‘All our dear countrymen’? British and Irish expatriates east of the Rhine as recorded in the Triennial Travels of James Fraser of Kirkhill (1634–1709)
That section of the memoirs of James Fraser of Kirkhill (1634–1709) covering his 1659 travels east of the River Rhine, is exceptionally detailed and vivid. In particular, the fifty-four folios in question shed light on the nature of a British and Irish network towards the eastern and southern edges of the Holy Roman Empire. The purpose of this article is to assess Fraser's account of this body of expatriates from the Stuart kingdoms, a group he identified collectively as his ‘countrymen’. The circle within which he recorded having become a part was relatively inclusive, being confessionally diverse and based both on a loose affiliation to the cause of the then-exiled monarchy as well as, it appears, flexibility and adaptability with respect to language use. Three cities in the region that are commented on in depth in the account have been selected – Regensburg, Vienna and Prague – and Fraser's remarks in relation to the network in each of them analysed. This allows for wider conclusions focusing on the nature and development of that wider range of seventeenth century supranational and transnational identities which could link expatriates from throughout the Stuart monarchy.