When James VI told the English parliament in 1607,. "This I must say for Scotland, and may truly vaunt it; here I sit and govern it with my pen; I write and it is done; and by a Clerk of the Council I govern Scotland now, which others could not do by the sword," it was no rhetorical turn of phrase. It was a statement of fact. He had succeeded in organising the government of Scotland in such a way as to make it one of the most perfect examples of autocratic control in Europe a circumstance rendered all the more remarkable in that it was.operated by a system of remote oontrol. Polioy was formulated and directed by the king in England, and carried out by his Privy Council in Scotland. To delegate such a function to parliament would have been impossible. Any such body would, of necessity, have had to be in session for the greater part of the year, and in any case, parliamentary machinery would have been too cumbersome, nor would parliament have been such a flexible instrument in the king's hands. From his point of view, it was essential to have an amenable body of men bound to his service by gratitude for honours, awards,.and estates received, and prepared to carry on their devoted service in the hope that the royal bounty would continue.

This thesis examines the political, ecclesiastical and social structures of south-west Scotland - Ayrshire, Dumfriesshire and Galloway - between 1600 and 1650, covering the latter part of the reign of James VI, the reign of Charles I and the covenanting revolution. This is the period in which the south-west was closely associated with the radical religious and political agenda, which would lead to the revolt against Charles I, a decade of war, and the development of the covenanting administration. Consequently, this study assesses the response to crown policy in the locality and the development of discontent prior to 1637, charts the south-west's involvement in the covenanting movement, maps the patterns of allegiance to the king or the Covenants and offers some thoughts on the factors which affected these allegiances. Chapter one focuses on the geography and topography of the south-west, the local economy, settlement patterns, and the extent to which its proximity to Ulster, the north of England and Argyll had any political significance. Chapter two provides an account of the key events of the period, placing the radical south-west in the context of the wider events of the period and, in the light of this, considering what constituted radicalism in Scotland in the first half of the seventeenth century. Chapter three looks at the relationship between centre and locality and the nature and impact of the policies of James, Charles and the covenanting administration in the region. Chapter four deals with the church in the south-west: the parishes and ministers of the region; the nature of the episcopate in the south-west; the development and expression of opposition to royal policies and the importance of the networks of the religiously disaffected which developed prior to 1637 and were utilised in the organisation of the covenanting revolution. Chapters five and six concentrate on individual allegiances. Chapter five covers the peerage and their families, a group in which the royalist peers outnumbered their covenanting colleagues, but whose activities were dominated by a number of leading covenanting nobles. Chapter six focuses on the important reservoir of non-noble covenanters - who played an increasingly important role in national politics as well as administering the locality for the covenanters - by analysing the activities of a number of groups across the locality: burgesses, parliamentary representatives, networks of lairds, the members of the shire committee of war for Kirkcudbright and the participants in the Mauchline Rising. Chapter seven looks in more detail at the period between the surrender of the king in 1646 and the defeat of the Army of the Western Association in 1650. This is a key period for the history of the south-west, during which the region was notable for its opposition to the Engagement, provided a crucial source of support for the radical covenanting regime which seized power in 1648 and when a section of opinion in the south-west took a distinctive approach to the events which followed the execution of Charles I in the creation of the Western Association. Chapter eight, the conclusion, evaluates the different factors which had a bearing on allegiances, in particular religious beliefs, economic factors, attitudes towards monarchy and the pursuit of power and influence.

In 1649 a radical faction of Covenanters seized power in Scotland. Upheld by supporters as the zenith of the 'Covenanted Reformation' – the constitutional revolution and godly reformation underwritten by the National Covenant of 1638 and Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 – the 'rule of the saints' left an ideological legacy which endured its termination in 1651, the Cromwellian occupation from 1652 and the restoration of Charles II in 1660. By investigating how this period was remembered and reimagined, and by scrutinising the relationship between policies and practices, this thesis explores how Covenanting developed in the politically hostile environment of Restoration Scotland. Taking inspiration from innovations in the fields of intellectual history and memory studies, the thesis draws upon a range of cultural artefacts in order to reconsider the intellectual and social dynamics of Covenanting opposition to the Restoration regime. In particular, journals, diaries, memoirs, histories, correspondence and printed polemic are examined to explain how the cause came to endorse a mix of religious dissent, popular protest and armed resistance the likes of which had been hitherto unseen in early modern Scotland – if not the wider early modern world. As a result, the thesis challenges traditionally static views of seventeenth century Scottish society while charting the remarkably subversive nature of later Covenanting ideology.

