This thesis seeks to explore the various worlds of early modern spirituality through the lens of one important and influential figure, Arthur Hildersham. Using diocesan, parish, and national records, and a close study of Hildersham’s printed works, it traces the story of one strand of England’s parallel Reformations. Hildersham’s long association with the parish of Ashby-de-la-Zouch provides the opportunity to examine the progress of the puritan Reformation in a particular locality over an extended period. His role as a godly pastor, and the message he delivered to his people, are considered. The thesis attempts to show that the effect of puritanism within a parish community was not necessarily divisive or unpopular, particularly when it was promulgated for many years and supported by a godly patron. Hildersham’s participation in networks of godly sociability and movements for further reformation illustrate how powerful and wide-reaching such associations could be. As an archetype of ‘Jacobethan’ nonseparating nonconformity, Hildersham’s career supplies a focus for looking at shifting configurations of conformity and orthodoxy. His ambivalent relationship with the ecclesiastical establishment, it is argued, demonstrates that even the most principled nonconformists had more agency than is sometimes allowed. How Hildersham was able to maintain a position of influence despite his frequent suspensions is examined. Recent studies of puritan culture have challenged a familiar radical/moderate paradigm, and this thesis supports the argument that the boundaries between mainstream puritans like Hildersham and those on the radical fringes were, in practice, blurred. However, it rejects the conclusion that all puritanism was intrinsically radical and that its adherents were incipient heretics. Hildersham’s legacy allows us to explore how a later age fashioned and used the memory of the past. It is hoped that this study will contribute to our understanding of the multi-layered experience of post-Reformation English religion.

By 1360 the Perpendicular style was established as the successor to Decorated architecture. During the subsequent one hundred and eighty years, until the Reformation, major building work was carried out at four great churches in the south west of England. The complete reconstructions of St Mary Redcliffe, Sherborne Abbey and Bath Abbey, and considerable work to the precinct at Wells Cathedral during this period, form the basis for this thesis. Through a study of each of these major centres, the issues of workshop identity and stylistic trendsetters are considered. It is shown how the interpretation of documentary evidence has impeded an understanding of these buildings, which can be revealed by an analysis of the fabric. Based primarily on a methodology of buildings archaeology and assessment of moulding profiles, traditional assumptions concerning the chronology and patronage are challenged. The new chronology for works at Sherborne Abbey, and the redating of the commencement of Bath Abbey further our understanding of the nature of masons' workshops, patronage and stylistic development within a regional context. Introspection in masons' workshops during the 15th century, and retrospection in later design in the region, demonstrates a reliance on the innovations of the 14th century, and the significance of the parish church tradition in the region, respectively. The thesis concludes with a discussion on the influence of major church workshops on domestic architecture, and the impact of the dissemination of the lodges in the early 16th century.

This thesis is set in the inter-war years, when Britain retained her control over the Arab world by various devices - mandate, protectorate, colony. At the geographical, strategic and religious heart of the Middle East lay Saudi Arabia, an independent state. Despite her sensitive location, the acknowledgment of Saudi Arabia's independence suggests a different type of relationship with Britain.This thesis seeks to examine that relationship by pursuing certain paths of enquiry, based on how Britain responded in an, imperial age to an independent Arab state situated in the middle of an area of near exclusive British control. Britain had to adjust to the contrast between the personal stature of King Ibn Saud and his remote and barren Kingdom. She bad to ascertain whether; as was popularly believed, he was basically well-disposed towards Britain. She had to consider whether to support his regime when, for dynastic and religious reasons, it sought territorial expansion in the mandatss and the Gulf sheikhdoms. In addition, Britain had to consider whether her interests were best served by encouraging the opening-up of Saudi Arabia to the outside world, or by retaining her own pre-eminent influence by excluding external penetration wherever possible.These issues are tackled by concentrating on four central featuresof British policy. Consideration is given, firstly,.to the political machinery and diplomatic channels engineered to facilitate relations with the Saudi state. Secondly, territorial disputes constituted the greatest area of concern for British policy, affecting Britain's strategic objectives in the Middle East. Territorial disputes in all four corners of the Saudi Kingdom are analysed. Thirdly, Britain's responses to various sources of external interest in Saudi Arabia are considered; Italian imperialism; American economic speculation; German intrigue; possible Saudi membership of the League of Nations; and Saudi Arabia's connections with Palestine and pan-Arabism. Finally there is the matter of oil, and whether it played a central or peripheral role in British policy towards Saudi Arabia between 1925-1939.

