Scotla's Cultural Renewals

The Sunday Times has been running debates on whether Scots culture has declined in recent years, with an article by Hugh Andrew: criticising the quality of Scots culture today and claiming it is only about clichés and worn-out tat.  (Andrew is Director Birlinn publishers). David Keenan asks if Scots are the only nation that consume cheap tat – well this is certainly not true! Go to any major city worldwide then and find even cheaper .

While historian Tom Devine wondered Scots are too keen on ‘celebrities of limited talent’ over great writers, scientists, artists and scholars. The article also wondered, why has there not been more celebration of the 700 years of  the Declaration of Arbroath: the world’s greatest documents of nationhood, liberty, and freedom – well that is next April 2020 and we’ll celebrate then! 

I find all this astonishing and not my experience at all. The unionist press likes to run articles demeaning the Scots and Scotland - because don’t we need our Etonian masters in London making decisions for us? Well Hello magazine and the Daily Mail are not Scottish publications! Celebrity culture has reached us from America.  

However author Denise Mina, wisely writes that talent often develops from a rich cultural soil, rather than any controlled executive. 

SCOTS TRADITIONS: The School of Scottish Studies archives  was set up in 1951, by Calum Maclean (brother of poet Sorley Maclean) and by folklorist and poet Hamish Henderson. They collaborated with American folklorist Alan Lomax. Folklorist Margaret Bennet also worked at the school: they worked to keep Gaelic, Scots and traditional ballads alive. A degree course was established in 1986, and is now known as Celtic and Scottish Studies. Bennet’s son, Martyn mixed traditional voices, Bothy ballads, and pipes with contemporary dance grooves. At Celtic Connections 2014, Greg Lawson's innovative Grit orchestra performed Bennet's album to great acclaim .

In 1994 Aly Bain and other musicians began a small Glasgow winter festival, Celtic Connections, which has now evolved into the world biggest folk, roots and world music festival and takes place in 32 venues over 18 days and with artists coming worldwide. Many artists perform Robert Burns and other traditional songs, as well as singing in Gaelic. Glasgow is ideal for the folk festival with its many diverse and much loved venues – Barrowlands, King Tuts, Oran Mor, Old Fruitmarket  concert hall and more. - https://www.celticconnections.com

Edinburgh also is the perfect historic city for its major arts festival each August – begun in 1947, it attracts visitors worldwide and is one of the world’s oldest and most significant cultural events. Edinburgh International festival - https://www.eif.co.uk

Aly Bain

Dougie MacLean

Mogwai

SCOTS ARTS. Glasgow also boasts the work of the Glasgow Boys Colourists, 1890s to 1910. 

Glasgow’s Rennie Mackintosh Art School may have been destroyed by fire, but more people than ever appreciate and enjoy Macintosh’s work at the Home for an Art Lover and at the LIghthouse. In Glasgow there is also the impressive Kelvingrove and the Burrell collection. While Edinburgh boasts the Scottish Portrait gallery and National Galleries. In the 90s the head of Scottish Arts wanted to close the portrait galleries, claiming no significant Scottish art! 

SCOTS MEDIA. We’re poorly served by media and by Creative Scotland though, with a struggle to build Scotland a film studio (amazingly considering Wales, Northern Ireland, Birmingham have studios). Even though we have some of the world’s greatest scenery. And no Scottish TV channels: when even the poorest European country, Moldova, has its own tv channel.  However the global success of Outlander has seen a film studio built. While the new BBC Scotland channel is mostly playing it safe. 

What has been a problem is Scots institutions being run by outsiders who don’t value or understand Scot’s traditions or history. I studied art, history at school in Edinburgh, in the 70s, but learned nothing of Scots culture, history or heritage. I’m now teaching myself and learning of our great enlightenment, art and song.  For decades, no centuries, there has been deliberate policies to suppress Scots culture.  

