History of Scotland
Encyclopedia
The history of Scotland begins around 10,000 years ago, when humans first began to inhabit what is now Scotland
after the end of the Devensian glaciation
, the last ice age
. Of the Stone Age
, Bronze Age
, and Iron Age
civilization that existed in the territory, many artefacts remain, but few written records were left behind.
The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire
in Britain, when the Romans occupied what is now broadly England
, Wales
and the Scottish Lowlands
, administering it as a Roman province
called Britannia
. To the north was territory not governed by the Romans — Caledonia
, by name. Its people were the Picts
. From a classical
historical viewpoint Scotland seemed a peripheral country, slow to gain advances filtering out from the Mediterranean fount of civilisation, but as knowledge of the past increases it has become apparent that some developments were earlier and more advanced than previously thought, and that the seaways were very important to Scottish history.
Because of the geographical orientation of Scotland and its strong reliance on trade routes by sea, the kingdom held close links in the south and east with the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea
, and through Ireland with France and the continent of Europe. Following the Acts of Union
which united Scotland with England into a new sovereign state called Great Britain
, and the subsequent Scottish Enlightenment
and Industrial Revolution
, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its industrial decline following the Second World War
was particularly acute, but in recent decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services
sector, the proceeds of North Sea oil
and gas, and latterly a devolved parliament
.
People lived in Scotland for at least 8,500 years before recorded history dealt with Britain. At times during the last interglacial period
(130,000– 70,000 BC) Europe had a climate warmer than today's, and early humans may have made their way to Scotland, though archaeologists have found no traces of this. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BC.
Mesolithic
hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar
to around 8500 BC. Numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers.
Neolithic
farming brought permanent settlements, and the wonderfully well-preserved stone house at Knap of Howar
on Papa Westray
dating from 3500 BC predates by about 500 years the village of similar houses at Skara Brae
on West Mainland, Orkney. The settlers introduced chambered cairn
tombs from around 3500 BC (Maeshowe
offers a prime example), and from about 3000 BC the many standing stones and circles such as the Ring of Brodgar
on Orkney and Callanish
on Lewis
. These form part of the Europe-wide Megalithic culture which also produced Stonehenge
in Wiltshire
, and which pre-historians now interpret as showing sophisticated use of astronomical observations.
The cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into the Bronze age
, and hill fort
s started to appear, such as Eildon Hill
near Melrose in the Scottish Borders
, which goes back to around 1000 BC and which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop.
Brythonic
Celt
ic culture and language spread into Scotland at some time after the 8th century BC, possibly through cultural contact rather than through mass invasion, and systems of kingdoms developed.
From around 700 BC the Iron age
brought numerous hill fort
s, broch
s and fortified settlements which support the image of quarrelsome tribes and petty kingdoms later recorded by the Romans, though evidence that at times occupants neglected the defences might suggest that symbolic power
had as much significance as warfare.
The only surviving pre-Roman account of Scotland originated with the Greek Pytheas of Massalia
who circumnavigated the British
islands (which he called Pretaniké) in 325 BC, but the record of his visit dates from much later.
The Roman invasion of Britain began in earnest in AD 43. Following a series of military successes in the south, forces led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola
entered Scotland in 79. The Romans met with fierce resistance from the local population of Caledonia
ns. In 82 or 83 Agricola sent a fleet of galleys up round the coast of Scotland, as far as the Orkney Islands
. In 84 Agricola defeated the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius
due to superior tactics and the use of professional troops.
The only historical source for this comes from the writings of Agricola's son-in-law, Tacitus
. Archaeology backed up with accurate dating from dendrochronology
suggests that the occupation of southern Scotland started before the arrival of Agricola. Whatever the exact dating, for the next 300 years Rome had some presence along the southern border.
Although the Romans had failed to conquer Caledonia
they attempted to maintain control through military outposts and built a few roads. They were eventually forced or chose to withdraw, concluding that the wealth of the land did not justify the extensive garrisoning requirements.
Scotland's population comprised two main groups:
Invasions brought three more groups, though the extent to which they replaced native populations is unknown
The British Saint Ninian
conducted the first Christian
mission in Scotland. From his base, the Candida Casa
(present-day Whithorn
) on the Solway Firth
, he spread the faith in the south and east of Scotland and in the north of England. However, according to the writings of Saint Patrick
and Saint Columba
, the Picts appear to have renounced Christianity in the century between Ninian's death (432) and the arrival of Saint Columba
in 563. The reason is not known. The Gaels re-introduced Christianity into Pictish Scotland, gradually pushing out worship of the older Celtic gods. The most famous evangelist of that period, Saint Columba
, a native of modern County Donegal
, came to Scotland in 563 and settled on the island of Iona
having obtained permission from the Pictish king at his court in Inverness to settle on Iona and to spread Christianity. Some consider his (possibly apocryphal) conversion of the Pictish king Bridei
a key event in the Christianisation
of Scotland.
of MacAlpin's Treason
tells how Alba
was born when the Gael Cináed mac Ailpín
conquered the Picts, but Alba is a creation of Constantine II
. Cináed's son Constantine
had the Series Longoir written to show his family's claim to the throne of a united Pictland. The triumph of Gaelic over Pictish and the change from Pictland to Alba is placed in the half-century reign of Constantine II. Why and how this happened is unknown.
At first this new kingdom corresponded to Scotland north of the Rivers Forth and Clyde. South west Scotland remained under the control of the Strathclyde Britons. The area of south-east Scotland was part of the proto-English kingdom of Bernicia
from around 638, then of the Kingdom of Northumbria. This area was contested from the time of Constantine II and finally fell into Scottish hands in 1018, when Máel Coluim II
pushed the border as far south as the River Tweed
. This remains the south-eastern border to this day.
Scotland, in the geographical sense it has retained for nearly a millennium, completed its expansion by the gradual incorporation of the Britons' kingdom of Strathclyde
into Alba. In 1034, Donnchad I
inherited Alba from his maternal grandfather, Máel Coluim II. With the exception of Orkney
, the Western Isles, Caithness
and Sutherland, which remained under Norse rule, Scotland had assumed the shape it was to retain thereafter.
Macbeth
, the Cenél Loairn candidate for the throne whose family had been suppressed by Máel Coluim II, defeated Donnchad in battle in 1040. Macbeth then ruled well for seventeen years before Donnchad's son Máel Coluim III
overthrew him. (William Shakespeare
, in his play Macbeth
, later immortalised these events, in a heavily fictionalised way based on inaccurate contemporary history that flattered the antecedents of James VI of Scotland/I of England
at Macbeth's expense).
After the Norman Conquest in 1066, Edgar, one of the claimants of the English throne opposing William the Conqueror
, fled to Scotland. Máel Coluim married Edgar's sister Margaret
, and thus came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding through Lothian
and past Stirling
on to the Firth of Tay
where he met his fleet of ships. Máel Coluim submitted, paid homage to William, and surrendered his son Donnchad
as a hostage.
Margaret herself had a great influence on Scotland. She is said to have brought European cultivation to the warlike Scottish court. She had an English father and a Hungarian mother and had grown up in Hungary
, recently pagan and largely untouched by the European culture of the period. However at this point the Church explicitly recognised the Bishop of Rome (the Pope
) as its head and at her instigation, the Benedictine
order founded a monastery at Dunfermline
, and St Andrews began to replace Iona as the centre of ecclesiastical leadership. The rites of the Scottish church became gradually re-integrated with mainstream Western Catholicism from that base.
When Malcolm died in 1093, his brother Domnall III
succeeded him. However, William II of England
backed Malcolm's son by his first marriage, Duncan, as a pretender to the throne. With the English behind him Duncan briefly seized power. His murder within a few months saw Domnall restored with Edmund
as his heir. The two ruled Scotland until two of Edmund's younger brothers returned from exile in England with English military backing. Victorious, the younger brothers imprisoned Domnall and Edmund for life, and Edgar
, the oldest of the three, became king in 1097. Shortly afterwards Edgar and the King of Norway, Magnus Bare Legs
concluded a treaty recognizing Norwegian authority over the Western Isles. In practice Norse control of the Isles was of the loosest nature, with local chiefs enjoying a high degree of independence. The following century, Somerled
, the greatest of these, became King of the Hebrides in his own right. His descendants, the Lords of the Isles, continued to enjoy a semi-independent status until the end of the fifteenth century.
When Edgar died in 1107, Margaret's third son Alexander
became king, and when he in turn died in 1124, the crown passed to her fourth son David I
. During David's reign Lowland Scots
(known as Inglis then) began to grow in south east Scotland, although Gaelic would continue to be spoken in many parts of what would become the Lowlands for centuries more.
The governmental and cultural innovations introduced by the Norman
conquerors of England impressed David greatly, and he arranged for several notables to come north and take up places within the Scottish aristocracy. The Normans came into frequent conflict with the native nobility, especially in the north east and south west of the country.
In a mirror of the invitation of the Normans northwards, David received lands south of the border in fee
from the English kings. This meant that the Kings of Scotland also functioned as Earls of Huntingdon, and that the Earls paid ceremonial homage to the English kings for the lands received. This homage proved problematic, however, as Malcolm Canmore as the King of Scotland had paid homage to the new Norman Kings of England twice after defeats during his various campaigns against the Normans in support of his Anglo-Saxon brother-in-law Edgar Atheling's claim to the English throne.
In 1263, Scotland and Norway
fought the Battle of Largs
for control over the Western Isles. Although the battle was little more than a series of indecisive skirmishes, it did at least prove that the distant kings of Norway could not continue to control the Isles. This was recognized soon after when the Norwegian king Magnus VI of Norway
signed the Treaty of Perth
in 1266, acknowledging Scottish suzerainty over the islands. Bit by bit, the Island chiefs were politically integrated into the Scottish state. In 1284 all of the descendants of Somerled attended a parliament called by Alexander III to acknowledge his granddaughter, Margaret, as heir to the throne. The subsequent dynastic crisis caused by the death of Margaret and the onset of the Wars of Independence
reversed this process. By the middle of the fourteenth century the MacDonald Lords of the Isles were once again loosening their ties to the crown.
A series of deaths in the line of succession in the 1280s, followed by King Alexander III
's death in 1286 left the Scottish crown in disarray. His granddaughter Margaret, the "Maid of Norway", a four-year old girl, was the heir.
Edward I of England
, as Margaret's great-uncle, suggested that his son (also a child) and Margaret should marry, stabilising the Scottish line of succession. In 1290 Margaret's guardians agreed to this, but Margaret herself died in Orkney on her voyage from Norway to Scotland before either her coronation or her marriage could take place.
in 1286, and the subsequent death of his granddaughter and heir Margaret
(called "the Maid of Norway") in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked Edward I of England
to arbitrate, for which he extracted legal recognition that the realm of Scotland was held as a feudal dependency to the throne of England before choosing John Balliol, the man with the strongest claim, who became king as John I (30 November 1292). Robert Bruce of Annandale, the next strongest claimant, accepted this outcome with reluctance. Over the next few years Edward I used the concessions he had gained to systematically undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland. In 1295 John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, the beginning of the Auld Alliance
.
In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace
and Andrew de Moray raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge
. For a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm. Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk (1298)
. Wallace escaped but probably resigned as Guardian of Scotland. In 1305 he fell into the hands of the English, who executed him for treason despite the fact that he owed no allegiance to England.
Rivals John Comyn
and Robert the Bruce
, grandson of the claimant, were appointed as joint guardians in his place. On 10 February 1306, Bruce participated in the murder of Comyn, at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries
. Less than seven weeks later, on March 25, Bruce was crowned as King. However, Edward's forces overran the country after defeating Bruce's small army at the Battle of Methven
. Despite the excommunication of Bruce and his followers by Pope Clement V
, his support slowly strengthened; and by 1314 with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas
and the Earl of Moray only the castles at Bothwell and Stirling remained under English control. Edward I had died in 1307. His heir Edward II
moved an army north to break the siege of Stirling Castle
and reassert control. Robert defeated that army at the Battle of Bannockburn
in 1314, securing de facto independence. In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath
, a remonstrance to the Pope from the nobles of Scotland, helped convince Pope John XXII
to overturn the earlier excommunication and nullify the various acts of submission by Scottish kings to English ones so that Scotland's sovereignty could be recognised by the major European dynasties. The Declaration has also been seen as one of the most important documents in the development of a Scottish national identity.
In 1326, what may have been the first full Parliament of Scotland
met. The parliament had evolved from an earlier council of nobility and clergy, the colloquium, constituted around 1235, but perhaps in 1326 representatives of the burgh
s — the burgh commissioners — joined them to form the Three Estates. In 1328, Edward III
signed the Treaty of Northampton acknowledging Scottish independence
under the rule of Robert the Bruce. However, four years after Robert's death in 1329, England once more invaded on the pretext of restoring Edward Balliol
, son of John Balliol, to the Scottish throne, thus starting the Second War of Independence. Despite victories at Dupplin Moor
(1332) and Halidon Hill
, in the face of tough Scottish resistance led by Sir Andrew Murray
, the son of Wallace's comrade in arms, successive attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed. Edward III lost interest in the fate of his protege after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War
with France. In 1341 David II
, King Robert's son and heir, was able to return from temporary exile in France. Balliol finally resigned his claim to the throne to Edward in 1356, before retiring to Yorkshire, where he died in 1364.
, the first of the Stewart (later Stuart) kings, came to the throne in 1371. He was followed in 1390 by his ailing son John, who took the regnal name
Robert III
, to avoid awkward questions over the exact status of the first King John. During Robert III's reign (1390–1406), actual power rested largely in the hands of his brother, also named Robert, the Duke of Albany
. After the suspicious death (possibly on the orders of the Duke of Albany) of his elder son, David, Duke of Rothesay in 1402, Robert, fearful for the safety of his younger son, James (the future James I
), sent him to France in 1406. However, the English captured him en route and he spent the next 18 years as a prisoner held for ransom. As a result, after the death of Robert III, regents ruled Scotland: first, the Duke of Albany; and later his son, during whose office the country fell into near anarchy. When Scotland finally paid the ransom in 1424, James, aged 32, returned with his English bride determined to assert this authority. Implicated in the murder of his cousin Albany, he succeeded in centralising control in the hands of the crown, but at the cost of increasingly unpopularity and was assassinated in 1437. His son James II
(reigned 1437–1460), when he came of age in 1449, continued his father's policy of weakening the great noble families, most notably taking on the great House of Douglas that had come to prominence at the time of the Bruce.
In 1468 the last great acquisition of Scottish territory occurred when James III
married Margaret of Denmark, receiving the Orkney Islands
and the Shetland Islands
in payment of her dowry. With the death of James III in 1488, during or after the Battle of Sauchieburn, his successor James IV
successfully ended the quasi-independent rule of the Lord of the Isles
, bringing the Western Isles under effective Royal control for the first time. In 1503, he married Henry VII's
daughter, Margaret Tudor
, thus laying the foundation for the 17th century Union of the Crowns
.
Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the fifteenth century with the founding of the University of St Andrews
in 1413, the University of Glasgow
in 1450 and the University of Aberdeen
in 1495, and with the passing of the Education Act 1496
, which decreed that all sons of barons and freeholders of substance should attend grammar schools. James IV's reign is often considered to have seen a flowering of Scottish culture under the influence of the European Renaissance
.
In 1512 the Auld Alliance was renewed and under its terms, when the French were attacked by the English under Henry VIII
, James IV invaded England in support. The invasion was stopped decisively at the battle of Flodden Field
during which the King, many of his nobles, and a large number of ordinary troops were killed, commemorated by the song The Floo'ers o' the Forest
. Once again Scotland's government lay in the hands of regents in the name of the infant James V
.
When James V
finally managed to escape from the custody of the regents with the aid of his redoubtable mother in 1528, he once again set about subduing the rebellious Highlands, Western and Northern isles, as his father had had to do. He married the French noblewoman Marie de Guise. His reign was fairly successful, until another disastrous campaign against England led to defeat at the battle of Solway Moss
(1542). James died a short time later. The day before his death, he was brought news of the birth of an heir: a daughter, who became Mary, Queen of Scots. James is supposed to have remarked in Scots
that "it cam wi a lass, it will gang wi a lass" – referring to the House of Stewart which began with Walter Stewart's marriage to the daughter of Robert the Bruce.
Once again, Scotland was in the hands of a regent. Within two years, the Rough Wooing began, Henry VIII's military attempt to force a marriage between Mary and his son, Edward
. This took the form of border skirmishing and several English campaigns into Scotland. In 1547, after the death of Henry VIII, forces under the English regent Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
were victorious at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
, the climax of the Rough Wooing, and followed up by the occupation of Haddington. Mary was then sent to France at the age of five, as the intended bride of the heir to the French throne. Her mother, Marie de Guise, stayed in Scotland to look after the interests of Mary — and of France — although the Earl of Arran
acted officially as regent. Guise responded by calling on French troops, who helped stiffen resistance to the English occupation. By 1550, after a change of regent in England, the English withdrew from Scotland completely.
From 1554, Marie de Guise, took over the regency, and continued to advance French interests in Scotland. French cultural influence resulted in a large influx of French vocabulary into Scots
. But anti-French sentiment also grew, particularly among Protestants, who saw the English as their natural allies. In 1560 Marie de Guise died, and soon after the Auld Alliance also died, with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh
, which provided for the removal of French and English troops from Scotland. The Scottish Reformation
took place only days later when the Scottish Parliament
abolished the Roman Catholic religion and outlawed the Mass
.
Meanwhile, Queen Mary had been raised a Catholic in France. She had married the Dauphin Francis
in 1558, and become Queen of France on the death of his father the following year. When Francis himself died, Mary, now nineteen, elected to return to Scotland to take up the government in a hostile environment. Despite her private religion, she did not attempt to reimpose Catholicism on her largely Protestant subjects, thus angering the chief Catholic nobles. Her six-year personal reign was marred by a series of crises, largely caused by the intrigues and rivalries of the leading nobles. The murder of her secretary, David Riccio, was followed by the murder of her unpopular husband Lord Darnley
, and her abduction by and marriage to the Earl of Bothwell
. Captured by Bothwell's rivals, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle
, and in July 1567, was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son James VI
. Mary eventually escaped from Loch Leven, and attempted to regain the throne by force. After her defeat at the Battle of Langside
in 1568 she took refuge in England, leaving her young son in the hands of regents. In Scotland the Regents fought a civil war on behalf of James VI against his mother's supporters. In England Mary became a focal point for Catholic conspirators and was eventually tried for treason and executed on the orders of her kinswoman Elizabeth I.
that made the nation Calvinist, with a strong Presbyterian Church. In the earlier part of the century, the teachings of first Martin Luther
and then John Calvin
began to influence Scotland. The execution of a number of Protestant preachers, most notably the Lutheran influenced Patrick Hamilton
in 1528 and later the proto-Calvinist George Wishart
in 1546 who was burnt at the stake in St. Andrews by Cardinal Beaton for heresy, did nothing to stem the growth of these ideas. Beaton was assassinated shortly after the execution of George Wishart.
The eventual Reformation of the Scottish Church followed a brief civil war in 1559–60, in which English intervention
on the Protestant side was decisive. A Reformed confession of faith rejecting papal jurisdiction was adopted by Parliament in 1560
, while the young Mary, Queen of Scots, was still in France. The most influential figure was theologian John Knox
(1510–1572), who had lived in Switzerland and was a disciple of both Calvin and Wishart. The Protestant Church of Scotland
was formed in the mid-16th century by Knox and the Protestant Lords of the Congregation. Roman Catholicism was not totally eliminated, and remained strong particularly in parts of the highlands.
The Protestant nobility in Scotland proved critical to the success of the Reformation. The clergymen depended on aristocratic support, so they were seldom equal partners. However the relationship was strong enough to withstand disputes over the use of ecclesiastical revenues and tensions stemming from the ministers' insistence that all magistrates must be true Protestants.
One major impact of the kirk was to moderate the violence that had been endemic in rural Scotland. The reformed kirk actively mediated local communal conflicts that otherwise would have turned violent. The premises of the parish kirk became a sacred space which often was used for public reconciliation. In order to discourage blood feuds and mortal combat, which had once been common, the kirk used preaching, mandatory attendance at weekly services and at seasonal communion, and public rituals of repentance and punishment. Moving beyond the local level, presbyteries and kirk sessions were increasingly accepted as legitimate alternative to the baronial or civil courts.
Until the late 20th century Protestantism—especially of the Presbyterian variety—was a central value for most Scots, helping shape their identity and way of thinking.
, and became King James I of England, leaving Edinburgh
for London. The Union was a personal
or dynastic union
, with the Crowns
remaining both distinct and separate—despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "Great Britain
". There was considerable conflict between the crown and the Covenanters over the form of church government.
Although Scotland and England had both rejected papal authority, the Reformation in each country proceeded in slightly different directions. England retained much of the old Catholic practice, including a formal liturgy and order of service, whereas the Scots embraced more of a free-form Calvinism. Although James had tried to get the Scottish Church to accept some of the High Church Anglicanism of his southern kingdom, he met with limited success. His son and successor, Charles I
, took matters further, introducing an English-style Prayer Book into the Scottish church in 1637. This resulted in anger and widespread rioting. (The story goes that it was initiated by a certain Jenny Geddes
who threw a stool in St Giles Cathedral). Representatives of various sections of Scottish society drew up the National Covenant in 1638, objecting to the King's liturgical innovations. In November of the same year matters were taken even further, when at a meeting of the General Assembly in Glasgow the Scottish bishops were formally expelled from the Church, which was then established on a full Presbyterian basis. Charles gathered a military force; but as neither side wished to push the matter to a full military conflict, a temporary settlement was concluded at Berwick. Matters remained unresolved until 1640 when, in a renewal of hostilities, Charles's northern forces were defeated by the Scots at Newburn to the west of Newcastle. During the course of these "Bishops' Wars
" Charles tried to raise an army of Irish Catholics, but was forced to back down after a storm of protest in Scotland and England. The backlash from this venture provoked a rebellion in Ireland
and Charles was forced to appeal to the English Parliament for funds. Parliament's demands for reform in England eventually resulted in the English Civil War
. This series of civil wars that engulfed England in the 1640s and 50s is known to modern historians as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
. The Covenanters meanwhile, were left governing Scotland, where they raised a large army of their own and tried to impose their religious settlement on Episcopalians
and Roman Catholics in the north of the country.
appealed to the Scots Covenanters for military aid against the King. A Solemn League and Covenant
was entered into, guaranteeing the Scottish Church settlement and promising further reform in England. Scottish troops played a major part in the defeat of Charles I, notably at the battle of Marston Moor
. An army under the Earl of Leven occupied the North of England for some time.
However, not all Scots supported the Covenanter's taking arms against their King. In 1644, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
attempted to raise the Highlands for the King. Few Scots would follow him, but, aided by 1,000 Irish, Highland and Islesmen troops sent by the Irish Confederates
under Alasdair MacDonald (MacColla), and an instinctive genius for mobile warfare, he was stunningly successful. A Scottish Civil War began in September 1644 with his victory at battle of Tippermuir
. After a series of victories over poorly trained Covenanter militias, the lowlands were at his mercy. However, at this high point, his army was reduced in size, as MacColla and the Highlanders preferred to continue the war in the north against the Campbells. Shortly after, what was left of his force was defeated at the Battle of Philiphaugh
. Escaping to the north, Montrose attempted to continue the struggle with fresh troops; but in July 1646 his army was disbanded after the King surrendered to the Scots army at Newark, and the civil war came to an end.
The following year Charles, while he was being held captive in Carisbrooke Castle, entered into an agreement with moderate Scots Presbyterians. In this secret 'Engagement
', the Scots promised military aid in return for the King's agreement to implement Presbyterianism in England on a three-year trial basis. The Duke of Hamilton
led an invasion of England to free the King, but he was defeated by Oliver Cromwell
in August 1648 at the Battle of Preston.
The Covenanter government was outraged by Parliament's execution of Charles I in 1649, carried out in the face of their strongest objections. No sooner did news of his death reach the north than his son was proclaimed King Charles II
in Edinburgh. Oliver Cromwell
invaded Scotland in 1650, and defeated the Scottish army in battles at Dunbar
and Worcester
. Scotland was then occupied by an English force under George Monck throughout the Interregnum and incorporated into the Puritan-governed Commonwealth
.
From 1652 to 1660, Scotland was part of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, under English control but gaining equal trading rights. Upon its collapse, and with the restoration of Charles II, Scottish independence
returned. Scotland regained its parliament, but the English Navigation Acts
prevented the Scots engaging in what would have been lucrative trading with England's growing colonies. The formal frontier between the two countries was re-established, with customs duties which, while they protected Scottish cloth industries from cheap English imports, also denied access to English markets for Scottish cattle or Scottish linens.
After the Restoration, Charles' Scottish affairs were managed by senior noblemen, the most prominent of whom was John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, his Secretary of State and High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament. Near the outset of the reign Episcopacy was reintroduced. This was to be a source of particular trouble in the south-west of the country, an area particularly strong in its Presbyterian sympathies. Abandoning the official church, many of the people here began to attend illegal field assemblies, known as conventicles. Official attempts to suppress these led to a rising in 1679, defeated by James Duke of Monmouth, the King's illegitimate son, at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge
. In the early 1680s a more intense phase of persecution began, in what was later to be called "the Killing Time
". When Charles died in 1685 and his brother, a Roman Catholic, succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England)
, matters came to a head.
