The Patriot

Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun enters public life in 1678 as Scotland struggles under royal interference, religious persecution and the dominance of ministers answerable to London. Fiercely independent and incapable of convenient silence, Fletcher opposes arbitrary government even when resistance costs him his seat, his estate and his safety. Exile carries him through England and continental Europe, where warfare and republican political thought strengthen his conviction that Scotland must control its own laws, militia and economic future.

Returning after the Revolution of 1688, Fletcher becomes one of the most uncompromising voices in the Scottish Parliament. He supports national self-reliance and the Darien venture, distrusts the power of the crown and resists an incorporating union with England. As pressure for the Treaty of Union intensifies, he fights a political campaign that has occupied most of his adult life, knowing that principle may bring neither victory nor gratitude. Tranter presents a difficult, courageous patriot whose eventual defeat in 1707 gives his arguments a lasting place in Scottish history.