General Thomas Dalziel 'Bloody Tam'

Sir Thomas Dalziel (or Dalyell) of the Binns (meaning hills), was an eminent cavalier who had served Charles I with zealous bigotry, serving in Ireland, against Cromwell's army, during the civil war. After the execution of the king, Dalziel vowed never to shave again (growing a beard that 'reached almost to his girdle). Captured at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, from which he promptly escaped and fled to the continent, entering the service of the Russian Tsar where he served as an officer in a brutal Cossack regiment. His ferocity against the Turks and Tartars earned him the names 'the Muscovite Devil' and 'the Muscovy beast who roasted men'. Returning home after the Restoration he entered the service of Charles II and was made commander-in-chief of the forces in Scotland and raised a new regiment 'the Scots Greys'. He was charged with suppressing the Covenanters in the south west of the country, and did so with spectacular cruelty.