133-623: The National Archives of Scotland (NAS) is the previous name of the National Records of Scotland (NRS), and are the national archives of Scotland, based in Edinburgh . The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe. It is the main archive for sources of the history of Scotland as an independent state (see Kingdom of Scotland ), her role in the British Isles and
266-555: A " Popish Plot " to assassinate the king, even accusing the queen of complicity. Charles did not believe the allegations, but ordered his chief minister Lord Danby to investigate. While Danby seems to have been rightly sceptical about Oates's claims, the Cavalier Parliament took them seriously. The people were seized with an anti-Catholic hysteria; judges and juries across the land condemned the supposed conspirators; numerous innocent individuals were executed. Later in 1678, Danby
399-612: A Catholic, being next in line to the throne. The prospect of a Catholic monarch was vehemently opposed by the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (a former member of the Cabal, which had fallen apart in 1673). Lord Shaftesbury's power base was strengthened when the House of Commons of 1679 introduced the Exclusion Bill , which sought to exclude the Duke of York from the line of succession . Some even sought to confer
532-501: A council of Scottish clergy enacted that all parish ministers should keep a record of baptisms , burials and marriages. However, in 1801, the first national Census found that, out of the 850 parishes in Scotland, not more than 99 had regular registers. This was in part due to sporadic recording keeping and accidental destruction of registers. In 1806, a Royal Warrant established the office of Deputy Clerk Register, effectively reducing
665-608: A day). He was baptised on 27 June in the Chapel Royal by William Laud , a future archbishop of Canterbury , and during his infancy was supervised by the Protestant Countess of Dorset . His godparents included his maternal uncle Louis XIII and maternal grandmother, Marie de' Medici , the Dowager Queen of France, both of whom were Catholics. At birth, Charles automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay , and
798-632: A foolish thing, And never did a wise one To which Charles is reputed to have replied "that the matter was easily accounted for: For that his discourse was his own, his actions were the ministry's". In 1665, the Great Plague of London began, peaking in September with up to 7,000 deaths per week. Charles, his family, and the court fled London in July to Salisbury ; Parliament met in Oxford . Plague cases ebbed over
931-456: A formal society in 1660 to give a more academic and learned approach to science and to conduct experiments in physics and mathematics. Sir Robert Moray , a member of Charles's court, played an important part in achieving this outcome, and he was to be the first president of this new Royal Society . Over the years, Moray was an important go-between for Charles and the Society, and his standing with
1064-524: A government official responsible for looking after the records dates from 1286. William of Dumfries was a clerk of the rolls of the royal 'chapel' or chancery. This office was later to develop into that of Lord Clerk Register . When war broke out between Scotland and England in 1296 and Edward I invaded, he had all the symbols of Scots nationhood—the regalia, the national archives and the Stone of Destiny —removed to London. The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton ended
1197-645: A life of leisure at Saint-Germain-en-Laye near Paris, living on a grant from Louis XIV of 600 livres a month. Charles could not obtain sufficient finance or support to mount a serious challenge to Cromwell's government. Despite the Stuart family connections through Henrietta Maria and the Princess of Orange, France and the Dutch Republic allied themselves with Cromwell's government from 1654, forcing Charles to leave France and turn to Spain for aid, which at that time ruled
1330-524: A message that reached Charles at Breda on 8 May 1660. In Ireland, a convention had been called earlier in the year and had already declared for Charles. On 14 May, he was proclaimed king in Dublin. Charles set out for England from Scheveningen , arrived in Dover on 25 May 1660 and reached London on 29 May, his 30th birthday. Although Charles and Parliament granted amnesty to nearly all of Cromwell's supporters in
1463-529: A public Anglican service. The same year, in an unpopular move, Charles sold Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France for about £375,000. The channel port, although a valuable strategic outpost, was a drain on Charles's limited finances, as it cost the Treasury £321,000 per year. Before Charles's restoration, the Navigation Acts of 1650 had hurt Dutch trade by giving English vessels a monopoly, and had started
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#17330849817451596-429: A recognisable genre. Theatre licences granted by Charles required that female parts be played by "their natural performers", rather than by boys as was often the practice before; and Restoration literature celebrated or reacted to the restored court, which included libertines such as Lord Rochester . Of Charles II, Rochester supposedly said: We have a pretty, witty king, Whose word no man relies on, He never said
1729-523: A reference service to the public on all aspects of the national archives. It provides the National Register of Archives of Scotland, a database of archival sources in Scotland, which is available online. It takes the lead in the development of records management and archival policy in Scotland. In the late 1990s the NAS became a pioneer in the digitisation and provision of online access to historical records on
1862-707: A very large scale, under the auspices of the Scottish Archive Network (SCAN) project, whose partners were the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), and the Genealogical Society of Utah (now Family Search). The SCAN project created a single electronic catalogue to the holdings of more than 50 Scottish archives and set up a copying programme, using high quality single-capture digital cameras. SCAN's main achievement
1995-749: A victory at the Battle of Lowestoft , but in 1667 the Dutch launched a surprise attack on England (the Raid on the Medway ) when they sailed up the River Thames to where a major part of the English fleet was docked. Almost all of the ships were sunk except for the flagship, Royal Charles , which was taken back to the Netherlands as a prize . The Second Dutch War ended with the signing of
2128-648: Is a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government . It is responsible for civil registration , the census in Scotland , demography and statistics , family history , as well as the national archives and historical records. National Records of Scotland was formed from the merger of the General Register Office for Scotland and the National Archives of Scotland in 2011; it combines all
2261-654: Is for those interested in genealogy. It opened fully on 12 January 2009 after being partially open since July 2008. The Centre is based in HM General Register House and New Register House, and is a partnership between the NAS, the General Register Office for Scotland, and the Court of the Lord Lyon, providing a single base for genealogical research in Scotland. Unlike the National Archives, use of most facilities at
