SCOTTISH history getting a full double-page spread in a daily paper – wow!
However, on reading the eight columns taking us to 1707, I was a bit surprised in the last column to see a big omission (“Scotland’s story ... before the Act of Union in 1707”, October 6).
By this time we’d reached 1638 and the National Covenant. But no mention of what it was about. No mention of “divine right of kings”, how the Presbyterians refused to accept this, how religion and politics became intertwined to bring terrible cost to the country. Just a skate over Charles I and Cromwell with no explanation.
And then comes Charles II … and here I quote, “when the monarch was restored in 1660 Charles reigned over both countries”. No mention of how he reigned, the consequences from then until 1689, other than Charles’s brother who succeeded him was kicked out for being a Catholic.
Nothing about religion and politics really taking over, power grabs, lies, etc etc driving the inner workings in Scotland, where those who dared to disagree with the ruler and his Privy Council suffered in their thousands. Those Presbyterians, now named Covenanters, deserved at least a sentence. Here I repeat, “divine right of kings”.
Indeed, the latter part leading up to the so-cawed Glorious Revolution was known as the Killing Times … and it was.
Hordes of those Covenanters were fined, jailed, tortured, shot without trial, shipped to the Americas as slaves … yes, slaves.
It was a time that coloured Scotland for years after. Indeed, it’s not as far away as we might think and still touches us today, especially in the west of Scotland, and unfortunately not in a good way. But we need to know about it and own it. So why no mention?
I did wonder if Hamish just ran out of space and compressed his words to fit. Pity.
Ethyl Smith
via email
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