Serdecznie zapraszamy na wykład dr Anny Groundwater  (National Museums of Scotland), który odbędzie się w siedzibie IH PAN, Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, w Sali Kościuszkowskiej (II piętro), w środę, 19 lutego 2020 r. o godzinie 10.15:

 ‘Blessed union’?
The Anglo-Scottish Union of the Crowns (1603) in its European contexts

In the late sixteenth century, several dynastic and political unions were emerging in Europe, that created larger nascent states than their medieval forebears. It was the age of multiple monarchies, complex arrangements of individual princedoms and kingdoms coming together within expanded entities, also known in the historiography as composite kingdoms. This paper will consider the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the kingship of England, Scotland and Ireland united in the person of James VI of Scotland, now James I of England and Ireland as well, in its continental European context – in particular, that of the Union of Lublin of 1569, and the Iberian union of 1580. Whilst dynastic crisis had occasioned all three, it will explore the varied nature of the settlements that resulted – from dynastic or personal union to more institutionalised political union.

James VI and I, from his collected 'Workes', 1617, NLS
James VI and I, from his collected 'Workes', 1617, NLS

How easy was it to govern a multiple kingdom in the early modern era? What tensions did these monarchs have to negotiate, what more conducive or cohesive forces were they blessed with, and what does a comparison of these unions bring to an understanding of the ways in which they worked? What insight might the varied fortunes of these unions give us now in times of re-negotiated national and international frameworks? And how can a national museum narrate such politically sensitive stories in their presentation of our material past?

Dr Anna Groundwater is a social and cultural historian of early modern Scotland and Britain. She though at the University of Edinburgh for ten years until recently transferring to National Museums of Scotland, where she is Principal Curator of Renaissance and Early Modern History. She publishes on Scottish and British history, particularly on the government of James VI and I, the Union of the Crowns, and the Anglo-Scottish Borders region. Her most recent book is Connecting Scotland’s History: a Scottish History timeline linked into 2000 years of world history (Luath, 2017). Her current research interest include early modern cultural and mercantile exchanges between Scotland and northern Europe, in particular the United Provinces and Poland-Lithuania.