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General Information

The history of Scotland, even more than that of England, Ireland or Wales, can be read in its place-names and family names. The Picts, the Celts, the Romans, the Irish (or the Scots as they were originally called), the Angles, the Vikings, the Normans and the English all played their parts in the story to a greater or lesser degree. To understand it all, it is necessary to have recourse to maps, and yet it is a little known fact that Scotland was not mapped until about AD 1600, long after most of the events which created the modern nation had taken place.

In this, Scotland is by no means unique. Map-making is a younger science than most people appreciate. The Alexandrian Greek, Ptolemy, mapped the ancient world in the 2nd century AD, using information gathered by travellers, but his maps were crude in outline and contained relatively few names - fewer than 40 in Scotland. His maps have not survived, but the co-ordinates he used to draw them have, and, when rediscovered in the Middle Ages, they were used to create the most accurate maps then available. Unfortunately for Scotland, the co-ordinates for the country were corrupted, with the result that on many early maps it leans drunkenly into the North Sea. European countries were not accurately surveyed until the 16th and 17th centuries.

The first topographical survey of Scotland was conducted by Timothy Pont sometime between 1590 and 1610. Minister of Dunnet in Caithness, he is recorded as having found in the Highlands "inhabitants hostile and uncivilized, whose language he did not understand". He was, alas, "defeated by the greed of printers and booksellers" and was not able to publish his results. Fortunately, his drafts survived and these came into the hands of a Sir John Scot who commissioned a geographer, Robert Gordon, and his son James, to prepare them for publication by the great engraver, John Blau of Amsterdam. In 1641 the proofs were shown to King Charles I, who referred in a letter to Scot to "certane cairttis [maps] of divers schyres of this kingdome". The atlas, finally published in 1654, contained 49 maps and was one of Blau's finest creations. John Speed, incidentally, had published a single sheet map of the whole of Scotland in 1610, but this contained only a fraction of the information in the atlas..

Written records from much earlier periods do exist, however, and "Scotland under Robert the Bruce" represents the first attempt to map Medieval Scotland in detail using this information. The date selected is 1314, the date of Bruce's victory over the English at Bannockburn.

Why 1314? The answer lies partly in the availability of contemporary records of place-names - a glance through those listed below will show just how many are recorded for the first time around 1300. But the overriding reason is that many of the great Scottish clans came to prominence though their support of Bruce and were granted huge estates in the aftermath of his triumph. A map drawn at 1314 shows most of the clans in possession of the lands with which they are still associated today. (Records of the period are, of course, incomplete, and a little artistic licence has been used, in that several clans shown probably received their lands during the remaining 15 years of Bruce's reign rather than in 1314 itself.) Those readers whose clan names do not appear on the map are either descended from early septs (effectively sub-clans of the major clans, which they supported in battle and whose tartan they often wore) or from the few major clans, such as Clanranald MacDonald, whose the progenitor lived after this period. Close study of the Clan Names below may well reveal surprises!

THE PICTS

The earliest inhabitants of Scotland are known to us only by their archaeological remains: the great Stone Age chamber-tombs of Orkney, for example, and the Bronze Age stone circles on the same island and on Lewis. Bronze Age "Beaker folk", named after their drinking vessels, probably moved into eastern Scotland from Europe around 1800 BC. There is much dispute as to whether the cultural changes during the next 1,500 years were the result of fresh immigration or simply developments by the native tribes themselves. What is certain, however, is that by about 300 BC, Celts of mainland Europe were colonising England and Ireland (see "The Languages of Scotland" below) and must at least have been putting pressure on Scotland. Significant quantities of Celtic artifacts do not appear in the country until the period AD 50-150, however, and it is not clear if these were introduced by invaders displacing earlier peoples or whether they arrived as the result of intermarriage with southern tribes. What is certain is that CELTIC was spoken by at least some of the tribes north of the Forth by this time. Traditionally the LATIN name for these mysterious natives, Picti, derived from their practice of painting their bodies.

