Colonel William Sempill, Founder of the Scots College, Madrid

The Tablet 22nd August 1896

Reproduced with permission from the publisher. www.thetablet.co.uk

The following sketch of the Life of Colonel William Sempill, the hero of Lierre, and the founder of the Scots College at Madrid, appeared in The Scotsman over the initials T. G. L.:

Of the many Scots abroad in the 16th and 17th centuries, there are few who, in their own generation, were more famous than the soldier of fortune and political adventurer, William Sempill, who became "Gentleman of the Mouth" to his Spanish Majesty, a generous patron of the Catholic mission to his native country, and founder of the Scots College at Madrid. But, like other Scottish refugees of his time and creed, he labours biographically under a twofold misfortune. By the majority at home he is regarded as an alien of whom little notice is taken except by a few hard speeches, while to the writers of his own party he becomes a hero whose irregularities or inconsistencies, the outcome of his age and situation, must needs be totted down or kept out of sight, as if he were a subject of theological controversy. The man is thus in danger of being robbed of his chief interest in the eyes of the historian.

He was born, it seems, in 1546. The exact place which he holds in the family tree is doubtful. Crawfurd and Douglas ignore him altogether. His contemporary and co-religionist, George Conn, calls him a brother of the Baron Sempill, which he certainly was not. His most recent biographer makes him a son of the third "Earl" of Sempill, who never existed. In his lifetime he was often described as uncle of the fourth lord, but more probably he was the son of David Sempill, who was a younger brother of the third Lord Sempill, and founder of the Sempills of Craigbet. Little, too, is known of his early youth. The Pope, however, in 1627, recounting his many virtues, congratulates him on his good fortune in having been brought up at the Court of Mary Stuart. It may therefore be a surprise to some readers—though it should not be—to hear of him next as a volunteer fighting in the service of the Protestant and arch-rebel Prince of Orange against the most Catholic King of Spain. There soon follows the turning point in the career of this valiant Scot, and the most striking event of his life, the betrayal of the town and garrison of Lierre to the Spanish forces on August 2, 1582. The incident created considerable stir, and full particulars are told in the foreign histories of the war, easily accessible to the historical student. Only within the last few years, however, has the story found its way into our literature of home growth. An anonymous writer had contributed an interesting life of Sempill, founded apparently upon the MS. records and traditions of Madrid and Valladolid, to the Catholic Directory for Scotland, 1873; and this narrative was subsequently. adopted almost verbatim, in the grave historical work entitled, Narratives of Scottish Catholics under Mary Stuart and James VI.: Now first printed from the original manuscripts in the secret archives of the Vatican and other collections. Edited by William Forbes Leith, S.J., which was published in Edinburgh in 1885. The new facts, and the still newer interpretations of facts here brought forward with some show of historic authority, deservediligent attention.

IN BELGIUM.

When Mary Stuart, we are told, "fled into England from her rebellious subjects, he (Sempill) also forsook his native country, and, passing into Belgium, served for some time under the Prince of Orange, deceived, it would seem, by the professions of loyalty with which that Prince at first strove to conceal his rebellion. In 1573 (sic) Mary Stuart, from her prison in England, was enabled, through the agency of John Seaton, son of the Earl of Winton, to undeceive him, and to notify her pleasure that he should pass to the service of the King of Spain. He immediately obeyed the command of his Sovereign. Through his influence three regiments of Scottish infantry and three companies of cavalry, together with the fortresses of Gueldres, Bruges, and Lierre, embraced the Spanish cause. In recompense for these services, and of his heroic defence of Lierre against the French, commanded by the Duke of Alencon in person, the Duke of Parma offered him 70,000 ducats, but he would accept nothing. In 1582 Colonel Semple passed into Spain. . . ."

