HISTORY OF SCOTLAND
During the Ronan occupation of Britain, little is known of its history. it is supposed that the earliest inhabitants of the country were a non-Aryan race resembling the Iberians, and typified now by the Basques. A Celtic (and Aryan) people seem subsequently to have entered the country, and to have gained predominance over the non-Aryans, the combined people occupying at the Roman invasion most of the country north of the Forth and Clyde estuaries, which was called Caledonia by the Romans, and its people Caledonians. The southern part of the country was inhabited by another Celtic race, the Brythons or Britons, of the same blood as the Welsh. The descendants of the Caledonians were afterwards called Pick, and were the predominant people in North Britain at the beginning of the 6th century, when a colony of Scots or Dalriads from Ireland effected a settlement in Argyle, and gradually spread over the adjacent regions. it is from these Scots (a Celtic and Gaelic speaking people) that the country afterwards received the name of Scotland, the original Scotland (Scotia) being Ireland, The Pictish tribes were divided into two great sections, the Piccardach or Southern Picts and the Cruithne or Northern Picts. In the 9th century the Dalriadic Scots with the help of the Cruithne conquered the Southern Scots, but the Northern Picts, the ancestors of the modern Highlanders, still retained their independence. The Teutonic element was introduced into Scotland as early ass the 4th century, when bands from North Germany seem to have formed settlements on the east coast south of the Firth of Forth; and this part of the country ,was subsequently united to the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria, which extended from the Forth to the Humber. To the west of this kingdom, from Dumbarton to the Solway and into England, extended the kingdom of Strathclyde or Cumbria inhabited by Romanized Britons.
About the middle of the 9th century Kenneth MacAlpin, son of a ruler of a body of Scots established in Galloway, but of Pictish descent through his mother, united in his own person the sovereignty of both the Picts and the Scots. The Norsemen had already established a footing on the islands of the north and west coasts as far south as the Isle of Man, and a Norse earldom of Orkney was established. Kenneth's kingdom comprised Central Scotland (Argyle, Perth, Angus, Mearns, and Fife), with Scone as capital, the north of Scotland being mostly under independent chiefs, or maormors. The reigns of Kenneth and his immediate successors, Donald I., Constantine I, Crig, Donald II., Constantine II., Malcolm I., Kenneth II., Malcolm II., Duncan, and Macbeth, were one continued scene of warfare with the Norsemen on one hand and with the Britons of Strathclyde and the English of Northumbria on the other. Malcolm I. (943 - 954) obtained Cumbria (Strathclyde) as a territorial fief from Edmund I. and in 1018 his grandson, Edmund II., secured Lothian, hitherto part of Northumbria, two events which materially influenced the after history of Scotland.
On the advent of Malcolm Canmore (1058) to the throne after the death of Macbeth, the able usurper and murderer of Duncan, the purely Celtic monarchy came to an end. Malcolm's mother, the wife of Duncan, was an Anglo-Dane, sister of Earl Siward of Northumbria, and his youth had been spent at the court of Edward the Confessor. The conquest of England by William of Normandy involved Malcolm in many a serious struggle. Edgar Atheling, the heir of the English line, and many of the English nobles, sought and fond refuge in Scotland. Malcolm married Margaret the sister of the fugitive prince, who is said to have introduced into her court a degree of refinement remarkable for that time The Scotch king twice invaded England with success, but William, having collected a large army, in his turn advanced into Scotland, and compelled Malcolm to do homage for those lands which he held within what was accounted the English territory. Malcolm Canmore and his eldest son were slain in attempting to take Alnwick Castle in 1093, and Margaret survived only a few days.
