Politics and protestant Lordship in North East Scotland during the reign of James VI: The life of George Keith, fourth Earl Marischal, 1554-1623

George Keith, fourth Earl Marischal is a case study of long-term, quietly successful and stable lordship through the reign of James VI. Marischal’s life provides a wholly underrepresented perspective on this era, where the study of rebellious and notorious characters has dominated. He is also a counter-example to the notion of a general crisis among the European nobility, at least in the Scottish context, as well as to the notion of a ‘conservative’ or ‘Catholic’ north east. In 1580 George inherited the richest earldom in Scotland, with a geographical extent stretching along the east coast from Caithness to East Lothian. His family came to be this wealthy as a long term consequence of the Battle of Flodden (1513) where a branch of the family, the Inverugie Keiths had been killed. The heiress of this branch was married to the third earl and this had concentrated a large number of lands, and consequently wealth, in the hands of the earls. This had, however, also significantly decreased the number of members and hence power of the Keith kindred. The third earl’s conversion to Protestantism in 1544 and later his adherence to the King’s Party during the Marian Civil War forced the Keiths into direct confrontation with their neighbours in the north east, the Gordons (led by the Earls of Huntly), a Catholic family and supporters of the Queen’s Party. Although this feud was settled for a time at the end of the war, the political turmoil caused by a succession of short-lived factional regimes in the early part of the personal reign of James VI (c.1578-1585) led the new (fourth) Earl Marischal into direct confrontation with the new (sixth) Earl of Huntly. Marischal was outclassed, outmanoeuvred and outgunned at both court and in the locality in this feud, suffering considerably. However, Huntly’s over-ambition in wider court politics meant that Marischal was able to join various coalitions against his rival, until Huntly was exiled in 1595. Marischal also came into conflict briefly with Chancellor John Maitland of Thirlestane as a consequence of Marischal’s diplomatic mission to Denmark in 1589-1590, but was again outmatched politically and briefly imprisoned. Both of these feuds reveal Marischal to be relatively cautious and reactionary, and both reveal the limitations of his power. Elsewhere, the study of Marischal’s activities in the centre of Scottish politics reveal him to be unambitious. He was ready to serve King James, the two men having a healthy working relationship, but Marischal showed no ambition as a courtier, to woo the king’s favour or patronage, instead delegating interaction with the monarch to his kinsmen. Likewise, in government, Marischal rarely attended any of the committees he was entitled to attend, such as the Privy Council, although he did keep a keen eye on the land market and the business conducted under the Great Seal. Although personally devout and a committed Protestant, the study of Marischal’s interaction with the national Kirk and the parishes of which he was patron reveal that he was at times a negligent patron and exercised his right of ministerial presentation as lordly, not godly patronage. The notion of a ‘conservative North East’ is, however, rejected. Where Marischal was politically weak at court and weak in terms of force in the locality, we see him pursuing sideways approaches to dealing with this. Thus he was keen to build up his general influence in the north and in particular with the burgh of Aberdeen (one result of this being the creation of Marischal College in 1593), pursued disputes through increasing use of legal methods rather than bloodfeud (thus exploiting his wealth and compensating for his relative lack of force) and developed a sophisticated system of maritime infrastructure, ultimately expressed through the creating of the burghs of Peterhead and Stonehaven. Although his close family caused him a number of problems over his lifetime, he was able to pass on a stable and enlarged lordship to his son in 1623.

The difference of Being in the early modern world: a relational-material approach to life in Scotland in the period of the witch trials

