Concise Scottish History. (c) K. Menzies, 2004
Pictish Stone
Archaeologists think that the earliest hominids (ancestors of modern human beings) may have
entered Britain overland from Europe more than half a million years ago. These hominids belonged
to the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Period, which began over 2 million years ago and lasted until
about 8000 B.C. Historians believe that the first people to live in Scotland came from what is
now England about 7,000 to 7,500 B.C. These earliest inhabitants probably survived by gathering
edible plants, hunting, and fishing. They probably moved around in search of food sources.
Morton in Fife has the remains of a settlement from that time.
About 6,000 years ago, or about 4000 B.C., knowledge of agriculture was brought from the
mainland of western Europe to Britain. During this period, settlers arrived in larger numbers.
Archaeologists have discovered chambered stone mounds, called cairns, in which the people buried
their dead. Pottery, bones, and grain found with these burials indicate that the people were
farmers who had some social organization. In the late 1970's, archaeologists found in eastern
Scotland a huge timber hall that they believe dates from this period.
The Bronze Age. Between 3000 B.C. and 2500 B.C., people began using metal in Britain. Knowledge
of metalworking spread from Spain and Portugal to Ireland and then to Britain and Scotland. It
also came from the Rhineland, an area around the Rhine River in what is now western Germany, and
from what is now the Netherlands. The first metals used were copper and gold. At nearly the same
time, distinctive beaker-shaped pottery vessels appeared in Scotland. The beakers were often
buried with the dead.
Scholars once thought that large numbers of immigrants, whom they called the Beaker Folk,
brought metalworking and the new beaker pottery to Britain. But archaeologists have not found
evidence of large migrations, and many now believe that small groups or individual traders and
craftworkers probably spread the new skills and ideas.
Bronze Age
After 2000 B.C., people began making objects of bronze (copper hardened with tin). Collections
of weapons that survive from the period after 1000 B.C. indicate that warriors ruled the Bronze Age society of Scotland.
The inhabitants of Scotland began about 600 B.C. to build hill forts with ramparts (wide banks
of earth built around the fort to help defend it). Later, they built tower structures called
brochs. People may have used these structures as both farmhouses and places of safety. Brochs
date from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 200. The best-preserved broch is in Mousa in Shetland.
In A.D. 43, the Roman emperor Claudius ordered Roman armies
to invade Britain. They conquered the British tribes as far north as Yorkshire by about 78. The
Romans found British tribes south of the rivers Clyde and Forth. These tribespeople spoke a
Celtic language related to Welsh and Cornish.
Picts, Scots, Angles, and Britons.
In A.D. 80, the Roman general Gnaeus Julius Agricola led his force into Scotland past the River
Forth. The Romans called the people there Picts (painted people) because they painted their
bodies. The Picts' language resembled the Celtic spoken by the Britons to the south, but it also
preserved elements of an earlier language not related to other European languages.
Picts, were an ancient people of northern Scotland. The Picts were given this name by the Romans because they painted or tattooed their skin. The Latin word for painter is pictor. The first historical reference to the Picts occurs in a speech made by a Roman orator in A.D. 297. The Pictish tribes fought the Romans for many years. The Romans built two long walls to keep the Picts out of the province of Britain. Later, the Picts fought the Teutonic conquerors of Britain, the Angles and Saxons. They disappeared as a people about A.D. 900.
The Romans won a great victory over the Picts at Mons Graupius in A.D. 84, somewhere in
northeastern Scotland. The Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus described the battle, but modern
historians disagree over its exact location. Also in 84, the Roman emperor Domitian ordered
Agricola to return to Rome, and the Romans withdrew southward from Scotland.
As part of a defensive strategy, the Romans in A.D. 121 built Hadrian's Wall, which stretched
between the River Tyne and the Solway Firth. It was named after the Roman emperor Hadrian.
Around 141, the Romans added the Antonine Wall, a turf structure between the River Forth and the
River Clyde. Under attack from local tribes, the Romans soon abandoned that area and withdrew
farther south. Hadrian's Wall became their northern frontier. The Romans withdrew from all of
Britain in the 400's.
About A.D. 500, a Celtic, Gaelic-speaking tribe called the Scots came from northern Ireland and settled on Scotland's west coast.
The rock fortress of Dunadd, where the early Scots may have inaugurated their kings, was an important power-centre. Other early Scottish kingdoms were centred on Dunolly near Oban and Islay. After 700 the influence of the Scots shifted eastwards. By 850 they had carved out a realm in Central Scotland known as Alba.