The thesis is the first full scale analysis of the hundreds of untapped parochial sources created by the Kirk of Scotland during the mid-seventeenth century. By taking a thirteen-year period of study, these documents allow a significant assessment of how parishes balanced the practice of Reformed religion on a day-to-day basis, with the emerging backdrop of war and invasion. This takes our historical appreciation of the Kirk away from high-level politics and into the heart of communities. The findings of this thesis illustrate the depth of activity and flexibility in Scottish parish life during the mid-seventeenth century, showing how the Presbyterian Kirk survived the internal wars and foreign invasions of the mid-seventeenth century. As Kirk leaders become increasingly concerned with the sins of political disaffection and with wars affecting parishes, ministers and sessions entered into an active dialogue with local communities seeking ecclesiastical services as normal. Such conclusions display the Kirk as a living and evolving entity, rather than a monolithic body. This negotiation ensured that Reformed services continued at the centre of communal life and that the Kirk emerged from the Civil Wars into a restored monarchy still holding its position as the national church in Scotland. The thesis also illustrates that mid-seventeenth-century Scotland did not experience a distinct ‘second reformation’, but that reforming processes were on going. This defines the mid-seventeenth century as less of a modernising moment, than a period that constantly looked into the past. The desires of Kirk leaders were couched in a much older terminology, sharing the concerns of their Reformed forebears. While the context of the National Covenant altered the Kirk’s national standing, it continued to operate in the same, negotiated, manner it had since the mid-sixteenth century.

Although previous examinations of the failed 1698-1700 Company of Scotland initiative to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama have emphasized its impact on the political future of Great Britain, the endeavor also intruded into a broader spectrum of geography, commercial enterprise and sociopolitics. The thesis examines the wider reverberations of the effort across four continents. Ranging from interruption of the lucrative slavetrade to the creation of an unintentional diaspora to opportunities for new alliances among European powers to ramifications for the indigenous Cuna, the Company of Scotland intruded into events on the eve of the seventeenth century in ways far beyond those previously considered.

The Union left the future of Scottish administration in the hands of the Queen's ministers. The methods adopted by Godolphin and Harley differed, partly because their political problems were different and partly because of temperament. Godolphin tried as far as he could to rule Scotland in the old way, through Queensberry1s Court Party. He hoped to strengthen the Court at Westminster with the Scottish representatives elected under influence. When the abolition of the Privy Council upset his full scheme he strove to keep the channel of administration between England and Scotland in the hands of the Court Party. Harley also wished to strengthen the Court at Westminster but he could not rule through a homogeneous Court Party in Scotland since he was hoping to draw support from too wide a field to risk giving offence. To solve the problem he tried to administer Scotland himself through the financial departments, advised by personal agents. He hoped to make the secretary?s office redundant. The scheme proved to be largely a system of centralised procrastination. Opportunity was provided for Bolingbroke as a secretary of State to expedite business in a bid for interest amongst the Scots. In self defence Harley had to appoint Mar as third secretary. As far as revenue departments were concerned Godolphin kept to the proper channels of business, observed precedent and set much store by official opinion. Patronage he left largely to the commissioners which probably meant putting it in the hands of the Scottish ministry. Harley trusted the revenue commissioners far less and was much less a respecter of the proper channels and forms of business. And, although it was done informally, patronage seems to have been directed much more from the Treasury under Harley.

This thesis looks at how the Scottish state, with a long coastline, got away with a minimal naval footprint in a period when European navies were becoming large permanent institutions. Increasingly, Scottish authorities did this by relying upon the English Royal Navy. This thesis hopes to go some way to filling the lacuna in the historiography of the Royal Navy in the seventeenth century regarding Scotland. The Royal Navy in Scotland is used as a prism through which Scottish and British state development in the period of the union of the crowns is looked at. From the standpoint of 1707 Scotland is generally seen as being an underdeveloped state. Explanations of why this was tend to point to the regal union as a cause due to the removal of key elements of statehood to London, in particular the state's 'monopoly of violence'. This thesis suggests that Scotland did not lose its monopoly of violence and that, instead of being a sign of the regal union's failure, underdevelopment actually indicates success. The Royal Navy shielded Scotland from much of the maritime insecurity which would generate demands to create a significant Scottish naval force. However, this relative success was not indicative of British development providing structures to allow the Royal Navy to react well to Scottish defence needs. Multiple monarchy was a poor organisational structure and AngloScottish communication on naval matters was either poor or non-existent. Instead, geopolitical and strategic factors meant that much Royal Naval provision principally aimed at English defence also helped Scotland. That these factors did not lead to equal protection against all types of maritime threats offers an alternative explanation for the maritime tensions between England and Scotland in the 1690s which Eric Graham identifies with the imposition of English mercantilism on Scotland.

