An analysis of the Committee for the Security of the Kingdom of the Scottish Parliament, 1693-1702
In 1689, King James VII and II, monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland, was replaced by William III and II. The Revolution, traditionally known as the 'Glorious' Revolution, resulted in constitutional reform in all three kingdoms. William landed in England on 5 November, 1688, and James fled just over a month later. A group of one hundred and ten leading Scottish peers and gentry gathered in Whitehall to discuss the future of their country, inviting William to call a Convention of Estates to meet at Edinburgh, March 14, to settle the government.2 This convention became a parliament which met over ten sessions between 1689 and 1702. As well as creating the Claim of Right and the Articles of Grievance, constitutional reforms which defined the boundaries in which the monarch of Scotland could rule the country, in 1690 the Parliament also passed the 'Act concerning the election of committees of parliament' which abolished the Lords of the Articles, a controversial steering committee considered to be a tool of crown management by contemporaries, particularly those who were members of the parliamentary grouping 'the Club' who drew on the constitutional reforms of the Covenanters.3 This act allowed the Parliament to create committees on an ad-hoc basis to relieve the Parliament of its legislative burden.Committees had long been a feature of the Scottish Parliament. The Lords of the Articles, created in the 1450s, was the longest standing committee although crown interference in its membership in the seventeenth century led to the Covenanters rendering the legislative committee optional. Choosing not to use it, they instead established a series of session committees, to assist Parliament when it was sitting, and interval committees, which managed the country when Parliament was not in session. After the invasion of Scotland, Oliver Cromwell ruled Scotland from London however, when the Stewart monarchy was restored in 1660, Scotland regained its parliament. The Parliament reinstated the Articles although perceived crown management resulted in the Scottish Parliament replacing it with a series of committees after the Revolution.This dissertation will consider the most important committee created after the Revolution, the Committee for the Security of the Kingdom, 1693-1702. Created as one of three standing committees, this committee dealt with a range of issues while also taking part in the Parliament's response to major events unfolding in Scotland such as the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. To examine the Committee for Security, this dissertation will initially consider the historiography surrounding the Scottish Parliament in the seventeenth century, with specific attention to the years 1689-1702, as well as the Parliament's membership and previous committee systems. The first chapter will then discuss the methodology used to examine the Committee for Security including a brief consideration of the Records of the Parliament of Scotland website and the European research method of prosopography. The second chapter will discuss the committee system created after the Revolution and the formation of the Committee for Security. The third and fourth chapters will consider the Committee for Security's legislative function through contemplation of the issues remitted to it and the acts it produced. As the activities of the Committee and the legislation that it produced were the result of the men who occupied it, the fifth chapter will consider the membership of the Committee for Security, examining their predominance in the committee as well as contemplating other roles they may have had, before concluding with a discussion about factional allegiances.
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