A History Of Scotland

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So, we’ll start this list with one of his best works and one of the most influential Scottish novels of the 20th century. Lanarkbegins with a man waking up on a train with no memory of how he got there.

Mason, Roger A., ed. (1994). Scots and Britons: Scottish political thought and the union of 1603. Cambridge University Press. p.162. ISBN 978-0-521-42034-1. OL 1422140M.Or, for enthusiasts of historical fiction, the Outlander series stands as a testament to Scotland’s magnetic pull. But fear not, dear reader, for our literary journey extends beyond the realms of classics and historical fiction. Main article: Economic history of Scotland Former Head Office of the British Linen Bank in St Andrew Square, Edinburgh. Now offices of the Bank of Scotland. a b M. Magnusson (10 November 2003), "Review of James Buchan, Capital of the Mind: how Edinburgh Changed the World", New Statesman, archived from the original on 6 June 2011 The population of Scotland grew steadily in the 19th century, from 1,608,000 in the census of 1801 to 2,889,000 in 1851 and 4,472,000 in 1901. [254] Even with the development of industry there were insufficient good jobs; as a result, during the period 1841–1931, about 2 million Scots emigrated to North America and Australia, and another 750,000 Scots relocated to England. [255] Scotland lost a much higher proportion of its population than England and Wales, [256] reaching perhaps as much as 30.2 per cent of its natural increase from the 1850s onwards. [257] This not only limited Scotland's population increase, but meant that almost every family lost members due to emigration and, because more of them were young males, it skewed the sex and age ratios of the country. [256] Scotland advanced markedly in educational terms during the 15th century with the founding of the University of St Andrews in 1413, the University of Glasgow in 1450 and the University of Aberdeen in 1495, and with the passing of the Education Act 1496, which decreed that all sons of barons and freeholders of substance should attend grammar schools. [91] James IV's reign is often considered to have seen a flowering of Scottish culture under the influence of the European Renaissance. [92] View from the royal apartments of the Stewart monarchs, Edinburgh Castle.

The death of King Alexander III in 1286, and the death of his granddaughter and heir Margaret, Maid of Norway in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked Edward I of England to arbitrate, for which he extracted legal recognition that the realm of Scotland was held as a feudal dependency to the throne of England before choosing John Balliol, the man with the strongest claim, who became king in 1292. [72] Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale, the next strongest claimant, accepted this outcome with reluctance. Over the next few years Edward I used the concessions he had gained to systematically undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland. [73] In 1295, John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, known as the Auld Alliance. [74] Edward I of England, 'Hammer of the Scots', depicted on a late-15thC woodcut. When Alexander died in 1124, the crown passed to Margaret's fourth son David I, who had spent most of his life as a Norman French baron in England. His reign saw what has been characterised as a " Davidian Revolution", by which native institutions and personnel were replaced by English and French ones, underpinning the development of later Medieval Scotland. [68] [69] Members of the Anglo-Norman nobility took up places in the Scottish aristocracy and he introduced a system of feudal land tenure, which produced knight service, castles and an available body of heavily armed cavalry. He created an Anglo-Norman style of court, introduced the office of justicar to oversee justice, and local offices of sheriffs to administer localities. He established the first royal burghs in Scotland, granting rights to particular settlements, which led to the development of the first true Scottish towns and helped facilitate economic development as did the introduction of the first recorded Scottish coinage. He continued a process begun by his mother and brothers helping to establish foundations that brought reform to Scottish monasticism based on those at Cluny and he played a part in organising diocese on lines closer to those in the rest of Western Europe. [70]

The battle for independence

Despite these changes the highlands remained very poor and traditional, with few connections to the uplift of the Scottish Enlightenment and little role in the Industrial Revolution. [244] A handful of powerful families, typified by the dukes of Argyll, Atholl, Buccleuch, and Sutherland, owned large amounts of land and controlled local political, legal and economic affairs. [245] Particularly after the end of the boom created by the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1790–1815), these landlords needed cash to maintain their position in London society, and had less need of soldiers. They turned to money rents, displaced farmers to raise sheep, and downplayed the traditional patriarchal relationship that had historically sustained the clans. Potato blight reached the Highlands in 1846, where 150,000 people faced disaster because their food supply was largely potatoes (with a little herring, oatmeal and milk). They were rescued by an effective emergency relief system that stands in dramatic contrast to the failures of relief in Ireland. [246] As the famine continued, landlords, charities and government agencies provided "assisted passages" for destitute tenants to emigrate to Canada and Australia; in excess of 16,000 people emigrated, with most travelling in 1851. [166] :201,207,268 [162] :187–189 Deer stalkers on Glenfeshie Estate spying with monoculars, c. 1858 There are two things that men should never weary of, goodness and humility; we get none too much of them in this rough world among cold, proud people.”