Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Union with England
Civil war and religious conflict in the 17th century left the country and its economy
ruined. Scotland couldn't compete in this new era of European colonialism and, to add to
its woes, during the 1690s famine killed up to a third of the population in some areas.
Anti-English feeling ran high: the Protestant king William, who had replaced the exiled
Catholic James VII/II to the chagrin of many in Scotland, was at war with France and was
using Scottish soldiers and taxes - many Scots, sympathetic to the French, disapproved.
This feeling was exacerbated by the failure of an investment venture in Panama (the so-
called Darien Scheme, designed to establish a Scottish colony in the Americas), which
resulted in widespread bankruptcy in Scotland.
The failure of the Darien Scheme made it
clear to the wealthy Scottish merchants and
stockholders that the only way they could gain
access to the lucrative markets of developing
colonies was through union with England. The
English parliament favoured union through
fear of Jacobite sympathies in Scotland being
Jacobite, a term derived from the Latin for 'James',
is used to describe the political movement commit-
ted to the return of the Catholic Stuart kings to the
thrones of England and Scotland.
exploited by its enemies, the French.
On receiving the Act of Union in Edinburgh, the chancellor of Scotland, Lord Seafield
- leader of the parliament that the Act of Union abolished - is said to have murmured un-
der his breath, 'Now there's an end to an auld sang'. Robert Burns later castigated the
wealthy politicians who engineered the union in characteristically stronger language:
'We're bought and sold for English gold - such a parcel of rogues in a nation!'
The Jacobites
The Jacobite rebellions of the 18th century sought to displace the Hanoverian monarchy
(chosen by the English parliament in 1701 to succeed the house of Orange) and restore a
Catholic Stuart king to the British throne.
James Edward Stuart, known as the Old Pretender, was the son of James VII/II. With
French support he arrived in the Firth of Forth with a fleet of ships in 1708, causing panic
in Edinburgh, but was seen off by English men-of-war.
The earl of Mar led another Jacobite rebellion in 1715 but proved an ineffectual leader
better at propaganda than warfare. His campaign fizzled out soon after the inconclusive
Battle of Sheriffmuir.
