Magnus Magnusson - Scotland - The Story of a Nation

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Copyright © Magnus Magnusson 2000

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From the reviews of Scotland: The Story of a Nation :

‘The answer to a prayer – a history of this complex country that is at the same time intelligent and intelligible’

IAIN GALE, Sunday Herald (Glasgow) Books of the Year

‘Readable, poignant, fascinating, a lively combination of narrative and analysis’

The List

‘[Magnus Magnusson] is excellent on the sense of place in history, and any visitor to Scotland would benefit from taking this book as a companion’

ALLAN MASSIE, Spectator

‘This is never a dry and dusty academic account. [Magnusson] weaves into his narrative a geographical tour of the country’s historical sights that can only come from being a former chairman of Scottish Natural Heritage. His colourful descriptions of history’s main players are often filled out with humorous and telling anecdotes of the time … The great strength to which Mr Magnusson plays is the richness of characters who set the course of the nation’s history, from the Roman Agricola through William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox to Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott and beyond. The book will fill many a dark winter evening for anyone who wants to learn more about Scotland’s complex past’

LAURA KIBBY, Sunday Express

Cover

Title Page

Praise

Copyright

List of Maps

Introduction

1 In the Beginning

2 The Romans in Scotland

3 Picts, Scots, Britons, Angles and Others

4 Macbeth

5 Malcolm Canmore and St Margaret

6 David I

7 William the Lion

8 The Thirteenth Century: Alexanders II and III

9 John Balliol – ‘Toom Tabard’

10 William Wallace

11 Robert Bruce

12 David II

13 Robert II and Robert III

14 James I

15 James II

16 James III

17 James IV and the Renaissance

18 James V

19 Mary Queen of Scots: 1 – Reign and the Reformation

20 Mary Queen of Scots: 2 – Imprisonment and Civil War

21 James VI and the Union of the Crowns

22 Charles I and the National Covenant

23 Charles II and the Covenanters

24 James VII & II: The Last Stewart King

25 William and Mary: ‘The Glorious Revolution’?

26 Queen Anne and the Act of Union

27 Risings and Riots

28 ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ and the ’45

29 Sir Walter Scott: ‘The Wizard of the North’

Epilogue: ‘There Shall be a Scottish Parliament’

Appendix A: Chronology

Appendix B: Kings and Queens of Scotland

Sources

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

By the Same Author

About the Publisher

Scotland

The Romans in Scotland

Early medieval Scotland (C.AD 700)

The Battle of Stirling Bridge, 11 September 1297

The Battle of Otterburn, 19 August 1388

The Battle of Flodden, 9 September 1513

The Battle of Solway Moss, 24 November 1542

Montrose’s withdrawal north from Inveraray and his mountain crossing to attack Inverlochy, January – February 1645

The Battle of Dunbar, 3 September 1650

The Battle of Worcester, 3 September 1651

The Battle of Killiecrankie, 27 July 1689

The Battle of Prestonpans, 21 September 1745

The Battle of Culloden, 16 April 1746

These Tales were written in the interval of other avocations, for the use of the young relative to whom they are inscribed [Sir Walter Scott’s grandson, John Hugh Lockhart]. They embrace at the same time some attempt at a general view of Scottish History, with a selection of its more picturesque and prominent points … The compilation, though professing to be only a collection of Tales, or Narratives from the Scottish Chronicles, will nevertheless be found to contain a general view of the History of that country, from the period when it begins to possess general interest.

SIR WALTER SCOTT,

PREFACE TO TALES OF A GRANDFATHER

These are stirring times for Scotland. With a parliament of its own – the first for 292 years – Scotland stands on the threshold of a new future. What this future will bring is anyone’s guess; all we can be sure of is that it will be informed and influenced by the past, just as our present has been. History gives the present a context.

In this book I have tried to tease out the significant strands in Scotland’s history which highlight the key concepts of nationhood and identity. When and how did the many peoples who inhabited Scotland become Scots? When and how did the country of Scotland become the nation of Scotland? How did relationships with England (and other nations) evolve? How did an independent realm develop? How did the role of kingship, the concept of monarchy, develop? When and how did the governance of Scotland evolve into the community of counsels which is now called parliament?

All these threads are woven, often luridly, into the tapestry of Scotland’s past. But what was that past? The Scottish history which I absorbed in my childhood was the history of Scotland as expressed and cast in the nineteenth century by the greatest novelist of his day, Sir Walter Scott. Some 175 years ago he wrote Tales of a Grandfather (1827–29), purportedly for the edification of his grandson John Hugh Lockhart, whom he addressed by the neat pseudonym of ‘Master Hugh Littlejohn’. In the Tales , Scott told history essentially as story. He was a brilliant teller of history. And he had a wonderful feel for the natural landscape, for the scenes where history happened – history on the hoof, one might call it. This is one of the things which have made his Tales such an enduringly popular exposition of history for generations of readers of all ages.

Like every historian, Scott had his own views – there is no such thing as truly objective history: every generation writes its own history to suit its own agenda, for history is part of the process of cultural definition and redefinition. Scott’s agenda was very clear. Soon after writing the Tales , he expanded his children’s book into a ‘grown-up’ History of Scotland, 1033–1788 (published in 1831). His purpose, as he put it, was ‘to show the slow and interrupted progress by which England and Scotland, ostensibly united by the accession of James the First of England, gradually approximated to each other, until the last shades of national difference may be almost said to have disappeared’.