SCOTS MUSIC. Scots music has enjoyed a renaissance since the 70s –  Average White band, Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Franz Ferdinand, Lulu, Texas, Snow Patrol, Gerry Rafferty, Annie Lennox, Del Amitri – to name a few. With some of the most innovative and creative talent. Scots artists have achieved great success in 2019 – a particular shout out to the newcomer Lewis Capaldi. Plus Calvin Harris, Mogwai, Emeli Sande, Chvrches, Tom Walker, Kathryn Joseph, Young Fathers, C Duncan, Be Charlotte, Frightened Rabbit,... Scotland definitely punches above its size.

On the folk Trad scene there is outstanding talent both young and old – Karine Polwart, Braebach, Rura, Blazin Fiddles, Dick Gaughan, Rab Noakes, Blue Rose Code, Dougie MacLean, Skerryvore, Julie Fowlis, many more

Alexander MacColl Smith

I attend Edinburgh Book festival each year, which was begun in 1983 and is the UKs oldest book festival. Scots literature is not only thriving, but producing some of the worlds best known writers – Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Iain Banks, Christopher Brookmyre, Alexander MacColl Smith, Ali Smith, Alasdair Gray, more …Dundee games industry is a world leader and now also boasts the iconic Dundee V & A designed by Kengo Kuma.-  https://www.edbookfest.co.uk

What has been a problem is Scots institutions being run by outsiders who don’t value or understand Scot’s traditions or history. I studied art, history at school in Edinburgh, in the 70s, but learned nothing of Scots culture, history or heritage. I’m now teaching myself and learning of our great enlightenment, art and song.  For decades, no centuries, there has been deliberate policies to suppress Scots culture.  

II  Since the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999 twenty years ago, there has been renewed confidence to believe in and understand our rich Scots traditions and heritage. Artists are now proud to sing in their Scots accent. Gaelic is more popular than ever. My local folk club is flourishing. We also have many highly respected academics such as the distinguished historian Tom Devine, along with 4 fo the world's top universities. 

Scotland is creative and bold, but we allow other places (such as London) to make money out of our creativity. Big London outfits are profiting from turning Edinburgh into a Scottish Disneyland of the North. More money must be kept in Scotland to improve roads and infrastructure. We must teach more business in Schools and how to protect and keep the money here in Scotland: and build our own infrastructures.

For our size our cultural contributions are outstanding. They are also grassroots, rather than top down by some Big Label machine – and in my opinion much healthier and creative for it. 

Postscript

**Special mention to artist and writer Alasdair Gray 1934 – 2019. We have just lost one of Scotland’s great artists and innovators. I took photos of him Edinburgh a few years back – what a great character! 

Culloden moors

Culloden moors

We stopped at the eerie sight of Culloden moors, which were covered in a layer of crisp snow. I thought of the battlefield sights we’ve lost – where is the real Bannockburn? I hope there will not be houses built here when Scotland has plenty of land.

One of the guys in his red jacket and bunnnet was explaining the battle to me - he didn't seem to be aware this was a "religious battle" - or of the Thirty Years religious wars in Europe at the time etc. etc. There were German, French and Irish troops involved too. No Tom Devine history books in their bookshop either - clearly a saniized version told here By Historic Scotland.

Victimhood in a kilt

**Scottish Cringe

Historian Tom Devine talks of ‘Victimhood in a kilt” – particularly the popular John Prebble books - 

Glencoe, Highland Clearances. 

Not so long ago, and even now, we are told Scotland needs hand outs and is too wee and too poor! It’s a total lie.

But Scots must stop apologising! The Gulf stream makes our weather temperate and our weather (while it may be changeable) is actually better than many places! I lived in Chicago which in winter has15 feet snow drifts and minus 15 degrees wind chill. Some places suffer tornadoes or Tsunamis.

I grew up with the Scottish cringe. ‘Donald where’s your troosers and naff white heather club sashes. Now at Celtic Connections I see respect for our old bothy traditions and Gaelic songs – for our Scottish enlightenment and our innovations.  

We should in fact be proud!  The trouble is our history has been neglected and suppressed , especially over the past decades. In fact we’ve been told lies and disinformation. 

