Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven (c.1580–1661): From Swedish Field Marshal to General of the Covenant

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Leslie's early life is thinly documented. His mother cannot be identified, and his birth year is an estimate. The main modern study of his military career is Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean's Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years' War (2014), built on Swedish, Danish and Scottish archives. Their dates, ranks and figures are treated here as established. Their larger arguments, about his literacy, his motives and his conduct at Marston Moor, revise a long tradition going back to C. S. Terry's 1899 biography and C. H. Firth's work on Marston Moor, and are labelled Shared. Facts the book does not cover, such as his capture in 1651 and his death, are taken from the web pages listed under Sources.

An Atholl boy and a Campbell fosterling

established Most sources agree that Leslie was the son of Captain George Leslie, captain of Blair Castle and bailie of Atholl. His mother is unknown. Genealogists have proposed several Stewart women, and one dismissed her as a woman from Rannoch. He may have been born outside marriage and legitimised later. His father had other sons, George and John, who also went to Sweden.

established Murdoch and Grosjean show that the boy was fostered by the Campbells of Glenorchy, a link made possible by the 1574 marriage of Duncan Campbell of Glenorchy to a daughter of the Earl of Atholl. Fostering bound families together; the fosterling's loyalty could be stronger than to his own parents. Leslie became foster-brother to three later lairds of Glenorchy, and in 1640 he reminded them of it when he called on them to support the Covenant.

shared The historians Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean, in Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years' War (2014), argue that he learned soldiering at home before he went abroad: at wapinschaws (musters with weapons), in the Campbell–MacGregor feud in which his father and foster-father were both involved, and possibly at the battle of Glenlivet in 1594 or with the Highland levies Glenorchy offered for Ireland in 1601–02. No record places him at any of these. They are probabilities, not facts.

The Leslie name, Rothes and Balgonie

shared Leslie belonged to the wider Leslie kindred whose chief was the Earl of Rothes, but his own line ran through a minor Atholl branch, and no secure genealogy links his father to the Rothes house. The close tie came later and by marriage. In 1636 his son and namesake married Margaret Leslie, daughter of John Leslie, sixth Earl of Rothes, who became a leading Covenanter. That marriage helped place the general inside the Covenanting leadership.

established Balgonie was not his birthplace. He bought Balgonie Castle near Markinch in Fife in 1635 and wrote from it to Axel Oxenstierna in February 1640. When he was made an earl in 1641, his second title was Lord Balgonie, and his son was known as Lord Balgonie. He died at the castle in 1661.

Was he illiterate?

traditional An old story has Leslie pointing out the house where he learned to read, then admitting he never got further than the letter G. The eighteenth-century writer David Dalrymple thought his 1639 signature proved he could not write.

shared Murdoch and Grosjean note that his signatures of the 1620s are much firmer than that of 1639, when he was about sixty, and that the Glenorchy household he grew up in had a tutor and a fine library. They judge him more literate than his reputation, though no scholar.

Dutch or Swedish beginnings

traditional Many accounts say Leslie first served as a captain under Sir Horace Vere in the Dutch Republic in 1605–08. The authors found no document to confirm it, and ask why he would have served in an English rather than a Scottish unit.

established His Swedish service is well recorded. He rose alongside Patrick Ruthven, serving as his lieutenant colonel in the Småland regiment by 1622 and becoming colonel of a Swedish provincial regiment from Södermanland, Närke and Värmland by 1623. Its soldiers were Swedes, but many officers were Scots, including his son and his half-brother George. From 1626 he was commandant of Pillau in Prussia, strengthening its walls as he had those of Gothenburg the year before.

established On 1 July 1627, with barely 200 musketeers and 150 Finns under Åke Tott, he was surrounded by nine companies of Cossacks, three of hussars and one of dragoons. He attacked, killed more than 150 of the enemy and brought back four banners and eight prisoners for three men wounded. Oxenstierna wrote several letters about it. When Gustav Adolf received the Order of the Garter from Charles I that year, he knighted four Scottish colonels: Leslie, Ruthven, David Drummond and John Hepburn.

Stralsund, 1628

established In 1628 Albrecht von Wallenstein besieged Stralsund, the Baltic town that had refused to submit to the Emperor. Danish troops and seven companies of Donald Mackay's Scottish regiment under Robert Monro held it first. Leslie arrived with about 1,100 men and became governor on 17 July 1628, with authority over every soldier in the town. Monro recorded that Leslie's first sortie was made by Scots alone, with the veteran Highland swordsmen of Mackay's regiment covering the retreat. The authors read this as Leslie using Highland skirmishers alongside regular musketeers, something he had grown up with.

established Wallenstein gave up the siege. In December Stralsund signed a twenty-year alliance with Sweden, which gave Gustav Adolf his bridgehead into Germany. Leslie stayed on as governor into 1629, quarrelling with the town council and asking Oxenstierna for a deputy with a better head for politics.

