The Scots and the 'Protestant International', c.1680-c.1748

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This project explores Scottish relations with European Protestants between broadly the late Restoration period and the end of the last Jacobite Rising, in order to investigate the extent to which Scots saw themselves as part of a European coalition of co-religionists, and what impact this had upon their collective memory, politics, national identity and foreign ties. It addressesquestions such as the continuity of an independent Scots Presbyterian foreign perspective after Union, and focuses on Scottish Hanoverianism, Scottish Hanoverian diplomats in Europe, Scots in the European coalitions, and the Kirk's engagement with European Protestants.The suggestion of a widespread "Protestant international consciousness" raises major questions for the history of Scotland in one of its most formative periods. How far was the persecution of Presbyterians interpreted as part of a Europe-wide battle? Did Anti-Jacobites see the Jacobite Risings as fronts of an international-confessional war, especially when European troops arrived in Scotland? One can hardly imagine the Whig-Presbyterian party at the Union to be the "Parcel of Rogues" of Jacobite-Patriot verse if they genuinely believed that the international defence of a besieged religion trumped Scottish sovereignty. How did anti-Unionists consider and deploy Protestant Internationalism? The themes of Hanoverianism, Presbyterianism, memory and religious controversy all receive new angles by this novel focus.Together with a new lens to better-trodden ground, avenues into less explored areas are opened. One is the many under-studied Scots, such as Leven, Forfar, Stair and Hyndford, all ambassadors to key Protestant allies, whose convictions will be studied through their papers and correspondence, and those of their assigned European courts. How deeply the Scots Kirk continued to engage with the international sphere, and how it conceptualised world affairs, will also be investigated. Could this discourse indicate that while Scotland may have been subsumed into a British state, its Presbyterians maintained a unique European perspective, identity, and relationship with the "Protestant International", thus upholding a sense of distinctiveness inside the Union?This project contributes to a host of recent debates. It challenges arguments for a monolithic Protestant identity knitting the kingdoms together against a European "other", tackles imperial-centric historiographies and supports developments in our understanding of eighteenth-century Scottish Whiggism. Likewise, the supposed non-existence of popular Scottish Hanoverianism will be examined through the perspective of international-confessional consciousness. Ultimately, it secures Scotland's place among the growing body of works on Protestant internationalism, from Thompson's and Claydon's works on England, to Trim's and Onnekink's on the Huguenots.The sources upon which this project relies are myriad. As the vitality of the Kirk to the political sphere has recently been powerfully restated, its sources take on major importance. Records from the General Assembly and local Presbyteries are vital. So too are Burgh records, while accounts of Scottish travellers, soldiers and exiles reveal their interactions with local Protestants, and how far they reflected a sense of familiarity. In high politics, the papers of Scots Lords are key, as are records of Scots in the Protestant diplomatic sphere, in Britain or abroad. Popular, sermon, and scholarly print, as at the National Library of Scotland, provide polemical edge to this consciousness, while the collections of Robert Wodrow, James Kirkton and others reveal the extent to which it influenced ministers. Methodologically, this project is concerned with memory: it will consider the conjuring of Scotland's previous involvement with the Protestant world, and how far the "Killing Times" martyrology and Protestant suffering abroad developed mutually supporting narratives.