Dear Dr. _____,
I found the second volume of the Stuart Papers to be very informative regarding cultural references. The universal understanding of the Highlanders is one of loyalty without sufficient means to achieve Stuart restoration. A definite resource problem plagued the administrative side of organizing a successful attempt. Clan Ranald in particular is describes as possessing family ties to loyalty, but many other clan leaders are so linked with the attempt that it is obvious the Highlanders had vested interest in the Noble hierarchy of the Stuart cause in Great Britain. James' main action towards raising support among both the British nobility and populace is through the heraldic pageantry of Standard Raising, and he invariably links that particular heraldry with Scottish ancient appeal, choosing Scotland as his preliminary and primary place to raise his Standard. I have chased down various systems of codes regarding the names of places and people in order to discover cultural meanings in the texts. For instance, Highlanders in one place are referred to as "Heathcoats," Holland is "Milflower," and Scotland is quite often "Mr. Woods." Other codes do not necessarily imply cultural specificity, and I want to be very careful in my inferences, but these few were almost certainly obvious characterizations of cultural ideals. My only disappointment is that the correspondence does not proceed further than 1716, and I will need to look elsewhere for correspondence during Prince Charles' attempt. I have noted extensively as usual.
Wesley
I found the second volume of the Stuart Papers to be very informative regarding cultural references. The universal understanding of the Highlanders is one of loyalty without sufficient means to achieve Stuart restoration. A definite resource problem plagued the administrative side of organizing a successful attempt. Clan Ranald in particular is describes as possessing family ties to loyalty, but many other clan leaders are so linked with the attempt that it is obvious the Highlanders had vested interest in the Noble hierarchy of the Stuart cause in Great Britain. James' main action towards raising support among both the British nobility and populace is through the heraldic pageantry of Standard Raising, and he invariably links that particular heraldry with Scottish ancient appeal, choosing Scotland as his preliminary and primary place to raise his Standard. I have chased down various systems of codes regarding the names of places and people in order to discover cultural meanings in the texts. For instance, Highlanders in one place are referred to as "Heathcoats," Holland is "Milflower," and Scotland is quite often "Mr. Woods." Other codes do not necessarily imply cultural specificity, and I want to be very careful in my inferences, but these few were almost certainly obvious characterizations of cultural ideals. My only disappointment is that the correspondence does not proceed further than 1716, and I will need to look elsewhere for correspondence during Prince Charles' attempt. I have noted extensively as usual.
Wesley
Wesley, where do you find these books?
ReplyDeleteAndrew,
ReplyDeleteFor my original sources, I access digitized copies of academic archived material, for the most part. Archive.org is where many university libraries dump their stuff. For upcoming doctoral research though, I will need to go to some specific archives myself.
For articles and books written by academic historians (called "scholarship," "historiography," or "secondary sources" in the historical field) you can buy them through Amazon and JSTOR access.