Introduction: Scotland in Revolution, 1685–1690

IN DECEMBER 1688, THE authority of King James VII, Scotland’s last Catholic ruler and most self-consciously ‘absolute’ monarch, collapsed. As recently as the summer, James’s government had seemed strong. The political instability convulsing his southern kingdom of England, where James had prosecuted seven bishops for refusing his commands, had no visible parallel in Scotland. North of the Tweed, the king’s highly innovative policies – religious toleration, the promotion of Catholicism and systematic intervention in local government – were unchallenged. But in November, the invasion of southern England by William of Orange, James’s Dutch nephew and son-in-law, quickly undermined the government in Scotland. Despite gathering his army to confront William’s forces on Salisbury Plain, James failed to resist the invaders, withdrawing to London on 23 November....