This thesis investigates how ways of being in different ontologies emerge from material and embodied practice. This general concern is explored through the particular case study of Scotland in the period of the witch trials (the 16th and 17th centuries C.E.). The field of early modern Scottish witchcraft studies has been active and dynamic over the past 15 years but its prioritisation of what people said over what they did leaves a clear gap for a situated and relational approach focusing upon materiality. Such an approach requires a move away from the Cartesian dichotomies of modern ontology to recognise past beliefs as real to those who experienced them, coconstitutive of embodiment and of the material worlds people inhabited. In theory, method and practice, this demands a different way of exploring past worlds to avoid flattening strange data. To this end, the study incorporates narratives and ‘disruptions’ – unique engagements with Contemporary Art which facilitate understanding by enabling the temporary suspension of disbelief. The methodology is iterative, tacking between material and written sources in order to better understand the heterogeneous assemblages of early modern (counter-) witchcraft. Previously separate areas of discourse are (re-)constituted into alternative ontic categories of newly-parallel materials. New interpretations of things, places, bodies and personhoods emerge, raising questions about early modern experiences of the world. Three thematic chapters explore different sets of collaborative agencies as they entwine into new things, co-fabricating a very different world. Moving between witch trial accounts, healing wells, infant burial grounds, animals, discipline artefacts and charms, the boundaries of all prove highly permeable. People, cloth and place bleed into one another through contact; trees and water emerge as powerful agents of magical-place-making; and people and animals meet to become single, hybrid-persons spread over two bodies. Life and death consistently emerge as protracted processes with the capacity to overlap and occur simultaneously in problematic ways. The research presented in this thesis establishes a new way of looking at the nature of Being as experienced by early modern Scots. This provides a foundation for further studies, which can draw in other materials not explored here such as communion wares and metal charms. Comparison with other early modern Western societies may also prove fruitful. Furthermore, the methodology may be suitable for application to other interdisciplinary projects incorporating historical and material evidence.

Original sin: divine and symbolic violence in the turn to the Apostle Paul

When we take a step back from the imposing figure of physical violence, it becomes possible to examine other structurally violent forces that constantly shape our cultural and political landscapes. One of the driving interests in the “turn to Paul” in recent continental philosophy stems from wrestling with questions about the real nature of contemporary violence. Paul is positioned as a thinker whose messianic experience began to cut through the violent masquerade of the existing order. The crucifixion and resurrection of the Messiah (a slave and a God co-existing in one body) exposed the empty grounding upon which power resided. The Christ-event signifies a moment of violent interruption in the existing order which Paul enjoins the Gentiles to participate in through a dedication of love for the neighbour. This divine violence aims to reveal and subvert the “powers,” epitomised in the Roman Empire, in order to fulfil the labour of the Messianic now-time which had arrived. The impetus behind this research comes from a typically enigmatic and provocative section of text by the Slovene philosopher, cultural critic, and Christian atheist Slavoj Žižek. He claims that 'the notion of love should be given here all its Paulinian weight: the domain of pure violence… is the domain of love' (2008a, 173). In this move he links Paul’s idea of love to that of Walter Benjamin’s divine violence; the sublime and the cataclysmic come together in this seemingly perverse notion. At stake here is the way in which uncovering violent forces in the “zero-level” of our narrative worldviews aids the diagnosis of contemporary political and ethical issues. It is not enough to imagine Paul’s encounter with the Christ-event as non-violent. This Jewish apocalyptic movement was engaged in a violent struggle within an existing order that God’s wrath will soon dismantle. Paul’s weak violence, inspired by his fidelity to the Christ-event, places all responsibility over creation in the role of the individual within the collective body. The centre piece of this re-imagined construction of the Pauline narrative comes in Romans 13: the violent dedication to love understood in the radical nature of the now-time. 3 This research examines the role that narratives play in the creation and diagnosis of these violent forces. In order to construct a new genealogy of violence in Christianity it is crucial to understand the role of the slave of Christ (the revolutionary messianic subject). This turn in the Symbolic is examined through creating a literary structure in which we can approach a radical Nietzschean shift in Pauline thought. The claim here, a claim which is also central to Paul’s letters, is that when the symbolic violence which manipulates our worldviews is undone by a divine violence, if even for a moment, new possibilities are created in the opening for a transvaluation of values. Through this we uncover the nature of original sin: the consequences of the interconnected reality of our actions. The role of literature is vital in the construction of this narrative; starting with Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, and continuing through works such as Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener, this thesis draws upon the power of literature in the shaping of our narrative worlds. Typical of the continental philosophy at the heart of this work, a diverse range of illustrations and inspirations from fiction is pulled into its narrative to reflect the symbolic universe that this work was forged through. What this work attempts to do is give this theory a greater grounding in Paul’s letters by demonstrating this radical kenotic power at the heart of the Christ-event. Romans 13 reveals, in a way that has not yet been picked up by Critchley, Žižek, and others, that Paul opposed the biopolitical power of the Roman Empire through the weak violence of love that is the labour of the slaves of Christ on the “now-time” that had arrived.

