'For the Cause of Religion and [Academic] Liberty.'.

In the 1680s, Utrecht was the Dutch city of choice for many Scottish exiles. It was a different town, and certainly a different university from its main rival Leiden, which is usually associated with the Scottish academic presence in the United Provinces. This article discusses the specific composition and nature of the Scottish community at Utrecht in the late seventeenth century, suggesting that its particular identity was closely related to the unique position of both the town and its university within the United Provinces. It points out that the specific appeal of Utrecht in the late seventeenth century consisted of a number of reasons not usually associated with the traditional view of the United Provinces as a progressive and tolerant country. Moreover, it describes the dual presence of an academic and a political network of Scots, which could only have existed in Utrecht and not in any of the other Dutch cities due to a unique situation in Utrecht, which tied politics and academia together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]