On the death of Malcolm the Celtic tribes placed his brother Donald Bane on the throne, but he was driven from it before be had reigned a year by Duncan, a natural son of the late king, who now seized the scepter . In 1098, however, Edgar Atheling, obtained a force from the English king, and succeeded in gaining the kingdom for Edgar, the lawful son of Malcolm. Edgar was succeeded by his brother Alexander I, a prince whose reign is chiefly signalized by his severe administration of justice. He assisted Henry I. of England, who had married his sister, in a war with the Welsh, and died in 1124, leaving the throne to his younger brother David. David had reigned over Cumbria as earl or prince since the death of Edgar; he married a daughter of the Earl of Northumberland, became Earl of Huntingdon, and through this and his guardianship of the earldom of Northampton on behalf if his stepson, he was brought into feudal relations with the Norman king of England. On the accession of the usurper Stephen to the English throne in 1135, to the prejudice of Maud or Matilda, wife of the Emperor Henry V., only child of Henry I. and niece of David, the latter made several expeditions into England in support of his nieces claim to the throne, during which he suffered an indecisive defeat near Northallerton (Battle of the Standard, 1137). He acquired a great reputation for sanctity, having founded several new abbeys, including those of Holyrood and Melrose, and reorganized most of the Scotch bishoprics. His services to the church procured him canonization, but his endowments so taxed the royal resources that he was bitterly characterized by James V I. as a 'sair sanct for the crown '. His death in 1153 was preceded by that of his only son, so he was succeeded by his grandson, Malcolm the Maiden, whose reign of twelve years is only remarkable for his giving up Northumberland and Cumberland to the English king.
On the death of Malcolm IV. in 1165 the crown fell to his younger brother William, who is know,, by the title of
William the lion, During an expedition into England for the purpose of regaining Northumberland he was taken prisoner
(1175), and sent to Falaise in Normandy, where a treaty was concluded acknowledging the supremacy of England, and
declaring Scotland a fief and himself a vassal of the English crown. This treaty remained in force till 1189, when
Richard I. restored Scottish independence for the sum of 10,000 marks in order to equip a force to join the third
crusade. The rest of William's reign was devoted to the consolidation of his kingdom in the north and west. The
Scotch alliance with France, and many of the Scottish burgh charters, date from this reign.
His son and successor, Alexander II. (1214 - 49), a youth in his seventeenth year, took the side of the English barons in their struggle with King John, in the hope of recovering the Northumbrian and Anglo - Cumbrian provinces. After much blood had been shed, and the border lands repeatedly devastated Henry III. agreed In 1237 to give the king of Scots certain manors In Cumberland and Northumberland, not in sovereignty, but in feudal property. This was accepted, and a border line was laid down which has never since been altered to any considerable extent. The rest of Alexander's reign was spent in extending his authority more firmly over the territory north of the Moray Firth and in the Western Highlands.
His son Alexander III. (1249 - 1286) succeeded in the eighth year of his age, and his minority was characterized
by a series of contests between an English and national party for the regency, which ultimately fell to the queen
dowager and her husband the Earl of Menteith. In his twelfth year he was married to his cousin Margaret, daughter
of Henry III. One of the chief events of his reign was the war that broke out with Haco of Norway for the possession
of the Western Islands, which ended in the victory of the Scots at Largs (1263), and the consequent cession of
the Isles to Scotland (1263). In 1284 the king was left childless, and a meeting of the Estates at Scone settled
the crown on the Maid of Norway, daughter of Eric, king of Norway, and Alexander's daughter Margaret. Alexander
was killed by a fall from his home near Kinghorn in Fife (1286). A fragment commemorative of his death, and evidencing
the prosperity of Scotland during his reign, has been preserved in Wyntoun's Chronicle, and is the earliest known
specimen of Scottish poetry.
Margaret of Norway was only three years old at Alexander's death, and a regency consisting of four barons and two
bishops was appointed, Edward I., desirous of joining the two countries in one kingdom, proposed that a marriage
should take place between the young queen and his sun (afterwards Edward II.). This was agreed to by a treaty signed
at Brigham near Roxburgh, which made strict provision for the independence of Scotland. The scheme, however, was
frustrated by the death of Margaret in one of the Orkneys when on her way to Scotland (Sept. l290). On the death
of Margaret a host of rival claimants for the throne appeared, all of whom ultimately gave way to three descendants
of David, earl of Huntingdon, brother of William the Lion. John Baliol claimed as grandson of David's eldest daughter,
Robert Bruce as son of David's second daughter, and David de Hastings as grandson of the third daughter. Edward
I. being asked to settle the dispute decided in favour of Baliol, who was crowned at Scone (1292) acknowledging
Edward as his overlord. On the outbreak of war between England and France the weak monarch was compelled by his
nobles to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with France, and to formally renounce his allegiance to
Edward (1296). Edward immediately invaded Scotland, stormed and took Berwick, and reduced the fortresses of Dunbar,
Roxburgh, Edinburgh, and Stirling. Baliol surrendered in the neighbourhood of Brechin, and Edward after marching
north, probably as far as Elgin, returned to Berwick to receive the homage of the Scotch bishops, barons, and knights.