Christianity was practiced by the Romans who occupied Scotland in the early A.D. 100's and
200's. Around A.D. 500, Saint Ninian, a British bishop, came to Whithorn in what is now Dumfries
and Galloway in southern Scotland. There he built a church and possibly a school. He sent
missionaries out among the Picts. Saint Columba (also known as Colmcille) sailed to Iona from
Ireland in 563 and spread Christianity among the Picts. Pictland was mostly Christian by A.D.
700.
After the late 600's, the Picts came to rule large parts of Scotland. The most powerful kings
ruled at Fortriu, in the area of Scone. In 685, the Picts decisively defeated Angle invaders at
the Battle of Nechtansmere, in what is now Angus. The Angles were one of the Germanic peoples
who invaded Britain during the A.D. 400's and 500's. The Battle of Nechtansmere helped stop the
northern spread of Anglian influence.
The Pictish monarchy absorbed many external influences, especially from the Scots of the west.
The Picts often dominated the Scots in the 700's and early 800's. But a series of Viking raids
in the 800's might have weakened Pictland. About 843, a Scottish king, Kenneth MacAlpin, took
over the Pictish monarchy and began ruling both peoples from Pictland. He established Alba, the
first united kingdom in Scotland. The Picts ceased to exist as a separate people about A.D. 900.
After the MacAlpin dynasty came to power, the Gaelic language spread to the whole of mainland
Scotland north of the River Forth. The Pictish language disappeared.
In the late 800's, the Vikings overran the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, the most
northerly of the early English kingdoms. By about 1018, the Scottish King Malcolm II had gained
control of Lothian, the northern part of Northumbria. At the same time, he also gained
Strathclyde, a British kingdom along the western coast that included Dumbarton and areas south
of the Clyde River. Orkney and Shetland remained under the control of the Vikings, and the
Scottish kings formally abandoned the Western Isles to Norway in 1098.
Violent struggles for the Scottish throne began in the late 900's. In 997, Kenneth III became
king by killing Constantine III. In 1005, Malcolm II killed Kenneth III. Duncan I, who followed
Malcolm II, was killed in battle by Macbeth, ruler of Moray (a kingdom north of Alba), in 1040.
In 1057, Duncan's son, Malcolm III Canmore, killed Macbeth. The following year, he killed
Macbeth's stepson Lulach. Malcolm III became king in 1058 and reigned for 35 years.
From the late 1000's onward, Scotland gradually lost its mainly Celtic character. It took on a
mixture of Celtic and Anglian characteristics. Malcolm III founded a dynasty (royal line) whose
members were particularly open to influences from England. He married Margaret, the
granddaughter of the English king Edmund Ironside. Through Margaret's influence, Scotland came
much more under the influence of England. After the Normans conquered England in 1066, Malcolm
permitted people from England who opposed the Norman leader, William the Conqueror, to settle in
Scotland. Margaret helped introduce reforms in the Scottish church that were similar to reforms
carried out in Europe.
Margaret of Scotland, later, Saint Margaret(1046-1093), was a queen of Scotland who carried out
social and religious reforms. A granddaughter of the English King Edmund Ironside, Margaret was
born in Hungary, where her father was in exile. She was shipwrecked off the coast of Scotland in
1067, fleeing the Norman Conquest. There she married King Malcolm III of Scotland in 1070. She
lived in great piety and performed many charitable actions, including the foundation of the Holy
Trinity Abbey in Dunfermline. Margaret died on Nov. 16, 1093. She was canonized in 1249. Her
feast day is June 10. She is somewhat controversial in nationalistic views in that she, with the
compliance of her husband, Malcolm Can More, brought many Saxon customs to Scotland forever
replacing the prior older Celtic customs. This was both good and bad for Scotland as it
progressed in social aspects, bad in that it became a monarchy of Anglo-Saxon customs and
idealogy, the Celtic customs eventually losing ground in most of Lowland Scotland.
Malcolm III's son David I, who ruled from 1124 to 1153, continued Malcolm's policy of allowing
English settlers into Scotland. These settlers were nobles to whom David granted large pieces of
land. They became powerful local lords and supplied knights to the king.
During this period, Scotland developed a new system of administration with locally based
justices and sheriffs. David I created such new offices as chancellor, chamberlain, and steward
to supervise the administration of the kingdom. He also chartered towns called burghs, which had
markets and generated revenue for the state. David introduced the minting of coins in Scotland,
which aided trade. He founded some abbeys and donated generously to others. The abbeys produced
goods and services that benefited the economy.
