George Buchanan (1506-82) was the most distinguished Scottish humanist of the sixteenth century with an unparalleled contemporary reputation as a Latin poet, playwright, historian and political theorist. However, while his contemporary importance as the scourge of Mary Queen of Scots and advocate of popular rebellion has long been recognised, this volume represents the first attempt to explore the subsequent influence of his ideas and his contested reputation as a political ideologue and cultural icon. Featuring a wide-ranging selection of essays by an international cast of established and younger scholars, the volume explores Buchanan's legacy as an historian and political theorist in Britain and Europe in the two centuries following his death, with particular emphasis on the reception of his remarkably radical views on popular sovereignty and political assassination. Divided into four parts, the volume covers the immediate impact and reception of his writings in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Britain; the wider Northern European context in which his thought was influential; the engagement with his political ideas in the course of the seventeenth-century British constitutional struggles; and the influence of his ideas as well as the changing nature of his reputation through the eighteenth century and beyond. The introduction to the volume not only reviews the material in the body of the collection, but also reflects on the use and abuse of Buchanan's ideas in the early modern period and the methodological issues of influence and reputation raised by the contributors. Such a reassessment of Buchanan and his legacy is long overdue and this volume will be welcomed by all scholars with an interest in the political and cultural history of early modern Britain and Europe.

Andrew Melville is chiefly remembered today as a defiant leader of radical Protestantism in Scotland, John Knox's heir and successor, the architect of a distinctive Scottish Presbyterian kirk and a visionary reformer of the Scottish university system. While this view of Melville's contribution to the shaping of Protestant Scotland has been criticised and revised in recent scholarship, his broader contribution to the development of the neo-Latin culture of early modern Britain has never been given the attention it deserves. Yet, as this collection shows, Melville was much more than simply a religious reformer: he was an influential member of a pan-European humanist network that valued classical learning as much as Calvinist theology. Neglect of this critical aspect of Melville's intellectual outlook stems from the fact that almost all his surviving writings are in Latin - and much of it in verse. Melville did not pen any substantial prose treatise on theology, ecclesiology or political theory. His poetry, however, reveals his views on all these topics and offers new insights into his life and times. The main concerns of this volume, therefore, are to provide the first comprehensive listing of the range of poetry and prose attributed to Melville and to begin the process of elucidating these texts and the contexts in which they were written. While the volume contributes to an on-going process that has seen Melville's role as an ecclesiastical politician and educational reformer challenged and diminished, it also seeks to redress the balance by opening up other dimensions of Melville's career and intellectual life and shedding new light on the broader cultural context of Jacobean Scotland and Britain.

Published in 1998. John Knox is one of the towering figures of the European reformation, his name synonymous with hard-line evangelical Protestantism, and his influence spreading far beyond his native Scotland. This volume seeks to reassess Knox's career in the context of the European Reformation as a whole, but with particular reference to his impact in Scotland and England. The 13 contributors, all acknowledged authorities in the field, together provide a significant reappraisal of Knox and his role in the British Reformations.

George Buchanan (1506-82) was one of the most distinguished humanists of the Northern European Renaissance. Hailed by his contemporaries as the greatest Latin poet of his age, he is chiefly remembered today as a radical political theorist whose Dialogus, first published in Edinburgh in 1579, justified the deposition of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567 on the basis of a theory of popular sovereignty, which vested in the people the right to resist, depose and kill tyrannical monarchs. Dedicated to his pupil James VI, whose violent reaction against his tutor's ideas led him to develop his own views on the divine right of kings, Buchanan's work nevertheless proved immensely influential both in Britain and on the Continent, making a notable contribution to the debates over the nature and location of sovereignty which would finally bear fruit in the writings of John Locke. This new edition, featuring facing-page Latin text and English translation, is accompanied by extensive notes and commentary on Buchanan's classical and contemporary sources and a detailed introduction that examines the development of Buchanan's political thought, the context in which the Dialogus was written and published, and an extended analysis of the text itself.

Published in 1998. John Knox is one of the towering figures of the European reformation, his name synonymous with hard-line evangelical Protestantism, and his influence spreading far beyond his native Scotland. This volume seeks to reassess Knox's career in the context of the European Reformation as a whole, but with particular reference to his impact in Scotland and England. The 13 contributors, all acknowledged authorities in the field, together provide a significant reappraisal of Knox and his role in the British Reformations.

