Who was the last king of Scotland?
List of Scottish monarchs
The Kingdom of the Picts just became known as Kingdom of Alba in Gaelic, which later became known in Scots and English as "Scotland"; the terms are retained in both languages to this day. By the late 11th century at the very latest, Scottish kings were using the term "rex Scottorum", or King of Scots, to refer to themselves in Latin. The Kingdom of Scotland was merged with the Kingdom of England to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Thus Queen Anne became the last monarch of the ancient kingdoms of Scotland and England and the first of Great Britain, although the kingdoms had shared a monarch since 1603 (see Union of the Crowns). Her uncle Charles II was the last monarch to be crowned in Scotland, at Scone in 1651. He had a second coronation in England ten years later.
Kingdom of Alba
The Kingdom of Alba refers to the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II (Domnall mac Causantin) in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286, which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the elite and populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Pictish-Gaels or later Pictish-Gaels and Scoto-Norman, and differs markedly from the period of the Stuarts, in which the elite of the kingdom were (for the most part) speakers of Middle English, which later evolved and came to be called Lowland Scots. There is no precise Gaelic equivalent for the English terminology "Kingdom of Alba", as the Gaelic term "Rìoghachd na h-Alba" means 'Kingdom of Scotland'. English-speaking scholars adapted the Gaelic name for Scotland to apply to a particular political period in Scottish history during the High Middle Ages.
Edgar, King of Scotland
Edgar or Étgar mac Maíl Choluim (Modern Gaelic: "Eagar mac Mhaoil Chaluim"), nicknamed Probus, "the Valiant" (c. 1074 – 8 January 1107), was King of Scotland from 1097 to 1107. He was the fourth son of Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and Margaret of Wessex (later Saint Margaret) but the first to be considered eligible for the throne after the death of his father.
Clan Stewart
Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland married Marjory, daughter of king Robert the Bruce. When Robert's son, David II of Scotland died, he was succeeded by Walter Stewart's son, Robert II of Scotland. King Robert II had many sons, the eldest, John, succeeded to the throne of Scotland as Robert III of Scotland. The royal line of male Stewarts was uninterrupted until the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots. As a family the Stewarts (Stuarts) held the throne of Scotland and later England until the death of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in 1714.
William III of England
William III (; 4 November 1650 – 8 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from 1672 and King of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689 until his death in 1702. As King of Scotland, he is known as William II. He is sometimes informally known in Northern Ireland and Scotland as "King Billy".
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
Scotland was ruled by the six Guardians of Scotland on behalf of the child-heir Margaret. However, other powerful nobles claimed the throne, and in an attempt to avoid a civil war the Regents appealed to King Edward I of England for assistance. By the Treaty of Birgham, 1290, Margaret was placed under Edward's guardianship and betrothed to his eldest son, the Prince of Wales. Margaret set out from Norway for Scotland in the autumn of that year, but was taken ill on the voyage and died at Orkney on 26 September 1290, age seven. Scotland was left without an heir and with two claimants, so the Guardians of Scotland again appealed to Edward I to act as an arbitrator between the Competitors for the Crown of Scotland. The two strongest claimants were 
Though Bruce invoked proximity of blood and claimed to have been made Tanist of the Kingdom by the then-childless Alexander III, Balliol was the genealogically senior heir, and Edward declared in his favour following an election at Berwick-upon-Tweed, 3 August 1291.
History of the Isle of Man
Then, in 1346, the Battle of Neville's Cross decided the long struggle between England and Scotland in England's favour. King David II of Scotland, Robert Bruce's last male heir, had been captured in the Battle of Neville's cross and ransomed; however, when Scotland was unable to raise one of the ransom installments, David made a secret agreement with King Edward III of England to cancel it, in return for transferring the Scottish kingdom to an English prince.
Donald II of Scotland
Domnall mac Causantín (Modern Gaelic: "Dòmhnall mac Chòiseim"), anglicised as Donald II (died 900) was King of the Picts or King of Scotland ("Alba") in the late 9th century. He was the son of Constantine I (Causantín mac Cináeda). Donald is given the epithet Dásachtach, "the Madman", by The Prophecy of Berchán.