Struggles with England. The English wanted to control the entire island of Great Britain, including Scotland. But the Scots were determined to remain independent. They frequently sided with France against the English when England and France came into conflict.
David I and his heirs also sought territory in England. David took advantage of a civil war in
England to extend the Scottish border south to the River Tees. His marriage to Matilda (also
known as Maud), daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon, gave him a claim to the earldom of
Northumbria. David obtained the earldom for his son Henry, who ruled it from 1138 until 1152.
But Henry's son Malcolm IV lost the earldom in 1157. Malcolm's brother William (later known as
William the Lion) came to the throne in 1165 and tried to regain Northumbria. In 1173, Henry II
of England was dealing with a rebellion. William marched on England but was defeated and
captured at Alnwick in 1174. After William's defeat, Scotland became a vassal (dependent)
kingdom of England until 1189. William's son Alexander II became involved in a rebellion in
England from 1215 to 1217. In 1237, he gave up all claims to Northumbria.
Alexander II, after his unsuccessful conflict with England, made peace with King Henry III.
Alexander married Henry's sister Joan in 1221. From 1217 to 1296, Scotland and England were at
peace. During that time, the Scottish kingdom enjoyed economic stability and good government.
Agriculture and trade flourished, and many roads and bridges were built. The Scots, especially
the wealthy ones, began to develop a sense of community and even nationality. Scotland, although
tied economically to England, began to think of itself as an independent state.
In 1263, the Scots fought off a Norwegian attack. As a result of the peace terms between
Scotland and Norway, the Western Isles were restored to Scotland in 1266.
At the death of Alexander III in 1286, there were no more direct male heirs from the House of
Malcolm Canmore. Alexander's only descendant was a 3-year-old child, his granddaughter Margaret,
called the Maid of Norway. She took the throne, but six guardians, appointed by a group of Scots
called the Community of the Realm, governed Scotland. They arranged a marriage between Margaret
and the son of Edward I of England.
Margaret died under mysterious circumstances in 1290. Her death led to a crisis over succession
to the throne. Thirteen contenders claimed a right to the throne. The Scots were so divided over
the decision of who should become king that they turned to King Edward for a decision. Edward
demanded that each of the contenders acknowledge him as overlord. In 1292, Edward's court chose
John Balliol, a descendent of David I, as heir to the Scottish throne.
Edward insisted on his feudal rights in Scotland and limited Balliol's authority by overriding
decisions made by Balliol's own court. In 1294, Edward went to war with France. He demanded the
support of his lords and knights, including Balliol. Balliol refused to help Edward and instead
made a treaty with France. Edward sent his troops to Scotland and defeated the Scots at Dunbar
in 1296. Balliol resigned, and Edward occupied Scotland, appointing his own administration
there. Edward also removed the Stone of Scone, the Scottish symbol of royal authority (see
Scone, Stone of). Edward had the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey built to hold the stone.
In 1297, the angry Scots rebelled against Edward's authority. William Wallace, Scotland's first
popular hero, decisively defeated the English at Stirling. For more on William Wallace and his battles, click here to visit historian, Robert M. Gunn's exceptional account. Edward, a year later, won a great victory
at Falkirk in 1298, but did not reoccupy Scotland until 1304. In 1305, the English captured and
executed Wallace when he was betrayed by English sympathizer John Mentieth. Wallace was brutally executed by Edward I by having him hanged, drawn and quartered and his dismembered body sent to the major cities of southern Scotland. Wallace's heroisn inspired the Scots and Edward's brutal treatment of the patriotic hero only fueled the Scots desire to resist. Edward had miscalculated and now a former ally of his, Robert the Bruce, would take up Wallace's cause and also attempt to make himself King of Scots.
Prehistoric Scotland
Ancient site at Skara Brae
After about 700 B.C., people started using iron rather than bronze.
Because iron rusts away, few objects from this period have survived. But archaeologists have
identified many settlements from this period, notably forts.
Roman Scotland
Originally, in the late 400s, Gaelic speaking settlers crossed from Antrim to the western district of Argyll. Legend says that they were led by a warrior prince called Fergus, son of Erc. These immigrants called their new kingdom Dalriada but they were known as 'scots' meaning raiders by their enemies.
Christianity
The kingdom of Scotland