re: #207 Nojay UK

Oh dear… It was Scots landowners who instigated the Highland Clearances, not “the English”. …

So yes, the proximate cause were landlords trying to take more control over land, contra ancient clanship.

But in 1707 Scotland and England united, and that meant the lords of Scotland had allegiance to the English crown.

In the bigger picture, my take is the the modernization of the new Union required different ways of doing agriculture than the old ways.

The Highlands were prone to famine, not being a particularly good region for agriculture. So the lords of the lands had their own struggles.

So maybe you can’t blame the English crown directly, but they seemed to care little about their new subjects while pressing the lords to pay.