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Scotland, country, administrative division of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or Britain), occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The crowns of Scotland and England were united in 1603, and the governments of the two countries in 1707; Scotland has retained, however, its own legal system, its own church, a substantially different education system, and the right to issue its own bank notes. Scotland is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean; on the east by the North Sea; on the south-east by England; on the south by the Solway Firth, which partly separates it from England, and by the Irish Sea; and on the west by the North Channel of the Irish Sea which separates it from the island of Ireland, and by the Atlantic Ocean. As a geopolitical entity Scotland includes 186 nearby islands, a majority of which are contained in three groups—the Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, situated off the western coast; the Orkney Islands, situated off the north-eastern coast; and the Shetland Islands, situated north-east of the Orkney Islands. The largest of the other islands is Arran, located in the Firth of Clyde, off the west coast. The land area of Scotland, including the islands, is 78,080 sq km (30,147 sq mi). The country also has some 1,500 sq km (580 sq mi) of inland water. Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and a leading cultural and economic centre.

The topography of Scotland reflects possibly more clearly than that of any other part of the island of Great Britain the effects of glaciation—in the overdeepened valleys which produced the country's many lochs and firths, in the glacial till which forms the fertile soils of eastern lowland Scotland, and in the many features such as drumlins and eskers that dot the Scottish landscape. Scotland's very irregular coastline is another product of glaciation. The western coast in particular is deeply penetrated by numerous arms of the sea, most of which are narrow overdeepened valleys, known locally as sea lochs, and by a number of broad indentations, generally called firths. The principal firths are the Firth of Lorn, the Firth of Clyde, and the Solway Firth. The major indentations on the eastern coast are Dornoch Firth, the Moray Firth, the Firth of Tay, and the Firth of Forth. Measured around the various firths and sea lochs, the coastline of Scotland is about 3,700 km (2,300 mi) long.

The terrain of Scotland is predominantly mountainous but may be divided into three distinct regions, from north to south: the Highlands, the Central Lowlands, and the Southern Uplands. More than a half of the surface of Scotland is occupied by the Highlands, the most rugged region on the island of Great Britain, containing most of the island's highest peaks (300 over 915 m/3,000 ft). Consisting of parallel mountain chains with a general north-eastern to south-western trend and broken by deep ravines and valleys, the Highlands are noted for their unspoilt, wild beauty and scenic grandeur. Precipitous cliffs, moorland plateaus, mountain lakes, sea lochs, swift-flowing streams, and dense thickets are common to the Highlands, the most sparsely inhabited section of Scotland. The region is divided in two by a depression, known as Glen More, or the Great Glen, which extends from the Moray Firth in the north-east, south-west to Loch Linnhe. To the north-west of this lie heavily eroded peaks with fairly uniform elevations ranging from 610 to 915 m (2,000 to 3,000 ft). In the Highlands south-east of the Great Glen the topography is highly diversified. This region is traversed by the Grampian Mountains, the principal mountain system of Scotland, which includes on the east the Cairngorms. The highest peak of the Grampians is Ben Nevis (1,343 m/4,406 ft), the highest summit in the United Kingdom, located near the head of Loch Linnhe, overlooking Fort William.

The terrain of the Southern Uplands, a region much less elevated and rugged than the Highlands, consists largely of a moorland plateau traversed by rolling valleys and broken by mountainous outcrops. Only a few summits in the Southern Uplands exceed 762 m (2,500 ft) in elevation, the highest being Merrick (843 m/2,765 ft) in the Dumfries and Galloway unitary authority in the south-west. Adjoining the Southern Uplands region along the boundary with England are the Cheviot Hills.