James's attempt to introduce religious toleration
to England's Roman Catholics alienated his Protestant subjects. Neither this, nor his moves towards absolutism, provoked outright rebellion, as it was believed that he would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange
. When, in 1688, James produced a male heir, everything changed. At the invitation of seven Englishmen, William landed in England with 40,000 men, and James fled. Whilst this was primarily an English event, the so-called "Glorious Revolution
" had a great impact on Scottish history. Whilst William and Mary accepted limits on royal power, under the Bill of Rights
(a contract between themselves and the English parliament), Scotland had an equivalent document in the Claim of Right
s. This is an important document in the evolution of the rule of law and the rights of subjects.
Most significant Scots supported William II and Mary II, but many (particularly in the Highlands) remained sympathetic to James VII. His cause, which became known as Jacobitism
, spawned a series of uprisings. An initial Jacobite rising under John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee (Bonnie Dundee
) defeated William's forces at the Battle of Killiecrankie
in 1689, but Dundee was slain in the fighting, and the army was soon defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld
. The complete defeat of James in Ireland by William at the Battle of Aughrim
(1691), ended matters for a time. (Ironically, the Protestant William had also enjoyed the support of the Pope
and the Catholic Habsburg
monarchy against the aggressive foreign policy of Louis XIV of France
).
(the Ulster-Scots). The psychological blow to national self confidence was severe. The Parliament of Scotland of 1695 enacted proposals that might help the desperate economic situation, including setting up the Bank of Scotland
. The Act for the Settling of Schools established a parish-based system of public education throughout Scotland. The Company of Scotland
received a charter to raise capital through public subscription to trade with Africa and the Indies.
With the dream of building a lucrative overseas colony for Scotland, the Company of Scotland invested in the Darien scheme
, an ambitious plan devised by William Paterson
to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama
in the hope of establishing trade with the Far East. The Darién scheme won widespread support in Scotland as the landed gentry and the merchant class were in agreement in seeing overseas trade and colonialism as routes to upgrade Scotland's economy. Since the capital resources of the Edinburgh merchants and landholder elite were insufficient, the company appealed to middling social ranks, who responded with patriotic fervour to the call for money; the lower classes volunteered as colonists. But the English government opposed the idea: involved in the War of the Grand Alliance
from 1689 to 1697 against France
, it did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada
. The English investors had perforce to withdraw. Returning to Edinburgh, the Company raised 400,000 pounds in a few weeks. Three small fleets with a total of 3000 men eventually set out for Panama in 1698. The exercise proved a disaster. Poorly equipped; beset by incessant rain; under attack by the Spanish from nearby Cartagena
; and refused aid by the English in the West Indies, the colonists abandoned their project in 1700. Only 1000 survived and only one ship managed to return to Scotland.
, on the river Clyde, was the base for the tobacco and sugar trade with an emerging textile industry. Edinburgh
was the administrative and intellectual centre where the Scottish Enlightenment was chiefly based.
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By the start of the 18th century, a political union
between Scotland and England became politically and economically attractive, promising to open up the much larger markets of England, as well as those of the growing British Empire. With economic stagnation since the late 17th century, which was particularly acute in 1704; the country depended more and more heavily on sales of cattle and linen to England, who used this to create pressure for a union. The Scottish parliament voted on 6 January 1707, by 110 to 69, to adopt the Treaty of Union
. It was also a full economic union; indeed, most of its 25 articles dealt with economic arrangements for the new state known as "Great Britain". It added 45 Scots to the 513 members of the House of Commons and 16 Scots to the 190 members of the House of Lords, and ended the Scottish parliament. It also replaced the Scottish systems of currency, taxation and laws regulating trade with laws made in London. England had about five times the population of Scotland at the time, and about 36 times as much wealth.
By 1700, the Protestant monarchy seemed in danger of coming to an end with the childless Stuart Princess Anne
. Rather than return to her Roman Catholic brother James Francis Edward Stuart
, the English Parliament decided that Sophia of Hanover
and her descendants should succeed (Act of Settlement 1701
). However, the Scottish counterpart, the Act of Security, prohibited a Roman Catholic successor, leaving open the possibility that the crowns would diverge.
Rather than risk the possible return of James Francis Edward Stuart, then living in France, the English parliament pressed for full union of the two countries. In 1707, despite much opposition in Scotland, the Treaty of Union was concluded.
The treaty, which became the Act of Union 1707, confirmed the Hanoverian
succession. It abolished both the Parliaments of England and Scotland, and established the Parliament of Great Britain
. The act also created a common citizenship, giving Scots free access to English markets. The Church of Scotland
and Scottish law and courts remained separate. This union was highly controversial among Scots, and increasingly so as the hoped-for economic revival was not immediately forthcoming. When it did come, in the second half of the century, it was Lowland Scotland that received the benefits.
Jacobitism
was revived by the unpopularity of the union. In 1708 James Francis Edward Stuart
, who became known as "The Old Pretender," attempted an invasion with a French fleet, but the Royal Navy prevented any from landing. A more serious attempt occurred in 1715. This rising (known as The 'Fifteen) envisaged simultaneous uprisings in Wales, Devon
, and Scotland. However, government arrests forestalled the southern ventures. In Scotland, John Erskine, Earl of Mar
, nicknamed Bobbin' John, raised the Jacobite clans but proved to be an indecisive leader and an incompetent soldier. Mar captured Perth
, but let a smaller government force under the Duke of Argyll
hold the Stirling
plain. Part of Mar's army joined up with risings in northern England and southern Scotland, and the Jacobites fought their way into England before being defeated at the Battle of Preston
, surrendering on 14 November 1715. The day before, Mar had failed to defeat Argyll at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. At this point, James belatedly landed in Scotland, but was advised that the cause was hopeless. He fled back to France. An attempted Jacobite invasion with Spanish assistance in 1719 met with little support from the clans and ended at the Battle of Glen Shiel
.
In 1745 the Jacobite rising known as The 'Forty-Five began. Charles Edward Stuart
, known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender, son of the Old Pretender, landed on the island of Eriskay
in the Outer Hebrides
. Several clans unenthusiastically joined him. At the outset he was successful, taking Edinburgh
and then defeating the only government army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans
. They marched into England and got as far as Derby
. It became increasingly evident that England would not support a Roman Catholic Stuart monarch. The Jacobite leadership had a crisis of confidence and retreated to Scotland.
The Duke of Cumberland
crushed the "Forty-Five" and the hopes of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden
on 16 April 1746. Charles hid in Scotland with the aid of Highlanders until September 1746, when he escaped back to France with the help of Flora MacDonald. He died a broken man in 1788, and his cause died with him.
With the advent of the Union
and the demise of Jacobitism
, access to London and the Empire opened up very attractive career opportunities for ambitious middle-class and upper-class Scots, who seized the chance to become entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and soldiers. Thousands of Scots, mainly Lowlanders, took up positions of power in politics, civil service, the army and navy, trade, economics, colonial enterprises and other areas across the nascent British Empire
. Historian Neil Davidson notes that “after 1746 there was an entirely new level of participation by Scots in political life, particularly outside Scotland”. Davidson also states that “far from being ‘peripheral’ to the British economy, Scotland – or more precisely, the Lowlands – lay at its core”. British officials especially appreciated Scottish soldiers. As the Secretary of War told Parliament in 1751, "I am for having always in our army as many Scottish soldiers as possible...because they are generally more hardy and less mutinous". The national policy of aggressively recruiting Scots for senior civilian positions stirred up resentment among Englishmen. ranging from violent diatribes by John Wilkes
, to vulgar jokes and obscene cartoons in the popular press, and the haughty ridicule by intellectuals such as Samuel Johnson
that was much resented by Scots. In his great Dictionary Johnson defined oats as, "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." To which Lord Elibank retorted, "Very true, and where will you find such men and such horses?"
Scottish politics in the late 18th century was dominated by the Whigs, with the benign management of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
(1682–1761), who was in effect the "viceroy of Scotland" from the 1720s until his death in 1761. Scotland generally supported the king with enthusiasm during the American Revolution
. Henry Dundas
(1742–1811) dominated political affairs in the latter part of the century. Dundas put a brake on intellectual and social change through his ruthless manipulation of patronage in alliance with Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger
, until he lost power in 1806.
The main unit of local government was the parish, and since it was also part of the church, the elders imposed public humiliation for what the locals considered immoral behaviour, including fornication, drunkenness, wife beating, cursing and Sabbath breaking. The main focus was on the poor and the landlords ("lairds") and gentry, and their servants, were not subject to the parish's control. The policing system weakened after 1800 and disappeared in most places by the 1850s.
and to encourage or force the chiefs into becoming modern landlords. Those chiefs who went along gave up their traditional roles in leading soldiers and running local courts. They cleared many of their people from the land, and set up highly profitable agricultural practices.
After the battle of Culloden the leaders were declared to be traitors, with Jacobite officers executed and many of the rebel soldiers shipped to the colonies as indentured servants. Key laws included the Dress Act 1746
, the Act of Proscription 1746
, and especially the Heritable Jurisdictions Act
of 1746. All aspects of Highland culture, especially the Scottish Gaelic language were forbidden. Parliament also banned the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartans, and limited the activities of the Episcopalian Church. After a generation the Highlands had been transformed and the laws were no longer needed; they were mostly repealed.
Historians debate whether the dramatic changes merely reflect long-term trends that were more-or-less inevitable, or whether government intervention played the decisive role in changing the goals and roles of the chiefs. As Conway (2006) concludes, the new policies "went far beyond earlier efforts to promote economic development in the Highlands and ...represented the first real endeavour to transform the region's social system....the post-rebellion legislation certainly seems to have accelerated the change." However on the other side, Devine (1999) and Ray (2001) argue that long-term economic and social changes were already undermining the clan system.
The major result of these changes were the Highland Clearances
, by which much of the population of the Highlands suffered forced displacement as lands were enclosed
, principally so that they could be used for sheep farming. The clearances followed patterns of agricultural change throughout Britain, but were particularly notorious as a result of the late timing, the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law
, the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system, and the brutality of many evictions. One result was a continuous exodus from the land—to the cities, or further afield to England, Canada, America or Australia. Many of those who remained were now crofters
: poor families living on "crofts"—very small rented farms with indefinite tenure used to raise various crops and animals, with kelping
industry (where men burned kelp for the ashes), fishing, spinning of linen and military service as important sources of revenue.
The era of the Napoleonic wars, 1790–1815, brought prosperity, optimism, and economic growth to the Highlands. The economy grew thanks to higher wages, as well as large scale infrastructure spending such as the Caledonian Canal
project. On the East Coast, farmlands were improved, and high prices for cattle brought money to the community. Service in the Army was also attractive to young men from Highlands, who sent pay home and retired there with their army pensions, but the prosperity ended after 1815, and long-run negative factors began to undermine the economic position of the crofters.
Economic growth and the intellectual benefits of a highly developed university system, together with Scotland's traditional connections to France, then in the throes of the Enlightenment, led Scots intellectuals to develop a uniquely practical branch of humanism
to the extent that Voltaire
said "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization
". The first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson
, who held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow
from 1729 to 1746. A moral philosopher who produced alternatives to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes
, one of his major contributions to world thought was the utilitarian
and consequentialist
principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method
(the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his proteges David Hume
and Adam Smith
. Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical
and empiricist traditions of philosophy. He and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed what he called a 'science of man
', which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson
, John Millar and William Robertson
, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behave in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity
. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison
(and thus the U.S. Constitution) and when popularised by Dugald Stewart
, would be the basis of classical liberalism
. Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations
, often considered the first work on modern economics. It had an immediate impact on British economic policy and in the 21st century still framed discussions on globalisation and tariffs. The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen
, physician and chemist, James Anderson
, an agronomist
, Joseph Black
, physicist and chemist, and James Hutton
, the first modern geologist.
after 1740. Merchants who profited from the American trade began investing in leather, textiles, iron, coal, sugar, rope, sailcloth, glassworks, breweries, and soapworks, setting the foundations for the city's emergence as a leading industrial centre after 1815. The tobacco trade collapsed during the American Revolution (1776-83), when its sources were cut off by the British blockade of American ports. However, trade with the West Indies began to made up for the loss of the tobacco business, reflecting the British demand for sugar and the demand in the West Indies for herring and linen goods.
Linen was Scotland's premier industry in the 18th century and formed the basis for the later cotton, jute, and woollen industries. Scottish industrial policy was made by the Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland, which sought to build an economy complementary, not competitive, with England. Since England had woollens, this meant linen. Encouraged and subsidised by the Board of Trustees so it could compete with German products, merchant entrepreneurs became dominant in all stages of linen manufacturing and built up the market share of Scottish linens, especially in the American colonial market. The British Linen Company, established in 1746, was the largest firm in the Scottish linen industry in the 18th century, exporting linen to England and America. As a joint-stock company, it had the right to raise funds through the issue of promissory notes or bonds. With its bonds functioning as bank notes, the company gradually moved into the business of lending and discounting to other linen manufacturers, and in the early 1770s banking became its main activity. It joined the established Scottish banks such as the Bank of Scotland
(Edinburgh, 1695) and the Royal Bank of Scotland
(Edinburgh, 1727). Glasgow would soon follow and Scotland had a flourishing financial system by the end of the century. There were over 400 branches, amounting to one office per 7000 people, double the level in England, where banks were also more heavily regulated. Historians have emphasised that the flexibility and dynamism of the Scottish banking system contributed significantly to the rapid development of the economy in the 19th century.
The late 18th century saw the beginnings of a fragmentation of the Church of Scotland
that had been created in the Reformation
. These fractures were prompted by issues of government and patronage, but reflected a wider division between the Evangelicals and the Moderate Party
over fears of fanaticism by the former and the acceptance of Enlightenment ideas by the latter. The legal right of lay patrons to present clergymen of their choice to local ecclesiastical livings led to minor schisms from the church. The first in 1733, known as the First Secession
and headed by figures including Ebenezer Erskine
, led to the creation of a series of secessionist churches. The second in 1761 lead to the foundation of the independent Relief Church. These churches gained strength in the Evangelical Revival of the later 18th century.
Long after the triumph of the Church of Scotland
in the Lowlands, Highlanders and Islanders clung to an old-fashioned Christianity infused with animistic folk beliefs and practices. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw some success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society. Catholicism had been reduced to the fringes of the country, particularly the Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands and Islands. Conditions also grew worse for Catholics after the Jacobite rebellions and Catholicism was reduced to little more than a poorly-run mission. Also important was Episcopalianism, which had retained supporters through the civil wars and changes of regime in the 17th century. Since most Episcopalians had given their support to the Jacobite rebellions in the early 18th century, they also suffered a decline in fortunes.
Although Scotland increasingly adopted the English language and wider cultural norms, its literature developed a distinct national identity and began to enjoy an international reputation. Allan Ramsay
(1686-1758) laid the foundations of a reawakening of interest in older Scottish literature, as well as leading the trend for pastoral poetry, helping to develop the Habbie stanza as a poetic form. James Macpherson
was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation, claiming to have found poetry written by Ossian
, he published translations that acquired international popularity, being proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical
epics
. Fingal written in 1762 was speedily translated into many European languages, and its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the Romantic movement
in European, and especially in German
, literature, influencing Herder and Goethe
. Eventually it became clear that the poems were not direct translations from the Gaelic, but flowery adaptations made to suit the aesthetic expectations of his audience. Both the major literary figures of the following century, Robert Burns
and Walter Scott, would be highly influenced by the Ossian cycle. Burns, an Ayrshire poet and lyricist, is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and a major figure in the Romantic movement. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs
from across Scotland, often revising or adapting
them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne
" is often sung at Hogmanay
(the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae
" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem
of the country.
A legacy of the Reformation in Scotland was the aim of having a school in every parish, which was underlined by an act of the Scottish parliament in 1696 (reinforced in 1801). In rural communities this obliged local landowners (heritors) to provide a schoolhouse and pay a schoolmaster, while ministers and local presbyteries
oversaw the quality of the education. The headmaster or "dominie" was often university educated and enjoyed high local prestige. The kirk schools were active in the rural lowlands but played a minor role in the Highlands, the islands, and in the fast-growing industrial towns and cities. The schools taught in English, not in Gaelic, because that language was seen as a leftover of Catholicism and was not an expression of Scottish nationalism. In cities such as Glasgow the Catholics operated their own schools, which directed their youth into clerical and middle class occupations, as well as religious vocations.
A "democratic myth" emerged in the 19th century to the effect that many a "lad of pairts" had been able to rise up through the system to take high office and that literacy was much more widespread in Scotland than in neighbouring states, particularly England. Historical research has largely undermined the myth. Kirk schools were not free, attendance was not compulsory and they generally imparted only basic literacy such as the ability to read the Bible. Poor children, starting at age 7, were done by age 8 or 9; the majority were finished by age 11 or 12. The result was widespread basic reading ability; since there was an extra fee for writing, half the people never learned to write. Scots were not significantly better educated than the English and other contemporary nations. A few talented poor boys did go to university, but usually they were helped by aristocratic or gentry sponsors. Most of them became poorly paid teachers or ministers, and none became important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution.
By the 18th century there were five universities in Scotland, at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and King's
and Marischial
Colleges in Aberdeen, compared with only two in England. Originally oriented to clerical and legal training, after the religious and political upheavals of the 17th century they recovered with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry. It helped the universities to become major centres of medical education and to put Scotland at the forefront of Enlightenment thinking.
increased the number of Scottish MPs and significantly widened the franchise to include more of the middle classes. From this point until the end of the century, the Whigs and (after 1859) their successors the Liberal Party
, managed to gain a majority of the Westminster Parliamentary seats for Scotland, although these were often outnumbered by the much larger number of English and Welsh Conservatives. The English-educated Scottish peer Lord Aberdeen
(1784–1860) led a coalition government from 1852-5, but in general very few Scots held office in the government. From the mid-century there were increasing calls for Home Rule for Scotland and when the Conservative Lord Salisbury
became prime minister in 1885 he responded to pressure by reviving the post of Secretary of State for Scotland
, which had been in abeyance since 1746. He appointed the Duke of Richmond
, a wealthy landowner who was both Chancellor of Aberdeen University and Lord Lieutenant of Banff. Towards the end of the century Prime Ministers of Scottish descent included the Tory, Peelite
and Liberal William E. Gladstone, who held the office four times between 1868 and 1894. The first Scottish Liberal to become prime minister was the Earl of Rosebery
, from 1894-95, like Aberdeen before him a product of the English education system. In the later 19th century the issue of Irish Home Rule led to a split among the Liberals, with a minority breaking away to form the Liberal Unionists in 1886. The growing importance of the working classes was marked by Keir Hardie
's success in the Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888
, leading to the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party, which was absorbed into the Independent Labour Party
in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader.
From about 1790 textiles became the most important industry in the west of Scotland, especially the spinning and weaving of cotton, which flourished until in 1861 the American Civil War
cut off the supplies of raw cotton. The industry never recovered, but by that time Scotland had developed heavy industries based on its coal and iron resources. The invention of the hot blast for smelting iron (1828) revolutionised the Scottish iron industry. As a result Scotland became a centre for engineering, shipbuilding and the production of locomotives. Toward the end of the 19th century, steel production largely replaced iron production. Coal mining continued to grow into the 20th century, producing the fuel to heat homes, factories and drive steam engines locomotives and steamships. By 1914 there were 1,000,000 coal miners in Scotland. The stereotype emerged early on of Scottish colliers as brutish, non-religious and socially isolated serfs; that was an exaggeration, for their life style resembled the miners everywhere, with a strong emphasis on masculinity, equalitarianism, group solidarity, and support for radical labour movements.
Britain was the world leader in the construction of railways, and their use to expand trade and coal supplies. The first successful locomotive-powered line in Scotland, between Monkland and Kirkintilloch
, opened in 1831. Not only was good passenger service established by the late 1840s, but an excellent network of freight lines reduce the cost of shipping coal, and made products manufactured in Scotland competitive throughout Britain. For example, railways opened the London market to Scottish beef and milk. They enabled the Aberdeen Angus to become a cattle breed of worldwide reputation. By 1900 Scotland had 3500 miles of railway; their main economic contribution was moving supplies in and product out for heavy industry, especially coal-mining.
Scotland was already one of the most urbanised societies in Europe by 1800. The industrial belt ran across the country from southwest to northeast; by 1900 the four industrialised counties of Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Dunbartonshire, and Ayrshire contained 44 per cent of the population. Glasgow became one of the largest cities in the world, and known as "the Second City of the Empire" after London. Shipbuilding on Clydeside (the river Clyde through Glasgow and other points) began when the first small yards were opened in 1712 at the Scott family's
shipyard at Greenock. After 1860 the Clydeside shipyards specialised in steamships made of iron (after 1870, made of steel), which rapidly replaced the wooden sailing vessels of both the merchant fleets and the battle fleets of the world. It became the world's pre-eminent shipbuilding centre. Clydebuilt became an industry benchmark of quality, and the river's shipyards were given contracts for warships.
The industrial developments, while they brought work and wealth, were so rapid that housing, town-planning, and provision for public health did not keep pace with them, and for a time living conditions in some of the towns and cities were notoriously bad, with overcrowding, high infant mortality, and growing rates of tuberculosis. The companies attracted rural workers, as well as immigrants from Catholic Ireland, by inexpensive company housing that was a dramatic move upward from the inner-city slums. This paternalistic policy led many owners to indoors government sponsored housing programs as well as self-help projects among the respectable working class.
While the Scottish Enlightenment is traditionally considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century, disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another 50 years or more, thanks to such figures as the mathematicians and physicists James Clerk Maxwell
, Lord Kelvin
, and the engineers and inventors James Watt
and William Murdoch
, whose work was critical to the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution throughout Britain.
In literature the most successful figure of the mid-nineteenth century was Walter Scott, who began as a poet and also collected and published Scottish ballads. His first prose work, Waverley
in 1814, is often called the first historical novel
. It launched a highly successful career that probably more than any other helped define and popularise Scottish cultural identity. In the late 19th century, a number of Scottish-born authors achieved international reputations. Robert Louis Stevenson
's work included the urban Gothic
novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and played a major part in developing the historical adventure in books like Kidnapped
and Treasure Island
. Arthur Conan Doyle
's Sherlock Holmes
stories helped found the tradition of detective fiction. The "kailyard tradition
" at the end of the century, brought elements of fantasy
and folklore
back into fashion as can be seen in the work of figures like J. M. Barrie
, most famous for his creation of Peter Pan
, and George MacDonald
, whose works, including Phantasies
, played a major part in the creation of the fantasy
genre.
Scotland also played a major part in the development of art and architecture. The Glasgow School
, which developed in the late 19th century, and flourished in the early 20th century, produced a distinctive blend of influences including the Celtic Revival
the Arts and Crafts Movement
, and Japonisme, which found favour throughout the modern art
world of continental Europe
and helped define the Art Nouveau
style. Among the most prominent members were the loose collective of The Four
: acclaimed architect
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
, his wife the painter
and glass artist Margaret MacDonald
, her sister the artist Frances
, and her husband, the artist and teacher Herbert MacNair
.
This period saw a process of rehabilitation for highland culture. Tartan had already been adopted for highland regiments in the British army, which poor highlanders joined in large numbers until the end of the Napoleonic Wars
in 1815, but by the 19th century it had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people. In the 1820s, as part of the Romantic revival
, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe, prompted by the popularity of Macpherson's Ossian cycle and then Walter Scott's Waverley novels. The world paid attention to their literary redefinition of Scottishness, as they forged an image largely based on characteristics in polar opposition to those associated with England and modernity. This new identity made it possible for Scottish culture to become integrated into a wider European and North American context, not to mention tourist sites, but it also locked in a sense of "otherness" which Scotland began to shed only in the late 20th century. Scott's "staging" of the royal Visit of King George IV to Scotland
in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan, resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish linen industry. The designation of individual clan tartans was largely defined in this period and became a major symbol of Scottish identity. The fashion for all things Scottish was maintained by Queen Victoria, who help secure the identity of Scotland as a tourist resort, with Balmoral Castle
in Aberdeenshire becoming a major royal residence from 1852.
Despite these changes the highlands remained very poor and traditional, with few connections to the uplift of the Scottish Enlightenment and little role in the Industrial Revolution. A handful of powerful families, typified by the dukes of Argyll
, Atholl
, Buccleuch
, and Sutherland
, owned the best lands and controlled local political, legal and economic affairs. Particularly after the end of the boom created by the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars (1790-1815), these landlords needed cash to maintain their position in London society, and had less need of soldiers. They turned to money rents, displaced farmers to raise sheep, and downplayed the traditional patriarchal relationship that had historically sustained the clans. This was exacerbated after the repeal of the Corn Laws
in mid-century, when Britain adopted a free trade policy, and grain imports from America undermined the profitability of crop production. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s was caused by a plant disease that reached the Highlands in 1846, where 150,000 people faced disaster because their food supply was largely potatoes (with a little herring, oatmeal and milk). They were rescued by an effective emergency relief system that stands in dramatic contrast to the failures of relief in Ireland.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional subject and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The politically powerless poor crofters embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival
after 1800 and the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. This energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords, preparing them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League
. Violence began on the Isle of Skye when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quieted when the government stepped in passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, leading to explicit security for the Scottish smallholders; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and creating a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party
gained most of their votes.
The population of Scotland grew steadily in the 19th century, from 1,608,000 in the census of 1801 to 2,889,000 in 1851 and 4,472,000 in 1901. Even with the development of industry there were insufficient good jobs, as a result, during the period 1841-1931, about 2 million Scots emigrated to North America and Australia, and another 750,000 Scots relocated to England. Scotland lost a much higher proportion of its population than England and Wales, reaching perhaps as much as 30.2 per cent of its natural increase from the 1850s onwards. This not only limited Scotland population increase, but meant that almost every family lost members due to emigration and, because more of the emigrants were young males, it skewed the sex and age ratios of the country.