THE ROMANS IN SCOTLAND

After initial forays by Julius Caesar in 55 and 54 BC, the Romans invaded Britain a century later in AD 43. By AD 78, in spite of resistance from leaders such as Caractacus and Boudicca, they had subdued England and Wales and were free to turn their attention to Scotland. In AD 81, Cnaeus Julius Agricola marched north with the Ninth Legion, accompanied by his son-in-law, the historian Tacitus, who provides the first written records of Scottish history. Supported by his fleet, his progress was steady, and he established his headquarters at Stirling before defeating the native leader Calgacus in AD 83 or 84 at Mount Graupius, possibly as far north as Banffshire. Shortly after this, however, to Tacitus' disgust, Agricola was recalled as his troops were needed elsewhere. Thereafter, in Scotland, Rome generally settled for containment rather than for conquest. In 121, the Emperor Hadrian visited Britain and built his famous stone wall from the Solway to the Tyne; only 20 years later a turf wall was constructed from the Clyde to the Forth and was named the Antonine Wall after the Emperor Antoninus Pius. This was held for 50 years. In AD 208, the Emperor Septimius Severus led a final advance north of the Forth before dying in York in AD 211. For the next two centuries, Hadrian's Wall was the northern boundary of the Roman Empire.

The final withdrawal of the Roman legions from Britain in AD 410, following the Rescript of Honorius, ushered in a period of Scottish history which is both complicated and largely undocumented. Within a few years the Picts north of the Forth would find themselves competing fiercely for territory in Alba, as Scotland was then called, with three other peoples: the Angles, the Britons and the Scots. After losing some territory to the Vikings (see below), the four kingdoms would eventually merge to form the Kingdom of the Scots.

THE ANGLES IN NORTHUMBRIA

The Roman retreat had been prompted by pressure on Rome from the tribes of central and northern Europe. One of these tribes, the Angles, began settling in northern Britain in the 5th century AD and by the 7th had formed the kingdom of Northumbria, stretching from the Tyne to the Forth. Much of the area, which included Lothian and Bernicia, is now in England, but it is all north of Hadrian's Wall. Other Angles, and their cousins the Saxons and the Jutes, invaded England at the same time, driving the Celtish inhabitants west into Wales and Cornwall and north into Cumbria and Strathclyde. Celtic resistance was at some stage, and in some unknown but much disputed area, led by a king called Arthur - later the subject of legend.

THE BRITONS IN STRATHCLYDE

As was seen earlier, the Celtic - or British, as it came to be known - colonisation of the full width of southern Alba at the expense of the Picts had begun by the 1st century AD. The Roman conquest of southern Britain certainly accelerated the process, and the arrival of the Angles and Saxons added further impetus. As the Angles moved into Northumbria, the Britons, after fierce fighting, retreated to the west. They established the Kingdom of Strathclyde, with its capital at Dumbarton; this consisted of modern Strathclyde and Galloway, and reached down into the English Lake District.

THE SCOTS IN SCOTTISH DALRIADA

The Romans never invaded Ireland, which they called Scotia, although they traded with the inhabitants, the Gaels, or the Scots as they were also known. Like Britain, Ireland had been colonised by Celts from about 300 BC, and consisted of various tribal kingdoms, whose kings periodically and reluctantly recognised one of their number as high king. The country as a whole was never united. From about the 3rd century AD, the Scots in Ulster, which was known as Dalriada (possibly meaning "the assembly of the kings"), began to colonise western Scotland north of Strathclyde. To this day the area they occupied is known as Argyll "the coastline of the Gaels". Rather confusingly, some history books refer to this ancient kingdom as Dalriada without specifying Scottish Dalriada.