Scotland is characterized by an abundance of rivers, streams, and lakes (lochs). Notable among the lakes, which are especially numerous in the Central Lowlands and Highland regions, are Loch Lomond (the largest), Loch Ness, Loch Tay, and Loch Katrine. Loch Ness, Loch Oich, and Loch Lochy run down the Great Glen, north-east to south-west, and are joined by the Caledonian Canal to provide a waterway capable of taking sea-going vessels linking the Atlantic Ocean with the North Sea. Many of the rivers of Scotland, in particular those in the west, are short, torrential streams, generally of little commercial importance. The longest river of Scotland is the Tay; the Clyde, however, is the principal commercial river. Other important rivers include the Forth, the Tweed, the Dee, and the Spey.

The most populous city in Scotland is Glasgow (1993 estimate, 681,000). The conurbation of Clydeside, which includes the cities of Glasgow and Clydebank, is the largest marine engineering centre in Britain, although today work is linked mainly to the offshore industry rather than shipbuilding. In addition to Edinburgh (443,600), the capital, other important cities are Dundee (158,981), Aberdeen (189,707), and Inverness (63,850); the last two named have benefited considerably from the North Sea oil industry.

The Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian denomination, is the official state church with an adult communicant membership of more than 752,000. The Roman Catholic church is second in importance with some 744,600 adherents. Other leading denominations are the Episcopal Church of Scotland, a province of the Anglican Church, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist, and United Free, as well as a number of small Presbyterian churches, formed as breakaway groups from the Church of Scotland, in the past. Jews are a small minority.

English is generally spoken. Fewer than 100,000 Scots (mainly inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides) also speak the Scottish form of Gaelic. Efforts to increase understanding of Gaelic language and culture include Gaelic-language television programmes. (See Celtic Languages; Scottish Gaelic.)

Schools in Scotland are administered by the Scottish Education Department and by local education authorities. Scotland's education system is independent of that of England and Wales and different in structure. The Scots have traditionally assigned great importance to education, and the voluntary schools system grew vigorously during the 19th century. In 1872 the responsibility for education was transferred from churches to elected school boards, which provided education for children aged 5 to 13. In 1901 the school leaving age was raised to 14, 17 years before this happened in England and Wales. In 1918 local education authorities, or LEAs, were established to replace school boards and the provision of secondary education was made mandatory. The Education Act (Scotland) 1945 applied the same provision as the 1944 English and Welsh act (See United Kingdom: Education) but involved fewer changes as most of the innovations had already been made. The school leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947, and to 16 in the 1972-1973 school year.

Scotland does not have a statutory National Curriculum, as introduced in the rest of the United Kingdom in the late 1980s, although moves have been made to standardize curriculum content, and testing of progress in English and mathematics has been introduced. Pupils take the Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) Standard Grade at the end of their fourth year of secondary education (age 16). The Higher Grades, known locally as "Highers", are taken in the fifth and sixth years.

Scotland has about 66 institutions providing programmes of study beyond the secondary level for those students who do not go on to the universities. These include colleges of agriculture, art, commerce, and science; in the mid-1990s the total enrolment was more than 81,000. Teacher-training colleges numbered seven, with approximately 3,000 students. Scotland has 13 universities, including 5 formed in 1992 from former polytechnics. Of the universities in Scotland, the oldest (University of Aberdeen, University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, and University of St Andrews) were founded in the 15th and 16th centuries. Four more received their charters between 1960 and 1990: Heriot-Watt (Edinburgh), Dundee University, Stirling University, and Strathclyde University (Glasgow). Total university enrolment was about 99,300 in the 1993-1994 academic year.

Clans, the traditional keystone of Scottish society, are no longer powerful. Originally, the clan, a grouping of an entire family with one head, or laird, was also important as a fighting unit. The solidarity associated with clan membership has been expanded into a strong national pride. The puritanism of Scottish Presbyterianism, which is traceable to John Knox, the 16th-century religious reformer and statesman, also retains a strong influence in parts of the country.

