We will examine Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history and culture from 500 BC to the present. In particular, lectures and discussions will focus on the early cultural identity of the Irish, Scots, and Welsh and their customs and mythologies; the influence of Roman culture and Christianity on these lands and peoples; the English conquest and colonization of these lands and peoples; and, finally, on the process of political devolution in all three areas. These aspects of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh history will be examined through historical documents and literature, art, music, and film clips. Students will emerge from the class with a clear sense of the events that shaped the early history and culture of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales and how those events continue to shape these areas even to the present day.

1. The English Conquest of Wales and Scotland
Henry VIII in the Whitehall Mural, by Remigius van Leemput, 17th century, Royal
Collection, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey.
• Wales and England before the
Tudors
– The revolt of Owain Glyn Dwr, 14001408
• Owain a descendant of the native
dynasty of Powys
• Declaration of independent Welsh
parliament at Machynlleth
• The Tudor Dynasty
– Henry VII, r. 1485-1509
• Grandson of Henry V’s widow and
a Welsh squire
– Arthur, d. 1502
– Henry VIII, r. 1509-1547

2. The Tudors and Wales
• Henry VIII and Wales
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–
–
–
Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, ex. 1521
Rhys ap Gruffudd of Dinefwr, ex. 1531
Council of the Marches of Wales
Rowland Lee, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, appointed head of
council of Wales in 1534
– Act of Union, 1536
– Act of Union, 1543
• Edward VI, r. 1547-1553
• Mary I, r. 1553-1558
• Elizabeth I, r. 1558-1603
– First Welsh Bible in 1588
– Reformation presented as a ‘return’ to the old ‘Celtic Church’

3. The Act of Union (Wales)
•
•
•
His Highness therefore of a singular Zeal, Love and Favour that he
beareth towards his Subjects of his said Dominion of Wales,
minding and intending to reduce them to the perfect Order, Notice
and Knowledge of his Laws of this Realm, and utterly to extirp all
and singular the sinister Usages and Customs differing from the
same, and to bring the said Subjects f this his Realm, and of his
said Dominion of Wales, to an amicable Concord and Unity, hath by
the deliberate Advice, Consent and Agreement of the Lords Spiritual
and Temporal and the Commons, in this present Parliament
assembled, and by the Authority of the same, ordained, enacted
and established, that his said Country or Dominion of Wales shall
be, stand and continue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united
and annexed to and with this his Realm of England…
All Welsh were to have the “singular Freedoms, Liberties, Rights,
Privileges and Laws” as the English
The Principality and Marcher lordships were to be “united, annexed
and joined to divers of the Shires of England”

4. Wales after the Acts of Union

5. The Tudors and Scotland
Portrait of James IV, 16th century,
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh.
• The Auld Alliance
– Scotland and France
• James IV, r. 1488-1513
– Abolition of MacDonald
lordship of the isles, 1493
– Battle of Flodden, 1513
• James V, r. 1513-1542
– Marriage to Mary of Guise,
1536
• Henry VIII’s “rough wooing”
of Scotland, 1542-1550
– Support for MacDonald lord of
the isles revolt
– Proposed marriage of Edward
and Mary of Scotland
– Battle of Pinkie, 1547

6. The English Conquest of Wales and Scotland
John Knox statue, by Pittendrigh MacGillivray, 1904,
St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.
• The Reformation in Scotland
– John Knox and Presbyterianism
• On the Monstrous Regiment of
Women, 1558
– Mary of Guise, d. 1559
– Archibald Campbell, earl of Argyll,
1558-1573
– Scottish Civil War, 1559-1560
– Mary Queen of Scots, r. 1542-1567
– James VI, r. 1567-1625
– Scots Gaelic Bible printed in 1606
– Scottish Church (Kirk)
• Presbyterians versus
Episcopalians

7. The Stuarts and Scotland
Portrait of James VI/I, by Jan de Critz, 1606,
National Maritime Museum, London.
• James VI and I, r.
1567/1603-1625
– “One king, one people,
one law”
– The proposed union
• Abolish mutually hostile
laws
• Establish free trade
• All Scots resident in
England before James’ rule
to be naturalized as English
• Create a common currency,
the Unite
• Use of the Great
Union/Union Jack

8. The Stuarts and Scotland
The Union Jack
•
•
•
•
Gunpowder Plot, 1605
Writing of Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
The instrument of union, 16061607
– Abolition of mutually hostile
laws (only proposal
accepted)
– Establishment of free trade
– Mutual naturalization of
James’ Scottish and
English subjects
– Anglo-Scottish extradition
treaty
James and the Scottish Kirk
– Episcopalianism vesus
Presbyterianism

9. The Stuarts and Scotland
Charles I and Henrietta Maria as Apollo and Diana,
Gerrit van Honthorst, 1628, Hampton Court Palace, Surrey.
• Charles I, r. 1625-1649
– Commission for Surrenders
and Teinds, 1627
– English Episcopalian practices
and a new Scottish prayer book
and liturgy imposed on Scottish
church in 1530s
– General Assembly of the Kirk,
1638
• Scottish Presbyterians rejected
Episcopalianism
– Campbells (Protestants) versus
MacDonalds (Catholics)
– Charles’ Scottish war, 16391640
– Treaty of Ripon, 1641

