history of Scotland

Evidence of human settlement in the area later known as Scotland dates from the 3rd millennium bce. The earliest people, Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunters and fishermen who probably reached Scotland via an ancient land bridge from the

union of England and Scotland under the name of Great Britain.

The union with Scotland (1707) had created strains; and Jacobitism remained a threat after the defeat of James Edward Stuart’s rising of 1715—until the defeat of his son Charles Edward at Culloden in 1746, it was a focus for the discontented. But investors in government funds had a…

…did the unexpected union with Scotland in 1707 (see Act of Union). Here again, Godolphin was the dominant figure, calling the Scottish Parliament’s bluff when it announced it would not accept the Hanoverian succession. Godolphin passed the Aliens Act (1705), which would have prohibited all trade between England and Scotland—no…

…23–24, 1314), decisive battle in Scottish history whereby the Scots under Robert I (the Bruce) defeated the English under Edward II, expanding Robert’s territory and influence.

…between Charles I and the Scots. The wars were the result of Charles’s endeavour to enforce Anglican observances in the Scottish Church and of the determination of the Scots to abolish episcopacy. A riot in Edinburgh in 1637 quickly led to national resistance in Scotland; and, when in November 1638…

Many people in Scotland and Wales began demanding greater control over their own affairs, a trend reflected in a rise in support for the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales). In 1979 the Labour Party government, supported by the SNP and Plaid Cymru as…

In Scotland the title was first bestowed in 1398 by Robert III on his eldest son, David, who was made Duke of Rothesay, and on his brother Robert, Duke of Albany.

…kingdom against the Picts and Scots. A tradition reached Bede that the first mercenaries were from three tribes—the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes—which he locates on the Cimbric Peninsula, and by implication the coastlands of northwestern Germany. Archaeology, however, suggests a more complex picture showing many tribal elements, Frankish leadership in…

…separates northeastern Ulster from southwestern Scotland. Whereas in the early Middle Ages there had been a significant eastward migration of people from Ulster to Scotland, a pronounced westward flow of Scots to Ulster began in the 16th century. The crucial preconditions of Ulster’s transformation were the expansion of English ambitions…

…to defend against invasions from Scotland and Scandinavia. Northumberland’s subsequent history until the union of the Scottish and English crowns (1603) is a continuous record of border warfare. The Roman Catholic north rose in support of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1569. In 1644 the Scots captured Newcastle during the…

…in 1613, was claimed by Scotland. An attempt at settlement there was made by Sir William Alexander, to whom Nova Scotia (New Scotland) had been granted by the Scottish king James VI (after 1603, James I of England).

Activities distinctive to Scottish culture, such as caber tossing, hammer throwing, and the shot (stone) put, along with traditional running, wrestling, and jumping events, constituted the Highland Games that began during the Romantic swell of the 1830s and later led to the sport of track and field.

…and the advance into northern Scotland by Gnaeus Julius Agricola (78–84), troops were removed from southern Britain, and self-governing civitates, administrative areas based for the most part on the indigenous tribes, took over local administration. This involved a large program of urbanization and also of education, which continued into the…

…that has sought to make Scotland an independent state within the European Union (EU).

…(the Young Pretender), landed in Scotland without substantial French aid. In September he and some 2,500 Scottish supporters defeated a British force of the same size at the Battle of Prestonpans. In December, with an army of 5,000 men, he marched into England and got as far south as the…