Piracy and the Southwest Burghs of Scotland in an Irish Sea Context, 1560-1625

Abstract

Piracy is an understudied aspect of Scottish history, most often being analysed through the prism of governments and state institutions. Maritime historians of Scotland have largely focused on eastern trading burghs and the North Sea region, given the larger volume of trade and shipping emanating from these ports. The mariners of the southwest, however, operated in a different maritime environment to those on the east coast of Scotland. The tumultuous waters of the Irish Sea, which connected the western burghs to the seafaring communities of England, Wales, Ireland, Man, and the Scottish Highlands, were also the setting for English naval operations in Ireland and the civilising policies implemented by both Tudor and Stuart monarchies. To date, there are no comparative studies which systematically analyse piracy in the Irish Sea, certainly not from a Scottish perspective. This thesis will survey piracy in the Irish Sea, before moving on to analyse state responses to piracy as they affected the Irish Sea communities. The Scottish western burghs will be placed within their ‘archipelagic’ context, analysing piracy alongside themes of naval control, diplomacy, and state formation. In doing so this thesis aims to highlight the ineffectiveness of state responses, and elicit local and regional nuances not present in state-centric or national studies. It will also place piracy affecting the western burghs within its immediate local context. Through a set of local case studies, it will reassess characterisations of Gaelic piracy on the west coast of Scotland, challenging perceptions of Gaelic seafarers as coastal raiders. It will assess how southwestern Scots participated in piracy, through illicit trading networks in the Irish Sea, and outside of the reach of central governing authorities. It will also make the case that local innovations, tailored to individual communities, must be further assessed as responses to piracy in historiography of piracy. In doing all of this, it hopes to realign how piracy is framed in Scottish historiography (and indeed that of the wider archipelago), to include the western maritime theatres in addition to eastern and northern coastlines traditionally assessed by scholars.