The thesis has a number of general aims, which range around conceptualising the Loyal Orange Institution [LOI] and laying it open for a fruitful theoretical approach. There is first in Section One, a demarcation of the object of study, drawing a rigorous line between the LOI and a much more indefinite body of militant Protestant and anti-Catholic sentiment. Following on from this, the causal regress is shifted beyond a commonsense attribution of `sectarianism', and the conspiratorial or functionalist emphases which tend to dominate the existing literature. Generally more appropriate, in analysing Orangeism's progress in 19th century Scotland, is a conception of ideology which is structural and objective. Yet care is also taken here not to erase all instances of social control in the Movement's history. These, it is suggested, can be viewed as arising from basic inequalities of power in capitalism, in turn the result of economic inequalities and control of the state apparatus. A further difficulty with the more `sophisticated' Marxist approach is also raised. For, if this is a better fit with Orangeism's political and ideological content; in its embracing of endemic fractionalisation of the proletariat, it does seem to abandon a characteristic Marxist class analysis in favour of a neo-Weberian one. It is agreed that this indicated the need for a new Marxist approach to sectionalism. The construction of such an approach, however, requires concrete historical work rather than more speculative theorising. Accordingly it is the former which is the concern of this thesis, though it does raise a number of themes which are important for further theoretical consumption. Section Two, for example, suggests the necessity of rethinking the relation between sectarianism and sectionalism in the workplace. Related to this must also be a reconsideration of the `labour aristocracy' concept, and the explanatory value of `marginal privilege' in connection with Orangeism. The Section further emphasises the need for a phenomenological dimension in any new theory of working class sectionalism, a sensitivity to self-perceptions being particularly crucial in understanding the sources of motivation for Orangeism and the internal divisions which characterised it. An important substantive problem also structures this, and Section Three dealing with Orange political practice - namely how to account for the LOI's absolute strength, yet relative weakness in Scotland. The predicates for the former, it is argued, are found in a sympathetic ideological climate, and in the impact of successive home Rule and Disestablishment crises. Above all, though, it is suggested that the real backbone of LOI support in 19th century Scotland was formed by Ulster Protestant migrants. In Orange relations with the churches and political parties, however, this `Ulster factor' could prove a double-edged sword. For while the migrants themselves were largely integrated into Scottish society, Orangeism itself was widely perceived as an extension of Irish `party' quarrels. Coupled with a reputation for violence and drunkenness, this factor interacted in turn with broader cultural and political, as well as economic, features of 19th century Scotland. Notably these included schisms in the Scottish churches, the precarious position of the Conservative party here, and the focus of political decision-making outside the country. These points indicate, finally, the importance of an awareness of the specificity of social formations in any new approach to sectionalism.

The broad aim of this study is to examine the way in which people build worlds which are liveable and which make sense; to explore the means by which a social, intellectual order particular to time and place is embedded within the material universe. The phenomenon of monumentality is considered in the context of changing narratives of place and biographies of person and landscape, which are implicated in the making of the self and society and the perception of being in place. Three groups of megalithic mortuary monuments of quite different formal characteristics, constructed and used predominantly during the fourth and third millennia BC, are analyzed in detail within their landscape setting: a series of Clyde tombs on the Isle of Arran in southwest Scotland; a group of cairns in the Black Isle of peninsula in the northeast of the country, which belong primarily to the Orkney-Cromarty tradition; and a passage tomb complex situated in east-central Ireland, among the Loughcrew hills. Individual studies are presented for each of these distinct and diverse landscapes, which consider the ways in which natural and built form interact through the medium of the human body, how megalithic architecture operated as part of local strategies for creating a workable scheme to 'place' humanity in relation to a wider cosmos, and how the interrelation of physical, social and intellectual landscapes may have engendered particular understandings of the world. An attempt is made to write regionalized, localized neolithics which challenge some of the traditional frameworks of the discipline - in particular those concerned with morphological, chronological and economic classification - and modes of representation which, removing subject and monument from a specific material context, establish a spurious objectivity. (DXN 006, 349).

