The fall of Episcopacy in Scotland 1688-1691
This thesis attempts to shed light on a little-studied moment in the history of
the Williamite revolution in Scotland, namely what factors led to the
abolition of episcopacy in July 1689 and the establishment of Presbyterian
church government in June 1690. It attempts to analyse the various political
forces at play and the ideas which motivated the lead figures.
The Earl of Portland and Scotland (1689-1699): a re-evaluation of Williamite policy
The 1690s have often been seen as a period of troubles in Scotland, dominated by disasters such as the Glencoe massacre and the Darien debacle. Neither has King William III enjoyed a good reputation; he is rather regarded as an uninterested monarch at best or a tyrant at worst. Still, there are two problems with such an interpretation. Firstly, it is doubtful whether a narrative solely based on political incidents can do justice to this decade which, secondly, is often studied in isolation. This article therefore aims to study the structure of politics rather than survey the sequence of disasters. Moreover, it will try to move away from an introspective interpretation by studying the role of the Earl of Portland, the King's favourite, who de facto governed Scotland from London, although he was primarily interested in the Nine Years War on the Continent. The article will argue that Scottish politics in the 1690s cannot be understood without referring to the dominant role played by Portland and without placing Scottish affairs in a wider international context. It will do so by first analysing the position of the favourite and the manner in which he delegated responsibilities to his Scottish associates. According to one pamphleteer, he 'Assumed the whole Superintendency of the Kingdom of Scotland & Governs it intirely by his Creatures'. Secondly, his involvement in Scottish politics will be analysed against the background of international events. On a higher level, this article serves as a call for a reinterpretation of the 1690s in Scotland as a transformative period of political experimentation rather than a sequence of political disasters.
The Provincial Centre at Camulodunum: Towards an Historical Context
Present assessment of the provincial enclosure at Camulodunum, more particularly how far it can be compared to the standard picture of similar centres elsewhere, is inevitably constrained by the limited evidence at our disposal. With no numismatic sources to draw on and in the absence of a single record of the provincial priesthood — a striking void that calls for comment — documentary testimony is restricted to what can be made of two passages in the literary authorities. The first, a notorious sneer in Seneca's Apocolocyntosis (VIII.3), tells only that a temple of some sort was associated somehow with the emperor Claudius. The second text, an obscure allusion in Tacitus, is at first sight no more enlightening but, on closer analysis, the phrase templum Divo Claudio constitutum (Ann. xiv.31) yields the invaluable inference that the temple was to the deified, not the living Claudius; in which case construction must have been begun in a.d. 54 or later. Archaeological data throw no light on the origins of the temple or of the precinct in which it stood but exploration has steadily enlarged our knowledge of the site itself, and understanding of the remains has now reached the stage at which, for all its puzzling lacunae, the centre is as well known in some ways as the triple-tiered complex at Tarraco, the provincial enclave of Hispania Citerior. We have arrived at the point where the British sanctuary and its counterparts on the Continent can be mutually illuminating.