Scottish State and the Experience of Government, c. 1560-1707

Martha McGill is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Warwick. Her publications include Ghosts in Enlightenment Scotland (2018) and The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland (2020), co-edited with Julian Goodare. She has also published various articles and chapters on early modern supernatural beliefs. Alasdair Raffe is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on religion, politics and ideas in early modern Scotland, in particular the emergence of religious, intellectual and political pluralism in the 17th and 18th centuries. He is the author of The Culture of Controversy: Religious Arguments in Scotland, 1660-1714 (Boydell, 2012) and Scotland in Revolution, 1685-1690 (EUP, 2018).

What is the early modern state? What does it do, why, how, and to whom? The present essays, reflecting the scholarly work of Julian Goodare, illuminate many aspects of the state, from notables directing ‘high politics’ to those such as debtors, criminals and witches at the receiving end.

• Figures and TablesAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsContributorsIntroduction: The State, Society and Witchcraft in Early Modern Scotland: Current Debates and the Influence of Julian GoodareMartha McGill (University of Warwick) and Alasdair Raffe (University of Edinburgh)Part 1: The Scottish State1. Legitimising Authority: Rival ‘States’ and the Marian Civil WarsAmy Blakeway (University of St Andrews)2. ‘He is not factious but simple and well disposed to justice’: John Graham, Third Earl of Montrose and the Stewart Revolution in GovernmentAlan R. MacDonald (University of Dundee)3. The Covenanters and the (Re-)imagining of the Scottish ConstitutionLaura A.M. Stewart (University of York)4. A Second Restoration: Remaking the Scottish State, 1678-1685Alasdair Raffe (University of Edinburgh)5. The Country Party and the Scottish Parliament, 1698-1704Ben Rogers (University of Edinburgh)6. The Highland “Other” and Scottish State Formation in the Seventeenth CenturyAllan Kennedy (University of Dundee)Part 2: The Experience of Government7. Governmental Change and the Experience of Debtors in the Early Modern Scottish CourtsCathryn Spence (University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada)8. Controlling Subjects: Shame, the State, and the Ritual of Punishment in Early Modern ScotlandHarriet Cornell (University of Edinburgh)9. Powerful Objects: Coercion, Restraint, Torture and Punishment in the Scottish National CollectionsAnna Groundwater (National Museums Scotland)10. The Great Tranent Witch-Hunt: Manufacturing Imaginary Enemies of the Scottish StateLouise Yeoman (BBC Scotland)11. ‘A zealous prosecutor of witches’: Ephraim Melville and the Witch-Hunt at Queensferry, 1643-1644Ciaran Jones (independent)12. Enemies of God?: Slander, Gender and Witchcraft in the Scottish ParishMichelle D. Brock (Washington and Lee University, Virginia, USA)13. The Afterlives of Thomas and Jean WeirMichael F. Graham (University of Akron, Ohio, USA)Conclusion: State Power RevisitedJulian Goodare (University of Edinburgh)Bibliography of Julian GoodareIndex