2394-554: Is the Quitclaim of Canterbury of 1189; the oldest private record is a charter by David I to the church of St Cuthbert in Edinburgh, 1127. The earliest surviving exchequer roll belongs only to 1326; the records of the Great Seal survive only from 1315; and, although there are a few early rolls starting in 1292, full records of Parliament do not begin until 1466. The first reference to
2527-468: The Act of Indemnity and Oblivion , 50 people were specifically excluded. In the end nine of the regicides were executed: they were hanged, drawn and quartered , whereas others were given life imprisonment or excluded from office for life. The bodies of Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton and John Bradshaw were subjected to posthumous decapitations . The English Parliament granted Charles an annual income to run
2660-615: The Act of Uniformity 1662 made the use of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer compulsory; the Conventicle Act 1664 prohibited religious assemblies of more than five people, except under the auspices of the Church of England; and the Five Mile Act 1665 prohibited expelled non-conforming clergymen from coming within five miles (8 km) of a parish from which they had been banished. The Conventicle and Five Mile Acts remained in effect for
2793-459: The Act of Union . The NAS advises Scottish Ministers on records and information policy, and has to be consulted in relation to certain statutory codes of practice issued under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 . The NAS advises Scottish public authorities about the creation and management of their records, and advises public and private owners about their historical records and it provides
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#17330849817452926-571: The Clarendon Code , to shore up the position of the re-established Church of England . Charles acquiesced to these new laws even though he favoured a policy of religious tolerance . The major foreign policy issue of his early reign was the Second Anglo-Dutch War . In 1670, he entered into the Treaty of Dover , an alliance with his cousin, King Louis XIV of France . Louis agreed to aid him in
3059-549: The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford , was his tutor. Neither man thought that the study of science subjects was appropriate for a future king, and Newcastle even advised against studying any subject too seriously. However, as Charles grew older, the renowned surgeon William Harvey was appointed his tutor. He was famous for his work on blood circulation in the human body and already held the position of physician to Charles I; his studies were to influence Charles's own attitude to science. As
3192-504: The Declaration of Breda , in which Charles promised lenience and tolerance. There would be liberty of conscience, and Anglican church policy would not be harsh. He would not exile past enemies nor confiscate their wealth. There would be pardons for nearly all his opponents except the regicides . Above all, Charles promised to rule in cooperation with Parliament. The English Parliament resolved to proclaim Charles king and invite him to return,
3325-655: The Deputy Clerk Register 's duties were also extended to the care of the records of births, deaths and marriages in the role of Registrar General under the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1854 , which established the General Registry Office of Births, Deaths and Marriages . The 1854 Act also provided that the Registrar General should produce an annual report to be forwarded to
3458-500: The Earl of Essex , Algernon Sydney , Lord Russell and the Duke of Monmouth were implicated in the plot. Essex slit his own throat while imprisoned in the Tower of London; Sydney and Russell were executed for high treason on very flimsy evidence; and the Duke of Monmouth went into exile at the court of William of Orange. Lord Danby and the surviving Catholic lords held in the Tower were released and
3591-575: The East Indies , religious and commercial freedom in Portugal and two million Portuguese crowns (equivalent to £300,000 then ); while Portugal obtained military and naval support against Spain and liberty of worship for Catherine. Catherine journeyed from Portugal to Portsmouth on 13–14 May 1662, but was not visited by Charles there until 20 May. The next day the couple were married at Portsmouth in two ceremonies—a Catholic one conducted in secret, followed by
3724-575: The Exclusion Crisis when it was revealed that Charles's brother and heir presumptive , James, Duke of York , had become a Catholic. The crisis saw the birth of the pro-exclusion Whig and anti-exclusion Tory parties. Charles sided with the Tories and, after the discovery of the Rye House Plot to murder Charles and James in 1683, some Whig leaders were executed or forced into exile. Charles dissolved
3857-701: The First Dutch War (1652–1654). To lay foundations for a new beginning, envoys of the States General appeared in November 1660 with the Dutch Gift . The Second Dutch War (1665–1667) was started by English attempts to muscle in on Dutch possessions in Africa and North America. The conflict began well for the English, with the capture of New Amsterdam (renamed New York in honour of Charles's brother James, Duke of York) and
3990-576: The Highlands and Lowlands which also contributed to the poor record keeping in registers. A bill came before the United Kingdom Parliament in 1829 and several others in subsequent years to introduce a system of state registration, following the similar introduction of public registration in England & Wales in 1837, but the bills were unsuccessful. One of the main reasons they were unsuccessful
4123-563: The Home Secretary to be laid before Parliament, containing a general abstract of the numbers of births, deaths and marriages registered during the previous year. The first general abstract (relating to 1855) was submitted in 1856. By the time of his first annual detailed report, published in 1861, the first Registrar General for Scotland, William Pitt Dundas, claimed that: "there is good reason for believing that very few births indeed now escape registration." In 1855 and 1860, two further Acts,
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4256-577: The Palace of Whitehall , at 11:45 am, aged 54. The suddenness of his illness and death led to suspicion of poison in the minds of many, including one of the royal doctors, but a more modern medical analysis has held that the symptoms of his final illness are similar to those of uraemia , a clinical syndrome due to kidney dysfunction. Charles had a laboratory among his many interests where, prior to his illness, he had been experimenting with mercury . Mercuric poisoning can produce irreversible kidney damage, but
4389-524: The Registration (Scotland) Act, 1855 (18 & 19 Vict., c.29) and the Registration (Scotland, Amendment) Act, 1860 (23 & 24 Vict., c.85), were passed which amended some of the sections of the 1854 Act. The 1854 Act had placed considerable burdens on the sheriffs of the Scottish counties, who had already played a role in the taking of decennial censuses. The amending Acts reduced their responsibilities by appointing registration district examiners to inspect
4522-560: The Scottish Government . NRS is one of the National Collections of Scotland and falls with the ministerial portfolio of the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture . The Registers of Scotland remain a separate organisation and fall within the ministerial portfolio of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance . NRS supports research in a number of ways, through guides, websites and training. The ScotlandsPeople website,
