\"Guardians of the I Realm\" to govern it and protect its privileges, which

they did quite well. But [when the pretenders to the throne took up arms,

the Scots sought advice from their \"good neighbour!\', King Edward I of

England. The man who crushed Wales could not miss this chance to get rid

of the \"Celtic fringe\" altogether. He presided over the election of the

legitimate King of Scots, John Balliol, - then, as a token of gratitude,

received his homage and treated him as a humble vassal. As soon as the

Scots saw their liberties trampled, they concluded an alliance with

England\'s archenemy, France. The clash was imminent, and neither side

imagined how bitter and drawn out it would prove.

In 1296, with deceptive ease, Edward brushed away the raw recruits facing

him, penetrated deep into Scotland, deposed Balliol and removed the Stone

of Destiny, whereon every king of Scots was crowned, to London (despite

doubts of the trophy\'s authenticity, 700 years later it returned home).

Edward could have hardly worried that one William Wallace, a younger son

of an obscure knight, failed to swear fealty to him. Yet Wallace it was

who within a few months raised the Scottish banner again, undid all of

Edward\'s gains and on 11 September 1297 vanquished a strong force sent

against him at Stirling bridge - one of the first successes of foot

levies over heavy cavalry. The victor was then proclaimed Guardian of the

Realm. Even having suffered defeat by a vastly superior army under Edward

himself, Wallace refused to give up. Not until 1305 did the English manage

to take him - through betrayal by a Scot. Condemned for high treason

(though never a sworn subject of the English crown!), he was executed, and

the limbs of his dismembered body were sent to his compatriots.

By then, however, the Scottish cause passed into the hands of an even more

gifted leader, Robert Bruce. Of noble blood, and with his own right to the

throne, he knew there could be no king in a dependent lordship, and

pursued both personal and patriotic aims with relentless vigour. After his

coronation in 1306 the struggle cost him the lives or freedom of his whole

family, but he met defeat only » once - in his very first encounter.

Having subdued his opponents in Scotland, Bruce showed what he meant by

fighting \"with the longest stick that he had\". He made full use of his

country\'s terrain, manoeuvred swiftly, destroyed castles and smaller enemy

units and relied on \"scorched earth\" tactics until punitive expeditions

were starved into retreat. At last he gave the decisive pitched battle the

English hoped for. Near a small stream called Bannockburn on 24 June,

1314, with almost no horsemen to field, he ventured to attack a I host

over twice his strength, described as \"the greatest ever to proceed from

England\"! At the end of the day the English king barely escaped with his

life, and his army ceased to exist.

After Bannockburn the Scottish offensive began in earnest. Bruce expelled

the last enemy garrisons and unleashed a series of devastating campaigns

on English and English-held Irish territory (the term \"blackmail\"

initially meant tribute paid to the Scots). The diplomatic duel went on

with equal ardour. In 1320 Bruce\'s barons dispatched to the pope the

Declaration of Arbroath, an eloquent statement, perhaps the earliest in

Europe, of nascent nationhood: \"As long as but a hundred of us remain

alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It

is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting,

but for freedom alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself.

The English government had no choice but to acknowledge the state of

things, which it did by the solemn treaty of 1328. Robert Bruce had only

one year to live, but his quest to become the sovereign of the independent

and united country was fully accomplished.

During the minority of Bruce\'s son David II \"perpetual peace\", not

surprisingly, held for just a few years, and the English onslaught

resumed. King Edward HI, invited and assisted by some disinherited •

Scottish lords, won a notable victory at Halidon Hill and installed a

puppet ruler of Scotland. The Scots reverted to their proven guerrilla

strategy and little by little regained the initiative. When the great

Anglo-French war broke out in 1337, they staunchly supported their old

allies and fought by their side. Interrupted by short periods of truce,

border raids went on in Britain with varied success: the English were

defeated at Otterburn in 1388, but took their revenge at Homildon in 1402.

On the French front the Scots also took part in every major action. Thus,

when Joan of Arc raised the siege of Orleans, she was welcomed to the

city by its Scottish bishop, John Carmichael, and escorted by her loyal

Garde Ecossaise (their march tune, used by Robert Burns for his stirring

hymn \"Scots wha hae wi Wallace bled\", is still played in the French army,

too).

