North Britons : Patriotism and identity in Eighteenth-century Scotland

Résumé du document

From the Wars of Independence and the exploits of William Wallace (and even before) to the debates about the Act of Union and the fierce opposition of Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, it is needless to say that Scottish and English histories have been most closely linked. Though, their relationship, most confrontational for several centuries, had hardly ever been so close as from the time James VI of Scotland succeeded Elisabeth I on the throne of England onwards, or even more obviously from the time of the Union of Parliaments in 1707. Indeed, within a single century (1603-1707) Scotland lost both her distinct King and Parliament in an institutional and political union with her powerful southern neighbour. In this particular context, how could such a significant shift in the course of its history not affect the conscience Scottish society had of itself ?
"Far from experiencing an identity crisis, most eighteenth-century Scots positively welcomed the Anglicization of their institutions". Once the terms of the discussion have been laid down, it appears at first sight that the interrogation which stands behind this statement is twofold, the main two questions emerging being : Can we really talk about a crisis of identity to characterize best the state of post-Union Scottish society ? Did the latter accept with open arms the Anglicization of its own native institutions ?
Make an attempt at answering such questions is a delicate yet crucial task for whoever wants to understand eighteenth-century Scotland in all its complexity.
Indeed, from the second half of the XVIIth century onwards, the "Northern Kingdom" experienced a series of such tremendous changes on the political, social, economic as well as cultural levels that a reflection on the existence of an identity crisis within the Scottish people in that period is worth a try. Similarly, and in order to go further into the analysis, one must wonder how the Scots did react to their integration into what was from then on called Great Britain, and above all how they lived through the almost inevitable movement of Anglicization which deeply marked Scottish life throughout the XVIIIth century. It seems obvious to say that these two interrogations are highly interwoven. In the last analysis, these two questions merge to form the key-question which stands out as the ultimate one : did a brand new Scottish identity emerge within Great Britain in the course of the XVIIIth century ?

Extraits

[...] Devine, Edinburgh T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000, Penguin Herbert Atherton, Political prints in the age of Hogarth T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000, Penguin T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000, Penguin P.Womack, Improvement and romance: constructing the myth of the Highlands, London Kenneth Simpson, The Protean Scot, The crisis of identity in eighteenth-century Scottish literature, Aberdeen University Press Chapter 2. T.C. Smout, Problems of nationalism, identity and improvement in later eighteenth-century Scotland in Improvement and Enlightenment, Ed. T.M. [...]

[...] Though these two statements must not mislead us: “patriotic indignation and wounded pride were unlikely to disturb the union by this period[12]”. The Scottish nobility merchant classes as well as the Intelligentsia had too much to lose to afford to protest against the English antipathy: the Union had brought wealth and the opportunity to pursue more than provincial careers and most Scots were well aware of that. As a result, T.M. Devine suggests that the Scottish elites gradually developed a dual allegiance: on the one hand they showed political loyalty to Britain (we may think of James Thomson's “Rule Britannia” but also of the streets' names in Glasgow and Edinburgh . [...]

[...] Make an attempt at answering such questions is a delicate yet crucial task for whoever wants to understand eighteenth-century Scotland in all its complexity. Indeed, from the second half of the XVIIth century onwards, the “Northern Kingdom” experienced a series of such tremendous changes on the political, social, economic as well as cultural levels that a reflection on the existence of an identity crisis within the Scottish people in that period is worth a try. Similarly, and in order to go further into the analysis, one must wonder how the Scots did react to their integration into what was from then on called Great Britain, and above all how they lived through the almost inevitable movement of Anglicization which deeply marked Scottish life throughout the XVIIIth century. [...]

[...] The backwardness which characterized Scottish agriculture for instance was a major concern in eighteenth-century Scotland. The new philosophical ideas which emerged at that time legitimized the fact that England, seen as a “more opulent and perhaps more mature sister kingdom[7]”, was the next step in the necessary evolution of Scottish society. In the same way, historical scholars such as William Robertson began to denigrate the Scottish past before the Glorious Revolution of 1688- 9 as barbarian “feudal darkness and anarchy[8]”: as well as on the economic level, England was considered as the example Scotland had to follow as far as history and politics were concerned. [...]

[...] Devine, Edinburgh T.M. Devine, The Scottish Nation 1700-2000, Penguin Kenneth Simpson, The Protean Scot, The crisis of identity in eighteenth-century Scottish literature, Aberdeen University Press Chapter 2. [...]