Traditionally, the most important colonising expedition was that led by the three sons of King Erc: Fergus, Angus and Lorn. The latter two have left their names in Scottish territories; the former, who is credited with bringing the Stone of Scone to Scotland, is commemorated by Carrickfergus in Ulster, named after the rock which sank his ship as he returned home. The kings of Scottish Dalriada for generations remained subservient to those of Ireland.

A separate development occurred some centuries later when southern Strathclyde received an influx of Gaels of mixed Irish and Norse ancestry; these people became known as Gall-Ghódil "stranger Gaels" and gave their name to Galloway.

THE COMING OF CHRISTIANITY

The power struggle in Alba between the Picts, the Scots, the Angles and the Britons lasted many centuries. A major factor in their eventual unification was Christianity. In AD 397, St Ninian had founded the monastery of Candida Casa at Whithorn (see entry) in Strathclyde, but it was the arrival in Scottish Dalriada of Christian missionaries from Ireland in the 6th century that had the greater impact. (It had, of course, been a British missionary, St Patrick who had introduced Christianity to Ireland some time earlier.) St Oran established churches on Iona, Mull and Tiree before dying of plague in AD 548. St Columba, arriving in AD 563, just after the Scots has been defeated by the Picts in a major battle, first acted to stabilize the fledging kingdom by selecting a new king, then established a monastery on Iona, before travelling as a missionary deep into Pictish territory. Other saints founded churches in Dalriada, and St Aidan (died AD 651) travelled from Iona to found an abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria at the request of the king there. It was the Northumbrian king in AD 664 who at the Synod of Whitby had to decide whether to favour the Roman practice of Christianity or the more relaxed style which had been accepted in the Celtic church. (The date of Easter and the correct type of tonsure were both subject to much controversy.) The king came down on the side of the Roman church. Twenty years later, St Cuthbert, became abbot-bishop at Lindisfarne. Much of our knowledge of these events comes from the Ecclesiastical History of the English People written by the Venerable Bede, a monk at the Benedictine monastery of Jarrow in Northumbria, who died in AD 735. (He personally considered Celtic tonsures "lewd", but unfortunately left no illustration!)

THE UNIFICATION OF SCOTLAND

During the Dark Ages, each of the four peoples of Alba gained territory at one time or another only to be checked in a major battle. In AD 843, however, King Kenneth MacAlpin of Dalriada, who may have had a claim to the Pictish throne as a result of intermarriage (the Picts had a matrilinear form of succession), defeated the Picts and made himself ruler of all Alba north of the Forth. He promptly moved his political capital to Forteviot in the east, and the religious capital from Iona to Dunkeld. In spite of persistent efforts, however, Kenneth was unable to conquer the Angles in Lothian, and his successors soon found themselves too pre-occupied with Viking raids to look south.

It was only in about 1018 that Kenneth's descendant, Malcolm II, defeated the Northumbrian army at Carham and established his rule in Lothian, the region between the Forth and the Tweed. Malcolm's grandson, Duncan I, in the same year succeeded to the throne of Strathclyde, like Kenneth, benefiting from a claim through the female line. When Malcolm died in 1034, Duncan became the first king of all Scotland, although his kingdom did not include the lands held by the Vikings. The Celtic system of succession, called tanistry, however, allowed the throne to pass to any male member of the derbfine, a family group of four generations - a sure recipe for internecine conflict. Thus it was that Duncan's cousin, MacBeth, the Mormaer of Moray, was able to gather sufficient support in 1040 to kill Duncan in battle (not in bed) and seize the throne. In spite of a bad press from Shakespeare, MacBeth was in fact a successful king for 17 years, and even made a pilgrimage to Rome. In 1057, he in his turn was deposed by Duncan's son, Malcolm III or Ceann Morr `big head'. Malcolm, who had been raised in England from the age of nine, took as his second wife Princess Margaret of England, who with her brother, Edgar the Atheling, had fled to Scotland after the Norman Conquest in 1066. (His first wife had been daughter of the Norse earl of Orkney.) Prompted by Margaret, Malcolm introduced Anglo-Saxon customs into his court, while she endeavoured to enforce religious practices in the Roman rite, such as celibacy, on a reluctant Scottish church. Spurred on by his knowledge of England and by the possession of a ready-made claimant to the English throne in his brother-in-law, Malcolm raided Northumbria. This precipitated a Norman invasion of Scotland in 1071, during which Malcolm was obliged to pay homage to William the Conqueror at Abernethy. He did not give up, however, and it was during his fifth border campaign in 1093 that he was killed at Alnwick Castle. Margaret, who died three days later, was canonized in 1251.