This picture of a simple youth beguiled into Orange's camp, until warned by Queen Mary that he was on the wrong side, it is difficult to accept. If it were possible to misunderstand the Prince's policy in 1573, the date erroneously given, such a misunderstanding would be quite out of the question after 1581. The facts are these. Sempill, who had been one of Colonel William Stewart's subalterns, entered Lierre, March 25, 1582, as captain of a company of Scots, the place being garrisoned by two other companies of States soldiers of the regiment of Heetvelde. The Scots had already, for the past ten years, been distinguishing themselves in the war. After the capture of Brille by the "Beggars of the Sea" in 1572 there had been a rush of volunteers to the Low Countries. There was no Foreign Enlistment Act, and the Privy Council openly gave licences to officers for the levying of troops "against the persecutors of God's religion." In 1573 there were at least 1,600 Scottish soldiers in Holland and Zealand. Thirteen companies under Colonel Balfour were well nigh annihilated with the rest of the States army at the disastrous battle of Gemblours in 1578 ; and at Mechlin, in the same year, the Scots made themselves remarkable by their desperate fighting—some of them clad in their shirts only, and others in still lighter clothing. Catholics came with Protestants to gain a livelihood, to win fame, and to learn the art of war in the best of schools. There was not the same opening for raw recruits in the more exclusive ranks of the veterans of Spain. When in 1582 the Prince of Parma received into his camp 400 English soldiers, among them many Catholics, to serve, as he said, for decoy birds, and in the hope of obtaining the betrayal of towns garrisoned by their countrymen, the old cavalry leader, Bernardino le Mendoya, then Ambassador at London, at once remonstrated to the King. These men, he wrote, were in heart thorough heretics, and would be sure to turn traitors again, or, if they remained, would only do mischief. But, says Strada, Parma's expectations were soon justified; and this Jesuit historian proceeds to tell the story of Sempill's betrayal of Lierre, a story which substantially agrees with that given by Meteren, and again quite recently by Anton Bergmann in his Dutch history of the town of Lierre (1873), based, it would seem, mainly upon the extremely rare contemporary tract, not to be found in any public library, entitled "Bref discours de la trahison advenue en la ville de Liere, en Braband, par un capitaine escossais nomme Guillaume Semple, qui estant illec en garnison l'a livree es mains de l'enemy en l'an 1582, le 2e jour d'Aoughts. Servant d'exemple et advertissement a tous ceux que veulent resister a la tyrannie Espaignolle. L'an MD. lxxxii."

LIERRE.

Sempill, not long after his arrival at Lierre, probably some time in June, obtained a secret interview with Parma at Poperinghe. He told the Prince that he desired to show his devotion to the Spanish cause by some signal deed, and that he had purchased his captaincy at Lierre with the object of opening its gates to the Spaniards. He asked for no reward beyond the satisfaction of accomplishing his purpose. Parma therefore put him in communication with Matthias Corvini, an old and experienced officer, with orders that troops should be detached from Louvain and Namur to aid in the enterprise. William Herle writing to Lord Burghley from Antwerp on the day after the betrayal, assigns a somewhat different motive for the action. Sempill and other Scottish captains of Stewart's regiment had complained, it is said, of the colonel's "misdemeanours," and could obtain no redress. This is not unlikely, as Stewart was a violent and unprincipled bully. Sempill's soldiers, too, had been in garrison for ten weeks without pay or provisions, forced to live upon roots; and when the captain complained to the Governor and Burgomaster, they showed him the gallows in the market-place, and threatened to hang him if he did not hold his mutinous tongue. It should be remembered that similar hardships had driven the Scots to mutiny just twelve months before at Vilvoorde. Smarting under these insults, Sempill is said to have resolved upon revenge. Be this as it may, on August 1 Sempill dined with the Governor, Adolph van Heetvelde, and, on the pretence of recovering some prisoners, obtained permission to make a reconnaissance or sortie. He was allowed thirty Scots and half-a-dozen States soldiers for the purpose. At seven in the evening Sempill left Lierre, marched to the church of Heyst-op-den-Berg, there disarmed and bound the Dutch soldiers, effected a junction with the troops sent by Corvini, and at three o'clock next morning reappeared before the gates of Lierre. His brother, a lieutenant (perhaps Gilbert, who is said to have died in the wars in Flanders), had meanwhile assembled the remaining Scottish soldiers in the guardhouse, and on receiving a preconcerted signal of the Captain's approach, requested Crieckart, the officer of the watch, to open the gates. Crieckart, suspecting no treachery, accompanied by the gatekeeper, cautiously opened the three gates, closing the first two behind him as usual, when Sempill, who seems to have been a big and powerful man, sprang forward, killed the porter, and then struck Crieckart such a blow that be fell back mortally wounded. The younger brother from within attacked the watch, and contrived to admit the Captain and the Spanish troops, who, after a brief struggle, made themselves masters of the town. For the horrors of the Spanish fury which followed, Sempill, it may be hoped, was not responsible. On September 7 Corvini, the new Governor, departed with his soldiers and his booty, and in place of the Spaniards there came eight hundred Italians. On December 23 the Scots finally left the city. Meanwhile Sempill had gone to Naumur to receive the congratulations of Parma, who sent him into Spain with strong recommendations to the King, who, says Strada, handsomely rewarded him. It was not the policy of Parma to allow such deeds to go without rich recompense.