Baliol himself was committed to the Tower of London. Scotland was now occupied by English garrisons and placed
under English officials; and Edward seemed to have entirely accomplished his cherished purpose, when Wallace, the
man of the people, appeared.
William Wallace, younger son of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, first came forward in a
private quarrel with Haselrig, English governor of Lanark, which developed into a successful rebellion in the south-west
and centre of Scotland. Assisted by some of the barons and a considerable body of men, he defeated the English
governor, the Earl of Surrey, at Stirling Bridge (11th September. 1297), drove Edward's garrisons out of the country,
and made a raid into England. He assumed this title of Guardian of Scotland in the name of Ballot and directed
his energies to rectify the abuses and disorders of the country and to revive the trade with the free towns of
the Continent. Edward, who was in Flanders, hastened home, and marching at the head of a large army, defeated Wallace
at Falkirk (22nd July, 1298), and before 1303 had repossessed himself of the whole country. In 1305 Wallace was
betrayed into the hands of the English near Glasgow by Sir John Menteith; was carried to London, and after a mock
trial was condemned as a rebel and traitor to Edward and executed (23rd August, 1305).
Wallace soon had a more fortunate,
though not a more valiant, successor in Robert de Bruce, earl of Carrick, grandson of that Bruce, lord of Annandale,
who had been Baliol's rival in the dispute concerning the Scottish crown. He had long been an unwilling and restless
retainer of Edward, but latterly determined to push his claims in Scotland, and was crowned as king of the country
at Scone in 1306. At first his career was not successful, but the death of Edward I. at Burgh-on-Sands, on his
way to Scotland, and the inactivity of his son Edward II., were turning-points in the recovery of the independence
of Scotland. Gradually Bruce recovered the whole country, till in 1313 the only English garrison left was Stirling
Castle, which was closely besieged by the Scotch. To relieve it Edward II.. led into Scotland a great army, which
was totally defeated by Bruce in the battle of Bannockburn (24th June, 1314). After this victory Bruce reigned
with almost uninterrupted success, and died in 1329.
On the death of Robert Bruce his son, David II., a boy six years old, was proclaimed king, and acknowledged by
the great part of the nation. Edward Baliol, however, the son of John Baliol (who died 1314) formed a party for
the purpose of supporting his pretensions to the crown; he was backed by Edward III of England. At first Baliol
was successful; and on the 24th September, 1832 he was crowned king at Scone, but eventually David succeeded in
driving him from the kingdom. Still, however, the war was carried on with England with increased bitterness till
at length David was made prisoner at the battle of Nevllle's Cross, near Durham (7th October, 1346). After being
detained in captivity for eleven years he was ransomed for 100,000 marks.
At his death in 1370, childless, the succession fell to Robert, son of Walter, the high steward, and of Marjory
Bruce, daughter of Robert I. (Bruce), Robert II. being thus the first of the Steward, or, as it came to be written,
Stewart or Stuart dynasty. He concluded a treaty with France, in which the nations mutually stipulated to assist
and defend each other. His reign was on the whole peaceful, though the usual border raids between Scotland and
England continued: the chief ending in the celebrated fight of Otterbourne or Chevy Chase. Robert II. died In 1390,
and was succeeded by his son John, who upon his accession took the name of Robert III. Scotland at this time was
rent by the dissensions of its powerful barons and the feuds of hostile clans, and Robert was of too weak and indolent
a character to cope with the turbulent spirits of the age. An invasion of Henry IV. in 1400 effected nothing. In
1402 the Scots sent an army under Douglas to make reprisals on England, but they were met by the English under
Percy at Homildon Hill and completely routed. The latter part of the reign of Robert III. was disturbed by the
ambition of his brother, the Duke of Albany, who is said to have caused the death of the profligate young Duke
of Rothesay, the heir to the throne. Afraid for the safety of his second son, James, Robert designed to send him
to France; but the ship in which he was being conveyed was captured by the English, a misfortune which hastened
the king's death (1406).
