Maunder Minimum – ended Scottish independence?

Posted on 5 September 2011 by Scottish-Sceptic

I’ve been looking at Scottish history around the Maunder minimum (1645 – 1715) and the following is very interesting:
After a partial resolution of the English Civil war, Charles I negotiated a secret treaty with the Scots (1647), that they would invade England on Charles’ behalf and restore him to the throne. A series of uprisings led to a Scottish invasion in 1648. On Tuesday 30th January 1649 Charles I was taken to his execution in Whitehall. Outside there was frost and snow.
In the 1690s Scotland’s economy suffered from the “seven ill years“ which resulted in severe famine and depopulation and generally the economy suffered.
Attempts were made to compete with England in America, however the Darien Scheme on the Istmus of Panama suffered from devastating epidemics of disease, and increasing shortage of food and was abandoned in 1700. As the Darien company was backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the nobles and landowners – after the 1690s run of bad harvests – almost completely ruined and led directly to the 1707 the Act of Union with England.

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3 Responses to Maunder Minimum – ended Scottish independence?

  1. palantir says:
    6 September 2011 at 11:48

    However – the Wars of Independence kicked off around the start of the LIA, culminating in the Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.

  2. Scottish Sceptic says:
    6 September 2011 at 11:59

    Wouldn’t it be very interesting to compare all of Scottish history with climate?
    The execution of Charles I was particularly interesting, because when I noticed it was in January in London, I realised that in modern times it was very unlikely to have snow, and being such a momentous date it was very likely people would have described the weather. And it was snowy.
    But the real danger is that you just happen to find bad things which could be climate related, and then emphasise those that fit the time period and downplay those that don’t to give the impression that climate has major historical impacts where it might not.

  3. Scots Renewables says:
    11 September 2011 at 10:31

    Wouldn’t it be very interesting to compare all of Scottish history with climate?
    Yes, fascinating. While you are at it you may be interested to research the observation that global warming is a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of pirates since the 1800s. If you create a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years you can see a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

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