4655-459: The Sighthill area of the city which is the main repository and also houses a conservation department and other offices. Access to the archives is open to members of the public. On 1 April 2011, NAS, as a governmental body, was merged with the General Register Office for Scotland to form National Records of Scotland . The term National Archives of Scotland is still sometimes employed to refer to
4788-533: The Southern Netherlands . Charles made the Treaty of Brussels with Spain in 1656. This gathered Spanish support for a restoration in return for Charles's contribution to the war against France. Charles raised a ragtag army from his exiled subjects; this small, underpaid, poorly-equipped and ill-disciplined force formed the nucleus of the post-Restoration army. The Commonwealth made the Treaty of Paris with France in 1657 to join them in war against Spain in
4921-533: The Third Anglo-Dutch War and pay him a pension, and Charles secretly promised to convert to Catholicism at an unspecified future date. Charles attempted to introduce religious freedom for Catholics and Protestant dissenters with his 1672 Royal Declaration of Indulgence , but the English Parliament forced him to withdraw it. In 1679, Titus Oates 's fabrication of a supposed Popish Plot sparked
5054-567: The Third Anglo-Dutch War . The Cavalier Parliament opposed the Declaration of Indulgence on constitutional grounds by claiming that the king had no right to arbitrarily suspend laws passed by Parliament. Charles withdrew the Declaration, and also agreed to the Test Act , which not only required public officials to receive the sacrament under the forms prescribed by the Church of England, but also later forced them to denounce transubstantiation and
5187-646: The Treaty of Breda . As a result of the Second Dutch War, Charles dismissed Lord Clarendon, whom he used as a scapegoat for the war. Clarendon fled to France when impeached for high treason (which carried the penalty of death). Power passed to five politicians known collectively by a whimsical acronym as the Cabal —the Baron Clifford , Earl of Arlington , Duke of Buckingham , Baron Ashley (afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury) and Duke of Lauderdale . In fact,
5320-563: The state religion in all three of his kingdoms. When negotiations with the Scots stalled, Charles authorised Lord Montrose to land in the Orkney Islands with a small army to threaten the Scots with invasion, in the hope of forcing an agreement more to his liking. Montrose feared that Charles would accept a compromise, and so chose to invade mainland Scotland anyway. He was captured and executed. Charles reluctantly promised that he would abide by
5453-562: The "villainy" and "hypocrisy" of the Covenanters. Charles was provided with a Scottish court, and the record of his food and household expenses at Falkland Palace and Perth survives. Charles's alliance with the Scots led to the Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652. On 3 September 1650, the Covenanters were defeated at Dunbar by a much smaller force commanded by Oliver Cromwell . The Scots were divided between moderate Engagers and
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5586-422: The 13th century. It is responsible for selecting, preserving, and promoting and making available the national archives of Scotland. It also has a role in records management more generally. The National Archives of Scotland is based at three locations in Edinburgh : HM General Register House with New Register House (open to the public) and West Register House in the city centre, and Thomas Thomson House in
5719-560: The 1682 municipal elections, and in 1683 the London charter was forfeited. In retrospect, the use of the judicial system by Charles (and later his brother and heir James) as a tool against opposition, helped establish the idea of separation of powers between the judiciary and the Crown in Whig thought. Charles suffered a sudden apoplectic fit on the morning of 2 February 1685, and died four days later at
5852-402: The Cabal rarely acted in concert, and the court was often divided between two factions led by Arlington and Buckingham, with Arlington the more successful. In 1668, England allied itself with Sweden, and with its former enemy the Netherlands, to oppose Louis XIV in the War of Devolution . Louis made peace with the Triple Alliance , but he continued to maintain his aggressive intentions towards
5985-437: The Catholic Mass as "superstitious and idolatrous". Clifford, who had converted to Catholicism, resigned rather than take the oath, and died shortly after, possibly from suicide. By 1674, England had gained nothing from the Anglo-Dutch War, and the Cavalier Parliament refused to provide further funds, forcing Charles to make peace. The power of the Cabal waned, and that of Clifford's replacement Lord Danby grew. Queen Catherine
6118-513: The Clerk of the Rolls eventually became known as the Lord Clerk Register , the oldest surviving great offices of state in Scotland . However, records held by the Scottish Crown did not typically include personal data such as birth , death and marriage records . Instead, the clergy and other officials of the Church of Scotland kept parish records, which recorded personal data such as baptisms and marriages , but only for their own church members so parish records were limited in scope. In 1551,
6251-405: The Commons thought too mild—the impeachment became stalled between the two Houses. As he had been required to do so many times during his reign, Charles bowed to the wishes of his opponents, committing Danby to the Tower of London , in which he was held for another five years. In Charles's early childhood, William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle , was governor of the royal household and Brian Duppa,
6384-426: The Crown on the Protestant Duke of Monmouth , the eldest of Charles's illegitimate children. The Abhorrers —those who thought the Exclusion Bill was abhorrent—were named Tories (after a term for dispossessed Irish Catholic bandits), while the Petitioners —those who supported a petitioning campaign in favour of the Exclusion Bill—were called Whigs (after a term for rebellious Scottish Presbyterians). Fearing that
6517-428: The Department of the Registers of Scotland . The Keeper of the Records of Scotland headed the Records Office, later called the National Archives of Scotland. This left three departments and their respective officials managed the following: The current body (NRS) was created on 1 April 2011 by the merger of the General Register Office for Scotland and National Archives of Scotland and is a Non-ministerial office of
6650-447: The English Parliament in 1681 and ruled alone until his death in 1685. Following his restoration, Charles became known for his affability and friendliness, and for allowing his subjects easy access to his person. However, he also showed an almost impenetrable reserve, especially concerning his political agendas. His court gained a reputation for moral laxity. Charles's marriage to Catherine of Braganza produced no surviving children, but