George Buchanan (1506-82) was the most distinguished Scottish humanist of the sixteenth century with an unparalleled contemporary reputation as a Latin poet, playwright, historian and political theorist. However, while his contemporary importance as the scourge of Mary Queen of Scots and advocate of popular rebellion has long been recognised, this volume represents the first attempt to explore the subsequent influence of his ideas and his contested reputation as a political ideologue and cultural icon. Featuring a wide-ranging selection of essays by an international cast of established and younger scholars, the volume explores Buchanan's legacy as an historian and political theorist in Britain and Europe in the two centuries following his death, with particular emphasis on the reception of his remarkably radical views on popular sovereignty and political assassination. Divided into four parts, the volume covers the immediate impact and reception of his writings in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Britain; the wider Northern European context in which his thought was influential; the engagement with his political ideas in the course of the seventeenth-century British constitutional struggles; and the influence of his ideas as well as the changing nature of his reputation through the eighteenth century and beyond. The introduction to the volume not only reviews the material in the body of the collection, but also reflects on the use and abuse of Buchanan's ideas in the early modern period and the methodological issues of influence and reputation raised by the contributors. Such a reassessment of Buchanan and his legacy is long overdue and this volume will be welcomed by all scholars with an interest in the political and cultural history of early modern Britain and Europe.

This 1994 collection of essays by distinguished scholars from Britain and North America constitutes a major contribution to the process of remapping the history of early modern British political thought. Based on a seminar held at the Folger Institute's Centre for the History of British Political Thought, it takes the union of the Anglo-Scottish crowns in 1603 as its principal focus and examines the background to, and consequences of, the creation of a British monarchy from a distinctively Scottish viewpoint. In the process, it provides a pioneering study of Scottish political thought from the Reformation of 1560 to the Covenanting Revolution of the 1640s and sheds new light on the collapse of multiple kingship in the mid-seventeenth century and the Scots' participation in the invention of Britain.

John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, one of the most notorious political tracts of the sixteenth century, has been more often referred to than read. Its true significance as one of a series of pamphlets which Knox wrote in 1558 on the theme of rebellion is therefore easily overlooked. This new edition of his writings includes not only The First Blast, but the three other tracts of 1558 -The Letter to the Regent of Scotland, The Appellation to the Scottish Nobility, and The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland - in which Knox confronted the problem of resistance to tyranny. Related material, mostly drawn from Knox's own History of the Reformation in Scotland, illuminates the development of his views before 1558 and illustrates their application in the specific circumstances of the Scottish Reformation and the rule of Mary Queen of Scots. This edition thus brings together for the first time all of Knox's most important writings on rebellion.

John Knox's First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, one of the most notorious political tracts of the sixteenth century, has been more often referred to than read. Its true significance as one of a series of pamphlets which Knox wrote in 1558 on the theme of rebellion is therefore easily overlooked. This new edition of his writings includes not only The First Blast, but the three other tracts of 1558 -The Letter to the Regent of Scotland, The Appellation to the Scottish Nobility, and The Letter to the Commonalty of Scotland - in which Knox confronted the problem of resistance to tyranny. Related material, mostly drawn from Knox's own History of the Reformation in Scotland, illuminates the development of his views before 1558 and illustrates their application in the specific circumstances of the Scottish Reformation and the rule of Mary Queen of Scots. This edition thus brings together for the first time all of Knox's most important writings on rebellion.

This 1994 collection of essays by distinguished scholars from Britain and North America constitutes a major contribution to the process of remapping the history of early modern British political thought. Based on a seminar held at the Folger Institute's Centre for the History of British Political Thought, it takes the union of the Anglo-Scottish crowns in 1603 as its principal focus and examines the background to, and consequences of, the creation of a British monarchy from a distinctively Scottish viewpoint. In the process, it provides a pioneering study of Scottish political thought from the Reformation of 1560 to the Covenanting Revolution of the 1640s and sheds new light on the collapse of multiple kingship in the mid-seventeenth century and the Scots' participation in the invention of Britain.

From Caledonia to Pictland examines the transformation of Iron Age northern Britain into a land of Christian kingdoms, long before 'Scotland' came into existence. Perched at the edge of the western Roman Empire, northern Britain was not unaffected by the experience, and became swept up in the great tide of processes which gave rise to the early medieval West. Like other places, the country experienced social and ethnic metamorphoses, Christianisation, and colonization by dislocated outsiders, but northern Britain also has its own unique story to tell in the first eight centuries AD. This book is the first detailed political history to treat these centuries as a single period, with due regard for Scotland's position in the bigger story of late Antique transition. From Caledonia to Pictland charts the complex and shadowy processes which saw the familiar Picts, Northumbrians, North Britons and Gaels of early Scottish history become established in the country, the achievements of their foremost political figures, and their ongoing links with the world around them. It is a story that has become much revised through changing trends in scholarly approaches to the challenging evidence, and that transformation too is explained for the benefit of students and general readers. Key Features: *The only detailed political history to treat the first eight centuries AD as a single period of Scottish history. *Redresses the imbalance created by an existing literature dominated by archaeologists. From Caledonia to Pictland provides a narrative history of the period. *Bridges a traditional disciplinary divide between the Roman and early medieval periods. *Locates this phase of Scotland's history within a European context, emphasising what is unique and what is not.