A critical analysis of the prospects for the effective development of a regional approach to competition law in the ASEAN region

This thesis is an examination of the ASEAN’s prospects in establishing regional competition policy in the Southeast Asia region, a topic of contemporary relevance in light of the ASEAN’s recent foray into the economic integration field on 31 December 2015. It questions whether the current approach undertaken by the ASEAN could contribute to an effective regional competition policy under the regional market integration. In answering this question, the thesis first critically surveys the current terrain of regional competition laws and policies in order to determine the possible existence of an optimal template. It argues that although the EU model is oft used as a source of inspiration, each regional organisation conceives different configurations of the model in order to best adjust to the local regional contexts. The thesis makes an inquiry into the narratives of the ASEAN’s competition policy, as well as the ASEAN’s specific considerations in the development of competition policy, before comparing the findings to the actual approaches taken by the ASEAN in its pursuit of regional competition policy. This thesis reveals that the actual approach taken by the ASEAN demonstrates an important discrepancy from the economic integration goal. The ASEAN applies a soft harmonisation approach regarding substantive competition law while refraining from establishing a centralised institution or a representative institution. The sole organ with regards to competition policy at the regional level is an expert organ. The thesis also conducts an investigation into the reception of the ASEAN’s regional policy by the member states in order to ascertain the possibility of the achievement of the ASEAN’s aspiration of regional competition policy. The study reveals that despite some shared similarities in the broad principles of competition law amongst the member states, the various competition law regimes are not harmonised thus creating challenging obstacle to the ASEAN’s ambition. The thesis then concludes that the ASEAN’s approach to regional competition law is unlikely to be effective.

Learning to construct our identities over the life course: a study with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults in Scotland

To date, adult educational research has had a limited focus on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) adults and the learning processes in which they engage across the life course. Adopting a biographical and life history methodology, this study aimed to critically explore the potentially distinctive nature and impact of how, when and where LGBT adults learn to construct their identities over their lives. In-depth, semi-structured interviews, dialogue and discussion with LGBT individuals and groups provided rich narratives that reflect shifting, diverse and multiple ways of identifying and living as LGBT. Participants engage in learning in unique ways that play a significant role in the construction and expression of such identities, that in turn influence how, when and where learning happens. Framed largely by complex heteronormative forces, learning can have a negative, distortive impact that deeply troubles any balanced, positive sense of being LGBT, leading to self- censoring, alienation and in some cases, hopelessness. However, learning is also more positively experiential, critically reflective, inventive and queer in nature. This can transform how participants understand their sexual identities and the lifewide spaces in which they learn, engendering agency and resilience. Intersectional perspectives reveal learning that participants struggle with, but can reconcile the disjuncture between evolving LGBT and other myriad identities as parents, Christians, teachers, nurses, academics, activists and retirees. The study’s main contributions lie in three areas. A focus on LGBT experience can contribute to the creation of new opportunities to develop intergenerational learning processes. The study also extends the possibilities for greater criticality in older adult education theory, research and practice, based on the continued, rich learning in which participants engage post-work and in later life. Combined with this, there is scope to further explore the nature of ‘life-deep learning’ for other societal groups, brought by combined religious, moral, ideological and social learning that guides action, beliefs, values, and expression of identity. The LGBT adults in this study demonstrate engagement in distinct forms of life-deep learning to navigate social and moral opprobrium. From this they gain hope, self-respect, empathy with others, and deeper self-knowledge.