People in Northern Ireland know about England’s rivers but not about the rivers in Ireland. The Irish were told it was the Scots who murdered when an independence and reform uprising in Wexford in 1798. So then fifty years later Irish troops were used for the Highland Clearances when the people were chased off their lands and put on ships to Canada. 

Centenary Hamish Henderson at Edinburgh book festival 2019

Hamish Henderson

Like Burns before him, he looked to the traditions of the Gaelic and Scots ballads, and he gave expression to a nations heart. 

Spring quickens. 
In the Shee Water I'm fishing. 
High on Whaup's mountain time heaps stone on stone. 
The speech and silence of Christ's world is Gaelic, 
And youth on age, the tree climbs from the bone. 

A piper played in Henderson’s well kent and loved song Freedom Come All Ye,and we all sang along, The event was part of Edinburgh International book festival 2019,

Tonight was a tribute concert for Scotland’s great poet and song collector Hamish Henderson. 

On the centenary of his birth, poets have come together to celebrate his rebellious spirit and influence with a unique poem anthology. – THE DARG

Poet, translator, Highland folklorist, Henderson was part of the Scottish folk revival and a co-founder of the Edinburgh university’s Scottish studies. He was a campaigner for the Scottish parliament and guiding light behind the Edinburgh fringe festival.

I first saw photos of Hamish at the Old Fruitmarket venue Glasgow. I heard of his song, Freedom Come all Ye. That he had been a frequent visitor at Sandy Bells bar, Forrest road; a collector of Scots song and a co-founder of Scottish studies at Edinburgh university. I was also a frequent visitor at Sandy Bells back in the 80s, before I moved abroad.  

He became a folklorist and collector of Scots Bothy ballads and Gaelic song, to keep Scots voices alive. He spent years tracking down storytellers and folk singers with the American folklorist Alan Lomax. Together they recorded hours of traditional ballads, Gaelic work songs, children’s songs and contemporary folk songs from all over Scotland. His ambition was to record a people’s history before it has disappeared. To preserve the tales told around the campfires, tinker storytellers and songs of the singer Jeanie Robertson. .

Tribute concert for cemetery for Hamish Henderson

Our Oral Histories. Author, critic and broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove, (writing in the Sunday National 15.09.19 ) wondered, who will record the significant oral history of our vital Scots independence movement today?Who is there to collat our energetic indy movement – of all those who gave up so much of their time and energy to work tirelessly. All those how “gave up their jobs, rode Yes bikes, stuffed envelopes, designed flyers and pounded the streets.” 

He writes of the importance of such histories - “Oral histories require many volunteers, researchers and recorders willing to travel extensively… “Oral history is a collection of historical information using interviews with ordinary people who have unique perspectives on important events, first hand evidence of the past which captures people’s experiences and opinions often in ways that contrast with or contradict official history.”  It is “history from the bottom up, told by onlookers, joiners, unemployed – not through the eyes of the powerful. “

**Scotland present desire for our self-determination and independence has deep, creative and authentic roots because of visionaries such as Hamish Henderson. 

**Hamish Scott Henderson (1919 – 2002)grew up in a cottage in the Spittal of Glenshee. And like Burns his mother was s singer of Gaelic songs. He was also a soldier in the Second world war: He studied Modern Languages at Cambridge. In the years leading up to the war, as a visiting student in Germany, he ran messages for a Quaker organization aiding the Germans resistance and helping to rescue Jews. Later he moved to Edinburgh and frequented the folk bar Sandy bells.

**Biographer Timothy Neat  wrote in the Guardian March 2002, “Like Burns, Henderson was, first and last, a poet, and poetry was for them both language rising into song, responsible to moment, people, place and joy.” 

“The tryst of Hamish Henderson, who has died aged 82, was with Scotland. It was a meeting of high consequence - across the 20th century, in darkness and in sun, Scotland informed all that Henderson was as a man and a poet. “

“Not for Henderson Auden's conceit that poetry never made anything happen; he believed that "poetry becomes people" and changes nations, that poetry elevates and gives expression to the deepest and best being of mankind, that poetry is a measure that extends far beyond the written word, that poetry is pleasure and a call to arms.” Timothy Neat

As he states in his prologue to the Elegies: 

Let my words knit what now we lack 

The demon and the heritage 

And fancy strapped to logic's rock. 

