Publisher's Synopsis
In 1605 James VI was much vexed by the inhabitants of Lewis, who apparently delighted in "blood, theft, reiffe and oppression". His councillors recognized that one of the principal causes of their rebellion was the number of boats on the islands, which gave the rebels the facility for "both eschewing of apprehension when they are pursued as for mutual concurring and assisting one another against His Highness and his authority.;From the prose of the Privy Council Registers it is fairly clear that Highland galleys were a thorn in the flesh of the Lowland government. They were also much more than this - for nearly a millennium, the West Highland galley was the vehicle for island life.;Denis Rixson seeks to bring out the importance of the galley in the economy of the highlands as a means of transporting mercenaries to Ireland. With the Union of the Crowns, this source of employment dried up and the collapse of the Highland economy followed. Rixson demonstrates how this surplus manpower became a major factor in the collapse of Scotland into civil war and anarchy from the 1630s onward.