State-narco networks and the ‘War on Drugs’ in post-transition Bolivia, with special reference to 1989-1993

This thesis examines the development of state-narco networks in post-transition Bolivia. Mainstream discourses of drugs tend to undertheorise such relationships, holding illicit economies, weak states and violence as synergistic phenomena. Such assumptions fail to capture the nuanced relations that emerge between the state and the drug trade in different contexts, their underlying logics and diverse effects. As an understudied case, Bolivia offers novel insights into these dynamics. Bolivian military authoritarian governments (1964-1982), for example, integrated drug rents into clientelistic systems of governance, helping to establish factional coalitions and reinforce regime authority. Following democratic transition in 1982 and the escalation of US counterdrug efforts, these stable modes of exchange between the state and the coca-cocaine economy fragmented. Bolivia, though, continued to experience lower levels of drug-related violence than its Andean neighbours, and sustained democratisation despite being a major drug producer. Focusing on the introduction of the Andean Initiative (1989-1993), I explore state-narco interactions during this period of flux: from authoritarianism to (formal) democracy, and from Cold War to Drug War. As such, the thesis transcends the conventional analyses of the drugs literature and orthodox readings of Latin American narco-violence, providing insights into the relationship between illicit economies and democratic transition, the regional role of the US, and the (unintended) consequences of drug policy interventions. I utilise a mixed methods approach to offer discrete perspectives on the object of study. Drawing on documentary and secondary sources, I argue that state-narco networks were interwoven with Bolivia’s post-transition political settlement. Uneven democratisation ensured pockets of informalism, as clientelistic and authoritarian practices continued. This included police and military autonomy, and tolerance of drug corruption within both institutions. Non-enforcement of democratic norms of accountability and transparency was linked to the maintenance of fragile political equilibrium. Interviews with key US and Bolivian elite actors also revealed differing interpretations of state-narco interactions. These exposed competing agendas, and were folded into alternative paradigms and narratives of the ‘war on drugs’. The extension of US Drug War goals and the targeting of ‘corrupt’ local power structures, clashed with local ambivalence towards the drug trade, opposition to destabilising, ‘Colombianised’ policies and the claimed ‘democratising mission’ of the Bolivian government. In contrasting these US and Bolivian accounts, the thesis shows how real and perceived state-narco webs were understood and navigated by different actors in distinct ways. ‘Drug corruption’ held significance beyond simple economic transaction or institutional failure. Contestation around state-narco interactions was enmeshed in US-Bolivian relations of power and control.

Investigating Angiotensin II in cardiac remodelling and the counter-regulatory actions of Angiotensin-(1-9)

