Glasgow & the River Clyde

History

Prehistoric Settlers

The earliest evidence of human settlement in Scotland dates from the Mesolithic period (8000-4000 BC), a time of hunter-fisher-gatherers that lasted from the end of the last Ice Age until the rise of farming.

During the Neolithic period (4000-2000 BC), the first farming communities were established. With the development of permanent settlements, people built communal tombs and monuments such as cairns and stone circles; examples of these are Knap of Howar in Papa Westray (Orkney), Skara Brae and Ring of Brodgar in Orkney, and the Callanish Standing Stones in Lewis.

The Bronze Age (2000-700 BC) began with the introduction of metalworking skills; during this era there was a shift from communal to single burials, marking the increased status of the individual over the collective.

During the Iron Age (700 BC-400 AD), in addition to the development of iron-working technology, was increased building of defensive settlements and enclosures such as brochs - circular, fortified dwelling towers - like Dun Carloway in Lewis and Mousa Broch in Shetland, and hill forts, such as Eildon Hill (Borders).

The Early Tribes

Scotland's population is a conglomeration of several immigrant and migrant peoples, languages and cultures.

Several barbarian tribes lived in northeast Scotland during the Iron Age, approximately 2,000 years ago. By the third century AD, these tribes had amalgamated to become the Picti (the Picts, or painted people), as they were named by the Romans in 297 AD. In their three periods of conquest and occupation, beginning in 79 AD, the Romans never conquered the north of Scotland and their hold on the south was precarious and brief. The Romans were initially driven back to their ambitious Antonine Wall (built 142-145 from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde), which they had abandoned by 161. They retreated farther south to their original barrier of Hadrian's Wall (built 118-122 from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the River Tyne) but abandoned this, too, by 400, and finally withdrew from Britain in 409.

The Scotti - Scots - were invaders who arrived in Kintyre from northern Ireland in the 6th century, and established the Gaelic-speaking Dalriada kingdom in what is now southern Argyll. In 563, Columba, an Irish missionary, came to Dalriada from northern Ireland and established a monastery on Iona. The Vikings launched a series of raids on Skye and Iona in the late eighth century, culminating in the slaughter of 68 Iona monks in 806. The Norsemen eventually settled in Caithness, Sutherland, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

The Unification of Scotland

The Picts and Dalriada tribes united against their common Norse enemy but suffered a setback in 839 when many Pictish nobles were killed in battles against the Vikings. Kenneth mac Alpin (MacAlpin) stepped in and claimed Pictavia. In 843, as king of both the Scots and Picts, MacAlpin founded a new kingdom - Alba or, as it came to be known, Scotland. Alba remains the Gaelic name for Scotland.

Stability didn't come easily to the new kingdom despite the efforts of the Christian church to introduce a civilizing and unifying influence. Three 10th-century kings were killed putting down revolts, and a fourth - Duncan I - was murdered by Macbeth (reigned 1040-57). Duncan's son Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) won back the throne in 1057 and ruled with his pious queen, Margaret (who in 1250 became Scotland's only royal saint).

English influence increased during the reign of Malcolm's youngest son David I (reigned 1124-53), who had spent time at the court of his brotherin-law, Henry I of England. David introduced coinage, established 15 Royal Burghs, including Dunfermline, Edinburgh, Perth and Stirling, and founded several famous abbeys in what is now the Borders region.

Relations with England

The Scottish kings made continuous attempts to extend their border southwards, aided by the political instability following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. David won Newcastle and Northumberland but his son Malcolm IV (reigned 1153-1165) was forced to relinquish them. His successor William the Lion (reigned 1165-1214) was captured attempting to regain Northumbria and was forced to accept the Treaty of Falaise in 1174, ceding Scotland to England as a feudal dependency.

The last of the Canmore kings - Alexander III (reigned 1249-1286) - defeated the Norwegian king Haakon in 1263 at Largs in Ayrshire and won the Western Isles for Scotland. His death in 1286 left as his successor a three-year-old grandchild, Margaret (the Maid of Norway), who died in Orkney on her way to Scotland in 1290. This left 13 claimants to the throne, known as the Competitors (chief of whom were John Balliol and Robert Bruce), and the threat of civil war. Edward I of England seized the chance to adjudicate, choosing Balliol (a grandson of David I) but extorting recognition as overlord of Scotland.

The Wars of Independence

Edward's harsh and arrogant treatment of the Scots roused bitter resentment. Balliol finally turned on Edward and led a short-lived uprising that resulted in crushing defeat, Balliol's exile and military occupation by the English. Adding insult to injury, in 1296 Edward removed the Stone of Destiny, the ancient coronation stone of Scottish kings, from Scone and carted it off to London.

