Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 29 on 25/10/2006.

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Under the great dictator

This issue James Irvine Robertson looks at a dark chapter of Scotland’s history

Indomitable Scotland. For century after century it fought off its vastly more powerful neighbour to the south.

In 1603, her Stuart kings took the throne of Great Britain, uniting the four nations of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales under one monarch, but it took more than another century before the successful negotiation of the Act of Union which formed the United Kingdom was created.

All of this said, there is an episode which tends to be forgotten; a time when Scotland was conquered by England, a time when thousands of Scots were forcibly transported to the Americas, and a time when, with scarcely a voice raised in protest, an English dictator ruled Scotland and, perhaps, governed with more justice than the nation had seen for generations.

The English Civil War, when Parliament fought King Charles I for power and won, killed 10 per cent of the male population. The consequent disease and disruption reduced the inhabitants of Britain by 20 per cent. In comparison, the losses during the American Civil War, the most costly conflict in United States history, killed less than two per cent of its citizens.

In 1639 Scotland had taken up arms to defend the Presbyterian Church against the monarch and his bishops. Three years later, in August 1642, Charles I raised his standard to open his campaign against the English parliament.

The following year, with the war in England going nowhere, a representative Scots convention signed the Solemn League and Covenant. This agreed to s.....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish History

Page number : 20