Popular indigenous sports include curling and golf. Bagpipes, usually associated with Scottish music, were probably introduced by the Romans, who acquired them in the Middle East. Scottish music is noted for the wide use of a five-tone, or pentatonic, scale. Folk tunes are not standardized, and a single song may have hundreds of variations in lyrics and music. The country also has a strong indigenous dance and oral storytelling tradition. The country hosts two of the United Kingdom's, and the world's, premier arts festivals, the Edinburgh International Festival (the world's largest arts festival), and Glasgow's Mayfest. In the contemporary arts, Scotland has noted museums, galleries, and orchestras, and national ballet and opera companies (See Also Scottish Literature; Scottish Dancing; National Gallery of Scotland).

Scotland is governed as an integral part of the United Kingdom (See United Kingdom: Government). It is represented by 72 members in the House of Commons and, since the Peerage Act 1963, by all Scottish peers in the House of Lords; before 1963 Scottish peers had only 16 representatives in the Lords.

Before the union of Scotland and England in 1707, Scotland had developed its own system of law, which continued after the union. The Scottish law system is based on civil law, which is derived from ancient Roman law, whereas the other parts of the United Kingdom follow the common law, which originated in England with the evolution of case law and precedents. Because of the different systems of law, separate statutes or statutory provisions are often enacted by Parliament for application only in Scotland. Any statute must state expressly or imply that it is applicable to Scotland in order to become enforceable. See Also England: English Law.

Four of the new unitary authorities—Scottish Borders (formerly Borders), Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, and Highland—have retained the names and administrative boundaries of the preceding regions, combining their regional and district councils into a single authority. The other five regions—Central, Lothian, Grampian, Strathclyde, and Tayside—have vanished from the map. They have been replaced by unitary authorities which for the most part are coterminous with the former district councils, including those for the main cities and towns: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Falkirk, and Stirling. The former Central, Grampian, and Tayside regions are now each administered by three unitary authorities, and the former Lothian region by four. The former Strathclyde region, which encompassed the most populous part of Scotland, has been divided into 12 unitary authorities.

Two leading British parties, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, shared the majority of Scottish seats in Parliament from the 1920s until the late 1970s. Since then, however, the Conservative Party, although the party of government for the United Kingdom as a whole since 1979, has increasingly become a minority party in Scotland. By the 1990s it had become less popular than the Scottish National party (SNP), which was founded in 1934 in order to press for complete self-government. Although the SNP played a minor role in the politics of the country for a long time, since the 1970s it has become an increasingly powerful force, and is now the main opponent to the Labour Party in many areas.

Many aspects of the economy of Scotland are covered in the article United Kingdom. The currency of the United Kingdom, the pound Sterling, is the legal tender of Scotland but the country can also issue its own bank notes. Both agriculture and industry are important in the economy of Scotland, but the main growth sector has been the services industries in recent years. The chief exports are oil and natural gas, chemicals, and manufactured goods, especially electronics equipment, clothing, machinery, textiles, and whisky. Scotland has experienced the same pressure on its traditional industries as Wales and the north of England. However, since 1987 economic growth in Scotland has on average been greater than in the United Kingdom as a whole, and it was less affected by the recession in the early 1990s than other areas. In part this has been a consequence of the new jobs and industries created by North Sea oil, and in part a result of Scotland's success in attracting high-tech industries. The centre of Scottish trade unionism is the Scottish Trades Union Congress, with an affiliated membership of more than 980,000.

The region comprising present-day Scotland was known, after the Roman invasion of Britain, as Caledonia. With the sole exception of the people who became known as the Picts, the ancient Caledonians do not figure in historical records.

The Picts, a fierce and warlike people, successfully resisted conquest by the Romans, whose great general, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, led the first invasion of Caledonia late in the 1st century AD. Agricola and his legions pushed northwards to the Firth of Forth. The border Picts, probably joined by rebellious Britons, strenuously contested Roman sovereignty in the region between the firths of Forth and Clyde. In AD 122, to ward off the Pictish threat to the imperial positions in northern Britain, the Roman emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of a defensive rampart from the Solway Firth to the mouth of the River Tyne. Sections of this rampart, which came to be called Hadrian's Wall, still exist, and have been declared a World Heritage site. Two decades later another rampart, called the Antonine Wall, was constructed from the Firth of Forth to the Firth of Clyde, as the Romans extended the defensive system for Britain northwards. Both walls, and especially the Antonine Wall, were breached several times by attackers from the north, notably in 155-158 and 197. In 211, following a notorious campaign against the Caledonians, the northern limit of Roman Britain was finally established at Hadrian's Wall.

