of maintaining himself in Hanau, Ramsay agreed to evacuate the city on honourable terms. He was to receive fifty thousand reichsthalers (about 15,000l.), to be paid to his wife in Scotland, to be secured an equivalent for his lands in Mecklenburg, and to be conducted safely to the Swedish quarters. Till the terms were carried out he was to be allowed to stay in Hanau as a private man. In a few weeks, however, Ramsay saw reason to believe that the agreement would not be fairly executed, and in December 1637 he made the count of Hanau prisoner, and retook possession of Hanau.