THE VIKINGS

Viking raids on Britain (and Ireland), probably resulting from over-population on the west coast of Norway, began in the late 8th century AD, when Iona and Lindisfarne were sacked. Within a hundred years, the Orkneys and Shetlands and much of the Hebrides and Argyll were under Viking control - as also were Caithness and Sutherland. After initial violent assaults, further progress was achieved by inter-marriage as well as conquest, particularly in Argyll. It was not until the mid-12th century that a local leader, Somerled, half-Norse himself and the progenitor of the MacDonald and MacDougall clans, weakened the grip of the king of Norway on western Scotland. Lest it be thought that Somerled was acting for the king of Scots rather than for himself, it should be pointed out that he also sailed up the Clyde and sacked Glasgow. And it was only in 1266, three years after an unsuccessful expedition to the Hebrides by King Haakon IV of Norway, that the islands were formally ceded to the Scottish crown. The Orkneys and Shetlands were pawned to Scotland as part of a marriage contract between Norway and Denmark as late as 1469.

THE NORMANS

William the Conqueror's raid on Scotland in 1071 was not a serious attempt at conquest, but it did herald a period of Norman influence in Scotland which was almost as profound as that in England. In 1093, Malcolm III was succeeded by his brother, Donald Ban, who had spent his his childhood with the Vikings in the Hebrides and who immediately reversed many of Malcolm's policies. William Rufus of England responded by backing Malcolm's son by his first marriage, Duncan, who had been held as a hostage in England, against Donald Ban. Donald Ban was first overthrown, then restored to the throne when Duncan was murdered, then overthrown again by Edgar, Duncan's half-brother. Edgar, the first of the three sons of Malcolm and Margaret sons to reign in Scotland, had, like his brothers, Alexander and David, received a Norman education at the English court. It was perhaps natural, therefore, that he should reward those Normans who had helped him against Donald, with grants of land in the Lowlands (a process already begun by Malcolm Ceann Morr). Alexander, whose sister married Henry I of England and who himself married Henry's daughter, continued this policy, as did David who reigned from 1124-1153. Indeed, it was David who brought to Scotland such famous families as the Bruces, the Comyns and the Fitzalans. (Walter Fitzalan was made High Steward of Scotland, and his descendants were to form the Stewart dynasty. The name was changed in the 16th century to Stuart, the French spelling, that language having no W.) David, however, was a much stronger king than his brothers, who had effectively been clients of Henry I. Although he established an Anglo-Norman aristocracy in Scotland, it was with a view to asserting the country's independence, and the feudalism he fostered was tempered with the strong emphasis on the extended family which was the hallmark of the Celtic clan tradition.

FROM DAVID I TO ALEXANDER III

The 130 years following David's death saw just four kings: Malcolm IV (1153-65), William the Lion (1165-1214), Alexander II (1214-49), and Alexander III (1249-86). It was a period of consolidation with each king trying to re-establish the control in the Highlands, and in Galloway, which had been forfeited as the Celts had reacted against the way the crown had come under Norman influence. Malcolm IV defeated Somerled after he had driven the Vikings from Argyll; William campaigned successfully in the north; Alexander II subdued Argyll; and Alexander III forced the King of Norway to recognise the Hebrides as part of the kingdom of Scotland. It must be said, however, that Somerled's descendants, the MacDonald `Lords of the Isles' paid as little attention to the Scottish kings they had to their former master. Throughout this time England made repeated efforts to establish its claim to overlordship, and for 15 years after a disastrous campaign in England in 1174, William the Lion was formally subject to Henry II. In the Quitclaim of Canterbury in 1189, however, Richard I (the Lionheart), sold Scotland back its independence for 10,000 marks to finance the Third Crusade. Alexander III's reign in particular saw increased prosperity, and Scotland's future looked set fair when in 1286 the king's horse stumbled in the dark and he was killed. His heir was his infant grand-daughter, the `Maid of Norway', who just four years later was to die in the Orkneys on her way to Scotland. No less than thirteen claimants now asserted their right to the vacant throne.