10. The English Civil War and Scotland
• Civil War, 1642-1646, and its aftermath
– Oliver Cromwell, d. 1658
– The “Highland Charge,” 1644-1645
• Catholic MacDonalds versus Protestant Campbells
– Charles I tried for treason and executed, 1649
– Scots Protestants invited Charles II to Edinburgh and crowned him in
1649
– Cromwell’s forces drove Charles II into exile, fought Scots Protestant
army
• The Commonwealth, 1649-1660
– Cromwell as “Lord Protector”
– Cromwell’s policy toward Scotland
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•
•
•
•
•
English garrisons in all of lowland Scotland
Punitive taxation
Scottish public records seized and taken to London
Scottish monarchy declared “redundant”
Scotland’s royal arms ritually hanged on gallows in Edinburgh
Scottish parliament dissolved, 30 MPs sent south to London

11. The Restoration of the Stuart dynasty
Portrait of James II, Nicholas de Largilliere, 1685,
National Maritime Museum, London.
• Charles II, r. 1660-1685
– Restoration of Scottish
parliament
– Scottish Kirk placed in the
hands of Episcopalians
– Scottish government in hands
of English officials
– Campbell earls of Argyll highly
placed in Scottish government
• James II, r. 1685-1688
– Catholic and absolutist
tendencies
• The Glorious Revolution,
1688

12. The Last of the Stuarts
Portrait of Anne, by Michael Dahl, 1705, National Portrait Gallery,
London.
• William III and Mary
II, r. 1689-1694/1702
– Act of Settlement,
1701
• Anne, r. 1702-1714
– Act of Union, 1707
– Abolition of Scottish
privy council, 1708
– Queen of Great
Britain, 1707-1714

13. England finally conquers Scotland
A Lost Cause: the flight of James II after the Battle of the Boyne,
Andrew Carrick Gow, 1888, Tate Art Gallery, London.
•
Jacobites
– Latin for James = Jacobus
•
•
•
Battle of the Boyne, 1690
Scottish oath of loyalty to William
and Mary
Massacre of Glencoe, February
13th 1692
– MacDonalds of Glencoe
– John Dalrymple, Master of Stair
and Secretary of State for
Scotland, d. 1707
•
Act of Settlement, 1701
– Formally barred Catholic Stuarts
from the throne
•
Act of Union, 1707
– Formally joined England and
Scotland

14. The letter to Campbell forces before the
massacre of Glencoe
•
•
•
•
You are hereby ordered to fall upon the rebels, the McDonalds of Glenco,
and put all to the sword under seventy. You are to have a special care that
the old Fox and his sons doe upon no account escape your hands, you are
to secure all the avenues that no man escape. This you are to putt in
execution at fyve of the clock precisely; and by that time, or very shortly
after it, I'll strive to be att you with a stronger party: if I doe not come to you
att fyve, you are not to tarry for me, but to fall on. This is by the Kings
speciall command, for the good & safety of the Country, that these
miscreants be cutt off root and branch. See that this be putt in execution
without feud or favour, else you may expect to be dealt with as one not true
to King nor Government, nor a man fitt to carry Commissione in the Kings
service. Expecting you will not faill in the fulfilling hereof, as you love your
selfe, I subscribe these with my hand att Balicholis Feb: 12, 1692
For their Majesties service
To Capt. Robert Campbell
of Glenlyon
•
(signed) R. Duncanson

15. The Kings over the Water
• Attempts to repeal the Act of Union, 1713
• The Jacobites
– The white rose
– Jacobite toasts--“the king over the water” and “the little
gentlemen in black velvet”
• First Jacobite revolt, 1715-1716
– James Francis Edward Stuart (d. 1766) proclaimed James III
and VIII
– Jacobite forces led by the Earl of Mar
– English forces led by the Duke of Argyll
– Battle of Sheriffmuir, November 1715
– James would become known as “the Old Pretender”

16. The Kings over the Water
Bonnie Prince Charlie entering Holyroodhouse, by John Pettie, 1898,
Palace of Holyroodhouse.
• Reactions to the first revolt
– The Disarming Act, 1716
– Creation of the Highland
Companies (the Black Watch)
– Seizure of lands of Jacobites
• Second Jacobite revolt,
1745-1746
– Charles Edward Stuart, the
Young Pretender, “Bonnie
Prince Charlie,” d. 1788

17. Manifesto of the Prince Regent,
May 16, 1745
• By virtue and authority of the above commission of
regency, granted unto us by the King our royal father, we
are now come to execute His Majesty’s will and
pleasure, by setting up his Royal Standard, and
asserting his undoubted right to the Throne of his
ancestors…
• As for those who shall appear more signally zealous for
the recovery of His Majesty’s just rights, and the
prosperity of their country, we shall take effectual care to
have them rewarded according to their respective
degrees and merits; and we particularly promise as
aforesaid, a full, free, and general pardon to all officers,
soldiers, and sailors, now engaged in the service of the
usurper…

18. The Second Jacobite Revolt
• Glenfinnan, 1745
• Battle of Prestonpans, September 1745
• The march to London, November-December
1745
• Battle of Falkirk, January 1746
• Battle of Culloden, April 1746
– 9000 English led by the duke of Cumberland versus
6000 Jacobites led by Lord George Murray
– Charles fled the battle and escaped to France in
September 1746

19. Left—Monument at Culloden battlefield;
right—Hunted Down, by John Pettie, 1877,
Hospitalfield House, Arbroath, Scotland.

20. The aftermath of Culloden
• Cumberland’s ravaging of the Highlands
• Seizure of lands of Jacobites
• Act of Proscription, 1746 (repealed in 1782)
– Highland dress banned
– Playing of bagpipes banned
– Keeping of weapons banned
• Heritable Jurisdictions Act, 1747
– Abolished Scottish clan chiefs’ right to call up men
• Prison, transportation and indentured servitude,
execution for captured and convicted Jacobites