Political Parties and the eclipse of the Scottish Privy Council

Abstract

In 1708 the executive arm of Scottish pre-modern government, the Scottish Privy Council, was abolished, in a decision that disregarded the national interest. The competencies of this body were very wide. It engaged in policy formation and delivery, sometimes following decisions by the legislature, the Scottish Parliament, over a range of social, economic, religious, political, judicial and security concerns and did so, we must assume, back at least to the thirteenth century. There is little consideration of the circumstances of the abolition in the existing historiography, even though the Scottish Privy Council has something of a unique position. Given the more common arrangements found in European composite monarchies, such as in Catalonia where a viceroy located in Barcelona was kept separate from the decision-making council in Madrid, or the option of an independent provincial governor as in the French model, it is remarkable that the Scottish Privy Council was maintained in Edinburgh after the monarch moved to London in 1603. This article seeks to explain the successful campaign to eliminate the Council in the light of progressive moves in the early modern period towards a political culture dominated by party.