This talk examines the nature of anti-Catholic riots in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, in the 1680s.

This talk examines the nature of anti-Catholic riots in Edinburgh, Scotland's capital city, in the 1680s. Anti-Catholic activities included pope-burning processions by Edinburgh University students in 1680 and 1688 and full-scale rioting in 1686 and 1688. The 1688 'Holyrood Riot' was pivotal to the collapse of James VII's regime in Scotland, but the anti-Catholic riots of 1686 are less well known. The talk will discuss the nature of the riots, who the rioters were, and who was attacked. Recorded depositions in the Privy Council records and a full Privy Council report to King James provide a rich amount of important historical information on the riots. The 1686 riots took place c. four months before the 1686 Scottish parliamentary session formally rejected the policy of King James for religious toleration for Roman Catholics in Scotland. More widely, these riots should be looked at in the context of the role played by the Edinburgh mob in Scottish history, such as in the anti-Union riot of 23 October 1706. For Scotland's history, the Edinburgh mob was just as important as the Paris mob to the history of France and the London mob to the history of England/Britain.

This talk is also available to view live online tickets (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/anti-catholic-rioting-in-edinburgh-in-the-1680s-online-event-tickets-1997442921548?aff=oddtdtcreator)

The talk will be recorded and later added to the OEC YouTube channel. (https://www.youtube.com/@oldedinburghclub)

Dr John R. Young is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He holds a first-class honours degree and PhD from the University of Glasgow. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

He specialises in early modern Scottish History, including the history of the pre-1707 Scottish Parliament, the 1707 Act of Union, the Covenanters, and Scotland’s relations with Ulster. He has published widely in these areas. He is the editor of the journal Parliaments, Estates & Representation, the journal of The International Commission for the History of Representative and Parliamentary Institutions. His work on Scottish parliamentary history has been published in publications of The French National Assembly and the parliaments of Catalonia, Poland and Portugal.

Description supplied by the event organiser.