- Octavians
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The Octavians were a financial commission of eight in the government of Scotland first appointed by James VI in January 1596.[1] James's minister John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane had died a few months earlier, and his financial situation was troubled. They were a reforming body, eager to bring order to the royal finances and bear down on patronage. They imposed a 5% import tax and promotes an expedition into the Highlands to recover tax revenue.[2]
The initial commission lasted only one year, and was much disliked; Presbyterians attempted a coup at the end of 1596, and one demand was that the Octavians should be disbanded.[3] When renewed in 1597, it faced disabling opposition from vested interests, and some of the Octavians were suspect as sympathetic to Catholics.[4] But the concept of the commission as an extension of the exchequer into government persisted, and under the name of New Octavians it played a part in Scottish administration into the reign of Charles I.
Octavians of 1596
- David Carnegie of Colluthie
- James Elphinstone, 1st Lord Balmerinoch
- Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington
- John Lindsay of Balcarres
- Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Dunfermline
- Sir John Skene
- Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre
- Peter Young of Seton[5]
Notes
- ^ Julian Goodare, The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625 (2004), p. 157.
- ^ Mark Nicholls, A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529-1603: The two kingdoms (1999), p. 306.
- ^ Julian Goodare, The Scottish Witch-hunt in Context (2002), p. 52.
- ^ Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2005), p. 415.
- ^ Goodare, Julian, "Octavians", on the website of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Subscription or UK public library membership required), http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/69937
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