Celtic Saints and the Question of the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1603 in Thomas Craig’s Treatise

This article examines the reasons behind the transformation of several ethnically Irish saints into Scots in the context of a treatise on the Anglo-Scottish union written by the Scottish jurist Thomas Craig. It argues that this reinterpretation was not Craig’s invention but rather a continuation of a historiographical tradition established in Scottish historical writing since the fourteenth century. The article concludes that Craig’s appeal to the Celtic Church was shaped by the influence of the Reformation and the Protestant vision of a unified Britain.