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This thesis addresses the reasons why Scottish Conservative support contracted under Thatcher, challenges the assumption that Thatcher was ‘anti-Scottish’ and places her in the wider context of Scottish Conservative and Unionist history, whilst illuminating Scottish Conservative personalities. This thesis has taken an overview of Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister, and illuminates key areas of Scottish society in the 1980s that have hitherto been under-researched. No historian or social scientist has attempted the broad perspective before. The research has been split into six chapters, and each chapter follows a chronological pattern. Chapter One provides a historical overview of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party since 1886, which is interlinked with the development of the post-war consensus. The chapter concludes by analysing Scottish Conservative Party personalities and in-fighting, both of which are under-rated features of Thatcher’s premiership. Chapter Two examines Thatcher’s economic restructuring and the growing prominence of the European Economic Community (EEC). Chapter Three analyses Thatcher’s industrial relations reforms, and the 1984/85 miners’ strike. Chapter Four scrutinises the Conservatives’ overhaul of the welfare state. Chapter Five focuses on Thatcher’s reform of local government, including the introduction of the community charge. Chapter Six charts the development of the ‘Scottish question’.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore themes in the development of national ideology in Scotland and Greece largely in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The analysis consists of two pairs of case studies where, using the comparative method, the role of historiography in providing ‘mental maps’, precise boundaries for the nation in space and time, its application in constructing a national consensus on an acceptable past, and the use of the latter in consolidating a national identity, are explored in detail. This process followed intricate paths in both Scotland and Greece and displayed rifts and fissures in patterns thought common in the development of nationalism in Europe. The fundamental ideological challenges to which significant segments of the Scottish and Greek society had to respond are shown to have influenced their respective societies’ worldview until the present time. The resilience of a number of different valid perceptions of Scotland in the nineteenth century and the dichotomy between equally possible concepts of Greece demonstrate, in concluding, the fluidity of national identity and indeterminacy of their modern ethnogenesis as late as the eve of the Great War.

The Scottish Atlantic Iron Age is recognised as falling into four periods, the EIA, MIA, LIA I and LIA II. Least is known of the LIA I, the immediate post-broch period. Original analysis of the C-14 record confirms these divisions; they result as a combination of the effects of the Trondheim calibration curve but mainly the history of archaeological survival and previous excavation strategy. A large data base of pins and combs is examined and analysed, following on the earlier work of Stevenson (1955a), because these are some of the more ubiquitous and chronologically sensitive artefacts belonging to the LIA. This provides the basis for a reconsideration of the nature of LIA settlement throughout the Atlantic Province as a whole, more particularly in the study area of Orkney and Caithness. There are still severe problems in recognising LIA, particularly LIA I activity. This analysis forms the basis for a case study of Orkney and Caithness from around the early centuries of the first millennium BC to the eighth or ninth century AD. A scheme is suggested for the structural developments witnessed over this period, and on the basis of the general trends observed, a social interpretation is put forward. An attempt is made to apply Fields of Discourse, which is contrasted with previous work in this area, because of its sound methodological approach. Archaeological application of the technique of access analysis is described and used to investigate how the use of space structured and reproduced these changing social relations. The shift from locally based power sources to more centralised, in relation to Orkney and Caithness more distant, sources of authority is demonstrated, and related to the development of the southern Pictish kingdom. This change reflects the move from intensive to extensive sources of power. Other aspects of social reproduction are examined to see if they fit within this framework. On analogy with contemporary situations elsewhere and the evidence to hand, the means by which this power may have been exercised, specifically changing agricultural practice and land tenure, and the ideological power of Christianity are speculated upon.

