Publisher's Synopsis
The essays in this book examine the effects on Scotland of the Union of the Crowns, and the various attempts to find a stable relationship between England and Scotland within a single British state. Attention is concentrated on the covenanters of the mid-17th century, who sought to create a regime in Scotland strong enough to force England to accept a federal union guaranteeing Scotland?s autonomy. Inspired by a mixture of Calvinist and nationalist ideologies, they overthrew the power of Charles I, and carried out revolutionary changes in the structures of both church and state. But their attempts to destroy the power of King Charles I in Scotland destabilised his other two kingdoms, leading to civil wars in both England and Ireland, and provoked an English backlash which culminated in the English conquest of Scotland.