After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in 409, the Picts systematically raided the territories of their southern Celtic neighbours the Brigantes. The latter, however, soon put an end to these raids, probably with the assistance of the Saxons, one of the Germanic tribes that subsequently subjugated the Britons. In the course of the Germanic conquest many of the northern Brigantes withdrew into the Caledonian region between the Firth of Clyde and the Solway Firth, and there laid the foundations of what became the kingdom of Strathclyde. The adjacent region (present-day Argyll and Bute) to the north was occupied towards the beginning of the 6th century by the Scots, Celtic invaders from northern Ireland, who established the kingdom that became known in history as Dalriada and ultimately gave their name to the whole country. About the middle of the 6th century the Angles, a people who were related to the Saxons, overran most of Caledonia south of the Firth of Forth and east of Strathclyde (the present-day Lothians, Edinburgh, and Scottish Borders). Together with the extensive Anglian holdings in the north of what is now England, this region became for a time part of the English kingdom of Northumbria.

In 685 Pictish territory north of the Firth of Forth was invaded by a large Northumbrian army. An overwhelming Pictish victory permanently weakened Northumbrian power in Caledonia. About 730 Angus MacFergus, king of the Picts, subjugated Strathclyde and Dalriada. Relative peace followed until the late 8th century, when Vikings from Scandinavia began to raid the Caledonian coasts. Taking advantage of Pictish preoccupation with the invaders, the Scots and Britons soon regained their independence. In 844 Kenneth MacAlpine, king of Dalriada and later king of Scotland, who was a descendant of the Pictish royal family, obtained the crown of Pictland, probably with the assent of the harassed Picts. The united kingdoms, officially known as Alban, comprised all the territory north of the firths of Forth and Clyde. Kenneth and several of his successors vainly attempted to subdue the remaining Northumbrian possessions in Caledonia and, in alliance with Strathclyde, tried to halt the raids of the Vikings. Although, with the help of the Northumbrians, the Vikings were prevented from securing a foothold in Dalriada, they seized various coastal areas in the north, east, and west and occupied the Orkney and Shetland islands and the Hebrides (the Orkneys and Shetlands remained under Viking, later Norwegian, rule until the 15th century). In later times the rulers of England claimed Scotland on the basis of the aid their forebears in Northumbria had given to Alban.

In the 10th century the Alban kings, having repulsed the Vikings, repeatedly attacked the Northumbrian strongholds south of the Firth of Clyde. All these attacks ended in failure. Finally, during the reign (1005-1034) of Malcolm II Mackenneth, the Northumbrians were decisively defeated at the Battle of Carham (1018). With this event, and as a result of the inheritance of the crown of Strathclyde by Malcolm's grandson and successor, Duncan I, the Scottish domains, thereafter known as Scotland, embraced all the territory north of the Solway Firth and the River Tweed.

Duncan's reign, a period of disastrous wars and internal strife, was ended in 1040 with his assassination by Macbeth, mormaor (great steward) of Ross and Moray, who then became King of Scotland. Macbeth is best known through the fictionalization of his life by William Shakespeare in the "Scottish play" which bears his name. Historical facts, however, indicate he was a successful king who held the throne until 1057, when he was defeated and killed by Duncan's son, Malcolm Canmore.

