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The battle of Pavia
In mid-October 1524, King Francis I of France crossed the Alps and advanced on Milan at the head of an army numbering more than 40,000. The bulk of the French army arrived at Pavia in the last days of October.
Francis then signed a secret agreement with Pope Clement VII, who pledged not to assist the Habsburg Emperor Charles V in exchange for Francis' assistance with the conquest of Naples. Against the advice of his senior commanders, Francis detached a portion of his forces under the Duke of Albany and sent them south to aid the Pope.
In the four-hour battle for Pavia on 25 February 1525, the French army was split and defeated in detail. Francis was captured and surrendered to Charles. The Duke of Albany had lost the larger part of his army to attrition and desertion, and had returned to France without ever having reached Naples.
Garde Ecossais
The broken remnants of the French forces including the survivors of Francis' "Garde Ecossais" (an elite corps of 100 Scottish guardsmen and 200 Scottish archers recruited as mercenaries) retreated past the Lago Maggiore and headed up the Cannobina valley toward the alpine passes under the nominal command of Charles IV of Alençon, reaching Lyon by March.
The onset of winter prevented many of them from continuing and they decided to settle in Gurro since the area reminded them of their Scottish highland home.
Clan Gayre
As bearer of the name and clan head of Gayre, it has been explained to me that the inhabitants of Gurro are the descendants of the scattered Scottish troops of the Royal Guard from France who took part in the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and settled in Gurro in the province of Novara (now VCO), in the Italian Alps near the Swiss border. It is in accordance with their wish to have this fact recognised as a status through an adoption, as has always been granted to scattered Scots in accordance with ancient legal customs. Therefore, I hereby exercise this right of adoption and declare by this instrument that the above-mentioned descendants of the Scottish soldiers who settled in Gurro and the surrounding area in 1525 are recognised as part of the Clan Gayre. Furthermore, they are entitled to all the rights and privileges of such a part, in particular the wearing of the tartan of the clan with the coats of arms belonging thereto and all that is due to the members of the clan.
R. Gayre of Gayre and Nigg of Lochoreshyre (1973)
