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The recorded begins with the arrival of the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
in the 1st century, when the
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
reached as far north as the Antonine Wall. North of this was Caledonia, inhabited by the ''Picti'', whose uprisings forced Rome's legions back to Hadrian's Wall. As Rome finally withdrew from Britain, Gaelic raiders called the ''
Scoti ''Scoti'' or ''Scotti'' is a Latin name for the Gaels,Duffy, Seán. ''Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Routledge, 2005. p.698 first attested in the late 3rd century. At first it referred to all Gaels, whether in Ireland or Great Britain, but l ...
'' began colonising Western Scotland and Wales. Prior to Roman times,
prehistoric Scotland Archaeology and geology continue to reveal the secrets of prehistoric Scotland, uncovering a complex past before the Romans brought Scotland into the scope of recorded history. Successive human cultures tended to be spread across Europe or furt ...
entered the
Neolithic Era The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
about 4000 BC, the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
about 2000 BC, and the
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
around 700 BC. The Gaelic kingdom of
Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is n ...
was founded on the west coast of Scotland in the 6th century. In the following century,
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
missionaries introduced the previously pagan Picts to Celtic Christianity. Following
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
's Gregorian mission, the Pictish king Nechtan chose to abolish most Celtic practices in favour of the Roman rite, restricting Gaelic influence on his kingdom and avoiding war with Anglian
Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
. Towards the end of the 8th century, the Viking invasions began, forcing the Picts and Gaels to cease their historic hostility to each other and to unite in the 9th century, forming the
Kingdom of Scotland The Kingdom of Scotland (; , ) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a l ...
. The Kingdom of Scotland was united under the
House of Alpin The House of Alpin, also known as the Alpínid dynasty, Clann Chináeda, and Clann Chinaeda meic Ailpín, was the kin-group which ruled in Pictland, possibly Dál Riata, and then the kingdom of Alba from the advent of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed ...
, whose members fought among each other during frequent disputed successions. The last Alpin king,
Malcolm II Máel Coluim mac Cináeda ( gd, Maol Chaluim mac Choinnich, label=Modern Scottish Gaelic; anglicized Malcolm II; c. 954 – 25 November 1034) was King of Scots from 1005 until his death. He was a son of King Kenneth II; but the name of his mot ...
, died without a male issue in the early 11th century and the kingdom passed through his daughter's son to the
House of Dunkeld The House of Dunkeld (in or "of the Caledonians") is a historiographical and genealogical construct to illustrate the clear succession of Scottish kings from 1034 to 1040 and from 1058 to 1286. The line is also variously referred to by historians ...
or Canmore. The last Dunkeld king, Alexander III, died in 1286. He left only his infant granddaughter
Margaret, Maid of Norway Margaret (, ; March or April 1283 – September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death. As she was never inaugurated, her status as monarch is uncertain and has been debated by historian ...
as heir, who died herself four years later. England, under Edward I, would take advantage of this questioned succession to launch a series of conquests, resulting in the
Wars of Scottish Independence The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. The First War (1296–1328) began with the English invasion of ...
, as Scotland passed back and forth between the
House of Balliol The House of Balliol (de Bailleul) was a noble family originating from the village of Bailleul in Picardy. They held estates in England, granted during the reign of King William Rufus. Through marriage, they had claims to the Throne of Scot ...
and the
House of Bruce Clan Bruce ( gd, Brùs) is a Lowlands Scottish clan. It was a Royal House in the 14th century, producing two kings of Scotland (Robert the Bruce and David II of Scotland), and a disputed High King of Ireland, Edward Bruce. Origins The surname ...
. Scotland's ultimate victory confirmed Scotland as a fully independent and sovereign kingdom. When
King David II David II (5 March 1324 – 22 February 1371) was King of Scots from 1329 until his death in 1371. Upon the death of his father, Robert the Bruce, David succeeded to the throne at the age of five, and was crowned at Scone in November 1331, becom ...
died without issue, his nephew Robert II established the
House of Stuart The House of Stuart, originally spelt Stewart, was a royal house of Scotland, England, Ireland and later Great Britain. The family name comes from the office of High Steward of Scotland, which had been held by the family progenitor Walter fi ...
, which would rule Scotland uncontested for the next three centuries.
James VI James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...
, Stuart king of Scotland, also inherited the throne of England in 1603, becoming James I of England, and the Stuart kings and queens ruled both independent kingdoms until the Acts of Union in 1707 merged the two kingdoms into a new state, the
Kingdom of Great Britain The Kingdom of Great Britain (officially Great Britain) was a Sovereign state, sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of ...
. Ruling until 1714, Queen Anne was the last Stuart monarch. Since 1714, the succession of the
British monarchs There have been 13 British monarchs since the political union of the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland on 1 May 1707. England and Scotland had been in personal union since 24 March 1603. On 1 January 1801, the Kingdom of Great Brit ...
of the houses of
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Windsor) has been due to their descent from
James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
of the House of Stuart. During the Scottish Enlightenment and
Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Later, its industrial decline following the Second World War was particularly acute. In recent decades Scotland has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services sector and the proceeds of
North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea ...
and gas. Since the 1950s, nationalism has become a strong political topic, with serious debates on Scottish independence, and a referendum in 2014 about leaving the British Union.


Pre-history

People lived in Scotland for at least 8,500 years before Britain's
recorded history Recorded history or written history describes the historical events that have been recorded in a written form or other documented communication which are subsequently evaluated by historians using the historical method. For broader world his ...
. At times during the last
interglacial period An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...
(130,000–70,000 BC) Europe had a climate warmer than today's, and early humans may have made their way to Scotland, with the possible discovery of pre-
Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
axes on Orkney and mainland Scotland. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BC.
Upper Paleolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...
hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar to around 12000 BC. Numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers. The oldest house for which there is evidence in Britain is the oval structure of wooden posts found at
South Queensferry Queensferry, also called South Queensferry or simply "The Ferry", is a town to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Traditionally a royal burgh of West Lothian, it is administered by the City of Edinburgh council area. It lies ten miles to the no ...
near the Firth of Forth, dating from the Mesolithic period, about 8240 BC. The earliest stone structures are probably the three hearths found at Jura, dated to about 6000 BC.
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
farming brought permanent settlements. Evidence of these includes the well-preserved stone house at
Knap of Howar The Knap of Howar () on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney, Scotland is a Neolithic farmstead which may be the oldest preserved stone house in northern Europe. Radiocarbon dating shows that it was occupied from 3700 BC to 2800 BC, earlier th ...
on Papa Westray, dating from around 3500 BC and the village of similar houses at
Skara Brae Skara Brae is a stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland. Consisting of ten clustered houses, made of flagstones, in earthen dams ...
on West
Mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...
, Orkney from about 500 years later. The settlers introduced chambered cairn tombs from around 3500 BC, as at
Maeshowe Maeshowe (or Maes Howe; non, Orkhaugr) is a Neolithic chambered cairn and passage grave situated on Mainland Orkney, Scotland. It was probably built around . In the archaeology of Scotland, it gives its name to the Maeshowe type of chambered ...
, and from about 3000 BC the many standing stones and circles such as those at Stenness on the mainland of Orkney, which date from about 3100 BC, of four stones, the tallest of which is in height. These were part of a pattern that developed in many regions across Europe at about the same time. The creation of cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into the
Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...
, which began in Scotland about 2000 BC. As elsewhere in Europe,
hill forts A hillfort is a type of earthwork 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 Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Rom ...
were first introduced in this period, including the occupation of
Eildon Hill Eildon 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. The high eminence overlooks Teviotdale to the South ...
near Melrose in the Scottish Borders, from around 1000 BC, which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop. From the Early and Middle Bronze Age there is evidence of cellular round houses of stone, as at
Jarlshof Jarlshof ( ) is the best-known prehistoric archaeological site in Shetland, Scotland. It lies in Sumburgh, Mainland, Shetland and has been described as "one of the most remarkable archaeological sites ever excavated in the British Isles". It con ...
and
Sumburgh Sumburgh is a small settlement in the Shetland Islands, Scotland. Sumburgh is located at the south end of the Mainland on Sumburgh Head. Sumburgh Airport is just outside the village to the north. Sumburgh has a population of approximately 100. Ja ...
in Shetland. There is also evidence of the occupation of
crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...
s, roundhouses partially or entirely built on artificial islands, usually in lakes, rivers and estuarine waters. In the early
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...
, from the seventh century BC, cellular houses began to be replaced on the northern isles by simple
Atlantic roundhouse In archaeology, an Atlantic roundhouse is an Iron Age stone building found in the northern and western parts of mainland Scotland, the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Circular houses were the predominant architectural style of the British landsc ...
s, substantial circular buildings with a dry stone construction. From about 400 BC, more complex Atlantic roundhouses began to be built, as at Howe, Orkney and Crosskirk, Caithness.. The most massive constructions that date from this era are the circular broch towers, probably dating from about 200 BC. This period also saw the first wheelhouses, a roundhouse with a characteristic outer wall, within which was a circle of stone piers (bearing a resemblance to the spokes of a wheel), but these would flourish most in the era of Roman occupation. There is evidence for about 1,000 Iron Age
hill forts in Scotland Hillforts in Scotland are earthworks, sometimes with wooden or stone enclosures, built on higher ground, which usually include a significant settlement, built within the modern boundaries of Scotland. They were first studied in the eighteenth ce ...
, most located below the Clyde-Forth line, which have suggested to some archaeologists the emergence of a society of petty rulers and warrior elites recognisable from Roman accounts.


Roman invasion

The surviving pre-Roman accounts of Scotland originated with the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Pytheas of Massalia, who may have circumnavigated the
British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
of Albion (
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
) and Ierne (Ireland) sometime around 325 BC. The most northerly point of Britain was called ''Orcas'' (Orkney).Diodorus Siculus' ''Bibliotheca Historica'' Book V. Chapter XXI. Section
Greek text
at the
Perseus Project The Perseus Project is a digital library project of Tufts University, which assembles digital collections of humanities resources. Version 4.0 is also known as the "Perseus Hopper", and it is hosted by the Department of Classical Studies. The proj ...
.
By the time of
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
, who died in AD 79, Roman knowledge of the geography of Scotland had extended to the ''Hebudes'' (
The Hebrides The Hebrides (; gd, Innse Gall, ; non, Suðreyjar, "southern isles") are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebri ...
), ''Dumna'' (probably the Outer Hebrides), the Caledonian Forest and the people of the Caledonii, from whom the Romans named the region north of their control Caledonia.
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...
, possibly drawing on earlier sources of information as well as more contemporary accounts from the Agricolan invasion, identified 18 tribes in Scotland in his ''Geography'', but many of the names are obscure and the geography becomes less reliable in the north and west, suggesting early Roman knowledge of these areas was confined to observations from the sea. The
Roman invasion of Britain The Roman conquest of Britain refers to the conquest of the island of Britain by occupying Roman forces. It began in earnest in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, and was largely completed in the southern half of Britain by 87 when the Stan ...
began in earnest in AD 43, leading to the establishment of the Roman province of
Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...
in the south. By the year 71, the
Roman governor A Roman governor was an official either elected or appointed to be the chief administrator of Roman law throughout one or more of the many Roman province, provinces constituting the Roman Empire. The generic term in Roman legal language was ''Re ...
Quintus Petillius Cerialis had launched an invasion of what is now Scotland. In the year 78,
Gnaeus Julius Agricola Gnaeus Julius Agricola (; 13 June 40 – 23 August 93) was a Roman general and politician responsible for much of the Roman conquest of Britain. Born to a political family of senatorial rank, Agricola began his military career as a military tribu ...
arrived in Britain to take up his appointment as the new governor and began a series of major incursions. He is said to have pushed his armies to the estuary of the "River Taus" (usually assumed to be the River Tay) and established forts there, including a legionary fortress at
Inchtuthil Inchtuthil is the site of a Roman legionary fortress situated on a natural platform overlooking the north bank of the River Tay southwest of Blairgowrie, Perth and Kinross, Scotland (Roman Caledonia). It was built in AD 82 or 83 as the advance ...
. After his victory over the northern tribes at Mons Graupius in 84, a series of forts and towers were established along the
Gask Ridge The Gask Ridge is the modern name given to an early series of fortifications, built by the Romans in Scotland, close to the Highland Line. Modern excavation and interpretation has been pioneered by the Roman Gask Project, with Birgitta Hoffmann ...
, which marked the boundary between the Lowland and Highland zones, probably forming the first Roman ''limes'' or frontier in Scotland. Agricola's successors were unable or unwilling to further subdue the far north. By the year 87, the occupation was limited to the Southern Uplands and by the end of the first century the northern limit of Roman expansion was a line drawn between the Tyne and
Solway Firth The Solway Firth ( gd, Tràchd Romhra) is a firth that forms part of the border between England and Scotland, between Cumbria (including the Solway Plain) and Dumfries and Galloway. It stretches from St Bees Head, just south of Whitehaven ...
. The Romans eventually withdrew to a line in what is now northern England, building the fortification known as Hadrian's Wall from coast to coast. Around 141, the Romans undertook a reoccupation of southern Scotland, moving up to construct a new ''
limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a ...
'' between the Firth of Forth and the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...
, which became the Antonine Wall. The largest Roman construction inside Scotland, it is a sward-covered wall made of
turf Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...
around high, with nineteen forts. It extended for . Having taken twelve years to build, the wall was overrun and abandoned soon after 160."History"
''antoninewall.org''. Retrieved 25 July 2008.
The Romans retreated to the line of Hadrian's Wall. Roman troops penetrated far into the north of modern Scotland several more times, with at least four major campaigns. The most notable invasion was in 209 when the emperor
Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...
led a major force north.C. M. Hogan
"Elsick Mounth – Ancient Trackway in Scotland in Aberdeenshire"
in ''The Megalithic Portal'', ed., A. Burnham. Retrieved 24 July 2008.
After the death of Severus in 210 they withdrew south to Hadrian's Wall, which would be Roman frontier until it collapsed in the 5th century. By the close of the Roman occupation of southern and central Britain in the 5th century, the
Picts The Picts were a group of peoples who lived in what is now northern and eastern Scotland (north of the Firth of Forth) during Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Where they lived and what their culture was like can be inferred from e ...
had emerged as the dominant force in northern Scotland, with the various Brythonic tribes the Romans had first encountered there occupying the southern half of the country. Roman influence on Scottish culture and history was not enduring.