The Anglicization of Scotland acquired new momentum during the reign of Edgar, and subsequently those of his brothers Alexander I and David I. Under these monarchs, all of whom had been deeply influenced by their mother's religious and cultural views, the Anglo-Norman feudal system was established in Scotland. The reorganization was confined at first to ecclesiastical reforms, but gradually affected all sectors of Scottish life. Celtic religious orders were suppressed, English ecclesiastics replaced Scottish monks, numerous monasteries were founded, and the Celtic church was remodelled in conformity with Catholic practice. Norman French supplanted Gaelic in court circles, while English was increasingly spoken in the border areas and many parts of the Lowlands. The traditional system of clan land tenure was abolished during the reign of David I. Claiming universal ownership of the land, he conveyed huge grants, particularly in central and southern Scotland, to Anglo-Norman and Scottish nobles, who thereby became loyal vassals of the crown. David I also instituted various judicial, legislative, and administrative reforms, all based on English models, encouraged the development of commerce with England, and granted extensive privileges to the Scottish burghs.

Political relations with England were disturbed during David's reign by disputes over certain border areas, notably that portion of Northumbria immediately south of the Tweed. In 1138 and again in 1149, seeking to extend his dominions southwards, David I supported abortive attempts to dethrone the reigning monarch of England. As a result of the intervention of 1149, Northumbria, which had been granted previously to Scotland, reverted to English ownership. David's grandson William the Lion, who was crowned king of Scotland in 1165, attempted to regain Northumbria by giving military aid to a rebellion in 1173 and 1174 against Henry II of England. In 1174 William was taken prisoner and compelled, by the provisions of the Treaty of Falaise, to swear fealty to the English king. Although Richard I of England annulled the treaty in 1189, in exchange for 10,000 marks of silver to help finance his Crusading activities, English claims to sovereignty over Scotland were based thereafter on precedent as well as the 10th-century alliances against the Vikings. Alexander II, William's son and successor, renounced Scottish claims to Northumbria and other territories in northern England in 1237, beginning a period of friendly relations between the two nations. In 1266, following a victorious war against Norway, Alexander III recovered the Hebrides.

Alexander III died in 1286, leaving the throne to Margaret, known as the Maid of Norway, daughter of Erik, king of Norway, his young granddaughter and only living descendant. Margaret's early death by drowning on her voyage from Norway to Scotland in 1290 produced a political crisis in Scotland, with no fewer than 13 descendants of former monarchs laying claim to the throne. Edward I of England seized the opportunity presented by the political crisis to proclaim suzerainty over Scotland, intervening on behalf of John de Baliol, a grandson of David I. Certain sections of the Scottish nobility formally recognized the English king's overlordship in Scotland. In November 1292, after leading an army into his putative vassal realm, Edward I proclaimed John de Baliol king of Scotland.

The Scottish struggle against England was resumed in 1297, under the leadership of the Scottish patriot Sir William Wallace. With soldiers recruited from all sections of the nation, Wallace destroyed an English army at Stirling in September and, acting as the agent of John de Baliol, reinstituted Scottish rule. The following year Edward led a huge army into Scotland and in July won a decisive victory at Falkirk. After this setback Wallace waged incessant guerrilla warfare against the English. He was outlawed by Edward in 1304, following another large-scale English invasion. The year after, Wallace was betrayed to the English, convicted of treason, and executed.

After Wallace's death, Robert Bruce, a descendant of David I, assumed the leadership of the resistance movement. Although Bruce had opposed Wallace, most of the Scottish nobility and clergy rallied to his support. He was crowned Robert I, king of Scotland, in March 1306. During the first year of his reign Bruce suffered several reverses at the hands of the English. In 1307, on the accession to the English throne of Edward II, who abandoned his father's plan to subjugate Scotland, Bruce began a systematic guerrilla campaign against the pro-English section of the Scottish nobility and against English garrisons in Scotland. Between 1307 and 1314 he won numerous battles against his enemies and, on a number of occasions, even invaded northern England. Edward II finally led a punitive expedition into Scotland in the spring of 1314. Meeting this invasion force at Bannockburn on June 24, the Scottish army inflicted on it one of the most disastrous defeats in the military annals of England. Edward II refused to grant independence to Scotland, however, and the war between the two nations continued for more than a decade. During this phase of the struggle, the ordinary people of Scotland secured representation in the first Scottish Parliament held at Cambus Kenneth in 1326. The war against England ended victoriously in May 1328, when the regents of the young Edward III of England approved the Treaty of Northampton. By the terms of this document, Scotland obtained recognition as an independent kingdom—an independence it retained for almost 400 years.