Competitors for the Crown of Scotland
When the crown of Scotland became vacant in September 1290 on the death of the child monarch Margaret, the Maid of Norway, a total of fourteen claimants to the throne came forward. Those with the most credible claims were John Balliol, Robert Bruce, John Hastings and Floris V, Count of Holland.
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages
The death of king Alexander III in 1286, and the subsequent death of his granddaughter and heir Margaret (called "the Maid of Norway") in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked Edward I of England to arbitrate. 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 as John I (30 November 1292). Robert Bruce 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. In 1295 John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, the beginning of the Auld Alliance.
Constantine II of Scotland
Kenneth's son Constantine died in 876, probably killed fighting against a Viking army which had come north from Northumbria in 874. According to the king lists, he was counted the 70th and last king of the Picts in later times.
Malcolm IV of Scotland
Malcolm IV (Mediaeval Gaelic: "Máel Coluim mac Eanric"; Modern Gaelic: "Maol Chaluim mac Eanraig"), nicknamed Virgo, "the Maiden" (between 23 April and 24 May 11419 December 1165), King of Scots, was the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria (died 1152) and Ada de Warenne. The original Malcolm Canmore, a name now associated with his great-grandfather Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada), he succeeded his grandfather David I, and shared David's Anglo-Norman tastes.
Óengus of Moray
Óengus of Moray ("Oenghus mac inghine Lulaich, ri Moréb") was the last King of Moray of the native line, ruling Moray in what is now northeastern Scotland from some unknown date until his death in 1130.
Edmund of Scotland
Edmund or Etmond mac Maíl Coluim (c. 1070 – after 1097) was a son of Malcolm III of Scotland and his second wife, Margaret of Wessex. He may be found on some lists of Scottish kings, but there is no evidence that he was king. Although Edmund was probably Malcolm and Margaret's second son, he was passed over in subsequent successions as a result of betraying his siblings by siding with their uncle, Donald III.
Anglo-Scottish Wars
Pinkie Cleugh was the last pitched battle between England and Scotland prior to the Union of the Crowns in 1603. Beaton was murdered in 1546, and within a few years, Scotland underwent a major religious reformation which was, unlike most European countries, remarkably peaceful and was never seriously threatened by counter-reformation, though neighbouring England was to undergo a counter-reformation under Queen Mary I. For a while, both countries were distracted by internal troubles. Eventually, Queen Elizabeth I came to rule England and restore stability.
List of last scions
The last member of the House of Dunkeld was "King Alexander III" (1241–1286), ending the family's rule over Scotland that had persisted since 1058. Alexander, the last male-line descendant of King Donnchad I, who ruled from 1034 to 1040, outlived his own children, leaving only his granddaughter (though his daughter) Margaret, Maid of Norway as heir; her death a few years later plunged Scotland into an interregnum.
List of legendary kings of Britain
Scota, in Scottish mythology, and pseudohistory, is the name given to the mythological daughter of an Egyptian Pharaoh to whom the Gaels and Scots traced their ancestry. Scota first appeared in literature from the 11th or 12th century and most modern scholars interpret the legends surrounding her to have emerged to rival Geoffrey of Monmouth's claims that the descendants of Brutus (through Albanactus) founded Scotland. However some early Irish sources also refer to the Scota legends and not all scholars regard the legends as fabrications or as political constructions. In the Scottish origin myths, Albanactus had little place and Scottish chroniclers (e.g., John of Fordun and Walter Bower) claimed that Scota was the eponymous founder of Scotland and the Scots long before Albanactus, during the time of Moses.