Scots-born migrants that played a leading role in the foundation and development of the United States included cleric and revolutionary John Witherspoon
, sailor John Paul Jones
, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie
and scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell
. In Canada they included soldier and governor of Quebec James Murray, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald
and politician and social reformer Tommy Douglas
. For Australia they included soldier and governor Lachlan Macquarie
, governor and scientist Thomas Brisbane
and Prime Minister Andrew Fisher
. For New Zealand they included politician Peter Fraser and outlaw James Mckenzie. By the 21st century, there would be about as many people who were Scotch Canadians and Scottish American
s as the 5 million remaining in Scotland.
and passed the Veto Act, which allowed congregations to reject unwanted "intrusive" presentations to livings by patrons. The following "Ten Years' Conflict" of legal and political wrangling ended in defeat for the non-intrusionists in the civil courts. The result was a schism from the church by some of the non-intrusionists led by Dr Thomas Chalmers
known as the Great Disruption of 1843
. Roughly a third of the clergy, mainly from the North and Highlands, formed the separate Free Church of Scotland. The evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly in the Highlands and Islands, appealing much more strongly than did the established church. Chalmers's ideas shaped the breakaway group. He stressed a social vision that revived and preserved Scotland's communal traditions at a time of strain on the social fabric of the country. Chalmers's idealized small equalitarian, kirk-based, self-contained communities that recognized the individuality of their members and the need for cooperation. That vision also affected the mainstream Presbyterian churches, and by the 1870s it had been assimilated by the established Church of Scotland. Chalmers's ideals demonstrated that the church was concerned with the problems of urban society, and they represented a real attempt to overcome the social fragmentation that took place in industrial towns and cities.
In the late 19th century the major debates were between fundamentalist Calvinists and theological liberals, who rejected a literal interpretation of the Bible. This resulted in a further split in the Free Church as the rigid Calvinists broke away to form the Free Presbyterian Church
in 1893. There were, however, also moves towards reunion, beginning with the unification of some secessionist churches into the United Secession Church
in 1820, which united with the Relief Church in 1847 to form the United Presbyterian Church
, which in turn joined with the Free Church in 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland
. The removal of legislation on lay patronage would allow the majority of the Free Church to rejoin Church of Scotland in 1929. The schisms left small denominations including the Free Presbyterians
and a remnant that had not merged in 1900 as the Free Church
.
Catholic Emancipation
in 1829 and the influx of large numbers of Irish immigrants, particularly after the famine years of the late 1840s, principally to the growing lowland centres like Glasgow, led to a transformation in the fortunes of Catholicism. In 1878, despite opposition, a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy was restored to the country, and Catholicism became a significant denomination within Scotland. Episcopalianism also revived in the 19th century as the issue of succession receded, becoming established as the Episcopal Church in Scotland in 1804, as an autonomous organisation in communion with the Church of England
. Baptist
, Congregationalist and Methodist churches had appeared in Scotland in the 18th century, but did not begin significant growth until the 19th century, partly because more radical and evangelical traditions already existed within the Church of Scotland and the free churches. From 1879 they were joined by the evangelical revivalism of the Salvation Army
, which attempted to make major inroads in the growing urban centres.
At the beginning of the 19th century Scottish universities had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications. After two commissions of enquiry in 1826 and 1876 and reforming acts of parliament in 1858 and 1889, the curriculum and system of graduation were reformed to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. Entrance examinations equivalent to the School Leaving Certificate were introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered 3-year ordinary and 4-year honours degrees and separate science faculties were able to move away from the compulsory Latin, Greek and philosophy of the old MA curriculum. The historic University of Glasgow
became a leader in British higher education by providing the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes, as opposed to the upper class. It prepared students for non-commercial careers in government, the law, medicine, education, and the ministry and a smaller group for careers in science and engineering. St Andrews pioneered the admission of women to Scottish universities, creating the Lady Licentiate in Arts (LLA), which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could admit and graduate women and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased until the early 20th century.
of 1900, nationalist concern with the Boer War
meant that the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies gained a majority of Scottish seats for the first time, although the Liberals regained their ascendancy in the next election. The Unionists and Conservatives merged in 1912, usually known as the Conservatives in England and Wales, they adopted the name Unionist Party in Scotland. Scots played a major part in the leadership of UK political parties producing a Conservative Prime Minister in Arthur Balfour
(1902-05) and a Liberal one in Henry Campbell-Bannerman
(1905–08). Various organisations, including the Independent Labour Party, joined to make the British Labour Party
in 1906, with Keir Hardie as its first chairman.
, where there were three full Scots divisions and other Scottish units. Thus, although Scots were only 10 per cent of the British population, they made up 15 per cent of the national armed forces and eventually accounted for 20 per cent of the dead. Some areas, like the thinly populated Island of Lewis and Harris
suffered some of the highest proportional losses of any part of Britain. Clydeside shipyards and the engineering shops of west-central Scotland became the most significant centre of shipbuilding and arms production in the Empire. In the Lowlands, particularly Glasgow, poor working and living conditions led to industrial and political unrest. After the end of the war in June 1919 the German fleet interned in Scapa Flow was scuttled
by its crews, to avoid its ships being taken over by the victorious allies.
After World War I the Liberal Party began to disintegrate and Labour emerged as the party of progressive politics in Scotland, gaining a solid following among working classes of the urban lowlands. As a result the Unionists were able to gain most of the votes of the middle classes, who now feared Bolshevik
revolution, setting the social and geographical electoral pattern in Scotland that would last until the late 20th century. The fear of the left had been fuelled by the emergence of a radical movement led by militant trades unionists. John MacLean
emerged as a key political figure in what became known as Red Clydeside
, and in January 1919, the British Government, fearful of a revolutionary uprising, deployed tanks and soldiers in central Glasgow. Formerly a Liberal stronghold, the industrial districts switched to Labour by 1922, with a base in the Irish Catholic working class districts. Women were especially active in building neighbourhood solidarity on housing and rent issues. However, the "Reds" operated within the Labour Party and had little influence in Parliament; in the face of heavy unemployment the workers' mood changed to passive despair by the late 1920s. Scottish educated Andrew Bonar Law
led a Conservative government from 1922 to 1923 and another Scot, Ramsey MacDonald, would be the Labour Party's first Prime Minister in 1924 and again from 1929-35.
With all the main parties committed to the Union, new nationalist and independent political groupings began to emerge, including the National Party of Scotland
in 1928 and Scottish Party
in 1930. They joined to form the Scottish National Party
(SNP) in 1934, with the goal of creating an independent Scotland
, but it enjoyed little electoral success in the Westminster system.
in Orkney served as an important Royal Navy
base. Attacks on Scapa Flow and Rosyth
gave RAF fighters their first successes downing bombers in the Firth of Forth
and East Lothian
. The shipyards and heavy engineering factories in Glasgow
and Clydeside played a key part in the war effort, and suffered attacks from the Luftwaffe
, enduring great destruction and loss of life. As transatlantic voyages involved negotiating north-west Britain, Scotland played a key part in the battle of the North Atlantic. Shetland's relative proximity to occupied Norway
resulted in the Shetland Bus
by which fishing boats helped Norwegians fled the Nazis, and expeditions across the North Sea
to assist resistance. Significant individual contributions to the war effort by Scots included the invention of radar by Robert Watson-Watt
, which was invaluable in the Battle of Britain
, as was the leadership at RAF Fighter Command
of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding. Perhaps Scotland's most unusual wartime episode occurred in 1941 when Rudolf Hess
flew to Renfrewshire, possibly intending to broker a peace deal through the Duke of Hamilton
.
In World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
appointed Labour politician Tom Johnston as Secretary of State for Scotland
in February 1941; he controlled Scottish affairs until the war ended. He launched numerous initiatives to promote Scotland, attracting businesses and new jobs through his new Scottish Council of Industry. He set up 32 committees to deal with social and economic problems, ranging from juvenile delinquency to sheep farming. He regulated rents, and set up a prototype national health service, using new hospitals set up in the expectation of large numbers of casualties from German bombing. His most successful venture was setting up a system of hydro electricity using water power in the Highlands. A long-standing supporter of the Home Rule
movement, Johnston persuaded Churchill of the need to counter the nationalist threat north of the border and created a Scottish Council of State and a Council of Industry as institutions to devolve some power away from Whitehall
.
A boom was created by the First World War, with the shipbuilding industry expanding by a third, but a serious depression hit the economy by 1922. The most skilled craftsmen were especially hard hit, because there were few alternative uses for their specialised skills. The main social indicators such as poor health, bad housing, and long-term mass unemployment, pointed to terminal social and economic stagnation at best, or even a downward spiral. The heavy dependence on obsolescent heavy industry and mining was a central problem, and no one offered workable solutions. The despair reflected what Finlay (1994) describes as a widespread sense of hopelessness that prepared local business and political leaders to accept a new orthodoxy of centralised government economic planning when it arrived during the Second World War.
In World War II, despite extensive bombing by the Luftwaffe, Scottish industry came out of the depression slump by a dramatic expansion of its industrial activity, absorbing unemployed men and many women as well. The shipyards were the centre of more activity, but many smaller industries produced the machinery needed by the British bombers, tanks and warships. Agriculture prospered, as did all sectors except for coal mining, which was operating mines near exhaustion. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, rose 25 per cent, and unemployment temporarily vanished. Increased income, and the more equal distribution of food, obtained through a tight rationing system, dramatically improved the health and nutrition; the average height of 13-year-olds in Glasgow increased by 2 inches (50.8 mm).
hit in the 1930s there were no easily available jobs in the US and Canada and emigration fell to less than 50,000 a year, bringing to an end the period of mass migrations that had opened in the mid-18th century.
In the early 20th century there was a new surge of activity in Scottish literature, influenced by modernism
and resurgent nationalism, known as the Scottish Renaissance. The leading figure in the movement was Hugh MacDiarmid
(the pseudonym of Christopher Murray Grieve). MacDiarmid attempted to revive the Scots language as a medium for serious literature in poetic works including "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
" (1936), developing a form of Synthetic Scots that combined different regional dialects and archaic terms. Other writers that emerged in this period, and are often treated as part of the movement, include the poets Edwin Muir
and William Soutar
, the novelists Neil Gunn, George Blake
, Nan Shepherd
, A J Cronin, Naomi Mitchison
, Eric Linklater
and Lewis Grassic Gibbon
, and the playwright James Bridie
. All were born within a fifteen-year period (1887 and 1901) and, although they cannot be described as members of a single school, they all pursued an exploration of identity, rejecting nostalgia and parochialism and engaging with social and political issues.
The first half of the 20th century saw Scottish universities fall behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment. The decline of traditional industries between the wars undermined recruitment. English universities increased the numbers of students registered between 1924 and 1927 by 19 per cent, but in Scotland the numbers fell, particularly among women. In the same period, while expenditure in English universities rose by 90 per cent, in Scotland the increase was less than a third of that figure.
oil and gas and partly as Scotland moved towards a more service-based economy. This period saw the emergence of the Scottish National Party
and movements for both Scottish independence
and more popularly devolution
. However, a referendum on devolution in 1979 was unsuccessful as it did not achieve the support of 40% of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal.)
As the Cold War
intensified in 1961, the United States deployed Polaris ballistic missiles, and submarines, in the Firth of Clyde
's Holy Loch
. Opposition from CND campaigners proved futile. The Royal Navy
successfully convinced the government to allow the base because it wanted its own Polaris-class submarines, and indeed did obtain them in 1963. The RN's nuclear submarine base opened for Resolution class
Polaris submarines at the expanded Faslane Naval Base
on the Gare Loch
. The first patrol of a Trident
-armed submarine occurred in 1994, although the US base was closed at the end of the Cold War.
from 1965 onwards) went into steady decline from 1959 onwards, until it fell to zero in 1997. Politicians with Scottish connections continued to play a prominent part in UK political life, with Prime Ministers including the Conservatives Harold Macmillan
(whose father was Scottish) from 1955-57 and Alec Douglas-Home
from 1963-64.
The Scottish National Party
gained its first seat at Westminster in 1945 and became a party of national prominence during the 1970s, achieving 11 MPs in 1974. However, a referendum on devolution in 1979 was unsuccessful as it did not achieve the necessary support of 40 per cent of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal) and the SNP went into electoral decline during the 1980s. The introduction in 1989 by the Thatcher
-led Conservative
government of the Community Charge
(widely known as the Poll Tax), one year before the rest of the United Kingdom, contributed to a growing movement for a return to direct Scottish control over domestic affairs. The Electoral success of New Labour in 1997, which would be led by two Prime Minsters with Scottish connections, Tony Blair (who was brought up in Scotland) from 1997 to 2007 and Gordon Brown
from 2007-10, opened the way for constitutional change. On 11 September 1997, the 700th anniversary of Battle of Stirling Bridge
, the Blair
led Labour
government again held a referendum on the issue of devolution. A positive outcome led to the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament
in 1999. A coalition
government, which would last until 2007, was formed between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with Donald Dewar
as First Minister
. The new Scottish Parliament Building
, adjacent to Holyrood House in Edinburgh
, opened in 2004. Although not reaching its 1970s peak in Westminster elections, the SNP had more success in the Scottish Parliamentary elections with their system of mixed member proportional representation
. It became the official opposition in 1999, a minority government in 2007 and a majority government from 2011. The SNP government has promised a referendum on independence before the end of the current parliament.
After World War II, Scotland's economic situation became progressively worse due to overseas competition, inefficient industry, and industrial disputes. This only began to change in the 1970s, partly due to the discovery and development of North Sea
oil and gas and partly as Scotland moved towards a more service-based economy. The discovery of the giant Forties oilfield
in October 1970 signalled that Scotland was about to become a major oil producing nation, a view confirmed when Shell Expro discovered the giant Brent oilfield
in the northern North Sea east of Shetland in 1971. Oil production started from the Argyll field (now Ardmore) in June 1975, followed by Forties in November of that year. Deindustrialisation took place rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, as most of the traditional industries drastically shrank or were completely closed down. A new service oriented economy emerged to replace traditional heavy industries. This included a resurgent financial services industry and the electronics manufacturing
of Silicon Glen
.
In the 20th century existing Christian denominations were joined by other organisations, including the Brethren
and Pentecostal churches. Although some denominations thrived, after World War II there was a steady overall decline in church attendance and resulting church closures for most denominations. Talks began in the 1950s aiming at a grand merger of the main Presbyterian, Episcopal and Methodist bodies in Scotland. The talks were ended in 2003, when the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
rejected the proposals. The religious situation was also been altered by immigration, resulting in the growth of non-Christian religions. In the 2001 census
42.4 per cent of the population identified with the Church of Scotland, 15.9 per cent with Catholicism and 6.8 with other forms of Christianity, making up roughly 65 per cent of the population (compared with 72 per cent for the UK as a whole). Of other religions Islam
was at 0.8 per cent, Buddhism
, Sikhism
, Judaism
and Hinduism
were all at around 0.1 per cent. Other religions together accounted for 0.6 per cent of respondents and 5.5 per cent did not state a religion. There were 27.5 per cent who stated that they had no religion (which compares with 15.5 per cent in the UK overall). Other more recent studies suggest that those not identifying with a denomination, or who see themselves as non-religious, may be much higher at between 42 and 56 per cent, depending on the form of question asked.
Ordinary Grade ('O-Grade') and Higher Grade ('Higher') qualifications in 1962, which became the basic entry qualification for university study. The higher education sector expanded in the second half of the 20th century, with four institutions being given university status in the 1960s (Dundee
, Heriot-Watt
, Stirling
and Strathclyde
) and five in the 1990s (Abertay, Glasgow Caledonian
, Napier
, Paisley
and Robert Gordon
). After devolution, in 1999 the new Scottish Executive
set up an Education Department and an Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department. One of the major diversions from practice in England, possible because of devolution, was the abolition of student tuition fees in 1999, instead retaining a system of means-tested student grants.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
after the end of the Devensian glaciation
Wisconsin glaciation
The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....
, the last ice age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. Of the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
, Bronze Age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, and Iron Age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
civilization that existed in the territory, many artefacts remain, but few written records were left behind.
The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
in Britain, when the Romans occupied what is now broadly England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
and the Scottish Lowlands
Scottish Lowlands
The Scottish Lowlands is a name given to the Southern half of Scotland.The area is called a' Ghalldachd in Scottish Gaelic, and the Lawlands ....
, administering it as a Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
called Britannia
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. To the north was territory not governed by the Romans — Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
, by name. Its people were the Picts
Picts
The Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
. From a classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
historical viewpoint Scotland seemed a peripheral country, slow to gain advances filtering out from the Mediterranean fount of civilisation, but as knowledge of the past increases it has become apparent that some developments were earlier and more advanced than previously thought, and that the seaways were very important to Scottish history.
Because of the geographical orientation of Scotland and its strong reliance on trade routes by sea, the kingdom held close links in the south and east with the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, and through Ireland with France and the continent of Europe. Following the Acts of Union
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
which united Scotland with England into a new sovereign state called Great Britain
Kingdom of Great Britain
The former Kingdom of Great Britain, sometimes described as the 'United Kingdom of Great Britain', That the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall upon the 1st May next ensuing the date hereof, and forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN. was a sovereign...
, and the subsequent Scottish Enlightenment
Scottish Enlightenment
The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By 1750, Scots were among the most literate citizens of Europe, with an estimated 75% level of literacy...
and Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its industrial decline following the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was particularly acute, but in recent decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
sector, the proceeds of North Sea oil
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid oil and natural gas, produced from oil reservoirs beneath the North Sea.In the oil industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea and the area known as "West of Shetland", "the Atlantic Frontier" or "the...
and gas, and latterly a devolved parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
.
Prehistory
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
(130,000– 70,000 BC) Europe had a climate warmer than today's, and early humans may have made their way to Scotland, though archaeologists have found no traces of this. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BC.
Mesolithic
Mesolithic
The Mesolithic is an archaeological concept used to refer to certain groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic....
hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar
Biggar, South Lanarkshire
Biggar is a town and former burgh in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is situated in the Southern Uplands, near the River Clyde, around 30 miles from Edinburgh along the A702. The closest towns are Lanark and Peebles, and as such Biggar serves a wide rural area...
to around 8500 BC. Numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers.
Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
farming brought permanent settlements, and the wonderfully well-preserved stone house at Knap of Howar
Knap of Howar
At Knap of Howar on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney, Scotland, a Neolithic farmstead may be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe...
on Papa Westray
Papa Westray
Papa Westray, also known as Papay, is one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, with a population of 65 at the time of the 2001 Census, now increased to 70 people...
dating from 3500 BC predates by about 500 years the village of similar houses at Skara Brae
Skara Brae
Skara Brae is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3180 BCE–2500 BCE...
on West Mainland, Orkney. The settlers introduced chambered cairn
Chambered cairn
A chambered cairn is a burial monument, usually constructed during the Neolithic, consisting of a cairn of stones inside which a sizeable chamber was constructed. Some chambered cairns are also passage-graves....
tombs from around 3500 BC (Maeshowe
Maeshowe
Maeshowe is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland, Orkney, Scotland. The monuments around Maeshowe, including Skara Brae, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999. It gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered cairn, which is limited to Orkney...
offers a prime example), and from about 3000 BC the many standing stones and circles such as the Ring of Brodgar
Ring of Brodgar
The Ring of Brodgar is a Neolithic henge and stone circle on the Mainland, the largest island in Orkney, Scotland...
on Orkney and Callanish
Callanish
Callanish is a village on the West Side of the Isle of Lewis, in the Outer Hebrides , Scotland. A linear settlement with a jetty, it is situated on a headland jutting into Loch Roag, a sea loch...
on Lewis
Lewis
Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is ....
. These form part of the Europe-wide Megalithic culture which also produced Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, and which pre-historians now interpret as showing sophisticated use of astronomical observations.
The cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into the Bronze age
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...
, and hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
s started to appear, such as Eildon Hill
Eildon Hill
Not to be confused with Eldon Hill, EnglandEildon Hill lies just south of Melrose, Scotland in the Scottish Borders, overlooking the town. The name is usually pluralised into "the Eildons" or "Eildon Hills", because of its triple peak....
near Melrose in the Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, which goes back to around 1000 BC and which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop.
Brythonic
Britons (historical)
The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
Celt
Celt
The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic culture and language spread into Scotland at some time after the 8th century BC, possibly through cultural contact rather than through mass invasion, and systems of kingdoms developed.
From around 700 BC the Iron age
Iron Age
The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...
brought numerous hill fort
Hill fort
A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...
s, broch
Broch
A broch is an Iron Age drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland. Brochs include some of the most sophisticated examples of drystone architecture ever created, and belong to the classification "complex Atlantic Roundhouse" devised by Scottish archaeologists in the 1980s....
s and fortified settlements which support the image of quarrelsome tribes and petty kingdoms later recorded by the Romans, though evidence that at times occupants neglected the defences might suggest that symbolic power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
had as much significance as warfare.
Roman invasion
Pytheas
Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...
who circumnavigated the British
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
islands (which he called Pretaniké) in 325 BC, but the record of his visit dates from much later.
The Roman invasion of Britain began in earnest in AD 43. Following a series of military successes in the south, forces led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola
Gnaeus Julius Agricola was a Roman general responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. His biography, the De vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae, was the first published work of his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, and is the source for most of what is known about him.Born to a noted...
entered Scotland in 79. The Romans met with fierce resistance from the local population of Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
ns. In 82 or 83 Agricola sent a fleet of galleys up round the coast of Scotland, as far as the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
. In 84 Agricola defeated the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius
Battle of Mons Graupius
According to Tacitus, the Battle of Mons Graupius took place in AD 83 or, less probably, 84. Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the Roman governor and Tacitus' father-in-law, had sent his fleet ahead to panic the Caledonians, and, with light infantry reinforced with British auxiliaries, reached the site,...
due to superior tactics and the use of professional troops.
The only historical source for this comes from the writings of Agricola's son-in-law, Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
. Archaeology backed up with accurate dating from dendrochronology
Dendrochronology
Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the scientific method of dating based on the analysis of patterns of tree-rings. Dendrochronology can date the time at which tree rings were formed, in many types of wood, to the exact calendar year...
suggests that the occupation of southern Scotland started before the arrival of Agricola. Whatever the exact dating, for the next 300 years Rome had some presence along the southern border.
Although the Romans had failed to conquer Caledonia
Caledonia
Caledonia is the Latinised form and name given by the Romans to the land in today's Scotland north of their province of Britannia, beyond the frontier of their empire...
they attempted to maintain control through military outposts and built a few roads. They were eventually forced or chose to withdraw, concluding that the wealth of the land did not justify the extensive garrisoning requirements.
- the PictsPictsThe Picts were a group of Late Iron Age and Early Mediaeval people living in what is now eastern and northern Scotland. There is an association with the distribution of brochs, place names beginning 'Pit-', for instance Pitlochry, and Pictish stones. They are recorded from before the Roman conquest...
, the original peoples (possibly a BrythonicBritons (historical)The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
CeltCeltThe Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic group) who occupied most of Scotland north of the Firth of ClydeFirth of ClydeThe Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
and the Firth of ForthFirth of ForthThe Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
: the area known as "Pictavia" - the Britons, formed from a RomanRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
-influenced BrythonicBritons (historical)The Britons were the Celtic people culturally dominating Great Britain from the Iron Age through the Early Middle Ages. They spoke the Insular Celtic language known as British or Brythonic...
CeltCeltThe Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....
ic culture in the south, with the kingdom of Y Strad Glud (StrathclydeKingdom of StrathclydeStrathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...
) from the Firth of Clyde southwards, RhegedRhegedRheged is described in poetic sources as one of the kingdoms of the Hen Ogledd , the Brythonic-speaking region of what is now northern England and southern Scotland, during the Early Middle Ages...
in Cumbria, SelgovaeSelgovaeThe Selgovae were a people of the late 2nd century who lived in what is now the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright and Dumfriesshire, on the southern coast of Scotland. They are mentioned briefly in Ptolemy's Geography, and there is no other historical record of them...
in the central BordersScottish BordersThe Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
area and the VotadiniVotadiniThe Votadini were a people of the Iron Age in Great Britain, and their territory was briefly part of the Roman province Britannia...
or GododdinGododdinThe Gododdin were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britain in the sub-Roman period, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North...
from the Firth of Forth down to the Tweed
Invasions brought three more groups, though the extent to which they replaced native populations is unknown
- the Old IrishOld Irish languageOld Irish is the name given to the oldest form of the Goidelic languages for which extensive written texts are extant. It was used from the 6th to the 10th centuries, by which time it had developed into Middle Irish....
-speaking ScottiScotiScoti or Scotti was the generic name used by the Romans to describe those who sailed from Ireland to conduct raids on Roman Britain. It was thus synonymous with the modern term Gaels...
(Scots) or more specifically, the Dál Riatans, arrived from IrelandIrelandIreland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
from the late 5th century onwards, taking possession of Argyll and the west coast in the Kingdom of Dál RiataDál RiataDál Riata was a Gaelic overkingdom on the western coast of Scotland with some territory on the northeast coast of Ireland...
