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December 4 in Scottish History

Today in 1795 saw the birth of Thomas Carlyle, the leading Victorian intellectual, in Ecclefechan, Dumfriesshire. Educated at Edinburgh University, Carlyle hoped to enter the ministry, but lost faith in the foundations of Christianity and trained as a mathematics teacher instead. His love of German literature led to his translations of Goethe, Hoffmann, and Tieck, which are now regarded as masterpieces. Carlyle's work is difficult to categorise; he was neither a philosopher, poet nor novelist, and more than a critic. His work 'The French Revolution' presents historical facts, but also sets out to question the nature of the facts historians deal with. Carlyle was influential in the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery in London in 1856, and he died just too early to witness the inauguration of the similar institution, a Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which he had firmly advocated.

This day in 1649 witnessed the death of the Scottish poet, William Drummond. Born in Hawthornden, Midlothian, the son of a courtier to James VI of Scotland, the Edinburgh-educated Drummond was one of the first notable Scots poets to write exclusively in English. His works include the elegy, 'Tears on the Death of Meliades', and the poem, 'Forth Feasting' (1617). In addition to his poetry, he wrote the posthumously published 'History of Scotland 1423 - 1524' (1655). The major Scottish poet of the later Renaissance, critics are divided on the extent to which he can be viewed as a "Scottish" writer, as his works belongs to the English tradition of Spenser and Drayton in their use of sonnets and madrigals.

On this day in 1423, the Treaty of London provided for the release of James I from English captivity. The terms agreed in London for the release of James I from his 18-year captivity in England included a ransom of £40.95,000 paid in six annual instalments, the provision of 21 hostages as security and an undertaking that the Scots would give no further assistance to the French army until James's obligation were met in full.