’Vivere civile’, monarchy restricted by law, and the Roman republican notion of the active citizen dominated the theoretical writing and political agency of European elites during the Renaissance. As the work by Heli Koenigsberger for continental history and Roger Mason for Scotland has shown, European monarchies subsequently abandoned the mixed form of government in favour of more ‘absolute’ rule, with a few notable exceptions - Venice, the Dutch Republic, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Holy Roman Empire and British Isles after the Glorious Revolution. This project addresses how society - organised in estates and representative bodies - responded to the challenges of war, social and religious conflict, growing bureaucracies and changes to legal practice. It focuses on citizenship, political community and the rule of law which remained key issues well into the Enlightenment, and which are still relevant for the relationship between state, community and individual today.

A PhD studentship at the University of Aberdeen, co-supervised by internationally leading researchers in History and Law, will provide opportunity for a comparative project to focus on the early modern debate and practice of citizenship, constitutionalism and the rule of law in Europe and Scotland. Apart from the institutional support from History and the School of Law, research centres at the University of Aberdeen provide postgraduate training opportunities and a community focus for students: the Centre for Early Modern Studies, the Research Institute for Scottish and Irish Studies, the Civil Law Centre and the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Soviety and the Rule of Law.

This project is funded by a University of Aberdeen Elphinstone Scholarship. An Elphinstone Scholarship covers the cost of tuition fees, whether Home, EU or Overseas.