Book contents
- The Recognition of Sovereignty
- The Recognition of Sovereignty
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Arthurian Precedent and English Empires
- Chapter 2 Scottish Contestations of Sovereignty
- Chapter 3 Empire Extended
- Chapter 4 Narratives of Resistance in Early Modern Scotland
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 4 - Narratives of Resistance in Early Modern Scotland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 October 2025
Book contents
- The Recognition of Sovereignty
- The Recognition of Sovereignty
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Arthurian Precedent and English Empires
- Chapter 2 Scottish Contestations of Sovereignty
- Chapter 3 Empire Extended
- Chapter 4 Narratives of Resistance in Early Modern Scotland
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 4 assesses early modern Scottish sovereignty discourse, which maintained strong continuities with the Middle Ages. The chapter begins by surveying typical claims to independence in parliamentary acts and in two political texts stemming from the Eight Years’ War, The Complaynt of Scotland and William Lamb’s Ane Resonyng of Ane Scottis and Inglis Merchand Betuix Rowand and Lionis. It then examines how some later writing revised the sovereign recognition, employing the contrasting examples of George Buchanan’s De Jure Regni apud Scotos Dialogus and James VI’s The Trew Law of Free Monarchies. Further modifications of the paradigm occur in Buchanan’s Rerum Scoticarum Historia, which refashions the kingdom’s early history to justify the deposition of Mary Queen of Scots. This inventive use of history continues in Andrew Melville’s fragmentary epic romance Gathelus, which creatively contrasts sovereignty as unbridled imperial expansion and as virtuous independence through a form of the recognition scene.
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- The Recognition of SovereigntyPolitics of Empire in Early Anglo-Scottish Literature, pp. 261 - 329Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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