. - the Anglo-SaxonsAnglo-SaxonsAnglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
expanding from BerniciaBerniciaBernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
and the continent. Notably seizing GododdinGododdinThe Gododdin were a Brittonic people of north-eastern Britain in the sub-Roman period, the area known as the Hen Ogledd or Old North...
in the 7th Century. It was their language, a variant of early northern Middle EnglishMiddle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
, now known as Middle ScotsMiddle ScotsMiddle Scots was the Anglic language of Lowland Scotland in the period from 1450 to 1700. By the end of the 13th century its phonology, orthography, accidence, syntax and vocabulary had diverged markedly from Early Scots, which was virtually indistinguishable from early Northumbrian Middle English...
but called Ynglis at the time, which eventually became the predominant tongue of lowland Scotland, whereas the name "Scottis" (Modern form: ScotsScots languageScots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
) referred to the Gaelic language spoken largely in the Highlands. However, during the late Middle Ages the name "Scots" was transferred to the Scottish form of English, while the Celtic language of the Highlands came to be known as Erse (Irish) and later as Gaelic. - In the aftermath of the 795 VikingVikingThe term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
raid on IonaIonaIona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
, the Norse Jarls of OrkneyOrkney IslandsOrkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
took hold of the Western Isles, CaithnessCaithnessCaithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
and SutherlandSutherlandSutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
, while Norse settlers mixed with the inhabitants of GallowayGallowayGalloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
to become the Gallgaels.
The British Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian
Saint Ninian is a Christian saint first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland...
conducted the first Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
mission in Scotland. From his base, the Candida Casa
Candida Casa
Candida Casa was the name given to the church established by St Ninian in Whithorn, Galloway, southern Scotland, in the mid fifth century AD. The name derives from and / , referring possibly to the stone used to construct it, or the whitewash used to paint it.The church site quickly grew to...
(present-day Whithorn
Whithorn
Whithorn is a former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles south of Wigtown. The town was the location of the first recorded Christian church in Scotland, Candida Casa : the 'White [or 'Shining'] House', built by Saint Ninian about 397.-Eighth and twelfth centuries:A...
) on the Solway Firth
Solway Firth
The Solway Firth is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven in Cumbria, to the Mull of Galloway, on the western end of Dumfries and Galloway. The Isle of Man is also very...
, he spread the faith in the south and east of Scotland and in the north of England. However, according to the writings of Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick was a Romano-Briton and Christian missionary, who is the most generally recognized patron saint of Ireland or the Apostle of Ireland, although Brigid of Kildare and Colmcille are also formally patron saints....
and Saint Columba
Saint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
, the Picts appear to have renounced Christianity in the century between Ninian's death (432) and the arrival of Saint Columba
Saint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
in 563. The reason is not known. The Gaels re-introduced Christianity into Pictish Scotland, gradually pushing out worship of the older Celtic gods. The most famous evangelist of that period, Saint Columba
Saint Columba
-Saints:* Columba , Irish Christian saint who evangelized Scotland* Columba the Virgin, also known as Saint Columba of Cornwall* Columba of Sens* Columba of Spain* Columba of Terryglass* Sancta Columba -Schools:...
, a native of modern County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
, came to Scotland in 563 and settled on the island of Iona
Iona
Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the western coast of Scotland. It was a centre of Irish monasticism for four centuries and is today renowned for its tranquility and natural beauty. It is a popular tourist destination and a place for retreats...
having obtained permission from the Pictish king at his court in Inverness to settle on Iona and to spread Christianity. Some consider his (possibly apocryphal) conversion of the Pictish king Bridei
Bridei I of the Picts
Bridei son of Maelchon, was king of the Picts until his death around 584 to 586.Bridei is first mentioned in Irish annals for 558–560, when the Annals of Ulster report "the migration before Máelchú's son i.e. king Bruide". The Ulster annalist does not say who fled, but the later Annals of...
a key event in the Christianisation
Christianization
The historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
of Scotland.
Rise of the kingdom of Alba
The mythMythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of MacAlpin's Treason
MacAlpin's treason
MacAlpin's treason is a medieval legend which explains the replacement of the Pictish language by Gaelic in the 9th and 10th centuries.The legend tells of the murder of the nobles of Pictavia...
tells how Alba
Alba
Alba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the two other Goidelic Insular Celtic languages, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.- Etymology :The term first appears in...
was born when the Gael Cináed mac Ailpín
Kenneth I of Scotland
Cináed mac Ailpín , commonly Anglicised as Kenneth MacAlpin and known in most modern regnal lists as Kenneth I was king of the Picts and, according to national myth, first king of Scots, earning him the posthumous nickname of An Ferbasach, "The Conqueror"...
conquered the Picts, but Alba is a creation of Constantine II
Constantine II of Scotland
Constantine, son of Áed was an early King of Scotland, known then by the Gaelic name Alba. The Kingdom of Alba, a name which first appears in Constantine's lifetime, was in northern Great Britain...
. Cináed's son Constantine
Constantine I of Scotland
Causantín or Constantín mac Cináeda was a king of the Picts. He is often known as Constantine I, in reference to his place in modern lists of kings of Scots, though contemporary sources described Causantín only as a Pictish king...
had the Series Longoir written to show his family's claim to the throne of a united Pictland. The triumph of Gaelic over Pictish and the change from Pictland to Alba is placed in the half-century reign of Constantine II. Why and how this happened is unknown.
At first this new kingdom corresponded to Scotland north of the Rivers Forth and Clyde. South west Scotland remained under the control of the Strathclyde Britons. The area of south-east Scotland was part of the proto-English kingdom of Bernicia
Bernicia
Bernicia was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England....
from around 638, then of the Kingdom of Northumbria. This area was contested from the time of Constantine II and finally fell into Scottish hands in 1018, when Máel Coluim II
Malcolm II of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Cináeda , was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death...
pushed the border as far south as the River Tweed
River Tweed
The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of Great Britain. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying...
. This remains the south-eastern border to this day.
Scotland, in the geographical sense it has retained for nearly a millennium, completed its expansion by the gradual incorporation of the Britons' kingdom of Strathclyde
Kingdom of Strathclyde
Strathclyde , originally Brythonic Ystrad Clud, was one of the early medieval kingdoms of the celtic people called the Britons in the Hen Ogledd, the Brythonic-speaking parts of what is now southern Scotland and northern England. The kingdom developed during the post-Roman period...
into Alba. In 1034, Donnchad I
Duncan I of Scotland
Donnchad mac Crínáin was king of Scotland from 1034 to 1040...
inherited Alba from his maternal grandfather, Máel Coluim II. With the exception of Orkney
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
, the Western Isles, Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
and Sutherland, which remained under Norse rule, Scotland had assumed the shape it was to retain thereafter.
Macbeth
Macbeth of Scotland
Mac Bethad mac Findlaích was King of the Scots from 1040 until his death...
, the Cenél Loairn candidate for the throne whose family had been suppressed by Máel Coluim II, defeated Donnchad in battle in 1040. Macbeth then ruled well for seventeen years before Donnchad's son Máel Coluim III
Malcolm III of Scotland
Máel Coluim mac Donnchada , was King of Scots...
overthrew him. (William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, in his play Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
, later immortalised these events, in a heavily fictionalised way based on inaccurate contemporary history that flattered the antecedents of James VI of Scotland/I of England
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
at Macbeth's expense).
William I of England
William I , also known as William the Conqueror , was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II...
, fled to Scotland. Máel Coluim married Edgar's sister Margaret
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland , also known as Margaret of Wessex and Queen Margaret of Scotland, was an English princess of the House of Wessex. Born in exile in Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the short-ruling and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England...
, and thus came into opposition to William who had already disputed Scotland's southern borders. William invaded Scotland in 1072, riding through Lothian
Lothian
Lothian forms a traditional region of Scotland, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills....
and past Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
on to the Firth of Tay
Firth of Tay
The Firth of Tay is a firth in Scotland between the council areas of Fife, Perth and Kinross, the City of Dundee and Angus, into which Scotland's largest river in terms of flow, the River Tay, empties....
where he met his fleet of ships. Máel Coluim submitted, paid homage to William, and surrendered his son Donnchad
Duncan II of Scotland
Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim was king of Scots...
as a hostage.
Margaret herself had a great influence on Scotland. She is said to have brought European cultivation to the warlike Scottish court. She had an English father and a Hungarian mother and had grown up in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, recently pagan and largely untouched by the European culture of the period. However at this point the Church explicitly recognised the Bishop of Rome (the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
) as its head and at her instigation, the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
order founded a monastery at Dunfermline
Dunfermline
Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to a 2008 estimate, Dunfermline has a population of 46,430, making it the second-biggest settlement in Fife. Part of the town's name comes from the Gaelic word...
, and St Andrews began to replace Iona as the centre of ecclesiastical leadership. The rites of the Scottish church became gradually re-integrated with mainstream Western Catholicism from that base.
When Malcolm died in 1093, his brother Domnall III
Donald III of Scotland
Domnall mac Donnchada , anglicised as Donald III, and nicknamed Domnall Bán, "Donald the Fair" , was King of Scots from 1093–1094 and 1094–1097...
succeeded him. However, William II of England
William II of England
William II , the third son of William I of England, was King of England from 1087 until 1100, with powers over Normandy, and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales...
backed Malcolm's son by his first marriage, Duncan, as a pretender to the throne. With the English behind him Duncan briefly seized power. His murder within a few months saw Domnall restored with Edmund
Edmund of Scotland
Edmund or Etmond mac Maíl Coluim was a son of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada and his second wife Margaret. He may be found on some lists of Scottish kings, but there is no evidence that he was king....
as his heir. The two ruled Scotland until two of Edmund's younger brothers returned from exile in England with English military backing. Victorious, the younger brothers imprisoned Domnall and Edmund for life, and Edgar
Edgar of Scotland
Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim , nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant" , was king of Alba from 1097 to 1107...
, the oldest of the three, became king in 1097. Shortly afterwards Edgar and the King of Norway, Magnus Bare Legs
Magnus III of Norway
Magnus Barefoot or Magnus III Olafsson was King of Norway from 1093 until 1103 and King of Mann and the Isles from 1099 until 1103.-Background:...
concluded a treaty recognizing Norwegian authority over the Western Isles. In practice Norse control of the Isles was of the loosest nature, with local chiefs enjoying a high degree of independence. The following century, Somerled
Somerled
Somerled was a military and political leader of the Scottish Isles in the 12th century who was known in Gaelic as rí Innse Gall . His father was Gillebride...
, the greatest of these, became King of the Hebrides in his own right. His descendants, the Lords of the Isles, continued to enjoy a semi-independent status until the end of the fifteenth century.
When Edgar died in 1107, Margaret's third son Alexander
Alexander I of Scotland
Alexander I , also called Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim and nicknamed "The Fierce", was King of the Scots from 1107 to his death.-Life:...
became king, and when he in turn died in 1124, the crown passed to her fourth son David I
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
. During David's reign Lowland Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
(known as Inglis then) began to grow in south east Scotland, although Gaelic would continue to be spoken in many parts of what would become the Lowlands for centuries more.
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
conquerors of England impressed David greatly, and he arranged for several notables to come north and take up places within the Scottish aristocracy. The Normans came into frequent conflict with the native nobility, especially in the north east and south west of the country.
In a mirror of the invitation of the Normans northwards, David received lands south of the border in fee
Fee simple
In English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
from the English kings. This meant that the Kings of Scotland also functioned as Earls of Huntingdon, and that the Earls paid ceremonial homage to the English kings for the lands received. This homage proved problematic, however, as Malcolm Canmore as the King of Scotland had paid homage to the new Norman Kings of England twice after defeats during his various campaigns against the Normans in support of his Anglo-Saxon brother-in-law Edgar Atheling's claim to the English throne.
In 1263, Scotland and Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
fought the Battle of Largs
Battle of Largs
The Battle of Largs was an engagement fought between the armies of Norway and Scotland near the present-day town of Largs in North Ayrshire on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland on 2 October 1263. It was the most important military engagement of the Scottish-Norwegian War. The Norwegian forces were...
for control over the Western Isles. Although the battle was little more than a series of indecisive skirmishes, it did at least prove that the distant kings of Norway could not continue to control the Isles. This was recognized soon after when the Norwegian king Magnus VI of Norway
Magnus VI of Norway
Magnus VI Lagabøte or Magnus Håkonsson , was king of Norway from 1263 until 1280.-Early life:...
signed the Treaty of Perth
Treaty of Perth
The Treaty of Perth, 1266, ended military conflict between Norway, under King Magnus VI of Norway, and Scotland, under King Alexander III, over the sovereignty of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man....
in 1266, acknowledging Scottish suzerainty over the islands. Bit by bit, the Island chiefs were politically integrated into the Scottish state. In 1284 all of the descendants of Somerled attended a parliament called by Alexander III to acknowledge his granddaughter, Margaret, as heir to the throne. The subsequent dynastic crisis caused by the death of Margaret and the onset of the Wars of Independence
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
reversed this process. By the middle of the fourteenth century the MacDonald Lords of the Isles were once again loosening their ties to the crown.
A series of deaths in the line of succession in the 1280s, followed by King Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
's death in 1286 left the Scottish crown in disarray. His granddaughter Margaret, the "Maid of Norway", a four-year old girl, was the heir.
Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, as Margaret's great-uncle, suggested that his son (also a child) and Margaret should marry, stabilising the Scottish line of succession. In 1290 Margaret's guardians agreed to this, but Margaret herself died in Orkney on her voyage from Norway to Scotland before either her coronation or her marriage could take place.
The Wars of Independence
The death of king Alexander IIIAlexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
in 1286, and the subsequent death of his granddaughter and heir Margaret
Margaret, Maid of Norway
Margaret , usually known as the Maid of Norway , sometimes known as Margaret of Scotland , was a Norwegian princess who was Queen of Scots from 1286 until her death...
(called "the Maid of Norway") in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked Edward I of England
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
to arbitrate, for which he extracted legal recognition that the realm of Scotland was held as a feudal dependency to the throne of England before choosing John Balliol, the man with the strongest claim, who became king as John I (30 November 1292). Robert Bruce of Annandale, the next strongest claimant, accepted this outcome with reluctance. Over the next few years Edward I used the concessions he had gained to systematically undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland. In 1295 John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, the beginning of the Auld Alliance
Auld Alliance
The Auld Alliance was an alliance between the kingdoms of Scotland and France. It played a significant role in the relations between Scotland, France and England from its beginning in 1295 until the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh. The alliance was renewed by all the French and Scottish monarchs of that...
.
In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace
William Wallace
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence....
and Andrew de Moray raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge
Battle of Stirling Bridge
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.-The main...
. For a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm. Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk (1298)
Battle of Falkirk (1298)
The Battle of Falkirk, which took place on 22 July 1298, was one of the major battles in the First War of Scottish Independence...
. Wallace escaped but probably resigned as Guardian of Scotland. In 1305 he fell into the hands of the English, who executed him for treason despite the fact that he owed no allegiance to England.
Rivals John Comyn
John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch
John III Comyn, Lord of Badenoch and Lord of Lochaber or John "the Red", also known simply as the Red Comyn was a Scottish nobleman who was an important figure in the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was Guardian of Scotland during the Second Interregnum 1296-1306...
and Robert the Bruce
Robert I of Scotland
Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...
, grandson of the claimant, were appointed as joint guardians in his place. On 10 February 1306, Bruce participated in the murder of Comyn, at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries
Dumfries
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth. Dumfries was the county town of the former county of Dumfriesshire. Dumfries is nicknamed Queen of the South...
. Less than seven weeks later, on March 25, Bruce was crowned as King. However, Edward's forces overran the country after defeating Bruce's small army at the Battle of Methven
Battle of Methven
The Battle of Methven took place at Methven in Scotland in 1306, during the Wars of Scottish Independence.-Comyn's Death:In February 1306, Robert Bruce and a small party of his followers killed John Comyn, also known as the Red Comyn, before the high altar of the Greyfriars Church in Dumfries...
. Despite the excommunication of Bruce and his followers by Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V
Pope Clement V, born Raymond Bertrand de Got was Pope from 1305 to his death...
, his support slowly strengthened; and by 1314 with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas
James Douglas, Lord of Douglas
Sir James Douglas , , was a Scottish soldier and knight who fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence.-Early life:...
and the Earl of Moray only the castles at Bothwell and Stirling remained under English control. Edward I had died in 1307. His heir Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
moved an army north to break the siege of Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
and reassert control. Robert defeated that army at the Battle of Bannockburn
Battle of Bannockburn
The Battle of Bannockburn was a significant Scottish victory in the Wars of Scottish Independence...
in 1314, securing de facto independence. In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath
Declaration of Arbroath
The Declaration of Arbroath is a declaration of Scottish independence, made in 1320. It is in the form of a letter submitted to Pope John XXII, dated 6 April 1320, intended to confirm Scotland's status as an independent, sovereign state and defending Scotland's right to use military action when...
, a remonstrance to the Pope from the nobles of Scotland, helped convince Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII , born Jacques Duèze , was pope from 1316 to 1334. He was the second Pope of the Avignon Papacy , elected by a conclave in Lyon assembled by Philip V of France...
to overturn the earlier excommunication and nullify the various acts of submission by Scottish kings to English ones so that Scotland's sovereignty could be recognised by the major European dynasties. The Declaration has also been seen as one of the most important documents in the development of a Scottish national identity.
In 1326, what may have been the first full Parliament of Scotland
Parliament of Scotland
The Parliament of Scotland, officially the Estates of Parliament, was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland. The unicameral parliament of Scotland is first found on record during the early 13th century, with the first meeting for which a primary source survives at...
met. The parliament had evolved from an earlier council of nobility and clergy, the colloquium, constituted around 1235, but perhaps in 1326 representatives of the burgh
Burgh
A burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland and Northern England, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when King David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United...
s — the burgh commissioners — joined them to form the Three Estates. In 1328, Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
signed the Treaty of Northampton acknowledging Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
under the rule of Robert the Bruce. However, four years after Robert's death in 1329, England once more invaded on the pretext of restoring Edward Balliol
Edward Balliol
Edward Balliol was a claimant to the Scottish throne . With English help, he briefly ruled the country from 1332 to 1336.-Life:...
, son of John Balliol, to the Scottish throne, thus starting the Second War of Independence. Despite victories at Dupplin Moor
Battle of Dupplin Moor
The Battle of Dupplin Moor was fought between supporters of the infant David II, the son of Robert the Bruce, and rebels supporting the Balliol claim in 1332. It was a significant battle of the Second War of Scottish Independence.-Background:...
(1332) and Halidon Hill
Battle of Halidon Hill
The Battle of Halidon Hill was fought during the Second War of Scottish Independence. Scottish forces under Sir Archibald Douglas were heavily defeated on unfavourable terrain while trying to relieve Berwick-upon-Tweed.-The Disinherited:...
, in the face of tough Scottish resistance led by Sir Andrew Murray
Sir Andrew Murray
Sir Andrew Murray , also known as Sir Andrew Moray or Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, was a Scottish military leader who commanded resistance forces loyal to David II of Scotland against Edward Balliol and Edward III of England during the Second War of Scottish Independence...
, the son of Wallace's comrade in arms, successive attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed. Edward III lost interest in the fate of his protege after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War
Hundred Years' War
The Hundred Years' War was a series of separate wars waged from 1337 to 1453 by the House of Valois and the House of Plantagenet, also known as the House of Anjou, for the French throne, which had become vacant upon the extinction of the senior Capetian line of French kings...
with France. In 1341 David II
David II of Scotland
David II was King of Scots from 7 June 1329 until his death.-Early life:...
, King Robert's son and heir, was able to return from temporary exile in France. Balliol finally resigned his claim to the throne to Edward in 1356, before retiring to Yorkshire, where he died in 1364.
The Stewarts
After David I's death, Robert IIRobert II of Scotland
Robert II became King of Scots in 1371 as the first monarch of the House of Stewart. He was the son of Walter Stewart, hereditary High Steward of Scotland and of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of Robert I and of his first wife Isabella of Mar...
, the first of the Stewart (later Stuart) kings, came to the throne in 1371. He was followed in 1390 by his ailing son John, who took the regnal name
Regnal name
A regnal name, or reign name, is a formal name used by some monarchs and popes during their reigns. Since medieval times, monarchs have frequently chosen to use a name different from their own personal name when they inherit a throne....
Robert III
Robert III of Scotland
Robert III was King of Scots from 1390 to his death. His given name was John Stewart, and he was known primarily as the Earl of Carrick before ascending the throne at age 53...
, to avoid awkward questions over the exact status of the first King John. During Robert III's reign (1390–1406), actual power rested largely in the hands of his brother, also named Robert, the Duke of Albany
Duke of Albany
Duke of Albany is a peerage title that has occasionally been bestowed on the younger sons in the Scottish, and later the British, royal family, particularly in the Houses of Stuart and Hanover....
. After the suspicious death (possibly on the orders of the Duke of Albany) of his elder son, David, Duke of Rothesay in 1402, Robert, fearful for the safety of his younger son, James (the future James I
James I of Scotland
James I, King of Scots , was the son of Robert III and Annabella Drummond. He was probably born in late July 1394 in Dunfermline as youngest of three sons...
), sent him to France in 1406. However, the English captured him en route and he spent the next 18 years as a prisoner held for ransom. As a result, after the death of Robert III, regents ruled Scotland: first, the Duke of Albany; and later his son, during whose office the country fell into near anarchy. When Scotland finally paid the ransom in 1424, James, aged 32, returned with his English bride determined to assert this authority. Implicated in the murder of his cousin Albany, he succeeded in centralising control in the hands of the crown, but at the cost of increasingly unpopularity and was assassinated in 1437. His son James II
James II of Scotland
James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...
(reigned 1437–1460), when he came of age in 1449, continued his father's policy of weakening the great noble families, most notably taking on the great House of Douglas that had come to prominence at the time of the Bruce.
In 1468 the last great acquisition of Scottish territory occurred when James III
James III of Scotland
James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...
married Margaret of Denmark, receiving the Orkney Islands
Orkney Islands
Orkney also known as the Orkney Islands , is an archipelago in northern Scotland, situated north of the coast of Caithness...
and the Shetland Islands
Shetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
in payment of her dowry. With the death of James III in 1488, during or after the Battle of Sauchieburn, his successor James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
successfully ended the quasi-independent rule of the Lord of the Isles
Lord of the Isles
The designation Lord of the Isles is today a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It emerged from a series of hybrid Viking/Gaelic rulers of the west coast and islands of Scotland in the Middle Ages, who wielded sea-power with fleets of...
, bringing the Western Isles under effective Royal control for the first time. In 1503, he married Henry VII's
Henry VII of England
Henry VII was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the House of Tudor....
daughter, Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor
Margaret Tudor was the elder of the two surviving daughters of Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York, and the elder sister of Henry VIII. In 1503, she married James IV, King of Scots. James died in 1513, and their son became King James V. She married secondly Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of...
, thus laying the foundation for the 17th century Union of the Crowns
Union of the Crowns
The Union of the Crowns was the accession of James VI, King of Scots, to the throne of England, and the consequential unification of Scotland and England under one monarch. The Union of Crowns followed the death of James' unmarried and childless first cousin twice removed, Queen Elizabeth I of...
.
Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the fifteenth century with the founding of the University of St Andrews
University of St Andrews
The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...
in 1413, the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
in 1450 and the University of Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
in 1495, and with the passing of the Education Act 1496
Education Act 1496
The Education Act 1496 was an act of the Parliament of Scotland that ordered the schooling of those who would administer the legal system at the local level. This made schooling compulsory for the first time in Scotland. The intent was to improve the administration of justice nationwide and to...
, which decreed that all sons of barons and freeholders of substance should attend grammar schools. James IV's reign is often considered to have seen a flowering of Scottish culture under the influence of the European Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
.
In 1512 the Auld Alliance was renewed and under its terms, when the French were attacked by the English under Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, James IV invaded England in support. The invasion was stopped decisively at the battle of Flodden Field
Battle of Flodden Field
The Battle of Flodden or Flodden Field or occasionally Battle of Branxton was fought in the county of Northumberland in northern England on 9 September 1513, between an invading Scots army under King James IV and an English army commanded by the Earl of Surrey...
during which the King, many of his nobles, and a large number of ordinary troops were killed, commemorated by the song The Floo'ers o' the Forest
Flowers of the Forest
Flowers of the Forest is an ancient Scottish folk tune. Although the original words are unknown, the melody was recorded in c. 1615-25 in the John Skene of Halyards Manuscript as "Flowres of the Forrest", though it may have been composed earlier....
. Once again Scotland's government lay in the hands of regents in the name of the infant James V
James V of Scotland
James V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...
.
When James V
James V of Scotland
James V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...
finally managed to escape from the custody of the regents with the aid of his redoubtable mother in 1528, he once again set about subduing the rebellious Highlands, Western and Northern isles, as his father had had to do. He married the French noblewoman Marie de Guise. His reign was fairly successful, until another disastrous campaign against England led to defeat at the battle of Solway Moss
Battle of Solway Moss
The Battle of Solway Moss took place on Solway Moss near the River Esk on the English side of the Anglo-Scottish Border in November 1542 between forces from England and Scotland.-Background:...
(1542). James died a short time later. The day before his death, he was brought news of the birth of an heir: a daughter, who became Mary, Queen of Scots. James is supposed to have remarked in Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
that "it cam wi a lass, it will gang wi a lass" – referring to the House of Stewart which began with Walter Stewart's marriage to the daughter of Robert the Bruce.
Once again, Scotland was in the hands of a regent. Within two years, the Rough Wooing began, Henry VIII's military attempt to force a marriage between Mary and his son, Edward
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...
. This took the form of border skirmishing and several English campaigns into Scotland. In 1547, after the death of Henry VIII, forces under the English regent Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
were victorious at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland on 10 September 1547, was part of the War of the Rough Wooing. It was the last pitched battle between Scottish and English armies, and is seen as the first modern battle in the British Isles...
