Description
Royal Scots Fusiliers Cap Badge
The cap badge of the Royal Scots Fusiliers is a large gilded badge in the form of a fused grenade. On the ball of the grenade is the Royal Arms surmounted by the Royal Crest with Imperial King’s crown. On the Royal Arms is the inscription ‘HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE (the motto of the Order of the Garter) and below the Arms the inscription ‘DIEU ET MON DROIT’.
The Royal Scots Fusilier’s history dates back to 1678 when it was raised by Charles Erskine, de jure 5th Earl of Mar (de jure indicates the earldom fell into dispute with the crown after Alexander Stewart forcibly captured and married Isabel Douglas, the Countess of Mar in 1404). As was the tradition at the time the Regiment was named after its colonel as ‘The Earl of Mar’s Regiment’ and nicknamed ‘the Duke O’Mars Greybreeks’.
The Regiment saw its first action in 1679 at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge when it helped to put down the Covenanter Rebellion which formed following the restoration of King Charles II. Presbyterian ministers who refused to accept the rule of bishops were ejected from their parishes by the crown and took up arms in rebellion.
