In 1707 Scotland didn't just lose a Parliament. It lost the sovereign institutions through which a very different constitutional tradition had developed - one in which rulers were created for the community, bound by law, and could lose their authority if they broke its fundamental conditions.
That tradition didn't disappear.
It was cut off from its independent institutional development, and much of its history was subsequently buried beneath a very different story of parliamentary sovereignty.
Tomorrow (28 October) on Substack:
George Buchanan and the Constitution Scotland Lost
What Scottish popular sovereignty actually meant - and what was interrupted in 1707.
Oct 27, 2026 · 7:23 PM UTC
Now live. 👇
Now live: George Buchanan and the Constitution Scotland Lost
Scotland didn't simply lose a Parliament in 1707.
It lost the sovereign institutions through which a distinct constitutional tradition — rooted in popular authority, fundamental law and conditional government — could continue developing independently.
This article traces that tradition through Buchanan, the wider European constitutional world, the Claim of Right, and the constitutional schism of 1707.
What Scottish popular sovereignty actually meant — and what was interrupted in 1707.
angrypict.substack.com/p/geo…
