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The Long Divide

In 1066 the northern regions of the British Isles were fragmented territory. Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and the far north of the mainland owed token allegiance to the kings of Norway. The western coast was most directly allied with Norse/Gaelic Ireland. The ancient English kingdom of Northumberland extended towards the Firth of Forth in the south east. The wild uplands were the domain of tribal chieftains whose loyalties were at best nominal and capricious. The beleaguered early Scottish state of the Canmore kings emerged from the east coast enclave of Angus, Fife and Lothian; its growth was marked by belligerent expansion, part survival mechanism, part territorial aspiration.

The kings of Norman England had no ambitions in the far north, other than a rather vague notion that it owed some form of feudal allegiance to the English crown: their priorities were to the south and across the Channel. The Canmore kings took full advantage of a remote English power base; the border regions offered easier pickings than the north and west, whether for territorial gain or for almost continuous minor incursions — pillage and rapine, slave raids and general devastation. For centuries the Scottish border was to be a debatable land.

In the 12th Century, David I encouraged the settlement of Norman nobles under feudal tenure. This produced lasting consequences. David’s infatuation with all things Norman led to the adoption of Norman governmental structures, the militarisation of the emergent Scottish state and the creation of a new aristocracy: when the line of native kings ended with the death of the Maid of Norway the key players were all of Norman descent — Balliol, Comyn, Bruce, Wallace. Linkages with the continent, and especially with France, were strengthened. The injection of Norman influence exacerbated existing racial, linguistic and societal divides: Lowland vs Highland; monarchy vs clan affiliation; over-arching jurisprudence vs local blood feud. These divides were eventually to crystallise further, into religious polarity. The new nobility often had fiefdoms on both sides of the border, obfuscating feudal hierarchies and questions of vassalage. After the death of the Maid of Norway, when Edward I was invited to arbitrate over the succession, he attempted to assert his feudal authority over the Scottish monarchy and its dependent magnates. The result was the resistance that led to the affirmation of Scottish independence under Edward III.

This key period in Scottish history set the scene for more than half a millenium. Conflict with England was supported, and often fomented, by France — Scotland’s ‘Auld Alliance’ was with England’s ancient enemy. The Reformation opposed Calvinists to Catholics and made for new coalitions. Inter-dynastic marriage, which had produced occasional and temporary respite, finally resulted in the Scottish succession of the Stuarts to the Tudor crown of England. Ironically, Scottish Covenanter resistance to the Anglican prayer book was one of the catalysts of the civil war that ended with the execution of the second Stuart king. And when the Glorious Revolution deposed James II, Jacobite uprisings and invasions troubled the British Isles for sixty years, well into the 18th Century. The last futile incursion in 1745 by the grandson of James II was the doomed endgame of centuries-long contention between Lowlanders and Highlanders, Protestants and Catholics, Scots and English. Culloden, Butcher Cumberland and the Highland Clearances sounded the death knell of the clan system.

Before Scotland / Alistair Moffat

Geological drama and human settlement down to 900 CE — an enthralling history of the lands to the north of Hadrian’s Wall.

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A History of Scotland / J D Mackie

Reprinted several times since it was first published, this updated edition remains a readable and enjoyable introduction to Scottish history.

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Vikings in Scotland: An Archaeological Survey / David Graham-Campbell

A recent overview of the archaeology of the Scandinavian settlements in Scotland from the 8th century Viking era to the Late Norse 13th century. The book has led to a re-appraisal of the nature and influence of Viking activity in a region which is, archaeologically, one of the best documented areas of the Viking world.

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Picts, Gaels and Scots / Sally M Foster

The interaction and conflicts between indigenous Picts and Irish immigrant Scottii in the second half of the first millennium. The (eventual) outcome was the (reasonably) unified state of Scotland.

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Outlaws of Mediaeval Scotland / R Andrew McDonald
The history of the Canmore kings of Scotland, from Malcolm III (d. 1093) to Alexander III (d. 1286). A small enclave on the east coast was assailed by native dynasts, warlords, and others seeking to destroy or replace the rulers of what was to become the medieval Scottish kingdom.