For more than 200 years after Bruce's death from leprosy in 1329 and the accession of his infant son as David II, Scotland was the scene of almost continuous strife among the nobility. The feudal anarchy was especially pronounced because of the prevalence of the clan system in the Highlands and various other areas. In these regions, where close personal relations existed among the clan members and their chiefs, the latter were powerful and contemptuous of royal authority. The period was also marked by almost uninterrupted warfare with England and the development of Scotland's Parliament.

Within four years of the conclusion of the Treaty of Northampton, Edward III renewed the struggle to reduce Scotland to vassalage. Initially, this venture took the form of support for Edward de Baliol, a son of John de Baliol and a pretender to the Scottish crown. Baliol invaded Scotland from England in 1332 and, after winning a victory at Dupplin Moor, had himself crowned king. He was quickly driven out of the country. In 1333 Edward III, with Baliol, led an army northwards and routed the Scots near Berwick-upon-Tweed. The English king thereupon occupied a large part of south-eastern Scotland. In 1337, after he became involved in the Hundred Years' War, he abandoned Baliol, who was driven from Scotland in 1339, and neglected his Scottish possessions. By 1341, when David II returned to Scotland to reclaim his throne, the Scots had liberated several of the more important occupied areas, including Edinburgh. In 1346 David II, allied with France, led an invasion of northern England but was defeated near Durham and taken prisoner. A large section of southern Scotland was immediately reoccupied by the English. David was not released until 1357, after the Scots had agreed to pay an enormous ransom.

During the remainder of the 15th century the successors of James I—namely, James II (reigned 1437-1460), James III (reigned 1460-1488), and James IV (reigned 1488-1513)—sought to impose restraints on the turbulent nobility, but significant results were accomplished only by James IV. The alliance with France was maintained, and by 1460 the English had been expelled from southern Scotland. Among other notable developments of the 15th century was the recovery, through the marriage of James III to a Danish princess, of the Orkney and Shetland islands. Shortly after the turn of the 16th century James IV married Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England, but friction between the two nations continued. In 1513, after Henry VIII of England invaded France, James IV led an army south of the border. The Scots and English met at Flodden Field, where James was killed and his army routed.

Following the rupture between Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic church in the 1530s, the English king tried in vain to enlist James V on the side of fundamental ecclesiastical reform, and to secure an end to the Franco-Scottish alliance. The Protestant Reformation shortly began to gain headway in Scotland, and the Protestants tended to oppose the connection with France. In 1538 James V married Mary of Guise, a member of the French royal family, and, in another war with England, was defeated at Solway Moss in 1542. He died a few weeks after the battle.

James's daughter Mary, still a young child, was sent abroad in 1548 to be raised at the French court; her mother, Mary of Guise, assumed the regency in 1554, replacing the Earl of Arran. Her policies, which seemed designed to transform Scotland into a colony of France, provoked the spread of anti-French sentiment in the kingdom. The return to Scotland, in 1559, of John Knox, a Protestant leader who had been exiled, added to the political ferment and gave impetus to the Reformation. The general hostility to Mary of Guise was deepened by the marriage, in April 1558, of her daughter to the Dauphin of France. In 1559, following the queen mother's denunciation of Protestants as heretics, Knox and his followers resorted to open rebellion. Elizabeth I of England began at once to provide the insurgents with financial and military aid. Mary of Guise died in June 1560. In the same year, the Scottish Protestant leaders assembled in a special parliament, abolished the Roman Catholic church in Scotland, and adopted a Calvinistic Confession of Faith.

