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The History of Scotland

A Brief summary of the History of Scotland from the first century AD to the present time

1st Century AD to the 12th Century AD

From the 1st century AD, Scotland’s first tourist’s the Romans invaded Britain and added southern Britain to their empire, as the province Britannia. However they could not subdue the fierce tribes in the north. To keep these tribes from invading Britannia, Emperor Hadrian built a massive wall across the island from sea to sea known as “Hadrians Wall”. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia and they called the people Picts…from the Latin piclus, meaning “painted”–because they painted their bodies, it is not fully understood whether the Picts were also a Celtic people or the links between the Picts and the Irish Celts. Parts of Hadrian’s Wall still stand on the Scottish border. In the 5th century Celtic immigrants from Ireland, called Scots, settled north of the Clyde. The Scots were already Christians when they left Ireland. In the next century St. Columba, the first official eye witness of the Loch Ness Monster! converted the king of the Picts to Christianity. In the 9th century Kenneth MacAlpine, king of the Scots, added the Pictish kingdom to his own. In about the 10th century the land came to be known as Scotland. After the Normans conquered England in 1066, many Anglo-Saxons from England settled in the Lowlands of Scotland. Here the Scots gradually adopted English ways. Feudalism was established, and the chiefs of the clans became nobles. Towns grew, trade increased, and Scotland prospered. In the early 12th Century Loch Finlaggan on the island of Islay, was the centre of the realm of the Lords of the Isles. These MacDonald lords were descended from Somerled, a 12th century prince, and took their name from his grandson Donald. They ruled the islands and parts of the west coast of Scotland from Kintyre to Lewis, virtually independent of the control of the Scottish Crown.

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

Kings and Queens of Scotland

In 1290 Margaret, heiress to the throne, died. Thirteen claimants contested the Crown. Edward I of England claimed the right to bestow it and made John de Baliol king. When Edward asked John for help against the French, however, John entered into an alliance with France. For 260 years Scotland held to this so-called “auld alliance” with England’s enemy. Edward crossed the border in 1296, took John de Baliol prisoner, and proclaimed himself king of Scotland. To symbolize the union he carried off the ancient Stone of Scone, on which Scottish kings had long been crowned, and placed it in Westminster Abbey where it lay beneath the coronation chair.

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

William Wallace The “Braveheart”

The Scots rose again. Led by William Wallace “The Braveheart”, they routed the English at Stirling Bridge in 1297 and pursued them across the border. The next year Edward returned and inflicted a disastrous defeat on the Scots at Falkirk. Wallace was later captured and executed, and the English hung his head from London Bridge. This part of historic Scotland was the foundation for the film “Braveheart”.

William Wallace a common man became a true hero and warrior with little support from the Nobles. He lead a nation of men on the road to freedom and independence from English rule. Wherever possible lives were always spared and Wallace led his fellow men to great victories against all odds and was the catalyst to the later great final victory at Bannockburn in 1314, led by Scotland’s next great hero “King Robert the Bruce”

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

King Robert the Bruce

The Scots’ spirit was still unbroken, and they soon found another great champion in Robert the Bruce. The last great battle in the war for independence was fought in 1314 at Bannockburn near Stirling Castle. There Bruce inflicted a disastrous defeat on superior English forces led by Edward II. In 1328 Edward III formally recognized Scotland’s independence.

Robert the Bruce’s right-hand man was James Douglas, often overshadowed by his monarch, who might not have become king without his staunch support and talents as a military commander. “Good Sir James” died taking Bruce’s heart on a crusade to the Holy Land, a final request from his king.

