Europe

Scotland

After spending a few days in London we travelled up to Edinburgh by train.  

A new highlight in the City is the now de-commissioned  Royal Yacht Britannia.  We spent several happy hours touring the vessel and had lunch in the dining room on the top deck. 

Royal Yacht Britannia

No doubt one reason for decommissioning her was the obvious cost; together with her age and the greater convenience and economy of air travel.  During her service she was passed-off as a standby hospital ship, allowing her cost to be absorbed into the defence budget.   It was rather mind boggling.  Britannia was generally captained by a Rear Admiral or a Vice Admiral, commanding 20 officers and 220 'yachstmen'; some of whom were also bandsmen.

Bandsmen's quarters - a cut above

She has a rather beautiful engine room and is driven by two sets of geared steam turbines each set comprising a high pressure turbine and a larger low pressure turbine. Although she would have been faster with three bladed propellers four blades were selected to provide a more comfortable ride. 

LP Turbine in the foreground

Unlike most naval ships she is stabilised.  But the stabilisers can be withdrawn if she needs to put on speed; and typical naval technical precautions were built-in against a possible need to go into combat; or an attack. 

Although the ratings were packed in like sardines this was regarded as a prime posting compared to other Ships in the navy. Nevertheless, a strict naval hierarchy was maintained.  The ratings mess was no bigger than that of the officers; they got beer (no rum anymore).  The petty officers had a smaller mess with beer or spirits and the officers got spirits. 

Officers

Petty Officers

The officers entertained members of the royal family in their dining room and got to play a variety of mess games, some involving stuffed toys; occasionally with members of the Family. 

Officer's Dining room

The royal family generally used the yacht on state visits but some seem to have amounted to holidays. Remarkably the Queen and Duke had bedrooms on opposite sides of the ship; both with ordinary single beds.

The Queen's Bedroom

Prince Phillip's Bedroom

But when Chuck and Di sailed to Australia they had a double bed installed; that still remains.

Charles and Diana's Bed - I'm resisting saying anything

The entertainment areas are surprisingly modest; as are the private apartments.

Drawing Room	State Dining Room
Boat Deck Bar	Private Foyer

An armoured Rolls Royce is still on board, mainly because they have to dismantle part of the ship to get it out of the garage, which is either too small; or the car is too large.

Earlier, we had spent most of a day touring Edinburgh Castle.

The ramparts of Edinburgh Castle

It is fair to say that no Australian political leader has ever lived in a castle or is ever likely too.  Australians have never waged real war on each other over territory or leadership.  The country and its coastline is vast and potential invaders would have no difficulty by-passing any fixed structure.  

Australians have a wide range of disparate religious traditions and beliefs; and as a founding principle: no established religion. 

So we have no castles or ancient forts; no grand houses or palaces on the scale of those in England; and even our cathedrals, mosques, and so on, are relatively modest.

So its easy to be amazed at the scale of these edifices across Europe and, in particular, the scale of investment of social capital invested in religion and maintaining the elite, at a time when the great majority of people had so little; and when the average life expectancy was less than 40 years. 

The Scottish elite was generally more circumspect than most, building relatively modest structures; and the Scots remain proud of their relative egalitarianism and independence.

It's amusing, even today, to hear Scotsmen going on about invasions from the South; and then to cross the border and hear Englishmen going on about invasions from the North. 

Scotland is the last settled area of British isles.  As the ice covering Scotland and Scandanavia melted about 9,000 years ago the sea level began to rise eventually cutting off and separating the British isles and defining the present coastlines.  But this took thousands of years and a southern part of the present North Sea was still land until quite recently. This is known to archaeologists as Doggerland and remained as an island between Britain and Denmark until just 5,000 years ago when it is possible that it was finally swept away by a tsunami. 

When the northern ice withdrew, rich deep alluvial soils were left filling many of the low lying valleys throughout which slow moving rivers meander; ideal for agriculture and grazing; but heavily scoured, barren highlands.

Earlsburn windfarm Scotland - on a glaciated promontory near Sterling
(annual production: 93 GWh; capacity factor: 35%)

As in other parts of Europe, the less hospitable lands in the north of Britain were initially occupied by herdsmen who supplemented their incomes by making raids on the settlements of sedentary farmers who fortified villages and then cities.  Cities developed into manufacturing and trading centres; employing writing and mathematics to support these functions.  As bronze age technology gave way to the iron age, and the Romans began to occupy northern Europe, these raiding tribes began to find employment as contract warriors. 

The Scottish highlands had occupied by Pictish and Scottish herding and hunting tribes with strong fighting traditions.  According to the Romans, and modern archaeologists, British tribes followed the religious traditions of Celtic polytheism (Druid priests and so on) that may, in places, have embraced human sacrifice.  This animistic religion (worshiping plants animals and natural phenomena) was practiced across modern France Germany Poland and Russia; as far as the east as the Black Sea; and south into a large area of the Iberian Peninsular.