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) including, hypertension, coronary heart disease and heart failure are the leading cause of death worldwide. Hypertension, a chronic increase in blood pressure above 140/90 mmHg, is the single main contributor to deaths due to heart disease and stroke. In the heart, hypertension results in adaptive cardiac remodelling, including LV hypertrophy to normalize wall stress and maintain cardiac contractile function. However, chronic increases in BP results in the development of hypertensive heart disease (HHD). HHD describes the maladaptive changes during cardiac remodelling which result in reduced systolic and diastolic function and eventually heart failure. This includes ventricular dilation due to eccentric hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis which stiffens the ventricular wall and microvascular rarefaction resulting in a decrease in coronary blood flow albeit an increase in energy demand. Chronic activation of the renin-angiotensin-system (RAS) with its effector peptide angiotensin (Ang)II plays a key role in the development of hypertension and the maladaptive changes in HHD. Ang II acts via the angiotensin type 1 receptor (AT1R) to mediate most of its pathological actions during HHD, including stimulation of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, activation of cardiac fibroblasts and increased collagen deposition. The counter-regulatory axis of the RAS which is centred on the ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/Mas axis has been demonstrated to counteract the pathological actions of Ang II in the heart and vasculature. Ang-(1-7) via the Mas receptor prevents Ang II-induced cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis and improves cardiac contractile function in animal models of HHD. In contrast, less is known about Ang-(1-9) although evidence has demonstrated that Ang-(1-9) also antagonises Ang II and is anti-hypertrophic and anti-fibrotic in animal models of acute cardiac remodelling. However, so far it is not well documented whether Ang-(1-9) can reverse established cardiac dysfunction and remodelling and whether it is beneficial when administered chronically. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis was to assess the effects of chronic Ang-(1-9) administration on cardiac structure and function in a model of Ang II-induced cardiac remodelling. Furthermore, this thesis aimed to investigate novel pathways contributing to the pathological remodelling in response to Ang II. First, a mouse model of chronic Ang II infusion was established and characterised by comparing the structural and functional effects of the infusion of a low and high dose of Ang II after 6 weeks. Echocardiographic measurements demonstrated that low dose Ang II infusion resulted in a gradual decline in cardiac function while a high dose of Ang II induced acute cardiac contractile dysfunction. Both doses equally induced the development of cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis characterised by an increase in the deposition of collagen I and collagen III. Moreover, increases in gene expression of fibrotic and hypertrophic markers could be detected following high dose Ang II infusion over 6 weeks. Following this characterisation, the high dose infusion model was used to assess the effects of Ang-(1-9) on cardiac structural and functional remodelling in established disease. Initially, it was evaluated whether Ang-(1-9) can reverse Ang II-induced cardiac disease by administering Ang-(1-9) for 2-4 weeks following an initial 2 week infusion of a high dose of Ang II to induce cardiac contractile dysfunction. The infusion of Ang-(1-9) for 2 weeks was associated with a significant improvement of LV fractional shortening compared to Ang II infusion. However, after 4 weeks fractional shortening declined to Ang II levels. Despite the transient improvement in cardiac contractile function, Ang-(1-9) did not modulate blood pressure, LV hypertrophy or cardiac fibrosis. To further investigate the direct cardiac effects of Ang-(1-9), cardiac contractile performance in response to Ang-(1-9) was evaluated in the isolated Langendorff-perfused rat heart. Perfusion of Ang-(1-9) in the paced and spontaneously beating rat heart mediated a positive inotropic effect characterised by an increase in LV developed pressure, cardiac contractility and relaxation. This was in contrast to Ang II and Ang-(1-7). Furthermore, the positive inotropic effect to Ang-(1-9) was blocked by the AT1R antagonist losartan and the protein kinase A inhibitor H89. Next, endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) as a novel pathway that may contribute to Ang II-induced cardiac remodelling was assessed in Ang II-infused mice in vivo and in human coronary artery endothelial cells (HCAEC) in vitro. Infusion of Ang II to mice for 2-6 weeks resulted in a significant decrease in myocardial capillary density and this was associated with the occurrence of dual labelling of endothelial cells for endothelial and mesenchymal markers. In vitro stimulation of HCAEC with TGFβ and Ang II revealed that Ang II exacerbated TGF-induced gene expression of mesenchymal markers. This was not correlated with any changes in SMAD2 or ERK1/2 phosphorylation with co-stimulation of TGFβ and Ang II. However, superoxide production was significantly increased in HCAEC stimulated with Ang II but not TGFβ. Finally, the role of Ang II in microvesicle (MV)-mediated cardiomyocyte hypertrophy was investigated. MVs purified from neonatal rat cardiac fibroblasts were found to contain detectable Ang II and this was increased by stimulation of fibroblasts with Ang II. Treatment of cardiomyocytes with MVs derived from Ang II-stimulated fibroblasts induced cardiomyocyte hypertrophy which could be blocked by the AT1R antagonist losartan and an inhibitor of MV synthesis and release brefeldin A. Furthermore, Ang II was found to be present in MVs isolated from serum and plasma of Ang II-infused mice and SHRSP and WKY rats. Overall, the findings of this thesis demonstrate for the first time that the actions of Ang-(1-9) in cardiac pathology are dependent on its time of administration and that Ang-(1-9) can reverse Ang II-induced cardiac contractile dysfunction by acting as a positive inotrope. Furthermore, this thesis demonstrates evidence for an involvement of EndMT and MV signalling as novel pathways contributing to Ang II-induced cardiac fibrosis and hypertrophy, respectively. These findings provide incentive to further investigate the therapeutic potential of Ang-(1-9) in the treatment of cardiac contractile dysfunction in heart disease, establish the importance of novel pathways in Ang II-mediated cardiac remodelling and evaluate the significance of the presence of Ang II in plasma-derived MVs.