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"Counsel and the Crown: History, Law and Politics in the Thought of David Chalmers of Ormond (ca.1530-1592)"
Dr Andrew Simpson from the University of Aberdeen will speak as part of the Law School's research seminar series 2014-15 on "Counsel and the Crown: History, Law and Politics in the Thought of David Chalmers of Ormond (ca.1530-1592)".
Abstract
In 1579, the Scottish jurist David Chalmers of Ormond lamented that for a long time, “the Shipmaster of our commonweal and her pilots have disputed amongst themselves for the government of the same”. He was speaking about the turbulent civil wars that had engulfed Scotland following the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567. Chalmers believed that solutions to these troubles could be found in the study of “our laws, histories and chronicles”. It will be shown here that the foundations of his thought about the role of historical and legal learning in informing good government were held in common with many European political thinkers of the day, including Machiavelli and Bodin. And yet Chalmers disagreed with those writers in interesting ways. He formulated a subtly different vision of how the study of the legal past, and history more generally, could directly shape the law within a particular polity. As will be explained, the differences in his approach may have been influenced by the attitudes to law and its authority that were held by contemporary lawyers in the College of Justice, the supreme court in Scottish civil matters in which Chalmers had sat as a judge for a period during the 1560s.
This paper has three aims. First, it will explain exactly why Chalmers believed that legal and historical learning could be used to reach sound political decisions. Second, it will outline exactly how he believed such learning could inform the development of the contemporary Scottish polity. This section of the paper will reflect on the extent to which Chalmers was indebted to sixteenth-century French political thought in the formulation of his ideas. Third, it will be argued that Chalmers’s thought can only be fully understood in light of the Scottish legal context in which he produced some of his earliest work.
- Hosted by
- School of Law
- Venue
- New King's NK11
- Contact
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This event is free of charge; no booking is necessary.
Please visit our Research Seminar webpage for our full programme.