Wandsworth Shield - a bronze 2nd century BCE (Iron Age) - Celtic shield found in the Thames at Wandsworth
(source: Wikipedia commons - from the British Museum)

Scottish Enlightenment

Religious unrest and dissent was to set the scene for the English and Scottish Reformations.  The resulting political turmoil and ultimately the Enlightenment and the Scientific revolution.

After failing to persuade the Church of the need to correct these errors of doctrine, in 1517 Luther published his 'Ninety-Five Theses'.   At first he was ignored by the Vatican but upon publication the Theses they were almost instantly translated and distributed throughout Europe causing a sensation, particularly in Northern Europe. In both 1520 and 1521 the Church tried to make Luther recant; and then excommunicated him.  

Monastic Christianity had always valued asceticism (plain food, hair shirts and hard beds) and a life of prayer, contemplation and scholarship.  Scottish missionaries had even established monasteries in Germany. This was the background from which Martin Luther came.  Many Christians in Scotland and in England took up the Lutheran cause and a new schism began.  

The young Henry VIII was moved to write a refutation of Luther for which Pope Leo X conferred on him the title 'Defender of the Faith'; a title still used by the British monarchy today.  But Henry fell out with the Pope when he was refused a divorce.   With Protestant support he took the opportunity to use the old issue of the Church's refusal to repatriate the long disputed payments to seize Church lands in England.

Upon Henry's death his sickly young son Edward VI ruled for six years; during which time England became officially Protestant. But Edward died in 1553 and his half sister, the eldest daughter of Henry, raised a Roman Catholic force and sized the throne from their cousin Jane; who she had executed.  Mary re-established the English Church's affiliation with Rome and married Philip of Spain in 1554. 

The Protestants by this time had become numerous and objected violently; many becoming martyrs to the cause. 283 were executed, most by burning at the stake and some 800 wealthy families fled the country.  Mary gained the sobriquet 'Bloody Mary'.  After just five years, during which England was gripped by famine, Mary died and the throne passed to her sister Elizabeth I. 

Mary's tomb is in Henry VII Chapel at the far eastern end of Westminster Abbey; adjacent to those of her sister Elizabeth; and of Mary Queen of Scots. In death they lie together together; with Henry VII of England; Elizabeth of York; James I of England; Lady Margaret Beaufort; Edward VI of England; and Charles II of England. 

The cloisters of Westminster Abbey

Elizabeth tried to find an accommodation between the Catholics and Protestants; but was excommunicated by the Pope; and then suffered repeated Catholic attempts on her life; culminating in an attempted invasion by Philip of Spain; the Spanish Armada.  Under Elizabeth England recovered and then prospered; spectacularly defeating Philip's Holy Armada, with the help of terrible storms and the Atlantic currents, confirming to the faithful divine support for the Protestant position.

Meanwhile in Scotland, Elizabeth's cousin, the young, beautiful, tall (5' 11") and allegedly libidinous Mary Queen of Scots, a Roman Catholic, was having her own problems with the Protestants.  She had rather foolishly become implicated in the murder of her second husband and too soon afterwards took as her third husband one of the alleged assassins; who was thus thought to have been her lover.

The outcry that resulted forced her to abdicate in favour of her son and caused her to flee to England and to seek Elizabeth's protection; while her son, James VI, was taken to be brought up a Protestant.  Some 18 years later she became, irrefutably, implicated in one of the Roman Catholic plots on Elizabeth's life and was executed at the age of 44.

The site of the beheading Block within the Tower of London

In response to the Protestant threat the Roman Church began to reform itself, beginning at the Council of Trent (1545–1563) under Pius V, to remove some of its most egregious practices.  To differentiate itself from the Protestants the Roman Church gave increased prominence to 'Catholic Marian devotion'; known to Protestants as the 'Cult of Mary'. 

Images of the Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus) in art, together with depictions of the female form in general, had become increasingly popular during the Renaissance with their enthusiasm for the female figure. 

Renaissance allegorical art in Florence

But praying to, or through, Mary was an Eastern Christian tradition that had not been a strong feature of Latin Christianity.  Now Pius V standardised the 'Mysteries of the Rosary,' and its associated Marian devotions; and the Vatican was quick to attribute a Christian victory against the Muslims and the Battle of Lepanto (1571) to the intercession of Mary, through the medium of 'the rosary'. 

The rosary soon became a new devotional device often used to distinguish Catholics from Protestants. 

In Scotland there was immediate sympathy for Lutheran reformist ideas; together with those of  John Calvin.   Several acts of Parliament were passed in an attempt to stem the dissenters but in 1561 the Protestants led by John Knox succeeded in making Scotland officially Presbyterian; although other Protestants were tolerated.

St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh - Scotland’s largest Church

By this time large parts of northern Europe had also become Protestant.  Initial skirmishes in France and the German principalities and in the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain in the sixteenth century developed into an all out religious conflict in 1618 and lasting to 1648;  known as the The Thirty Years' War; one of the longest continuous wars in modern history.

