Robert Burns Robert Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known as Rabbie Burns, the Bard of Ayrshire, Ploughman Poet and various other names and epithets, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its
Scotland under the Commonwealth in taxes. In 1656 the civil list alone cost £25,000. The sum of £10,000 a month from the county assessment was demanded by the Cromwellian regime, which Scotland failed to fully supply and it was reduced to 6,000 a year in 1657. The total was never less than £90,000 a year. In addition the country contributed about £35,000 in excise a year. Despite this, there was an annual deficit of £130,000, which was covered by English revenues. Scotland had suffered considerable economic disruption during the period of the civil wars, caused by loss of manpower to a dozen armies, free