Dr John R. Young, de University of Strathclyde, présentera sa communication « The Constitutional Reform programme of the Earl of Mar in the 1720s », le jeudi 31 mai 2018 de 17h30 à 19h30. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, 75006, salle D421.

The talk will examine a remarkable set of writings by John Erskine, Earl of Mar, in which Mar outlined an alternative future and constitutional relationship that challenged the 1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England and the 1714 Hanoverian Succession. Mar is a fascinating individual. He was a key figure in successfully managing the negotiated 1706 Treaty of Union through the final session of the Scottish Parliament in 1706-1707 with a principled commitment to a union of incorporation with England. Yet he became a leading figure in the Jacobite movement, especially the 1715 Rebellion. Mar’s writings in the 1720s sought the repeal of the Act of Union and a federal union with Ireland. His writings display a deep level of political and constitutional sophistication, with specific reference to proposed arrangements for a Jacobite restoration, redefined relationships between Scotland, England and Ireland, as well as colonial north America and the French connection. Mar has been the subject of recent historical interest. Dr Young’s talk will examine the extent to which Mar drew on the constitutional precedents of the Covenanting movement in the seventeenth century and legislative precedents from the Revolution of 1689-90 in Scotland and the Scottish parliamentary sessions of 1703-1704 to produce a body of work which can be described as representing a programme of Constitutional Jacobitism for a ‘new’ Scotland in the context of Jacobite Restoration.

Dr John R. Young is a double graduate of the University of Glasgow. He is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has published widely on early modern Scottish history, including the Covenanting movement and Scotland and Ulster links. In 2013 his article on Sir Robert Adair of Kinhilt was published in the Journal of Scotch-Irish Studies, in the USA. He is a leading member of the International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions (ICHRPI). He is the editor the journal Parliaments, Estates and Representation.