History History

5,000 years ago, or even more - some date back 12,000 years - men were already living in these regions. They were probably less hostile than they are today, as the climate would have been a few degrees warmer then. At Skara Brae in Orkney, there is evidence of communal living. Traces have been found there that clearly suggest that beer was already being brewed. Yes, Stone Age man was already brewing! The other remains are less "festive", since they are burial mounds or standing stones, the meaning of which remains a mystery to this day.

Scotland has seen successive waves of invaders who have made it a mosaic of peoples, each one a rival or ally. From the 6th to the 3rd century B.C., the Celts settled there. Some place names bear witness to their past migration: dun, which means "fortress", is a frequent place name. The oldest known Scottish civilization is that of the Picts. Occupying the north of the country, they were at the heart of the resistance against the Romans. From the first century AD, the Romans tried to settle in Scotland, but three quarters of the territory escaped them.

The conqueror Agricola seized the south. The first historical mention of the country is made by Tacitus under the name of Caledonia.

In 122, a fortification from the Tyne to the Gulf of Solway, known as Hadrian's Wall, was built to contain the Picts. Twenty years later, under Antony, a new wall was built further north, between the Firth of Forth and the Clyde. However, the Empire failed to dominate the population and, around 410, abandoned Scotland leaving little trace of its passage.

For several centuries, there was not one Scottish people, but many Scottish people. The Picts were not the only ones to occupy Scotland. During the^5th and 6th centuries, the Scots settled in the western territories, between the mouth of the Clyde and the Great Glen, and founded the kingdom of Dalriada. Coming from Northern Ireland, they have long maintained a community of culture with their land of origin, starting with their language, Gaelic. Their neighbours, the Brittons, live south of the Clyde and the Firth of Forth and extend into England and Wales. The Angles, who came from Denmark and Germany, settled in the eastern part of the country. Unlike the Scots and Brittons, they were not Celtic, but Germanic

The first unification of Scotland was the work of Christian missionaries. Ninian, in the 6th century, made one of the first attempts at evangelization, followed by the formidable Brandon, and then Saint Columba who settled in 563-565 on the island of Iona with twelve companions. He founded a very influential monastery there.

In the 8th century, in the absence of a political balance, religious harmony reigned, but new invaders arrived from Norway: the Vikings. They gradually occupied the northern and north-western lands and showed great violence towards the Celtic and Germanic populations.

In 843, probably to better oppose the Viking raids, the Scots king Kenneth MacAlpin succeeded in uniting Picts and Scots within the same kingdom: Alba. It would later become Scotland. Little by little, the Picts disappeared, probably absorbed by the Scots. As for the Angles, they were not integrated until the beginning of the 11th century, under the reign of Malcolm II, a member of the Canmore dynasty and descendant of Kenneth MacAlpin

The Vikings still dominated the islands and continued their incursions until the 12th century. In 1098, the Hebrides and Kyntire were ceded to Norway.

In 1040, Duncan, grandson of Malcolm II, was murdered by a man named Macbeth. Macbeth was not the evil ruler described by Shakespeare. On the contrary, the chroniclers of the time give the image of a pious and liberal man, protector of the weak and the poor

In 1057, Malcolm III, Duncan's son, avenged his father and seized the crown. Under his reign, Scotland was consolidated and religious unity was achieved. David I (1124-1153), Malcolm's third son, worked to restructure the Church and set up a feudal system, comparable to the one that already prevailed in France and England. He created the towns of the time: the burghs and encouraged trade.

King Alexander III definitively drove out the Scandinavians and reappropriated the Hebrides by the Treaty of Perth.

After the death of Alexander III (1286) and his granddaughter Margaret (1290), the country had 13 rivals for the throne. The supporters of the two main candidates, Robert the Bruce and John Balliol, feared civil war. They asked for mediation from the English king, Edward I. Edward I saw this as an opportunity to invade Scotland and agreed to their request. When he arrived in 1291 to begin negotiations, he was accompanied by his army and put strong pressure on the pretenders to the throne. He asked to be named Lord Paramount of Scotland, which was accepted, as the country was too weak to oppose him. He then used this new title to bring all the Scottish castles, including Edinburgh, under his authority and to get all the people to swear allegiance to him

13 meetings were held from May to August 1291. Robert the Bruce and John Balliol both put forward their arguments and credibility. When the various arbitrators appointed could not reach an agreement, Edward stated that it was in his power as Lord Paramount to decide and had John Balliol crowned in Newcastle in November 1292. He then considered him his vassal and quickly asked for troops to invade France.