A chastened wantonness, a bit 

That sets on song a discipline, 

A sensuous austerity. 

Freedom Come All Ye

Roch the wind in the clear day’s dawin
Blaws the cloods heelster-gowdie ow’r the bay,
But there’s mair nor a roch wind blawin
Through the great glen o’ the warld the day.
It’s a thocht that will gar oor rottans
– A’ they rogues that gang gallus, fresh and gay –
Tak the road, and seek ither loanins
For their ill ploys, tae sport and play

Nae mair will the bonnie callants
Mairch tae war when oor braggarts crousely craw,
Nor wee weans frae pit-heid and clachan
Mourn the ships sailin’ doon the Broomielaw.
Broken faimlies in lands we’ve herriet,
Will curse Scotland the Brave nae mair, nae mair;
Black and white, ane til ither mairriet,
Mak the vile barracks o’ their maisters bare.

So come all ye at hame wi’ Freedom,
Never heed whit the hoodies croak for doom.
In your hoose a’ the bairns o’ Adam
Can find breid, barley-bree and painted room.
When MacLean meets wi’s freens in Springburn
A’ the roses and geans will turn tae bloom,
And a black boy frae yont Nyanga
Dings the fell gallows o’ the burghers doon.

Tom Devine’s Revelations on the Lowland Clearances

Silence of the dispossessed: Give them back their voice.

No peasant happily gives up his land…

Was there protest, what happened?

Lack of lasting folk tradition of removal, no trace of what went before….

An Elegy for those who’ve gone, reconstruct world no longer there…

The aching beauty, the autumn when the bracken is down,

Devine spoke of the dispossession and social changes of the early 19^thcentury. The connections to the land was severed and the cottar, the tenant farmer vanished. He claims these Clearances were more thorough in the Scottish Lowlands. Devine has been pursuing research on the devastation of the Lowlands for many years with his team of researchers. They searched in the kirk sessions records for notice of removals. 

From the mid 18^thcentury onwards, land improvement meant there was the transition to the - one industrialisation and, two urbanization revolution and three a corrosive transformation of the countryside. The old farm toons were swept aside for centres of farm settlements. Instead now there were landless farm servants, and wage labourers. The will of the landowners ruled and no newspapers reported these Lowland clearances.  In 1720 Galloway lairds set up large ranches parks for cattle and sheep. There was severe dislodgement. Scotland became a grossly unequal society.

He spoke of the resistance of the Levellers revolt who knocked down stone dykes. In 1724, huge numbers of armed gangs, of men, women & children roamed the Galloway countryside levelling dykes built around the expanding number of cattle fields. These cattle fields were introduced by landlords as far back as a century earlier in a bid to make the land more profitable to them, but it was only in the 1720s that the revolt, later named the ‘Leveller’s Revolt’, became widespread and worrisome enough that armed guards were called in to protect the fields and quell dissent. The revolt gained national attention from the church, state and even the King. In this extract, taken from The Scottish Clearances, author Tom Devine looks at the factors that contributed to this very specific armed resistance. 

The clan chiefs lived in fine houses in Edinburgh. Later the sheep ranchers moved into the Highlands. The lawyer Thomas Muir attempted constitution reform, when only 0.12% had the vote (1832 Reform Act) and he was tried and deported for these views.

*The Scottish Tourist board markets Scotland for its solitude and tranquillity. He spoke of the false “victimhood in a kilt” put forward by the Prebble books: of the decline of Scotland over the past centuries and the scale of emigration. All the film, drama, literature is on the highlands as the soul of Scottish identity. Many Scots moved out to try to run the world. There were those many Scots on the make!

There were several interesting questions – one about how the Scots immigrants to Australia badly treated the aborigines there. Devine’s answer was that the Scots immigrants were middle rank Highland society. At that time there were several centres of excellence which supported racism and Darwin’s theory of the fittest. 