THE WARS OF INDEPENDENCE

Alexander's death brought into Scottish history the formidable figure of Edward I of England, who had recently completed the conquest of Wales. Before the Maid of Norway travelled to Scotland it had been agreed by a panel of `guardians' that she should marry Edward's son and heir, although Scotland still should retain its independence. On her death, Edward was invited to choose between the claimants to the throne. At this point, sensing an opportunity, he re-asserted the English claim to feudal overlordship, a claim which was perforce accepted by the contestants, who were each hoping to be selected by him, but not by the `community of the realm', a group of important Scottish laymen and churchmen. Edward consulted with 80 Scottish and 24 English auditors at Berwick Castle and chose John Balliol over his chief rival, Robert Bruce. Both men had previously served in Edward's army. Balliol was a weak man, which is why Edward selected him, but even he reacted againt the dictatorial treatment he subsequently received from the English king. In 1296, he made an alliance with France and invaded England. Edward responded with a counter-invasion, and large numbers of Scottish nobles including Bruce and his son, another Robert, most of whom also had estates in England, came to pay him homage. Furious, Balliol confiscated Bruce's lands in Scotland and gave them to `Red' John Comyn. Edward captured Berwick with great slaughter; then, with Bruce at his side, defeated Balliol at Dunbar, before conducting a ruthless campaign as far north as Elgin. In August, back at Berwick, Edward required 2000 Scottish landowners to sign the `Ragman's Roll' acknowledging himself as king. He then returned to England, carrying with him the Stone of Scone. The conquest seemed complete.

The next year, however, a young Scot, William Wallace, became involved in a fight with English soldiers at Lanark. He escaped with the help of a girl, possibly his wife, but she was captured and executed. Wallace started a resistance campaign and a few months later triumphed over a vastly superior force led by Edward's viceroy at Stirling Bridge. Wallace in his turn was defeated by Edward the next year at Falkirk, but remained at large until 1305, when he was captured and executed as a traitor in London. His revolt showed that there was a fierce desire for independence in Scotland (there was great anger that he was branded a traitor to a regime he had never accepted), but also that only a genuine claimant to the throne could lead a successful revolt.

Two possible leaders now emerged: Robert `the' Bruce, son of Balliol's rival in 1291, and `Red' John Comyn. The two men met in a kirk at Dumfries to discuss future plans; there is no record of the meeting, but an argument must have broken out, for Bruce stabbed and killed Comyn. It was not an auspiscious start to Bruce's campaign and he was immediately excommunicated by the church. Undeterred, however, he had himself crowned at Scone on 27th March, 1306 (see the entry for MacDuff). Retribution was swift; Edward sent an army north under de Valence, which routed Bruce at Methven. Bruce became a fugitive and his supporter Simon de Fraser suffered the same fate as Wallace the year before.

Bruce spent the next year on the run, but was soon to prove himself a charismatic and successful guerrilla leader, achieving his first victory in 1307, on Palm Sunday. Furious, Edward marched north with a large army, but died at Burgh-on-Sands. On his deathbed, he ordered that his bones should be carried at the head of his army until Scotland was subdued. His son Edward II, of very different mettle from his father, called off the campaign. But even with the withdrawal of Edward II, Bruce was still faced with the prospect of years of struggle against his Scottish enemies as well as the English garrisons in numerous castles. By 1311 he was strong enough to invade England and sack Durham, and by 1313 he had evicted the garrisons from every stronghold in Scotland except Stirling. At this point Edward II bestirred himself and set out with a large relief force. It was beside the Bannock Burn in front of Stirling on 24th June 1314 that the two armies met and it was there that Bruce achieved the famous victory with which he has always been associated.

