Citizenship and the Statutes of Iona

The recent announcement by Home Secretary Theresa May, that the government is to re-write Britain's citizenship test, brings to mind the year 1609 and James VI and I’s response to the limited submission to his rule by his subjects on the Celtic fringes. James’s answer was the Statutes of Iona. They were a test for membership of mainstream Scottish and British society, severely limited though that concept was.

The king’s representative tricked nine clan chiefs into boarding a navy vessel, kidnapped them and sent them to the island of Iona, and did not release them until they signed up to the Statutes. The document dealt with aspects of Gaelic society where the Gaels seemed most separate from the rest of the Scots.