Mercenaries, or STIPENDIARIES, men who received pay for their services as soldiers, especially as distinguished from the feudal and general levies owing military service to the crown. Such men were often foreigners, and the name has come to mean only foreign auxiliaries. Hired professional soldiers appear very early in the history of military organisation (see ARMY). Foreign mercenaries appear in the armies of Alexander the Great and the Romans. They were common in all armies, but generally engaged for a single campaign only. In England, Harold had a body of Danes in his army when he defeated the Norwegian king—the huscarls, a body originally established by Canute. William III. had for some time a body of Dutch troops in his pay after he became king of England; and throughout the 18th century Hessian and Hanoverian regiments were constantly in the pay of the British government for temporary purposes. Hessians fought for great Britain in the first American war; and the Landgrave of Hesse, who sold his troops at so much a head, received upwards of half a million for soldiers lost in that campaign.
During the Irish rebellion, again, in 1798, many Hessian troops were employed.
On the outbreak of the continental war in 1793 it was determined to increase the British army by the addition of a large body of foreigners; and accordingly in 1794 an act was passed for the embodiment of the 'King's German Legion,' consisting of 15,000 men. These troops, who were increased in the course of the war to nearly double that number, distinguished themselves in various engagements, and formed some of the most reliable regiments. It was common during the Peninsular war to enlist deserters and prisoners of war into the British army, but such recruits were not reliable when opposed to their fellow-countrymen. Corps of French émigrés, as the Chasseurs Britanniques, which served through the Peninsular war and in America, the York Chassens, in which some Turks were enrolled when at Malta, and others, were also organised. The whole of the foreign legions were disbanded in 1815, the officers being placed on half-pay.
During the Russian war in 1854 the British government again had recourse to the enlistment of foreigners. The numbers authorised were 10,000 Germans, 5000 Swiss, and 5000 Italians, with the same pay as British troops. About half were enrolled, and had become very efficient, when hostilities ceased, and they were disbanded at a great cost for gratuities, &c. Foreigners may enlist into the British army, but the Army Act of 1881 provides that the proportion of aliens in any corps at one time shall not exceed one to every fifty British subjects, except in the case of negroes and persons of colour, and that no alien shall be eligible to hold a commission as an officer. British-born soldiers have often served abroad. There was a famous Scots Guard (q.v.) in France from the days of Charles VI. down to 1759; many Scotsmen fought for Gustavus Adolphus; and Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Irishmen, singly and in bodies, have served during troublous times in most European countries; see GORDON (PATRICK), KEITH, HOBART PASHA. A British legion was raised in 1836 by Sir De Lacy Evans to support the queen of Spain against the Carlists (see EVANS).
The Swiss auxiliaries used to form a regular contingent in many of the armies of Europe, especially of France and Italy. Over 1,000,000 served in France from the time of Louis XI. to that of Louis XIV. (1465-1715). The Swiss usually served only on condition of being commanded by their own officers, and occasionally these officers obtained distinction and fame. But the privates returned home poor and often demoralised; and the cantons which supplied most mercenaries suffered severely by their absence. After the French Revolution the cantons ceased publicly to hire out their subjects; and after 1830 most of the cantons forbade foreign enlistment. In 1859 the Confederacy passed a severe law against recruitment for service abroad. There is still, however, a large contingent of Swiss mercenaries in the Dutch East Indian Colonies. The Papal Swiss troops have shrunk to a body-guard of about 100 men. See CONDOTTIERI, FREELANCES.