, the climax of the Rough Wooing, and followed up by the occupation of Haddington. Mary was then sent to France at the age of five, as the intended bride of the heir to the French throne. Her mother, Marie de Guise, stayed in Scotland to look after the interests of Mary — and of France — although the Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran
James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault and 2nd Earl of Arran was a Scottish nobleman.-Biography:He was the eldest legitimate son of James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran....
acted officially as regent. Guise responded by calling on French troops, who helped stiffen resistance to the English occupation. By 1550, after a change of regent in England, the English withdrew from Scotland completely.
From 1554, Marie de Guise, took over the regency, and continued to advance French interests in Scotland. French cultural influence resulted in a large influx of French vocabulary into Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
. But anti-French sentiment also grew, particularly among Protestants, who saw the English as their natural allies. In 1560 Marie de Guise died, and soon after the Auld Alliance also died, with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh
Treaty of Edinburgh
The Treaty of Edinburgh was a treaty drawn up on 5 July 1560 between the Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth I with the assent of the Scottish Lords of the Congregation, and French representatives in Scotland to formally conclude the Siege of Leith and replace the Auld Alliance with France with a new...
, which provided for the removal of French and English troops from Scotland. The Scottish Reformation
Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...
took place only days later when the Scottish Parliament
Scottish Reformation Parliament
The Scottish Reformation Parliament is the name given to the Scottish Parliament commencing in 1560 that passed the major pieces of legislation leading to the Scottish Reformation, most importantly Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560 .right|thumb|[[John...
abolished the Roman Catholic religion and outlawed the Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
.
Meanwhile, Queen Mary had been raised a Catholic in France. She had married the Dauphin Francis
Francis II of France
Francis II was aged 15 when he succeeded to the throne of France after the accidental death of his father, King Henry II, in 1559. He reigned for 18 months before he died in December 1560...
in 1558, and become Queen of France on the death of his father the following year. When Francis himself died, Mary, now nineteen, elected to return to Scotland to take up the government in a hostile environment. Despite her private religion, she did not attempt to reimpose Catholicism on her largely Protestant subjects, thus angering the chief Catholic nobles. Her six-year personal reign was marred by a series of crises, largely caused by the intrigues and rivalries of the leading nobles. The murder of her secretary, David Riccio, was followed by the murder of her unpopular husband Lord Darnley
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
Henry Stewart or Stuart, 1st Duke of Albany , styled Lord Darnley before 1565, was king consort of Scotland and murdered at Kirk o'Field...
, and her abduction by and marriage to the Earl of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell
James Hepburn, 1st Duke of Orkney , better known by his inherited title as 4th Earl of Bothwell, was hereditary Lord High Admiral of Scotland. He is best known for his association with and subsequent marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, as her third husband...
. Captured by Bothwell's rivals, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle
Loch Leven Castle
Loch Leven Castle is a ruined castle on an island in Loch Leven, in the Perth and Kinross local authority area of Scotland. Possibly built around 1300, the castle was the location military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence...
, and in July 1567, was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son James VI
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
. Mary eventually escaped from Loch Leven, and attempted to regain the throne by force. After her defeat at the Battle of Langside
Battle of Langside
The Battle of Langside, fought on 13 May 1568, was one of the more unusual contests in Scottish history, bearing a superficial resemblance to a grand family quarrel, in which a mother fought her brother who was defending the rights of her infant son...
in 1568 she took refuge in England, leaving her young son in the hands of regents. In Scotland the Regents fought a civil war on behalf of James VI against his mother's supporters. In England Mary became a focal point for Catholic conspirators and was eventually tried for treason and executed on the orders of her kinswoman Elizabeth I.
Protestant Reformation
During the 16th century, Scotland underwent a Protestant ReformationProtestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
that made the nation Calvinist, with a strong Presbyterian Church. In the earlier part of the century, the teachings of first Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
and then John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
began to influence Scotland. The execution of a number of Protestant preachers, most notably the Lutheran influenced Patrick Hamilton
Patrick Hamilton (martyr)
Patrick Hamilton was a Scottish churchman and an early Protestant Reformer in Scotland. He travelled to Europe, where he met several of the leading reforming thinkers, before returning to Scotland to preach...
in 1528 and later the proto-Calvinist George Wishart
George Wishart
George Wishart was a Scottish religious reformer and Protestant martyr.He belonged to a younger branch of the Wisharts of Pitarrow near Montrose. He may have graduated M.A., probably at King's College, Aberdeen, and was certainly a student at the University of Leuven, from which he graduated in 1531...
in 1546 who was burnt at the stake in St. Andrews by Cardinal Beaton for heresy, did nothing to stem the growth of these ideas. Beaton was assassinated shortly after the execution of George Wishart.
The eventual Reformation of the Scottish Church followed a brief civil war in 1559–60, in which English intervention
Treaty of Berwick (1560)
The Treaty of Berwick was negotiated on 27 February 1560 at Berwick-upon-Tweed. It was an agreement made by the representative of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Scottish Lords of the Congregation...
on the Protestant side was decisive. A Reformed confession of faith rejecting papal jurisdiction was adopted by Parliament in 1560
Scottish Reformation Parliament
The Scottish Reformation Parliament is the name given to the Scottish Parliament commencing in 1560 that passed the major pieces of legislation leading to the Scottish Reformation, most importantly Confession of Faith Ratification Act 1560; and Papal Jurisdiction Act 1560 .right|thumb|[[John...
, while the young Mary, Queen of Scots, was still in France. The most influential figure was theologian John Knox
John Knox
John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...
(1510–1572), who had lived in Switzerland and was a disciple of both Calvin and Wishart. The Protestant Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
was formed in the mid-16th century by Knox and the Protestant Lords of the Congregation. Roman Catholicism was not totally eliminated, and remained strong particularly in parts of the highlands.
The Protestant nobility in Scotland proved critical to the success of the Reformation. The clergymen depended on aristocratic support, so they were seldom equal partners. However the relationship was strong enough to withstand disputes over the use of ecclesiastical revenues and tensions stemming from the ministers' insistence that all magistrates must be true Protestants.
One major impact of the kirk was to moderate the violence that had been endemic in rural Scotland. The reformed kirk actively mediated local communal conflicts that otherwise would have turned violent. The premises of the parish kirk became a sacred space which often was used for public reconciliation. In order to discourage blood feuds and mortal combat, which had once been common, the kirk used preaching, mandatory attendance at weekly services and at seasonal communion, and public rituals of repentance and punishment. Moving beyond the local level, presbyteries and kirk sessions were increasingly accepted as legitimate alternative to the baronial or civil courts.
Until the late 20th century Protestantism—especially of the Presbyterian variety—was a central value for most Scots, helping shape their identity and way of thinking.
17th century
In 1603, James VI King of Scots inherited the throne of the Kingdom of EnglandKingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
, and became King James I of England, leaving Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
for London. The Union was a personal
Personal union
A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...
or dynastic union
Dynastic union
A dynastic union is the combination by which two different states are governed by the same dynasty, while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct...
, with the Crowns
The Crown
The Crown is a corporation sole that in the Commonwealth realms and any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof represents the legal embodiment of governance, whether executive, legislative, or judicial...
remaining both distinct and separate—despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
". There was considerable conflict between the crown and the Covenanters over the form of church government.
Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Puritan Commonwealth
Bishops' Wars
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, took matters further, introducing an English-style Prayer Book into the Scottish church in 1637. This resulted in anger and widespread rioting. (The story goes that it was initiated by a certain Jenny Geddes
Jenny Geddes
Jenny Geddes was a Scottish market-trader in Edinburgh, who is alleged to have thrown her stool at the head of the minister in St Giles' Cathedral in objection to the first public use of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer in Scotland.The act is reputed to have sparked the riot which led to the...
who threw a stool in St Giles Cathedral). Representatives of various sections of Scottish society drew up the National Covenant in 1638, objecting to the King's liturgical innovations. In November of the same year matters were taken even further, when at a meeting of the General Assembly in Glasgow the Scottish bishops were formally expelled from the Church, which was then established on a full Presbyterian basis. Charles gathered a military force; but as neither side wished to push the matter to a full military conflict, a temporary settlement was concluded at Berwick. Matters remained unresolved until 1640 when, in a renewal of hostilities, Charles's northern forces were defeated by the Scots at Newburn to the west of Newcastle. During the course of these "Bishops' Wars
Bishops' Wars
The Bishops' Wars , were conflicts, both political and military, which occurred in 1639 and 1640 centred around the nature of the governance of the Church of Scotland, and the rights and powers of the Crown...
" Charles tried to raise an army of Irish Catholics, but was forced to back down after a storm of protest in Scotland and England. The backlash from this venture provoked a rebellion in Ireland
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
and Charles was forced to appeal to the English Parliament for funds. Parliament's demands for reform in England eventually resulted in the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
. This series of civil wars that engulfed England in the 1640s and 50s is known to modern historians as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...
. The Covenanters meanwhile, were left governing Scotland, where they raised a large army of their own and tried to impose their religious settlement on Episcopalians
Scottish Episcopal Church
The Scottish Episcopal Church is a Christian church in Scotland, consisting of seven dioceses. Since the 17th century, it has had an identity distinct from the presbyterian Church of Scotland....
and Roman Catholics in the north of the country.
Civil war
As the civil wars developed, the English ParliamentariansRoundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
appealed to the Scots Covenanters for military aid against the King. A Solemn League and Covenant
Solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It was agreed to in 1643, during the First English Civil War....
was entered into, guaranteeing the Scottish Church settlement and promising further reform in England. Scottish troops played a major part in the defeat of Charles I, notably at the battle of Marston Moor
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...
. An army under the Earl of Leven occupied the North of England for some time.
However, not all Scots supported the Covenanter's taking arms against their King. In 1644, James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose
James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman and soldier, who initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed...
attempted to raise the Highlands for the King. Few Scots would follow him, but, aided by 1,000 Irish, Highland and Islesmen troops sent by the Irish Confederates
Confederate Ireland
Confederate Ireland refers to the period of Irish self-government between the Rebellion of 1641 and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in 1649. During this time, two-thirds of Ireland was governed by the Irish Catholic Confederation, also known as the "Confederation of Kilkenny"...
under Alasdair MacDonald (MacColla), and an instinctive genius for mobile warfare, he was stunningly successful. A Scottish Civil War began in September 1644 with his victory at battle of Tippermuir
Battle of Tippermuir
The Battle of Tippermuir was the first battle James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose fought for the king during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms....
. After a series of victories over poorly trained Covenanter militias, the lowlands were at his mercy. However, at this high point, his army was reduced in size, as MacColla and the Highlanders preferred to continue the war in the north against the Campbells. Shortly after, what was left of his force was defeated at the Battle of Philiphaugh
Battle of Philiphaugh
The Battle of Philiphaugh was fought on 13 September 1645 during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms near Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. The Royalist army of the Marquess of Montrose was destroyed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie, restoring the power of the Committee of Estates.-Prelude:When...
. Escaping to the north, Montrose attempted to continue the struggle with fresh troops; but in July 1646 his army was disbanded after the King surrendered to the Scots army at Newark, and the civil war came to an end.
The following year Charles, while he was being held captive in Carisbrooke Castle, entered into an agreement with moderate Scots Presbyterians. In this secret 'Engagement
Engagers
The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamenterians after his defeat in the First Civil War....
', the Scots promised military aid in return for the King's agreement to implement Presbyterianism in England on a three-year trial basis. The Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage , and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas...
led an invasion of England to free the King, but he was defeated by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in August 1648 at the Battle of Preston.
Cromwellian occupation and restoration
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in Edinburgh. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
invaded Scotland in 1650, and defeated the Scottish army in battles at Dunbar
Battle of Dunbar (1650)
The Battle of Dunbar was a battle of the Third English Civil War. The English Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II, who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649.-Background:The English...
and Worcester
Battle of Worcester
The Battle of Worcester took place on 3 September 1651 at Worcester, England and was the final battle of the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians defeated the Royalist, predominantly Scottish, forces of King Charles II...
. Scotland was then occupied by an English force under George Monck throughout the Interregnum and incorporated into the Puritan-governed Commonwealth
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
.
From 1652 to 1660, Scotland was part of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, under English control but gaining equal trading rights. Upon its collapse, and with the restoration of Charles II, Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
returned. Scotland regained its parliament, but the English Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
prevented the Scots engaging in what would have been lucrative trading with England's growing colonies. The formal frontier between the two countries was re-established, with customs duties which, while they protected Scottish cloth industries from cheap English imports, also denied access to English markets for Scottish cattle or Scottish linens.
After the Restoration, Charles' Scottish affairs were managed by senior noblemen, the most prominent of whom was John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale, his Secretary of State and High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament. Near the outset of the reign Episcopacy was reintroduced. This was to be a source of particular trouble in the south-west of the country, an area particularly strong in its Presbyterian sympathies. Abandoning the official church, many of the people here began to attend illegal field assemblies, known as conventicles. Official attempts to suppress these led to a rising in 1679, defeated by James Duke of Monmouth, the King's illegitimate son, at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge
Battle of Bothwell Bridge
The Battle of Bothwell Bridge, or Bothwell Brig, took place on 22 June 1679. It was fought between government troops and militant Presbyterian Covenanters, and signalled the end of their brief rebellion...
. In the early 1680s a more intense phase of persecution began, in what was later to be called "the Killing Time
The Killing Time
thumb|240px|[[Margaret Wilson |Margaret Wilson]], one of the 'Wigtown Martyrs', executed by drowning in the incoming tide of the Solway Firth ....
". When Charles died in 1685 and his brother, a Roman Catholic, succeeded him as James VII of Scotland (and II of England)
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
, matters came to a head.
The Deposition of James VII
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
to England's Roman Catholics alienated his Protestant subjects. Neither this, nor his moves towards absolutism, provoked outright rebellion, as it was believed that he would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
. When, in 1688, James produced a male heir, everything changed. At the invitation of seven Englishmen, William landed in England with 40,000 men, and James fled. Whilst this was primarily an English event, the so-called "Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
" had a great impact on Scottish history. Whilst William and Mary accepted limits on royal power, under the Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights or the Bill of Rights 1688 is an Act of the Parliament of England.The Bill of Rights was passed by Parliament on 16 December 1689. It was a re-statement in statutory form of the Declaration of Right presented by the Convention Parliament to William and Mary in March 1689 ,...
(a contract between themselves and the English parliament), Scotland had an equivalent document in the Claim of Right
Claim of Right Act 1689
The Claim of Right is an Act passed by the Parliament of Scotland in April 1689. It is one of the key documents of Scottish constitutional law.-Background:...
s. This is an important document in the evolution of the rule of law and the rights of subjects.
Most significant Scots supported William II and Mary II, but many (particularly in the Highlands) remained sympathetic to James VII. His cause, which became known as Jacobitism
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
, spawned a series of uprisings. An initial Jacobite rising under John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee (Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee
Bonnie Dundee is a poem and a song about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee who was known by this nickname. The song has been used as a regimental march by several Scottish regiments in the British Army and was adapted by Confederate troops in the American Civil...
) defeated William's forces at the Battle of Killiecrankie
Battle of Killiecrankie
-References:*Reid, Stuart, The Battle of Kiellliecrankkie -External links:* *...
in 1689, but Dundee was slain in the fighting, and the army was soon defeated at the Battle of Dunkeld
Battle of Dunkeld
The Battle of Dunkeld was fought between Jacobite clans supporting the deposed king James VII of Scotland and a government regiment of covenanters supporting William of Orange, King of Scotland, in the streets around Dunkeld Cathedral, Dunkeld, Scotland, on 21 August 1689 and formed part of the...
. The complete defeat of James in Ireland by William at the Battle of Aughrim
Battle of Aughrim
The Battle of Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite War in Ireland. It was fought between the Jacobites and the forces of William III on 12 July 1691 , near the village of Aughrim in County Galway....
(1691), ended matters for a time. (Ironically, the Protestant William had also enjoyed the support of the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
and the Catholic Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...
monarchy against the aggressive foreign policy of Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
).
Economic crisis of the 1690s
Economic conditions were favourable in the peaceful Restoration period from 1660 to 1688, as land owners promoted better tillage and cattle-raising, and Glasgow became an increasingly important commercial centre, opening up trade with the American colonies. The closing decade of the 17th century brought economic disaster as bad harvests of the seven ill years in the 1690s led to severe famine and depopulation. The cost of grain doubled because of scarcity; suffering was worst in the north and least in the eastern lowlands. Scotland lost about 15% of its population from deaths, outmigration, and lowered birth rates. English protectionism kept Scots traders out of the English colonies, and English foreign policy disrupted trade with France. Many Scots emigrated to UlsterUlster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
(the Ulster-Scots). The psychological blow to national self confidence was severe. The Parliament of Scotland of 1695 enacted proposals that might help the desperate economic situation, including setting up the Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to...
. The Act for the Settling of Schools established a parish-based system of public education throughout Scotland. The Company of Scotland
Company of Scotland
The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies, also called the Scottish Darien Company, was an overseas trading company created by an act of the Parliament of Scotland in 1695...
received a charter to raise capital through public subscription to trade with Africa and the Indies.
Failure of Darien scheme
Darién scheme
The Darién scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "New Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s...
, an ambitious plan devised by William Paterson
William Paterson (banker)
Sir William Paterson was a Scottish trader and banker.- Early life :...
to establish a colony on the Isthmus of Panama
Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama, also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien, is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal...
in the hope of establishing trade with the Far East. The Darién scheme won widespread support in Scotland as the landed gentry and the merchant class were in agreement in seeing overseas trade and colonialism as routes to upgrade Scotland's economy. Since the capital resources of the Edinburgh merchants and landholder elite were insufficient, the company appealed to middling social ranks, who responded with patriotic fervour to the call for money; the lower classes volunteered as colonists. But the English government opposed the idea: involved in the War of the Grand Alliance
War of the Grand Alliance
The Nine Years' War – often called the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the Palatine Succession, or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th century fought between King Louis XIV of France, and a European-wide coalition, the Grand Alliance, led by the Anglo-Dutch...
from 1689 to 1697 against France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, it did not want to offend Spain, which claimed the territory as part of New Granada
New Kingdom of Granada
The New Kingdom of Granada was the name given to a group of 16th century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Audiencia of Bogotá, an area corresponding mainly to modern day Colombia and parts of Venezuela. Originally part of the Viceroyalty of...
. The English investors had perforce to withdraw. Returning to Edinburgh, the Company raised 400,000 pounds in a few weeks. Three small fleets with a total of 3000 men eventually set out for Panama in 1698. The exercise proved a disaster. Poorly equipped; beset by incessant rain; under attack by the Spanish from nearby Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena de Indias , is a large Caribbean beach resort city on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region and capital of Bolívar Department...
; and refused aid by the English in the West Indies, the colonists abandoned their project in 1700. Only 1000 survived and only one ship managed to return to Scotland.
18th century
Scotland was a poor rural, agricultural society with a population of 1.3 million in 1755. Its transformation into a rich leader of modern industry came suddenly and unexpectedly in the next 150 years, following its union with Britain in 1707 and its integration with the advanced English and imperial economies. The transformation was led by two cities that grew rapidly after 1770. GlasgowHistory of Glasgow
This article deals with the history of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. See also Timeline of Glasgow history.-Founding of the city:The area around Glasgow has hosted communities for millennia, with the River Clyde providing a natural location for fishing...
, on the river Clyde, was the base for the tobacco and sugar trade with an emerging textile industry. Edinburgh
History of Edinburgh
Humans have settled the Edinburgh area from at least the Bronze Age, leaving traces of primitive stone settlements at Holyrood, Craiglockhart Hill and the Pentland Hills for example...
was the administrative and intellectual centre where the Scottish Enlightenment was chiefly based.
Union with England
Political union
A political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a common government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity...
between Scotland and England became politically and economically attractive, promising to open up the much larger markets of England, as well as those of the growing British Empire. With economic stagnation since the late 17th century, which was particularly acute in 1704; the country depended more and more heavily on sales of cattle and linen to England, who used this to create pressure for a union. The Scottish parliament voted on 6 January 1707, by 110 to 69, to adopt the Treaty of Union
Treaty of Union
The Treaty of Union is the name given to the agreement that led to the creation of the united kingdom of Great Britain, the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, which took effect on 1 May 1707...
. It was also a full economic union; indeed, most of its 25 articles dealt with economic arrangements for the new state known as "Great Britain". It added 45 Scots to the 513 members of the House of Commons and 16 Scots to the 190 members of the House of Lords, and ended the Scottish parliament. It also replaced the Scottish systems of currency, taxation and laws regulating trade with laws made in London. England had about five times the population of Scotland at the time, and about 36 times as much wealth.
Jacobitism
Anne of Great Britain
Anne ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702. On 1 May 1707, under the Act of Union, two of her realms, England and Scotland, were united as a single sovereign state, the Kingdom of Great Britain.Anne's Catholic father, James II and VII, was deposed during the...
. Rather than return to her Roman Catholic brother James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
, the English Parliament decided that Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia of the Palatinate was an heiress to the crowns of England and Ireland and later the crown of Great Britain. She was declared heiress presumptive by the Act of Settlement 1701...
and her descendants should succeed (Act of Settlement 1701
Act of Settlement 1701
The Act of Settlement is an act of the Parliament of England that was passed in 1701 to settle the succession to the English throne on the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her Protestant heirs. The act was later extended to Scotland, as a result of the Treaty of Union , enacted in the Acts of Union...
). However, the Scottish counterpart, the Act of Security, prohibited a Roman Catholic successor, leaving open the possibility that the crowns would diverge.
Rather than risk the possible return of James Francis Edward Stuart, then living in France, the English parliament pressed for full union of the two countries. In 1707, despite much opposition in Scotland, the Treaty of Union was concluded.
The treaty, which became the Act of Union 1707, confirmed the Hanoverian
House of Hanover
The House of Hanover is a deposed German royal dynasty which has ruled the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg , the Kingdom of Hanover, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
succession. It abolished both the Parliaments of England and Scotland, and established the Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of Great Britain
The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland...
. The act also created a common citizenship, giving Scots free access to English markets. The Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
and Scottish law and courts remained separate. This union was highly controversial among Scots, and increasingly so as the hoped-for economic revival was not immediately forthcoming. When it did come, in the second half of the century, it was Lowland Scotland that received the benefits.
Jacobitism
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
was revived by the unpopularity of the union. In 1708 James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...
, who became known as "The Old Pretender," attempted an invasion with a French fleet, but the Royal Navy prevented any from landing. A more serious attempt occurred in 1715. This rising (known as The 'Fifteen) envisaged simultaneous uprisings in Wales, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, and Scotland. However, government arrests forestalled the southern ventures. In Scotland, John Erskine, Earl of Mar
Earl of Mar
The Mormaer or Earl of Mar is a title that has been created seven times, all in the Peerage of Scotland. The first creation of the earldom was originally the provincial ruler of the province of Mar in north-eastern Scotland...
, nicknamed Bobbin' John, raised the Jacobite clans but proved to be an indecisive leader and an incompetent soldier. Mar captured Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
, but let a smaller government force under the Duke of Argyll
John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll
Field Marshal John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, 1st Duke of Greenwich KG , known as Iain Ruaidh nan Cath or Red John of the Battles, was a Scottish soldier and nobleman.-Early Life:...
hold the Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
plain. Part of Mar's army joined up with risings in northern England and southern Scotland, and the Jacobites fought their way into England before being defeated at the Battle of Preston
Battle of Preston (1715)
The Battle of Preston , also referred to as the Preston Fight, was fought during the Jacobite Rising of 1715 ....
, surrendering on 14 November 1715. The day before, Mar had failed to defeat Argyll at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. At this point, James belatedly landed in Scotland, but was advised that the cause was hopeless. He fled back to France. An attempted Jacobite invasion with Spanish assistance in 1719 met with little support from the clans and ended at the Battle of Glen Shiel
Battle of Glen Shiel
The Battle of Glen Shiel was a battle in Glen Shiel, in the West Highlands of Scotland on 10 June 1719, between British government troops and an alliance of Jacobites and Spaniards, resulting in a victory for the government forces. It was the last close engagement of British and foreign troops on...
.
In 1745 the Jacobite rising known as The 'Forty-Five began. Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...
, known to history as Bonnie Prince Charlie or the Young Pretender, son of the Old Pretender, landed on the island of Eriskay
Eriskay
Eriskay , from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is connected to South Uist by a causeway which was opened in 2001. In the same year Eriskay became the ferry terminal for...
in the Outer Hebrides
Outer Hebrides
The Outer Hebrides also known as the Western Isles and the Long Island, is an island chain off the west coast of Scotland. The islands are geographically contiguous with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland...
. Several clans unenthusiastically joined him. At the outset he was successful, taking Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and then defeating the only government army in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans
Battle of Prestonpans
The Battle of Prestonpans was the first significant conflict in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The battle took place at 4 am on 21 September 1745. The Jacobite army loyal to James Francis Edward Stuart and led by his son Charles Edward Stuart defeated the government army loyal to the Hanoverian...
. They marched into England and got as far as Derby
Derby
Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...
. It became increasingly evident that England would not support a Roman Catholic Stuart monarch. The Jacobite leadership had a crisis of confidence and retreated to Scotland.
The Duke of Cumberland
Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland
Prince William , was a younger son of George II of Great Britain and Caroline of Ansbach, and Duke of Cumberland from 1726. He is generally best remembered for his role in putting down the Jacobite Rising at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, and as such is also known as "Butcher" Cumberland...
crushed the "Forty-Five" and the hopes of the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...
on 16 April 1746. Charles hid in Scotland with the aid of Highlanders until September 1746, when he escaped back to France with the help of Flora MacDonald. He died a broken man in 1788, and his cause died with him.