There was no question of John Balliol contributing to the invasion of France. He decided to defy England by secretly allying himself with Philip IV of France: this was the Auld Alliance. London learned of the betrayal at the end of 1295 and invaded its northern neighbour the following year. Balliol abdicates and the resistance is organized. It was during this period that heroes such as William Wallace, appointed guardian of Scotland in 1298, then executed in London in 1305, or Robert the Bruce, finally king in 1306, became famous. It was he who ended the first phase of hostilities by invading the north of England

When he died in 1329, his son, King David II, was only a child, and the conflict over the succession between the Bruce and the Balliols resumed. The pretender Edward Balliol, aided by the English king of the time, Edward III, started the second war of independence. David took refuge in France and his supporters continued the fight in Scotland. In 1341, he returned home. In 1346, when he led raids to support his French allies, he was captured and sent to the Tower of London for 11 years. He was not released until 1357, under the Treaty of Berwick, which ended the wars of independence and required Scotland to pay large sums to London.

In the 15th century, Edinburgh became the capital of the country, thanks to the creation of the Palace of Holyrood by James IV, who settled there permanently with his court

Mary Stuart, known as Mary Queen of Scots, became Queen of Scotland in 1542, on the death of her father, James V. Her reign was brief and troubled, her Catholic faith making her unpopular in the midst of the Reformation. John Knox, the famous Protestant preacher, stirred up the population against her, so that she was imprisoned in 1567 and had to abdicate. She fled south of the border, where she hoped to find refuge with her cousin, Queen Elizabeth^I, but her fate was tragic

Her son, James VI, succeeded her to the Scottish throne, before finding himself also sovereign of England in 1603, when the Tudor dynasty died out. It was the Union of the two crowns. He then moved his court to London, but promised to return every three years, which he did only once, in 1617. In spite of this common kingdom, Scotland kept a lot of autonomy thanks to its parliament.

Mary Queen of Scots is one of Scotland's most popular and well-known historical figures. Her life is worthy of the greatest tragedies. Her birth was marked by death, as a week before she was born in 1542, her father died. Her marriage quickly became a problem. Although she was promised to the son of the English king Henry VIII, the agreement was questioned by the Scots, which offended the king, who started a war between the two countries. Mary was then sent to France in 1548 to become the wife of the young French prince. In 1561, he died and Mary was sent back to Scotland. It was the time of the Reformation and its conflicts between Protestants and Catholics. They thought of marrying Mary to a Protestant to stabilize the country: Lord Darnley, or Henry. The marriage was not a happy one, so much so that Henry, jealous of his wife's private secretary, Riccio, had him murdered in front of her. They have a son together, the future King James VI. After the suspicious death of her husband, Mary marries James Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell. Their affair is not appreciated by the Lords of Congregation, and she is imprisoned at Leven Castle in 1568, where she gives birth to stillborn twins. Her husband fled to Dunbar and never saw her again. She left her prison in May 1568, gathered a small army, but was defeated by the Protestants. She returned to England where, for 19 years, she was imprisoned from castle to castle. She was finally executed in 1587 at Fotheringhay Castle. Even in death, she was not left in peace. Buried in Peterborough Cathedral, she was exhumed in 1612 to be reburied in Westminster Abbey.

In the 17th century, the country was hit by major religious unrest, during which the Covenanters opposed the imposition of Anglican worship by London. Known as the Bishops' War, they were part of a longer period of crisis: the War of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1651). The English king Charles I wanted to impose his religious and political views on the three nations in his crown: England, Scotland and Ireland. In 1642, civil war broke out and he was executed in 1649. Scotland voted for the restoration of his son, Charles II, who promised religious independence. Oliver Cromwell and his troops responded by laying siege to Edinburgh and taking the castle before invading the rest of the country. It was not until his death in 1658 that the Commonwealth he had established collapsed and Charles II came to power in 1660.

The Glorious Revolution that followed from 1688 to 1689 did not spare Scotland. The English King James II, who succeeded his brother Charles II, was an unpopular Catholic. His son-in-law, William III of Orange, husband of Princess Mary, was called upon to help by worried Protestants, while Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes on the other side of the Channel. He landed with his troops and forced Charles II to flee to France. William and Mary took advantage of the situation to take the throne, in return for which they signed the Bill of Rights (1689), which stipulated that no Catholic could wear the crown. But James II had many Catholic allies in the Highlands, and they did not take kindly to this reversal. Called the Jacobites (from the Latin Jacobus, for James), these opponents rose up in 1689 behind James Graham. They were crushed in May 1690.