Post-Roman Scotland

In the centuries after the departure of the Romans from Britain, there were four groups within the borders of what is now Scotland. In the east were the Picts, with kingdoms between the river Forth and Shetland. In the late 6th century the dominant force was the Kingdom of
Fortriu Fortriu ( la, Verturiones; sga, *Foirtrinn; ang, Wærteras; xpi, *Uerteru) was a Pictish kingdom that existed between the 4th and 10th centuries. It was traditionally believed to be located in and around Strathearn in central Scotland, but is ...
, whose lands were centred on
Strathearn Strathearn or Strath Earn (, from gd, Srath Èireann) is the strath of the River Earn, in Scotland, extending from Loch Earn in the West to the River Tay in the east.http://www.strathearn.com/st_where.htm Derivation of name Strathearn was on ...
and
Menteith Menteith or Monteith ( gd, Mòine Tèadhaich), a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Earlier forms of its name include ''Meneted'', ''Maneteth'' and ''Meneteth''. (Historically ...
and who raided along the eastern coast into modern England. In the west were the Gaelic (
Goidelic The Goidelic or Gaelic languages ( ga, teangacha Gaelacha; gd, cànanan Goidhealach; gv, çhengaghyn Gaelgagh) form one of the two groups of Insular Celtic languages, the other being the Brittonic languages. Goidelic languages historically ...
)-speaking people of
Dál Riata Dál Riata or Dál Riada (also Dalriada) () was a Gaelic kingdom that encompassed the western seaboard of Scotland and north-eastern Ireland, on each side of the North Channel. At its height in the 6th and 7th centuries, it covered what is n ...
with their royal fortress at
Dunadd Dunadd (Scottish Gaelic ''Dún Ad'', "fort on the iverAdd") is a hillfort in Argyll and Bute, Scotland, dating from the Iron Age and early medieval period and is believed to be the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata. Dal Riata was a ki ...
in Argyll, with close links with the island of Ireland, from whom comes the name Scots.. In the south was the British (Brythonic)
Kingdom of Strathclyde Strathclyde (lit. " Strath of the River Clyde", and Strað-Clota in Old English), was a Brittonic successor state of the Roman Empire and one of the early medieval kingdoms of the Britons, located in the region the Welsh tribes referred to as ...
, descendants of the peoples of the Roman influenced kingdoms of "
Hen Ogledd Yr Hen Ogledd (), in English the Old North, is the historical region which is now Northern England and the southern Scottish Lowlands that was inhabited by the Brittonic people of sub-Roman Britain in the Early Middle Ages. Its population sp ...
" (Old north), often named Alt Clut, the Brythonic name for their capital at
Dumbarton Rock Dumbarton (; also sco, Dumbairton; ) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the north bank of the River Clyde where the River Leven flows into the Clyde estuary. In 2006, it had an estimated population of 19,990. Dumbarton was the ca ...
. Finally, there were the English or "Angles", Germanic invaders who had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of
Bernicia Bernicia ( ang, Bernice, Bryneich, Beornice; la, Bernicia) was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom established by Anglian settlers of the 6th century in what is now southeastern Scotland and North East England. The Anglian territory of Bernicia was ap ...
, in the south-east. The first English king in the historical record is Ida, who is said to have obtained the throne and the kingdom about 547. Ida's grandson, Æthelfrith, united his kingdom with
Deira Deira ( ; Old Welsh/Cumbric: ''Deywr'' or ''Deifr''; ang, Derenrice or ) was an area of Post-Roman Britain, and a later Anglian kingdom. Etymology The name of the kingdom is of Brythonic origin, and is derived from the Proto-Celtic *''daru' ...
to the south to form Northumbria around the year 604. There were changes of dynasty, and the kingdom was divided, but it was re-united under Æthelfrith's son
Oswald Oswald may refer to: People *Oswald (given name), including a list of people with the name *Oswald (surname), including a list of people with the name Fictional characters *Oswald the Reeve, who tells a tale in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbur ...
(r. 634–642). Scotland was largely converted to Christianity by Irish-Scots missions associated with figures such as St Columba, from the fifth to the seventh centuries. These missions tended to found
monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...
institutions and collegiate churches that served large areas. Partly as a result of these factors, some scholars have identified a distinctive form of Celtic Christianity, in which
abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...
s were more significant than bishops, attitudes to clerical celibacy were more relaxed and there were some significant differences in practice with Roman Christianity, particularly the form of
tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice i ...
and the method of calculating Easter, although most of these issues had been resolved by the mid-7th century.


Rise of the Kingdom of Alba

Conversion to Christianity may have sped a long-term process of gaelicisation of the Pictish kingdoms, which adopted Gaelic language and customs. There was also a merger of the Gaelic and Pictish crowns, although historians debate whether it was a Pictish takeover of Dál Riata, or the other way around. This culminated in the rise of Cínaed mac Ailpín (Kenneth MacAlpin) in the 840s, which brought to power the
House of Alpin The House of Alpin, also known as the Alpínid dynasty, Clann Chináeda, and Clann Chinaeda meic Ailpín, was the kin-group which ruled in Pictland, possibly Dál Riata, and then the kingdom of Alba from the advent of Kenneth MacAlpin (Cináed ...
. In 867 AD the Vikings seized the southern half of Northumbria, forming the
Kingdom of York Scandinavian York ( non, Jórvík) Viking Yorkshire or Norwegian York is a term used by historians for the south of Northumbria (modern-day Yorkshire) during the period of the late 9th century and first half of the 10th century, when it was do ...
;. three years later they stormed the Britons' fortress of Dumbarton and subsequently conquered much of England except for a reduced Kingdom of Wessex, leaving the new combined Pictish and Gaelic kingdom almost encircled. When he died as king of the combined kingdom in 900, Domnall II (Donald II) was the first man to be called ''rí Alban'' (i.e. ''King of Alba''). The term Scotia was increasingly used to describe the kingdom between North of the Forth and Clyde and eventually the entire area controlled by its kings was referred to as Scotland. The long reign (900–942/3) of Causantín (Constantine II) is often regarded as the key to formation of the Kingdom of Alba. He was later credited with bringing Scottish Christianity into conformity with the Catholic Church. After fighting many battles, his defeat at
Brunanburh The Battle of Brunanburh was fought in 937 between Æthelstan, King of Kingdom of England, England, and an alliance of Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Kingdom of Dublin, Dublin, Constantine II of Scotland, Constantine II, King of Scotland, and O ...
was followed by his retirement as a
Culdee The Culdees ( ga, Céilí Dé,  "Spouses of God") were members of ascetic Christian monastic and eremitical communities of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England in the Middle Ages. Appearing first in Ireland and subsequently in Scotland, attac ...
monk at St. Andrews. The period between the accession of his successor Máel Coluim I (Malcolm I) and Máel Coluim mac Cináeda (Malcolm II) was marked by good relations with the
Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...
rulers of England, intense internal dynastic disunity and relatively successful expansionary policies. In 945, Máel Coluim I annexed Strathclyde as part of a deal with King Edmund of England, where the kings of Alba had probably exercised some authority since the later 9th century, an event offset somewhat by loss of control in Moray. The reign of King Donnchad I (Duncan I) from 1034 was marred by failed military adventures, and he was defeated and killed by MacBeth, the
Mormaer of Moray The title Earl of Moray, Mormaer of Moray or King of Moray was originally held by the rulers of the Province of Moray, which existed from the 10th century with varying degrees of independence from the Kingdom of Alba to the south. Until 1130 th ...
, who became king in 1040. MacBeth ruled for seventeen years before he was overthrown by Máel Coluim, the son of Donnchad, who some months later defeated MacBeth's step-son and successor Lulach to become King Máel Coluim III (Malcolm III).. It was Máel Coluim III, who acquired the nickname "Canmore" (''Cenn Mór'', "Great Chief"), which he passed to his successors and who did most to create the
Dunkeld dynasty The House of Dunkeld (in or "of the Caledonians") is a historiographical and genealogical construct to illustrate the clear succession of Scottish kings from 1034 to 1040 and from 1058 to 1286. The line is also variously referred to by historians ...
that ruled Scotland for the following two centuries. Particularly important was his second marriage to the Anglo-Hungarian princess Margaret. This marriage, and raids on northern England, prompted
William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
to invade and Máel Coluim submitted to his authority, opening up Scotland to later claims of sovereignty by English kings. When Malcolm died in 1093, his brother Domnall III (Donald III) succeeded him. However,
William II of England William II ( xno, Williame;  – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third so ...
backed Máel Coluim's son by his first marriage, Donnchad, as a pretender to the throne and he seized power. His murder within a few months saw Domnall restored with one of Máel Coluim sons by his second marriage, Edmund, as his heir. The two ruled Scotland until two of Edmund's younger brothers returned from exile in England, again with English military backing. Victorious, Edgar, the oldest of the three, became king in 1097.. Shortly afterwards Edgar and the King of Norway,
Magnus Barefoot Magnus Olafsson (Old Norse: ''Magnús Óláfsson'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Olavsson''; 1073 – 24 August 1103), better known as Magnus Barefoot (Old Norse: ''Magnús berfœttr'', Norwegian: ''Magnus Berrføtt''), was King of Norway (being Ma ...
concluded a treaty recognising Norwegian authority over the Western Isles. In practice Norse control of the Isles was loose, with local chiefs enjoying a high degree of independence. He was succeeded by his brother
Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...
, who reigned 1107–1124. When Alexander died in 1124, the crown passed to Margaret's fourth son
David I David I may refer to: * David I, Caucasian Albanian Catholicos c. 399 * David I of Armenia, Catholicos of Armenia (728–741) * David I Kuropalates of Georgia (died 881) * David I Anhoghin, king of Lori (ruled 989–1048) * David I of Scotland ...
, who had spent most of his life as a Norman French baron in England. His reign saw what has been characterised as a "
Davidian Revolution The Davidian Revolution is a name given by many scholars to the changes which took place in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reign of David I (1124–1153). These included his foundation of burghs, implementation of the ideals of Gregorian ...
", by which native institutions and personnel were replaced by English and French ones, underpinning the development of later Medieval Scotland. Members of the Anglo-Norman nobility took up places in the Scottish aristocracy and he introduced a system of feudal land tenure, which produced knight service, castles and an available body of heavily armed cavalry. He created an Anglo-Norman style of court, introduced the office of justicar to oversee justice, and local offices of
sheriffs A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
to administer localities. He established the first
royal burgh A royal burgh () was a type of Scottish burgh which had been founded by, or subsequently granted, a royal charter. Although abolished by law in 1975, the term is still used by many former royal burghs. Most royal burghs were either created by ...
s in Scotland, granting rights to particular settlements, which led to the development of the first true Scottish towns and helped facilitate economic development as did the introduction of the first recorded Scottish coinage. He continued a process begun by his mother and brothers helping to establish foundations that brought reform to Scottish monasticism based on those at
Cluny Cluny () is a commune in the eastern French department of Saône-et-Loire, in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It is northwest of Mâcon. The town grew up around the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded by Duke William I of Aquitaine in ...
and he played a part in organising diocese on lines closer to those in the rest of Western Europe. These reforms were pursued under his successors and grandchildren
Malcolm IV of Scotland Malcolm IV ( mga, Máel Coluim mac Eanric, label=Medieval Gaelic; gd, Maol Chaluim mac Eanraig), nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" (between 23 April and 24 May 11419 December 1165) was King of Scotland from 1153 until his death. He was the eldest ...
and
William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
, with the crown now passing down the main line of descent through primogeniture, leading to the first of a series of minorities. The benefits of greater authority were reaped by William's son Alexander II and his son Alexander III, who pursued a policy of peace with England to expand their authority in the Highlands and Islands. By the reign of Alexander III, the Scots were in a position to annexe the remainder of the western seaboard, which they did following
Haakon Haakonarson Haakon IV Haakonsson ( – 16 December 1263; Old Norse: ''Hákon Hákonarson'' ; Norwegian: ''Håkon Håkonsson''), sometimes called Haakon the Old in contrast to his namesake son, was King of Norway from 1217 to 1263. His reign lasted for 46 y ...
's ill-fated invasion and the stalemate of the
Battle of Largs The Battle of Largs (2 October 1263) was a battle between the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. Through it, Scotland achieved the end of 500 years of Norse Viking depredations and invasions despite bei ...
with the
Treaty of Perth The Treaty of Perth, signed 2 July 1266, ended military conflict between Magnus VI of Norway and Alexander III of Scotland over possession of the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. The text of the treaty. The Hebrides and the Isle of Man had becom ...
in 1266.


