History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 122

suppression of Monmouth's rebellion; they encamped on Blackheath, but as their
services were not required they were sent back to Holland. They returned to England
with William on his accession, and he was also accompanied by some of his best
Dutch troops and by regiments which Bentinck had hired from some of the princes of
north Germany. Some of these foreign troops were used in the campaign in Ireland,
under the Dutchman Ginkell and the Huguenot exile Schomberg.
After William's accession, the English and Dutch were closely united against the
French, and English troops were at once sent to join his armies in the Netherlands. In
1692 William himself crossed over with a large body of English. The Peace of Ryswick
in 1697 put an end to operations on the Continent.
There is no doubt that, in the meantime, William employed Dutch troops in England for
garrison purposes; Zuylestein's regiment was retained in the north of England, and
was at Durham in 1691. In 1698, however, William was forced by Parliament to send
his Dutch troops out of the country; his partiality for the Dutch had made him very
unpopular, and matters came to a head when he preferred his young favourite the Earl
of Albemarle to be first Commander of the Guards over the Duke of Ormonde's head.
For ten years after William's death, English and Dutch soldiers fought together in
Flanders in the War of the Spanish Succession. Marlborough was appointed leader of
the united armies of England and the States. Since the end of the 16th century, the
Scottish brigade had been in the Dutch service, and had been recruited mainly in
Scotland and commanded by Scottish officers. In her great need for men far the war in
America, England in 1775 requested the republic to lend this brigade, but the request
was refused.
2. 5.
A large number of terms for arms and armour was borrowed. The single term of
defensive armour which appears in ME. is Splint (13 . ., Coer de L., 1374), a plate of
overlapping metal of which certain portions of medieval armour were sometimes
composed; (c. 1325), a long strip or splint of wood; ad. M.Du. splinte (Du. splint) or
MLG. splinte, splente (LG. splinte, splente, or splint, also borrowed into Da., Sw., and
Norw. as splint), a metal plate or pin.
This is perhaps the best place to insert the single term of jousting or the tournament.
Reyne (c. 1440), plur., the lists; perhaps ad. M.Du. reen, reyn, shooting-range.
The following are the names of striking weapons. Hanger (1481-90), a kind of short
sword, originally hung from the belt; O.E.D. says that it is apparently the same word as
hanger from hang, vb., though possibly not of English origin, and compares e.mod.Du.
hangher, ‘stootdeghen’, rapier. Slaughmess (a. 1548, once), a large knife used as a
weapon, a dagger; ad. older Flem. sclachmes, from slach (slag), blow, stroke, and
mes, knife. A similar formation is Slaughsword (a. 1548), a large two-handed sword;
ad. older Flem. sclachsweerd (Du. slagzwaard) or G. schlachtschwert. Sable (1617),
sabre; probably ad. Du. or e.mod.G. sabel, (later G. säbel); sabre is the unexplained
French alteration of sabel.
There is one term for a part of the crossbow, which may have been i