The Acts of William I (1165-1214)

This book provides the first detailed account of the course of Scottish politics in the reign of Charles II. It focuses on the years from 1667 to 1673, when, for the only time in the Restoration era, Scottish political leaders were able to make policy for Scotland with minimal interference from London and with Scottish interests chiefly in mind. The key players were the secretary of state, John Maitland, who was earl of Lauderdale and resident at court, and his chief agent in Edinburgh, John Hay, earl of Tweeddale, his first cousin, who became his 'dearest brother' when Tweeddale's son married Lauderdale's daughter. A third indispensible member of the group was Sir Robert Moray, their cousin by marriage, King Charles's fellow chemist and close friend. Together the three inaugurated a programme of reform which had some initial success but in the end foundered on political and personal disagreements. Maurice Lee makes effective use of the unpublished correspondence of the three, among themselves and with others, in telling the melancholy tale of the regime of this triumvirate for the first time.

In this ground-breaking study of the medieval parliament, Roland Tanner gives the Scottish Parliament a human face by examining the actions and motives of those who attended. In the past, the Scottish Parliament was seen as a weak and ineffective institution – damned because of its failure to be more like its English counterpart. But Roland Tanner shows that the old picture of weakness is far from accurate. In its very different way, the Scottish Parliament was every bit as powerful as the English institution. The 'Three Estates' (the clergy, nobility and burgh representatives who attended Parliament) were able to wield a surprising degree of control over the Crown during the fifteenth century. For instance, they threatened to lock James I's taxation in a box to which he, the king, would have no access, made James II swear not to alter acts of Parliament, and prevented him from using his own lands and wealth as patronage for his supporters, and forbade James III to leave the country. Roland Tanner has avoided a dry constitutional approach. Instead he has sought to bring Parliament to life through the people who attended, the reasons why they attended, and the complex interactions which occurred when all the most wealthy, powerful and ambitious people in the kingdom gathered in one place.