The Wars of Independence

The death of King Alexander III in 1286, and the death of his granddaughter and heir
Margaret, Maid of Norway Margaret (, ; March or April 1283 – September 1290), known as the Maid of Norway, was the queen-designate of Scotland from 1286 until her death. As she was never inaugurated, her status as monarch is uncertain and has been debated by historian ...
in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked
Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vas ...
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 John Balliol ( – late 1314), known derisively as ''Toom Tabard'' (meaning "empty coat" – coat of arms), was King of Scots from 1292 to 1296. Little is known of his early life. After the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway, Scotland entered an ...
, the man with the strongest claim, who became king in 1292. Robert Bruce, 5th Lord 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, known as the
Auld Alliance The Auld Alliance ( Scots for "Old Alliance"; ; ) is an alliance made in 1295 between the kingdoms of Scotland and France against England. The Scots word ''auld'', meaning ''old'', has become a partly affectionate term for the long-lasting a ...
. In 1296, Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year
William Wallace Sir William Wallace ( gd, Uilleam Uallas, ; Norman French: ; 23 August 1305) was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, Wallace defeated an English army ...
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 The Battle of Stirling Bridge ( gd, Blàr Drochaid Shruighlea) 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 ...
. 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 in 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 John Comyn III of Badenoch, nicknamed the Red (c. 1274 – 10 February 1306), was a leading Scottish baron and magnate who played an important role in the First War of Scottish Independence. He served as Guardian of Scotland after the forced ...
and
Robert the Bruce Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Scottish Gaelic: ''Raibeart an Bruis''), was King of Scots from 1306 to his death in 1329. One of the most renowned warriors of his generation, Robert eventual ...
, 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 25 March, 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 Pope Clement V ( la, Clemens Quintus; c. 1264 – 20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got (also occasionally spelled ''de Guoth'' and ''de Goth''), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 5 June 1305 to his de ...
, his support slowly strengthened; and by 1314 with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas and Thomas Randolph 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 The Declaration of Arbroath ( la, Declaratio Arbroathis; sco, Declaration o Aiberbrothock; gd, Tiomnadh Bhruis) is the name usually given to a letter, dated 6 April 1320 at Arbroath, written by Scottish barons and addressed to Pope John ...
, 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 The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council o ...
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 burghs – the burgh commissioners – joined them to form the
Three Estates The estates of the realm, or three estates, were the broad orders of social hierarchy used in Christendom (Christian Europe) from the Middle Ages to early modern Europe. Different systems for dividing society members into estates developed an ...
. In 1328, Edward III signed the
Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton The Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton was a peace treaty signed in 1328 between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland. It brought an end to the First War of Scottish Independence, which had begun with the English party of Scotland in 1296. The ...
acknowledging Scottish independence under the rule of Robert the Bruce.M. H. Keen, ''England in the Later Middle Ages: a Political History'' (Routledge, 2nd edn., 2003), pp. 86–8. However, four years after Robert's death in 1329, England once more invaded on the pretext of restoring
Edward Balliol Edward Balliol (; 1283 – January 1364) was a claimant to the Scottish throne during the Second War of Scottish Independence. With English help, he ruled parts of the kingdom from 1332 to 1356. Early life Edward was the eldest son of John ...
, son of John Balliol, to the Scottish throne, thus starting the Second War of Independence. Despite victories at Dupplin Moor and
Halidon Hill Halidon Hill is a summit, about west of the centre of Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the border of England and Scotland. It reaches 600 feet (180 m) high. The name of the hill indicates that it once had a fortification on its top. At the Battle of ...
, 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 protégé 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 Stuarts

After David II's death, Robert II, the first of the Stewart kings, came to the throne in 1371. He was followed in 1390 by his ailing son John, who took the
regnal name A regnal name, or regnant name or reign name, is the name used by monarchs and popes during their reigns and, subsequently, historically. Since ancient times, some monarchs have chosen to use a different name from their original name when they ...
Robert III. During Robert III's reign (1390–1406), actual power rested largely in the hands of his brother,
Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (c. 1340 – 3 September 1420) was a member of the Scottish royal family who served as regent (at least partially) to three Scottish monarchs ( Robert II, Robert III, and James I). A ruthless politician, Albany w ...
.S. H. Rigby, ''A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2003), pp. 301–302. 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, the future
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, 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 Murdoch. When Scotland finally paid the ransom in 1424, James, aged 32, returned with his English bride determined to assert his authority. Several of the Albany family were executed; but he succeeded in centralising control in the hands of the crown, at the cost of increasing 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 powerful Black Douglas family that had come to prominence at the time of the Bruce. In 1468, the last significant acquisition of Scottish territory occurred when James III was engaged to Margaret of Denmark, receiving the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands in payment of her dowry.
Berwick upon Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...
was captured by England in 1482. With the death of James III in 1488 at the
Battle of Sauchieburn The Battle of Sauchieburn was fought on 11 June 1488, at the side of Sauchie Burn, a stream about south of Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinbur ...
, his successor
James IV James IV (17 March 1473 – 9 September 1513) was King of Scotland from 11 June 1488 until his death at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. He inherited the throne at the age of fifteen on the death of his father, James III, at the Battle of Sauch ...
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
Margaret Tudor Margaret Tudor (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541) was Queen of Scotland from 1503 until 1513 by marriage to King James IV. She then served as regent of Scotland during her son's minority, and successfully fought to extend her regency. Ma ...
, daughter of
Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beauf ...
, thus laying the foundation for the 17th-century
Union of the Crowns The Union of the Crowns ( gd, Aonadh nan Crùintean; sco, Union o the Crouns) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the throne of the Kingdom of England as James I and the practical unification of some functions (such as overseas dip ...
. Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the 15th century with the founding of the
University of St Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
in 1413, the
University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...
in 1450 and the
University of Aberdeen , mottoeng = The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom , established = , type = Public research universityAncient university , endowment = £58.4 million (2021) , budget ...
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 The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
. 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 The Battle of Flodden, Flodden Field, or occasionally Branxton, (Brainston Moor) was a battle fought on 9 September 1513 during the War of the League of Cambrai between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland, resulting in an English ...
during which the King, many of his nobles, and a large number of ordinary troops were killed, commemorated by the song ''
Flowers of the Forest ''Flowers of the Forest'', or ''The Fluuers o the Forest'' (Roud 3812), is a Scottish folk tune and work of war poetry commemorating the defeat of the Scottish army, and the death of James IV, at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513. Although ...
''. Once again Scotland's government lay in the hands of regents in the name of the infant James V. James V finally managed to escape from the custody of the regents in 1528. He continued his father's policy of subduing the rebellious
Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...
, Western and Northern isles and the troublesome borders.M. Nicholls, ''A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529–1603: the Two Kingdoms'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999), pp. 82–4. He also continued the French alliance, marrying first the French noblewoman
Madeleine of Valois Madeleine of France or Madeleine of Valois (10 August 1520 – 7 July 1537) was a French princess who briefly became Queen of Scotland in 1537 as the first wife of King James V. The marriage was arranged in accordance with the Treaty of Rouen ...
and then after her death Marie of Guise. James V's domestic and foreign policy successes were overshadowed by another disastrous campaign against England that led to defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss (1542). James died a short time later, a demise blamed by contemporaries on "a broken heart". The day before his death, he was brought news of the birth of an heir: a daughter, who would become
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
.M. Nicholls, ''A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529–1603: the Two Kingdoms'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999), p. 87. Once again, Scotland was in the hands of a regent. Within two years, the
Rough Wooing The Rough Wooing (December 1543 – March 1551), also known as the Eight Years' War, was part of the Anglo-Scottish Wars of the 16th century. Following its break with the Roman Catholic Church, England attacked Scotland, partly to break the ...
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 Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset (150022 January 1552) (also 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp), also known as Edward Semel, was the eldest surviving brother of Queen Jane Seymour (d. 1537), the third wife of King Henry VI ...
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 on, 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
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
s, who saw the English as their natural allies. This led to armed conflict at the
siege of Leith The siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. The French troops arrived by invitation in 1548 and left in 1560 after an English force arrived to attempt to assist in removing the ...
. Marie de Guise died in June 1560, and soon after the Auld Alliance also ended, with the signing of the
Treaty of Edinburgh The Treaty of Edinburgh (also known as the Treaty of Leith) was a treaty drawn up on 5 July 1560 between the Commissioners of Queen Elizabeth I of England with the assent of the Scottish Lords of the Congregation, and the French representatives ...
, which provided for the removal of French and English troops from Scotland. The
Scottish Reformation The Scottish Reformation was the process by which Scotland broke with the Papacy and developed a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk (church), which was strongly Presbyterian in its outlook. It was part of the wider European Protestant Refor ...
took place only days later when the Scottish Parliament abolished the
Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
religion and outlawed the
Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different eleme ...
. Meanwhile, Queen Mary had been raised as a Catholic in France, and married to the Dauphin, who became king as Francis II in 1559, making her queen consort of France. When Francis died in 1560, Mary, now 19, returned to Scotland to take up the government. Despite her private religion, she did not attempt to re-impose 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 David Rizzio ( ; it, Davide Rizzio ; – 9 March 1566) or Riccio ( , ) was an Italian courtier, born in Pancalieri close to Turin, a descendant of an ancient and noble family still living in Piedmont, the Riccio Counts di San Paolo e Solbrito ...
, was followed by that of her unpopular second husband
Lord Darnley Lord Darnley is a noble title associated with a Scottish Lordship of Parliament, first created in 1356 for the family of Stewart of Darnley and tracing a descent to the Dukedom of Richmond in England. The title's name refers to Darnley in Sco ...
, and her abduction by and marriage to the Earl of Bothwell, who was implicated in Darnley's murder. Mary and Bothwell confronted the lords at Carberry Hill and after their forces melted away, he fled and she was captured by Bothwell's rivals. Mary was imprisoned in
Loch Leven Castle Lochleven 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 site of military action during the Wars of Scottish Independence (1296–13 ...
, and in July 1567, was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son
James VI James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...
. Mary eventually escaped and attempted to regain the throne by force. After her defeat at the
Battle of Langside The Battle of Langside was fought on 13 May 1568 between forces loyal to Mary, Queen of Scots, and forces acting in the name of her infant son James VI. Mary’s short period of personal rule ended in 1567 in recrimination, intrigue, and disast ...
in 1568, she took refuge in England, leaving her young son in the hands of regents. In Scotland the regents fought a
civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
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 Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...
that created a predominantly Calvinist national Kirk, which became Presbyterian in outlook and severely reduced the powers of bishops. In the earlier part of the century, the teachings of first
Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutherani ...
and then John Calvin began to influence Scotland, particularly through Scottish scholars, often training for the priesthood, who had visited Continental universities. The Lutheran preacher Patrick Hamilton was executed for heresy in St. Andrews in 1528. The execution of others, especially the
Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Univ ...
-influenced
George Wishart George Wishart (also Wisehart; c. 15131 March 1546) was a Scottish Protestant Reformer and one of the early Protestant martyrs burned at the stake as a heretic. George Wishart was the son of James and brother of Sir John of Pitarrow, ...
, who was burnt at the stake on the orders of
Cardinal Beaton David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scottish cardinal prior to the Reformation. Career Cardinal Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of eleven children of John Beaton (Bethune) of Bal ...
in 1546, angered Protestants. Wishart's supporters assassinated Beaton soon after and seized St. Andrews Castle, which they held for a year before they were defeated with the help of French forces. The survivors, including chaplain John Knox, were condemned to be galley slaves in France, stoking resentment of the French and creating martyrs for the Protestant cause. Limited toleration and the influence of exiled Scots and Protestants in other countries, led to the expansion of Protestantism, with a group of lairds declaring themselves
Lords of the Congregation The Lords of the Congregation (), originally styling themselves "the Faithful", were a group of Protestant Scottish nobles who in the mid-16th century favoured a reformation of the Catholic church according to Protestant principles and a Scotti ...
in 1557 and representing their interests politically. The collapse of the French alliance and English intervention in 1560 meant that a relatively small, but highly influential, group of Protestants were in a position to impose reform on the Scottish church. A confession of faith, rejecting papal jurisdiction and the mass, was adopted by Parliament in 1560, while the young Mary, Queen of Scots, was still in France. Knox, having escaped the galleys and spent time in Geneva as a follower of Calvin, emerged as the most significant figure of the period. The Calvinism of the reformers led by Knox resulted in a settlement that adopted a Presbyterian system and rejected most of the elaborate trappings of the medieval church. The reformed Kirk gave considerable power to local lairds, who often had control over the appointment of the clergy. There were widespread, but generally orderly outbreaks of
iconoclasm Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
. At this point the majority of the population was probably still Catholic in persuasion and the Kirk found it difficult to penetrate the Highlands and Islands, but began a gradual process of conversion and consolidation that, compared with reformations elsewhere, was conducted with relatively little persecution. Women shared in the religiosity of the day. The egalitarian and emotional aspects of Calvinism appealed to men and women alike. Historian Alasdair Raffe finds that, "Men and women were thought equally likely to be among the elect....Godly men valued the prayers and conversation of their female co-religionists, and this reciprocity made for loving marriages and close friendships between men and women." Furthermore, there was an increasingly intense relationship in the pious bonds between minister and his women parishioners. For the first time, laywomen gained numerous new religious roles and took a prominent place in prayer societies.