Anglo-Scottish hostilities went on until the mid-sixteenth century. Still

sung today in many a ballad on both sides, they were replete with acts of

valour and treachery, good fortune and tragedy, as when the Scottish King

James II fell by the bursting of his own cannon, and the prophecy that a

dead man would win Roxburgh Castle came true. In 1513 on the field of

Flodden the fighting was so desperate that the king of Scots, heading the

charge, broke the enemy centre to within a spear-length of the English

commander - only to perish and lose the day with the flower of his

chivalry. One of the final chapters in the Three Hundred Years\' War is

known as \"Rough Wooing\", when Henry VIII of England forcibly attempted to

procure the infant Mary Queen of Scots as bride for his son — all in vain.

The outcome of this deadly struggle (for survival of a nation was at

stake) seems nothing less than a miracle, given the overwhelming odds.

Possessing at least five times more manpower and wealth, England also

employed mercenary units from overseas, and even some trusty Scottish

barons with their resources. Her armies virtually always had sound

advantages in experience, discipline, armament and sheer strength. Yet for

all the utmost exertions of successive English kings and generals, for the

immense loss of gold and blood, they only managed to acquire the border

town of Berwick-upon-Tweed (it changed hands fourteen times) and the Isle

of Man. The only source of Scotland\'s endurance lay in the spirit of her

defenders and her integrity. Patriotic heroes like Wallace and Bruce did

inspire, but even when these were exiled or confined the leaderless Scots

still fought, as they declared, \"for the Lion\", the heraldic symbol of

their realm. Knight and cleric, tradesman and peasant, Highlander and

Lowlander embraced the common cause.

And the ultimate irony was that the crown of England shortly fell to the

Scottish royal house of Stewart.

Reformation

No part of Europe could stay away from the powerful social and spiritual

currents of approaching change. In the later Middle Ages ever louder calls

were heard against the hallowed order of the church. Martin Luther\'s

theses of 1517 announced a deep and lasting religious divide which is

still there.

Scotland\'s two archbishops (St. Andrews and Glasgow), eleven bishops and

several dozen abbots and priors may not have been opulent by higher

continental standards, but for a country with rather limited resources

they were endowed extremely well. For centuries the crown and secular

lords lavished the church, which took a fiercely patriotic stance in the

wars of independence, with estates, privileges and donations. As a result

it amassed, allegedly, over half of national wealth. The prelates often

acted as principal advisors to the government in supreme offices of state

and held sway in the cultural and moral sphere.

On the other hand, the corruption and venality of those expected to be

models of virtue were increasingly deplored and condemned, not least by

clergymen themselves. While a king\'s bastard sons, teenagers and even

infants, were ordained bishops and abbots to enjoy vast ecclesiastical

revenues, some parishes could not afford to repair their dilapidated

churches, and some priests did not know enough Latin to celebrate mass.

The clergy met with growing indignation of the faithful as well as envy

and greed of the gentry, yearning for its riches.

The choice lay between Catholic France and Protestant England. For a long

while the position of the former party, led by Cardinal Beaton and Marie

de Guise, mother and regent to young Mary, queen of Scots, looked

impregnable. The age-old alliance with France was sealed by the legal

introduction of a single Franco-Scottish citizenship and the wedding, in

1558, of the queen of Scots and the Dauphin who soon became king of

France. The English, for their part, toiled hard to arouse and exploit the

Protestant movement, and changed tactics from crude force to diplomatic

pressure, intrigue and bribery. A sudden outburst determined the course of

history.

On 11 May, 1559 in St. John\'s Church at Perth a stern long-bearded priest

named John Knox, who had collaborated with Calvin at Geneva, preached a

sermon \"vehement against idolatry\". The inflamed mob set to desecrate the

altars and ravage religious houses all over the burgh. Within weeks the

scene recurred in many other places, and Protestant nobles styling

themselves Lords of the Congregation rose an armed rebellion with English

backing. In the midst of resolute measures against them the queen mother

died, and the Catholics lost her devoted leadership; their cause badly

lacked an exponent of Knox\'s calibre. The rebels concluded a treaty of

alliance with England and summoned the Reformation Parliament which

abolished papal supremacy, forbade the Latin mass and adopted \"The

Confession of Faith\", stating the Protestant doctrine.

