SCOTLAND

Scotland has been known by many names over the centuries, but to me it is home.  Ashamedly I haven’t visited many of the things in Scotland that are high on the list of tourist agendas, but the pages on this section of my web site will give you some rudimentary ideas on things to do.  You may find the links on my Links Page useful.  Even a Proud Scot like myself could never do Scotland justice, so here is my humble homage to the land of my birth.

 

SCOTLAND THE COUNTRY

When the Romans came to Scotland they called the heavily forested land, well the land of the Forth/Clyde line, Caledonia.  Today this is still used a romantic name for the country as a whole.  Rome could never conquer the northern barbarians, so they first of all built Hadrian's Wall, which today is still regarded as the natural border by many.  Later when they had come to terms with the tribes on the north of Hadrian's Wall they built the Antonine Wall.  This wall effectively cut Scotland in two from the Forth to Clyde.  The Romans eventually left having failed to subdue the tribes and because of problems elsewhere in their Empire.

 

Scotland was populated by 4 different peoples at this time.  To the north where the Picts, the West the Scots, and in lowland Scotland the Britons & Angles fought for control.  Ultimately the Scots won the day, and Kenneth MacAlpin united the Scots & Pictish together in one country in the 9th Century, which in the Gaelic tongue of the Scots was then called Alba.  Alba is still the Gaelic name for Scotland.

 

Scotland remained as an independent country until the death of King Alexander III in the 13th Century.  The King had died without an heir and the Nobles were squabbling amongst themselves about who should take over the reigns so to speak.  Rather foolishly they invited Edward I, the King of England to help them choose.  Edward having recently subjugated the Welsh was greedy however, and he eyed up Scotland for himself.  So through his insistence the new King was John Bailliol.  At his coronation King John had to swear fealty to Edward basically making him a puppet king.  All this changed however when Edward demanded the Scots send a fighting force to help him in a war with France.  Bailliol refused and the English invaded Scotland.  Bailliol had the royal Insignia ripped from his coat & was packed off into exile.  Edward was now effectively overlord of Scotland.

 

Of course the Scots didn’t take that lying down, and so commenced the Wars of Independence.  These Wars made household names in Scotland of some of the main participants, namely the Patriot William Wallace & Robert the Bruce, the future King Robert I.  The story of Wallace & Bruce became the basis for the stirring historic, but quite inaccurate epic Braveheart.  In the end the Scots won the day against Edward’s son (also Edward), but we had to wait a good few years after this before the Pope recognised Scotland as an independent nation again..

 

When James VI of Scotland became James I of England in the 17th Century Scotland and England were joined in the Union of the Crowns, although to all intents and purposes Scotland remained independent politically until the hated Acts of Union which were passed on May 1st 1707.  This effectively joined Scotland, England and Wales in political union.  There was unrest in Scotland however during the late 16th century after the King James VII (II of England) was forced to abdicate his throne & flee abroad as he was a Catholic.  His supporters, and those of his son were known as Jacobites (from the Latin for James) and staged several attempts to put the Stuart Dynasty back on the throne.  The biggest risings being in 1715 and later in 1745 under Charles Edward Stuart, known to posterity as Bonnie Prince Charlie.  The Jacobites dreams died on the field at Culloden in 1746.  Culloden was the last pitched battle fought on mainland Britain.  The government forces ruthlessly hunted down Jacobites, or those who simply supported the cause though had no part in the fighting and put them to the sword.  Those they didn’t kill they transported as bondsmen to the American Colonies.

 

Just because Scotland was now part of Great Britain didn’t mean the sense of nationalism, and what it is to be Scottish died.  This was kept alive by poets such as Robert Burns in poems such as “A man’s a man for a’ that” and writers such as Sir Walter Scott.

 

In 1997 Scots voted in their numbers for our own Parliament.  Today this is the seat of the Scottish Government.  New Labour provided the government in conjunction with the Liberal Democrats until 2007.  10 years after the Parliament was set up famously at great cost, the Scottish people had taken enough of a party which they saw as taking their orders from the Labour Party in London, sometimes to the detriment of themselves.  The Scottish National Party won the elections held in 2007 and since no other party wanted to go into coalition with them formed a minority government.  The current First Minister is Alex Salmond.  Mr Salmond has at least given the impression that he is genuine in his interest to put Scotland first, and has not been afraid to make his voice heard if this has not been apparently the case.  With the next elections due to the Scottish Parliament in 2010/2011 it will remain to be seen whether Scots gain enough confidence in themselves to make the final break and go it alone again an independent nation.

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