The Counter-Reformation and Stuart Loyalism in the poetry of Adam King

By Moore Visiting Fellow David McOmish

This talk will discuss the life and literary works of Adam King, an academic, writer, late-sixteenth century agent of the counter-reformation, and early-seventeenth century Stuart Loyalist. A committed follower of Mary, Queen of Scots in Scotland and the catholic cause across Europe, King returned to Scotland in the late 16th century and became a devoted follower of Mary’s son, King James VI and I. The poet William Drummond of Hawthornden referred to King as the most learned man Scotland ever produced. Upon his return to Edinburgh, King, a former professor of mathematics and philosophy at the Collège de Lisieux, University of Paris (1585-1595), established the ideas and methods of the new sciences at the University of Edinburgh in the lead up to the Enlightenment. A retrospective damnatio memoriae, instigated by Calvinists in Edinburgh from 1645 onwards, mean that King is to this day, remarkably, a largely unknown figure.

This talk will be part of a series on Scots and Irish Latin Literature and Literary culture at the Moore Institute on 24^th of April.

Details here: http://cas.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2019/03/programme-SNLS.pdf