Devine spoke passionately about how important it is to understand the truths about our past stories. “A mature, democratic nation recognises its real history with critical and uncomfortable questions.” 

“We must face the past, and not politicise or mythologize it. Social memory makes us who we are and to understand modern nations if we know where it came from. There are real scholars out there, with clear thinking and good research.” Devine is clearly one of them!

Devine was interviewed by journalist Alan Little. 

Sir Tom Devine is Scotland’s leading historian and he came out in support of Scottish Independence in 2014. Devine lectures and publishes books to address the widespread ignorance of most Scots of their recent histories, heritage and past stories. 

BOOKS - 

The Scottish Nation: A Modern History 1707 - present

The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900

The Lowland Clearances were one of the results of the Scottish Agricultural Revolution which changed the traditional system of agriculture which had existed in Lowland Scotland, in the seventeenth century. Thousands of cottars and tenant farmers from the southern counties (Lowlands) of Scotland migrated from farms and small holdings they had occupied to the new industrial centres of Glasgow, Edinburgh and northern England or abroad, or remaining upon land though adapting to the Scottish Agricultural Revolution.

Extract taken from The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900By Tom Devine
Published by Allen Lane

Part of the answer might be found in the economic sphere. By the early eighteenth century the big cattle farms were beginning to encroach on, and enclose, open or common grazing grounds, the ‘commonties’ referred to earlier in the chapter. That process would have proven a serious threat to peasant communities which were not subject to direct eviction. They would have experienced profound problems from strategies which menaced the tight margins of their household economies.

The slender balance between subsistence and shortage might have been squeezed by the annexation of common lands. Again, there is evidence that not only landowners but tenant farmers had tried to exploit the new post-Union market opportunities in the cattle trade. Some had invested in more stock because of those possibilities. Now, however, as ‘parking’ intensified, they stood to lose the vitally important access to the common grazings for the livestock they had purchased at great risk. For them and their families, descent into penury and beggary might follow.

There was also the economic context of the Galloway clearances to be considered. As argued in Chapter 4, in parts of the central and eastern Borders, the dispossession of small tenants and cottars to make way for larger sheep runs was paralleled by the growth of cottage industry and employment opportunities for the displaced in the towns of Kelso, Hawick, Selkirk and Jedburgh. 

But these alternatives were not available to anything like the same extent in Galloway, where woollen working and other manufactures were much less developed. It is likely, therefore, that the poorer rural communities in the western Borders were faced with a much narrower set of options: acceptance of ‘parking’ and eventual likely eviction, or violent resistance in an attempt to reverse the transformation of the old agrarian society. . .

In addition, however, we also need to probe the complex world of west Border political and religious history in order to provide a comprehensive explanation for the Levellers’ Revolt. Arguably it is there that the distinctive origins of the disturbances can be found. Several aspects of the recent Galloway past are relevant to the analysis. 

The long Covenanting tradition of south-west Scotland was important. The restoration of King Charles II in 1660 led once again to the rule of bishops in the Presbyterian church. This action was thought heretical and oppressive by many pious communities and their ministers, and in open conflict with the sacred Covenants between Christ and his church established during the civil wars of the 1640s. As a result, many clergymen left their parishes and held alternative open-air services or conventicles. These were soon outlawed by the state as treason and the army then enforced the will of the King, often in a particularly brutal fashion. This period, known as the ‘Killing Times’, is still marked in the countryside around Wigtown, Kirkcudbright and Dumfries by the many memorials to the martyrs who defied the civil authorities and faithfully clung to their ideals despite savage state oppression. Galloway remained a hotbed of Covenanting activity despite the draconian policies of the monarchy.

Not surprisingly, the majority of the population were therefore enthusiastic about the removal of the Stuart king, James VII and II, in the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688–9. But then the Jacobite Rising of 1715 rekindled the old fears of a Stuart counter-revolution. Bitter memories were revived, not simply of the Killing Times, but also of the many years of Presbyterian struggle between the signing of the National Covenant in 1638 and the Revolution of 1688.

