Mercenaries in the British Service
Hereward Senior traces the British employment of foreign professional soldiery, from Danish axemen before the Norman Conquest, to Sepoys in the days of the British East India Company.
The re-appearance of mercenaries in the new states of Africa may mark the renaissance of a category of soldiers long since forgotten except among the surviving readers of Sir Walter Scott or during the periodic revivals of Beau Geste.
In general, the word ‘mercenary’ is a term of abuse directed at foreign légionnaires and auxiliary troops serving governments other than their own and, except for the instance of the employment of Hessians during the American revolution, they have been considered by laymen to be outside the realm of the British military tradition.
Yet, between the time of the accession of William of Orange and Waterloo, Britain owed almost as much to the service of mercenaries as she did to British troops.
Perhaps the best summary of their contribution to British military history was made by the Duke of Wellington when addressing the House of Lords in 1844 upon the services of the ‘Army of England’. He said:
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