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

Scottish Clans and Nobles

In the later Middle Ages, Scotland suffered from weak kings and powerful nobles. For two centuries there was a constant struggle between the Crown and the barons. Border clashes with England also continued. James IV of Scotland married Margaret, daughter of Henry VII of England, in 1503. When Henry VIII went to war with France in 1512, however, James IV invaded England. He fell, “riddled with arrows,” at Flodden Field in the last great border battle (1513). James V died brokenhearted after his army had been slaughtered at Solway Moss (1542). The throne went to his infant daughter, Mary Stuart. Meanwhile the Protestant Reformation had swept across Europe and into England. Scotland was still a Roman Catholic country. Its young queen, Mary Stuart, was in France when John Knox returned home to Scotland from Geneva, Switzerland. Knox was a follower of John Calvin, one of the leaders of the Reformation. With fiery eloquence he spread Calvin’s Protestant doctrine. Knox and others drove Mary out. In 1560 Scotland’s parliament adopted a confession of faith drawn up by Knox and established the Church of Scotland on a Presbyterian basis. When Mary returned to Scotland in 1561, she was imprisoned and forced to abdicate her throne. She escaped, however, and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth I made her a prisoner and finally had her executed. Mary Stuart’s son, James VI, was brought up as a Presbyterian. When Queen Elizabeth of England died in 1603, James inherited the throne of England. This is an important point missed by many historians – it was the Scottish king who took over the English throne, not the reverse. In England he was called James I. The two nations were thus united under a single king, but Scotland remained a separate state with its own parliament and government. England tried repeatedly to impose the Anglicans’ episcopal form of worship and church government on the Scottish kirk. The Scots took up arms against Charles I. When civil war broke out in England, they aided the Puritans against the king. After Oliver Cromwell executed Charles I without consulting the Scots, however, the Scots welcomed Charles’s son as Charles II. Cromwell then marched into Scotland and imposed his rule. When Charles II was restored to the throne, persecution of Presbyterians continued. Finally, after James II had been driven from the throne, Presbyterianism was firmly established as Scotland’s national church.

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

Bonnie Prince Charlie

The Highlanders long remained loyal to the exiled Stuarts. In 1715 they attempted to restore the house of Stuart to the throne; James Stuart, known as the Old Pretender, was proclaimed James III. In 1745 they supported his son, Charles Edward, known as the Young Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Charlie the son of uncrowned Stuart King James III of Britain and grandson of the last crowned Stuart king – James II, who had ruled from 1685-88. Charles Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stuart had trained in warfare and had fought bravely at the siege of Gaeta in Italy. He had been brought up a Roman Catholic. Although an important figure is Scottish History, Charles Edward Stuart was not of course a Scot.

In 1744 his father began an attempt, with French help, to regain the British throne from the ruling Hanoverians. Charles was to command the French invasion forces. This entire expedition was cancelled due to bad weather and a British naval build up. Little further French assistance was forecoming.

In July Charles landed on the west coast of Scotland, raised his standard at Glenfinnan on 19 August 1745 and built a small but dedicated army of Highlanders (about 2500 men) for his Jacobite cause. The ’45 Jacobite rebellion had begun. By September he occupied Edinburgh and destroyed the Hanoverian Government army of John Cope at Prestonpans outside Edinburgh. In November he crossed into England with almost 6000 men and marched to Derby. English Jacobites did not rise in support of his cause, the backing he expected from France still did not materialise and faced with a Government army five times larger, he withdrew back to Scotland.

On 16th April 1746 he was finally defeated at Culloden by the Duke of Cumberland. The battle lasted little more than an hour but the massacre which followed lasted until nightfall and for weeks after vicious reprisals were enacted by the Government forces. Several thousand people are reckoned to have been killed, many who had nothing to do with the battle or even the Jacobite cause.

After 5 months of evading capture Charles himself escaped by ship to France.

Although some Highland Clans had assisted Charles, many others did not. This wasn’t a war between Scotland and England and it was not a religious war, it was a final putting to rest of the ideals of Stuart Monarchy which had been rejected by the majority of both Scots and English half a century earlier. It is worth noting that there were more Scots fighting on the Government side at Culloden than on the Jacobite. The lasting effect of Charles’s campaign on the Highlands of Scotland should not be understated. Even though many (most?) Highlanders hadn’t backed his cause, Highland culture, language and dress was supressed for decades to come.

In 1750 Charles actually visited London secretly. He tried for years to interest various European powers in assisting his cause, but to no avail. By the mid-1760’s his claims to the British throne were no longer recognised by the Pope and European powers. In 1788 he finally died having spent almost all his life in exile.