Wallace & Bruce

Acting in the name of the exiled king, Scottish patriot William Wallace led a guerrilla movement against the English and in 1297 won a major victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. A huge English army won a decisive victory at Falkirk the following year and recaptured Stirling Castle in 1304. In 1305, Wallace was betrayed to the English, convicted and executed.

After Wallace's death, Robert Bruce (grandson of the 1290 Competitor) assumed leadership of the resistance movement. He murdered his rival, the Earl of Comyn and, defying Edward I, was crowned Robert I in Scone in 1306. After suffering several reverses, he took advantage of the death of Edward I in 1307 to launch a devastating campaign into northern England. Edward II finally led his army north but the Bruce's much smaller force inflicted a shattering defeat on the English at Bannockburn in June 1314. In 1320, the Scots drew up a Declaration of Independence at Arbroath Abbey. The war finally ended in 1328 when the regents of the young Edward III approved the Treaty of Northampton, recognizing Scotland's independence.

The Bruce's son, David II, staged a series of raids into England, which was by that time involved in the Hundred Years' War with France and had abandoned most of its strongholds in Scotland. David was captured at Neville's Cross, near Durham, in 1346 and was not released until 1357 in return for a crushing ransom.

The Stewarts

On David II's death without heirs in 1371, his nephew, the son of Robert I's daughter Marjorie, became the first Stewart (later Stuart) king as Robert II. So began a 343-year dynasty of 14 monarchs, five of whom ruled on both sides of the border, beginning with James VI of Scotland (crowned James I of England in 1603 after the death of Queen Elizabeth) and ending with Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 until her death in 1714. The Stewarts inherited a land struggling with its emerging nationhood and torn by powerful nobles. Over the next four centuries, they unified Scotland, brought it under central control, and guided it through the Renaissance, Reformation and finally union with England.

Robert II and his son Robert III were ineffective rulers. James I (reigned 1406-37) was captured by the English in 1406 and imprisoned in London until 1424. On his return from captivity, James tried to recover crown land and authority lost to the nobles in his absence but was assassinated by members of his household in 1437. James II (reigned 1437-60) and James III (reigned 1460-88) came to the throne as minors, which encouraged further strife between the nobles. Orkney and Shetland passed to Scotland in 1471 following the marriage of James III to Margaret of Denmark.

James IV (reigned 1488-1513) successfully reasserted royal authority over the nobles, improved justice and encouraged the arts. He married Margaret, daughter of Henry VII of England, in 1503. In support of the auld alliance with France, James invaded England, but his army was routed and he was killed at Flodden Field in 1513. But it was from his marriage to Margaret that, a century later, would spring the union of Scotland and England under James VI (I of England).

After a long minority, James V (reigned 1513-42) continued the French alliance and refused to break with the Pope as Henry VIII of England wanted. James sent an army to invade England but its defeat at Solway Moss in November 1542 contributed to his death shortly afterwards and left a six-day-old girl, Mary, as his successor, under the protection of her mother, Mary of Guise.

Mary, Queen of Scots & The Reformation

Henry VIII wished to marry the young Queen Mary (reigned 1542-67) to his son Edward. When his wish was rebuffed, he devastated southern Scotland in the rough wooing. After another English force defeated the Scots at Pinkie, the six-year-old Mary was sent to France for safety, where she remained for 13 years. She married the young Dauphin François (who a year later became François II) in 1558 and only returned to Scotland on his death in 1561.

Meanwhile, war with England came to an end in 1551 and Mary's mother, Mary of Guise, assumed the regency in 1554. Her government was thrown into turmoil as the Reformation reached Scotland in an extreme Calvinist form. John Knox, an uncompromising Protestant preacher, returned from exile to Scotland in May 1559 to head the reformers. However, it took open support from Queen Elizabeth of England, an English army, and the death of Mary of Guise to win ultimate victory for the Protestants. In August 1560, the Reformation Parliament adopted the Protestant Confession of Faith, repudiated the supremacy of the Pope and abolished the Catholic mass.The return to Scotland of the Catholic Mary threatened the success of the Reformation. Mary initially demonstrated adept statecraft, skilfully playing off the different factions against each other, but soon became embroiled in personal affairs. In 1565 she married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and gave birth to the future James VI in 1566. In the same year, a Protestant conspiracy resulted in the murder of Mary's Italian secretary Rizzio. Worse still, Mary and the Earl of Bothwell were implicated in the mysterious murder of Darnley in 1567. Mary's hurried marriage to Bothwell lost her the favor of both Protestants and Catholics. She was imprisoned at Lochleven and forced to abdicate in favor of