Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

A History Of Scotland – the next five parts – starts Sunday, 8 November at 9pm on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ One Scotland.

Programme 6 – God's Chosen People: 1638-1688

After Great Britain was founded, the Scots began to find themselves torn between their natural affinity to their ancient line of Stewart Kings and their intense religious conviction. Should they follow the King Charles I or King Jesus? When Charles I tried to impose his form of religion on the Scots, they were forced to choose.

This episode is about the forging and impact of two of the most remarkable documents in Scottish history which broke the power of the Stewart kings: the Covenants (of 1638 and 1643), written contracts with God in which the Scottish Covenanters sought not only to redefine their own place in Britain, but Britain itself. They were to start the British Civil Wars, unleash revolutionary turmoil which struck off the head of Charles I and ultimately led to Cromwell's conquest of Scotland to defeat the Stewarts. Yet, even in this darkest hour, the Covenanters' dream refused to die.

When Charles II was restored they had high hopes for their Covenanted king, but Charles was having no truck with Covenants which gave the common man his place and placed limits on the Crown. His determination to take Scotland back to a time before the signing was the incendiary thrown into a cauldron of religious fervour in the West of Scotland.

The "merry monarch" became Britain's greatest persecuting king, leading to rebellions, the infamous "Killing Times" and the imprisonment of a curiously masked preacher on the grim Bass Rock. Britain's first "war on terror" was underway, with Crown pitted against the Convenanters – a conflict which would lay the seeds for political and religious strife in Scotland for decades to come.

Programme 7 – Let's Pretend: 1693-1750

This episode covers the period in the wake of the 1688 revolution which brought William of Orange to power on the throne of England and Scotland, through to Culloden – the most iconic of Scottish battles – in 1746. The Glorious Revolution of 88/89 was triumphed as a win for Protestantism over Catholicism and liberty over the absolutist power of kings, but it was not accepted by all.

The new thinking led to some mania of its own such as the Darien project, a daring proposal to create a Scots trading colony in Panama - a mind-blowingly ambitious scheme, supported by vast swathes of the population, which virtually bankrupted the country.

In the wake of the revolution and the Darien disaster, a financially bereft Scotland signed up to the 1707 Union of Parliaments, but its "hearts and minds" were not remotely on board with the concept especially as in its early days its effects seemed wholly negative.

Taxes were hiked up and trade restrictions – contrary to the Articles of the agreement – made even pro-Union Nobles disappointed by the insensitive way Westminster was handling Scottish issues. Nor in Scotland did the Glorious Revolution necessarily make good on its promises of libertarian modernity.

The clamour from some Scots for the rule of the past found an outlet in the Jacobite cause and its crescendo and swansong was Culloden; the accepted story of these times. But A History Of Scotland reveals the Stewarts in exile had "evolved" and were making strides, with policies more liberal and forward thinking than the general rule of the land by William of Orange or his Hanoverian successors. And it reveals how close these new style "would-be" monarchs came on several occasions to coming back to power.

Programme 8 – The Price Of Progress: 1754-1783

This episode looks at how the money made from transatlantic trade with Britain's empire transformed Scotland, catapulting it into one of the richest nations on Earth. It's a story of national triumph, but also one which led others to fear that Scotland had lost its way.

It documents Scotland's international moneymen, who weren't averse to "playing the markets" for their own ends in the 18th Century. In the wake of Culloden, many Scots felt humiliated by the rebellion: many former Jacobites were having to flee to the New World to redeem themselves and many others viewed it as their best option. A few Jacobites made their fortune, and they didn't always care about the cost to others. Having been "victims" as they saw it, many of these Scots then became slave owners, often among the most merciless - This episode features the story of slave Joseph Knight, brought to Scotland from Jamaica.

Others became very adept money-makers who weren't exactly scrupulous about how they did it. In this shiny modern world, a new God – money – had replaced the old conflicts over dynasty and religion. It was also the dawn of a new era – when Scotland shaped the modern world by exporting its most valuable commodities – its people and new ideas of liberty and equality that helped start a revolution.