In August 1561 Mary, Queen of Scots returned to Scotland; her husband, Francis II, had died in December 1560 just 17 months after becoming king of France. A loyal Roman Catholic and the heir presumptive to the English crown, Mary became the central figure of the Counter-Reformation in Scotland and, later, in England. The final contest between Scottish Protestantism and Roman Catholicism was marked by conspiracy, murder, rebellion, and civil war. In 1567, after Mary's army was defeated in battle and she was taken prisoner, she was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James VI, born in 1566 of her marriage with Lord Darnley. Imprisoned in Scotland, Mary escaped in May 1568, but failed to regain her throne. She then fled to England, only to become the captive of Elizabeth I. See Babington, Anthony; Bothwell, James Hepburn, 4th Earl of; Darnley, Henry Stewart, Lord; Walsingham, Sir Francis.

Until 1578 Scotland was ruled by successive regents, all staunchly Protestant and pro-English, and later by factions capable of dominating the young king. By 1586, however, James VI had control of his government and had concluded a military alliance with Elizabeth. He subsequently refused to intercede on behalf of his mother, who was executed in England in 1587. In religion he tried to steer a middle course, allowing a Presbyterian form of church government at the local level, but appointing bishops who represented royal authority over the church as a whole. He was a capable administrator and made the power of the monarchy dominant in Scotland. On the death of Elizabeth, on March 24, 1603, James VI, as her nearest heir, inherited the crown of England as James I. However, although the crowns of the two countries were united, England and Scotland remained separate political entities, with their own parliaments, for another 100 years.

James lived on until 1625, and Scotland remained largely tranquil under his rule. Under James's son, Charles I (reigned 1625-1649), high taxes and, especially, royal attempts to impose Anglican forms of worship, led to the conflicts known as the Bishops' Wars (1639-1640). These in turn helped to spark the English Civil War, which led, finally, to the victory of the Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell, and to Charles's execution in 1649. During the Civil War, many Scots supported Parliament against the king in return for a promise that Presbyterianism would be established in both realms. This promise was not kept and, after Charles's execution, Cromwell, now Lord Protector of England, defeated uprisings by Scottish royalists supporting the royal heir, Charles II, who was crowned in Scotland in 1651. During the 1650s Cromwell also imposed a single government on England and Scotland. When Charles II, who had fled to France in 1651, was restored to the throne in 1660, Scotland was again politically separated from England. Charles reintroduced a limited form of episcopacy in the northern kingdom, and several abortive Presbyterian rebellions occurred during his reign. Scotland played no part in the downfall of Charles's brother and successor, James VII (James II of England), in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The Scottish Parliament immediately recognized the new king, William III, who was crowned joint monarch with his wife Mary II in 1689, as William II of Scotland. William abolished the Scottish episcopate in 1690. This made him popular among the Lowland Scots, but in the Highlands support for the exiled James remained strong, and led to the abortive Jacobite rebellion of 1689-1690.

In May 1707 the Scottish Parliament voted itself out of existence, and Scotland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain with guarantees of its own legal system and church polity. Thereafter, Scottish representatives sat in the British Parliament based at Westminster, in London. The union, like the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was opposed by many Highland Scots, who rose in support of James VII's son, James Stuart (the "Old Pretender"), in the Jacobite rebellions of 1708, 1715, and 1745 to 1746. Following the defeat of James Stuart's son, Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), and the Forty-Five Rebellion, as it became known, the British government forced the breakup of the clan system in the Highlands through the Clearances.

At the same time, Edinburgh, home of the "Scottish Enlightenment", was becoming one of the most important cultural centres of 18th-century Europe. Among the outstanding Scottish thinkers of the time were the economist Adam Smith and the philosopher David Hume. Literary figures included Tobias Smollett, James Boswell, Robert Burns, and, somewhat later, Sir Walter Scott.

This article was taken from EncartaÓ Encyclopedia, MicrosoftÒ 1997

http://www.tartans.com/

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