Royalists at War in Scotland and Ireland, 1638-1650

Analysing the make-up and workings of the Royalist party in Scotland and Ireland during the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century, Robertson is the first to provide a major study exploring who Royalists were in these two countries and why they gave their support to the Stuart kings. It compares and contrasts the actions, motivations and situations of key Scottish and Irish Royalists, paying particular attention to concepts such as honour, allegiance and loyalty, as well as practical considerations such as military capability, levels of debt, religious tensions, and political geography.

Barry Robertson is honorary research fellow in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Lordship and Power in the North of Scotland: the Noble House of Huntly, 1603-1690 (2011) and a number of articles on early modern Scottish history.

Contents: Scottish and Irish Royalism in context; Confronting the Covenant, 1638-1639; Royalist defeat, 1639-1671; Ireland and the Royalist cause, 1638-1642; Irish Royalism, 1643-1647; Scottish Royalism, 1642-1647; Scottish and Irish Royalism in eclipse, 1647-1650; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.