Magnús Óláfsson
Magnús, the last reigning king of his dynasty, died at Castle Rushen in 1265, and was buried at the Abbey of St Mary of Rushen. At the time of his death, he was married to Eóghan's daughter Máire. In the year after his death, the Hebrides and Mann were formally ceded by King of Norway to the King of Scots. Ten years after Magnús' death, Guðrøðr, a bastard son of his attempted to establish himself as king on Mann. Guðrøðr's revolt was quickly and brutally crushed by Scottish forces, and the island remained part of the Kingdom of Scotland. By the 1290s, the Hebridean portion of Magnús' former island-kingdom had been incorporated into a newly created Scottish sheriffdom.
Alexander III of Scotland
As Alexander left no surviving children, the heir to the throne was his unborn child by Queen Yolande. When Yolande's pregnancy ended, probably with a miscarriage, Alexander's seven-year-old granddaughter Margaret, Maid of Norway, became the heir. Margaret died, still uncrowned, on her way to Scotland in 1290. The inauguration of John Balliol as king on 30 November 1292 ended the six years of the Guardians of Scotland governing the land.
Robert II of Scotland
Robert II (2 March 1316 – 19 April 1390) reigned as King of Scots from 1371 to his death as the first monarch of the House of Stewart. He was the son of Walter Stewart, 6th High Steward of Scotland and of Marjorie Bruce, daughter of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce by his first wife Isabella of Mar.
Robert II of Scotland
The first war of independence began in the reign of King John Balliol. His short reign was bedeviled by Edward I's insistence on his overlordship of Scotland. The Scottish leadership concluded that only war could release the country from the English king's continued weakening of Balliol's sovereignty and so finalised a treaty of reciprocal assistance with France in October 1295. The Scots forayed into England in March 1296—this incursion together with the French treaty angered the English king and provoked an invasion of Scotland taking Berwick on 30 March before defeating the Scots army at Dunbar on 27 April. John Balliol submitted to Edward and resigned the throne to him before being sent to London as a prisoner. Despite this, resistance to the English led by William Wallace and Andrew Moray had emerged in the name of King John Balliol. On their deaths, Robert the Bruce continued to resist the English and eventually succeeded in defeating the forces of Edward II of England and gained the Scottish throne for himself.
Louisa Maria Stuart
Louisa Maria Teresa Stuart (28 June 1692 – 18 April 1712), known to Jacobites as Princess Royal, was the last child of James II and VII (1633–1701), the deposed king of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of his queen, Mary of Modena. In English, she was called Louisa Maria and Louise Marie in French.
The Last King of Scotland (film)
The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 historical drama film based on Giles Foden's novel "The Last King of Scotland" (1998), adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film was a co-production between companies from the United Kingdom and Germany.
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
King John was crowned at Scone on St Andrew's Day 1292. His heir apparent was his son by Isabella de Warenne,
In retaliation for this Treaty (the foundation of the Auld Alliance), Edward invaded Scotland, defeating the Scots at the Battle of Dunbar on 27 April 1296, and John was compelled to abdicate on 10 July 1296. He and his son were taken as prisoners to England, but he was still regarded by the Scots as rightful King of Scotland. William Wallace led an uprising in John's name, winning the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297, but the rebellion was crushed after the Battle of Falkirk the following year. In 1299 John was released from captivity and went into retirement on his family estates in France, taking no further interest in the recovery of his kingdom. His heirs still exist.
Kingdom of Alba
King Donald II was the first man to have been called "rí Alban" (i.e. "King of Alba"), when he died at Dunnottar in 900. This meant king of Caledonia or Scotland. All his predecessors bore the style of either "King of the Picts" or "King of Fortriu". Such an apparent innovation in the Gaelic chronicles is occasionally taken to spell the birth of Scotland, but there is nothing special about his reign that might confirm this. Donald had the nickname "dásachtach". This simply meant a madman, or in early Irish law, a man not in control of his functions and hence without legal culpability. The reason was possibly the restlessness of his reign, continually spent fighting battles against Vikings. It is possible he gained his unpopularity by violating the rights of the church or through high taxes, but it is not known for certain. However, his extremely negative nickname makes him an unlikely founder of Scotland.
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
Since an illness in 1679, the new Queen had been barren, so she and her husband had no children to carry on the line. The Claim of Right Act was passed in April 1689, establishing the constitutional basis for the accession of William and Mary, and that they would reign jointly, and then that the survivor would reign alone. 