Kings and Queens The Glen Coe Massacre William Wallace Robert Burns and Cutty Sark Robert the Bruce, Sir Walter Scott Clans and Nobles The Loch Ness Monster Bonnie Prince Charlie Famous Scottish Battles Scottish Castles

The Glen Coe Massacre

During 1690 and 1691 the Jacobites had caused the government much trouble and anxiety by their ceaseless plotting to up an insurrection. Lord Tarbet proposed a scheme for the quieting of the Highlands, which Lord Breadalbane offered to carry into execution he was intrusted with a sum of money to distribute among the chiefs, or rather to buy up the claims which Argyle and other superiors had over their feudal vassals, but was then abandoned.

As early as 1501 MacDonalds captured a Campbell castle on an island in Loch Awe and many minor raids followed over the following 150 years, including one in which 30 MacDonalds were caught and hanged in Glen Lyon in 1646 a MacDonald raid into Glen Lyon lled to the deaths of 36 Campbells and Menzies after a wedding. 1685 saw the Atholl Raid, in which Glen Coe MacDonalds laid waste to large parts of Glen Lyon. And in 1689 they burned down Achallader Castle, near Bridge of Orchy in another skirmish with the Campbells.

In August 1691 King William III offered to pardon all the Highland clans who had taken up arms against him in the 1689 Jacobite uprising. These included the Glen Coe MacDonalds. The pardon was conditional on their taking an oath of allegiance to him by 1 January 1692. Clan Chief Alastair MacDonald arrived at Inverlochy (now Fort William) on 31 December 1691, only to find he should have gone instead to Inverary to take his oath. He eventually got there 5 days late!

As a result, the Glen Coe MacDonalds did not appear on the list of clans who had taken the oath by the deadline. Worse still for the MacDonalds, the Secretary of State for Scotland, Sir John Dalrymple, wanted to set an example by punishing one of the clans who failed to take the oath. Although some others had made no effort at all to take it, the Glen Coe MacDonalds were selected to set this example because they were unpopular, they had no stronghold, and they lived in a valley whose exits could easily be blocked.

Over the following month troop numbers at Inverlochy (now fort william) were increased. On 1 February, about 130 men moved south from Inverlochy and billeted with the MacDonalds in Glen Coe. The troops were commanded by Captain Robert Campbell of Glen Lyon, a 60 year-old bankrupt alcoholic. He was probably put in charge because he was unlikely to question his orders. These duly arrived in writing, on 12 February, from Major Robert Duncanson based at Inverlochy. Captain Campbell and his men were to “fall upon the Rebels… and putt all to the sword under seventy.” This was to happen at 5am the following morning, 13 February.

There were up to 500 MacDonalds, scattered around the lower reaches of Glen Coe. The start of the massacre was signalled by a fire lit on what is now called Signal Rock at 5am. It was dark and snowing.

The reinforcements intended to block escape routes from the glen failed to turn up, leaving Captain Campbell to make his mark on history largely unaided. The massacre was ineptly carried out. Some 38 MacDonalds were killed by the troops, but the sound of the initial gunfire provide ample warning to most, who escaped into the winter mountains. An unknown number subsequently died from exposure. The public outcry that followed led to the resignation of Sir John Dalrymple.

Glen Coe’s infamy is not really because of the deaths involved. What offended Highlanders most about Glen Coe was the abuse of the hospitality offered by the MacDonalds to the government troops. As a result the massacre of Glen Coe has been transformed by history into something done to the MacDonalds by the Campbells. Certainly the Campbells had every reason to dislike the Glen Coe MacDonalds, and some Campbells were well placed in government and in the military establishment. Also 12 of the 130 soldiers involved in the massacre were Campbells, including their Captain.

In effect the straightforward Campbell vs MacDonald feud, let the Government of the day off the hook, which is perhaps what it intended by putting Captain Campbell in charge and leaving him to get on with it unaided.

Glen Coe had less to do with clan rivalries than it had to do with the government’s continuing efforts to suppress the Highlands and its troublesome residents. The orders for the massacre were signed by a Major in Inverlochy, but the action was authorised all the way up to the Secretary of State for Scotland and beyond, probably to the King himself.