James I. being then only eleven years of age, and a captive the regency devolved on the Duke of Albany. The kingdom was torn with internal strife. Several of the more powerful nobles were conciliated by grants of land; but Donald, lord of the Isles, the most powerful Highland chief, marched into Aberdeenshire with a great host, and threatened to overrun lowland Scotland. He was totally defeated at Harlaw by a much inferior force (24th July, 1411), and the country was saved from this danger. The excellent education bestowed on James in England in some measure compensated for the injustice of his capture and detention. In England also he obtained a wife, namely Joanna Beaufort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset and niece of King Henry V. Their marriage facilitated the negotiations for his release, and after nineteen years of captivity he and his bride were crowned at Scone (1423). On his return the regent Murdoch of Albany was put to death, reforms in the constitution of parliament and in the statute-law effected, lawlessness put down, and the connection between Scotland and France strengthened. James's efforts to diminish the power of the great nobles provoked a conspiracy against him, and he was murdered in the Blackfriars Monastery at Perth (20th February, l437). In this reign the University of St. Andrews was founded (1411).
His son and successor James II. being only seven years of age, the country was subjected to the miseries of a long
and feeble regency. One of the chief events of his reign was the rebellion and temporary overthrow of the powerful
house of Douglas. James was accidentally killed by the bursting of a cannon at the siege of Roxburgh Castle (3rd
August 1460). James III. was not quite eight years of age when he succeeded to the kingdom, which was again subject
to all the troubles of a minority. In 1467 the young king married Margaret daughter of the Norse king Christian
and in the shape of a pledge of payment of her dowry the Orkney and Shetland Islands were given up to Scotland,
of which they have ever since formed a part. James seems to have been a man of culture, but weak of will and partial
to favourites. A confederation against him was formed by a number of his nobles in 1488; the forces met at Sauchieburn,
near Stirling, where the royal army was defeated, and James was murdered in the fight.
James IV., who had been induced to join the nobles hostile to his father, was sixteen years old when he ascended
the throne. In 1503 he married Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. of England, and thus paved the way for the future
union of the two kingdoms. During the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. James was induced to espouse the French
cause and to invade England. This disastrous campaign ended in the total destruction of his splendid army, his
own death and that of most of the nobles who accompanied him, at Flodden field (9th Sept. 1513).
The king's death plunged the nation into a state of anarchy; his infant successor James V. had not yet reached
the age of two years. His cousin, the Duke of Albany, was appointed regent, but from an early part of the reign
James was almost entirely in the hands of the Earl of Angus, who had married the queen dowager, and had almost
complete control of affairs till 1528, when James then in his seventeenth year managed to escape to Stirling, take
the government in his own bands, and drive Angus into England. His alliance was sought by England, France, and
Spain, and in 1527 James married Madeleine, daughter of Francis I. The young queen died a few weeks after her arrival
in Scotland, and in the following year James married Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke of Guise. Henry VIII.
made several attempts to induce James to throw off allegiance to Rome in vain. A conference was proposed at York.
James failed to attend, and Henry at once declared war. The Scottish king assembled his whole army, but had to
disband it owing to the discontent of his nobles, Another force was despatched to England by the western border,
but an obnoxious favourite of James being in chief command, the troops refused to obey, and a small English force
taking advantage of the disorder, the total defeat of Solway Moss was the result, A few days afterwards James died
at Caerlaverock Castle (14th Dec., 1542), having just received tidings of the birth of his daughter, the future
Mary Queen of Scots. In many ways James consulted the good of his subjects, but his continued efforts to depress
the nobility embroiled him with that powerful body. He was popular with the people as a whole, and strictly administered
justice. He was a supporter of the old faith as against the reformed doctrines.