We Need New Stories

Through understanding our past stories: and as singer songwriter Rab Noakes says, "a future with no past has no future". New stories can emerge through the exchange of ideas, new stories may emerge.

Professor Tom Devine writes, in his latest book, The Scottish Clearance: A History of the Dispossessed, that until the 1960s, there were few academic studies on Scotland’s history after the Union of 1707.((there were more on Yorkshire)

Is democracy failing today, with the rise of populism, and as people seem to have lost all trust and faith in the system? Military expert now say its all about counterintelligence – Russia and China are experts in this field. Its no longer about huge warships and its about who controls information flows. With the rise of cyber warfare and online propaganda, how can we protect our freedoms and democracies. How can we regain trust?

We in Europe we must remember we do have the rule of law, some accountability measures of free press, vibrant arts and quality universities. Knowledge is central – reading stories, creativity, collaborations and understanding our past.  

Most Scots have pride in their Scottish culture: from our highland glens, ballads and poetry, Edinburgh enlightenment, border hills, western isles, imposing historic castles and ever changing skies. We’ve had turbulent histories: William Wallace, John Knox, Mary Queen of Scots, Bannockburn, Reformation, Jacobites. We are known for our whisky, Clyde ships, fish, oil, tweed, tartan, golf, poetry and song.

We’ve given the world the great songs of Robert Burns and other great writers. And innovations such as Penicillin, steam engines and more. The traditions are continued by powerful troubadours of folk music with popular live acoustic music and world scale festivals such as Celtic connections and Edinburgh festivals – the world’s biggest arts festival. 

I am encouraged that Scotland’s first minster is a keen reader. But equally dismayed to read that neither Trump or Corbyn are readers. In fact Trump has fake book covers lining his walls. Says it all really. 

Our national poet Robert Burns was a ferocious reader and read at the dinner table. He enjoyed his aunts stories, his mothers songs and his fathers reading and conversations. Famous fashion designer, Karl Lagerfield, valued his vast library of books above all else. Francoise Frenkel, fled the Nazis ( author of No Place to Rest my Head) - and it was her books and poems that kept her hope alive. When the Communist regime in Russia wanted to control arts and thought, they exiled any free thinkers, writers and artists on the Philosophy steamer. 

Tom Devine:The English in Scotland talk Edinburgh book festival 2018

Scotland's leading historian looked at the nation's main migrant group, who have outnumbered all other immigrants combined over the last fifty years — the English. 

Devine has co-authored a book on Immigrant communities –  New Scots: Scotland's Immigrant Communities Since 1945. He spoke of one of the most salient issues of our time - English people in Scotland.  

For centuries the Scots have travelled extensively and in France they spoke of “Rats and Scotchmen, you find them everywhere.” There has been Scots mobility into England, America, Caribbean, India, Australasia. There has been a great loss of skills and young for a very long time. A net emigration.  

He commented that the English have contributed a great deal to our universities and that many English people have moved here to avoid the marketization in England. 

At the 2014 Referendum, the English voted 70% no, which compared to the International group, who voted 42% yes. This did not significantly effect the vote he feels, as the English are less then 10% of the population. He says that any abrasiveness between the English and Scottish has more to do with class than ethnicity - or being in bed with an elephant! 

Devine spoke of history education in schools and he recommended to teach Scotland, Britain and world. He was asked about the teaching of history in Scotland. He replied that the history of Scotland has been spotty, pop-up and dysfunctional and not good enough to teach. There has been a revolution in the last ten decades however. 

 Scotland is the earliest state in Europe and went into a partnership with a bigger state. But since 1707 there has been the evolution of a dual identity, both British and Scots since the18^thcentury. However there has been integration, but not assimilation. 

Historians use representative evidence, to get to the norm. 