17th century

In 1603, James VI King of Scots inherited the throne of the
Kingdom of England The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Kingdom of Scotland, ...
and became King James I of England, leaving
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
for London and uniting England with Scotland under one monarch. The Union was a
personal Personal may refer to: Aspects of persons' respective individualities * Privacy * Personality * Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship Companies * Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
or
dynastic union A dynastic union is a type of union with only two different states that are governed under the same dynasty, with their boundaries, their laws, and their interests remaining distinct from each other. Historical examples Union of Kingdom of Arag ...
, with the Crowns remaining both distinct and separate—despite James's best efforts to create a new "imperial" throne of "Great Britain". The acquisition of the Irish crown along with the English facilitated a process of settlement by Scots in what was historically the most troublesome area of the kingdom in
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
, with perhaps 50,000 Scots settling in the province by the mid-17th century. James adopted a different approach to impose his authority in the western Highlands and Islands. The additional military resource that was now available, particularly the English navy, resulted in the enactment of the Statutes of Iona which compelled integration of Hebridean clan leaders with the rest of Scottish society. Attempts to found a Scottish colony in North America in
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
were largely unsuccessful without sufficient funds or willing colonists.


Wars of the Three Kingdoms and the Puritan Commonwealth


Bishops' Wars

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 Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...
, 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 Janet "Jenny" Geddes (c. 1600 – c. 1660) was a Scottish market-trader in Edinburgh who is alleged to have thrown a stool at the head of the minister in St Giles' Cathedral in objection to the first public use of the Church of Scotland ...
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 Pacification of Berwick. Matters remained unresolved until 1640 when, in a renewal of hostilities, Charles's northern forces were defeated by the Scots at the Battle of 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 The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. This series of civil wars that engulfed England, Ireland and Scotland in the 1640s and 1650s is known to modern historians as the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of related conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, then separate entities united in a personal union under Charles I. They include the 1639 to 1640 B ...
. 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. In England his religious policies caused similar resentment and he ruled without recourse to parliament from 1629.


Civil war

As the civil wars developed, the English Parliamentarians 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 The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639 – 1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters und ...
. 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 Confederate Ireland, also referred to as the Irish Catholic Confederation, was a period of Irish Catholic self-government between 1642 and 1649, during the Eleven Years' War. Formed by Catholic aristocrats, landed gentry, clergy and military ...
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 The Battle of Tippermuir (also known as the Battle of Tibbermuir) (1 September 1644) was the first battle James Graham, 1st Marquis of Montrose, fought for King Charles I in the Scottish theatre of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. During t ...
. 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 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 Marquis of Montrose was destroyed by the Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie, ...
. 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 Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
in August 1648 at the Battle of Preston.


Cromwellian occupation and Restoration

The
execution of Charles I The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in E ...
in 1649 was carried out in the face of objections by the Covenanter government and his son was immediately proclaimed as King Charles II in Edinburgh. Oliver Cromwell led an invasion of Scotland in 1650, and defeated the Scottish army at
Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...
and then defeated a Scottish invasion of England at
Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...
on 3 September 1651 (the anniversary of his victory at Dunbar). Cromwell emerged as the leading figure in the English government and Scotland was occupied by an English force under
George Monck George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC (6 December 1608 – 3 January 1670) was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was cruc ...
. The country was incorporated into the Puritan-governed Commonwealth and lost its independent church government, parliament and legal system, but gained access to English markets. Various attempts were made to legitimise the union, calling representatives from the Scottish burghs and shires to negotiations and to various English parliaments, where they were always under-represented and had little opportunity for dissent. However, final ratification was delayed by Cromwell's problems with his various parliaments and the union did not become the subject of an act until 1657 (see
Tender of Union The Tender of Union was a declaration of the Parliament of England during the Interregnum following the War of the Three Kingdoms stating that Scotland would cease to have an independent parliament and would join England in its emerging Commonwe ...
). After the death of Cromwell and the regime's collapse, Charles II was restored in 1660 and Scotland again became an independent kingdom.. Scotland regained its system of law, parliament and kirk, but also the
Lords of the Articles The Parliament of Scotland ( sco, Pairlament o Scotland; gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) was the legislature of the Kingdom of Scotland from the 13th century until 1707. The parliament evolved during the early 13th century from the king's council of ...
(by which the crown managed parliament), bishops and a king who did not visit the country. He ruled largely without reference to Parliament, through a series of commissioners. These began with John, Earl of Middleton and ended with the king's brother and heir, James, Duke of York (known in Scotland as the Duke of Albany). The English Navigation Acts prevented the Scots engaging in what would have been lucrative trading with England's colonies. The restoration of episcopacy was a source of trouble, particularly in the south-west of the country, an area with strong Presbyterian sympathies. Abandoning the official church, many of the inhabitants began to attend illegal field assemblies, known as
conventicle A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly, and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level ''conventicle'' is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word church, and points to Jesus' promise in M ...
s. 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 A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and forc ...
. In the early 1680s a more intense phase of persecution began, 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.


The deposition of James VII

James put Catholics in key positions in the government and attendance at conventicles was made punishable by death. He disregarded parliament, purged the council and forced through
religious toleration Religious toleration may signify "no more than forbearance and the permission given by the adherents of a dominant religion for other religions to exist, even though the latter are looked on with disapproval as inferior, mistaken, or harmful". ...
to Roman Catholics, alienating his Protestant subjects. It was believed that the king would be succeeded by his daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange, Stadtholder of the Netherlands, but when in 1688, James produced a male heir,
James Francis Edward Stuart James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales fro ...
, it was clear that his policies would outlive him. An invitation by seven leading Englishmen led William to land in England with 40,000 men, and James fled, leading to the almost bloodless " Glorious Revolution". The Estates issued a ''
Claim of Right The Claim of Right (c. 28) is an Act passed by the Convention of the Estates, a sister body to the Parliament of Scotland (or Three Estates), in April 1689. It is one of the key documents of United Kingdom constitutional law and Scottish con ...
'' that suggested that James had forfeited the crown by his actions (in contrast to England, which relied on the legal fiction of an abdication) and offered it to William and Mary, which William accepted, along with limitations on royal power. The final settlement restored Presbyterianism and abolished the bishops who had generally supported James. However, William, who was more tolerant than the Kirk tended to be, passed acts restoring the Episcopalian clergy excluded after the Revolution. Although William's supporters dominated the government, there remained a significant following for James, particularly in the Highlands. His cause, which became known as
Jacobitism , war = , image = Prince James Francis Edward Stuart by Louis Gabriel Blanchet.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766 , active ...
, from the Latin ''(Jacobus)'' for James, led to a series of risings. An initial Jacobite military attempt was led by
John Graham, Viscount Dundee John Graham, 7th of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee (21 July 1648 – 27 July 1689) was a Scottish soldier and nobleman, a Tory and an Episcopalian. He was responsible for policing southwest Scotland during and after the religious unrest and r ...
. His forces, almost all Highlanders, defeated William's forces at the
Battle of Killiecrankie The Battle of Killiecrankie ( gd, Blàr Choille Chnagaidh), also referred to as the Battle of Rinrory, took place on 27 July 1689 during the 1689 Scottish Jacobite rising. An outnumbered Jacobite force under John Graham, Viscount Dundee and ...
in 1689, but they took heavy losses and Dundee was slain in the fighting. Without his leadership the Jacobite army was soon defeated at the
Battle of Dunkeld The Battle of Dunkeld ( gd, Blàr Dhùn Chaillinn) was fought between Jacobite clans supporting the deposed king James VII of Scotland and a regiment of covenanters supporting William of Orange, King of Scotland, in the streets around Dunk ...
. In the aftermath of the Jacobite defeat on 13 February 1692, in an incident since known as the
Massacre of Glencoe The Massacre of Glencoe ( gd, Murt Ghlinne Comhann) took place in Glen Coe in the Highlands of Scotland The Highlands ( sco, the Hielands; gd, a’ Ghàidhealtachd , 'the place of the Gaels') is a historical region of Scotland. Cultur ...
, 38 members of the
Clan MacDonald of Glencoe The MacDonalds of Glencoe, also known as Clann Iain Abrach, was a Highland Scottish clan and a branch of the larger Clan Donald. They were named after Glen Coe. the MacDonalds of Glen Coe (or MacIains as they were more specifically known) hav ...
were killed by members of the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot, on the grounds that they had not been prompt in pledging allegiance to the new monarchs.


Economic crisis of the 1690s

The closing decade of the 17th century saw the generally favourable economic conditions that had dominated since the Restoration come to an end. There was a slump in trade with the Baltic and France from 1689 to 1691, caused by French protectionism and changes in the Scottish cattle trade, followed by four years of failed harvests (1695, 1696 and 1698–1699), an era known as the "seven ill years". The result was severe famine and depopulation, particularly in the north. The Parliament of Scotland of 1695 enacted proposals to help the desperate economic situation, including setting up the
Bank of Scotland The Bank of Scotland plc (Scottish Gaelic: ''Banca na h-Alba'') is a commercial and clearing bank based in Scotland and is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, following the Bank of Scotland's implosion in 2008. The bank was established by th ...
. The "Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies" received a charter to raise capital through public subscription.


Failure of Darien scheme

With the dream of building a lucrative overseas colony for Scotland, the Company of Scotland invested in the
Darien scheme The Darien scheme was an unsuccessful attempt, backed largely by investors of the Kingdom of Scotland, to gain wealth and influence by establishing ''New Caledonia'', a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, in the late 1690s. The plan was for the co ...
, 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.E. Richards, ''Britannia's Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland since 1600'' (Continuum, 2004), p. 79. 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 The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between Kingdom of France, France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by t ...
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 withdrew. Returning to Edinburgh, the Company raised 400,000 pounds in a few weeks. Three small fleets with a total of 3,000 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 West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
, the colonists abandoned their project in 1700. Only 1,000 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. Although Scotland lost home rule, the Union allowed it to break free of a stultifying system and opened the way for the Scottish enlightenment as well as a great expansion of trade and increase in opportunity and wealth. Edinburgh economist Adam Smith concluded in 1776 that "By the union with England, the middling and inferior ranks of people in Scotland gained a complete deliverance from the power of an aristocracy which had always before oppressed them." Historian
Jonathan Israel Jonathan Irvine Israel (born 26 January 1946) is a British writer and academic specialising in Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jews. Israel was appointed as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies a ...
holds that the Union "proved a decisive catalyst politically and economically," by allowing ambitious Scots entry on an equal basis to a rich expanding empire and its increasing trade. Scotland's transformation into a rich leader of modern industry came suddenly and unexpectedly in the next 150 years, following its union with England in 1707 and its integration with the advanced English and imperial economies.Henry Hamilton, ''An Economic History of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century'' (1963) The transformation was led by two cities that grew rapidly after 1770.
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, on the river Clyde, was the base for the tobacco and sugar trade with an emerging textile industry.
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
was the administrative and intellectual centre where the Scottish Enlightenment was chiefly based.