The eventful period which followed the accession of Mary was dominated by the Reformation movement, and the questions affecting the Union of Scotland and England. A scheme to pledge in marriage the young queen to Edward, son of Henry VIII., was defeated by a party of the nobles getting possession of the queen, and renewing the old league with France. The consequence was war with England, when the whole of the south-east of the country was devastated, and the Scottish army defeated at Pinkie (1547). In the following year Mary was sent to France, her mother filling the regency. In 1558 she was married to the dauphin who succeeded to the throne the following year, but died in 1560. Mary then returned to Scotland, where she found the nobility divided into two parties, the Roman Catholics headed by Huntly, and the Reformed party headed by her half-brother, Lord James Stewart, afterwards Earl of Moray or Murray. At first she was disposed to conciliate the reformers on condition she was allowed the exercise of her own faith. This was agreed to by Moray, who was practically prime - minister, and the moderate section of the reformers, but did not satisfy the extreme section headed by Knox. The chief military incidents of her early reign are a raid headed by Moray against the turbulent and plundering borderers in which many of them were slain others executed; suppression of the revolt of the Catholic Earl of Huntly, the most powerful chief of the north. Huntly himself fell in battle in 1562 at Corrichie, about 16 miles west of Aberdeen, his son was arrested and executed, and the power of the house was broken. In spite of Knox's party, Mary's reign was popular up till her unfortunate marriage with Darnley in 1565. Moray, who opposed the marriage, had to fly, and was henceforward her enemy. The marringe was unhappy.Darnley was murdered by the Earl of Bothwell and his servants, but whether Mary was accessory to the murder is yet a matter of controversy. The fact remains that she married Bothwell within three months, and alienated the greater number of her subjects. A confederacy was formed against her, and after a vain show of resistance at Carberry Hill she surrendered, and was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, where she was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, and commit the regency to Moray (1567). In May next year she escaped, and raised an army, which was met by Moray and the Protestant nobles at Langside, near Glasgow, and was defeated. Flying to England Mary put herself under the protection of Elizabeth. Here she drops from Scottish history, but her after-life till her execution in 1587 was a continual series of plots to regain her lost throne.
James VI., the son of Mary, being a mere child, Moray held the regency of the kingdom, conducting its affairs with a wise and firm hand, till the 26th February, 1570,when he was shot in the street, of Linlithgow by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. His death was followed by a succession of regents - Lennox, Mar, and Morton - by great disorders in the kingdom, and a war between the parties of the king and queen. Morton was executed in 1581, and the other chief events of the reign, prior to the union of the crowns by the accession of James to the throne of England as James I., were the raid of Ruthven, the marriage of James to Ann of Denmark, and the Gowrie conspiracy. On the death of Elizabeth in 1603, James succeeded as the nearest heir through his descent from Margaret, daughter of Henry VII. and wife of James IV. He was crowned at Westminster; and assumed the title of King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.
There were seven Scottish Parliaments called by James after his accession, wherein he was represented by a commissioner
sitting as president. His chief energies were directed to an attempt to draw England and Scotland into a closer
union by means of harmonizing the laws of the two countries, and by establishing episcopacy in Scotland. In furtherance
of the latter object he visited Scotland in 1617 for the only time after the union of the crowns. There were many
acts passed for promoting trade and commerce, and the nation about this time seems to have been seized with a mania
for colonization, as many thousands of the inhabitants left their native land for the Irish province of Ulster,
or the more distant shores of Nova Scotia. James VI. died in 1625, and was succeeded by his son, Charles I., then
in the twenty-fifth year of his age.
Foreign wars and domestic troubles prevented Charles from visiting Scotland till 1633 when he was crowned at Edinburgh. The church was now entirely governed by the bishops, and civil affairs managed by the privy-council. At the outbreak of the civil war in England, Scotland took the part of the parliament against the king, the Solemn League and Covenant being entered into between the Scottish Presbyterians and the English parliament (1643). A Scottish army entered England under Alexander Leslie, earl of Leven, and was of considerable assistance to the parliamentary forces at Marston Moor and elsewhere. Meanwhile Montrose overran the country with his wild Highland and Irish army, till his career was cut short by General David Leslie at Philiphaugh in 1645. The affairs of the king becoming hopeless in England, Charles gave himself up to the Scottish army posted before Newark 5th May, 1646, and was surrendered to the English parliament 30th January, 1647, on payment of the arrears of pay of the Scottish troops.