The German war, 1630–35

established In 1630 Leslie cleared Imperial garrisons from Rügen, commanded Stettin and later governed Frankfurt an der Oder. In 1631 Gustav Adolf attached him to the Marquis of Hamilton's British army as its experienced adviser. In February 1632, at Buxtehude, a musket ball lodged in his ankle and kept him out of action for most of a year.

established Back in the field by late 1632, he formed a brigade of 5,500 men around Bremen, took part in the capture of Landsberg in April 1634, and took over the army of the Swedish general Dodo von Knyphausen. The Swedish diplomat Johan Adler Salvius warned that he would only stay for the rank of field marshal, and that he was indispensable.

Field marshal and the Army of the Weser

established After the Swedish defeat at Nördlingen (1634) and the Peace of Prague (1635), many German allies deserted Sweden. Oxenstierna shortlisted four men to command a rebuilt army in Westphalia: Patrick Ruthven, James King, Leslie and Lennart Torstensson. Three were Scots. In January 1636 he chose Leslie, made him field marshal, and gave him James King as lieutenant general and his son-in-law John Ruthven as major general of foot.

established The Army of the Weser began with fewer than 2,000 men and had about 5,000 by March 1636; most of its officers were Scots or English. Leslie relieved Osnabrück, took Petershagen and Minden, and persuaded Landgrave Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel to rejoin the war. Together they relieved Hanau on 13–14 June 1636. The army fed itself on contributions demanded from enemy towns.

shared Leslie told the British agent in Hamburg, Joseph Avery, that if Sweden made peace he and his officers, as Charles I's subjects, would keep the army in the field for the Elector Palatine, Elizabeth of Bohemia's son. Murdoch and Grosjean take this as evidence that his service had a Stuart purpose as well as a Swedish one.

Wittstock, 4 October 1636

established At Wittstock in Brandenburg the combined armies of Banér and Leslie fought the Imperial and Saxon forces. Banér held the right with 3,500 men. Leslie held the centre with five brigades of foot and five squadrons of horse, 4,342 men. James King led the cavalry on a long flanking march on the left. The reserve was under Johan Vitzthum, with John Ruthven as his second.

established Banér's wing was attacked six to ten times and began to waver. In his report to Queen Christina, Banér wrote that his men would have fallen into total disorder had Leslie not brought his five brigades across in time and turned four enemy brigades away. King's horse then appeared in the enemy rear. Between 7,000 and 10,000 men were killed.

shared Most histories treat Wittstock as Banér's victory. Murdoch and Grosjean, using Leslie's and King's reports, argue that three of the four parts of the army were under Scottish command once Vitzthum refused to commit the reserve. Banér and Leslie fell out bitterly afterwards. Leslie complained to Oxenstierna of enemies who envied him, and asked to leave Swedish service.

Leaving Sweden

established Leslie left Stralsund on 1 January 1638 for Britain, signed the National Covenant and sent a copy to Oxenstierna. Back in Stockholm in July 1638, he asked for his release. The Riksråd debated it for over a fortnight and agreed on 9 August that he could not be refused, given his long service and popularity. It also sent muskets and field guns through the Scottish merchants James and John Maclean. Between 1636 and 1639 Sweden lost over 300 Scottish officers.

shared Murdoch and Grosjean argue that money cannot explain his decision. He gave up near-certain Swedish ennoblement and risked his Scottish estate. They point to religion and kin: his fosterage tied him to the Campbells and the Earl of Argyll, and his son's marriage tied him to Rothes.

The Bishops' Wars, 1639–40

established On 21 March 1639 Leslie walked up to the gate of Edinburgh Castle with an escort and demanded its surrender; when the constable refused, a petard blew in the gate and Robert Monro's men took the castle. He then led about 6,000 men to Aberdeen; older accounts credit Montrose, but the burgh records show Leslie directed it.

established Formally commissioned Lord General, he organised the army on Swedish lines and marched to Duns Law. When the Earl of Northampton's royal army drew up nearby on 5 June 1639, Leslie invited its officers to dinner and let them inspect his camp. Observers noted about 1,000 Highlanders with broadswords, bows and plaids. The royal army withdrew, and the Pacification of Berwick followed on 18 June.

established In April 1640 he signed the Covenanters' appeals to France and Sweden; Sweden sent arms and ships. Recommissioned on 17 April, he crossed the Tweed on 20 August with about 12,000 foot and 1,500 horse, part of a force of about 23,000. On 28 August, with nine guns hidden on the north bank, he forced the ford at Newburn and two days later entered Newcastle. The Venetian ambassador wrote that Leslie was obeyed as if "he had been born their natural sovereign".

established The Treaty of Ripon in October 1640 and the Treaty of London in August 1641 met the Covenanters' demands. Leslie had the forfeitures of his Royalist friends Patrick Ruthven and James King reversed. Charles I dined with him at Newcastle, and before leaving the town Leslie rode back to pay his men's outstanding debts. His patent as Earl of Leven is dated October 1641.

