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Sir Walter Scott
TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER (A Child's History of Scotland from 1033 to 1807) Volume 03 1658 - 1714 FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING: ROB ROY, THE HIGHLANDERS & SCOTLAND'S CHIVALRIC AGE. Reviewed by Patrick Killough I. For Amazon Reviewer's Rating of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER, VOLUME III: FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING (1658 - 1714) * * * * * FIVE STARS Title of this review: How England Absorbed Scotland by creating the United Kingdom, September 3, 2007 By T. Patrick Killough (Black Mountain, NC United States) This this the third of four volumes written by Sir Walter Scott as a history of Scotland for children, very intelligent children be it said! It covers the years 1658 (death of Oliver Cromwell) to 1714 (death year of the last de facto Stuart Monarch, Queen Anne). What sense is the obscure volume title, "FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING" meant to evoke? No problem with GLENCOE: at that starkly beautiful MacDonalds' site in the western highlands, 38 men, women and children were massacred by Scottish troops in the dead of winter 1792. 150 more men, along with women and children succeeded in fleeing through the snow to shelter 12 miles away. The treacherous order to slaughter every man, woman and child below 70 years old was approved by King William III. Scotland to this day has not forgiven that otherwise enlightened monarch. Why Stirling appears in the title I am not sure. Volume three of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER is close to indispensable companion reading for six Walter Scott novels set in the years 1658 - 1714: WOODSTOCK, THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY, PEVERIL OF THE PEAK, THE PIRATE, THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR and THE BLACK DWARF. Some of these romances are more political than others, but the dynastic struggles form the backdrop for all. The most biting part of Scott's narrative describes the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707. At a time when two actions of King William III (the massacre at Glencoe and his opposition to Scottish colonization of the Isthmus of Panama) had inflamed Scotland against England, English commercial interests were forced to decide between resumption of unending centuries of war with Scotland or assuring permanent peace by absorbing their smaller northern neighbor, more or less willingly. Which alternative would cost England less money? At a time when probably 95% of Scots were passionately against the Union, it was nonetheless negotiated in late 1706 and finally agreed to by the Scottish parliament. The United Kingdom opened shop in May 1707 -- on very unequal terms for Scotland. Bribes and payoffs to the Scottish negotiators and members of Parliament produced the needed votes. According to Walter Scott, the very unfair terms of the treaty of union, combined with popular detestation of all those bribed to sell Scotland's ancient national independence, gave Scotland sixty more years of avoidable turmoil and humiliation. Then at last, with the coming of King George III, the Union began to give Scotland those commercial benefits that had been promised. Meanwhile there was the Old Pretender's rising of 1707-08 and the political uncertainty who would succeed Queen Anne as she approached death in 1714. -OOO- =-=-=-=-=- II. For barnes and noble Here is how your review will appear on the title page: Patrick Killough (patrick@thekilloughs.com), seeing Scott's fiction as history, September 4, 2007 Reviewer's Rating of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER, VOLUME III: FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING (1658 - 1714) * * * * * FIVE STARS Review Title: Political Lessons the Future USA would learn from Scotland and England. Full Review: This third volume of Walter Scott's four volume history of Scotland for his pre-teen grandson covers 1658 to 1714. That is, Scott sketches the last days of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, the brief reign of his son Richard, the return from exile of King Charles II, the popular opposition against his Roman Catholic brother James's becoming monarch of Protestant Scotland and England, James's defeat by the army of his son-in-law Prince William of Orange, the co- reign of King William III and James II's daughter Mary and finally the sole reign of King James's second Protestant daughter Anne Stuart. That's a lot of Stuarts! Six of Sir Walter's 27 historical novels are set in Britain in the period between 1658 and 1714: WOODSTOCK, THE TALE OF OLD MORTALITY, PEVERIL OF THE PEAK, THE PIRATE, THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR and THE BLACK DWARF. All reflect the dynastic jockeying and religious tensions of the time. Each romance motivates readers to flesh out their reading of period novels by Walter Scott, John Galt and James Hogg with more background from Scott's less than exhaustive but brilliantly written historical series TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER. Do not think that this tale of the end of the Stuart dynasty in Scotland and England is without any application to the future United States of America. Madison, Hamilton, Franklin and other founders knew of the abuses which Scott was writing about. Those Founders used history as well as theory to decide how to apportion power between executive, legislature and judiciary as well as between center and consituent parts of a national political unity. Far-seeing Scotsmen in 1706-1707, when the Treaty was being negotiated that created the United Kingdom, sought but failed to achieve a true federal union, one in which Scotland would keep its own legislature. The United Kingdom of 1707 had three separately established national religions: Episcopalianism for England and Ireland and Presbyterianism for Scotland. North American thinkers did not like those results, especially cruel, monolithic Presbyterian action in Scotland to coerce the consciences of Catholics and Episcopalians. Americans were inspired to think of innovative ways not to establish national religions. So you may read Walter Scott's Volume III -- 1658 - 1714 -- as an early laboratory of experiments in Scotland and England that led Americans to put together something politically more advanced and humane than Britain, but also consciously derived from British history. - OOO- Other related recommended reading: -- Sir Walter Scott: OLD MORTALITY, THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR and the other three volumes of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER. -- John Galt: RINGAN GILHAIZE. -- James Hogg: THE PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- III. For epinions Reviewer: AOHCAPABLANCA Reviewer's Rating of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER, VOLUME III: FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING (1658 - 1714) * * * * * FIVE STARS Title of this review: CREATION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM: "Have we not bought the Scots?" Pros Shows creation