Political Elites

Abstract

Only a very few people in Scotland were involved in politics, and an even smaller number belonged to the political elite, or elites, those who directly influenced and had a hand in decision making. Perhaps around 2,000 heads of aristocratic families dominated the political life of a nation of three-quarters of a million people, and among these less than 100, chiefly peers, could command a voice in national affairs. In addition were a handful of crown officials and judges most of whom had some connection with the landed aristocracy, or who had ambitions to join its ranks. The only areas of public life not dominated by the aristocracy were the church, where bishops and the more articulate and ambitious ministers provided political leadership, and the towns, where oligarchies of merchant burgesses controlled the burgh councils. In both church and burghs, however, clientage of one form or another often bound ministers and merchants to the nobility.It is possible to make tentative suggestions about shifts in political power such as the rise of the lairds, the challenge to the existing order from the presbyterian clergy, or the growing confidence of the merchant burgesses.