Queen Mary died on 28 December 1694, and King William became sole monarch of Scotland.
Alexander II of Scotland
Alexander II (Mediaeval Gaelic: '; Modern Gaelic: '; 24 August 11986 July 1249) was King of Scots from
1214 until his death in 1249.
Great Scottish witch hunt of 1649–50
The 1640s were among the coolest decades in the Little Ice Age and the period 1649–53 was one of poor harvests and general scarcity in Scotland. The last outbreak of the bubonic plague in Scotland was in 1644–49. In 1648 the Scottish Covenanter regime had been defeated by the forces of the New Model Army under Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Preston in the Second English Civil War. In early 1649 King Charles I was executed by the English parliament and, when the Scots immediately declared his son king as Charles II, a renewed war between Scotland and the fledgeling English republic looked unavoidable. These circumstances led to the fall of the moderate Engagers, who were willing to engage and compromise with Royalism, and the rise of the Kirk party, the more radical wing of the Presbyterian movement. Its power was consolidated by the passage of the "Act of Classes" in January 1649, which excluded Engagers from office. The Kirk party was unwilling to compromise on Covenanter principles and aimed to purge Scotland to create a "godly society".
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
At the time of her accession, Queen Anne was the last living descendant of Charles I who was a Protestant; her only child to survive past infancy, the Duke of Gloucester, had died in 1700. The succession aspect of the Claim of Right Act which had ensured her succession (and that of the Bill of Rights by which she succeeded in England) would therefore lapse on her death. The English Parliament had already found a solution to this by passing the Act of Settlement, which named Sophia, Electress of Hanover, the next-senior Protestant descendant of James I (VI of Scotland), as heiress after Anne. The Estates of Scotland had made no such provision, so there was no heir to the Scottish throne. In 1703 the Estates passed a Bill reserving to themselves the right to choose the monarch from among the Protestant descendants of the Kings of Scots in the event of Anne's death without issue, but stating that this would "not" be the same person as succeeded to the English throne unless the independence of Scotland as a separate Kingdom could be assured. Royal Assent to the Bill was initially withheld, but after the Scots threatened to withdraw their troops presently engaged in the War of the Spanish Succession it was passed in 1704, becoming known as the Act of Security. The Parliament of England then passed the Alien Act 1705, which stopped all Scottish exports to England and English colonies, and enacted that Scots would be treated as foreigners in England, with severe consequences for the inheritance of Scottish-owned property in England. The Alien Act also said that these measures would not be enacted if the Act of Security was repealed or if Scotland entered into parliamentary union with England. The latter eventually took place with the passage of the Act of Union, and Scotland became part of the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 May 1707.
John Comyn, Earl of Buchan
In 1290 Margaret, Maid of Norway, the last descendant of the Canmore dynasty, died, leaving the Scottish throne with no clear successor. Thirteen competitors came forward, one of whom were Robert Bruce of Annandale, grandfather of the future king, and John Balliol. Although John Comyn, Lord of Badenoch, sometimes known as the Black Comyn, was one of the minor competitors. The weight of the family was behind the claim of Balliol, Badenoch's brother-in-law. Following the intervention of Edward I, Balliol finally emerged in 1292 as the strongest claimant in terms of feudal law, though the Bruce family was not reconciled to this outcome. Any successful future bid for the crown could only proceed with the co-operation, or by the destruction, of the house of Comyn. By 1292 the great division which was to dominate Scottish politics on and off for over fifty years had taken definite shape.
Charles II of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was king of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was king of Scotland from 1649 until his deposition in 1651, and king of England, Scotland and Ireland from the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 until his death.
