Reformed Religion, Regime Change, Scottish Whigs and the Struggle for the ‘Soul’ of Scotland, c.1688 – c.1788

Abstract

This article responds to and is designed as a counterweight to recent work on political history in early-modern Scotland in which Jacobitism has been persuasively portrayed as a strongly supported movement over time rather than an episodic cause. Building upon recent research on the Union of 1707 which demonstrated the degree of principled and consistent support there was for closer union with England within a British polity, the paper seeks to show that there was a clearly identifiable ideological basis to anti-Jacobitism in Scotland. The term, however, is best understood as the Revolution or, even better, the Whig interest, not least as the principles upon which anti-Jacobitism were based predated the Revolution of 1688-9 and the emergence of Jacobitism. The Revolution, it is argued, had many more supporters, and from a wider geographical area, than has generally been assumed in accounts which focus largely on the south west of Scotland. Support took various forms, ranging from prayer through public campaigning to the taking up of arms. It is also clear that support for Whig principles was not only longstanding but also grew over the period examined. What is underlined is that Scotland was a deeply fissured nation, the principal divide owing much but not everything to religion and differing perspectives on the nature of monarchical authority and the role of parliament. 4 P. K. Monod, M. G. H.

Towards a history of compromise: comparing political unions in the British-Irish Isles and Poland-Lithuania

“…59 There is indeed a difference between the two, and much of the current constitutional 56 Clerk, 'A Testamentary Memorial concerning The Union of the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England in 1707 with a short account the share I had in the settlement of the present Government of Great Britain', in Clerk (1993: Appendix C, 198). 57 See Whatley (2013). 58 Clerk (1993: Appendix C, 199-200).…”

The “Glorious” Revolution’s Inglorious Religious Commitment: Why Parliamentary Rule Failed to Secure Religious Liberty

“…As we have seen, the new Williamite coalition had little interest in preventing Episcopal suppression through new legislation. The Whigs and the Presbyterians were committed allies against the Jacobite coalition of Episcopalians and the Royalists (Whatley 2006(Whatley , 2013). William's difficulties in securing support for his governments in the Scottish Parliament led him to favor its elimination through a formal union of England and Scotland, a policy achieved by his successor, Queen Anne in 1707 (Riley 1979).…”