Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/776

SCOTLAND. 702 SCOTLAND. I I 140ii-37). Tt was not until sonip years aftor hiv .loath that .James I., who had been pris- oner in Kngland since 1405, was perinitted to re- turn. .Ian.es was a prinee of great .ibility. ith a strong hand he curbed the nob.lity, not hesi- tating to attain his ends by putting to death his opponents. In his attempt to bring order into Scotland he was aide.l by the towns. He also sought to make Parliament an instrument to crush the nobility. Finding it impossible to m- tluee tb.. lesser ...ibility to attend Parliament. he or,lain.Ml in 1427 that two representative kni'dits should be sent from each sheriffdom in 11.e'king.lo..i. on the model of the Kngl.sh syste.n. This act was unsuccessful, but it became of constitutional importance, because it was re- enacted by the Reformation Parliament in lo60, and in ITiSo was finally established as a law. During the following reigns there was more lawlessness than ever. Some of the nobility were always engaged in tieasonable negotiations with England. Chief among the Ki.ig's opponents had always been the Lords of the Isles, who ruled over what was practically an independent prin- cipality in the west. The great House of Doug- las, "famous in border raids, was also very troublesome. Under James II. (1437-60) there was some wise legislation improving the con- dition of the lesser tenantry and encouraging tillage. The marriage of James III. (1460-88) witir the daughter of the King of Norway b.-ought the Orkneys into the possession of Scot- land in 1400. .Jaii.es IV. (14S.5-lol3) married Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII., thus openinir the way to peace with England. But fa...ily f|uariels" with Henry VIII. and the re- newai of the French alliance led to a Scottish in- vasion of England, which resulted in the defeat and ileath of James on Flodden Field in 1513. Un- der .lames V. (1513-42) the College of Justice, the Scottish supreme court, was established on the model of the Parlement of Paris in 1532. James's chief minister was Cardinal Beaton, the Archbishop of Saint Andrews, who played in Seotlan.l the r.jle of Cardinal Wolsey in England, but with greater success. After the death of James V. he directed the destinies of Scotland. Henry VIII. 's barbarous invasion, in which towns were burned, the country was laid waste, and all the inhabitants that resisted were slain, thwarted that monarch's design for a marriage between the infant Queen of Scotland and the heir to the English throne. For a time the same policy was continued by the Protector Somerset, and this so incensed the Scotch that Mary was sent to France to marry the Dauphin. With the assassination of Cardinal Beaton in 1546 the power of the Catholic Church in Scotland was over. The Reformation and Its Con.sequences (1543-1688). James V., although he compelled the clergj' to reform abuses, resisted the efforts of Henry VIII. to make him join the Reformation, but after his death Mary of Guise, the Queen mother, in vain attempted to compromise. In 1559 John Knox (q.v.) returned to Scotland and became the greatest power in effecting the Refor- mation. Urged by his fiery eloquence, many of the nobility organized against the bishops under the name of the Lords of the Congregation. They went through the land suppressing the mass, de- stroying images, and plundering the monasteries. The Regent secured French aid, but with the as- sistance of Elizabeth the .ebellious nobles more than held their own. Peace ca..ie in 1560 with the Treaty of Edinburgh, which p.ovided for the withdrawal of both Freeh and E.iglish forces, leaving Scotland to settle her own Church af- fairs. In that year the Reformation Parliament assembled and adopted a thoroughly Calvinistic Confession of Faith drawn vip by John Kno., and established the Church on a democratic and Pres- byterian basis. See Presbyteria.nism, section on The Preshyterkin Churches in Scotland. The subsecjuent history of Scotland until the Union is the story of its" Church, the democratic ijovernmcnt of which, like the Parliament in England, trained the people for political liberty. During the Civil War the Scots united with the Parliamentarians and by creating a diversion in the north divided the King's forces. The resto- ration of Charles II. was followed by the resto- ration of episcopacy and the bloody persecution of the Covenanters,' who adhered to the Presby- terian faith. But the nation remained Presby- terian, and in 1689 the Scottish Parliament passed a bill of rights more radical than the English, and invit.'d William to ascend the throne. In 1690 episcopacy was definitely abol- ished and Presbyterianism was restored to the position of a "State religion. The frequent changes in religion were brought about by acts of Parliament, which was entirely under the King's control. A chief source of Parliamentary weakness lay in the growth of the committee system. ' As early as the fourteenth century business had been re- ferred to two com.nittees called the Lords of the Articles, chosen from the three estates. Consolidated by James V. into a single body, this committee obtained such power that by the sixteenth century Parliament met merely to confirm its decisions. In 1621 a change in the method of its appointment enabled the King to fill it with his partisans, and thus control Parlia- ment. But in 1690 the committee of the A.-tieles was abolished, and from that time until the Union Scotland had parliamentary rule. The Union with England. In consequence of the massacre of Glencoe in 1692, and of the hostile attitude of the English Parliament toward the Scottish colony at Darien, the Scottish Parliament echoed "the popular feeling of hos- tility toward England, It met the English desire for "union with the demand for free trade and equal rights in the colonies, and on being refused this it passed the Act of Security (1703), prac- tically excluding the successor of Queen Anne from" the Scottish throne, and providing for compulsory military training of every Scotsman. In retaliation the" English Parliament passed several laws greatly restricting the trading privi- leges of the Scotch,' For a year or two there was imminent danger that the Scots would proceed to extreme measures, but in 1707 the Parliament agreed to the Act of t'nion. Charges of bribery w-ere made and the whole proceeding was exe- crated by the people of Scotland. As finally passed the act gave Scotland a representation of forty-five in the British House of Commons and sixteen in the House of Loids, the whole Scotch peerage electing the latter for the Parlia- mentary term of the British Parliament. Scot- land received free trade and retained her own Church and laws. The debts of the two countries were consolidated.