Welsh Journals

Broke, p. 238). More substantial is the problem of the letter from Rhys ap Thomas to Richard III on pp. 200-1, which Professor Griffiths believes may be genuine, rather than a fabrication by Rice. If so, its anticipation of Machiavelli's use of 'the state' Henry VIII's courtiers' consistent use of 'Your Majestie' and at least two coinages first recorded by the OED in the 1570s or later make Sir Rhys a still more remarkable individual than his biographer would claim. It seems safer to assume that, tacitly in this instance as explicitly elsewhere, Henry Rice followed Thucydides and others in inventing 'a letter of his own composition to suit the circumstances' (p. 212n). It would be unfair to end on a note of dissent. Both the Life itself and Professor Griffiths's masterful and multi-layered contextualization of it will be of use to a range of historical scholars far wider than those who have consulted it in its previous incarnation, and for that we are all in his debt. S. J. GUNN Merton College, Oxford SUBVERTING SCOTLAND'S PAST. SCOTTISH WHIG HISTORIANS AND THE CREATION OF AN ANGLO-BRITISH IDENTITY, 1689-c.1830. By Colin Kidd. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xiii, 322. £ 35.00. This study is of major importance not only for scholars of the long eighteenth century, but for students of early modern historiography. The story begins with the development of a proud Scottish historiography in the Renaissance, in which erudition and passion mixed. The Scots were able to claim priority over the English in terms of their integrity, independence and longevity. Although libertarians and absolutists argued about the precise nature of Scottish origins and of the ancient constitution, there was a general consensus that religious and political virtue could be located in the ancient past. Foundation myths about the Scottish church and monarchy therefore came in different forms but few dissented from the validity of the exercise. As James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair (1619-95) was able to argue, 'we know not who can claim preference in antiquity and integrity'. But this situation was not to last. In England ancient constitutionalism of one sort or another remained relevant to political debate; in Scotland, it was undermined partly by critical erudition, but crucially by the impact of the Union. Divisions amongst the Scots made it difficult for a modified Whiggism to be constructed for both Scotland and England. Jacobitism certainly kept the issue alive, but, unable to impose its own view of the ancient constitution, through the scholarship of Thomas Innes (1662-1744) it only succeeded in weakening Scottish Whig constitutionalism. Equally important was the way in which the Union threw into high relief the debate about Scottish economic performance. Scotland now appeared as a nation which had failed to modernize. Whereas English Whig historiography succeeded in presenting both an ancient and progressive face, these two elements in Scottish historiography cancelled each other out. Progress had been held up by Scotland's ancient heritage, which had to be marginalized if Scotland were to join the ranks of the enlightened nations. Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676-1755) likened the