The Killing Time

About the Book: 

In the 'Killing Time' of 1685, the government of Scotland made it legal for soldiers to summarily shoot civilians without any form of trial.

Seventy eight people were executed and the policy remains notorious.

Yet the decades before and after were far more deserving of the name. In the struggle to define what Scotland stood for, thousands perished.

One of the victims was nationhood.

Seven decades lie between the 1638 revolution when Scotland signed the National Covenant, and the 1707 Treaty of Union with England. They were years of warfare, deep-seated civil strife, assassinations, judicial torture and terror, and sudden changes of regime.

In The Killing Time, the great issues and key events of a tumultuous epoch are clearly
explained. By taking a partbiographical approach, focused on the personal lives of some
of the movers and shakers, the book brings a whole era alive for the modern reader.
With its mingling of strong religion and tough politics, its episodes of foreign military occupation, armed uprisings, and vigorous propaganda campaigns, the period in many ways foreshadows contemporary events. After the triumph and disaster of the Covenant years, the foundations of modern Scotland-in-Britain were laid on the wreckage of what remained.

About the Author:

DAVID S ROSS is a graduate of St Andrews University and has written and edited a number of books on Scottish history and culture, including Scotland: History of a Nation, now in its ninth edition, and Scottish Quotations. He has a particular interest in the development of cultural life and the history of ideas, and is currently working on a history-cum-anthology of Scottish humour.