Icons of Scotland

The work you are going to read is a pure Scottish brand and has the purpose of informing the reader about a few things that I consider worth reading.

You will find out about the way, the Scots managed to unite and develop as a well organized country and the permanent struggling to maintain the integrity of their state, until the inevitable unification with England in 1707.

You will also discover important people, that had a pregnant influence in the history of Scotland, and people that took part in the cultural life due to their works.   

Moreover the reader will have the chance to discover, how Scottish people celebrate important events during the year, and will get in contact through this essay with Scots’ folklore. 

Scotland is nowadays one of the administrative divisions, occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean; on the east by the North Sea; on the southeast by England; on the south by Solway Firth and by the Irish Sea; and on the west by the North Channel and by the Atlantic Ocean. The total land area, including the islands of Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland is 78,790 km2.

In it’s early times it was a Celtic kingdom with two societies separated by the “Highland Line”, a mountainous region passing through the middle of the territory. It was inhabited by four groups of people, the Picts (in the north and northeast), the Scots (in the western Highlands), the Britons (in the Lowlands), and the Angles (in the north part of the Lowlands).

As the invaders intensified their attacks, they tried and partially succeeded to gather. But until the great unification the Scottish confronted with permanent British assaults and periodic invaders’ attacks. These and many others led the Scots to look for allies and one of them was France. They signed in 1295 the ‘Auld (old) Alliance’  which lasted into the sixteen century. This pact had a major importance for the both countries because they agreed that whenever England attacked one of them the other would make trouble behind England’s back.

After a century of war, plague and disorder, Scotland got in direct conflict with England for supporting France in the Hundred-Year War. The English repeatedly invaded the Scottish Lowlands, from which most of the Scots’ king’s wealth came from. Therefore Scotland was broke especially that Edward IV’s army occupied Edinburgh in 1482.

By the end of Middle Ages, however, Scotland had developed as a nation in a number of ways. From 1399 the Scots demanded that a parliament should meet once a year, and kings often gathered leading the citizens to discuss matters of government. Like in England, towns grew in importance, mainly because of the wool trade, which grew thanks to the help of the Flemish settlers.

Because of the disorder in their country, the Scots were considered weak and therefore got under British governing in 1513 after the worst defeat Scotland ever experienced, at Flodden. The kings that followed were extremely clever diplomats, establishing and keeping good relations with both France and England fact that provided help for the social and cultural development of the Scottish society.