The radical Calvinist approach meant that old hierarchy yielded to Kirk

(i.e. church) Sessions of elected elders and local Presbyteries, empowered

to ordain ministers. Catholics, of course, were not exterminated, but

became a minority restricted in civil and religious rights. The

Reformation had a profound, if contradictory, effect on Scottish life and

mentality. A new national system of education emerged with schools

provided in every parish. On the other hand, the development of secular

literature and fine arts, especially music and theatre, was stifled by

emphatic Calvinst demands for pious austerity. Most sculptured or painted

images and all stained glass windows were smashed by bigots.

It was this country, abruptly alienated from France and Rome in favour of

England, which the Catholic Mary, queen of Scots and dowager queen of

France, returned to govern in 1561. A widow at eighteen, famed for beauty

and charm, she also revealed admirable courage. For most of her short

reign she succeeded in keeping her contumacious nobles at bay, and pursued

the wise policy of religious toleration. All too soon, however, she gave

in to passions of the heart, which proved baneful. Both her subsequent

marriages — to Lord Darnley and, after his murder, to the Earl of

Bothwell, who was widely blamed for the deed, - were rash and disastrous.

General resentment and revolt followed, and Mary was forced to abdicate in

1567. She made her last fatal error by seeking refuge with her cousin

Elizabeth of England, whose very throne she claimed herself, since in the

eyes of Catholic Europe Elizabeth was illegitimate. For the remaining

nineteen years of her life Mary faded away in English custody and was

beheaded by orders of her cousin.

Mary\'s words \"In my end is my beginning\" came true. Her fate commands a

timeless fascination, and no woman in history surpasses her poetic and

artistic renown. The prophecy was also fulfilled in another sense. In 1603

Mary\'s son James VI, king of Scots, succeeded the murderess of his mother

to the English throne, and became James 1 of Great Britain.

The union of the crowns took shape. Naturally, the king and his court

removed to the luxuries of London, which, for Scotland, meant increasing

neglect, drain of talent and funds, and growth of English influences, but

in every respect she remained a country apart. On the whole, James showed

himself a skillful statesman, generally in control of his motley dominions

with little coercion or bloodhed.

Covenant and Revolution

In 1625 the ill-starred Charles I inherited the sceptre of his father. A

Scot by birth, if not by conviction, he promptly revealed autocratic

leanings and a firm belief in his divine rights. Charles\'s proud title,

\"Defender of the Faith\", inevitably raised the vital question - which one?

His English subjects were mostly Episcopalian, the Irish adhered to

Catholicism, the majority of Scots were strict Presbyterians, with other

confessions also represented in each case. The king\'s decision to enforce

a version of Anglican liturgy in Scotland plunged the British Isles into

chaos, strife and revolution.

In 1638 a multitude of Scots of every rank, enraged by \"popish\"

innovations, signed the manifesto known as the National Covenant. It

protested against the \"corruptions of the public government of the Kirk\"

as well as \"our poor country being made an English Province\", and pledged

to uphold \"the true religion\". Although the document promised to abide by

the king\'s authority, before long the Covenanters came to grips with the

Royalists. Needing money to deal with the insurrection, Charles turned to

his London parliament, which openly defied him. All parties (far from

unanimous within themselves) were now entangled in armed conflict and

tried to play off one of their adversaries against the other. At first the

English parliament, hard pressed by the king\'s supporters, appealed for

Scottish aid, and the Covenanters\' army helped to reverse the course of

events. Then the Marquis of Montrose rekindled Royalist hopes with a

string of triumphs in Scotland, but King Charles, beleaguered on all sides

in England, deemed it best to surrender to Scottish troops there. Covenant

generals appear to have sold Charles to their allies in return for arrears

due for invading England. At once they repented this vile and foolish act

and intervened again, this time on behalf of the captive sovereign, but it

was too late. In January 1649 Charles ascended the scaffold in London.

In Scotland the execution horrified even his most implacable opponents,

and his son Charles was immediately proclaimed king. National feeling

assumed a familiar anti-English tone. But all the forces raised and

battles given were lost to the formidable might of General Cromwell, who

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