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5 - “Innumerable Occupations,” 1760–1769
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2017
Summary
In 1760, Robertson stood on the brink of a decade of personal achievement: lying ahead would be leadership of the the Moderates in the church, appointment as principal of the University of Edinburgh, and publication of what would be one of his most celebrated works. But the path toward these achievements was strewn with distractions in the form of competing choices and persistent demands made on his time. As a historian, his main concern over the decade was completing Charles V, but, as he complained to Baron Mure in 1761, “I would wish to apply my whole time to literary pursuits, which is at present parceled out among innumerable occupations.” Early in the decade, he and his Moderate colleagues advocated for a Scottish militia, and he helped Robert Adam ready his lavish folio on the palace of Diocletian for publication. He would be elected principal of the University of Edinburgh in 1762, a post he naively expected to be a sinecure but which turned out to be not only demanding but one that he grew to love. In the church, he faced constant struggles between the Moderate party and the Popular party, requiring constant negotiation on patronage and related issues because neither party gained a permanent, stable majority. He moved from Lady Yester's Chapel to Old Greyfriars in 1761 where, although he now had a collegiate ministry, he still had demands of preaching and parish duties. In the midst of these demands, he faced decisions on what to do to capitalize on the success of Scotland and what to do with the Earl of Bute's request for a history of England. His family continued to grow with the births of two more sons, James (1762) and David (1764), even as his health suffered under the pressure of work, with an onset of what was most likely pneumonia in 1765 at an important moment in writing Charles V.
Throughout this network of conflicting demands, there runs a unifying theme: the modernizing of Scotland. Charles V would describe the broader historical process underlying this theme, in which the major states of Europe had become near equals and had remained so for two centuries.
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- The Life of William RobertsonMinister, Historian, and Principal, pp. 129 - 165Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2017