Among the stories to be featured are the restrictive trade practices of the Glasgow tobacco merchants, who went all out to target smaller farmers with less commercial clout. They tied local Virginian farmers into direct trade deals, stopping them getting a fair price in the open market. The Tobacco Lords effectively bought low and sold high as at the other end they enjoyed a monopoly in Europe and could sell their produce at high prices.

In some instances American farmers were lured into tempting credit deals, which also tied them to buyers, who could then virtually set whatever price they wanted. This greedy money-making at any cost wasn't filtering down many advantages to the ordinary people of Scotland, who mostly remained poor. Ironically it was the poverty that Benjamin Franklin saw at first hand in Scotland that convinced him that some sort of American-British Union was not the way forward, while at the same time the best intellectual efforts of the Scottish Enlightenment had provided America with a blueprint for liberty, and some noteworthy individuals to help put it into practice.

Among them was Paisley minister Dr John Witherspoon, a humble Paisley minister, who left Scotland – fearing it had lost its moral compass – in 1768 to take up an appointment as Principal of the renowned Princeton College, in New Jersey. He became the leading Churchman of his time advocating independence; so much so that the British specifically targeted his base, Princeton and the college, destroying just about everything in their path.

Further galvanised against the British by this action, Witherspoon worked tirelessly for five years to make for repairs to the college and on a special Congress set up by the revolutionary forces. His dedication to this cause was acknowledged when he was among those present to witness the signing of the American Declaration of Independence.

Programme 9 – This Land Is Our Land: 1815-1886

This episode chronicles the conflict between those who owned Scotland and those who lived in it. It's the story of how Sir Walter Scott's romantic tartan image of Scotland was born out of his fear that dangerous revolutionaries in industrial towns would sweep away everything distinctively Scottish.

At the dawn of the 19th century, Scotland and Britain were changing fast. The new mills had transformed its swelling industrial towns, the economy expanded, the Highlands were being cleared for sheep, Scots had proven loyal Britons in defeating Napoleon and the French Revolution and Scottish history had been consigned to the cabinet of curiosities. Yet, in other ways by 1815, nothing had changed since the Union of 1707: political power still lay in the hands of wealthy landowners, a tiny electorate and Scottish MPs legendary for their corruption.

Something would have to give. And it did. The boom years of the French wars had taken Scotland's industry to a high, but now the bust of a post-war recession brought it low. There was a groundswell of industrial unrest and demands for democracy and British liberties filled the air. It seemed that the industrial monster had been unleashed - a potential powder keg for a British revolution which would blow away the landowners grip over Scotland and the rule of kings...

One man was determined to prevent the terrifying prospect of reform and preserve his agreeable version of Scotland's past. His answer was to create a new popular image for the Scots which reconciled the country's national identity with patriotic attachment to the British monarchy. Walter Scott painted a story of doomed, brooding Jacobites, a romantic Scotland of loyal Highlanders, tartan and lairds. It was a global success. But was it a triumph of style over substance? Was it enough to prevent his beloved Scotland being swept away?

Programme 10 – Project Scotland: 1919-2009

This episode tells Scotland's story in a period of unprecedented social, political and economic upheaval from the Great War to today. Within the space of a generation Scotland went from pre-war industrial powerhouse to post war marginalisation.

The Great War wasn't just devastating due to the number of casualties. In its wake came a slump which devastated Scotland's industrial heartlands, taking Scottish wages down well below the English average, and unemployment rocketed. Scots voted with their feet. With the Twenties there was the greatest exodus of people from Scotland she had ever known. Between 1921-1934, it is estimated that around half a million Scots emigrated. It looked like Scotland was dying. The rumblings about home rule, even independence, began in earnest...

After the Second World War a new collective vision of Britain emerged of new towns, nationalised industries and the welfare state. The planners of the Scottish Office in the Fifties and Sixties set out to solve Scotland's economic problems with a grand plan to re-engineer the nation for a brighter future – and then came Mrs Thatcher and, in her wake, devolution.