Bannockburn was not a typical example of Bruce's tactics: he had survived by skirmishing (see the entry for Scrymgeour) rather than by fighting set-piece battles. Nor was it conclusive: fourteen more years were to elapse before the English finally recognised an independent Scotland by the Treaty of Northampton. These years saw Bruce acting as a statesman as well as a soldier, and in 1320 his chancellor probably drafted the `Declaration of Arbroath', a letter to the Pope in which the magnates of Scotland pledged their commitment to Scottish independence and their loyalty to Bruce. In 1329, just before Bruce's death at the age of 53, possibly from leprosy, the Pope granted Scottish kings the right to be annointed with holy oil.

The reign of Bruce was a high point in Scottish history, and seems a fitting time on which to base a map of the country. It saw Scotland united in purpose as never before. But it would be idle to pretend that Bruce's triumphs outlasted him. In the Middle Ages each king had to make his own destiny, and the accession of Bruce's five-year-old son was a signal for further chaos; just four years later Berwick, that barometer of Anglo-Scottish fortunes, fell to the English and was never held by the Scots again except for twenty years in the late 15th century. But that is another story....

THE CLAN SYSTEM

The Clan system owes its origin to the Celtic tribal tradition, and remains at its strongest north of the `Highland Line' where Gaelic was the primary language until comparatively recently. The introduction of the Norman Feudal System from the south altered the relationship between the clan chiefs and the king, in that lands which had previously been held by the clans were now deemed to belong to the monarch, to be granted as he willed. The internal organization of the clans was little changed, however, and the chief, who succeeded according to the law of tanistry, dispensed justice in peacetime and led his clan in war. Each clan consisted of `native men', related by blood, and `broken men' - individuals or groups from other clans, who sought and obtained protection of the clan. The Normans, who came north from England, adopted many of these customs; the great Sinclair clan in Caithness, for example, owes its size to the number of retainers who took to themselves the chief's name. The custom of fosterage, the mutual exchange of children (often including the chief's children) between families, did much to bind the clan together. The Gaelic proverb "Kindred to forty degrees, fosterage to a hundred", describes a feeling of clan loyalty and egalitarianism, which today stretches from Scotland to every country in the world.

THE DECORATIONS ON THE MAP

The decorations on the map are based on "The Book of Kells". The supreme example of Celtic illuminated manuscripts and one of the great treasures of Europe, this was probably begun in the late 8th century in the monastery of Iona and may have been removed from there to Kells in Ireland for safety after a Viking raid. It may have been completed in the early 9th century and can now be viewed in the magnificent library of Trinity College, Dublin.

The lions at the top of the map are modelled on those on the Bruce crest; these were later adopted by the Stewart kings as a public proclamation of the legitimacy of their claim to be Bruce's heirs. The crown for which the lions are reaching is the second one Bruce had made for himself, Edward I having first confiscated the crown worn by Alexander III and then, after the battle of Methven in 1307, Bruce's replacement. Reworked and renamed, Bruce's crown is probably the oldest among the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.

The ships on the map are called `cogs', 13th century cargo-carriers, which were converted to fighting ships in time of war by the addition of temporary `castles' fore and aft. These, successors to the Viking longships, were the earliest forerunners of the tall battleships of the Nelson's navy.

The points of the compass on the map are shown as they were depicted on early maps: septentrio, literally `seven stars', refers to the constellation of the Great Bear, two stars of which point north; oriens and occidens refer respectively to the rising and setting sun, and meridies to the midday sun.