6783-474: The English court, was astonished by the extent of the king's knowledge. The king freely indulged in his many interests, including astronomy, which had been stimulated by a visit to Gresham College , in October 1660, to see the telescopes made by the astronomer Sir Paul Neile . Charles was so impressed by what he saw that he ordered his own 36' telescope which he had installed in the Privy Garden at Whitehall . He would invite his friends and acquaintances to view
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#17330849817456916-429: The Exclusion Bill angered some Protestants. Protestant conspirators formulated the Rye House Plot , a plan to murder him and the Duke of York as they returned to London after horse races in Newmarket . A great fire, however, destroyed Charles's lodgings at Newmarket, which forced him to leave the races early, thus inadvertently avoiding the planned attack. News of the failed plot was leaked. Protestant politicians such as
7049-416: The Exclusion Bill would be passed, and bolstered by some acquittals in the continuing Plot trials, which seemed to him to indicate a more favourable public mood towards Catholicism, Charles dissolved the English Parliament, for a second time that year, in mid-1679. Charles's hopes for a more moderate Parliament were not fulfilled; within a few months he had dissolved Parliament yet again, after it sought to pass
7182-478: The Exclusion Bill. When a new Parliament assembled at Oxford in March 1681, Charles dissolved it for a fourth time after just a few days. During the 1680s, however, popular support for the Exclusion Bill ebbed, and Charles experienced a nationwide surge of loyalty. Lord Shaftesbury was prosecuted (albeit unsuccessfully) for treason in 1681 and later fled to Holland, where he died. For the remainder of his reign, Charles ruled without Parliament. Charles's opposition to
7315-412: The Governor of Scotland, was concerned that the nation would descend into anarchy. Monck and his army marched into the City of London , and forced the Rump Parliament to re-admit members of the Long Parliament who had been excluded in December 1648, during Pride's Purge . Parliament dissolved itself, and there was a general election for the first time in almost 20 years. The outgoing Parliament defined
7448-508: The House of Commons failed to view him as a reluctant participant in the scandal, instead believing that he was the author of the policy. To save Danby from the impeachment trial, Charles dissolved the Cavalier Parliament in January 1679. The new English Parliament, which met in March of the same year, was quite hostile to Charles. Many members feared that he had intended to use the standing army to suppress dissent or impose Catholicism. However, with insufficient funds voted by Parliament, Charles
7581-454: The Indies. Earlier in 1668 he leased the islands of Bombay to the company for a nominal sum of £10 paid in gold. The Portuguese territories that Catherine brought with her as a dowry proved too expensive to maintain; Tangier was abandoned in 1684. In 1670, Charles granted control of the entire Hudson Bay drainage basin to the Hudson's Bay Company by royal charter, and named the territory Rupert's Land , after his cousin Prince Rupert of
7714-426: The Mathematical School at Christ's Hospital in 1673 and, two years later, following concerns over French advances in astronomy, he founded the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. He maintained an interest in chemistry and regularly visited his private laboratory. There, dissections were occasionally carried out, and observed by the king. Pepys noted in his diary that on the morning of Friday, 15 January 1669, while he
7847-424: The NAS's public search rooms, known as "virtual volumes". In conjunction with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), the NAS supplies content for the ScotlandsPeople website, allowing searches in pre-1855 old parish registers (OPRs); statutory registers of births, marriages and deaths from 1855; census returns, 1841–1911; and the testaments digitally captured by the SCAN project. The ScotlandsPeople Centre
7980-440: The Netherlands. In 1670, Charles, seeking to solve his financial troubles, agreed to the Treaty of Dover , under which Louis would pay him £160,000 each year. In exchange, Charles agreed to supply Louis with troops and to announce his conversion to Catholicism "as soon as the welfare of his kingdom will permit". Louis was to provide him with 6,000 troops to suppress those who opposed the conversion. Charles endeavoured to ensure that
8113-428: The Netherlands. Royalist supporters in the Spanish force were led by Charles's younger brother James, Duke of York . At the Battle of the Dunes in 1658, as part of the larger Spanish force, Charles's army of around 2,000 clashed with Commonwealth troops fighting with the French. By the end of the battle Charles's force was about 1,000 and with Dunkirk given to the English the prospect of a Royalist expedition to England
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#17330849817458246-408: The Parliamentarian fleet defected, it did not reach Scotland in time to join up with the Royalist Engager army led by the Duke of Hamilton before it was defeated at Preston by the New Model Army . At The Hague, Charles had a brief affair with Lucy Walter , who later falsely claimed that they had secretly married. Her son, James Crofts (afterwards Duke of Monmouth and Duke of Buccleuch ),
8379-416: The Rhine , the company's first governor. Although previously favourable to the Crown, the Cavalier Parliament was alienated by the king's wars and religious policies during the 1670s. In 1672, Charles issued the Royal Declaration of Indulgence , in which he purported to suspend all penal laws against Catholics and other religious dissenters. In the same year, he openly supported Catholic France and started
8512-528: The ScotlandsPeople Centre is not free of charge. The National Archives of Scotland was instructed by Scottish Ministers in 2008 to review and assess the current state of public records legislation in Scotland, some of which dates to the 1930s. The Review published its report. 55°57′13.62″N 3°11′21.53″W / 55.9537833°N 3.1893139°W / 55.9537833; -3.1893139 National Records of Scotland National Records of Scotland ( Scottish Gaelic : Clàran Nàiseanta na h-Alba )
8645-464: The Secretary of State for Scotland of a full-time Registrar General , separate from the Deputy Clerk Register. The recording of personal data was in effect severed from the Deputy Clerk Register, who continued to maintain the records and registers of Scotland. James Crawford Dunlop, who had served as medical superintendent of statistics since 1904, held the office of Registrar General from 1921 to 1930. The 12 subsequent Registrars General were drawn from
8778-451: The Treaty—especially the conversion clause—remained secret. It remains unclear if Charles ever seriously intended to convert. Meanwhile, by a series of five charters, Charles granted the East India Company the rights to autonomous government of its territorial acquisitions, to mint money, to command fortresses and troops, to form alliances, to make war and peace, and to exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over its possessions in
8911-432: The accommodation was far from satisfactory and the archives were damaged by damp and vermin. Records were piled on the floor and the backs of cupboards ran with damp. The great fire of 1700, which threatened the Parliament House, forced a temporary removal of the records to St Giles' church for safety. Although the Treaty of Union of 1707 specified that the public records were to remain in Scotland in all time coming, there