Post-Jacobite politics
Acts of Union 1707
The Acts of Union were two Parliamentary Acts - the Union with Scotland Act passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act passed in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland - which put into effect the terms of the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on 22 July 1706,...
and the demise of Jacobitism
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
, access to London and the Empire opened up very attractive career opportunities for ambitious middle-class and upper-class Scots, who seized the chance to become entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and soldiers. Thousands of Scots, mainly Lowlanders, took up positions of power in politics, civil service, the army and navy, trade, economics, colonial enterprises and other areas across the nascent British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
. Historian Neil Davidson notes that “after 1746 there was an entirely new level of participation by Scots in political life, particularly outside Scotland”. Davidson also states that “far from being ‘peripheral’ to the British economy, Scotland – or more precisely, the Lowlands – lay at its core”. British officials especially appreciated Scottish soldiers. As the Secretary of War told Parliament in 1751, "I am for having always in our army as many Scottish soldiers as possible...because they are generally more hardy and less mutinous". The national policy of aggressively recruiting Scots for senior civilian positions stirred up resentment among Englishmen. ranging from violent diatribes by John Wilkes
John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives...
, to vulgar jokes and obscene cartoons in the popular press, and the haughty ridicule by intellectuals such as Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer...
that was much resented by Scots. In his great Dictionary Johnson defined oats as, "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." To which Lord Elibank retorted, "Very true, and where will you find such men and such horses?"
Scottish politics in the late 18th century was dominated by the Whigs, with the benign management of Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll
Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, 1st Earl of Ilay was a Scottish nobleman, politician, lawyer, businessman and soldier...
(1682–1761), who was in effect the "viceroy of Scotland" from the 1720s until his death in 1761. Scotland generally supported the king with enthusiasm during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. Henry Dundas
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville PC and Baron Dunira was a Scottish lawyer and politician. He was the first Secretary of State for War and the last person to be impeached in the United Kingdom....
(1742–1811) dominated political affairs in the latter part of the century. Dundas put a brake on intellectual and social change through his ruthless manipulation of patronage in alliance with Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
, until he lost power in 1806.
The main unit of local government was the parish, and since it was also part of the church, the elders imposed public humiliation for what the locals considered immoral behaviour, including fornication, drunkenness, wife beating, cursing and Sabbath breaking. The main focus was on the poor and the landlords ("lairds") and gentry, and their servants, were not subject to the parish's control. The policing system weakened after 1800 and disappeared in most places by the 1850s.
Collapse of the clan system
The support given by the Highland clans to the Jacobite rebellion led London to act decisively after harshly suppressing the rebellion in 1746: the new policy was to systematically destroy the old clan systemScottish clan
Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...
and to encourage or force the chiefs into becoming modern landlords. Those chiefs who went along gave up their traditional roles in leading soldiers and running local courts. They cleared many of their people from the land, and set up highly profitable agricultural practices.
After the battle of Culloden the leaders were declared to be traitors, with Jacobite officers executed and many of the rebel soldiers shipped to the colonies as indentured servants. Key laws included the Dress Act 1746
Dress Act 1746
The Dress Act was part of the Act of Proscription which came into force on 1 August 1746 and made wearing "the Highland Dress" including tartan or a kilt illegal in Scotland as well as reiterating the Disarming Act...
, the Act of Proscription 1746
Act of Proscription 1746
The Act of Proscription was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, which came into effect in Scotland on 1 August 1746. It was part of a series of efforts to assimilate the Scottish Highlands, ending their ability to revolt, and the first of the 'King's laws' which sought to crush the Clan...
, and especially the Heritable Jurisdictions Act
Heritable Jurisdictions Act
The Heritable Jurisdictions Act, 1746 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of Great Britain in 1746. It abolished the traditional rights of jurisdiction afforded to a Scottish clan chief...
of 1746. All aspects of Highland culture, especially the Scottish Gaelic language were forbidden. Parliament also banned the bearing of arms and the wearing of tartans, and limited the activities of the Episcopalian Church. After a generation the Highlands had been transformed and the laws were no longer needed; they were mostly repealed.
Historians debate whether the dramatic changes merely reflect long-term trends that were more-or-less inevitable, or whether government intervention played the decisive role in changing the goals and roles of the chiefs. As Conway (2006) concludes, the new policies "went far beyond earlier efforts to promote economic development in the Highlands and ...represented the first real endeavour to transform the region's social system....the post-rebellion legislation certainly seems to have accelerated the change." However on the other side, Devine (1999) and Ray (2001) argue that long-term economic and social changes were already undermining the clan system.
The major result of these changes were the Highland Clearances
Highland Clearances
The Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and the North American colonies...
, by which much of the population of the Highlands suffered forced displacement as lands were enclosed
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...
, principally so that they could be used for sheep farming. The clearances followed patterns of agricultural change throughout Britain, but were particularly notorious as a result of the late timing, the lack of legal protection for year-by-year tenants under Scots law
Scots law
Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. It is considered a hybrid or mixed legal system as it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. With English law and Northern Irish law it forms the legal system of the United Kingdom; it shares with the two other systems some...
, the abruptness of the change from the traditional clan system, and the brutality of many evictions. One result was a continuous exodus from the land—to the cities, or further afield to England, Canada, America or Australia. Many of those who remained were now crofters
Croft (land)
A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer.- Etymology :...
: poor families living on "crofts"—very small rented farms with indefinite tenure used to raise various crops and animals, with kelping
Kelp
Kelps are large seaweeds belonging to the brown algae in the order Laminariales. There are about 30 different genera....
industry (where men burned kelp for the ashes), fishing, spinning of linen and military service as important sources of revenue.
The era of the Napoleonic wars, 1790–1815, brought prosperity, optimism, and economic growth to the Highlands. The economy grew thanks to higher wages, as well as large scale infrastructure spending such as the Caledonian Canal
Caledonian Canal
The Caledonian Canal is a canal in Scotland that connects the Scottish east coast at Inverness with the west coast at Corpach near Fort William. It was constructed in the early nineteenth century by engineer Thomas Telford, and is a sister canal of the Göta Canal in Sweden, also constructed by...
project. On the East Coast, farmlands were improved, and high prices for cattle brought money to the community. Service in the Army was also attractive to young men from Highlands, who sent pay home and retired there with their army pensions, but the prosperity ended after 1815, and long-run negative factors began to undermine the economic position of the crofters.
Enlightenment
Economic growth and the intellectual benefits of a highly developed university system, together with Scotland's traditional connections to France, then in the throes of the Enlightenment, led Scots intellectuals to develop a uniquely practical branch of humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
to the extent that Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
said "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization
Civilization
Civilization is a sometimes controversial term that has been used in several related ways. Primarily, the term has been used to refer to the material and instrumental side of human cultures that are complex in terms of technology, science, and division of labor. Such civilizations are generally...
". The first major philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment was Francis Hutcheson
Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)
Francis Hutcheson was a philosopher born in Ireland to a family of Scottish Presbyterians who became one of the founding fathers of the Scottish Enlightenment....
, who held the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
from 1729 to 1746. A moral philosopher who produced alternatives to the ideas of Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
, one of his major contributions to world thought was the utilitarian
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory holding that the proper course of action is the one that maximizes the overall "happiness", by whatever means necessary. It is thus a form of consequentialism, meaning that the moral worth of an action is determined only by its resulting outcome, and that one can...
and consequentialist
Consequentialism
Consequentialism is the class of normative ethical theories holding that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness of that conduct...
principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words, "the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers". Much of what is incorporated in the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
(the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his proteges David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
and Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
. Hume became a major figure in the skeptical philosophical
Philosophical skepticism
Philosophical skepticism is both a philosophical school of thought and a method that crosses disciplines and cultures. Many skeptics critically examine the meaning systems of their times, and this examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt...
and empiricist traditions of philosophy. He and other Scottish Enlightenment thinkers developed what he called a 'science of man
Science of man
The science of man is a topic used in David Hume's 18th century experimental philosophy A Treatise of Human Nature...
', which was expressed historically in works by authors including James Burnett, Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson
Adam Ferguson FRSE, also known as Ferguson of Raith was a Scottish philosopher, social scientist and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment...
, John Millar and William Robertson
William Robertson (historian)
William Robertson FRSE FSA was a Scottish historian, minister of religion, and Principal of the University of Edinburgh...
, all of whom merged a scientific study of how humans behave in ancient and primitive cultures with a strong awareness of the determining forces of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced James Madison
James Madison
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...
(and thus the U.S. Constitution) and when popularised by Dugald Stewart
Dugald Stewart
Dugald Stewart was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher and mathematician. His father, Matthew Stewart , was professor of mathematics in the University of Edinburgh .-Life and works:...
, would be the basis of classical liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations
The Wealth of Nations
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, generally referred to by its shortened title The Wealth of Nations, is the magnum opus of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith...
, often considered the first work on modern economics. It had an immediate impact on British economic policy and in the 21st century still framed discussions on globalisation and tariffs. The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of William Cullen
William Cullen
William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and one of the most important professors at the Edinburgh Medical School, during its heyday as the leading center of medical education in the English-speaking world.Cullen was also a central figure in the...
, physician and chemist, James Anderson
James Anderson of Hermiston
James Anderson FRSE FSA was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment...
, an agronomist
Agronomist
An agronomist is a scientist who specializes in agronomy, which is the science of utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. An agronomist is an expert in agricultural and allied sciences, with the exception veterinary sciences.Agronomists deal with interactions between plants, soils, and...
, Joseph Black
Joseph Black
Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was professor of Medicine at University of Glasgow . James Watt, who was appointed as philosophical instrument maker at the same university...
, physicist and chemist, and James Hutton
James Hutton
James Hutton was a Scottish physician, geologist, naturalist, chemical manufacturer and experimental agriculturalist. He is considered the father of modern geology...
, the first modern geologist.
Beginnings of industrialisation
With tariffs with England now abolished, the potential for trade for Scottish merchants was considerable. However, Scotland in 1750 was still a poor rural, agricultural society with a population of 1.3 million. Some progress was visible: agriculture in the Lowlands was steadily upgraded after 1700 and standards remained high. there were the sales of linen and cattle to England, the cash flows from military service, and the tobacco trade that was dominated by Glasgow Tobacco LordsTobacco Lords
The Tobacco Lords were Glasgow merchants who, in the 18th Century made enormous fortunes by trading in tobacco from Great Britain's American Colonies....
after 1740. Merchants who profited from the American trade began investing in leather, textiles, iron, coal, sugar, rope, sailcloth, glassworks, breweries, and soapworks, setting the foundations for the city's emergence as a leading industrial centre after 1815. The tobacco trade collapsed during the American Revolution (1776-83), when its sources were cut off by the British blockade of American ports. However, trade with the West Indies began to made up for the loss of the tobacco business, reflecting the British demand for sugar and the demand in the West Indies for herring and linen goods.
Linen was Scotland's premier industry in the 18th century and formed the basis for the later cotton, jute, and woollen industries. Scottish industrial policy was made by the Board of Trustees for Fisheries and Manufactures in Scotland, which sought to build an economy complementary, not competitive, with England. Since England had woollens, this meant linen. Encouraged and subsidised by the Board of Trustees so it could compete with German products, merchant entrepreneurs became dominant in all stages of linen manufacturing and built up the market share of Scottish linens, especially in the American colonial market. The British Linen Company, established in 1746, was the largest firm in the Scottish linen industry in the 18th century, exporting linen to England and America. As a joint-stock company, it had the right to raise funds through the issue of promissory notes or bonds. With its bonds functioning as bank notes, the company gradually moved into the business of lending and discounting to other linen manufacturers, and in the early 1770s banking became its main activity. It joined the established Scottish banks such as the Bank of Scotland
Bank of Scotland
The Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to...
(Edinburgh, 1695) and the Royal Bank of Scotland
Royal Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland Group is a British banking and insurance holding company in which the UK Government holds an 84% stake. This stake is held and managed through UK Financial Investments Limited, whose voting rights are limited to 75% in order for the bank to retain its listing on the...
(Edinburgh, 1727). Glasgow would soon follow and Scotland had a flourishing financial system by the end of the century. There were over 400 branches, amounting to one office per 7000 people, double the level in England, where banks were also more heavily regulated. Historians have emphasised that the flexibility and dynamism of the Scottish banking system contributed significantly to the rapid development of the economy in the 19th century.
Religious fragmentation
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
that had been created in the Reformation
Scottish Reformation
The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in...
. These fractures were prompted by issues of government and patronage, but reflected a wider division between the Evangelicals and the Moderate Party
Moderate Party (Scotland)
Moderates, in church terms is, normally, though not exclusively, used to refer to an important party of clerics in the Church of Scotland during the 18th century. They are often contrasted with Evangelicals, though this is very much a simplification...
over fears of fanaticism by the former and the acceptance of Enlightenment ideas by the latter. The legal right of lay patrons to present clergymen of their choice to local ecclesiastical livings led to minor schisms from the church. The first in 1733, known as the First Secession
First Secession
The First Secession was an exodus of ministers and members from the Church of Scotland in 1733. Those who took part formed the Associate Presbytery and later the United Secession Church....
and headed by figures including Ebenezer Erskine
Ebenezer Erskine
Ebenezer Erskine was a Scottish minister whose actions led to the establishment of the Secession Church ....
, led to the creation of a series of secessionist churches. The second in 1761 lead to the foundation of the independent Relief Church. These churches gained strength in the Evangelical Revival of the later 18th century.
Long after the triumph of the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
in the Lowlands, Highlanders and Islanders clung to an old-fashioned Christianity infused with animistic folk beliefs and practices. The remoteness of the region and the lack of a Gaelic-speaking clergy undermined the missionary efforts of the established church. The later 18th century saw some success, owing to the efforts of the SSPCK missionaries and to the disruption of traditional society. Catholicism had been reduced to the fringes of the country, particularly the Gaelic-speaking areas of the Highlands and Islands. Conditions also grew worse for Catholics after the Jacobite rebellions and Catholicism was reduced to little more than a poorly-run mission. Also important was Episcopalianism, which had retained supporters through the civil wars and changes of regime in the 17th century. Since most Episcopalians had given their support to the Jacobite rebellions in the early 18th century, they also suffered a decline in fortunes.
Literature
Allan Ramsay (poet)
Allan Ramsay was a Scottish poet , playwright, publisher, librarian and wig-maker.-Life and career:...
(1686-1758) laid the foundations of a reawakening of interest in older Scottish literature, as well as leading the trend for pastoral poetry, helping to develop the Habbie stanza as a poetic form. James Macpherson
James Macpherson
James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...
was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation, claiming to have found poetry written by Ossian
Ossian
Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...
, he published translations that acquired international popularity, being proclaimed as a Celtic equivalent of the Classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
epics
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
. Fingal written in 1762 was speedily translated into many European languages, and its deep appreciation of natural beauty and the melancholy tenderness of its treatment of the ancient legend did more than any single work to bring about the Romantic movement
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
in European, and especially in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, literature, influencing Herder and Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
. Eventually it became clear that the poems were not direct translations from the Gaelic, but flowery adaptations made to suit the aesthetic expectations of his audience. Both the major literary figures of the following century, Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
and Walter Scott, would be highly influenced by the Ossian cycle. Burns, an Ayrshire poet and lyricist, is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and a major figure in the Romantic movement. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
from across Scotland, often revising or adapting
Literary adaptation
Literary adaptation is the adapting of a literary source to another genre or medium, such as a film, a stage play, or even ace video game...
them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne
Auld Lang Syne
"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
" is often sung at Hogmanay
Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...
(the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae
Scots Wha Hae
Scots Wha Hae is a patriotic song of Scotland which served for centuries as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but has lately been largely supplanted by Scotland the Brave and Flower of Scotland....
" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem
National anthem
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...
of the country.
Education
Presbyterian polity
Presbyterian polity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply...
oversaw the quality of the education. The headmaster or "dominie" was often university educated and enjoyed high local prestige. The kirk schools were active in the rural lowlands but played a minor role in the Highlands, the islands, and in the fast-growing industrial towns and cities. The schools taught in English, not in Gaelic, because that language was seen as a leftover of Catholicism and was not an expression of Scottish nationalism. In cities such as Glasgow the Catholics operated their own schools, which directed their youth into clerical and middle class occupations, as well as religious vocations.
A "democratic myth" emerged in the 19th century to the effect that many a "lad of pairts" had been able to rise up through the system to take high office and that literacy was much more widespread in Scotland than in neighbouring states, particularly England. Historical research has largely undermined the myth. Kirk schools were not free, attendance was not compulsory and they generally imparted only basic literacy such as the ability to read the Bible. Poor children, starting at age 7, were done by age 8 or 9; the majority were finished by age 11 or 12. The result was widespread basic reading ability; since there was an extra fee for writing, half the people never learned to write. Scots were not significantly better educated than the English and other contemporary nations. A few talented poor boys did go to university, but usually they were helped by aristocratic or gentry sponsors. Most of them became poorly paid teachers or ministers, and none became important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment or the Industrial Revolution.
By the 18th century there were five universities in Scotland, at Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrews and King's
King's College, Aberdeen
King's College in Old Aberdeen, Scotland is a formerly independent university founded in 1495 and an integral part of the University of Aberdeen...
and Marischial
Marischal College
Marischal College is a building and former university in the centre of the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland. The building is owned by the University of Aberdeen and used for ceremonial events...
Colleges in Aberdeen, compared with only two in England. Originally oriented to clerical and legal training, after the religious and political upheavals of the 17th century they recovered with a lecture-based curriculum that was able to embrace economics and science, offering a high quality liberal education to the sons of the nobility and gentry. It helped the universities to become major centres of medical education and to put Scotland at the forefront of Enlightenment thinking.
19th century
Scotland's transformation into a rich leader of modern industry came suddenly and unexpectedly. The population grew steadily in the 19th century, from 1,608,000 in the census of 1801 to 2,889,000 in 1851 and 4,472,000 in 1901. The economy, long based on agriculture, began to industrialize after 1790. At first the leading industry, based in the west, was the spinning and weaving of cotton. In 1861 the American Civil War suddenly cut off the supplies of raw cotton and the industry never recovered. Thanks to its many entrepreneurs and engineers, and its large stock of easily mined coal, Scotland became a world centre for engineering, shipbuilding, and locomotive construction, with steel replacing iron after 1870.Party politics
The Scottish Reform Act 1832Scottish Reform Act 1832
The Scottish Reform Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament that introduced wide-ranging changes to the election laws of Scotland. The act was passed at approximately the same time as the Reform Act 1832, which applied to England and Wales. The chief architects of the act were Francis Jeffrey and Henry...
increased the number of Scottish MPs and significantly widened the franchise to include more of the middle classes. From this point until the end of the century, the Whigs and (after 1859) their successors the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, managed to gain a majority of the Westminster Parliamentary seats for Scotland, although these were often outnumbered by the much larger number of English and Welsh Conservatives. The English-educated Scottish peer Lord Aberdeen
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen
George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen KG, KT, FRS, PC , styled Lord Haddo from 1791 to 1801, was a Scottish politician, successively a Tory, Conservative and Peelite, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1852 until 1855.-Early life:Born in Edinburgh on 28 January 1784, he...
(1784–1860) led a coalition government from 1852-5, but in general very few Scots held office in the government. From the mid-century there were increasing calls for Home Rule for Scotland and when the Conservative Lord Salisbury
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC , styled Lord Robert Cecil before 1865 and Viscount Cranborne from June 1865 until April 1868, was a British Conservative statesman and thrice Prime Minister, serving for a total of over 13 years...
became prime minister in 1885 he responded to pressure by reviving the post of Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
, which had been in abeyance since 1746. He appointed the Duke of Richmond
Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond
Charles Henry Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, 6th Duke of Lennox, and 1st Duke of Gordon KG PC , styled Lord Settrington until 1819 and Earl of March between 1819 and 1860, was a British Conservative politician.-Background and education:Born at Richmond House, London, he was the son of Charles...
, a wealthy landowner who was both Chancellor of Aberdeen University and Lord Lieutenant of Banff. Towards the end of the century Prime Ministers of Scottish descent included the Tory, Peelite
Peelite
The Peelites were a breakaway faction of the British Conservative Party, and existed from 1846 to 1859. They were called "Peelites" because they were initially led by Sir Robert Peel, who was the British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846....
and Liberal William E. Gladstone, who held the office four times between 1868 and 1894. The first Scottish Liberal to become prime minister was the Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
Archibald Philip Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery, KG, PC was a British Liberal statesman and Prime Minister. Between the death of his father, in 1851, and the death of his grandfather, the 4th Earl, in 1868, he was known by the courtesy title of Lord Dalmeny.Rosebery was a Liberal Imperialist who...
, from 1894-95, like Aberdeen before him a product of the English education system. In the later 19th century the issue of Irish Home Rule led to a split among the Liberals, with a minority breaking away to form the Liberal Unionists in 1886. The growing importance of the working classes was marked by Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie
James Keir Hardie, Sr. , was a Scottish socialist and labour leader, and was the first Independent Labour Member of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom...
's success in the Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888
Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888
The Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888 was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 April 1888 for the British House of Commons constituency of Mid Lanarkshire.- Previous MP :...
, leading to the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party, which was absorbed into the Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader.
Industrial expansion
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
cut off the supplies of raw cotton. The industry never recovered, but by that time Scotland had developed heavy industries based on its coal and iron resources. The invention of the hot blast for smelting iron (1828) revolutionised the Scottish iron industry. As a result Scotland became a centre for engineering, shipbuilding and the production of locomotives. Toward the end of the 19th century, steel production largely replaced iron production. Coal mining continued to grow into the 20th century, producing the fuel to heat homes, factories and drive steam engines locomotives and steamships. By 1914 there were 1,000,000 coal miners in Scotland. The stereotype emerged early on of Scottish colliers as brutish, non-religious and socially isolated serfs; that was an exaggeration, for their life style resembled the miners everywhere, with a strong emphasis on masculinity, equalitarianism, group solidarity, and support for radical labour movements.
Britain was the world leader in the construction of railways, and their use to expand trade and coal supplies. The first successful locomotive-powered line in Scotland, between Monkland and Kirkintilloch
Kirkintilloch
Kirkintilloch is a town and former burgh in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It lies on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about eight miles northeast of central Glasgow...
, opened in 1831. Not only was good passenger service established by the late 1840s, but an excellent network of freight lines reduce the cost of shipping coal, and made products manufactured in Scotland competitive throughout Britain. For example, railways opened the London market to Scottish beef and milk. They enabled the Aberdeen Angus to become a cattle breed of worldwide reputation. By 1900 Scotland had 3500 miles of railway; their main economic contribution was moving supplies in and product out for heavy industry, especially coal-mining.
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :...
shipyard at Greenock. After 1860 the Clydeside shipyards specialised in steamships made of iron (after 1870, made of steel), which rapidly replaced the wooden sailing vessels of both the merchant fleets and the battle fleets of the world. It became the world's pre-eminent shipbuilding centre. Clydebuilt became an industry benchmark of quality, and the river's shipyards were given contracts for warships.
The industrial developments, while they brought work and wealth, were so rapid that housing, town-planning, and provision for public health did not keep pace with them, and for a time living conditions in some of the towns and cities were notoriously bad, with overcrowding, high infant mortality, and growing rates of tuberculosis. The companies attracted rural workers, as well as immigrants from Catholic Ireland, by inexpensive company housing that was a dramatic move upward from the inner-city slums. This paternalistic policy led many owners to indoors government sponsored housing programs as well as self-help projects among the respectable working class.
Intellectual life
James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...
, Lord Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging...
, and the engineers and inventors James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
and William Murdoch
William Murdoch
William Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and long-term inventor.Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton and Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten years, spending most of the rest of his life in Birmingham, England.He was the inventor of the oscillating steam...
, whose work was critical to the technological developments of the Industrial Revolution throughout Britain.
In literature the most successful figure of the mid-nineteenth century was Walter Scott, who began as a poet and also collected and published Scottish ballads. His first prose work, Waverley
Waverley (novel)
Waverley is an 1814 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Initially published anonymously in 1814 as Scott's first venture into prose fiction, Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel. It became so popular that Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of...
in 1814, is often called the first historical novel
Historical novel
According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...
. It launched a highly successful career that probably more than any other helped define and popularise Scottish cultural identity. In the late 19th century, a number of Scottish-born authors achieved international reputations. Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's work included the urban Gothic
Urban Gothic
Urban Gothic was a horror based series of short stories shown on Five running for two series between May 2000 and December 2001. Filmed on a comparatively low budget, it nonetheless acquired a cult following despite its late air time and the patchy coverage of Five...
novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and played a major part in developing the historical adventure in books like Kidnapped
Kidnapped (novel)
Kidnapped is a historical fiction adventure novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. Written as a "boys' novel" and first published in the magazine Young Folks from May to July 1886, the novel has attracted the praise and admiration of writers as diverse as Henry James, Jorge Luis...
and Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
. Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
stories helped found the tradition of detective fiction. The "kailyard tradition
Kailyard school
The Kailyard school of Scottish fiction was developed about the 1890s as a reaction against what was seen as increasingly coarse writing representing Scottish life complete with all its blemishes. It has been considered as being an overly sentimental representation of rural life, cleansed of real...
" at the end of the century, brought elements of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
back into fashion as can be seen in the work of figures like J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
, most famous for his creation of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
, and George MacDonald
George MacDonald
George MacDonald was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister.Known particularly for his poignant fairy tales and fantasy novels, George MacDonald inspired many authors, such as W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit and Madeleine L'Engle. It was C.S...