Lord General of the Solemn League

established The Irish rising of 1641 diverted the 10,000 men he had hoped to take to Germany; Leven briefly commanded the Scottish army in Ulster in 1642. After Scotland and the English Parliament agreed the Solemn League and Covenant, he was made general on 26 August 1643. In January 1644 he crossed into England with about 22,000 men, marching from Dunbar to Berwick through knee-deep snow.

established At Marston Moor on 2 July 1644 Leven held overall command of the allied army and drew up its order of battle. Part of the right wing and three Scottish infantry brigades broke and fled. Simeon Ashe reported that Leven tried to stop them with words and blows, crying "Although you run from your Enemies, yet leave not your Generall". Thirteen of nineteen Scottish foot regiments held, and the battle was won. York surrendered to him on 16 July on terms that kept most of the army outside the walls.

shared Several later writers, among them John Spalding, Sir James Turner and a memoir of Lieutenant Colonel James Somerville, say Leven fled the field, to Leeds or elsewhere. Robert Baillie repeated a rumour that all six senior generals ran. Murdoch and Grosjean examined nineteen eyewitness accounts written within two weeks and found none that mentions his flight; several place him leading the foot. Baillie himself soon blamed the story on Independent propaganda. Their case is strong, but the older version is still widely repeated.

established On 19 October 1644 Leven stormed Newcastle after weeks of mining, using about 3,000 colliers. Three breaches were opened and four brigades went in. The night before, he wrote in German to his old comrade Lennart Torstensson about selling him his Swedish property; afterwards he added only that "Yesterday God transferred this very stubborn city into our hands".

established In 1645 his army was unpaid and stretched thin while Montrose campaigned in Scotland, and the siege of Hereford failed. He besieged Newark from November 1645 with just over 7,000 men; it surrendered on 6 May 1646, days after Charles I came to the Scottish army. The Scots left England after the English Parliament agreed to pay £200,000 of arrears in two instalments, and handed over Newcastle on 30 January 1647. This was back pay, not a price for the king.

Dunbar, capture and last years

established Leven declined command of the Engagers' army in 1648. He offered Sweden 10,000 men through his friend and former opponent James King, and later sent a regiment under his son-in-law William Cranstoun.

shared In 1650 he was still the Covenanters' titular commander, but David Leslie held field command and lost at Dunbar on 3 September. Murdoch and Grosjean say Leven did not take to the field; the British Civil Wars Project says he directed the manoeuvres before the battle but left the battle itself to David Leslie. Parliament refused his resignation.

established In August 1651 he was captured by English dragoons at Alyth in Angus with other members of the Committee of Estates and sent to the Tower of London. He was released on a bond, rearrested, and finally freed in 1654 after Queen Christina of Sweden intervened. He retired to Balgonie, where he died on 4 April 1661.

Legacy

shared Murdoch and Grosjean conclude that Leslie retired "undefeated in any major pitched battle", and that his campaigns were won by strict discipline and restraint rather than violence. That judgement depends on how one counts Dunbar, which he did not command in the field.

• Three of the four men Oxenstierna considered for field marshal in 1636 were Scots.
• Before leaving Newcastle in 1641 he rode back and paid his soldiers' debts in person.
• His son-in-law John Ruthven fought beside him at Wittstock and against him in the Bishops' Wars.
• He sold his Swedish property to Lennart Torstensson in letters written on the eve of storming Newcastle.
• Queen Christina of Sweden helped secure his release from English captivity.

• Myth: Leslie was born at Balgonie. He was born in Atholl. He bought Balgonie Castle in Fife in 1635 and died there in 1661.
• Myth: He was the son or heir of the Earls of Rothes. He belonged to the wider Leslie kindred, but the close tie came by marriage, when his son married a daughter of the sixth Earl of Rothes in 1636.
• Disputed: His early service under Sir Horace Vere in the Dutch Republic. Many accounts repeat it, but Murdoch and Grosjean found no document to confirm it.
• Myth: Leslie was illiterate. An old story says he never got past the letter G, but his signatures of the 1620s are firmer than that of 1639, and he grew up in a household with a tutor and a fine library.
• Myth: Wittstock was Banér's victory alone. Banér's own report credits Leslie, who commanded the centre, with saving the right wing. Most histories still give the credit to Banér.
• Disputed: Leslie fled the field at Marston Moor. Later writers say so, but Murdoch and Grosjean found no mention of it in nineteen eyewitness accounts written within two weeks.
• Myth: The Scots sold the king for £200,000. The sum was arrears of pay agreed with the English Parliament, not a price for Charles I.
• Myth: Leslie commanded in the field at Dunbar in 1650. He was the nominal commander, but David Leslie held field command and lost the battle.