The Scottish Parliament and the politics of empire: : Parliament and the Darien Project, 1695-1707

Young, John (2007) The Scottish Parliament and the politics of empire: : Parliament and the Darien Project, 1695-1707. Parliaments, Estates and Representation, 27. pp. 175-190. ISSN 0260-6755

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Abstract

The 1689 Convention of Estates played a crucial role in the « Glorious Revolution » in Scotland, forfeiting James VII and replacing him with William of Orange and his wife Mary as King and Queen of Scotland. Conventions of Estates were usually convened for specific purposes, such as the granting of supply and taxation. The Conventions of 1665 and 1667, for example, were convened to provide financial support for Charles II’s participation in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Two important conventions were held for overtly political purposes in the seventeenth century, however. The 1643 Convention of Estates was the political body through which the Covenanting movement in Scotland took the decision to intervene in the English Civil War. A Convention of Estates was allowed to meet on 14 March 1689 as a result of the decision taken by William of Orange, now King of England, and Scottish politicians in Whitehall in early January 1689. A series of meetings was held in Whitehall between William and a group of up to 30 lords and 80 gentlemen. William was invited to take on the civil and military administration of Scotland until the meeting of a Convention of Estates in Edinburgh on 14 March. The Whitehall meetings also decided that this Convention was to deliberate and resolve on what was to be done for securing the Protestant religion and restoring the laws and liberties of the kingdom.