Three Archipelagos: Perspectives on Early Modern Barra

• Main Author: Stiubhart, Domhnall Uilleam
• Other Authors: Martin, Paula
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Islands Book Trust 2017
• Subjects: state-building; early modern history; Hebrides; /dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1200/1202; History; Barra; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/three-archipelagos-perspectives-on-early-modern-barra(d3ebdee2-9e1b-4f2d-88b0-18e506896730).html; https://pureadmin.uhi.ac.uk/ws/files/2562321/Sti_bhart_Three_archipelagos_Perspectives_on_early_modern_Barra_.pdf; https://islandsbooktrust.org/products/castles-and-galleys

In a contribution to the ongoing reassessment of the history of early modern state 'peripheries', I offer an interpretation of the strategies framed and adopted by different factions within an under-researched Hebridean kindred during a transformative period defined by the gradual extension of Crown authority. I analyse the different and surprisingly extensive geographical matrices within which the clan operated, ranging from the local micro-archipelago, through the regional Hebridean meso-archipelago, to the international macro-archipelago of the North-East Atlantic Group, as well as how opposing blocs within the kindred responded both to contingent events and to wider structural constraints and opportunities. As a spur for further research, the article offers a 'vernacular vantage-point', a perspective complementary to conventional government-focused approaches in the history of early modern state-building.