Union with England

By the start of the 18th century, a
political union A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal govern ...
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 English 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.T. C. Smout, "The Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 I: The Economic Background", ''Economic History Review'', vol. 16, April (1964), pp. 455–467.T. C. Smout, ''Scottish Trade on the Eve of the Union, 1660–1707'' (Oliver & Boyd, 1963). The Scottish parliament voted on 6 January 1707, by 110 to 69, to adopt the
Treaty of Union The Treaty of Union is the name usually now given to the treaty which led to the creation of the new state of Great Britain, stating that the Kingdom of England (which already included Wales) and the Kingdom of Scotland were to be "United i ...
. 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. Scottish law remained separate from English law, and the religious system was not changed. England had about five times the population of Scotland at the time, and about 36 times as much wealth.H. Campbell, "The Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 II: The Economic Consequences", ''Economic History Review'', April (1964), vol. 16, pp. 468–477.


Jacobitism

Jacobitism was revived by the unpopularity of the union.M. Pittock, ''Jacobitism'' (St. Martin's Press, 1998), p. 32. In 1708, James Francis Edward Stuart, the son of James VII, who became known as "The Old Pretender", attempted an invasion with a French fleet carrying 6,000 men, but the Royal Navy prevented it from landing troops. A more serious attempt occurred in 1715, soon after the death of Anne and the accession of the first Hanoverian king, the eldest son of Sophie, as
George I of Great Britain George I (George Louis; ; 28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 and ruler of the Electorate of Hanover within the Holy Roman Empire from 23 January 1698 until his death in 1727. He was the first ...
. 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 There are currently two earldoms of Mar in the Peerage of Scotland, and the title has been created seven times. The first creation of the earldom is currently held by Margaret of Mar, 31st Countess of Mar, who is also clan chief of Clan Mar. T ...
, 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 Duke of Argyll ( gd, Diùc Earraghàidheil) 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 powerfu ...
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 in defeat at the
Battle of Glen Shiel The Battle of Glen Shiel ( gd, Blàr Ghleann Seile) took place on 10 June 1719 in the West Scottish Highlands, during the 1719 Jacobite Rising. A Jacobite army composed of Highland levies and Spanish marines, was defeated by British troops, rei ...
. In 1745, the Jacobite rising known as ''The 'Forty-Five'' began. Charles Edward Stuart, son of the ''Old Pretender'', often referred to as ''Bonnie Prince Charlie'' or the ''Young Pretender'', landed on the island of
Eriskay Eriskay ( gd, Èirisgeigh), from the Old Norse for "Eric's Isle", is an island and community council area of the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland with a population of 143, as of the 2011 census. It lies between South Uist and Barra and is ...
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 The Battle of Prestonpans, also known as the Battle of Gladsmuir, was fought on 21 September 1745, near Prestonpans, in East Lothian, the first significant engagement of the Jacobite rising of 1745. Jacobite forces, led by the Stuart exile C ...
. The Jacobite army marched into England, took Carlisle and advanced as far as south as Derby. However, it became increasingly evident that England would not support a Roman Catholic Stuart monarch. The Jacobite leadership had a crisis of confidence and they retreated to Scotland as two English armies closed in and Hanoverian troops began to return from the continent. Charles' position in Scotland began to deteriorate as the Whig supporters rallied and regained control of Edinburgh. After an unsuccessful attempt on Stirling, he retreated north towards Inverness. He was pursued by the
Duke of Cumberland Duke of Cumberland is a peerage title that was conferred upon junior members of the British Royal Family, named after the historic county of Cumberland. History The Earldom of Cumberland, created in 1525, became extinct in 1643. The dukedom ...
and gave battle with an exhausted army at Culloden on 16 April 1746, where the Jacobite cause was crushed. Charles hid in Scotland with the aid of Highlanders until September 1746, when he escaped back to France. There were bloody reprisals against his supporters and foreign powers abandoned the Jacobite cause, with the court in exile forced to leave France. The Old Pretender died in 1760 and the Young Pretender, without legitimate issue, in 1788. When his brother, Henry, Cardinal of York, died in 1807, the Jacobite cause was at an end.


Post-Jacobite politics

With the advent of the
Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
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 The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
. 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".N. Davidson, ''The Origins of Scottish Nationhood'' (Pluto Press, 2000), pp. 94–5. 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 (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he f ...
, 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 Archibald is a masculine given name, composed of the Germanic elements '' erchan'' (with an original meaning of "genuine" or "precious") and '' bald'' meaning "bold". Medieval forms include Old High German and Anglo-Saxon . Erkanbald, bishop o ...
(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 The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...
.
Henry Dundas Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811), styled as Lord Melville from 1802, was the trusted lieutenant of British Prime Minister William Pitt and the most powerful politician in Scotland in the late 18t ...
(1742–1811) dominated political affairs in the latter part of the century. Dundas defeated advocates of intellectual and social change through his ruthless manipulation of patronage in alliance with Prime Minister
William Pitt the Younger William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ire ...
, 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 clan system of the Highlands and Islands had been seen as a challenge to the rulers of Scotland from before the 17th century. James VI's various measures to exert control included the Statutes of Iona, an attempt to force clan leaders to become integrated into the rest of Scottish society. This started a slow process of change which, by the second half of the 18th century, saw clan chiefs start to think of themselves as commercial landlords, rather than as patriarchs of their people. To their tenants, initially this meant that monetary rents replaced those paid in kind. Later, rent increases became common. In the 1710s the Dukes of Argyll started putting leases of some of their land up for auction; by 1737 this was done across the Argyll property. This commercial attitude replaced the principle of ', which included the obligation on clan chiefs to provide land for clan members. The shift of this attitude slowly spread through the Highland elite (but not among their tenants). As clan chiefs became more integrated into Scottish and British society, many of them built up large debts. It became easier to borrow against the security of a Highland estate from the 1770s onwards. As the lenders became predominantly people and organisations outside the Highlands, there was a greater willingness to foreclose if the borrower defaulted. Combined with an astounding level of financial incompetence among the Highland elite, this ultimately forced the sale of the estates of many Highland landed families over the period 1770–1850. (The greatest number of sales of whole estates was toward the end of this period.) The Jacobite rebellion of 1745 gave a final period of importance to the ability of Highland clans to raise bodies of fighting men at short notice. With the defeat at Culloden, any enthusiasm for continued warfare disappeared and clan leaders returned to their transition to being commercial landlords. This was arguably accelerated by some of the punitive laws enacted after the rebellion. These included the
Heritable Jurisdictions Act The Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. II c. 43) was an Act of Parliament passed in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745 abolishing judicial rights held by Scots heritors. These were a significant source of power, espec ...
of 1746, which removed judicial roles from clan chiefs and gave them to the Scottish law courts. T. M. Devine warns against seeing a clear cause and effect relationship between the post-Culloden legislation and the collapse of clanship. He questions the basic effectiveness of the measures, quoting W. A. Speck who ascribes the pacification of the area more to "a disinclination to rebel than to the government's repressive measures." Devine points out that social change in Gaeldom did not pick up until the 1760s and 1770s, as this coincided with the increased market pressures from the industrialising and urbanising Lowlands. 41 properties belonging to rebels were forfeited to the Crown in the aftermath of the '45. The vast majority of these were sold by auction to pay creditors. 13 were retained and managed on behalf of the government between 1752 and 1784. The changes by the Dukes of Argyll in the 1730s displaced many of the tacksmen in the area. From the 1770s onwards, this became a matter of policy throughout the Highlands. The restriction on subletting by tacksmen meant that landlords received all the rent paid by the actual farming tenants – thereby increasing their income. By the early part of the 19th century, the tacksman had become a rare component of Highland society. T. M. Devine describes "the displacement of this class as one of the clearest demonstrations of the death of the old Gaelic society." Many emigrated, leading parties of their tenants to North America. These tenants were from the better off part of Highland peasant society, and, together with the tacksmen, they took their capital and entrepreneurial energy to the New World, unwilling to participate in economic changes imposed by their landlords which often involved a loss of status for the tenant.
Agricultural improvement Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and so ...
was introduced across the Highlands over the relatively short period of 1760–1850. The evictions involved in this became known as the Highland clearances. There was regional variation. In the east and south of the Highlands, the old townships or ', which were farmed under the
run rig Run rig, or runrig, also known as rig-a-rendal, was a system of land tenure practised in Scotland, particularly in the Highlands and Islands. It was used on open fields for arable farming. Its origins are not clear, but it is possible that the p ...
system were replaced by larger enclosed farms, with fewer people holding leases and proportionately more of the population working as employees on these larger farms. (This was broadly similar to the situation in the Lowlands.) In the north and west, including the Hebrides, as land was taken out of run rig,
Crofting Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th century townships, individual crofts were established on the bett ...
communities were established. Much of this change involved establishing large pastoral sheep farms, with the old displaced tenants moving to new crofts in coastal areas or on poor quality land. Sheep farming was increasingly profitable at the end of the 18th century, so could pay substantially higher rents than the previous tenants. Particularly in the Hebrides, some crofting communities were established to work in the kelp industry. Others were engaged in fishing. Croft sizes were kept small, so that the occupiers were forced to seek employment to supplement what they could grow. This increased the number of seasonal migrant workers travelling to the Lowlands. The resulting connection with the Lowlands was highly influential on all aspects of Highland life, touching on income levels, social attitudes and language. Migrant working gave an advantage in speaking English, which came to be considered "the language of work". In 1846 the Highland potato famine struck the crofting communities of the North and West Highlands. By 1850 the charitable relief effort was wound up, despite the continuing crop failure, and landlords, charities and the government resorted to encouraging emigration. The overall result was that almost 11,000 people were provided with "assisted passages" by their landlords between 1846 and 1856, with the greatest number travelling in 1851. A further 5,000 emigrated to Australia, through the
Highland and Island Emigration Society The Highland and Island Emigration Society was a charitable society formed to promote and assist emigration as a solution to the Highland Potato Famine. Between 1852 and 1857, it assisted the passage of around 5,000 emigrants from Scotland to Au ...
. To this should be added an unknown, but significant number, who paid their own fares to emigrate, and a further unknown number assisted by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission. This was out of a famine-affected population of about 200,000 people. Many of those who remained became even more involved in temporary migration for work in the Lowlands, both out of necessity during the famine and having become accustomed to working away by the time the famine ceased. Much longer periods were spent out of the Highlands – often for much of the year or more. One illustration of this migrant working was the estimated 30,000 men and women from the far west of the Gaelic speaking area who travelled to the east coast fishing ports for the herring fishing season – providing labour in an industry that grew by 60% between 1854 and 1884. The clearances were followed by a period of even greater emigration from the Highlands, which continued (with a brief lull for the First World War) up to the start of the Great Depression.


Enlightenment

Historian
Jonathan Israel Jonathan Irvine Israel (born 26 January 1946) is a British writer and academic specialising in Dutch history, the Age of Enlightenment and European Jews. Israel was appointed as Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the School of Historical Studies a ...
argues that by 1750 Scotland's major cities had created an intellectual infrastructure of mutually supporting institutions, such as universities, reading societies, libraries, periodicals, museums and masonic lodges. The Scottish network was "predominantly liberal Calvinist, Newtonian, and 'design' oriented in character which played a major role in the further development of the transatlantic Enlightenment ."A. Herman, ''How the Scots Invented the Modern World'' (Crown Publishing Group, 2001). In France
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...
said "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization," and the Scots in turn paid close attention to French ideas. Historian Bruce Lenman says their "central achievement was a new capacity to recognize and interpret social patterns." 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 Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influ ...
, one of his major contributions to world thought was the
utilitarian In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals. Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charac ...
and
consequentialist In ethical philosophy, consequentialism is a class of normative, teleological ethical theories that holds that the consequences of one's conduct are the ultimate basis for judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that conduct. Thus, from a ...
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 scientific method is an empirical method for acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century (with notable practitioners in previous centuries; see the article history of scientific ...
(the nature of knowledge, evidence, experience, and causation) and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
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 Adam Ferguson, (Scottish Gaelic: ''Adhamh MacFhearghais''), also known as Ferguson of Raith (1 July N.S./20 June O.S. 1723 – 22 February 1816), was a Scottish philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. Ferguson was sympathet ...
, 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 Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the "Age of Reas ...
. Modern sociology largely originated from this movement and Hume's philosophical concepts that directly influenced
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...
(and thus the US Constitution) and when popularised by
Dugald Stewart Dugald Stewart (; 22 November 175311 June 1828) was a Scottish philosopher and mathematician. Today regarded as one of the most important figures of the later Scottish Enlightenment, he was renowned as a populariser of the work of Francis Hut ...
, would be the basis of classical liberalism. Adam Smith published ''
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. First published in ...
'', 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.M. Fry, ''Adam Smith's Legacy: His Place in the Development of Modern Economics'' (Routledge, 1992). The focus of the Scottish Enlightenment ranged from intellectual and economic matters to the specifically scientific as in the work of the physician and chemist
William Cullen William Cullen FRS FRSE FRCPE FPSG (; 15 April 17105 February 1790) was a Scottish physician, chemist and agriculturalist, and professor at the Edinburgh Medical School. Cullen was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment: He was ...
, the agriculturalist and economist
James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts *James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer *James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmaker) ...
, chemist and physician
Joseph Black Joseph Black (16 April 1728 – 6 December 1799) was a Scottish physicist and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. He was Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry at the University of Glas ...
, natural historian John Walker and James Hutton, the first modern geologist.J. Repcheck, ''The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity'' (Basic Books, 2003), pp. 117–143.