Sempill started upon his political adventures in 1587. Philip sent him from Spain to Mendoza, who was then at Paris, but warned the Ambassador that he should treat him with great caution, for, notwithstanding his apparent loyalty, he was "very Scotch." Mendoza was, in fact, somewhat prejudiced against Scotsmen on account of their leanings towards the French; nevertheless, after testing Sempill, he reported him to the King as being more trustworthy than most of his countrymen, whether of sword or gown. In August, 1588, Sempill landed at Leith, and was busy with intrigues with the Catholic nobles. James had him put in prison. Huntly rescued him; again he was caught and imprisoned; and once more, by the aid of Huntly and of a lady whom Father Forbes Leith erroneously describes as the "Countess" of Ross, effected an escape, of which a romantic account is given in the "Narratives." The State papers of the period abound in references to the subsequent movements of the Colonel, as he is now called. In 1593 he married the Dona Maria de Ledesma, daughter of Don Juan de Ledesma, a member of the Council of the Indies; and in 1598 the fourth Lord Sempill, who was then in Madrid as Ambassador of James VI., with instructions to sound the intentions of the new King, Philip III., with regard to the succession to the English Crown, was courteously assisted (so he wrote to James), by "the crunal my cusing;" while the said cousin, whose heart was apparently still in Scotland, wrote himself of "the lang intension that I haif haid to die in my cuntre in yor ma'tie's service."

THE SCOTS COLLEGE.

In his extreme old age the Colonel continued to show himself "very Scotch." The pensioners of the King of Spain never found it easy to secure their pay. The English Sir William Stanley, the betrayer of Deventer, the ally of the Jesuits, and devoted servant of Spain, after repeated failures to recover his due, retired with a bitter heart to a Carthusian monastery. The Scot was more successful. He extracted from Philip III. in 1613, by way of compensation for arrears of salaries and pensions, the gift of a block of buildings called Jacomotrezo, in Madrid, valued at 175,256 reals. Here he founded his College for the Scottish Mission, placing its future administration in the hands of the Jesuit Fathers. He also exacted from Philip IV., in 1629, a grant of 1900 ducats of rent, to be paid to his executors after his death during the lifetime of any one whom he should name; and he named, accordingly, John Seton, of the Society of Jesus. The King had also bestowed upon the Colonel the title of a Prince in Italy. This Sempill left to be sold, the price to be given to the College. The deed of foundation, dated May 10, 1627, and the Colonel's testament, dated February 10, 1633, were printed by the Maitland Club in 1834. His brother's son Hugh Sempill, who styled himself "Craigbaitmus," entered the Jesuit noviciate at Toledo, and was for some time Rector of this Scots College at Madrid, where he died in 1654.

But to return to the Colonel's military exploits, which need further elucidation, it is not clear what Father Forbes Leith and his authorities mean by the statement that the fortresses of Gueldres and Bruges, as well as Lierre, not to speak of the regiments of infantry and squadrons of cavalry, through Sempill's influence embraced the Spanish cause. His "influence" at Lierre, it has been seen, was of a very material nature. Colonel Boyd may perhaps have been led by Sempill's example, and the hope of his reward, to betray Bruges in 1584. But it is manifest that Gueldres was treacherously delivered up by Colonel Paton in 1587 from personal motives of revenge. In any case the statement as it stands is unfortunately misleading. Then, what of Sempill's heroic defence of Lierre against the Duke of Alencon—an incident of which there is no record in the standard histories? If these narratives are based upon inedited documents, it is a pity that the date and source of such documents are not more clearly indicated. They read like the confused reminiscences of the old soldier, distorted by the frequent repetition of his friends till the facts have become past recognition. The story of the fighting Scots in the early days of the Dutch War of Independence has not yet been written as it should be, and it certainly tells of many more noble deeds than that of the betrayal of Lierre.