Introduction

Until fairly recently, any historian seeking to investigate Scotland during the Restoration faced a daunting task. Beyond a few scattered biographies deal- ing with some of the major politicians, there were very few texts upon which to draw.1 This paucity no doubt reflected the apparent difficulty of locating a compelling meta-narrative for the period. While European historians grap- pled with grand themes such as ‘absolute monarchy’ or ‘military revolution’, and English commentators could approach the period through any number of colourful topics—the rise of party, the development of court culture, the struggle between crown and Parliament, or the ever-swelling paranoia about Popery—their Scottish counterparts (largely taking their cue from the mam- moth antiquarian efforts of the eighteenth-century Presbyterian historian, Robert Wodrow) seemed unable to perceive anything other than a dreary cycle of pedantic and esoteric religious squabbles. Moreover, those works which were produced tended to generate rather more heat than light. Take, for example, the competing views of the covenanting movement offered at the start of the twentieth century by Alexander Smellie and William Mathieson. For Smellie, the covenanters were heroic opponents of tyranny who refused to surrender their liberty; for Mathieson, they were a rabble of vicious, rebel- lious fanatics.2 This disagreement says much more about the ecclesiastical and political circumstances of the Edwardian period than it does about the later seventeenth century. Fortunately, historiographical developments since the late 1960s have done much to enliven this arid landscape. The pioneering efforts of Ian Cowan and Julia Buckroyd provided fresh scholarly perspectives on the religious issue.3 Combined with studies of constitutional and political affairs penned by Athol

1 J. Willcock, The Great Marquess: Life and Times of Archibald, 8th Earl, and 1st (and only) Marquess of Argyll (1607–1661) (Edinburgh and London, 1903); J. Willcock, A Scots Earl in Covenanting Times: Being Life and Times of Archibald 9th Earl of Argyll (Edinburgh, 1907); A. Lang, Sir George Mackenzie, King’s Advocate, of Rosehaugh, his Life and Times, 1636(?)–1691 (London, 1909); W.C. MacKenzie, The Life and Times of John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (1616–1682) (London, 1923). 2 A. Smellie, Men of the Covenant: The Story of the Scottish Church in the Years of Persecution (London, 1904), 14; W.L. Mathieson, Politics and Religion: A Study in Scottish History from the Reformation to the Revolution, 2 vols (Glasgow, 1902), ii, 286. 3 I.B. Cowan, The Scottish Covenanters 1660–88 (London, 1976); J. Buckroyd, Church and State in Scotland 1660–1681 (Edinburgh, 1980); J. Buckroyd, “Anti-clericalism in Scotland during the Restoration” in N. Macdougall (ed.), Church, Politics and Society: Scotland 1408–1929

Murray, John Patrick and Ronnie Lee, this ensured that, by the end of the twentieth century, the Restoration was beginning to reclaim its place in historical consciousness.4 Since the Millennium, this steady stream of interest has not abated. The work of Raymond Campbell Paterson has attempted to resurrect the period’s profile amongst the general public.5 Within academia, published contributions from Clare Jackson, Gillian MacIntosh and Maurice Lee Junior have shed further light on political culture, Parliament, and high politics respectively. Kirsty McAlister’s doctoral thesis has provided detailed recon- struction of the early- to mid-1680s, while another unpublished study by John Toller stresses the political importance of the often overlooked royal burghs.6 Other aspects of the period, if they have not yet attracted detailed study, have nonetheless benefited from wider surveys into the dynamics of early-modern Scotland.7 However, our understanding of local developments during the Restoration remains patchy, not least as regards the Scottish Highlands. Indeed, there is a long-established tendency, particularly in general and popular works, to assume that the Restoration was a period of little or no importance in the Highlands. W.C. Mackenzie’s 1937 survey of Highland history declares airily that “the Restoration which in its disturbing effects turned the Lowlands of Scotland upside down, scarcely raised a ripple on the surface of Highland life”, and proceeds to dispose of the period in three paragraphs. John MacLeod’s

(Edinburgh, 1983), 167–86; J. Buckroyd, The Life of James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews, 1616–1679: A Political Biography (Edinburgh, 1987). 4 A.L. Murray, “The Scottish Treasury 1667–1708”, SHR, 45: 1966, 89–104; J. Patrick, “The Origins of the Opposition to Lauderdale in the Scottish Parliament of 1673”, SHR, 53:155, 1974, 1–21; J. Patrick, “A Union Broken? Restoration Politics in Scotland” in J. Wormald (ed.), Scotland Revisited (London, 1991), 119–28; R. Lee, ‘Government and Politics in Scotland, 1661–1681’ (University of Glasgow, PhD thesis, 1995). 5 R.C. Paterson, King Lauderdale: The Corruption of Power (Edinburgh, 2003); R.C. Paterson, No Tragic Story: The Fall of the House of Campbell (Edinburgh, 2001). 6 C. Jackson, Restoration Scotland, 1660–1690: Royalist Politics, Religion and Ideas (Woodbridge, 2003); G.H. MacIntosh, The Scottish Parliament under Charles II 1660–1685 (Edinburgh, 2007); M. Lee, ‘Dearest Brother’: Lauderdale, Tweeddale and Scottish Politics, 1660–1674 (Edinburgh, 2010); K. McAlister, ‘James VII and the Conduct of Scottish Politics c.1679 to c.1686’ (University of Strathclyde, PhD thesis, 2003); J.M. Toller, “ ‘Now of little significancy’? The Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, 1651–1688” (University of Dundee, PhD thesis, 2010). 7 See, for example, W. Ferguson, Scotland’s Relations with England: A Survey to 1707 (Edinburgh, 1994) on foreign relations; K.M. Brown, Noble Society in Scotland: Wealth, Family and Culture from Reformation to Revolution (Edinburgh, 2000) and K.M. Brown, Noble Power in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution (Edinburgh, 2011) on the nobility; and J. Goodare, State and Society in Early Modern Scotland (Oxford, 1999) on state-building.