“Their Dear Brethren of England” Scottish Print for an English Public, 1637 – 1652.
HEI: University of Glasgow, University of St Andrews
School: Arts and Humanities
Supervisors: Professor Karin Bowie (Glasgow)
Professor Scott Spurlock (Glasgow)
Professor Andrew Pettegree (St Andrews)
Keywords: Print, Public Sphere, Covenanters, Propaganda, Scotland
About William’s Research:
In the mid seventeenth century Britain and Ireland underwent one of the most traumatic periods in their histories with the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The dramatic response to these crises through English print is a well understood phenomenon. Simultaneous Scottish media, however, is less well studied. My research focuses on Scottish print during this period, approaching it as a key intermediary in the relationship between governed and government, subject and ruler, public and politician. For the politicians of the Covenant, printed media represented a vital means of communication with populations in both Scotland and overseas. Accordingly, for these populations print became a major element of their day-to-day interaction with those governing Scotland.
Studying the material relationships these groups had with the world of print enables fuller appreciation of the ways in which they directed, experienced and negotiated the unstable political world in which they lived. This understanding will in turn generate a more comprehensive picture of the emergence of public spheres within and between Scotland and England, and the role that print played both in fostering and supressing them.
