Neither inside nor outside the corridors of power: prosaic petitioning and the royal burghs in early modern Scotland

Alan MacDonald (Lead / Corresponding author)

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)
    193 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    This article explores early modern petitioning in the context of urban Scotland. It focuses on prosaic rather than political petitioning, on the basis that the former was more truly characteristic of what the purpose of petitioning was understood to be by most of those who engaged in it. The burghs of Scotland provide an added dimension to the history of petitioning because of the role of their national assembly (the Convention of Royal Burghs), which was simultaneously a recipient of petitions, a conduit for its members’ petitions to the crown, and a petitioner of the crown in its own right. This article also reveals how changing practices of petitioning shed light on the development of the early modern Scottish state, as the Convention of Royal Burghs found its members increasingly bypassing it and instead they resorted directly to central government institutions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)293-306
    Number of pages14
    JournalParliaments, Estates and Representation
    Volume38
    Issue number3
    Early online date12 Oct 2018
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2018

    Keywords

    • Scotland
    • towns
    • Convention of Royal Burghs
    • state formation
    • petitioning
    • Towns
    • State formation
    • Petitioning

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Arts and Humanities
    • Sociology and Political Science

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