, whose works, including Phantasies
Phantasies
Phantasies is the name of a series of animated cartoons produced by the Screen Gems studio for Columbia Pictures from 1939 to 1946. The series, featuring characters such as Willoughby Wren and Superkatt, is notable as being the last theatrical animated series produced in black-and-white...
, played a major part in the creation of the fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
genre.
Scotland also played a major part in the development of art and architecture. The Glasgow School
Glasgow School
The Glasgow School was a circle of influential modern artists and designers who began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to sometime around 1910. Representative groups were: The Four , the Glasgow Girls and the Glasgow Boys...
, which developed in the late 19th century, and flourished in the early 20th century, produced a distinctive blend of influences including the Celtic Revival
Celtic Revival
Celtic Revival covers a variety of movements and trends, mostly in the 19th and 20th centuries, which drew on the traditions of Celtic literature and Celtic art, or in fact more often what art historians call Insular art...
the Arts and Crafts Movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
, and Japonisme, which found favour throughout the modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
world of continental Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and helped define the Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
style. Among the most prominent members were the loose collective of The Four
The Four
The Four can refer to:*The four prominent leaders of the Glasgow School*Four , a group of fictional comic book supervillains from the series Planetary*The Four , a 2008 TVB drama series...
: acclaimed architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design...
, his wife the painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and glass artist Margaret MacDonald
Margaret MacDonald (artist)
Margaret MacDonald Mackintosh was a Scottish artist whose design work became one of the defining features of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s....
, her sister the artist Frances
Frances MacDonald
Frances MacDonald was a Scottish artist whose design work was a prominent feature of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s.The sister of better known artist Margaret MacDonald, she was born near at Tipton, near Wolverhampton, and moved to Glasgow with her family in 1890...
, and her husband, the artist and teacher Herbert MacNair
Herbert MacNair
James Herbert MacNair , was a Scottish artist, designer and teacher whose work contributed to the development of the "Glasgow Style" during the 1890s....
.
Decline and romanticism of the Highlands
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
in 1815, but by the 19th century it had largely been abandoned by the ordinary people. In the 1820s, as part of the Romantic revival
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, tartan and the kilt were adopted by members of the social elite, not just in Scotland, but across Europe, prompted by the popularity of Macpherson's Ossian cycle and then Walter Scott's Waverley novels. The world paid attention to their literary redefinition of Scottishness, as they forged an image largely based on characteristics in polar opposition to those associated with England and modernity. This new identity made it possible for Scottish culture to become integrated into a wider European and North American context, not to mention tourist sites, but it also locked in a sense of "otherness" which Scotland began to shed only in the late 20th century. Scott's "staging" of the royal Visit of King George IV to Scotland
Visit of King George IV to Scotland
The 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since 1650. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring forward a proposed visit to Scotland, to divert him from diplomatic intrigue at the Congress of Verona.The visit increased his popularity...
in 1822 and the king's wearing of tartan, resulted in a massive upsurge in demand for kilts and tartans that could not be met by the Scottish linen industry. The designation of individual clan tartans was largely defined in this period and became a major symbol of Scottish identity. The fashion for all things Scottish was maintained by Queen Victoria, who help secure the identity of Scotland as a tourist resort, with Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle
Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...
in Aberdeenshire becoming a major royal residence from 1852.
Despite these changes the highlands remained very poor and traditional, with few connections to the uplift of the Scottish Enlightenment and little role in the Industrial Revolution. A handful of powerful families, typified by the dukes of Argyll
Duke of Argyll
Duke of Argyll is a title, created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1701 and in the Peerage of the United Kingdom in 1892. The Earls, Marquesses, and Dukes of Argyll were for several centuries among the most powerful, if not the most powerful, noble family in Scotland...
, Atholl
Duke of Atholl
Duke of Atholl, alternatively Duke of Athole, named after Atholl in Scotland, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland held by the head of Clan Murray...
, Buccleuch
Duke of Buccleuch
The title Duke of Buccleuch , formerly also spelt Duke of Buccleugh, was created in the Peerage of Scotland on 20 April 1663 for the Duke of Monmouth, who was the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II of Scotland, England, and Ireland and who had married Anne Scott, 4th Countess of Buccleuch.Anne...
, and Sutherland
Duke of Sutherland
Duke of Sutherland, derived from Sutherland in Scotland, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom held by the head of the Leveson-Gower family. It was created by William IV in 1833 for George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Marquess of Stafford...
, owned the best lands and controlled local political, legal and economic affairs. Particularly after the end of the boom created by the Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars (1790-1815), these landlords needed cash to maintain their position in London society, and had less need of soldiers. They turned to money rents, displaced farmers to raise sheep, and downplayed the traditional patriarchal relationship that had historically sustained the clans. This was exacerbated after the repeal of the Corn Laws
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were trade barriers designed to protect cereal producers in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846. The barriers were introduced by the Importation Act 1815 and repealed by the Importation Act 1846...
in mid-century, when Britain adopted a free trade policy, and grain imports from America undermined the profitability of crop production. The Irish potato famine of the 1840s was caused by a plant disease that reached the Highlands in 1846, where 150,000 people faced disaster because their food supply was largely potatoes (with a little herring, oatmeal and milk). They were rescued by an effective emergency relief system that stands in dramatic contrast to the failures of relief in Ireland.
The unequal concentration of land ownership remained an emotional subject and eventually became a cornerstone of liberal radicalism. The politically powerless poor crofters embraced the popularly oriented, fervently evangelical Presbyterian revival
Christian revival
Christian revival is a term that generally refers to a specific period of increased spiritual interest or renewal in the life of a church congregation or many churches, either regionally or globally...
after 1800 and the breakaway "Free Church" after 1843. This evangelical movement was led by lay preachers who themselves came from the lower strata, and whose preaching was implicitly critical of the established order. This energised the crofters and separated them from the landlords, preparing them for their successful and violent challenge to the landlords in the 1880s through the Highland Land League
Highland Land League
The first Highland Land League emerged as a distinct political force in Scotland during the 1880s, with its power base in the country's Highlands and Islands. It was known also as the Highland Land Law Reform Association and the Crofters' Party...
. Violence began on the Isle of Skye when Highland landlords cleared their lands for sheep and deer parks. It was quieted when the government stepped in passing the Crofters' Holdings (Scotland) Act, 1886 to reduce rents, guarantee fixity of tenure, and break up large estates to provide crofts for the homeless. In 1885 three Independent Crofter candidates were elected to Parliament, leading to explicit security for the Scottish smallholders; the legal right to bequeath tenancies to descendants; and creating a Crofting Commission. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
gained most of their votes.
Emigration
Scots-born migrants that played a leading role in the foundation and development of the United States included cleric and revolutionary John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon
John Witherspoon was a signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Jersey. As president of the College of New Jersey , he trained many leaders of the early nation and was the only active clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration...
, sailor John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
, industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
and scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
. In Canada they included soldier and governor of Quebec James Murray, Prime Minister John A. MacDonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...
and politician and social reformer Tommy Douglas
Tommy Douglas
Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, was a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social democratic politician...
. For Australia they included soldier and governor Lachlan Macquarie
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...
, governor and scientist Thomas Brisbane
Thomas Brisbane
Major-General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet GCH, GCB, FRS, FRSE was a British soldier, colonial Governor and astronomer.-Early life:...
and Prime Minister Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher
Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 Labor ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation...
. For New Zealand they included politician Peter Fraser and outlaw James Mckenzie. By the 21st century, there would be about as many people who were Scotch Canadians and Scottish American
Scottish American
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scots-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage...
s as the 5 million remaining in Scotland.
Religious schism and revival
After prolonged years of struggle, in 1834 the Evangelicals gained control of the General AssemblyGeneral Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body[1] An Introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland, A Gordon McGillivray, 2nd Edition .-Church courts:As a Presbyterian church,...
and passed the Veto Act, which allowed congregations to reject unwanted "intrusive" presentations to livings by patrons. The following "Ten Years' Conflict" of legal and political wrangling ended in defeat for the non-intrusionists in the civil courts. The result was a schism from the church by some of the non-intrusionists led by Dr Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers
Thomas Chalmers , Scottish mathematician, political economist, divine and a leader of the Free Church of Scotland, was born at Anstruther in Fife.-Overview:...
known as the Great Disruption of 1843
Disruption of 1843
The Disruption of 1843 was a schism within the established Church of Scotland, in which 450 ministers of the Church broke away, over the issue of the Church's relationship with the State, to form the Free Church of Scotland...
. Roughly a third of the clergy, mainly from the North and Highlands, formed the separate Free Church of Scotland. The evangelical Free Churches, which were more accepting of Gaelic language and culture, grew rapidly in the Highlands and Islands, appealing much more strongly than did the established church. Chalmers's ideas shaped the breakaway group. He stressed a social vision that revived and preserved Scotland's communal traditions at a time of strain on the social fabric of the country. Chalmers's idealized small equalitarian, kirk-based, self-contained communities that recognized the individuality of their members and the need for cooperation. That vision also affected the mainstream Presbyterian churches, and by the 1870s it had been assimilated by the established Church of Scotland. Chalmers's ideals demonstrated that the church was concerned with the problems of urban society, and they represented a real attempt to overcome the social fragmentation that took place in industrial towns and cities.
In the late 19th century the major debates were between fundamentalist Calvinists and theological liberals, who rejected a literal interpretation of the Bible. This resulted in a further split in the Free Church as the rigid Calvinists broke away to form the Free Presbyterian Church
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed in 1893 and claims to be the spiritual descendant of the Scottish Reformation...
in 1893. There were, however, also moves towards reunion, beginning with the unification of some secessionist churches into the United Secession Church
United Secession Church
The United Secession Church was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was founded in 1820 by a union of various churches which had seceded from the established Church of Scotland and existed until 1847....
in 1820, which united with the Relief Church in 1847 to form the United Presbyterian Church
United Presbyterian Church of Scotland
The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination. It was formed in 1847 by the union of the United Secession Church and the Relief Church, and in 1900 merged with the Free Church of Scotland to form the United Free Church of Scotland, which in turn united with...
, which in turn joined with the Free Church in 1900 to form the United Free Church of Scotland
United Free Church of Scotland
The United Free Church of Scotland is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland...
. The removal of legislation on lay patronage would allow the majority of the Free Church to rejoin Church of Scotland in 1929. The schisms left small denominations including the Free Presbyterians
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland
The Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed in 1893 and claims to be the spiritual descendant of the Scottish Reformation...
and a remnant that had not merged in 1900 as the Free Church
Free Church of Scotland (post 1900)
Free Church of Scotland is that part of the original Free Church of Scotland that remained outside of the union with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in 1900...
.
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic Emancipation
Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...
in 1829 and the influx of large numbers of Irish immigrants, particularly after the famine years of the late 1840s, principally to the growing lowland centres like Glasgow, led to a transformation in the fortunes of Catholicism. In 1878, despite opposition, a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy was restored to the country, and Catholicism became a significant denomination within Scotland. Episcopalianism also revived in the 19th century as the issue of succession receded, becoming established as the Episcopal Church in Scotland in 1804, as an autonomous organisation in communion with the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. Baptist
Baptist Union of Scotland
The Baptist Union of Scotland is the main denomination of Baptist churches in Scotland.-From the 1650s to 1869:Baptists first arrived in Scotland with the armies of English republican Oliver Cromwell in the 1650s, who established small churches in Leith, Perth, Cupar, Ayr and Aberdeen, but they did...
, Congregationalist and Methodist churches had appeared in Scotland in the 18th century, but did not begin significant growth until the 19th century, partly because more radical and evangelical traditions already existed within the Church of Scotland and the free churches. From 1879 they were joined by the evangelical revivalism of the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
, which attempted to make major inroads in the growing urban centres.
Development of state education
Industrialisation, urbanisation and the Disruption of 1843 all undermined the tradition of parish schools. From 1830 the state began to fund buildings with grants, then from 1846 it was funding schools by direct sponsorship, and in 1872 Scotland moved to a system like that in England of state-sponsored largely free schools, run by local school boards. Overall administration was in the hands of the Scotch (later Scottish) Education Department in London. Education was now compulsory from five to thirteen and many new board schools were built. Larger urban school boards established "higher grade" (secondary) schools as a cheaper alternative to the burgh schools. The Scottish Education Department introduced a Leaving Certificate Examination in 1888 to set national standards for secondary education and in 1890 school fees were abolished, creating a state-funded national system of free basic education and common examinations.At the beginning of the 19th century Scottish universities had no entrance exam, students typically entered at ages of 15 or 16, attended for as little as two years, chose which lectures to attend and left without qualifications. After two commissions of enquiry in 1826 and 1876 and reforming acts of parliament in 1858 and 1889, the curriculum and system of graduation were reformed to meet the needs of the emerging middle classes and the professions. Entrance examinations equivalent to the School Leaving Certificate were introduced and average ages of entry rose to 17 or 18. Standard patterns of graduation in the arts curriculum offered 3-year ordinary and 4-year honours degrees and separate science faculties were able to move away from the compulsory Latin, Greek and philosophy of the old MA curriculum. The historic University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
became a leader in British higher education by providing the educational needs of youth from the urban and commercial classes, as opposed to the upper class. It prepared students for non-commercial careers in government, the law, medicine, education, and the ministry and a smaller group for careers in science and engineering. St Andrews pioneered the admission of women to Scottish universities, creating the Lady Licentiate in Arts (LLA), which proved highly popular. From 1892 Scottish universities could admit and graduate women and the numbers of women at Scottish universities steadily increased until the early 20th century.
War and political realignment
In the Khaki ElectionKhaki Election
In British political history, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was returned to office with an increased majority over the Liberal Party...
of 1900, nationalist concern with the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
meant that the Conservatives and their Liberal Unionist allies gained a majority of Scottish seats for the first time, although the Liberals regained their ascendancy in the next election. The Unionists and Conservatives merged in 1912, usually known as the Conservatives in England and Wales, they adopted the name Unionist Party in Scotland. Scots played a major part in the leadership of UK political parties producing a Conservative Prime Minister in Arthur Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
(1902-05) and a Liberal one in Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman GCB was a British Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and Leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1908. He also served as Secretary of State for War twice, in the Cabinets of Gladstone and Rosebery...
(1905–08). Various organisations, including the Independent Labour Party, joined to make the British Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
in 1906, with Keir Hardie as its first chairman.
First World War 1914-18
Scotland played a major role in the British effort in the First World War. It especially provided manpower, ships, machinery, food (particularly fish) and money, engaging with the conflict with some enthusiasm. With a population of 4.8 million in 1911, Scotland sent 690,000 men to the war, of whom 74,000 died in combat or from disease, and 150,000 were seriously wounded. Scottish urban centres, with their poverty and unemployment were favourite recruiting grounds of the regular British army, and Dundee, where the female dominated jute industry limited male employment had one of the highest proportion of reservists and serving soldiers than almost any other British city. Concern for their families' standard of living made men hesitate to enlist; voluntary enlistment rates went up after the government guaranteed a weekly stipend for life to the survivors of men who were killed or disabled. After the introduction of conscription from January 1916 every part of the country was affected. Occasionally Scottish troops made up large proportions of the active combatants, and suffered corresponding loses, as at the Battle of LoosBattle of Loos
The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. It marked the first time the British used poison gas during the war, and is also famous for the fact that it witnessed the first large-scale use of 'new' or Kitchener's Army...
, where there were three full Scots divisions and other Scottish units. Thus, although Scots were only 10 per cent of the British population, they made up 15 per cent of the national armed forces and eventually accounted for 20 per cent of the dead. Some areas, like the thinly populated Island of Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris
Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides make up the largest island in Scotland. This is the largest single island of the British Isles after Great Britain and Ireland.-Geography:...
suffered some of the highest proportional losses of any part of Britain. Clydeside shipyards and the engineering shops of west-central Scotland became the most significant centre of shipbuilding and arms production in the Empire. In the Lowlands, particularly Glasgow, poor working and living conditions led to industrial and political unrest. After the end of the war in June 1919 the German fleet interned in Scapa Flow was scuttled
Scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow
The scuttling of the German fleet took place at the Royal Navy's base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland, after the end of the First World War. The High Seas Fleet had been interned there under the terms of the Armistice whilst negotiations took place over the fate of the ships...
by its crews, to avoid its ships being taken over by the victorious allies.
Interwar politcs
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
revolution, setting the social and geographical electoral pattern in Scotland that would last until the late 20th century. The fear of the left had been fuelled by the emergence of a radical movement led by militant trades unionists. John MacLean
John Maclean (Scottish socialist)
John Maclean MA was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist. He is primarily known as a Marxist educator and notable for his outspoken opposition to the First World War....
emerged as a key political figure in what became known as Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley...
, and in January 1919, the British Government, fearful of a revolutionary uprising, deployed tanks and soldiers in central Glasgow. Formerly a Liberal stronghold, the industrial districts switched to Labour by 1922, with a base in the Irish Catholic working class districts. Women were especially active in building neighbourhood solidarity on housing and rent issues. However, the "Reds" operated within the Labour Party and had little influence in Parliament; in the face of heavy unemployment the workers' mood changed to passive despair by the late 1920s. Scottish educated Andrew Bonar Law
Andrew Bonar Law
Andrew Bonar Law was a British Conservative Party statesman and Prime Minister. Born in the colony of New Brunswick, he is the only British Prime Minister to have been born outside the British Isles...
led a Conservative government from 1922 to 1923 and another Scot, Ramsey MacDonald, would be the Labour Party's first Prime Minister in 1924 and again from 1929-35.
With all the main parties committed to the Union, new nationalist and independent political groupings began to emerge, including the National Party of Scotland
National Party of Scotland
The National Party of Scotland was a political party in Scotland and a forerunner of the current Scottish National Party.The NPS was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party...
in 1928 and Scottish Party
Scottish Party
The Scottish Party was formed in 1930 by a group of members of the Unionist Party who favoured the establishment of a Dominion Scottish Parliament within the British Empire and Commonwealth...
in 1930. They joined to form the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
(SNP) in 1934, with the goal of creating an independent Scotland
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
, but it enjoyed little electoral success in the Westminster system.
Second World War 1939-45
As in World War I, Scapa FlowScapa Flow
right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...
in Orkney served as an important Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
base. Attacks on Scapa Flow and Rosyth
Rosyth
Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....
gave RAF fighters their first successes downing bombers in the Firth of Forth
Firth of Forth
The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...
and East Lothian
East Lothian
East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....
. The shipyards and heavy engineering factories in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Clydeside played a key part in the war effort, and suffered attacks from the Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, enduring great destruction and loss of life. As transatlantic voyages involved negotiating north-west Britain, Scotland played a key part in the battle of the North Atlantic. Shetland's relative proximity to occupied Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
resulted in the Shetland Bus
Shetland bus
The Shetland Bus was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Shetland, Scotland, and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the German occupation ended on 8 May 1945. From mid-1942 the official name of the group was "Norwegian Naval Independent Unit"...
by which fishing boats helped Norwegians fled the Nazis, and expeditions across the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
to assist resistance. Significant individual contributions to the war effort by Scots included the invention of radar by Robert Watson-Watt
Robert Watson-Watt
Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt, KCB, FRS, FRAeS is considered by many to be the "inventor of radar". Development of radar, initially nameless, was first started elsewhere but greatly expanded on 1 September 1936 when Watson-Watt became...
, which was invaluable in the Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, as was the leadership at RAF Fighter Command
RAF Fighter Command
RAF Fighter Command was one of three functional commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War, gaining recognition in the Battle of Britain. The Command continued until 17 November 1943, when...
of Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding. Perhaps Scotland's most unusual wartime episode occurred in 1941 when Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
flew to Renfrewshire, possibly intending to broker a peace deal through the Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton
Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage , and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas...
.
In World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
appointed Labour politician Tom Johnston as Secretary of State for Scotland
Secretary of State for Scotland
The Secretary of State for Scotland is the principal minister of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Scotland. He heads the Scotland Office , a government department based in London and Edinburgh. The post was created soon after the Union of the Crowns, but was...
in February 1941; he controlled Scottish affairs until the war ended. He launched numerous initiatives to promote Scotland, attracting businesses and new jobs through his new Scottish Council of Industry. He set up 32 committees to deal with social and economic problems, ranging from juvenile delinquency to sheep farming. He regulated rents, and set up a prototype national health service, using new hospitals set up in the expectation of large numbers of casualties from German bombing. His most successful venture was setting up a system of hydro electricity using water power in the Highlands. A long-standing supporter of the Home Rule
Home rule
Home rule is the power of a constituent part of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been devolved to it by the central government....
movement, Johnston persuaded Churchill of the need to counter the nationalist threat north of the border and created a Scottish Council of State and a Council of Industry as institutions to devolve some power away from Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
.
Economic boom and stagnation
The years before the First World War were the golden age of the inshore fisheries. Landings reached new heights, and Scottish catches dominated Europe's herring trade, accounting for a third of the British catch. High productivity came about thanks to the transition to more productive steam-powered boats, while the rest of Europe's fishing fleets were slower because they were still powered by sails. A few industries did grow, such as chemicals and whisky, which developed a global market for premium "Scotch". However, in general the Scottish economy stagnated leading to growing unemployment and political agitation among industrial workers.A boom was created by the First World War, with the shipbuilding industry expanding by a third, but a serious depression hit the economy by 1922. The most skilled craftsmen were especially hard hit, because there were few alternative uses for their specialised skills. The main social indicators such as poor health, bad housing, and long-term mass unemployment, pointed to terminal social and economic stagnation at best, or even a downward spiral. The heavy dependence on obsolescent heavy industry and mining was a central problem, and no one offered workable solutions. The despair reflected what Finlay (1994) describes as a widespread sense of hopelessness that prepared local business and political leaders to accept a new orthodoxy of centralised government economic planning when it arrived during the Second World War.
In World War II, despite extensive bombing by the Luftwaffe, Scottish industry came out of the depression slump by a dramatic expansion of its industrial activity, absorbing unemployed men and many women as well. The shipyards were the centre of more activity, but many smaller industries produced the machinery needed by the British bombers, tanks and warships. Agriculture prospered, as did all sectors except for coal mining, which was operating mines near exhaustion. Real wages, adjusted for inflation, rose 25 per cent, and unemployment temporarily vanished. Increased income, and the more equal distribution of food, obtained through a tight rationing system, dramatically improved the health and nutrition; the average height of 13-year-olds in Glasgow increased by 2 inches (50.8 mm).
End of mass migration
While emigration began to tail off in England and Wales after the First World War, it continued apace in Scotland, with 400,000 Scots, ten per cent of the population, estimated to have left the country between 1921 and 1931. The economic stagnation was only one factor; other push factors included a zest for travel and adventure, and the pull factors of better job opportunities abroad, personal networks to link into, and the basic cultural similarity of the United States, Canada, and Australia. Government subsidies for travel and relocation facilitated the decision to emigrate. Personal networks of family and friends who had gone ahead and wrote back, or sent money, prompted emigrants to retrace their paths. When the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
hit in the 1930s there were no easily available jobs in the US and Canada and emigration fell to less than 50,000 a year, bringing to an end the period of mass migrations that had opened in the mid-18th century.
Literary renaissance
In the early 20th century there was a new surge of activity in Scottish literature, influenced by modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
and resurgent nationalism, known as the Scottish Renaissance. The leading figure in the movement was Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid
Hugh MacDiarmid is the pen name of Christopher Murray Grieve , a significant Scottish poet of the 20th century. He was instrumental in creating a Scottish version of modernism and was a leading light in the Scottish Renaissance of the 20th century...
(the pseudonym of Christopher Murray Grieve). MacDiarmid attempted to revive the Scots language as a medium for serious literature in poetic works including "A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle is a long poem by Hugh MacDiarmid written in Scots and published in 1926. It is composed as a form of monologue with influences from stream of consciousness genres of writing...
" (1936), developing a form of Synthetic Scots that combined different regional dialects and archaic terms. Other writers that emerged in this period, and are often treated as part of the movement, include the poets Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir
Edwin Muir was an Orcadian poet, novelist and translator born on a farm in Deerness on the Orkney Islands. He was remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry in plain language with few stylistic preoccupations....
and William Soutar
William Soutar
William Soutar was a Scottish poet, born 1898. He served in the navy in World War I, and afterwards studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he encountered the work of Hugh MacDiarmid. This led to a radical alteration in his work, and he became a leading poet of the Scottish Literary...
, the novelists Neil Gunn, George Blake
George Blake
George Blake is a former British spy known for having been a double agent in the service of the Soviet Union. Discovered in 1961 and sentenced to 42 years in prison, he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1966 and fled to the USSR...
, Nan Shepherd
Nan Shepherd
Nan Shepherd was a Scottish novelist and poet.-Life:She attended Aberdeen High School for Girls and graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1915, subsequently lecturing for the Aberdeen College of Education.After she retired in 1956 she edited the Aberdeen University review...
, A J Cronin, Naomi Mitchison
Naomi Mitchison
Naomi May Margaret Mitchison, CBE was a Scottish novelist and poet. She was appointed CBE in 1981; she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, CBE since 5 October 1964 .- Childhood and family background :Naomi Margaret Haldane was...
, Eric Linklater
Eric Linklater
Eric Robert Russell Linklater was a British writer, known for more than 20 novels, as well as short stories, travel writing and autobiography, and military history.-Life:...
and Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Lewis Grassic Gibbon was the pseudonym of James Leslie Mitchell , a Scottish writer.-Biography:...
, and the playwright James Bridie
James Bridie
James Bridie was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and surgeon whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor....