9044-403: The archives (the records collections) themselves. The early history of the national archives of Scotland reflects Scotland's own troubled history. Many records were lost as a result of being taken out of the country first in the 13th century by Edward I during the Wars of Independence and later by Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century. As a result, the earliest surviving Scottish public record
9177-550: The case for that being a cause of his death is unproven. In the days between his collapse and his death, Charles endured a variety of torturous treatments, including bloodletting , purging and cupping , in the hope of effecting a recovery, which may have exacerbated his uraemia through dehydration, rather than helping to alleviate it. On his deathbed, Charles asked his brother, James, to look after his mistresses: "be well to Portsmouth , and let not poor Nelly starve". He told his courtiers, "I am sorry, gentlemen, for being such
9310-419: The centuries and by the mid-sixteenth century it became necessary to build a special 'register house' in Edinburgh Castle to house them. The archives remained safe in the Castle until its capture by Cromwell's army in December 1650. The Scots were allowed to remove the archives and they were deposited in Stirling Castle . When that too fell to the English in August 1651, some of the records were carried off by
9443-410: The civil service in Scotland and headed the General Register Office for Scotland independently from the Deputy Clerk Register. In 1928, the office of Deputy Clerk Register itself was abolished by the Reorganisation of Offices (Scotland) Act 1928 , becoming the Keeper of the Registers and Records of Scotland . However, it came to be recognised that the keeping of records and the keeping of registers
9576-542: The cleric John Earle , well known for his satirical book Microcosmographie , with whom he studied Latin and Greek, and Thomas Hobbes , the philosopher and author of Leviathan , with whom he studied mathematics. In France, Charles assisted his childhood friend, the Earl of Buckingham , with his experiments in chemistry and alchemy , with the Earl convinced he was close to producing the philosopher's stone . Although some of Charles's studies, while abroad, may have helped to pass
9709-715: The climax of the English Civil War , the Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II king on 5 February 1649. However, England entered the period known as the English Interregnum or the English Commonwealth , with a republican government eventually led by Oliver Cromwell . Cromwell defeated Charles II at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, and Charles fled to mainland Europe . Cromwell became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. Charles spent
9842-451: The efforts of the Society members "to weigh air". He seemed unable to grasp the significance of the basic laws of physics being established at that time, including Boyle's Law and Hooke's Law and the concept of atmospheric pressure and the barometer and the importance of air for the support of life. Although Charles lost interest in the activities of the society, he continued to support scientific and commercial endeavours. He founded
9975-474: The electoral qualifications intending to bring about the return of a Presbyterian majority. The restrictions against royalist candidates and voters were widely ignored, and the elections resulted in a House of Commons that was fairly evenly divided on political grounds between Royalists and Parliamentarians and on religious grounds between Anglicans and Presbyterians. The so-called Convention Parliament assembled on 25 April 1660, and soon afterwards welcomed
10108-544: The firefighting effort. The public blamed Catholic conspirators for the fire. Since 1640, Portugal had been fighting a war against Spain to restore its independence after a dynastic union of sixty years between the crowns of Spain and Portugal. Portugal had been helped by France, but in the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 Portugal was abandoned by its French ally. Negotiations with Portugal for Charles's marriage to Catherine of Braganza began during his father's reign and upon
10241-545: The first War of Independence in 1329 and provided for the return of the records to Scotland. But they remained in London, many disappeared, and when their remnants were sent back to Scotland in 1948, only about 200 documents remained. During the reign of Robert I, 'the Bruce' (1306–1329), and with the more settled nature of the country after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, the national archives grew in quantity. Records accumulated over
10374-479: The following: In addition to selecting, preserving and making available to all the national archives of Scotland, the NAS has several other functions. Part of this relates to outreach, providing educational and other resources for teachers and other educational services, and ensuring the archives are available to Scottish society. One example of this outreach was an exhibition at the Scottish Parliament to mark
10507-582: The former St George's Church in Charlotte Square was converted into West Register House . Robert Adam, architect of General Register House, designed the frontages of the houses in Charlotte Square and included a plan for a church in his drawings in 1791. The plan was never used and in 1810 Robert Reid drew up a new design. The foundation stone was laid in May 1811 and the building opened to public worship in 1814. The church discovered dry rot in 1959 and, unable to meet
10640-576: The functions of the two former organisations. The offices of Registrar General for Scotland and Keeper of the Records of Scotland remain separate, but since 2011 both have been vested ex officio in the Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland, currently Paul Lowe. National Records of Scotland is based in HM General Register House on Princes Street in the New Town in Edinburgh . The building
10773-455: The garrison, some were rescued by the clerks, but most were sent away to London. Their removal proved very inconvenient, so in 1657 the legal registers were returned to Scotland. It was not until the restoration of Charles II in 1660 that the other records were sent back. One of the two ships carrying the archives, the 'Elizabeth', sank in a storm off the Northumbrian coast with the loss of all
10906-400: The government of £1.2 million, generated largely from customs and excise duties. The grant, however, proved to be insufficient for most of Charles's reign. For the most part, the actual revenue was much lower, which led to attempts to economise at court by reducing the size and expenses of the royal household and raising money through unpopular innovations such as the hearth tax . In
11039-545: The heavens through his new telescope and, in May 1661, Evelyn describes his visit to the Garden, with several other scientists, to view Saturn's rings . Charles also had a laboratory installed, in Whitehall, within easy access to his bedroom. From the beginning of his reign, Charles appointed experts to assist him in his scientific pursuits. These included: Timothy Clarke , a celebrated anatomist, who performed some dissections for
