Early Scotland
The earliest settlers in Scotland most likely came from the lands now known as Scandinavia. At the end of the last Ice Age, (10,000BC approx.) the ice sheets had retreated but the sea levels had not yet risen and for a brief space of time there was a land-bridge linking northern Scotland to northern Europe. These first settlers were later joined by others coming up through Europe and through what would eventually be England. The evidence for these early settlers can be found on the islands of Northern Scotland where their stone-works can still be found to this day. It has long been believed that these first arrivals were largely nomadic; living off the land and the sea but new theories are challenging this view. Certainly by 3200BC it would seem that the inhabitants had some form of stratified society. In the year AD1850 a winter storm battered the coast of Orkney revealing hidden beneath the sands the long lost settlement of Skara Brae which has been dated to 3200BC. Those who lived in this astonishing stone age village were clearly not fending for themselves. Much of what they needed, both in materials and in food was being brought to them from the mainland. The implications of this are that the group who lived in Skara Brae were provided for, possibly because they were either regarded as 'Royal' or because they performed a religious function deemed essential to the peoples of the time. It is conceivable that the inhabitants of Skara Brae in fact performed both functions, giving order and direction to the people as well performing sacred rites. The land of Scotland at this time was not an easy place to live. The interior of the country was covered in impenetrable forest consisting of oak, elm, ash with rowan, birch and pine forests in exposed areas. These forests were almost certainly the source of many legends, rumours and religious beliefs of the time although they are now lost to us.
The Celts
To see the Celts as a single united people is far from the truth. They were a loose confederation of many different tribes from across Europe, they shared significant religious beliefs, they appear to have always been tribal but the interior politics of the Celts are obscure, partially because they themselves left no written records of their beliefs and practices and partially because the later Romans who made report of them were biased in their presentation, seeking to portray the Celts as Barbarians lacking in culture and organisation. The physical evidence left behind by the Celts does not support this view however as their stunning jewellery and carvings attest. The Celts were mainly a mainland European people and their advancement into Scotland was not immediate. By 600BC the Celts had spread from Bohemia to France. They were expert horsemen and made extensive use of the war chariot but it was not until 100BC that they began to settle in Scotland. It is however highly likely that the Celts had trading links with the inhabitants of Scotland long before this time and the similarity in beliefs, particularly in the worship and importance of Venus, would have made them somewhat compatible. Exactly what the indigenous population thought of these newcomers is difficult to say but the fact that the earliest Celtic settlements are hill-forts would indicate that it was not an entirely friendly takeover. These forts were constructed with walls of wood and stone, many are still preserved today as, wither by accident or design, the wood and stone was burned and the walls vitrified and fused into a single mass. These Celtic incomers had a massive advantage over the indigenous population; they were metal workers. This gave them not only superior weaponry but just as importantly superior tools. Celtic craftsmen produced wonders of jewellery and carvings, many of which still survive in museums.
The Romans
The first Roman attempt to invade the lands that would become Scotland occurred in AD79 and was probably the largest battle fought there up to that point in history. The numbers cannot be known for sure but the fact that the locals offered considerable resistance to the Romans indicates that the defence was large and organized. Roman chronicles put the enemy numbers at thirty thousand but this is likely to be an exaggeration. The Romans set up a boundary line from the River Forth to the River Clyde and those tribes living beyond this point the Romans named the Caledonians. In the year 83BC the Roman General Agricola set out to destroy the Caledonians. He was accompanied by the historian Tacitus. Agricola camped through the winter at Inchtuthil where the River Earn joins the River Tay, as he marched north simultaneously a fleet of Roman ships advanced up the coast. Battle was met at a place called Mons Graupius, believed to be Bennachie in Aberdeenshire. The Romans met strong resistance including attacks from war chariots for which they were not prepared as chariots had fallen out of use in mainland Europe. Nevertheless the Romans won the day and the remnants of the Caledonians fled into the woods. Rome however had growing problems of its own and did not follow up this success, the following year Agricola was recalled to Rome and it was not until the early second century that the Ninth Legion, stationed at York, was sent north to finish the Caledonians. The Ninth Legion did not return and was never heard from again. The Caledonians resumed control over the centre and Southern uplands of Caledonia.