of the United Kingdom as injustice to Scotland. Castigates religious intolerance of Presbyterians. Cons Incomprehensible, inaccurate Volume III title and subtitles. Little mention of British activities in the Americas. The Bottom Line English Colonies in North America were decades old when Volume III of Scott's History opens in 1658. Political events described in Britain set the stage for the 1775-6 American revolution. Full Review Did you ever wonder how Scotland and England were persuaded to form a new nation in 1707? Walter Scott tells all in this third volume of his boys' history of Scotland, TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER. The volume covers the years 1658 to 1714, from the death of Oliver Cromwell to the death of Queen Anne Stuart. From 1603 until 1714, a Scottish family, the Stuarts, wore the crowns of Scotland, England and Ireland. One, Queen Mary, shared regal power with her husband King William III (Prince of Orange, Netherlands). Dying in 1702, William outlived Mary by six years. Mary's 38 year old sister Anne then commenced her reign. Scott and other historians believe that Protestant Queen Anne wanted her Catholic half brother, Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, son of their father, the deposed King James II, to succeed her. And he almost did -- as Scott's Volume Four will show -- but Tory party bungling prevented that. The baton passed from Anne to a son of Anne's first cousin once removed, Sophia, Electress of Hanover. All that would come about is hinted at towards the end of Volume III of TALES OF A SCOTTISH GRANDFATHER. The meatiest part of this powerful history relates to political shenanigans leading to the extinction of Scotland as a separate nation in 1707 when the United Kingdom was created. A second theme of Sir Walter Scott is religious intolerance and the folly of giving an established Scottish "national church" power to coerce belief and practice of non-members. Scotland had been a thorn in England's side for at least a thousand years. With 1/6 England's population in 1707, it was offered only a very unfair 1/13 of the seats in a united House of Commons and only 16 seats in the Lords. Scottish negotiators for the Union were checked at every point by their overweening English counterparts. With beyond 90% of the Scottish population fervently against Union, the Scottish Parliament, bribed or otherwise bought off, as had been some of the negotiators, nonetheless voted to extinguish Scottish sovereignty. In May of 1707 the United Kingdom was born. It was another half century before there was economic payoff for Scotland. The reality of what had happened is epitomized in sayings by a Scottish and an English politician: The Scot (Chancellor of Scotland at the time of Union): "there was an end of an auld sang," (p. 201) The Englishman (Robert Harley, Secretary of State, later Earl of Oxford, speaking in Parliament on a proposed tax on linen cloth): "Have we not bought the Scots, and did we not acquire a right to tax them? or for what other purpose did we give the equivalent?" (p. 213) King James II, a Roman Catholic, had been run off the thrones of Ireland, Scotland and England after an invasion by his son-in-law, the Dutch Prince William of Orange. A generally benign, tolerant man, William had however infuriated the Scottish Highlanders by authorizing the infamous massacre of Glencoe in 1792 and had later enraged wealthy Lowlanders by torpedoing under pressure from English commercial interests a Scottish colonization of the Isthmus of Panama (1695 - 1699). Scotland was arming itself to the teeth and war with England seemed inevitable. The now supreme English commercial interests had two related major question to answer: which would cost less: war or peace? And how achieve permanent peace with Scotland? Peace would cost less and peace would be permanent only if Scotland lost its ancient independence and agreed voluntarily to dissolve its parliament and join a new nation, the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. Passage of the Treaty of Union was a near thing in 1706 and 1707. And six years later enraged Scots in the London Parliament moved dissolution of the Union. Dissolution failed by only four votes in the Commons. So a year later, when Queen Anne died, the United Kingdom was still shaky and her Royal half-brother had a good chance to become King, given that a pro-Stuart Tory Ministry was in power when she died. The second memorable theme of this Volume III of Walter Scott's boys' History of Scotland is Presbyterian intolerance in Scotland. In their different ways Oliver Cromwell and later King James II had, for different reasons, championed forms of limited religious toleration which we would call inadequate today. But at least they rejected the claims of any one religion or sect to force its views on dissenters. Not so the Presbyterians of Scotland. They were intolerant and ruthlessly, sometimes violently, suppressed dissenters from the declared Scottish national religion, most notably Roman Catholics and Scottish Episcopalians. Walter Scott had been born and bred Presbyterian but married an Episcopalian and thereafter worshipped mainly as an Episcopalian, without ever formally dissolving ties with Presbyterianism. But a constant theme in his writings is that Jesus had not prescribed a definitive "form" of religious organization or worship. Regarding persecution of others by Presbyterians, Scott wrote: "... impartial history shows us how
dangerous a matter it is to intrust the judicatures of any church with
the power of tyrannising over the consciences of those who have adopted
different forms of worship, and how wise as well as just it is to
restrict their authority to the regulation of their own establishment"
(p. 262).
Like King William III, Scott did not reject the notion of an established, Government-promoted and protected national religion. But he would not have made membership compulsory for all citizens. On December 15, 1791, on the Western side of the Atlantic Ocean, the United States of America, rebellious offshoot of the no longer shakily "United" Kingdom, ratified the first amendment to its new Constitution. That amendment both affirmed freedom of religious conscience and prohibited Congress from establishing an American national religion. Time, I think, has proven both Walter Scott and American legislators right. ***** NOTE: I cannot refrain from commenting on the unfortunate title and subtitle of this Volume III. FROM GLENCOE TO STIRLING might make sense if "Stirling" referred to anything important in the volume. "Glencoe," of course, had its chilling winter massacre, though its treatment does not begin until page 150. The subtitle refers to "Rob Roy" whose heyday is later. That Scottish Robin Hood is not even mentioned in Volume III, though he appears in Volume Four. Some serious editing seems needed. Otherwise this four-volume edition has its strengths: it is still available from booksellers and its print is helpfully large. -OOO- Recommended: Yes ==-=-=-=-=-=-=- Black Mountain 09/04/2007 file: sirws_grandfather03_1658-1714 http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/sirws_grandfather_03.html |