. All were born within a fifteen-year period (1887 and 1901) and, although they cannot be described as members of a single school, they all pursued an exploration of identity, rejecting nostalgia and parochialism and engaging with social and political issues.
Educational reorganisation and retrenchment
In the 20th century the centre of the education system became more focused on Scotland, with the ministry of education partly moving north in 1918 and then finally having its headquarters relocated to Edinburgh in 1939. The school leaving age was raised to 14 in 1901, but despite attempts to raise it to 15 this was only made law in 1939 and then postponed because of the outbreak of war. In 1918 Roman Catholic schools were brought into the state system, but retained their distinct religious character, access to schools by priests and the requirement that school staff be acceptable to the Church.The first half of the 20th century saw Scottish universities fall behind those in England and Europe in terms of participation and investment. The decline of traditional industries between the wars undermined recruitment. English universities increased the numbers of students registered between 1924 and 1927 by 19 per cent, but in Scotland the numbers fell, particularly among women. In the same period, while expenditure in English universities rose by 90 per cent, in Scotland the increase was less than a third of that figure.
Postwar
After World War II, Scotland's economic situation became progressively worse due to overseas competition, inefficient industry, and industrial disputes. This only began to change in the 1970s, partly due to the discovery and development of North SeaNorth Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
oil and gas and partly as Scotland moved towards a more service-based economy. This period saw the emergence of the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
and movements for both Scottish independence
Scottish independence
Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....
and more popularly devolution
Devolution
Devolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level. Devolution can be mainly financial, e.g. giving areas a budget which was formerly administered by central government...
. However, a referendum on devolution in 1979 was unsuccessful as it did not achieve the support of 40% of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal.)
As the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
intensified in 1961, the United States deployed Polaris ballistic missiles, and submarines, in the Firth of Clyde
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
's Holy Loch
Holy Loch
The Holy Loch is a sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.Robertson's Yard at Sandbank, a village on the loch, was a major wooden boat building company in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....
. Opposition from CND campaigners proved futile. The Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
successfully convinced the government to allow the base because it wanted its own Polaris-class submarines, and indeed did obtain them in 1963. The RN's nuclear submarine base opened for Resolution class
Resolution class submarine
The Resolution-class submarine armed with the Polaris missile was the United Kingdom's primary nuclear deterrent from the late 1960s to 1994, when they were replaced by the Vanguard-class submarine carrying the Trident II.-Background:...
Polaris submarines at the expanded Faslane Naval Base
HMNB Clyde
Her Majesty's Naval Base Clyde is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy...
on the Gare Loch
Gare Loch
The Gare Loch or Gareloch is a sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland.-Geography:A sea loch aligned north-south, Gare Loch is 10 kilometres long with an average width of 1.5 kilometres. At its southern end it opens into the Firth of Clyde through the Rhu narrows...
. The first patrol of a Trident
Trident missile
The Trident missile is a submarine-launched ballistic missile equipped with multiple independently-targetable reentry vehicles . The Fleet Ballistic Missile is armed with nuclear warheads and is launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines . Trident missiles are carried by fourteen...
-armed submarine occurred in 1994, although the US base was closed at the end of the Cold War.
Politics and devolution
In second half of the 20th century the Labour Party usually won most Scottish seats in the Westminster parliament, losing this dominance briefly to the Unionists in the 1950s. Support in Scotland was critical to Labour's overall electoral fortunes as without Scottish MPs it would have gained only two UK electoral victories in the 20th century (1944 and 1966). The number of Scottish seats represented by Unionists (known as ConservativesConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
from 1965 onwards) went into steady decline from 1959 onwards, until it fell to zero in 1997. Politicians with Scottish connections continued to play a prominent part in UK political life, with Prime Ministers including the Conservatives Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
(whose father was Scottish) from 1955-57 and Alec Douglas-Home
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel, KT, PC , known as The Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963 and as Sir Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1974, was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1963 to October 1964.He is the last...
from 1963-64.
The Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
gained its first seat at Westminster in 1945 and became a party of national prominence during the 1970s, achieving 11 MPs in 1974. However, a referendum on devolution in 1979 was unsuccessful as it did not achieve the necessary support of 40 per cent of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal) and the SNP went into electoral decline during the 1980s. The introduction in 1989 by the Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
-led Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
government of the Community Charge
Community Charge
The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...
(widely known as the Poll Tax), one year before the rest of the United Kingdom, contributed to a growing movement for a return to direct Scottish control over domestic affairs. The Electoral success of New Labour in 1997, which would be led by two Prime Minsters with Scottish connections, Tony Blair (who was brought up in Scotland) from 1997 to 2007 and Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
from 2007-10, opened the way for constitutional change. On 11 September 1997, the 700th anniversary of Battle of Stirling Bridge
Battle of Stirling Bridge
The Battle of Stirling Bridge was a battle of the First War of Scottish Independence. On 11 September 1297, the forces of Andrew Moray and William Wallace defeated the combined English forces of John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey and Hugh de Cressingham near Stirling, on the River Forth.-The main...
, the Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
led Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government again held a referendum on the issue of devolution. A positive outcome led to the establishment of a devolved Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
in 1999. A coalition
Coalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
government, which would last until 2007, was formed between Labour and the Liberal Democrats, with Donald Dewar
Donald Dewar
Donald Campbell Dewar was a British politician who served as a Labour Party Member of Parliament in Scotland from 1966-1970, and then again from 1978 until his death in 2000. He served in Tony Blair's cabinet as Secretary of State for Scotland from 1997-1999 and was instrumental in the creation...
as First Minister
First Minister of Scotland
The First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
. The new Scottish Parliament Building
Scottish Parliament Building
The Scottish Parliament Building is the home of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, within the UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Edinburgh. Construction of the building commenced in June 1999 and the Members of the Scottish Parliament held their first debate in the new building on 7...
, adjacent to Holyrood House in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, opened in 2004. Although not reaching its 1970s peak in Westminster elections, the SNP had more success in the Scottish Parliamentary elections with their system of mixed member proportional representation
Mixed member proportional representation
Mixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
. It became the official opposition in 1999, a minority government in 2007 and a majority government from 2011. The SNP government has promised a referendum on independence before the end of the current parliament.
Economic reorientation
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
oil and gas and partly as Scotland moved towards a more service-based economy. The discovery of the giant Forties oilfield
Forties oilfield
The Forties Oil Field is the largest oil field in the North Sea, 110 miles east of Aberdeen. It was discovered in 1970 and first produced oil in 1975 under ownership of BP.-History:...
in October 1970 signalled that Scotland was about to become a major oil producing nation, a view confirmed when Shell Expro discovered the giant Brent oilfield
Brent oilfield
The Brent field is an oil field located in the East Shetland Basin north-east of Lerwick, Shetland Islands, Scotland at the water depth of . The field operated by Shell UK Limited was once one of the most productive parts of the UK's offshore assets but is now nearing the end of its useful...
in the northern North Sea east of Shetland in 1971. Oil production started from the Argyll field (now Ardmore) in June 1975, followed by Forties in November of that year. Deindustrialisation took place rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, as most of the traditional industries drastically shrank or were completely closed down. A new service oriented economy emerged to replace traditional heavy industries. This included a resurgent financial services industry and the electronics manufacturing
Electronics manufacturing
The industrial electronics manufacturing process for the electronic assemblies found in many of today's electronic devices, is a multi-step process.-Component and PCB manufacturing:...
of Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen
Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling; although electronics facilities outside this area may also be included in the term. The term has been in...
.
Religious diversity and decline
Brethren
Brethren is a name adopted by several Protestant Christian bodies which do not necessarily share historical roots. As classified in The Pilgrim Church by EH Broadbent, the earliest primitive churches to Paulician Brethren, to Bogomil Brethren, to Anabaptist and to Moravian Brethren were historical...
and Pentecostal churches. Although some denominations thrived, after World War II there was a steady overall decline in church attendance and resulting church closures for most denominations. Talks began in the 1950s aiming at a grand merger of the main Presbyterian, Episcopal and Methodist bodies in Scotland. The talks were ended in 2003, when the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland
The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body[1] An Introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland, A Gordon McGillivray, 2nd Edition .-Church courts:As a Presbyterian church,...
rejected the proposals. The religious situation was also been altered by immigration, resulting in the growth of non-Christian religions. In the 2001 census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
42.4 per cent of the population identified with the Church of Scotland, 15.9 per cent with Catholicism and 6.8 with other forms of Christianity, making up roughly 65 per cent of the population (compared with 72 per cent for the UK as a whole). Of other religions Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
was at 0.8 per cent, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
, Sikhism
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
, Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
were all at around 0.1 per cent. Other religions together accounted for 0.6 per cent of respondents and 5.5 per cent did not state a religion. There were 27.5 per cent who stated that they had no religion (which compares with 15.5 per cent in the UK overall). Other more recent studies suggest that those not identifying with a denomination, or who see themselves as non-religious, may be much higher at between 42 and 56 per cent, depending on the form of question asked.
Educational reforms
Although plans to raise the school leaving age to 15 in the 1940s were never ratified, increasing numbers stayed on beyond elementary education and it was eventually raised to 16 in 1973. As a result secondary education was the major area of growth in the second half of the 20th century. New qualifications were developed to cope with changing aspirations and economics, with the Leaving Certificate being replaced by the Scottish Certificate of EducationScottish Certificate of Education
The Scottish Certificate of Education was a Scottish secondary education certificate, used in schools from 1962 until the late 1990s. It replaced the older Junior Secondary Certificate and Scottish Leaving Certificate , and was the Scottish equivalent of the General Certificate of Education used...
Ordinary Grade ('O-Grade') and Higher Grade ('Higher') qualifications in 1962, which became the basic entry qualification for university study. The higher education sector expanded in the second half of the 20th century, with four institutions being given university status in the 1960s (Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
, Heriot-Watt
Heriot-Watt University
Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....
, Stirling
University of Stirling
The University of Stirling is a campus university founded by Royal charter in 1967, on the Airthrey Estate in Stirling, Scotland.-History and campus development:...
and Strathclyde
University of Strathclyde
The University of Strathclyde , Glasgow, Scotland, is Glasgow's second university by age, founded in 1796, and receiving its Royal Charter in 1964 as the UK's first technological university...
) and five in the 1990s (Abertay, Glasgow Caledonian
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland.The university was constituted by an Act of Parliament on 1 April 1993 as a result of a merger between Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow....
, Napier
Napier University
Edinburgh Napier is one of the largest higher education institutions in Scotland with over 17,000 students, including nearly 5,000 international students, from more than 100 nations worldwide.-History:...
, Paisley
University of Paisley
The University of the West of Scotland is a university operating from four campuses in south-western Scotland, in the towns of Paisley, Hamilton, Ayr and Dumfries. The present institution dates from August 2007, following the merger of the University of Paisley with Bell College, Hamilton...
and Robert Gordon
Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University is located in Aberdeen, Scotland. Building on over 250 years involvement in education, it was granted university status in 1992. Robert Gordon University currently has approximately 16,407 students at its two campuses at Garthdee and the City Centre, studying on over 145...
). After devolution, in 1999 the new Scottish Executive
Scottish Executive
The Scottish Government is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was established in 1999 as the Scottish Executive, from the extant Scottish Office, and the term Scottish Executive remains its legal name under the Scotland Act 1998...
set up an Education Department and an Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department. One of the major diversions from practice in England, possible because of devolution, was the abolition of student tuition fees in 1999, instead retaining a system of means-tested student grants.
See also
- Historic Sites in ScotlandHistoric Sites in ScotlandThere are thousands of historic sites and attractions in Scotland. These include Neolithic Standing stones and Stone Circles, Bronze Age settlements, Iron Age Brochs and Crannogs, Pictish stones, Roman forts and camps, Viking settlements, Mediaeval castles, and early Christian settlements...
- History of the Outer HebridesHistory of the Outer HebridesThe Hebrides were settled early on in the settlement of the British Isles, perhaps as early as the Mesolithic era, around 8500-8250 BC, after the climatic conditions improved enough to sustain human settlement. There are examples of structures possibly dating from up to 3000 BC, the finest example...
- Kings of Scotland
- Kings of Scotland family treeScottish monarchs' family treeThis is a family tree for the kings of Scotland, since the unification under the House of Alpin in 834, to the personal union with England in 1603 under James VI of Scotland...
- History of EnglandHistory of EnglandThe history of England concerns the study of the human past in one of Europe's oldest and most influential national territories. What is now England, a country within the United Kingdom, was inhabited by Neanderthals 230,000 years ago. Continuous human habitation dates to around 12,000 years ago,...
- History of the United KingdomHistory of the United KingdomThe history of the United Kingdom as a unified sovereign state began with the political union of the kingdoms of England, which included Wales, and Scotland on 1 May 1707 in accordance with the Treaty of Union, as ratified by the Acts of Union 1707...
- Timeline of Scottish historyTimeline of Scottish historyThis timeline outlines the main events in Scottish history.-1st century – 7th century:* c.84: Romans defeat Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius.* c.143: Romans construct the Antonine Wall.* c.163: Romans withdraw south to Trimontium and Hadrian's Wall....
- List of years in Scotland
- Scottish clanScottish clanScottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...
Surveys and reference books
- Devine, T.M. The Scottish Nation, 1700–2000 (Penguin books, 1999) ISBN 0-14-100234-4
- Donaldson, Gordon and Robert S. Morpeth. A Dictionary of Scottish History. (1977).
- Donnachie, Ian and George Hewitt. Dictionary of Scottish History. (2001). 384 pp.
- Houston, R.A. and W. Knox, eds. New Penguin History of Scotland, (2001). ISBN 0-14-026367-5
- Lenman, Bruce P. Enlightenment and Change: Scotland 1746-1832 (2nd ed. The New History of Scotland Series. Edinburgh University Press, 2009). 280 pp. ISBN978-0-7486-2515-4; 1st edition also published under the titles Integration, Enlightenment, and Industrialization: Scotland, 1746-1832 (1981) and Integration and Enlightenment: Scotland, 1746-1832 (1992).
- Lynch, Michael, ed. The Oxford Companion to Scottish History. (2007). 732 pp. excerpt and text search
- Mackie, J.D. A History of Scotland (Penguin books, 1991) ISBN 0-14-013649-5
- Mackie, J. D., Bruce Lenman, and Geoffrey Parker. A History of Scotland (1984) excerpt and text search
- MacLean, Fitzroy, and Magnus Linklater. Scotland: A Concise History (2nd ed. 2001) excerpt and text search
- McNeill, Peter G.B. and Hector L. MacQueen, eds. Atlas of Scottish History to 1707. Edinburgh: The Scottish Medievalists and Department of Geography, 1996.
- Magnusson, Magnus. Scotland: The Story of a Nation (2000), popular history focused on royalty and warfare
- Mitchison, Rosalind. A History of Scotland Routledge: 3rd ed 2002, 468pp online edition
- Panton, Kenneth J. and Keith A. Cowlard. Historical Dictionary of the United Kingdom. Vol. 2: Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. (1998). 465 pp.
- Paterson, Judy, and Sally J. Collins. The History of Scotland for Children (2000)
- Pittock, Murray. A New History of Scotland (2003) 352pp; ISBN 0-7509-2786-0
- Smout, T. C. A History of the Scottish People, 1560-1830 (1969)
- Tabraham, Chris, and Colin Baxter. The Illustrated History of Scotland (2004) excerpt and text search
- Watson, Fiona. Scotland; From Prehistory to the Present. Tempus, 2003. 286 pp.
- Wormald, Jenny, The New History of Scotland (2005) excerpt and text search
Specialized studies
- Buchan, James, Capital of the Mind: How Edinburgh changed the world, John Murray, 2003 ISBN 0-7195-5446-2
- Cooke, Anthony. The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Cotton Industry, 1778-1914 (Manchester University Press, 2010) 237 pages
- Devine, T. M., Scotland's Empire 1600–1815, Allen Lane, Harmondsworth, 2003 ISBN 0-7139-9498-3
- Duncan A. A. M., The Kingship of the Scots 842–1292: Succession and independence, Edinburgh UP, Edinburgh, 2004 ISBN 0-7486-1626-8
- Finlay, Richard Modern Scotland 1914–2000, Profile 2004 ISBN 1-86197-299-7
- Harvie, Christopher Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics 1707–1977 ISBN 0-04-941006-7
- Magnusson, Magnus. Scotland Since Prehistory: Natural History and Human Impact (1993) ISBN 978-1898218036
- Pittock, Murray. The Road to Independence? Scotland since the Sixties (2008) excerpt and text search
- Ryrie, Alec, The Origins of the Scottish Reformation (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006) ISBN 0-7190-7105-4
- Herman, Arthur "How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It" ISBN 0-609-80999-7
Culture and religion
- Anderson, R. D. Education and the Scottish People, 1750-1918. Oxford U. Press, 1995. 337 pp.
- Browen, Ian, ed. The Edinburgh History of Scottish Literature (3 vol 2006)
- Brown, Callum G. Religion and Society in Scotland since 1707. (1997). 219 pp.
- Burleigh, J.H.S. A Church History of Scotland (1962), short and impartial
- Daiches, David. A Companion to Scottish Culture (1982) online edition
- Dingwall, Helen M. Famous and flourishing society: the history of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 1505-2005. (2005) 350pp. ISBN 0 7486 1567
- Ferguson, William. The Identity of the Scottish Nation: An Historic Quest (1998) online edition
- Glendinning, Miles, Ranald MacInnes, Aonghus MacKechnie. A History of Scottish Architecture: From the Renaissance to the Present Day (1996) online edition
- Hardy, Forsyth. Scotland in Film 1990 online edition
- Harris, Nathaniel. Heritage of Scotland: A Cultural History of Scotland and Its People. Facts on File, 2000. 159 pp.
- Lawrence, Christopher. Rockefeller money, the laboratory, and medicine in Edinburgh, 1919-1930: new science in an old country. (2005) 373pp. ISBN 1 58046 195 6
- Levack, Brian. Scottish Witch Hunting: Law, Politics and Religion (2007)
- McDonald, R. A., ed. History, Literature and Music in Scotland, 700-1560. (2002). 243 pp.
- Mackenzie, D.A. Scottish Folklore and Folklife. (1935).
- McEwan, Peter J. M. Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Wappingers Falls, N.Y.: Antique Collectors Club, 1995. 626 pp.
- McNeill, F. Marion, The Silver Bough (volume 1: Scottish Folk-Lore and Folk-Belief), 1989. ISBN 0-86241-231-5
- Menikoff, Barry. Narrating Scotland: the Imagination of Robert Louis Stevenson. (2005) 233pp. ISBN 1 57003 568 7
- Pelling, Margaret, ed. Practice of reform in health, medicine, and science, 1500-2000 (2005)
- Petrie, Duncan. Screening Scotland. BFI, 2000. 250 pp. on films
- Porter, James. "The Folklore of Northern Scotland: Five Discourses on Cultural Representation." Folklore vol. 109. 1998. pp 1+ online edition
- Ritchie, Anna and Graham Ritchie. Scotland: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (1998) online edition
- Schoene, Berthold. The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature (2007), 560pp
- Smith, Bill and Skipwith, Selina. A History of Scottish Art. Merrell, 2003. 288 pp.
- Todd, Margo. The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland. (2002). 450 pp.
- Walker, Marshall. Scottish Literature since 1707. (1997). 443 pp.
- Whatley, Christopher A. Scottish Society, 1707-1830: Beyond Jacobitism, toward Industrialisation. (2000). 354 pp.
- Withers, Charles W. J. Geography, Science, and National Identity: Scotland since 1520. (2001). 312 pp.
Enlightenment, 18th century
- Berry, Christopher J. The Social Theory of the Scottish Enlightenment (1997) excerpt and text search
- Broadie, Alexander. The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (2003) complete online edition; also excerpt and text search
- Broadie, Alexander, ed. The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology (1998), primary sources. excerpt and text search
- Buchan, James, Crowded with Genius: the Scottish Enlightenment; Edinburgh's Moment of the Mind (2003). ISBN 0-06-055889-X excerpt and text search
- Campbell, R. H. and Andrew S. Skinner, eds. The Origins and Nature of the Scottish Enlightenment (1982), 12 essays by scholars, esp. on history of science
- Daiches, David, Peter Jones and Jean Jones. A Hotbed of Genius: The Scottish Enlightenment, 1730-1790 (1986), 170pp; well-illustrated introduction
- Davidson, Neil, Discovering the Scottish Revolution, 1692-1746, Pluto Press, London, England (2003). ISBN 0-7453-2053-8
- Devine, T.M., Clanship to Crofters' War: the Social Transformation of the Scottish Highlands, (1994). ISBN 0-7190-3482-5
- Dwyer, John. The Age of the Passions: An Interpretation of Adam Smith and Scottish Enlightenment Culture. (1998). 205 pp.
- Goldie, Mark. "The Scottish Catholic Enlightenment," The Journal of British Studies Vol. 30, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 20-62 in JSTOR
- Graham, Gordon. "Morality and Feeling in the Scottish Enlightenment," Philosophy Vol. 76, No. 296 (Apr., 2001), pp. 271-282 in JSTOR
- Hamilton, H. An Economic History of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century (1963)
- Hamilton, Douglas J. Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-–1820. (2005) 249pp. ISBN 0 7190 7182 8
- Harvie, Christopher. Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics 1707 to the Present (2004) excerpt and text search online edition
- Hemingway, Andrew. "The 'Sociology' of Taste in the Scottish Enlightenment," Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 12, No. 2 (1989), pp. 3-35 in JSTOR
- Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It. (2001). 384 pp. and text search
- Hont, Istvan, and Michael Ignatieff. Wealth and Virtue: The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment (1986) excerpt and text search
- Hopfl, H. M. "From Savage to Scotsman: Conjectural History in the Scottish Enlightenment," The Journal of British Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring, 1978), pp. 19-40 in JSTOR
- Howe, Daniel Walker. "Why the Scottish Enlightenment Was Useful to the Framers of the American Constitution," Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1989), pp. 572-587 in JSTOR
- Lenman, Bruce P. Integration and Enlightenment: Scotland, 1746-1832 (1993) New History of Scotland excerpt and text search
- Ottenberg, June C. "Musical Currents of the Scottish Enlightenment," International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jun., 1978), pp. 99-109 in JSTOR
- Phillipson, N.T. and Mitchison, Rosalind, eds. Scotland in the Age of Improvement, (1996). ISBN 0-7486-0876-1
- Robertson, John. The Case for the Enlightenment: Scotland and Naples 1680-1760 (2005)
- Swingewood, Alan. "Origins of Sociology: The Case of the Scottish Enlightenment," The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 1970), pp. 164-180 in JSTOR
- Withers, Charles W. J. and Wood, Paul, eds. Science and Medicine in the Scottish Enlightenment. (2002). 364 pp.
- Wood, P., ed. The Scottish Enlightenment: Essays in Reinterpretation (2000)
Union and Jacobites
- Fremont-Barnes, Gregory. The Jacobite Rebellion 1745-46 (Essential Histories) (2011)
- Fry, Michael. The Union: England, Scotland and the Treaty of 1707 (2006)
- Harris, Bob. "The Anglo-Scottish Treaty of Union, 1707 in 2007: Defending the Revolution, Defeating the Jacobites," Journal of British Studies, Jan 2010, Vol. 49 Issue 1, pp 28-46
- MacRobert, A. E. "The Myths about the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion," Historian 2008, Issue 99, pp 16-23
- Macinnes, Allan I. "Jacobitism in Scotland: Episodic Cause or National Movement?" Scottish Historical Review, Oct 2007, Vol. 86,2 Issue 222, pp 225-252; emphasizes its traditionalism
- Macinnes, Allan I. Union and Empire: The Making of the United Kingdom in 1707 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History) (2007) excerpt and text search
- Oates, Jonathan. Jacobite Campaigns: The British State at War (Warfare, Society and Culture) (2011)
- Pittock, Murray. The Myth of the Jacobite Clans: The Jacobite Army in 1745 (2nd ed. 2009)
- Plank, Geoffrey. Rebellion and Savagery: The Jacobite Rising of 1745 and the British Empire (2005)
- Scott, P. H. 1707: The Union of Scotland and England: In Contemporary Documents (1979), primary sources
- Trevor-Roper, Hugh. From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution (1992) pp 282-303 on Union
Women
- Abrams, Lynn, et al. Gender in Scottish History Since 1700 (2006) excerpt and text search
- Breitenbach, Esther, and Eleanor Gordon. Women in Scottish Society 1800-1945 (1992) online edition
- Ewan, Elisabeth et al. eds. The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women: From the Earliest Times to 2004. (2006)
- Ewan, Elisabeth. "A New Trumpet? The History of Women in Scotland 1300-1700," History Compass, March 2009, Vol. 7 Issue 2, pp 431-446; a new field since the 1980s; favourite topics are work, family, religion, crime, and images of women; scholars are using women's letters, memoirs, poetry, and court records.
- McDermid, Jane. "No Longer Curiously Rare but Only Just within Bounds: Women in Scottish History," Women's History Review, July 2011, Vol. 20 Issue 3, pp 389-402
Primary sources
- Broadie, Alexander, ed. The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology (1997), 820 pp
- Cooke, Anthony et al. eds. Modern Scottish History, 1707 To the Present: vol 5: Major Documents (Tuckwell Press, 1998) online edition
External links
- History Scotland A bi-monthly magazine on Scottish history
- Story of Scotland's Early History by Scottish historian
- Scottish Timeline: Part of the Gazetteer for Scotland
- Complete Scottish Events Timeline, and links
- Scotland's History A Free Online History Book
- Scottish History Online & Pictish Pages
- Scottish History in 33 Chapters by Andrew Lang