11172-536: The interior to his own design in the 1820s. Reid also designed the Antiquarian Room (now the Historical Search Room) which opened to the public in 1847. General Register House is one of the oldest custom built archive buildings still in continuous use in the world. In 1806 the office of Deputy Clerk Register was created to oversee the day-to-day running of the office. The appointment of Thomas Thomson to
11305-423: The king acknowledged at least 12 illegitimate children by various mistresses. He was succeeded by his brother James. Charles was born at St James's Palace on 29 May 1630, eldest surviving son of Charles I , king of England , Scotland and Ireland , and his wife Henrietta Maria , sister of Louis XIII of France . Charles was their second child (the first being a son born about a year before, who had died within
11438-603: The king was so high that he was given access to the royal laboratory to perform his own experiments there. Charles never attended a Society meeting, but he remained aware of the activities there from his discussions with Society members, especially Moray. In addition, Robert Boyle gave him a private viewing of the Boyle/Hooke air-pump , which was used at many of the Wednesday meetings. However, Charles preferred experiments that had an immediate practical outcome and he laughed at
11571-581: The king's Catholic brother, James, acquired greater influence at court. Titus Oates was convicted and imprisoned for defamation. Thus through the last years of Charles's reign, his approach towards his opponents changed, and he was compared by Whigs to the contemporary Louis XIV of France, with his form of government in those years termed "slavery". Many of them were prosecuted and their estates seized, with Charles replacing judges and sheriffs at will and packing juries to achieve conviction. To destroy opposition in London, Charles first disenfranchised many Whigs in
11704-603: The king's chief physician, Harvey accompanied Charles I to the Battle of Edgehill and, although some details are uncertain, he had charge of Prince Charles and the Duke of York in the morning, but the two boys were back with the king for the start of battle. Later in the afternoon, with their father concerned for their safety, the two princes left the battlefield accompanied by Sir W. Howard and his pensioners. During his exile, in France, Charles continued his education, including physics, chemistry and mathematics. His tutors included
11837-463: The king's household. Evelyn visited his laboratory with the king. In addition to his many other interests, the king was fascinated by clock mechanisms and had clocks distributed all around Whitehall, including seven of them in his bedroom. Robert Bruce (later Earl of Ailesbury), a Gentleman of the Bedchamber, complained that the continual noise of the clocks chiming disturbed his sleep, whenever it
11970-464: The king; Robert Morison as his chief botanist (Charles had his own botanical garden); Edmund Dickinson , a chemist and alchemist, who was tasked with carrying out experiments in the king's laboratory; Sir Thomas Williams , who was skillful in compounding and inventing medicines, some of which were prepared in the royal presence; and Nicasius le Febure (or Nicolas LeFevre), who was invited to England as royal professor of chemistry and apothecary to
12103-514: The latter half of 1660, Charles's joy at the Restoration was tempered by the deaths of his siblings Henry and Mary of smallpox . At around the same time, Anne Hyde , the daughter of Lord Chancellor Edward Hyde , revealed that she was pregnant by Charles's brother James, whom she had secretly married. Edward Hyde, who had not known of either the marriage or the pregnancy, was created Earl of Clarendon and his position as Charles's favourite minister
12236-583: The links between Scotland and many other countries over the centuries. The NAS changed its name from the Scottish Record Office on 7 January 1999 and is both an associated department and Executive Agency of the Scottish Government , headed by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland . The agency is responsible to the Scottish Minister for Europe, External Affairs and Culture. Its antecedents date back to
12369-622: The more radical Kirk Party , who even fought each other. Disillusioned by these divisions, Charles rode north to join an Engager force in October, an event which became known as "the Start", but within two days members of the Kirk Party had recovered him. Nevertheless, the Scots remained Charles's best hope of restoration, and he was crowned King of Scotland at Scone Abbey on 1 January 1651. With Cromwell's forces threatening Charles's position in Scotland, it
12502-538: The next nine years in exile in France, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Netherlands . A political crisis after Cromwell's death in 1658 resulted in the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and Charles was invited to return to Britain. On 29 May 1660, his 30th birthday, he was received in London to public acclaim. After 1660, all legal documents stating a regnal year did so as if he had succeeded his father as king in 1649. Charles's English Parliament enacted
12635-572: The next two years based in the Royalist capital of Oxford . In January 1645, Charles was given his own Council and made titular head of Royalist forces in the West Country . By spring 1646, most of the region had been occupied by Parliamentarian forces and Charles went into exile to avoid capture. From Falmouth , he went first to the Isles of Scilly , then to Jersey , and finally to France, where his mother
12768-467: The office of Lord Clerk Register would remain as a ceremonial Great Officer of State, with all record keeping duties passing to the Deputy Clerk Register. In 1909 by Sir James Patten McDougall was appointed as Deputy Clerk Register, the last holder of the combined offices of Registrar General and Deputy Lord Clerk Register. The Registrar General (Scotland) Act 1920 provided for the appointment by
12901-566: The official Scottish Government site for searching government records and archives, is maintained by NRS in partnership with the Court of the Lord Lyon . NRS provides training in palaeography , the study of historical writing such as secretary hand , which is necessary to read some of its records; it maintains training material on its Scottish Handwriting site. The NRS collects and publishes Scottish statistics and data relating to registers, notably deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland,
13034-662: The other houses records reception and sorting areas, staff offices, a purpose-built conservation unit and digital imaging facilities. The National Archives of Scotland contains records from parchment and paper scrolls through to digital files and archived websites. One widely known document held is the Declaration of Arbroath . The material held, searchable through the NAS On-Line Catalogue, and accessible (free of charge to examine) both in person at NAS search rooms (after reader pass application procedures), and in certain circumstances through other methods such as by post includes
13167-670: The papers and parchments on board. Those records which had survived the voyage north were deposited again in Edinburgh Castle. But in 1662 the legal registers were transferred to the Laigh Hall below the Parliament Hall on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, where parliamentary and other records from the Castle joined them in 1689. The move was partly designed to promote access to the records, but