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 Lords The Tobacco Lords were a group of Scottish merchants and slave traders who in the 18th century made enormous fortunes by trading in tobacco. Many became so wealthy that they adopted the lifestyle of aristocrats, lavishing vast sums on great hous ...
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 (1776–1783), when its sources were cut off by the British blockade of American ports. However, trade with the West Indies began to make 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 Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor pe ...
, 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 7,000 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. German sociologist Max Weber mentioned Scottish Presbyterianism in
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ''The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism'' (german: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is a book written by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician. Begun as a series of essays, the original ...
(1905), and many scholars argued that "this worldly asceticism" of Calvinism was integral to Scotland's rapid economic modernisation. More recent scholarship however emphasises other factors. These include technology transfers from England and the appeal of a highly mobile, low-cost labour-force for English investors like Richard Arkwright. Scotland's natural resources in water power, black-band ironstone and coal were also important foundations for mechanised industry.


Religious fragmentation

In the 1690s the Presbyterian establishment purged the land of Episcopalians and heretics, and made blasphemy a capital crime. Thomas Aitkenhead, the son of an Edinburgh surgeon, aged 18, was indicted for blasphemy by order of the Privy Council for calling the New Testament "The History of the Imposter Christ"; he was hanged in 1696. Their extremism led to a reaction known as the "Moderate" cause that ultimately prevailed and opened the way for liberal thinking in the cities. The early 18th century saw the beginnings of a fragmentation of the
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
. These fractures were prompted by issues of government and patronage, but reflected a wider division between the hard-line Evangelicals and the theologically more tolerant
Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic lib ...
. The battle was over fears of fanaticism by the former and the promotion of Enlightenment ideas by the latter. The Patronage Act of 1712 was a major blow to the evangelicals, for it meant that local landlords could choose the minister, not the members of the congregation. Schisms erupted as the evangelicals left the main body, starting in 1733 with the
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. They were often referred to as seceders. The underlying ...
headed by figures including Ebenezer Erskine. The second schism in 1761 lead to the foundation of the independent
Relief Church The Relief Church (or Presbytery of Relief) was a Scottish Presbyterian denomination founded in 1761. In 1847 it united with the United Secession Church to form the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In relation to the history of the Church ...
.J. T. Koch, ''Celtic Culture: a Historical Encyclopedia, Volumes 1–5'' (ABC-CLIO, 2006), pp. 416–417. These churches gained strength in the
Evangelical Revival The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected ...
of the later 18th century.G. M. Ditchfield, ''The Evangelical Revival'' (Routledge, 1998), p. 91. A key result was the main Presbyterian church was in the hands of the Moderate faction, which provided critical support for the Enlightenment in the cities. 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.G. Robb, "Popular Religion and the Christianization of the Scottish Highlands in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries", ''Journal of Religious History'', 1990, 16(1): 18–34. 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

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 Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in a ...
.
James Macpherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...
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 The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...
. ''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 (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
in European, and especially in German, literature, influencing Herder and
Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...
. 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 (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...
and Walter Scott, would be highly influenced by the Ossian cycle. Burns, an Ayrshire poet and lyricist, is widely regarded as the
national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...
of Scotland and a major figure in the Romantic movement. As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected
folk songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...
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 "Scots Wha Hae" (English: ''Scots Who Have''; gd, Brosnachadh Bhruis) is a patriotic song of Scotland written using both words of the Scots language and English, which served for centuries as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but h ...
" served for a long time as an unofficial
national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...
of the country.


Education

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 Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
,
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, 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.


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 industrialise 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 1832 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 The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
, 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 to 1855, 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 Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (; 3 February 183022 August 1903) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times for a total of over thirteen y ...
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 Gladstone, who held the office four times between 1868 and 1894.R. Quinault, "Scots on Top? Tartan Power at Westminster 1707–2007", ''History Today'', 2007 57(7): 30–36. Fulltext:
Ebsco EBSCO Industries is an American company founded in 1944 by Elton Bryson Stephens Sr. and headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The ''EBSCO'' acronym is based on ''Elton Bryson Stephens Company''. EBSCO Industries is a diverse company of over 4 ...
.
The first Scottish Liberal to become prime minister was the Earl of Rosebery, from 1894 to 1895, like Aberdeen before him a product of the English education system. In the later 19th century the issue of
Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...
led to a split among the Liberals, with a minority breaking away to form the
Liberal Unionists The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political ...
in 1886. The growing importance of the working classes was marked by
Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party, and served as its first parliamentary leader from 1906 to 1908. Hardie was born in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. ...
's success in the
1888 Mid Lanarkshire by-election The 1888 Mid Lanarkshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 April 1888 for the House of Commons constituency of Mid Lanarkshire in Scotland. Previous MP The seat had become vacant in April 1888. The constituency's Liberal ...
, leading to the foundation of the Scottish Labour Party, which was absorbed into the
Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...
in 1895, with Hardie as its first leader.


Industrial expansion

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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
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 The Aberdeen Angus, sometimes simply Angus, is a Scottish breed of small beef cattle. It derives from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, Kincardine and Angus in north-eastern Scotland. In 2018 the breed accounted for over ...
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 Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...
(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.J. Shields, ''Clyde Built: a History of Ship-Building on the River Clyde'' (1949).


Public health and welfare

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 endorse government sponsored housing programs as well as self-help projects among the respectable working class.


Intellectual life

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 James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish mathematician and scientist responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism and li ...
,
Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...
, and the engineers and inventors James Watt and
William Murdoch William Murdoch (sometimes spelled Murdock) (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) was a Scottish engineer and inventor. Murdoch was employed by the firm of Boulton & Watt and worked for them in Cornwall, as a steam engine erector for ten yea ...
, 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 Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels '' Ivanhoe'', '' Rob Roy ...
, who began as a poet and also collected and published Scottish ballads. His first prose work,
Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...
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 Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
's work included the urban Gothic novella ''
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' is a 1886 Gothic novella by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It follows Gabriel John Utterson, a London-based legal practitioner who investigates a series of strange occurrences between his old ...
'' (1886), and played a major part in developing the historical adventure in books like '' Kidnapped'' and ''
Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure no ...
''. 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 Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
back into fashion as can be seen in the work of figures like
J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
, most famous for his creation of
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
, and
George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational church, Congregational Minister (Christianity), minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature a ...
, whose works, including ''
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 theatr ...
'', 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 The Glasgow School was a circle of influential artists and designers that began to coalesce in Glasgow, Scotland in the 1870s, and flourished from the 1890s to around 1910. Representative groups included The Four (also known as the Spook 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 Celtic Revival (also referred to as the Celtic Twilight) is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gael ...
the Arts and Crafts Movement, and
Japonisme ''Japonisme'' is a French term that refers to the popularity and influence of Japanese art and design among a number of Western European artists in the nineteenth century following the forced reopening of foreign trade with Japan in 1858. Japo ...
, 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 Charles Rennie Mackintosh (7 June 1868 – 10 December 1928) was a Scottish architect, designer, water colourist and artist. His artistic approach had much in common with European Symbolism. His work, alongside that of his wife Margaret Macdo ...
, his wife the painter and glass artist Margaret MacDonald, her sister the artist
Frances Frances is a French and English given name of Latin origin. In Latin the meaning of the name Frances is 'from France' or 'free one.' The male version of the name in English is Francis. The original Franciscus, meaning "Frenchman", comes from the F ...
, and her husband, the artist and teacher Herbert MacNair.


Decline and romanticism of the Highlands

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 The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
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,M. Sievers
''The Highland Myth as an Invented Tradition of 18th and 19th century and Its Significance for the Image of Scotland''
(GRIN Verlag, 2007), pp. 22–5.
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 The visit of George IV to Scotland in 1822 was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland in nearly two centuries, the last being by King Charles II for his Scottish coronation in 1651. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring ...
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 Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
, who helped secure the identity of Scotland as a tourist resort, with Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire becoming a major royal residence from 1852.


Land use and ownership

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 Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...
,
Atholl Atholl or Athole ( gd, Athall; Old Gaelic ''Athfhotla'') is a large historical division in the Scottish Highlands, bordering (in anti-clockwise order, from Northeast) Marr, Badenoch, Lochaber, Breadalbane, Strathearn, Perth, and Gowrie. H ...
,
Buccleuch Buccleuch may refer to: __NOTOC__ Places Australia * Buccleuch County, an administrative division in New South Wales, Australia * Buccleuch, South Australia, a small locality and railway station * County of Buccleuch, an administrative division in ...
, and Sutherland, owned large amounts of land 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.
Potato blight ''Phytophthora infestans'' is an oomycete or water mold, a fungus-like microorganism that causes the serious potato and tomato disease known as late blight or potato blight. Early blight, caused by ''Alternaria solani'', is also often called "po ...
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 Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. As the famine continued, landlords, charities and government agencies provided "assisted passages" for destitute tenants to emigrate to Canada and Australia; in excess of 16,000 people emigrated, with most travelling in 1851. Caused by the advent of
refrigeration The term refrigeration refers to the process of removing heat from an enclosed space or substance for the purpose of lowering the temperature.International Dictionary of Refrigeration, http://dictionary.iifiir.org/search.phpASHRAE Terminology, ht ...
and imports of lamb, mutton and wool from overseas, the 1870s brought with them a collapse of sheep prices and an abrupt halt in the previous sheep farming boom. Land prices subsequently plummeted, too, and accelerated the process of the so-called "Balmoralisation" of Scotland, an era in the second half of the 19th century that saw an increase in tourism and the establishment of large estates dedicated to
field sports Field sports are outdoor sports that take place in the wilderness or sparsely populated rural areas, where there are vast areas of uninhabited greenfields. The term specifically refer to activities that mandate sufficiently large open spaces and ...
like
deer stalking Deer stalking, or simply stalking, is a British term for the stealthy pursuit of deer on foot with the intention of hunting for meat, for leisure/trophy, or to control their numbers. As part of wildlife management, just as with rabbiting an ...
and grouse shooting, especially in the Scottish Highlands. The process was named after
Balmoral estate Balmoral Castle () is a large estate house in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and a residence of the British royal family. It is near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and west of Aberdeen. The estate and its original castle were bought fr ...
, purchased by Queen Victoria in 1848, that fueled the romanticisation of upland Scotland and initiated an influx of the newly wealthy acquiring similar estates in the following decades. By the late 19th century just 118 people owned half of Scotland, with nearly 60 per cent of the whole country being part of shooting estates. While their relative importance has somewhat declined due to changing recreational interests throughout the 20th century, deer stalking and grouse shooting remain of prime importance on many private estates in Scotland.


Rural life

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 The first Highland Land League ( gd, Dionnasg an Fhearainn) 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 Associat ...
. 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 Crofting Commission ( gd, Coimisean na Croitearachd) took the place of the Crofters Commission ( gd, Coimisean nan Croitearan) on 1 April 2012 as the statutory regulator for crofting in Scotland. Based in Inverness, it is an executive non- ...
. The Crofters as a political movement faded away by 1892, and the Liberal Party gained most of their votes.


Emigration

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,F. M. L. Thompson, ''The Cambridge Social History of Britain, 1750 –1950: People and Their Environment'' (Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 9–10. reaching perhaps as much as 30.2 per cent of its
natural increase In Demography, the rate of natural increase (RNI), also known as natural population change, is defined as the birth rate minus the death rate of a particular population, over a particular time period. It is typically expressed either as a number ...
from the 1850s onwards. This not only limited Scotland's population increase, but meant that almost every family lost members due to emigration and, because more of them were young males, it skewed the sex and age ratios of the country. Scots-born emigrants that played a leading role in the foundation and development of the United States included cleric and revolutionary
John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense real ...
, sailor
John Paul Jones John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 July 18, 1792) was a Scottish-American naval captain who was the United States' first well-known naval commander in the American Revolutionary War. He made many friends among U.S political elites ( ...
, industrialist and philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...
, and scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell. In Canada they included soldier and governor of Quebec James Murray, Prime Minister
John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
and politician and social reformer
Tommy Douglas Thomas Clement Douglas (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist min ...
. For Australia they included soldier and governor Lachlan Macquarie, governor and scientist
Thomas Brisbane Major General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet, (23 July 1773 – 27 January 1860), was a British Army officer, administrator, and astronomer. Upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he had served, he was appoint ...
and Prime Minister
Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher (29 August 186222 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Australia – from 1908 to 1909, from 1910 to 1913, and from 1914 to 1915. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party ...
. For New Zealand they included politician
Peter Fraser Peter Fraser (; 28 August 1884 – 12 December 1950) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 24th prime minister of New Zealand from 27 March 1940 until 13 December 1949. Considered a major figure in the history of the New Zealand La ...
and outlaw James Mckenzie. By the 21st century, there would be about as many people who were
Scottish Canadians Scottish Canadians are people of Scottish descent or heritage living in Canada. As the third-largest ethnic group in Canada and amongst the first Europeans to settle in the country, Scottish people have made a large impact on Canadian culture sin ...
and
Scottish American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, d ...
s as the 5 million remaining in Scotland.R. A. Houston and W. W. Knox, eds., ''The New Penguin History of Scotland'' (Penguin, 2001), p. xxxii.