After the execution of Charles (30th Jan., 1649) the Scots proclaimed his son king, under the title of Charles
II. The young king was then in Holland, and certain commissioners were sent over from Scotland to inform him that
the governing body were willing to espouse his cause if be should take the Covenant with its companion testimonies,
and engage to do his utmost to enforce the whole Covenanting system over England and Ireland. This Charles agreed
to do, and he was invited over to his northern kingdom. He arrived in Scotland, landing at the mouth of the Spey,
3d July, 1650, and marched southward by Aberdeen, Dundee, and St. Andrews to Falkland Palace. This royal progress
alarmed the republican council of state at Whitehall, and a force under Cromwell was despatched to stop it. General
David Leslie marched to meet Cromwell, but was defeated at Dunbar (3rd September, 1650). Notwithstanding this defeat,
Charles was crowned at Scone (1st January, 1651), and immediately marched into England, Cromwell followed, and
at Worcester utterly scattered the royalist force, and compelled Charles to become, fugitive (3rd September, 1651).
Cromwell returned to Scotland and so far reduced it, leaving Monk to complete the work. This was brought about
by the sack of Dundee in 1653 and other severe measures. Cromwell's death was soon followed by the fall of his
son, Monk's march to London at the head of the army, and the restoration of Charles II. (1660).
The Scottish parliament assembled under the Earl of Middleton, the king's commissioner, January 1, 1661, and it
soon became apparent that Charles was determined to carry out the favourite scheme of his father and grandfather
of establishing Episcopacy in Scotland. This endeavour to establish Episcopacy was violently opposed, and led to
a cruel persecution, which lasted with more or less severity during the whole of the reign of Charles. Hundreds
were executed on the scaffold, others were fined, imprisoned, and tortured; and whole tracts of the country were
placed under a military despotism of the worst description.
In 1679 a body of royal troops under Graham of Claverhouse was defeated by a force of Covenanters at Drumclog.
Six weeks later the Covenanters were defeated with terrible slaughter at Bothwell Bridge. Charles died in 1685,
and was succeeded by his brother, James VII of Scotland and II. of England. The chief events of his reign, so far
as Scotland was concerned, were the rising, defeat, and execution of Argyle; the declarations of indulgence by
which many of the Presbyterian ministers returned to their charges; and the continued persecution of the strict
Covenanters, one of whose ministers, Renwick, the last of the Covenanting martyrs, was executed at Edinburgh in
1688.
At the Revolution a convention of the Estates at Edinburgh proclaimed William, prince of Orange, James's son-in-law and nephew, and his wife Mary, James's daughter, king and queen of Scotland. Claverhouse, now Viscount of Dundee, raised an army of Jacobites, but his death at Killiecrankie (1689) put an end to the rising. Religious freedom was again restored, and in 1690 a General Assembly of the Presbyterian church again met, The reign of William III. was marked by two events which rendered him generally unpopular in Scotland and strengthened the cause of the Jacobites, as the party who still adhered to James II. was called. We allude to the massacre of Glencoe and the unfortunate Darien expedition , but the reign closed without any serious rising in Scotland.
The death of William III. in 1702 transferred the crowns of the two nations to Queen Anne,
sister of Mary. In 1703 the parliament of Scotland issued a declaration which intimated a purpose, in case of the
demise of the crown, to appoint a different sovereign from the English king, and the ill-feeling between the two
countries grew so strong that English statesmen became convinced that an incorporating union was essential for
the peace of the two countries. A joint-commission was appointed to draw up articles of union in 1706. The Scottish
parliament met to consider the articles, which encountered a strong opposition headed by the Duke of Hamilton,
and strongly backed up by the bulk of the people. A majority of the parliament, however, carried the measure (16th
January, 1707); it received the royal assent (March 4); and the Union took effect (May 1). The chief provisions
of the Act of Union were (1) That the two kingdoms should be united under the name of 'Great Britain;' (2) that
the succession to the crown of the United Kingdom should be in the Electress Sophia of Hanover and her heirs, being
Protestants; (3) that 16 Scottish peers and 45 Scottish members of the House of Commons should be elected to the
one parliament sitting in London; (4) that the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland should be maintained:
(5) that Scotland should keep unchanged her own laws and customs relating to property and private rights, and also
the Court of Session and other Scotch courts; (6) that all the rights of trade, free intercourse, and citizenship
should be the same for Scotch and English subjects. Henceforth the general history of Scotland may be said to be
entirely identified with that of England.
