Higher Seminar in Statecraft and Strategic Communication | Steve Murdoch

Abstract: In this seminar paper, the Scottish Covenanting Revolution is looked at in a fresh light. Traditionally it is viewed and presented as a theological revolution which happened spontaneously in 1638 after a riot in Edinburgh the previous year. In this presentation the facts surrounding the revolution are reviewed to reveal a detailed logistical planning that began at least four years before the usual date for the revolution (1638). Far from being the spontaneous actions of a theologically driven minority, it was in fact soldiers fighting in the Thirty Years’ War continental armies who planned the revolution. It was they who sourced weapons, transportation and undermined the Stuart Government’s attempts to prevent weapons’ supply. But how did they do it? In this presentation it will be argued that the social capital amassed through generations of service abroad proved to be more effective than the fiscal capabilities of the multiple-monarch Stuart state. It will be shown which countries provided weapons to the revolutionaries – Sweden and the Dutch Republic - (and why), and how alleged allied nations to the House of Stuart (Denmark and France) were effectively neutralised through covert diplomacy and subversive activities

Bio: Professor Steve Murdoch has published widely on various aspects of the British participation in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). In addition to six major anthologies and several critical editions, his five major monographs include Network North: Scottish Kin, Cultural and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, 2006), The Terror of the Seas? Scottish Maritime Warfare, 1513-1713 (Brill, 2010) and with Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years’ War (Pickering & Chatto, 2014).