Religious schism and revival

After prolonged years of struggle, in 1834 the Evangelicals gained control of the
General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presb ...
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 (17 March 178031 May 1847), was a Scottish minister, professor of theology, political economist, and a leader of both the Church of Scotland and of the Free Church of Scotland. He has been called "Scotland's greatest nine ...
known as the Great
Disruption of 1843 The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...
. 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 idealised small equalitarian, kirk-based, self-contained communities that recognised the individuality of their members and the need for co-operation. 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 United Free Church of Scotland (UF Church; gd, An Eaglais Shaor Aonaichte, sco, The Unitit Free Kirk o Scotland) is a Scottish Presbyterian denomination formed in 1900 by the union of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland (or UP) and ...
. 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 A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions fr ...
.
Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...
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 The Scottish Episcopal Church ( gd, Eaglais Easbaigeach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Episcopal(ian) Kirk) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion in Scotland. A continuation of the Church of Scotland as intended by King James VI, and ...
in 1804, as an autonomous organisation in communion with the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
.
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...
, Congregationalist and
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's ...
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.


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 could leave 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 well as 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.M. F. Rayner-Canham and G. Rayner-Canham, ''Chemistry was Their Life: Pioneering British Women Chemists, 1880–1949'' (Imperial College Press, 2008), p. 264.


Early 20th century


Fishing

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.


Political realignment

In the
Khaki Election In Westminster systems of government, 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 return ...
of 1900, nationalist concern with the
Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
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 James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...
(1902–1905) and a Liberal one in
Henry Campbell-Bannerman Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. He served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 1 ...
(1905–1908). Various organisations, including the Independent Labour Party, joined to make the British Labour Party in 1906, with Keir Hardie as its first chairman..


First World War (1914–1918)

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. Scotland's industries were directed at the war effort. For example, the Singer Clydebank sewing machine factory received over 5000 government contracts, and made 303 million artillery shells, shell components, fuses, and aeroplane parts, as well as grenades, rifle parts, and 361,000 horseshoes. Its labour force of 14,000 was about 70 percent female at war's end. 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 Loos The Battle of Loos took place from 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. Th ...
, 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.J. Buchanan, ''Scotland'' (Langenscheidt, 3rd ed., 2003), p. 49. Some areas, like the thinly populated island of
Lewis and Harris Lewis and Harris ( gd, Leòdhas agus na Hearadh, sco, Lewis an Harris), or Lewis with Harris, is a single Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, divided by mountains. It is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British ...
, suffered some of the highest proportional losses of any part of Britain. Clydeside shipyards and the nearby engineering shops were the major centres of war industry in Scotland. In Glasgow, radical agitation led to industrial and political unrest that continued after the war ended. After the end of the war in June 1919 the German fleet interned at Scapa Flow was scuttled by its German crews, to avoid its ships being taken over by the victorious allies.


Economic boom and stagnation

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. 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.


Interwar politics

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 The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
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 Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...
, 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 Bonar Law led a Conservative government from 1922 to 1923 and another Scot, Ramsay MacDonald, would be the Labour Party's first Prime Minister in 1924 and again from 1929 to 1935. With all the main parties committed to the Union, new nationalist and independent political groupings began to emerge, including the
National Party of Scotland The National Party of Scotland (NPS) was a centre-left political party in Scotland which was one of the predecessors of the current Scottish National Party (SNP). The NPS was the first Scottish nationalist political party, and the first which c ...
in 1928 and
Scottish Party The Scottish (Self-Government) Party was a Scottish nationalist political party formed in 1932 by a group of members of the Unionist Party who favoured the establishment of a Dominion Scottish Parliament within the British Empire. The Scottish ...
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.C. Cook and J. Stevenson, ''The Longman Companion to Britain since 1945'' (Pearson Education, 2nd edn., 2000), p. 93.


Second World War (1939–1945)

As in World War I, Scapa Flow in Orkney served as an important
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
base. Attacks on Scapa Flow and
Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...
gave RAF fighters their first successes downing bombers in the Firth of Forth and East Lothian. The shipyards and heavy engineering factories in
Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and Clydeside played a key part in the war effort, and suffered attacks from the
Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...
, enduring great destruction and loss of life.J. Buchanan, ''Scotland'' (Langenscheidt, 3rd edn., 2003), p. 51. 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, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...
resulted in the
Shetland Bus The Shetland Bus (Norwegian Bokmål: ''Shetlandsbussene'', def. pl.) was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the su ...
by which fishing boats helped Norwegians flee the
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
, and expeditions across the
North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
to assist resistance. Significant individual contributions to the war effort by Scots included the invention of radar by
Robert Watson-Watt Sir Robert Alexander Watson Watt (13 April 1892 – 5 December 1973) was a Scottish pioneer of radio direction finding and radar technology. Watt began his career in radio physics with a job at the Met Office, where he began looking for accura ...
, which was invaluable in the
Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...
, as was the leadership at
RAF Fighter Command RAF Fighter Command was one of the 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. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Brita ...
of Air Chief Marshal
Hugh Dowding Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, (24 April 1882 – 15 February 1970) was an officer in the Royal Air Force. He was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and is generally c ...
. In World War II, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
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 Home rule is government of a colony, dependent country, or region by its own citizens. It is thus the power of a part (administrative division) of a state or an external dependent country to exercise such of the state's powers of governance wit ...
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 Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories h ...
some power away from
Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament Sq ...
. 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 .


End of mass emigration

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 Depression hit in the 1930s there were no easily available jobs in the US and Canada and the numbers leaving fell to less than 50,000 a year, bringing to an end the period of mass emigrations 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 is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...
and resurgent nationalism, known as the Scottish Renaissance. The leading figure in the movement was
Hugh MacDiarmid Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid (), was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Rena ...
(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'' 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. A poem of extremes, it ranges be ...
" (1936), developing a form of
Synthetic Scots Lallans (; a variant of the Modern Scots word ''lawlands'' meaning the lowlands of Scotland), is a term that was traditionally used to refer to the Scots language as a whole. However, more recent interpretations assume it refers to the dialects o ...
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 CBE (15 May 1887 – 3 January 1959) was a Scottish poet, novelist and translator. Born on a farm in Deerness, a parish of Orkney, Scotland, he is remembered for his deeply felt and vivid poetry written in plain language and w ...
and
William Soutar William Soutar (28 April 1898 – 15 October 1943) was a Scottish poet and diarist who wrote in English and in Braid Scots. He is known best for his epigrams. Life and works William Soutar was born on 28 April 1898 on South Inch Terrace in ...
, the novelists Neil Gunn,
George Blake George Blake ( Behar; 11 November 1922 – 26 December 2020) was a spy with Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union. He became a communist and decided to work for the MGB while a pri ...
,
Nan Shepherd Anna "Nan" Shepherd (11 February 1893 – 27 February 1981) was a Scottish Modernist writer and poet, best known for her seminal mountain memoir, ''The Living Mountain'', based on experiences of hill walking in the Cairngorms. This is noted as a ...
,
A. J. Cronin Archibald Joseph Cronin (19 July 1896 – 6 January 1981), known as A. J. Cronin, was a Scottish physician and novelist. His best-known novel is ''The Citadel'' (1937), about a Scottish doctor who serves in a Welsh mining village before achievi ...
, Naomi Mitchison, Eric Linklater and Lewis Grassic Gibbon, and the playwright
James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...
. 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 Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
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.


Naval role

Scotland's Scapa Flow was the main base for the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
in the 20th century. As the Cold War intensified in 1961, the United States deployed Polaris ballistic missiles, and submarines, in the
Firth of Clyde The Firth of Clyde is the mouth of the River Clyde. It is located on the west coast of Scotland and constitutes the deepest coastal waters in the British Isles (it is 164 metres deep at its deepest). The firth is sheltered from the Atlantic ...
's
Holy Loch The Holy Loch ( gd, An Loch Sianta/Seunta) is a sea loch, a part of the Cowal peninsula coast of the Firth of Clyde, in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The "Holy Loch" name is believed to date from the 6th century, when Saint Munn landed there afte ...
. Public protests from CND campaigners proved futile. The Royal Navy successfully convinced the government to allow the base because it wanted its own Polaris submarines, and it obtained them in 1963. The RN's nuclear submarine base opened with four Polaris submarines at the expanded
Faslane Naval Base His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It ...
on the
Gare Loch The Gare Loch or Gareloch ( gd, An Gearr Loch) is an open sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland and bears a similar name to the village of Gairloch in the north west Highlands. The loch is well used for recreational boating, water sports and f ...
. The first patrol of a
Trident A trident is a three- pronged spear. It is used for spear fishing and historically as a polearm. The trident is the weapon of Poseidon, or Neptune, the God of the Sea in classical mythology. The trident may occasionally be held by other mari ...
-armed submarine occurred in 1994, although the US base was closed at the end of the Cold War.


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 Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
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 per cent of the electorate (despite a small majority of those who voted supporting the proposal.) A national referendum to decide on Scottish independence was held on 18 September 2014. Voters were asked to answer either "Yes" or "No" to the question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?" 55.3% of voters answered "No" and 44.7% answered "Yes", with a
voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...
of 84.5%.


Politics and devolution

In the 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 (1945 and 1966). The number of Scottish seats represented by Unionists (known as
Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
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 1957 to 1963 and Alec Douglas-Home from 1963 to 1964. 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 Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
government of the
Community Charge The Community Charge, commonly known as the poll tax, was a system of taxation introduced by Margaret Thatcher's government in replacement of domestic rates in Scotland from 1989, prior to its introduction in England and Wales from 1990. It pr ...
(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 was led by two Prime Ministers with Scottish connections: Tony Blair (who was brought up in Scotland) from 1997 to 2007 and
Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
from 2007 to 2010, opened the way for constitutional change. On 11 September 1997, the 700th anniversary of
Battle of Stirling Bridge The Battle of Stirling Bridge ( gd, Blàr Drochaid Shruighlea) 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 ...
, 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 Donald Campbell Dewar (21 August 1937 – 11 October 2000) was a Scottish politician who served as the inaugural First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 1999 until his death in 2000. He previously served as ...
as
First Minister A first minister is any of a variety of leaders of government cabinets. The term literally has the same meaning as "prime minister" but is typically chosen to distinguish the office-holder from a superior prime minister. Currently the title of ' ...
. The new
Scottish Parliament Building ; sco, Scots Pairlament Biggin , native_name_lang = , former_names = , alternate_names = Holyrood , image = Scottish Parliament building - geograph.org.uk - 2469654.jpg , image_alt = , caption ...
, adjacent to
Holyrood House The Palace of Holyroodhouse ( or ), commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace or Holyroodhouse, is the official residence of the British monarch in Scotland. Located at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edi ...
in Edinburgh, opened in 2004. Although not initially 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 (MMP or MMPR) is a mixed electoral system in which votes cast are considered in local elections and also to determine overall party vote tallies, which are used to allocate additional members to produce ...
. It became the official opposition in 1999, a minority government in 2007 and a majority government from 2011. In 2014, the
independence referendum An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independence does not alwa ...
saw voters reject independence, choosing instead to remain in the United Kingdom. In the 2015 Westminster election, the SNP won 56 out of 59 Scottish seats, making them the third largest party in Westminster.


Economic reorientation

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 The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
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 Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) is a term used for companies that design, manufacture, test, distribute, and provide return/repair services for electronic components and assemblies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The concept is ...
of
Silicon Glen Silicon Glen is a nickname for the high tech sector of Scotland, the name inspired by Silicon Valley in California. It is applied to the Central Belt triangle between Dundee, Inverclyde and Edinburgh, which includes Fife, Glasgow and Stirling ...
.


Religious diversity and decline

In the 20th century existing Christian denominations were joined by other organisations, including the Brethren and
Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement
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 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.''An Introduction to Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland'' by A. Gordon McGillivray, ...
rejected the proposals. In the 2011 census, 53.8% of the Scottish population identified as Christian (declining from 65.1% in 2001). The
Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church ...
is the largest religious grouping in Scotland, with 32.4% of the population. The
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
accounted for 15.9% of the population and is especially important in
West Central Scotland Greater Glasgow is an urban settlement in Scotland consisting of all localities which are physically attached to the city of Glasgow, forming with it a single contiguous urban area (or conurbation). It does not relate to municipal government ...
and the
Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...
. In recent years other religions have established a presence in Scotland, mainly through
immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...
and higher birth rates among ethnic minorities, with a small number of converts. Those with the most adherents in the 2011 census are Islam (1.4%, mainly among immigrants from South Asia),
Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
(0.3%),
Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
(0.2%) and
Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
(0.2%). Other minority faiths include the Bahá'í Faith and small Neopagan groups. There are also various organisations which actively promote
humanism Humanism is a philosophy, philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and Agency (philosophy), agency of Human, human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical in ...
and
secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...
, included within the 43.6% who either indicated no religion or did not state a religion in the 2011 census.