Some time later, nationalist sentiment remained so strong that it gave rise to a second Jacobite revolution. In 1743, France and England began a new war over the succession to Austria. Charles Edward Stuart, who went down in history as Bonnie Prince Charlie - grandson of King James II, he lived in exile in Rome, where he was born - intended to recover the thrones of Scotland and England for his family, the House of Stuart. Louis XV assured him of his support and disembarked on August 4, 1745 at Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides. The Highland clans were initially suspicious, as he had no troops or ammunition, but he managed to raise 3,000 men at Glenfinnan. He then marched south, where only 4,000 English troops were present, while the country was fighting France. The Jacobites took Perth, then Edinburgh, but failed to take the castle. James Stuart, the father of Bonnie Prince Charlie, became King James VIII of Scotland. However, he is still in exile in Italy, and his son assumes the regency with his court at Holyrood Palace. He stayed there for a few weeks before heading to England with 6,000 men. They arrived 200 kilometres from London, but his council of war forced Charles to return to Scotland, where more and more supporters were gathering. Despite some victories, the movement was exhausted. He was finally defeated at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, in April 1746. Charles then fled to France disguised as a woman. It was the end of his ambitions.

The end of the ^18th century was a period of repression for Scotland, following the Jacobite uprising. Roads were laid out and bridges built to facilitate troop movements; Highlanders were stripped of their weapons; the use of the Gaelic language, kilts and bagpipes were banned; and peasants were driven off their land by landowners who intended to establish large flocks of sheep. This episode of the Highlands Clearances deeply marked the national culture. The clan spirit gradually succumbed; some chiefs were seduced by the worldly life in London.

Many Scots emigrated to North America, Australia and New Zealand. It was not until 1886 and the passage of the Crofters Act that the protection of small farmers and the end of the cleansing of the Highlands was officially affirmed.

The second half of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th saw the rise of Edinburgh. The city played a fundamental role in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. It witnessed the emergence of great minds such as Adam Smith, David Hume and Robert Burns. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in three volumes between 1768 and 1771, was born in Edinburgh as a symbol of this contribution. In the 19th century, the city's famous writers followed one another: Walter Scott, Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. At the same time, the National Gallery (1857) and the National Portrait Gallery (1889) were built.

During this period, which was also the Industrial Revolution, Glasgow and the Clyde Valley became the engine room of the British Empire. They were famous for their steelworks, ironworks and, above all, their shipyards

Religiously, the country continued to claim membership in the Presbyterian Church, although it was weakened in 1843 by the creation of the Free Church of Scotland. Queen Victoria took a great interest in the affairs of the north of her kingdom and even built her summer residence there: Balmoral Castle. She played an important role in the revival of Scottish national identity that began in the late 19th century and led to the creation of a "National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights" (1853) and the appointment of a special minister with the title of Secretary for Scotland (1885).

In 1934, the Scottish National Party (SNP) was created by John MacCormick. In 1939, the Scotland Office was established in London. On November 2, 1967, it made a spectacular breakthrough in a by-election, which brought the issue of independence to the forefront.

Administrative devolution to Scotland is achieved.

In 1991, 20% of Scots voted for independence in a referendum. Then in 1997, 74.3% of Scots approved devolution (decentralization of executive power) in a referendum organized by Tony Blair. Following this event, Scotland became a semi-autonomous region in 1998. In 1999, it has its own Parliament: the Edinburgh Regional Parliament. It has many competences: education, health, justice and environment. The current building was inaugurated in 2004.

In 2005, the Scottish Parliament passed a Gaelic Language Act to give it recognition in broadcasting, the arts and education. On May 16, 2007, for the first time, a pro-independence First Minister was elected. He is Alex Salmond, leader of the SNP. The idea of independence was re-launched.

A referendum for independence was held in 2014, but the no vote won with 55.4%. The debate is revived with the Brexit, because while the United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union in 2016 (52% of the vote), Scotland, for its part, votes 62% for a retention.

Nicola Sturgeon, the current First Minister, was elected on May 17, 2016. She is the first woman to lead the Scottish National Party. Although she was re-elected in 2021, she announced her resignation on February 15, 2023.

The issue of Scottish independence, at odds with the Brexit, is at the heart of all debates.

Today, Scotland still oscillates between desires for independence and a tenuous link with England. It has returned to its own traditions and culture. It also retains some prerogatives as it manages several sectors independently: justice, health, education and training, tourism and economic development. It also has its own parliament and justice system.

On September 8, 2022, the country is in mourning, Queen Elizabeth dies at the age of 96 years in her Scottish residence: Balmoral Castle. With seventy years of reign, it is the longest in British history! She was also the oldest monarch in the world. It was her son Charles III who became the king of England. He will be officially crowned on May 6, 2023 in London.

Surprising resignation of Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was the figurehead of the independence cause. She was re-elected in May 2021 on the promise of a new vote for independence, but she had reached a political impasse. According to one poll, support for independence was less than 50 per cent. A figure too uncertain in the event of a referendum. Her popularity had also taken a hit, leading her to resign. Humza Yussaf was officially appointed first minister on March 29, 2023, becoming the youngest and first Scottish Muslim to hold the post.

King Charles III was crowned, but to some indifference from the Scots, who did not watch the coronation in large numbers. The Stone of Destiny, an ancient artifact and historical symbol of the Scottish monarchy, was borrowed from Edinburgh Castle for this event.