From the death of James III to the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, the story of the Scotland is told from the perspective of its regions and of individual Scots, as well as incorporating the view from the royal court. This book explains how the country was re-formed as the relationship between church and crown changed, with these two institutions converging, merging and diverging, thereby permanently altering the nature of Scottish governance.Society was also transformed especially by the feuars, new landholders who became the backbone of rural Scotland.
The Reformation Crisis of 1559-60 brought the establishment of a Protestant Kirk, an institution affecting the lives of Scots for many centuries, and a diplomatic revolution that discarded the 'auld alliance' and locked Scotland's future into the British Isles.
Although the disappearance of the pre-Reformation church left a patronage deficit with disastrous effects for Scottish music and art, new forms of cultural expression arose that reflected Protestant sensibilities or were transposed to secular settings.
Alongside, the dramatic events and slow transformations of cultural, social, economic, political and religious life, in 1587 much remained as it had been in 1488, with Scots deeply rooted in their country through their abiding sense of place and people.
