Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Restoration
The Restoration brought bishops back to the Kirk, integrated into an essentially
Presbyterian structure of Kirk sessions and presbyteries. Over three hundred clergymen,
a third of the Scottish ministry, refused to accept the reinstatement of the bishops and
were edged out of the Church and forced to hold open-air services, called Conventicles ,
which Charles did his best to suppress.
When James VII (James II of England), whose ardent Catholicism caused a Protestant
backlash in England, was forced into exile in France in 1689, the throne passed to
Mary , his Protestant daughter, and her Dutch husband, William of Orange . In Scotland
there was a brief flurry of opposition to William when Graham of Claverhouse , known
as “Bonnie Dundee”, united the Jacobite clans against the government army at the
Battle of Killiekrankie , just north of Pitlochry. However, the inspirational Claverhouse
was killed on the point of claiming a famous victory, and again the clans, leaderless and
unwilling to press south, dissipated and the threat passed.
William and Mary quickly consolidated their position, restoring the full Presbyterian
structure in Scotland and abolishing the bishops, though they chose not to restore the
political and legal functions of the Kirk, which remained subject to parliamentary
control. It was sufficient, however, to bring the religious wars to a close, essentially
completing the Reformation in Scotland and establishing a platform on which political
union would be built.
The Union
Highland loyalty to the Stewart line lingered on into the eighteenth century, something
both William and the political pragmatists saw as a significant threat. In 1691, William
offered pardons to those Highland chiefs who had opposed his accession, on condition
that they took an oath of allegiance by New Year's Day 1692. Alastair Maclain, one of
the MacDonalds of Glencoe had turned up at the last minute, but his efforts to take
the oath were frustrated by the king's officials, who were determined to see his clan,
well known for their support of the Stewarts, destroyed. In February 1692, Captain
Robert Campbell of Glenlyon quartered his men with the MacDonalds of Glencoe
and, two weeks later, in the middle of the night, his troops acted on their secret orders,
turned on their hosts and carried out the infamous Massacre of Glencoe . Thirty-eight
MacDonalds died, and the slaughter caused a national scandal, especially among the
clans, where “murder under trust” - killing those offering you shelter - was considered
a particularly heinous crime.
The situation in Scotland was further complicated by the question of the succession.
Mary died without leaving an heir and, on William's death in 1702, the crown passed to
her sister Anne , James VII's second daughter, who was also childless. In response, the
English Parliament secured the Protestant succession by passing the Act of Settlement ,
which named the Electress Sophia of Hanover, a granddaughter of James VI (I), as the
next in line to the throne. The Act did not, however, apply in Scotland, and the English
feared that the Scots would invite James Edward Stewart, the son of James VII (II) by
his second wife, back from France to be their king. Consequently, Parliament appointed
commissioners charged with the consideration of “proper methods towards attaining a
union with Scotland”. The project seemed doomed to failure when the Scottish
1587
1603
1638
Mary, Queen of Scots, is
executed on the orders of
Queen Elizabeth I
James VI of Scotland becomes
James I of England
National Covenant proclaimed
by Scottish Presbyterians
Search WWH ::




Custom Search