Hadrian
In AD122 the Emperor Hadrian fixed the boundary of Roman rule with a boundary wall, known today as Hadrian's Wall. Twenty-four years later the governor Lollius Urbicus passed beyond Hadrian's wall and claimed land to the north of it marking a second boundary known as Antonine Wall, it was completed around AD143. Between these two walls the Romans garrisoned ten thousand men in fortified camps. In AD155 there was an uprising and the Romans were forced to make a temporary retreat to Hadrian's Wall. They returned to Antonine Wall in AD158 but were once more forced to retreat to Hadrian's Wall in AD180. By this time the tribes had organized into two main identifiable groups. South of the Forth-Clyde valley were the Maeatae and to the north the Caledonii. In AD208 Emperor Septimius Severus went north with an army to try and destroy the tribes ability to invade. But the tribes adopted forms of guerrilla warfare and the Romans were unable to engage them in battle. Eventually a peace treaty was signed which gave Rome peace for nearly fifty years.
The Romans identified some fifteen tribes in the north. The name they collectively gave to these people was 'Pict' which translates as 'Painted people'. An outstanding feature of Pictish architecture was the broch, of which there are well preserved examples in Glenelg and Orkney. Brochs were built of stone and rose high above the ground with an entrance door at an upper level. They were built with an outer wall and an inner wall, with a gap left between the two, it is now thought that this gap acted as an early form of central heating and hot air from the fires within was circulated round the building. In the late third century the Maeatae once more stormed Hadrian's Wall. Rome responded by sending General Theodosius to maintain Roman rule in the area but after his departure the wall was again breached in AD383 and not repaired. As the Roman Empire began to crumble on its home front the last legions were recalled from Britain in AD407 and the Picts streamed across the wall. Rome was never to return.
The Scots
Up to this point in history there were in fact no Scots in what would become Scotland. The Scots, or Scotti, were an Irish tribe who either came to the west coast of Scotland to settle peacefully or who came to conquer. Whichever it was the Scotia settled in the west of Scotland during the fifth and sixth centuries AD and set up their capital in the Argyll region. They were also known as the Dalriada, the name they gave to their new capital and the name of their original homeland in Ireland. To begin with it seems the Picts did not resist these new comers but by the end of the seventh century the Scots had spread west across central Caledonia and were now definitely coming as conquerors. The Scots were aided in their conquest by the lack of a central ruling authority amongst the Picts and it was not until AD685 under Brude MacBile that the Picts were united. A second and significant aid to the Scots was the arrival of Columba on the island of Iona in AD563, Columba transformed St Oran's church into a monastic school and a Christian mission and became increasingly influential politically and socially. Gaelic, the language of the Scots became the language of the new Christian religion and whilst the political control in the country was still with the Picts it was the Scots who had the greater influence on the future country. For a long time Picts, Scots and Britons fought a series of wars and battles for control of the land. In AD736 Aengus, King of the Picts captured Dunadd, the royal centre of Dalriada and in AD756 he overcame the North Britons in their stronghold at Dumbarton. In AD839 Eoganan, king of the Picts was killed fighting Norsemen. In the same year Kenneth, son of Alpin, became King of Scots. It seems likely that his mother was a Pict and his father a Scot. He therefore had a claim to rule both peoples. Although the Pictish kingdom was by far the larger Kenneth and his successors seem to have valued the title of Scot higher. When Donald the Second took the title of King of Scots in AD898 he took it as the senior title. Pictland as a political and social concept was dying and Scotland was emerging.