Canongate Kirk - grave of Adam Smith

Mortification: penitential act against desire for sin

Although the official State religion was Protestant, in both England and Scotland some wealthy families and in particular, Highland clans, remained Catholic. This resulted in an attempt to put Charles Edward Stuart, Bonny Prince Charlie, onto the throne with the Jacobite uprising of 1745. 

The Jacobites consisted largely of Scottish Highlanders with some Lowlander, English, Irish and French Catholic support. 

They were repulsed at Sterling Castle.

Battlements at Sterling Castle

Then unsuccessfully besieged Edinburgh Castle.

Edinburgh Castle

Nevertheless, Charles set up Court in Edinburgh in Holyrood Palace at the other end of The Royal Mile. 

Holyrood Palace

The uprising ended in defeat at the Battle of Culloden the following year (1755).  There followed a bloody crack-down on Highland Catholics and those speaking the 'Irish language' - Gaelic.  This was known as the 'Harrying of the Glens' or the Highland Clearances.  At its peak thousands were killed or jailed; and over 1,000 were sold as slaves to the American Colonies. Cattle, sheep and deer were butchered, crops burned so that others starved. 

The troubles were brought to an end by the Napoleonic wars (1790–1815) when it was decided to raise the Highland Regiments to fight for Britain. During the Victorian era the Highland culture was romanticised; particularly thought the poetry of Walter Scott; stimulating a new enthusiasm for tartan; Highland Games and all things Scottish.

Walter Scott - amid his ornate monument dominating Princes St

Thus these once troublesome clansmen, who had repulsed 'all comers' since Roman times, were put to do what they did best; and became the loyalest of the loyal 'Soldiers of the Queen'.

It's hard to comprehend the influence of Roman Catholic and Protestant factions over the minds of the common people that fermented such passions as to result in successful calls to arms.  The political need to reduce the undue influence of Rome and the excessive economic influence of the monasteries is comprehensible.  But a disagreement about how a mutually believed-in deity should be worshiped was surely no grounds for going to war against one's neighbour.

I'm reminded of the war between the Big-Endians (who insisted boiled eggs should be broken at the larger end) and Little-Endians (who asserted the opposite) in Gulliver's Travels (1726).  Along with Jonathan Swift, independent thinkers of the day could only stand-back bemused.

In the late 17th and early18th centuries a period known as the Enlightenment or Age of Reason developed out of this consternation.  Thinkers, like John Locke in England and Voltaire and Rousseau in France, embraced religious scepticism and/or satirised conventional thinking; for example, that God may favour one side over another in battle.

Natural philosophers, like Isaac Newton, tried to find a new religious paradigm consistent with new scientific awareness and understanding.  German and American thinkers took up these new understandings.  Locke was very influential in the thinking of Thomas Jefferson in his framing of the United States Declaration of Independence.  Jefferson too is a principal figure of the Enlightenment; and rated by historians as one of the greatest of US presidents.

Prominent Scottish Enlightenment figures included the Scotsman David Hume (1711-1776) who in a series of seminal philosophical essays examined the rational (or irrational) basis for a belief in religion; and examined human nature and understanding; and philosophical method.  He is remembered as the father of empiricism and thus of modern scientific method.  Today Hume is regarded as one of the greatest philosophers who ever lived.  I have previously written about Hume in more detail (follow this link).  

His statue sits on The Golden Mile in Edinburgh, loosely draped in the toga of a Greek philosopher; a garb that is singularly inappropriate in a city that is often frigidly cold, even in mid-summer. 

David Hume

On the other side of the street stands the more appropriately dressed Adam Smith; also an enlightenment philosopher and author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments; and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) that provided the foundation for modern economic analysis.  He is remembered as the father of modern Economics.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) - in the background is St Giles Cathedral - the High Kirk of the Presbyterian church

As I have discussed elsewhere, the Scottish Enlightenment was very influential on the early development of New South Wales and thus on the creation of the Nation of Australia.

In the 19th Century reason gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion, and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force; with renewed religiosity, mysticism, nationalism,  ultimately leading to Fascism; and setting the scene for the horrendous international conflicts that distinguished the first half of the twentieth century.  For a period, with the enthusiastic support of organised religion, the term 'enlightenment' became associated with the unfeeling; unemotional and anti-spiritual; and possibly even Communist. 

But by the mid-twentieth century most thinkers and philosophers had re-embraced enlightenment values, often under the banner Humanism.  These principles are reflected in the foundation values of the United Nations and in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), that strongly reflects the Jeffersonian enlightenment principles; mirroring, in some cases simply rewording, those set out in the US Declaration of Independence.

These include:

Yet somehow religious zealots continue to murder each other in contravention; and sometimes even resort to violence if someone criticises their beliefs; or their prophets.