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William Wallace: Braveheart / James Mackay

Outlaw, bandit, guerrilla leader, patriot or motivated by personal vendetta? Probably something of all of these. The career of William Wallace was inextricably intertwined with the struggles of Scots with English, and Scot with Scot, that marked the years following the accession of Balliol and Edward I’s insistence on suzerainty over Scotland. Knighted and appointed Guardian of Scotland in 1298, Wallace was succeeded by Robert Bruce and John Comyn as joint Guardians in the same year. Wallace inflicted a number of defeats on the English army before his capture and execution in 1305. In the following year Bruce removed the last contender for the throne by the murder of John Comyn at Dumfries, leading to his own enthronement and, eventually, the Treaty of Edinburgh which secured Scottish independence in 1328.

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William Wallace: Man and Myth / Graeme Morton

There are surprisingly few accounts of William Wallace from his own time. Graeme Morton examines the contemporary chronicles and sources and tracks the later additions and fictions that accumulated around the man. A study in the construction of national icons which might usefully be compared with the unhistorical blockbuster Braveheart (1995), available from our Film Store.

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Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland / G W S Barrow

The ambitious descendant of ambitious stock, Bruce manoeuvred his way through the tumult that followed the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290, the mediation of Edward I and the brief elevation of John Balliol to the Scottish throne. His murder of John Comyn in 1306 cleared his way to leadership of the Scottish lords opposed to a feudal relationship with the English monarchy. The Battle of Bannockburn and the rout of an invasion by Edward II were the precursors of the treaty with Edward III that recognised Scotland’s independence.

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Mary Queen of Scots / Antonia Frazer

Queen of France at the age of sixteen and widowed less than two years later, she returned to Scotland as Queen after an absence of thirteen years. Her Catholic upbringing brought her into conflict with the Calvinist John Knox; she became embroiled in the internecine conflicts of the Scottish nobility; her disastrous marriage to Lord Darnley ended in his mysterious death; and her marriage to the chief suspect in his murder resulted, finally, in her exile to England and her separation from her infant son, James. Long held in confinement by her cousin, Elizabeth I, she became the focus of numerous Catholic plots and was eventually executed, apparently with considerable reluctance on the part of Elizabeth. On Elizabeth’s death, Mary’s son James Stuart (already James VI of Scotland) inherited the Tudor throne as James I of England.

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The Highland Trilogy / John Prebble
1. Glencoe
2. Culloden
3. The Highland Clearances
Possibly the definitive account of the destruction of the clan system and the Highland way of life. The popular view is of a saga of English aggression and repression, but this ignores the underlying conflict between Catholic Highlanders and Protestant Lowlanders, and between a conservative culture and a progressive age. Discuss.

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The '45 / Christopher Duffy

Almost sixty years after the deposition of James II of England by the Glorious Revolution of 1688 his grandson, Bonnie Prince Charlie, landed in Scotland with the aim of reclaiming the throne for the Stuarts. His rapid march southwards to Derby was followed by retreat and the overwhelming defeat at Culloden at the hands of an army that included a large contingent from the staunchly protestant Scottish Lowlands. Retaliation against the clans was soon to follow. The Duke of Cumberland carved a bloody swathe through the Highlands in a campaign that has entered into national folk memory.

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The Steel Bonnets / George MacDonald Frazer

Borderlands, at the furthest reach from central authority, have invariably created, and provided sanctuary for, predatory societies that owned no allegiance other than to themselves. The Steel Bonnets is the story of the Reivers of the Anglo-Scottish border, who ravaged the marches of both countries without favour or discrimination.

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Journey to the Hebrides / Samuel Johnson, James Boswell

Samuel Johnson was not renowned for political correctness, even in this own day. His writings are a rich repository of personal prejudice. ‘The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England.’ Whoops!

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