James IV of Scotland
James IV was the last King of Scots known to have spoken Scottish Gaelic. James is one of the rulers reported to have conducted a language deprivation experiment, sending two children to be raised by a mute woman alone on the island of Inchkeith, to determine if language was learned or innate. James was especially interested in surgery and medicine, and also other sciences which are now less creditable: in Stirling Castle, he established an alchemy workshop where alchemist John Damian looked for ways to turn base metals into gold. The project consumed quantities of mercury, golden litharge, and tin. Damian also researched aviation and undertook a failed experiment to fly from the battlements of Stirling Castle, an event which William Dunbar satirised in two separate poems.
Scotland
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with much of Scotland under the control of a single ruler and united by the Gaelic language, a modern nation-state first emerged, as did Scottish national consciousness. The domination of Gaelic was cracked during the reign of David I (1124–53), during which many English-speaking colonists settled in Scotland. David I and his successors also centralized royal power and united mainland Scotland, capturing regions such as Moray, Galloway, and Caithness, although he did not succeed at extending his power over the Hebrides, which had been ruled by various Scottish clans following the death of Somerled in 1164. The system of feudalism was consolidated, with both Anglo-Norman incomers and native Gaelic chieftains being granted land in exchange for serving the king. The Scottish kings rejected English demands to subjugate themselves; in fact, England invaded Scotland several times to prevent the latter's expansion into northern England. 
The death of Alexander III in March 1286 broke the succession line of Scotland's kings. Edward I of England arbitrated between various claimants for the Scottish crown. In return for surrendering Scotland's nominal independence, John Balliol was pronounced king in 1292. In 1294, Balliol and other Scottish lords refused Edward's demands to serve in his army against the French. Scotland and France sealed a treaty on 23 October 1295, known as the Auld Alliance. War ensued and John was deposed by Edward who took personal control of Scotland. Andrew Moray and William Wallace initially emerged as the principal leaders of the resistance to English rule in the Wars of Scottish Independence, until Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland in 1306. Victory at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 proved the Scots had regained control of their kingdom. In 1320 the world's first documented declaration of independence, the Declaration of Arbroath, won the support of Pope John XXII, leading to the legal recognition of Scottish sovereignty by the English Crown.
A civil war between the Bruce dynasty and their long-term Comyn-Balliol rivals lasted until the middle of the 14th century. Although the Bruce faction was successful, David II's lack of an heir allowed his half-nephew Robert II to come to the throne and establish the House of Stewart. The Stewarts ruled Scotland for the remainder of the Middle Ages. The country they ruled experienced greater prosperity from the end of the 14th century through the Scottish Renaissance to the Reformation, despite the effects of the Black Death in 1349 and increasing division between Highlands and Lowlands. Multiple truces reduced warfare on the southern border.
Síl Conairi
The Dál Riata, presumably settling in far northeastern Ulster in the prehistoric period, would famously go on to contribute to the founding of the Kingdom of Alba or Scotland and be responsible for the Gaelicisation of that country. The most celebrated Royal Family of Scotland, the House of Dunkeld, described themselves as the "seed of Conaire Mór" as late as the twelfth century. Conaire Mór is thus an ancestor of the modern British Royal Family through the House of Dunkeld. According to tradition, the last king in the 'direct' male line from the Clanna Dedad and Síl Conairi was Alexander III of Scotland (d. 19 March 1286).
Malcolm II of Scotland
Malcolm II (Gaelic: "Máel Coluim"; c. 954 – 25 November 1034) was King of the Scots from 1005 until his death. He was a son of King Kenneth II; the Prophecy of Berchán says that his mother was a woman of Leinster and refers to him as Forranach, "the Destroyer".
Crown of Scotland
The Crown of Scotland is the crown that was used at the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland. Remade in its current form for King James V of Scotland in 1540, the crown is part of the Honours of Scotland, the oldest surviving set of Crown jewels in the United Kingdom. The crown dates from at least 1503 when, in an earlier form, it was depicted in the portrait of James IV of Scotland in the Book of Hours commissioned for his marriage to Margaret Tudor.
William the Lion
William the Lion (Mediaeval Gaelic: "Uilliam mac Eanric" (i.e. "William, son of Henry"); Modern Gaelic: "Uilleam mac Eanraig"), sometimes styled William I, also known by the nickname Garbh, "the Rough", (c. 1142 – 4 December 1214) reigned as King of Scots from 1165 to 1214. He had the second-longest reign in Scottish history before the Act of Union with England in 1707. James VI (reigned 1567–1625) would have the longest.