The subject of this dissertation is the ecclesiastical history of Scotland between 1660 and 1690. This work will examine the struggle between `presbytery' and `prelacy' in detail, and it will examine the role of the state in that conflict. The first three chapters deal with the post-Restoration church settlement and public reactions to that settlement, and these chapters are revisionist in approach. It is usually claimed that the decision to disestablish `presbytery' and revive `prelacy' in 1661 was unpopular, but the evidence in chapters one, two, and three suggests that the king's church polity--at least in the early years--aroused no great protest or outcry? Why? The war, turmoil, and taxes between 1637 and 1660 (the bitter harvest of the covenants) had left the Scots indifferent to religion in general and presbyterianism in particular, and although such attitudes would change in time, they were initially very real. Chapter four is an examination of the royal supremacy, one of the most controversial aspects of the post-Restoration church. In chapter four it will be argued that the presbyterians fundamentally misconstrued the nature of the royal supremacy--they exaggerated the king's ecclesiastical claims--but it will be shown that the crown's authority over the kirk was extensive nevertheless. Chapters five and six will examine the clergy of the post-Restoration kirk, the bishops and ministers that made it function. Chapters five and six will analyze the background and credentials of the clergy, and it will discuss the validity of the various charges made against them. Chapter seven will examine the ecclesiastical courts of the post-Restoration church, and it will discuss how the revival of prelacy affected these courts and changed their composition and function. It has been argued that the post-Restoration kirk was basically a `presbyterian church' with bishops superimposed for political purposes, but chapter seven will show that this opinion is incorrect, for in the period `church power' was clearly concentrated in the hands of the bishops, and, by and large, the church courts only existed in a mutated or abbreviated state. The changes in the church courts are important, for they help explain why the post-Restoration kirk could not accommodate presbyterians in the long run. Chapter eight is an analysis of the worship of the post-Restoration kirk. It will discuss the various developments in worship--the rejection of the Director of Public Worship, the resurrection of set forms of prayer, the repudiation of the lecture, the reinstitution of kneeling, the revival of the Perth Articles--and it will argue that the post-Restoration kirk was slowly drifting from the simple, spontaneous covenanter mode of worship to a more elaborate and structured mode that derived its inspiration from the Church of England. Chapters nine, ten and eleven are a history of presbyterian nonconformity. These chapters divide the history of dissent into three periods. First, a period of weakness (extending from early 1663 to roughly 1668-1669), when conventicles were few and most Scots conformed. This weakness was largely the result of the initial unpopularity of the covenanting cause and the traditional Scottish aversion to schism. Next, there was a period of vitality (extending from 1668-1669 to the Bothwell Bridge Rebellion), when dissent grew stronger and stronger and began to show some militant tendencies. The evidence suggests that this burst of vitality was inadvertently fostered by the government's `indulgence' policy. And finally, a third period (extending from the Rebellion to the granting of religious toleration in 1687), when conventicles again became rare and most Scots again conformed. This collapse, it will be argued, was the result of persecution (the traditional explanation) and the actions of certain radical sects who unwittingly undermined and disrupted presbyterianism with their `excesses.' Chapter twelve analyzes the persecution which the presbyterians endured. In the course of examing the various penalties used against dissenters--some of which were designed to deprive the nonconformist of his wealth and property, and others which were designed to affect the liberty, health, and even the life of the nonconformist--chapter twelve will correct some presbyterian hyperbole. The traditional presbyterian sources, such as the definitive work by Robert Wodrow, tend to emphasize the rigor of the persecution, but chapter twelve shows that the penal laws were often inconsistently applied. And finally, chapter thirteen will examine Scotland's last ecclesiastical revolution, the victory of presbyterianism in 1689-1690. The directors of the `revolution,' King William and his supporters, justified the charge on the grounds that presbyterianism was favored by the majority, but chapter thirteen questions the validity of that claim, and argues that political considerations, rather than demographic factors, were responsible for the presbyterian triumph.