History of Scotland

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History of Scotland

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Chronological Eras
Prehistoric Scotland
Scotland during the Roman Empire
Scotland in the Early Middle Ages
Scotland in the High Middle Ages
Wars of Scottish Independence
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages
Scottish Reformation
Scotland in the Early Modern Era
Scottish Enlightenment
Scotland in the Modern Era
Scotland
Dynasties and Regimes
House of Alpin (843–878) & (889–1040)
House of Moray (1040–1058)
House of Dunkeld (1058–1286)
House of Balliol (1292–1296)
House of Bruce (1306–1371)
House of Stuart (1371–1707)
Act of Union (1707)
Topics
Art history
Colonial history
Culture
Economic history
Historiography
Literary history
Military history
Politics
Timeline of Scottish history
Timeline of prehistoric Scotland

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The history of Scotland begins around 14,000 years ago, when humans first began to inhabit what is now Scotland after the end of the Devensian glaciation, the last ice age. Of the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age civilization that existed in the territory, many artifacts remain, but few written records were left behind.

The recorded history of Scotland begins with the arrival of the Roman Empire in Britain, when the Romans occupied what is now broadly England and Wales and the Scottish Lowlands, administering it as a Roman province called Britannia. To the north was territory not governed by the Romans — Caledonia, by name. Its people were the Picts. From a classical historical viewpoint Scotland seemed a peripheral country, slow to gain advances filtering out from the Mediterranean fount of civilisation, but as knowledge of the past increases it has become apparent that some developments were earlier and more advanced than previously thought, and that the seaways were very important to Scottish history.

Because of the geographical orientation of Scotland and its strong reliance on trade routes by sea, the kingdom held close links in the south and east with the Baltic countries, and through Ireland with France and the continent of Europe. Following the Acts of Union which united Scotland with England into the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the subsequent Scottish Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, Scotland became one of the commercial, intellectual and industrial powerhouses of Europe. Its industrial decline following the Second World War was particularly acute, but in recent decades the country has enjoyed something of a cultural and economic renaissance, fuelled in part by a resurgent financial services sector, the proceeds of North Sea oil and gas, and latterly a devolved parliament.

Prehistoric people

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People lived in Scotland for at least 8,500 years before recorded history dealt with Britain. At times during the last interglacial period (130,000– 70,000 BC) Europe had a climate warmer than today's, and early humans may have made their way to Scotland, though archaeologists have found no traces of this. Glaciers then scoured their way across most of Britain, and only after the ice retreated did Scotland again become habitable, around 9600 BC.[1]

Mesolithic hunter-gatherer encampments formed the first known settlements, and archaeologists have dated an encampment near Biggar to around 8500 BC.[2] Numerous other sites found around Scotland build up a picture of highly mobile boat-using people making tools from bone, stone and antlers.^{[citation needed]}

Neolithic farming brought permanent settlements, and the wonderfully well-preserved stone house at Knap of Howar on Papa Westray dating from 3500 BC predates by about 500 years the village of similar houses at Skara Brae on West Mainland, Orkney. The settlers introduced chambered cairn tombs from around 3500 BC (Maeshowe offers a prime example), and from about 3000 BC the many standing stones and circles such as the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney and Callanish on Lewis. These form part of the Europe-wide Megalithic culture which also produced Stonehenge in Wiltshire, and which pre-historians now interpret as showing sophisticated use of astronomical observations.

The cairns and Megalithic monuments continued into the Bronze age, and hill forts started to appear, such as Eildon Hill near Melrose in the Scottish Borders, which goes back to around 1000 BC and which accommodated several hundred houses on a fortified hilltop.

Brythonic Celtic culture and language spread into Scotland at some time after the 8th century BC, possibly through cultural contact rather than through mass invasion, and systems of kingdoms developed.

From around 700 BC the Iron age brought numerous hill forts, brochs and fortified settlements which support the image of quarrelsome tribes and petty kingdoms later recorded by the Romans, though evidence that at times occupants neglected the defences might suggest that symbolic power had as much significance as warfare.

Roman invasion

The only surviving pre-Roman account of Scotland originated with the Greek Pytheas of Massalia who circumnavigated the British islands (which he called Pretaniké) in 325 BC, but the record of his visit dates from much later.

The Roman invasion of Britain began in earnest in AD 43. Following a series of military successes in the south, forces led by Gnaeus Julius Agricola entered Scotland in 79. The Romans met with fierce resistance from the local population of Caledonians. In 82 or 83 Agricola sent a fleet of galleys up round the coast of Scotland, as far as the Orkney Islands. In 84 Agricola defeated the Caledonian tribes at the Battle of Mons Graupius due to superior tactics and the use of professional troops.

The only historical source for this comes from the writings of Agricola's son-in-law, Tacitus. Archaeology backed up with accurate dating from dendrochronology suggests that the occupation of southern Scotland started before the arrival of Agricola. Whatever the exact dating, for the next 300 years Rome had some presence along the southern border.

Although the Romans had failed to conquer Caledonia they attempted to maintain control through military outposts and built a few roads. They were eventually forced or chose to withdraw, concluding that the wealth of the land did not justify the extensive garrisoning requirements.

Scotland's population comprised two main groups:

1. the Picts, the original peoples (possibly a Brythonic Celtic group) who occupied most of Scotland north of the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth: the area known as "Pictavia"
2. the Britons formed a Roman-influenced Brythonic Celtic culture in the south, with the kingdom of Y Strad Glud (Strathclyde) from the Firth of Clyde southwards, Rheged in Cumbria, Selgovae in the central Borders area and the Votadini or Gododdin from the Firth of Forth down to the Tweed

Invasions brought three more groups, though the extent to which they replaced native populations is unknown

1. the Old Irish-speaking Scotti (Scots) or more specifically, the Dál Riatans, arrived from Ireland from the late 5th century onwards, taking possession of Argyll and the west coast in the Kingdom of Dál Riata.
2. the Anglo-Saxons expanding from Bernicia and the continent. Notably seizing Gododdin in the 7th Century. It was their language which eventually became the predominant tongue of lowland Scotland, a variant of English which was initially termed Inglis, whereas the name "Scottis" (pronounced the same way as Scots) referred to the Gaelic language spoken largely in the Highlands. However, during the late Middle Ages the name "Scots" was transferred to the Scottish form of English, while the Celtic language of the Highlands came to be known only as Gaelic.
3. In the aftermath of the 795 Viking raid on Iona, the Norse Jarls of Orkney took hold of the Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland, while Norse settlers mixed with the inhabitants of Galloway to become the Gallgaels.

The British Saint Ninian conducted the first Christian mission in Scotland. From his base, the Candida Casa (present-day Whithorn) on the Solway Firth, he spread the faith in the south and east of Scotland and in the north of England. However, according to the writings of Saint Patrick and Saint Columba, the Picts appear to have renounced Christianity in the century between Ninian's death (432) and the arrival of Saint Columba in 563. The reason is not known. The Gaels re-introduced Christianity into Pictish Scotland, gradually pushing out worship of the older Celtic gods. The most famous evangelist of that period, Saint Columba, came to Scotland in 563 and settled on the island of Iona having obtained permission from the Pictish king at his court in Inverness to settle on Iona and to spread Christianity. Some consider his (possibly apocryphal) conversion of the Pictish king Bridei a key event in the Christianisation of Scotland.