Octavians

The Octavians were a financial commission of eight in the government of Scotland first appointed by James VI on 9 January 1596.[1]

James VI's minister John Maitland, 1st Lord Maitland of Thirlestane had died on 3 October 1595, and his financial situation was troubled.[2] 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 promoted an expedition into the Highlands to recover tax revenue.[3]

The Octavians were in part drawn from a committee appointed in 1593 by the Parliament of Scotland to look after the estates of Anne of Denmark.[4] An English courtier in Scotland Roger Aston described events at the end of December 1595 in a letter to James Hudson: "The queen's council joins with the prior (Alexander Seton) and other of the king's council for the reformation of the king's particular affairs".[5]

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.[6] When renewed in 1597, it faced disabling opposition from vested interests, and some of the Octavians were suspect as sympathetic to Catholics.[7] 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

New Octavians of 1611

Notes
  1. Julian Goodare, The Government of Scotland, 1560-1625 (2004), p. 157.
  2. Julian Goodare, The Octavians, Miles Kerr-Peterson & Steven J. Reid, James VI and Noble Power in Scotland, 1578-1603 (Routledge, 2017), pp. 177.
  3. Mark Nicholls, A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529-1603: The two kingdoms (1999), p. 306.
  4. Julian Goodare (2017), pp. 177-8: Thomas Thomson, Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland: 1593-1625, vol. 4 (1816), pp. 24-7.
  5. Thomas Birch, Memoirs of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, vol. 1 (London, 1754), pp. 354-6.
  6. Julian Goodare, The Scottish Witch-hunt in Context (2002), p. 52.
  7. Felicity Heal, Reformation in Britain and Ireland (2005), p. 415.
  8. Goodare, Julian. "Octavians". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69937. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  9. Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1890). "Hamilton, Thomas (1563-1637)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 24. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  10. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Murray, Gideon" . Dictionary of National Biography. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  11. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). "Preston, John (d.1616)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 46. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  12. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Spottiswood, John (1565-1637)" . Dictionary of National Biography. 53. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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