#41 - Scotland's Famine (The Ill Years)

The 'ill years' of late 1690's Scotland was a period of Scottish history more depressing than the Bertie Vogt's era. Devastating famines in 1696, 1698 and 1699 created the most severe mortality crisis experienced in Scotland until the introduction of the deep-fried Mars Bar. Mortality rates in some parts of the country reached as high as 20%, about the same as your average ICE agent. The famines created an economic depression which was then exasperated further by the Nine Years War. The war was not going well for King William, in an effort to raise money to supply his armies on the continent, William imposed poll-taxes on Scotland. Worse still, Scotland's trade was being hampered by prohibitive trade tariffs that prevented trade with England and France. Famine, War, inflation and trade tariffs, it made 2024 - 2026 a terrible time to be alive. The best way to tackle food-shortage, inflation and a cost of living crisis is of course to build a ballroom and/or invade Iran, but the Scottish government of the late 17th century opted for a different approach, they floated a 'joint stock company' named 'The Company of Scotland' to try and keep pace with their powerful mercantile neighbours, it would not end well...

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Avsnitt(46)

#43 - The Darien Scheme (Disaster in the New World)

In the late 17th century Scotland attempted to gain control of a tiny but immensely important trade choke point in a vast foreign empire we knew little about, the endeavour was widely unsuccessful and...

3 Juni 41min

#42 - The Darien Scheme (The Strange Dream of William Paterson)

The 17th century came to an economically ruinous end for Scotland as it attempted to establish a colony on the Darien Isthmus in Panama. The settling of a colony at Darien was the sole obsession of on...

27 Maj 40min

#40 - The Massacre of Glencoe

The Massacre of clan Macdonald by Government troops in the winter of 1692 is one of the most shocking and infamous events in all of Scottish history. After the defeat of the first Jacobite Rising in S...

13 Maj 38min

#39 - The First Jacobite Rising

The first Scottish attempt to restore the deposed King James VII & II onto the thrones usurped by his daughter and son-in-law Queen Mary II & King William II & III, occurred in 1689. This first Jacobi...

7 Maj 37min

#38 - The 'Glorious' Revolution

In 1688/89 King James VII & II's thrones were usurped by his daughter Mary and son-in-law William of Orange in the so-called 'Glorious Revolution' named so because of the rebellion's supposed bloodles...

6 Maj 36min

Mountebank Returns!

The first two episodes of the brand new series of the Mountebank History of Scotland will be released on Wednesday the 6th of May!

29 Apr 33s

#37 - James VII & II (The Last Stuart King)

James VII & II was the last Catholic Stuart monarch of Britain and Ireland. As a Catholic he was viewed with suspicion by Protestants who were unhappy about James' placing of Catholics in prominent po...

28 Maj 202540min