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 Education The Scottish Certificate of Education (or SCE) was a Scottish secondary education certificate, used in schools and sixth form institutions, from 1962 until 1999. It replaced the older Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) and the Scottish Leaving Ce ...
Ordinary Grade ('O-Grade') and
Higher Grade In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher () is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualification ...
('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 Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequ ...
,
Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
and
Strathclyde Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government et ...
) 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.J. Fairley, "The Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department and the Scottish Parliament", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, ''Scottish Education: Post-Devolution'' (2003), pp. 132–140. 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.D. Cauldwell, "Scottish Higher Education: Character and Provision", in T. G. K. Bryce and W. M. Humes, eds, ''Scottish Education: Post-Devolution'' (2003), pp. 62–73.


New literature

Some writers that emerged after the Second World War followed Hugh MacDiarmid by writing in Scots, including Robert Garioch and
Sydney Goodsir Smith Sydney Goodsir Smith (26 October 1915 – 15 January 1975) was a New Zealand-born Scottish poet, artist, dramatist and novelist. He wrote poetry in literary Scots often referred to as Lallans (Lowlands dialect), and was a major figure of the S ...
. Others demonstrated a greater interest in English language poetry, among them Norman MacCaig, George Bruce and Maurice Lindsay.
George Mackay Brown George Mackay Brown (17 October 1921 – 13 April 1996) was a Scottish poet, author and dramatist with a distinctly Orcadian character. He is widely regarded as one of the great Scottish poets of the 20th century. Biography Early life and caree ...
from Orkney, and
Iain Crichton Smith Iain Crichton Smith, (Gaelic: ''Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn''; 1 January 1928 – 15 October 1998) was a Scottish poet and novelist, who wrote in both English and Gaelic. He was born in Glasgow, but moved to the Isle of Lewis at the age of two, ...
from Lewis, wrote both poetry and prose fiction shaped by their distinctive island backgrounds. The Glaswegian poet Edwin Morgan became known for translations of works from a wide range of European languages. He was also the first
Scots Makar A makar () is a term from Scottish literature for a poet or bard, often thought of as a noble court, royal court poet. Since the 19th century, the term ''The Makars'' has been specifically used to refer to a number of poets of fifteenth and s ...
(the official
national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbo ...
), appointed by the inaugural Scottish government in 2004. Many major Scottish post-war novelists, such as
Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an ...
, with '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1961) spent much or most of their lives outside Scotland, but often dealt with Scottish themes. Successful mass-market works included the action novels of
Alistair MacLean Alistair Stuart MacLean ( gd, Alasdair MacGill-Eain; 21 April 1922 – 2 February 1987) was a 20th-century Scottish novelist who wrote popular thrillers and adventure stories. Many of his novels have been adapted to film, most notably '' The ...
, and the historical fiction of
Dorothy Dunnett Dorothy, Lady Dunnett (née Halliday, 25 August 1923 – 9 November 2001) was a Scottish novelist best known for her historical fiction. Dunnett is most famous for her six novel series set during the 16th century, which concern the fictiti ...
. A younger generation of novelists that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s included Shena Mackay, Alan Spence,
Allan Massie Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Se ...
and the work of William McIlvanney. From the 1980s Scottish literature enjoyed another major revival, this time led by a group of Glasgow writers associated with critic, poet and teacher
Philip Hobsbaum Philip Dennis Hobsbaum (29 June 1932 – 28 June 2005) was a British teacher, poet and critic. Life Hobsbaum was born into a Polish Jewish family in London, and brought up in Bradford, Yorkshire, where he attended Belle Vue Boys' Grammar Sc ...
and editor Peter Kravitz. In the 1990s major, prize winning, Scottish novels, often overtly political, that emerged from this movement included
Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh (born 27 September 1958) is a Scottish novelist, playwright and short story writer. His 1993 novel '' Trainspotting'' was made into a film of the same name. He has also written plays and screenplays, and directed several short fil ...
's '' Trainspotting'' (1993), Warner's '' Morvern Callar'' (1995), Gray's '' Poor Things'' (1992) and Kelman's '' How Late It Was, How Late'' (1994). Scottish crime fiction has been a major area of growth, particularly the success of Edinburgh's
Ian Rankin Sir Ian James Rankin (born 28 April 1960) is a Scottish crime writer, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels. Early life Rankin was born in Cardenden, Fife. His father, James, owned a grocery shop, and his mother, Isobel, worked in a sch ...
and his
Inspector Rebus The ''Inspector Rebus'' books are a series of detective novels by the Scottish author Sir Ian Rankin. The novels, centred on Detective Inspector John Rebus, are mostly based in and around Edinburgh. They are considered an important contrib ...
novels. This period also saw the emergence of a new generation of Scottish poets that became leading figures on the UK stage, including
Carol Ann Duffy Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...
, who was named as
Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...
in May 2009, the first woman, the first Scot and the first openly gay poet to take the post.


Historiography


See also

*
Economic history of Scotland The economic history of Scotland charts economic development in the history of Scotland from earliest times, through seven centuries as an independent state and following Union with England, three centuries as a country of the United Kingdom. ...
*
History of the Outer Hebrides The 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 structure ...
*
Historic Sites in Scotland There 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, Mediae ...
*
History of the United Kingdom The history of the United Kingdom began in the early eighteenth century with the Treaty of Union and Acts of Union. The core of the United Kingdom as a unified state came into being in 1707 with the political union of the kingdoms of Englan ...
*
Kings of Scotland The monarch of Scotland was the head of state of the Kingdom of Scotland. According to tradition, the first King of Scots was Kenneth I MacAlpin (), who founded the state in 843. Historically, the Kingdom of Scotland is thought to have grown ...
* List of years in Scotland *
Scottish clan A Scottish clan (from Gaelic , literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared identity and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure recognised ...
*
Timeline of Scottish history __NOTOC__ This is a timeline of Scottish history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Scotland and its predecessor states. See also Timeline of prehistoric Scotland. To read about the background to many ...


References


Notes


Bibliography


Surveys and reference books

* ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004) online; short scholarly biographies of all the major people * * * * 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). *
Keay, John John Stanley Melville Keay FRGS is a British historian, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer specialising in popular histories of India, the Far East and China, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and exploration by Europ ...
, and Julia Keay. ''Collins Encyclopedia of Scotland'' (2nd ed. 2001), 1101 pp; 4000 articles; emphasis on history * Lenman, Bruce P. ''Enlightenment and Change: Scotland 1746–1832'' (2nd ed. The New History of Scotland Series. Edinburgh University Press, 2009). 280 pp. ; 1st edition also published under the titles ''Integration, Enlightenment, and Industrialization: Scotland, 1746–1832'' (1981) and ''Integration and Enlightenment: Scotland, 1746–1832'' (1992). * * * * 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'' (The Scottish Medievalists and Department of Geography, 1996). * Magnusson, Magnus. ''Scotland: The Story of a Nation'' (2000), popular history focused on royalty and warfare * * Nicholls, M., ''A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529–1603: the Two Kingdoms'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999) * 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) 352 pp; * Smout, T. C., ''A History of the Scottish People, 1560–1830'' (1969, Fontana, 1998). * 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). * Colley, Linda, ''Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837'' (Yale University Press, 1992). * Cooke, Anthony. ''The Rise and Fall of the Scottish Cotton Industry, 1778–1914'' (Manchester University Press, 2010). * * * Ferguson, W., ''Scotland's Relations with England: A Survey to 1707'' (Saltire Society, 1977). * * Hamilton, David. ''The healers: a history of medicine in Scotland'' (Pelican, 1981). * Harvie, Christopher ''Scotland and Nationalism: Scottish Society and Politics 1707–1977'' (4th edn., Routledge, 2004). * * * Pittock, Murray. ''The Road to Independence? Scotland since the Sixties'' (2008) excerpt and text search. * Smout, T. C., ''Scottish Trade on the Eve of the Union, 1660–1707'' (Oliver & Boyd, 1963). * Smout, T. C., ''Scotland Since Prehistory: Natural History and Human Impact'' (Scottish Cultural Press, 1993).


Culture and religion

* * 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) 350 pp. . * 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) 373 pp. * 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. . * Menikoff, Barry. ''Narrating Scotland: the Imagination of Robert Louis Stevenson.'' (2005) 233 pp. . * 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), 560 pp. * 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.


Prehistory and archaeology

* * * * * * * * * *


Medieval

* * * * * * * * * * * * Taylor, S., ed., ''Picts, Kings, Saints and Chronicles: A Festschrift for Marjorie O. Anderson'' (Four Courts, 2000). * * * Woods, J. D., and Pelteret, D. A. E., eds, ''The Anglo-Saxons, Synthesis and Achievement'' (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1985). * *


Early modern

* * Ryrie, Alec (2006). ''The Origins of the Scottish Reformation'' (Manchester: Manchester University Press). *


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'' (Harper Collins, 2003). 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), 170 pp; well-illustrated introduction. * Davidson, Neil, ''Discovering the Scottish Revolution, 1692–1746'', Pluto Press, London, England (2003). . * Devine, T. M., ''Clanship to Crofters' War: the Social Transformation of the Scottish Highlands'', (1994). . * 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 (January 1991), pp. 20–6
in JSTOR
* Graham, Gordon. "Morality and Feeling in the Scottish Enlightenment," ''Philosophy'' Vol. 76, No. 296 (April 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) 249 pp. . * 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'' (Crown, 2001), 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 ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters paten ...
,'' Vol. 31, No. 3 (July 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 (June 1978), pp. 99–109 in JSTOR. * Phillipson, N.T. and Mitchison, Rosalind, eds. ''Scotland in the Age of Improvement'', (1996). . * 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 ''The British Journal of Sociology'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1950 at the London School of Economics. It represents the mainstream of sociological thinking and research and publishes high quality papers on all as ...
,'' Vol. 21, No. 2 (June 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). * * * Macinnes, Allan I. "Jacobitism in Scotland: Episodic Cause or National Movement?" ''
Scottish Historical Review The ''Scottish Historical Review'' is a biannual academic journal in the field of Scottish historical studies, covering Scottish history from the early to the modern, encouraging a variety of historical approaches. It superseded ''The Scottish An ...
,'' Oct 2007, Vol. 86,2 Issue 222, pp 225–252; emphasises 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 Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton (15 January 1914 – 26 January 2003) was an English historian. He was Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford. Trevor-Roper was a polemicist and essayist on a range of ...
. ''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. * Browne, Sarah. ''The women's liberation movement in Scotland'' (2016)
online review
* 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 ''History Compass'' is a peer-reviewed online-only academic journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. Originally launched in association with the Institute of Historical Research (London), it is unique in its purpose and structure, aiming to "solve th ...
,'' 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. *


Historiography

* * * * Bowie, Karin. "Cultural, British and Global Turns in the History of Early Modern Scotland," ''Scottish Historical Review'' (April 2013 Supplement), Vol. 92, pp. 38–48. * * . * Dingwall, Helen M. ''A history of Scottish medicine: themes and influences'' (Edinburgh UP, 2003). * Elton, G. R. ''Modern Historians on British History 1485–1945: A Critical Bibliography 1945–1969'' (1969), annotated guide to 1000 history books on every major topic, plus book reviews and major scholarly articles. online pp 198–205 * * Kidd, C. ''Subverting Scotland's Past: Scottish Whig Historians and the Creation of an Anglo-British Identity 1689–1830'' (Cambridge University Press, 2003) * Linklater, Eric. "The Matter of Scotland." ''History Today'' (Jan 1951) 1#1 pp. 43–52, online * * Lee, Jr., Maurice. "Scottish History since 1966," in Richard Schlatter, ed., ''Recent Views on British History: Essays on Historical Writing since 1966'' (Rutgers UP, 1984), pp. 377 – 400. * * Morton, Graeme, and Trevor Griffiths. "Closing the Door on Modern Scotland's Gilded Cage," ''Scottish Historical Review'' (2013) Supplement, Vol. 92, pp. 49–69; on nationalism * * *


Primary sources

* * Broadie, Alexander, ed. (1997), ''The Scottish Enlightenment: An Anthology''. * Cooke, Anthony, et al. eds (1998). ''Modern Scottish History, 1707 To the Present: vol 5: Major Documents'' (Tuckwell Press) online edition. * ''Statistical Accounts of Scotland'' (1791–1845) online, detailed local descriptions.


External links


"History of Scotland: Primary Documents"
from Brigham Young University

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Scotland History of the United Kingdom by topic