Monarchy of the United Kingdom
Alexander III's unexpected death in a riding accident in 1286 precipitated a major succession crisis. Scottish leaders appealed to King Edward I of England for help in determining who was the rightful heir. Edward chose Alexander's three-year-old Norwegian granddaughter, Margaret. On her way to Scotland in 1290, however, Margaret died at sea, and Edward was again asked to adjudicate between 13 rival claimants to the throne. A court was set up and after two years of deliberation, it pronounced John Balliol to be king. Edward proceeded to treat Balliol as a vassal, and tried to exert influence over Scotland. In 1295, when Balliol renounced his allegiance to England, Edward I invaded. During the first ten years of the ensuing Wars of Scottish Independence, Scotland had no monarch, until Robert the Bruce declared himself king in 1306.
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages
In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace and Andrew Murrey raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Murrey died of wounds after the battle and for a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm. Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Wallace escaped but probably resigned as Guardian of Scotland. In 1305 he fell into the hands of the English, who executed him for treason despite the fact that he owed no allegiance to England.
Malcolm II of Scotland
To the Irish annals which recorded his death, Malcolm was "ard rí Alban", High King of Scotland. In the same way that Brian Bóruma, High King of Ireland, was not the only king in Ireland, Malcolm was one of several kings within the geographical boundaries of modern Scotland: his fellow kings included the king of Strathclyde, who ruled much of the south-west, various Norse-Gael kings on the western coast and the Hebrides and, nearest and most dangerous rivals, the kings or Mormaers of Moray. To the south, in the Kingdom of England, the Earls of Bernicia and Northumbria, whose predecessors as kings of Northumbria had once ruled most of southern Scotland, still controlled large parts of the southeast.
Alexander I of Scotland
Alexander I (medieval Gaelic: "Alaxandair mac Maíl Coluim"; modern Gaelic: "Alasdair mac Mhaol Chaluim"; c. 1078 – 23 April 1124), posthumously nicknamed The Fierce, was the King of Scotland from 1107 to his death.
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages
After the unexpected death of the childless David II, Robert Stewart, the first of the Stewart (later Stuart) monarchs, came to the throne in 1371. Despite his relatively venerable age of 55, his son, John, Earl of Carrick, grew impatient and assumed the reins of government as Lord Lieutenant. A border incursion into England led to the victory at Otterburn in 1388, but at the cost of the life of John's ally James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas. This, along with Carrick having suffered a debilitating horse kick, led to a shift in power to his brother Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, who now was appointed as Lieutenant in his place. When Robert II died in 1390 John took the regnal name Robert III, to avoid awkward questions over the exact status of the first King John, but power rested with his brother Robert, now Duke of Albany. After the suspicious death of his elder son, David, Duke of Rothesay in 1402, Robert, fearful for the safety of his younger son, James (the future James I), sent him to France in 1406. However, the English captured him en route and he spent the next 18 years as a prisoner held for ransom. As a result, after the death of Robert III later that year, regents ruled Scotland: first Albany and after his death in 1420 his son Murdoch, during whose term of office the country suffered considerable unrest.
List of Scottish monarchs
James VI became King of England and Ireland as James I in 1603, when his cousin Elizabeth I died. Thereafter, although the two crowns of England and Scotland remained separate, the monarchy was based chiefly in England. Charles I, James's son, found himself faced with Civil War. The resultant conflict lasted eight years, and ended in his execution. The English Parliament then decreed their monarchy to be at an end. The Scots Parliament, after some deliberation, broke their links with England, and declared that Charles II, son and heir of Charles I, would become King. He ruled until 1651 when the armies of Oliver Cromwell occupied Scotland and drove him into exile.