One of the most recent developments within imperial historiography has been the consideration of specifically Scottish attitudes to the expansion of the British Empire and how it impacted upon Scotland from a social-economic, political and also cultural perspective. However an unproven consensus has taken root that Scots were generally enthusiastic about this process, demonstrated by increasing participation in Britain's imperial military and commercial institutions, mass emigration to North America and the emergence of new economic sectors which depended on Atlantic trade. This dissertation argues for the existence of scepticism within eighteenth-century Scottish society towards numerous aspects of the British Empire. Crucially these attitudes were present across multiple sections of society, expressed within the records of influential institutions such as the major burgh councils or the Church of Scotland, widely perused pamphlets and periodicals, the private correspondence of prominent aristocrats and even amongst the signature works of the Edinburgh literati. This scepticism, or ambivalence, will not be presented as simply expressions of direct hostility to empire itself. Much of it related to the British Empire becoming a very different type of entity than many Scots had hoped it would be. The most common expression of this anxiety revolved around the preferred benefits of a commercial empire, based on overseas trade and often through joint stock companies and fears over the ever greater influence of settler colonies in North America. Criticism of Britain's imperial trading companies was though still very much present, especially amongst the landed gentry towards returning “nabobs.” Chronologically, and structurally, this thesis will start by considering the impact of the Darien Scheme's failure on Scotland. This disaster forced Scottish society to largely focus on domestic improvement, particularly during the first half of the eighteenth century. The first half of this thesis will demonstrate the extent to which the country's economy was not centred on imperial commerce by examining the development of the Scottish banking and agricultural sectors. Banking will feature very prominently within this thesis, partly because of what Scotland's eighteenth-century financial crises say about the true influence of empire on the economy. Also the minutes of the chartered banks demonstrate that the chartered banking system did not offer significant levels of support to colonial trading links. The second part will show how scepticism existed as a consequence of the great, and often resented, human costs of imperial expansion; whether through emigration to Britain's North American colonies or military service overseas. In contrast to these sacrifices, the presumed benefits of empire, including the wider presence of colonial products, were frequently derided as being not only harmful for parts of Scotland's domestic economy but also a source of moral and social corruption.

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The earldom of Ross was a dominant force in medieval Scotland. This was primarily due to its strategic importance as the northern gateway into the Hebrides to the west, and Caithness and Sutherland to the north. The power derived from the earldom’s strategic situation was enhanced by the status of its earls. From 1215 to 1372 the earldom was ruled by an uninterrupted MacTaggart comital dynasty which was able to capitalise on this longevity to establish itself as an indispensable authority in Scotland north of the Forth. By the fifteenth century the earldom had passed to an equally powerful dynasty, the MacDonald lords of the Isles, and became a part of one of the most powerful regional hegemonies of medieval Scotland. The earldom and the power of its earls are acknowledged by most scholars, yet it remains a relatively under-analysed subject, as scholarship tends to gravitate towards viewing Ross through the MacDonald lordship of the Isles, or through the Scottish kings. This has led to Ross being treated as a secondary subject. Moreover, little has been done to compare the two principal dynasties that ruled the earldom and explore issues of continuity between the two. This thesis will study Ross through the comital dynasties that ruled it and the important local magnates within it, and will provide a Ross-centred platform from which to analyse the political development of the earldom. The thesis will also address issues of continuity, beginning with the origins of the Mac ant t-sagairt earldom and trace its political evolution until the MacDonald claim to Ross was finally extinguished in the early sixteenth century. This thesis will be the first long duree study of this Scottish earldom, and will increase our understanding of Ross and its earls who were so vital to Scotland’s medieval history.