13300-474: The possessor of several other associated titles. At or around his eighth birthday, he was designated Prince of Wales , though he was never formally invested. In August 1642, the long-running dispute between Charles I and Parliament culminated in the outbreak of the First English Civil War . In October, Prince Charles and his younger brother James were present at the Battle of Edgehill and spent
13433-427: The post laid the foundation of the modern record office. His thirty-five year term of office saw a programme of cataloguing and repair of the older records and the start of a series of record publications. Since the early twentieth century accessions of records have increased both in bulk and variety. The growth in the office's activities and holdings brought a need for more accommodation and improved facilities. In 1971
13566-447: The project in 1772 and the foundation stone was laid in 1774, by which time the original plans had been modified. Robert Adam used stone from local quarries, Edinburgh tradesmen for supplies and local masons and craftsmen. The building, although an empty shell, was not roofless when work ceased in 1779. Receipts and other contemporary evidence confirm this. The incomplete building, described as 'the most magnificent pigeon-house in Europe',
13699-567: The record keeping duties of the Lord Clerk Register to an honorary title with no day-to-day management of the Registers and Records of Scotland. However, personal data continued to be managed by the clergy, now largely ministers of the Church of Scotland . The Industrial revolution radically changed the population demographics of Scotland, with central belt parishes being swamped by migrants from
13832-477: The register of sasines (Scotland's property register) and the records of ecclesiastical courts (kirk sessions, presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland). The church court records extend to some five million pages of information and the NAS is, at the time of writing (2008), developing an online access system for large-scale, unindexed historical sources, in parallel to free access in
13965-565: The registers. They also made revised provision for the transmission of the parochial registers up to the year 1820 to the General Register Office Scotland (GROS), and the registers for the years 1820–1855 to the custody of the local registrars. These registers were to be retained by the local registrars for 30 years, after which they were to be sent to the GROS. In 1879, The Lord Clerk Register (Scotland) Act 1879 further provided that
14098-468: The remainder of Charles's reign. The Acts became known as the Clarendon Code , after Lord Clarendon, even though he was not directly responsible for them and even spoke against the Five Mile Act. The Restoration was accompanied by social change. Puritanism lost its momentum. Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, and bawdy " Restoration comedy " became
14231-671: The restoration, Queen Luísa of Portugal , acting as regent, reopened negotiations with England that resulted in an alliance. On 23 June 1661, a marriage treaty was signed; England acquired Catherine's dowry of the port of Tangier in North Africa, the Seven Islands of Bombay in India (which had a major influence on the development of the British Empire ), valuable trading privileges in Brazil and
14364-566: The service ensures that previous versions of pages and files can be accessed, while being clearly distinguishable from live content. Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England , Scotland, and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest surviving child of Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland and Henrietta Maria of France . After Charles I's execution at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at
14497-614: The source for data provided on the Scottish Government's COVID-19 dashboard. It also publishes statistics about first names given to babies in Scotland since 1998. NRS maintains the Scottish Register of Tartans . It aims to be a leader in archival practice and acts a source of guidance to records managers and archivists in Scotland. The NRS Web Continuity Service launched on 20 November 2017. A web archive of sites belonging to organisations who deposit records with NRS,
14630-532: The spiralling costs of repair, closed in 1961, the congregation moving to St Andrew's Church along George Street. In 1968 began the process of converting the church into a branch of the Scottish Record Office. The exterior was left unaltered but the entire interior was removed and replaced by five floors of reinforced concrete for offices and record storage. By the 1980s both city centre sites were filled to capacity and it became clear that another building
14763-598: The terms of a treaty agreed between him and the Scots Parliament at Breda , and support the Solemn League and Covenant , which authorised Presbyterian church governance across Britain. Upon his arrival in Scotland on 23 June 1650, he formally agreed to the Covenant; his abandonment of Episcopal church governance, although winning him support in Scotland, left him unpopular in England. Charles himself soon came to despise
14896-506: The time, on his return to England he was already knowledgeable in the mathematics of navigation and was a competent chemist. Such was his knowledge of naval architecture that he was able to participate in technical discussions on the subject with Samuel Pepys , William Petty and John Evelyn . The new concepts and discoveries being found at this time fascinated Charles, not only in science and medicine, but in topics such as botany and gardening. A French traveller, Sorbier, while visiting
15029-565: The winter, and Charles returned to London in February 1666. After a long spell of hot and dry weather through mid-1666, the Great Fire of London started on 2 September 1666 in Pudding Lane . Fanned by strong winds and fed by wood and fuel stockpiled for winter, the fire destroyed about 13,200 houses and 87 churches, including St Paul's Cathedral . Charles and his brother James joined and directed
15162-531: Was a reward of £1,000 on his head, anyone caught helping him was at risk of being put to death, and he was difficult to disguise, being over 6 ft (1.8 m), which was unusually tall for the time. Under the Instrument of Government passed by Parliament, Cromwell was appointed Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1653, effectively placing the British Isles under military rule. Charles lived
15295-540: Was already living under the protection of his first cousin, the eight-year-old Louis XIV . Charles I surrendered into captivity in May 1646. During the Second English Civil War in 1648, Charles moved to The Hague , where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law William II, Prince of Orange , seemed more likely to provide substantial aid to the Royalist cause than his mother's French relations. Although part of
15428-481: Was dashed. After the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, Charles's initial chances of regaining the Crown seemed slim; Cromwell was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son Richard . However, the new Lord Protector had little experience of either military or civil administration. In 1659, the Rump Parliament was recalled and Richard Cromwell resigned. During the civil and military unrest that followed, George Monck ,