The Kings of Alba
The unified Pictish and Scots kingdoms under Kenneth MacAlpin (the suffice Mac- literally translates as 'son of') offered the lands better defence than had been previously needed, and defence was needed. The Romans might have left but for a hundred years Scotland, particulary along the north coasts and islands, had been hit by raiding bands of Norsemen who arrived by sea. These raids had not only increased but the Norsemen were no longer just pirates and raiders, they were now seizing land to live in. One of the areas the Norsemen focused on was Strathclyde. In AD876 they sacked the stronghold at Dumbarton. And in AD874 and again in AD876 the army of the Scots/Picts were defeated by the Norsemen and the country was in danger of succumbing entirely to Norse rule. The Norse however were not themselves a united people and because of this they never consolidated their power and the Kings of the Scots survived through these years of turmoil. King MacAlpin died in AD858 and was succeeded by his brother, Donald the First. At this time the there was a change in laws of succession to a system known as Tanistry. The tanist was the heir presumptive and his right to the throne was not conferred through the father but by the mother. Matrilinear succession was typical of Celtic kingdoms. The tamest was often the son of the reigning king's sister. The tanist system meant there was always a capable adult available to take over- vital in a system where the king was also a warrior. The downside to the sytem was the often murderous rivalry it promoted when there were a number of possible successors. Under Donald the First the conflict with the Norse invaders continued. The civil government was moved to Scone, where King MacAlpin had already taken the coronation stone of the Scots in AD 850 after its rescue from Iona. Christian belief was also growing steadily and the centre of religious belief had also moved to St Andrews which had previously been a Celtic centre of worship, legend stated that it held the apostle Andrews bones and this helped it establish itself as a religious power. In AD 889 Donald the Second came to the throne and was the first to be crowned with the title King of the Scotland (Ri Alba) but at the same time the Norwegian Harold Fairhair established a kingdom in Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and the Hebrides and these became Norwegian earldoms. At least three kings of Alba died fighting the Norsemen and one to the Britons as well as others who fell in the internal struggles thrown up by the tanistry sytem. History was moving fast and in AD911 the kingdom of Normandy emerged in France and by AD918 the Norsemen had established power in Northumbria and the King of Scots, Constantine the First, was making treaties with them. In AF926, Athelstan, King of Wessex and Mercia took Northumbria and in AD934 he invaded the Scots. In AD937 the Scots, Britons and Norsemen joined forces and won the battle of Brunanburh. Constantine, as was becoming tradition, retired to St Andrews and was succeeded by his nephew, Malcolm the First. During Malcolm's reign and his successors, Indulf, the Scots regained much of the territory in the south that had been lost but equally they had lost land in the north. By AD 987 the Norwegian Earl Sigurd the Mighty of Orkney was master of Northern Scotland as far down as Moray.
Duncan and Macbeth
In AD1018 Malcolm the Second routed the Northumbrians and became Master of Lothian. From now on Scotlands southeast frontier was the River tweed. The region was populated with a largely Anglian speaking people. This had important cultural significiance as it was about this time that the Gaelic name Alba was supplanted by the hybrid word Scotland. In AD1034 Duncan the First succeeded Malcolm. Duncan was already the ruler of Strathclyde. The old Pictish lands still had their own Lords and these provinces- Atholl and Gowrie, Fife and Fothrif, Angus and Mearns, Mar and Buchan and Moray and Ross had strong influence. The Lords of these provinces were known as mormaers, they had a semi-royal staus and were often members of the Royal family. Macbeth was a mormaer of Moray and also a grandson of Malcolm the Second, he also counted his descend through Kenneth the Third and by the laws of tannistry considered himself the next in line to Malcolm. His wife, Gruoch, further enforced this claim by having royal descent of her own. A league of northern chiefs was formed by Macbeth to challenge Duncans claim. In this Macbeth was aided by his first cousin Thorfinn, earl of Orkney. The alliance confronted Duncan in AD1040 resulting in the defeat and death of the King. Macbeth then assumed the Kingship. However his alliance with the north caused trouble with the southern groups particularly those south of the River Tay and there was a battle at Dunkeld in AD1045 in which Crinan, Abbot of Dunkeld and father of Duncan the first was killed. Despite Shakespeares famous portrayl of Macbeth he appears to have been a reasonable King judged by the standards of his time. His Kingdom was stable enough that he could afford to leave it and travel abroad. He is known to have visited Rome on a religious pilgrimage with overtones of a diplomatic mission. The sons of Duncan the First had fled to Northumbria where with the help of their mother's cousin, Siward Earl of Northumbria, Malcolm Canmore then took first Lothian and then Strathclyde in AD1054 and went on to defeat and kill Macbeth in battle at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire in AD1057. But the northern chiefs were still not impressed and put up one of their own choices, Lulach son of Gruoch, as King and he was installed at Scone. A further battle in AD1058 was needed before Lulach was killed and Malcolm the Third (also called Canmore from the Gaelic ceann 'head' and mor 'great') became king of Scots. Malcolm the Third consolidated his power by marrying Ingibiorg, widow of Thorfinn. This indicates the close links that existed at the time between the Scots and the Norse.