ABSTRACT
There were numerous features of the political, economic and social scene in Scotland which, if properly exploited, could permit settlement abroad. Until James VI began to assert his authority, the country had undergone perpetual internal strife, with foreign invasions from time to time adding to the general instability. Using the Scottish privy council as his instrument, and with his newly acquired prestige as king of England to add weight to his commands, he gradually established a degree of absolute rule. In July 1587, when James was but twenty-one years old, the Scottish parliament attempted to deal with the existing disorder in all the more remote regions of the realm by passing an Act ‘for the quieting and keping in obedience of the disorderit subiectis inhabitantis of the bordors hielandis and Ilis’.
