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History of Scotland

Draft for History of Scotland.

Post-Roman Scotland

In the wake of the Roman withdrawal Scotland's population comprised three main groups:

1. the Picts, 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
3. the Gaelic-speaking Scotti of Dalriada in Argyll and Antrim.

The Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian Kings from Edwin to Ecgfrith were the greatest rulers in northern Britain and conquered Lothian and the Border regions. The expansion of Northumbria was stopped when the Pictish King Brude mac Bili crushed Ecgfrith's army at Nechtansmere in 685. The greatest legacy of the Northumbrian conquests was the Scots language.

A far greater challenge to the Picts and Scots came from the Viking raids and invasions from the 9th Century. The Western Isles, Caithness, Sutherland, Galloway and much of the west coast came under Norse rule, either from Dublin or Orkney. When the shock of the Viking invasions was over, only Pictland and Strathclyde remained. The great movement of peoples brought the Gaelic language across the mountains to the east where it would replace the Pictish tongue. Legend tells that in 843 the Scot Kenneth MacAlpin(Cinead mac Ailpin) conquered the Picts. History records Kenneth as King but says nothing of his ancestry. Kenneth's kin fought hard against the Vikings. Kenneth's grandson, Constantine II (Caustantin MacAeda) was one of the greatest of Scotland's Kings, reigning for 43 years before retiring to a monastery at Saint Andrews. Historians believe that in Constantine's reign Pictland became Gaelic Alba.

1. 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. Some consider his (possibly apocryphal) conversion of the Pictish King Brude the turning point in the Christianization of Scotland.

The coming of the Vikings resulted in great changes. In the south-east, the Bernician Kingdom collapsed, giving place to the Viking Jorvik. In the south-west, Dumbarton, capital of the British Kingdom of Strathclyde, was sacked by the Norsemen. The Kingdom of Dalriata was savaged and even the inland Pictish strongholds in Strathearn and Strathtay were raided.

Rise of Scotland

At first this new kingdom corresponded to Scotland north of the Rivers Forth and Clyde. Southwest Scotland remained under the control of the Strathclyde Britons and Southeast Scotland was under the control from around 638 of the proto-English kingdom of Bernicia, then of the Kingdom of Northumbria. This portion of Scotland only fell into Scottish hands in 1018, when Malcolm II attacked the English and pushed the border as far south as the River Tweed. This remains the south-eastern border to this day (except around Berwick upon Tweed).

Scotland, in the geographical sense it has retained for nearly a millennium, completed its expansion by the gradual subsumation of the Britons' kingdom of Strathclyde into Alba. In 1034, Duncan I, descended from Irish Ui Neill monastery protectors and appointed to the crown of Strathclyde some years earlier, inherited Alba from his maternal grandfather, Malcolm II. With the exception of Orkney, the Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland, which had come under the sway of the Norse, Scotland stood unified.

Macbeth, the Pictish candidate for the throne whose family had been suppressed by Malcolm II, defeated Duncan in battle in 1040. Macbeth then ruled for seventeen years before Duncan's son Malcolm III, more commonly known as Malcolm Canmore, overthrew him. (William Shakespeare, in his play Macbeth, later immortalized these events, in a heavily fictionalized way based on inaccurate contemporary history that flattered the antecedents of James VI of Scotland/I of England. For a more accurate fictional account, it is better to read Nigel Tranter's novel, Macbeth the King.)

Fortriu

The Kingdom of Fortriu or Fortrenn was a Pictish Kingdom, with it's capital at Forteviot, stretching from Strathearn to the Mearns. The Romans knew them as the Verturiones, along with the Caledones one of the two confederations in northern Scotland.

Personal sandbox

Hi there, just thought I'd let you know that your talk page should probably be reserved for comments. You might want to move your (rather fine) work on History of Scotland to a subpage, like a Sandbox. Click here to make one. Thanks, User:Alphax/sig 10:38, Mar 16, 2005 (UTC)