Octavians
The Octavians were a financial commission of eight in the government of Scotland first appointed by James VI on 9 January 1596.[1]
James VI's minister John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane had died on 3 October 1595, and his financial situation was troubled.[2] They were a reforming body, eager to bring order to the royal finances and bear down on patronage. They imposed a 5% import tax and promoted an expedition into the Highlands to recover tax revenue.[3]
The Octavians were in part drawn from a committee appointed in 1593 by the Parliament of Scotland to look after the estates of Anne of Denmark.[4] An English courtier in Scotland Roger Aston described events at the end of December 1595 in a letter to James Hudson: "The queen's council joins with the prior (Alexander Seton) and other of the king's council for the reformation of the king's particular affairs".[5]
The initial commission lasted only one year, and was much disliked; Presbyterians attempted a coup at the end of 1596, and one demand was that the Octavians should be disbanded.[6] When renewed in 1597, it faced disabling opposition from vested interests, and some of the Octavians were suspect as sympathetic to Catholics.[7] But the concept of the commission as an extension of the exchequer into government persisted, and under the name of New Octavians it played a part in Scottish administration into the reign of Charles I.
Octavians of 1596
- David Carnegie of Colluthie
- James Elphinstone, 1st Lord Balmerinoch, formerly a member of the queen's council.
- Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington, formerly a member of the queen's council.
- John Lindsay of Balcarres, formerly a member of the queen's council.
- Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline, formerly a member of the queen's council.
- Sir John Skene
- Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre
- Peter Young of Seton[8]
New Octavians of 1611
- Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington[9]
- Gideon Murray, Lord Elibank[10]
- John Preston, Lord Fentonbarns[11]
- Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
- John Spottiswoode[12]
Notes
- ^ Julian Goodare, The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625 (2004), p. 157.
- ^ Julian Goodare, The Octavians, Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland, 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), pp. 177.
- ^ Mark Nicholls, A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529-1603: The two kingdoms (1999), p. 306.
- ^ Julian Goodare (2017), pp. 177-8: Thomas Thomson, Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland: 1593-1625, vol. 4 (1816), pp. 24-7.
- ^ Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), pp. 354-6.
- ^ Julian Goodare, The Scottish Witch-hunt in Context (2002), p. 52.
- ^ Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2005), p. 415.
- ^ Goodare, Julian. "Octavians". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69937. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.