Devine’s new Book in 2018 is on the Clearances - The Scottish Clearnces: A History of the Dispossessed 1600 - 1900: which discusses the clearances of the Cottars in the Scottish lowlands.  (October 2018)

The Lies History Tells Us: the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Divided Europe in 1648

**History is written by the victors who often tell lies and there are many mistruths or lies told in our British histories. The English civil wars – were really the 10 years “Wars of the Three Kingdoms!” So what is the real story of the Union of the Crowns and Union of the Parliament?  I’ve been reading of the histories we are not taught – the important Westminster Confessions (1646), the War of the Three Kingdoms (1638 – 1651) and the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) and of Elizabeth Stuart. Our history has been deliberately skewed to ignore Scotland’s part. 

What’s the strange and turbulent story of these islands of Britain  - a story of turbulence, interconneedness, drama, misunderstandings, aggression, suppression, co-operation – hope. And royal inter marriage. I was surprised to read of the importance of Elizabeth Stuart, I'd never heard of her.  Henry Tudor had his daughter  Margaret Tudor married to James IV.  His granddaughter Mary Queen of Scots son James VI became James I of England, Ireland and Scotland. Followed by Charles I, Cromwell (who suppressed Ireland), Charles II,  William of Orange and Mary I, Mary II, Ann.

 Importantly at the time of the Westminster Confessions, Scotland and England were equal partners. During Charles I reign a terrible religious strife tore Europe apart – the Thirty Years war. James I and VI had his popular charismatic daughter Elizabeth married to Frederick of Palatine, an important Calvinist. She is well known as the Winter Queen, who held court in the Hague and Prague. Her grandson was George of Hanover. Ah now I understand the connections. 

We’ve been fed disinformation and not told the truth. Does this matter? Well in our perception of the union today it matters greatly. In 1603 Scotland’s population was 1m and England’s was 5m.

The Westminster Confessions was massively significant. It took 3 years to draw up, 1643 – 1646, with standards of doctrine, confessions and catechisms which were adopted by both the Church of Scotland and Church of England. This was a joint declaration – drawn up to secure the help of the Scots against the King Charles I.

Elizabeth Stuart

Charles had attempted to impose the Anglican bible on the Scots years earlier in 1636 and the Scots would have none of it and war broke out in 1638. This was the start of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – and NOT the English Civil wars as we have been told – not at all! The English parliament raised armies in alliance with the Scottish Covenanters.

At this time the Thirty Years War was raging over Europe. James VI had Elizabeth Stuart (his popular, charismatic daughter) married Frederick of Palatine in 1613 – an important Calvinist in the wars. And her grandson was George of Hanover. Charles I was executed in 1649 after the war fo the Three Kingdoms. 

In 1652 Charles II came back from France, he fought and lost – down near Worcester, where he hid in an oak tree. I visited the pub he was at last year! And was forced to flee again. After 10 years of Cromwell’s rule (he also invaded Ireland, which led to great disruption there) after he died his son was deposed and Charles II was brought back.

Henry Stuart

James I and VI (1567 - 1625)

II   When the union of Parliaments happened in 1707 – Scotland was to keep its ‘sovereignty’ of the people - to keep its Kirk, legal system and education. Scotland’s Protestant kirk was about people interpreting the bible for themselves which meant that every parish was to have a school to teach reading. The great teacher George Buchanan wrote about democracy for the people. 

This meant that sovereignty lay with the people – and not with any Westminster parliament and quite different to the English Anglican church. In 1696 the Scottish parliament act for setting of schools locally funded, church supervised schools for every parish. Discussion of interpretations and understanding of the bible became a way of life. 

George Buchanan

**A HUNDRED YEARS LATER - So what were the Jacobite challenges really about? When both Scotland and Ireland supported Charles II, because they did not want the imposition of Cromwell’s English parliament to have sovereignty over their nations. The Anglican Orange Lodge was set up to sow division against the United Irishmen in 1797 - there was also a Scottish Rebellion in 1797, the year Burns died. Charles II had no successors.There were primarily religious wars.

James VI and I -  Elizabeth of England has no successors, in 1603 James VI became James I of England, Ireland and Scotland. After his death Charles I ruled less successfully.  His older brother Henry died and his older sister Elisabeth Stuart became the Queen of Bohemia – the Winter Queen. She held court over in Prague and in the Hague Europe.