15561-551: Was decided to mount an attack on England, but many of their most experienced soldiers had been excluded on religious grounds by the Kirk Party, whose leaders also refused to participate, among them Lord Argyll . Opposition to what was primarily a Scottish army meant few English Royalists joined as it moved south, and the invasion ended in defeat at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. Charles managed to escape and landed in Normandy six weeks later on 16 October, even though there
15694-622: Was designed by Robert Adam for the Register House Trustees; it was opened to the public in 1788. The first official tasked with the care and administration of the public records was first recorded in the role of Clericus Rotulorum (Clerk of the Rolls) in the Kingdom of Scotland in 1286. Registers, rolls and records were kept in Edinburgh Castle from about the 13th century. The role of
15827-474: Was forced to gradually disband his troops. Having lost the support of Parliament, Danby resigned his post of Lord High Treasurer , but received a pardon from the king. In defiance of the royal will, the House of Commons declared that the dissolution of Parliament did not interrupt impeachment proceedings, and that the pardon was therefore invalid. When the House of Lords attempted to impose the punishment of exile—which
15960-556: Was given the duties to maintain and preserve the General Register of Sasines , the Register of Hornings , the Register of Inhibitions and Adjudications , the Register of Deeds and other chancery and judicial registers. The Keeper of the Records of Scotland, was given the duties to preserve the public registers, records and rolls of Scotland. From 1949, the Keeper of the Registers headed
16093-413: Was impeached by the House of Commons on the charge of high treason . Although much of the nation had sought war with Catholic France, Charles had secretly negotiated with Louis XIV, trying to reach an agreement under which England would remain neutral in return for money. Danby had publicly professed that he was hostile to France, but had reservedly agreed to abide by Charles's wishes. Unfortunately for him,
16226-464: Was necessary for him to stay close by to the king. Also, Charles had a sundial installed in the Privy Garden, by which he could set his personal pocket watch . (For a while, the king personally recorded the performance of the latest spring-balance watch, presented to him by Robert Hooke . ) In 1662, Charles was pleased to grant a royal charter to a group of scientists and others who had established
16359-543: Was needed. This provided an opportunity to design a modern archive building. In 1994 Thomas Thomson House was built at Sighthill Industrial Estate in the west of Edinburgh and opened the following year by the Princess Royal . Designed to provide space for the National Archives of Scotland until the mid 21st century, the building is essentially two separate buildings joined together. One high-tech block provides over 37 kilometres of environmentally controlled record storage, while
16492-624: Was no public money available to provide adequate accommodation and supervision for them. By the mid-eighteenth century the need to provide accommodation for the national archives was widely recognised. In 1765 a grant of £12,000 was obtained from the estates of Jacobites forfeited after the Jacobite rising of 1745 towards building a 'proper repository'. A site was chosen fronting the end of the North Bridge then under construction. The eminent architect Robert Adam and his brother James were selected for
16625-701: Was one of Charles's many illegitimate children who became prominent in British society. Despite his son's diplomatic efforts to save him, the execution of Charles I took place in January 1649, and England became a republic . On 5 February, the Covenanter Parliament of Scotland proclaimed Charles II as "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland" at the Mercat Cross, Edinburgh , but refused to allow him to enter Scotland unless he agreed to establish Presbyterianism as
16758-424: Was particularly interested in alchemy, which he had first encountered many years earlier, during his exile with the Duke of Buckingham. Charles resumed his experiments with mercury and would spend whole mornings attempting to distill it. Heating mercury in an open crucible releases mercury vapour, which is toxic and may have contributed to his later ill health. Charles faced a political storm over his brother James,
16891-577: Was strengthened. The Convention Parliament was dissolved in December 1660, and, shortly after Charles's English coronation , the second English Parliament of the reign assembled. Dubbed the Cavalier Parliament , it was overwhelmingly Royalist and Anglican. It sought to discourage non-conformity to the Church of England and passed several acts to secure Anglican dominance. The Corporation Act 1661 required municipal officeholders to swear allegiance;
17024-531: Was the digital capture of half a million wills and testaments recorded in Commissary Court and Sheriff Court registers between 1513 and 1901, linking these to a unified index, and making them available online. Following the project's completion in 2004, NAS maintained the products and websites of SCAN. The NAS has expanded its digitisation programme begun under the SCAN project. It is currently involved in digitising
17157-434: Was the haunt of thieves and pick-pockets. Construction resumed in 1785 and General Register House was completed to Robert Adam's modified design in 1788. It was hoped to build his proposed north range if funds ever became available. Robert Reid , also architect of St George's Church (now West Register House) and the facade of Parliament House , finished the exterior to a simplified version of Robert Adam's original design and
17290-414: Was the opposition, including the Church of Scotland , to attempts in the bills to reform the Scots laws of marriage, which had historically been very informal as The Scotsman newspaper describes: "Everybody knows that, by the law of Scotland, the marriage ceremony can be performed with as perfect legal effect by a blacksmith as by a clergyman" However, the proposals for reform were dropped and in 1854,
17423-472: Was too cumbersome a task to be entrusted to a single department. In 1948, the Public Registers and Records (Scotland) Act 1948 provided that the Registers of Scotland and Records of Scotland were to be split into two separate government organisations with two separate officials: (1) the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland and (2) the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland
17556-571: Was unable to produce an heir; her four pregnancies had ended in miscarriages and stillbirths in 1662, February 1666, May 1668, and June 1669. Charles's heir presumptive was therefore his unpopular Catholic brother, James, Duke of York. Partly to assuage public fears that the royal family was too Catholic, Charles agreed that James's daughter, Mary , should marry the Protestant William of Orange . In 1678, Titus Oates , who had been alternately an Anglican and Jesuit priest, falsely warned of
17689-422: Was walking to Whitehall, he met the king who invited him to view his chemistry laboratory. Pepys confessed to finding what he saw there beyond him. Charles developed painful gout in later life which limited the daily walks that he took regularly when younger. His keenness was now channelled to his laboratory where he would devote himself to his experiments, for hours at a time, sometimes helped by Moray. Charles
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