Robert Douglas (17 March 1611 – 28 May 1662), Count of Skenninge, Baron of Skalby, was a Scottish cavalry general during the Thirty Years' War rising to the rank of Field Marshal (1657–1662) in the Swedish-Polish wars that followed. He founded the Swedish branch of Clan Douglas. Youth Douglas was born at Standingstone, near Garvald, East Lothian. His father, Patrick Douglas of Standingstone (d.1626), was a son of William Douglas of Whittinghame (d.1595) by his spouse Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington, Knt. Career Many Scottish soldiers, infantry and cavalry, found themselves engaged in the various wars that are collectively called the Thirty Years' War and Robert Douglas was one of these. In 1627 he was received as a page in the Swedish service under John Casimir, Count Palatine of Kleeburg, castellan of Stegeborg Castle, brother-in-law of King Gustav II Adolf. In 1630, when Sweden joined the Thirty Years' War, Douglas followed the main army into Germany (where he joined the German literary society Der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft). Although a competent military commander, he only began to earn some notoriety in the aftermath of the Peace of Prague (1635). Then serving as a lieutenant colonel, Douglas had been tasked with the defence of Egeln in Saxony, and so was left very much within the territory of the newly hostile Elector Johan Georg who had defected to the Empire. Douglas spectacularly broke out rather than change sides and managed to return with most of his men through hostile lines to Swedish controlled territory He participated in the Battle of Wittstock the following year, now with the rank of full colonel and actually in command of two cavalry regiments. With these he participated in the famous flanking charge led by Lieutenant General James King, the senior cavalry commander in Alexander Leslie's Army of the Weser. Unlike many of his countrymen who opted to return to Scotland to participate in the Bishops' Wars against Charles I, Douglas opted or was selected to remain behind in Swedish service. In March 1638 he was campaigning in the region of Delitzsch in the army of Johan Banér, getting complaints from the town for his alleged 'deprivations'. Within days units under Major General Adam von Pfuel pressed into Thuringia, with Douglas's regiment among them. It was during this period that the Scot captured the Imperial Fälttygmästare (master of ordinance) Salis and his regiments, who were heading