Deda mac Sin
The Síl Conairi were those septs of the Clanna Dedad descended from Conaire Mór, namely the Dál Riata, Múscraige, Corcu Duibne, and Corcu Baiscinn. The first, presumably settling in far northeastern Ulster in the prehistoric period, would famously go on to found the Kingdom of Scotland. The Royal Family of Scotland, the House of Dunkeld, were described as the "seed of Conaire Mór" as late as the twelfth century. Through the House of Dunkeld and Conaire Mór, Dedu mac Sin is an ancestor of the modern British Royal Family. The last king in the direct male line from the Clanna Dedad and Sil Conairi was Alexander III of Scotland (d. 19 March 1286).
Constantine III of Scotland
Constantine, son of Cuilén (Mediaeval Gaelic: "Causantín mac Cuiléin"; Modern Gaelic: "Còiseam mac Chailein"), known in most modern regnal lists as Constantine III, (born c. 970–997) was king of Scots from 995 to 997. He was the son of Cuilén, King of Scotland (Cuilén mac Iduilb). John of Fordun calls him, in Latin, Constantinus Calvus, which translates to Constantine the Bald. Benjamin Hudson notes that insular authors from Ireland and Scotland typically identified rulers by sobriquets. Noting for example the similarly named "Eugenius Calvus" (Owen the Bald), an 11th-century King of Strathclyde.
Saint Margaret of Scotland
Saint Margaret of Scotland (Scots: "Saunt Magret", c. 1045 – 16 November 1093), also known as Margaret of Wessex, was an English princess and a Scottish queen. Margaret was sometimes called "The Pearl of Scotland". Born in exile in the Kingdom of Hungary, she was the sister of Edgar Ætheling, the shortly reigned and uncrowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Margaret and her family returned to the Kingdom of England in 1057, but fled to the Kingdom of Scotland following the Norman conquest of England in 1066. By the end of 1070, Margaret had married King Malcolm III of Scotland, becoming Queen of Scots.
House of Stuart
In total, nine Stewart/Stuart monarchs ruled Scotland alone from 1371 until 1603. The last ruler of Scotland alone was James VI, who in 1603 became the first dual monarch of England and Scotland. Following the Glorious Revolution in 1688, two Stuart queens ruled the isles: Mary II and Anne. Both were the Protestant daughters of James VII and II by his first wife. They were the great-grandchildren of James VI and I. Their father had converted to Catholicism and his new wife gave birth to a son in 1688, who was brought up a Roman Catholic and preceded his half-sisters; so James was deposed by Parliament in 1689, in favour of his daughters. But neither had any children who survived to adulthood, so under the terms of the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Act of Security 1704, the crown passed to the House of Hanover on the death of Queen Anne in 1714.
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
Alexander I, previously ruler of Lothian and Forth, became King of Scotland on the death of his elder brother Edgar, 8 January 1107. Since his marriage to Sybilla of Normandy was childless, his heir presumptive was his sole surviving brother,
Kenneth III of Scotland
The theory that Clan MacDuff were descendants of Kenneth III was based on their close connection to royalty. Andrew of Wyntoun reported that Malcolm III of Scotland (reigned 1058–1093) had granted to a "MacDuff, thane of Fife" the privilege of enthroning the kings of Scots at their inauguration. While John of Fordun has Malcolm III promise this same unnamed MacDuff that he will be the first man of the kingdom, second only to the king. This unnamed MacDuff appears frequently in stories connected to the rise of Malcolm III to the throne, and was later immortalised in the Shakespearean character Macduff. The status of the successive heads of this clan as the ""senior inaugural official"" seems confirmed by records of the inauguration ceremonies of Alexander II (reigned 1214–1249) and Alexander III (reigned 1249–1286). While earlier heads of this house ""witnessed royal documents far more more frequently"" than other members of the nobility. Their names often listed first among the lay witnesses, ahead of both the native Scottish nobility and the Anglo-Norman nobles. A number of 12th-century heads of house served as Justiciars of Scotia. Their leaders were named Donnchadh (Duncan), Mael-Coluim (Malcolm), and Causantin (Constantine), names shared by the royal family. Making a close relation to the reigning royal house likely. Bannerman suggests that the MacDuffs had their own, legitimate claim to the Scottish throne. A claim which they declined to pursue, compensated with privileges by Malcolm III and his descendants.
Constantine II of Scotland
Constantine's death in 952 is recorded by the Irish annals, who enter it among ecclesiastics. His son Indulf would become king on Malcolm's death. The last of Constantine's certain descendants to be king in Alba was a great-grandson, Constantine III (Constantín mac Cuiléin). Another son had died at Brunanburh, and, according to John of Worcester, Amlaíb mac Gofraid was married to a daughter of Constantine. It is possible that Constantine had other children, but like the name of his wife, or wives, this has not been recorded.
History of Scotland
In the centuries after the departure of the Romans from Britain, there were four groups within the borders of what is now Scotland. In the east were the Picts, with kingdoms between the river Forth and Shetland. In the late 6th century the dominant force was the Kingdom of Fortriu, whose lands were centred on Strathearn and Menteith and who raided along the eastern coast into modern England. In the west were the Gaelic (Goidelic)-speaking people of Dál Riata with their royal fortress at Dunadd in Argyll, with close links with the island of Ireland, from whom comes the name Scots. In the south was the British (Brythonic) Kingdom of Strathclyde, descendants of the peoples of the Roman influenced kingdoms of "Hen Ogledd" (Old north), often named Alt Clut, the Brythonic name for their capital at Dumbarton Rock. Finally, there were the English or "Angles", Germanic invaders who had overrun much of southern Britain and held the Kingdom of Bernicia, in the south-east. The first English king in the historical record is Ida, who is said to have obtained the throne and the kingdom about 547. Ida's grandson, Æthelfrith, united his kingdom with Deira to the south to form Northumbria around the year 604. There were changes of dynasty, and the kingdom was divided, but it was re-united under Æthelfrith's son Oswald (r. 634-42).
Union of the Crowns
The Union of the Crowns (; ) was the accession of James VI of Scotland to the thrones of England and Ireland, and the consequential unification for some purposes (such as overseas diplomacy) of the three realms under a single monarch on 24 March 1603. The Union of Crowns followed the death of Elizabeth I of England, the last monarch of the Tudor dynasty, who was James's unmarried and childless first cousin twice removed.
Scottish monarchs' family tree
This is a family tree for the kings of Scotland, since the unification under the House of Alpin in 834, to the personal union with England in 1603 under James VI of Scotland. It includes also the Houses of Dunkeld, Balliol, Bruce, and Stewart.
Alexander Comyn, Earl of Buchan
Alexander Comyn, 2nd Earl of Buchan (died 1289) was a Scoto-Norman magnate who was one of the most important figures in the 13th century Kingdom of Scotland. He was the son of William Comyn, jure uxoris Earl of Buchan, and Marjory, Countess of Buchan, the heiress of the last native Scottish Mormaer of Buchan, Fergus. He was the chief counsellor of Alexander III, King of Scots for the entire period of the king's majority and, as Scotland's leading magnate, played a key role in safeguarding the independence of the Scottish monarchy. During his long career, Alexander Comyn was Justiciar of Scotia (1258–89), Constable of Scotland (1275–89), Sheriff of Wigtown (1263–66), Sheriff of Dingwall (1264–66), Ballie of Inverie (in Knoydart) and finally, Guardian of Scotland (1286–89) during the first interregnum following the death of Alexander III. In 1284 he joined with other Scottish noblemen who acknowledged Margaret of Norway as the heiress to King Alexander. He died sometime after 10 July 1289.
Clan MacDuff
In 1425, the last Earl of Fife, Murdoch Stewart, Duke of Albany, was beheaded. The Clan MacDuff's hereditary right of bearing the Crown of Scotland then passed to the Lord Abernethy. The current Lord Abernethy, who is consequently bearer of the Scottish Crown, is Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, 16th Duke of Hamilton.
Scotland's Story
"Scotland's Story" starts off with the legend of Prince Gathelus, and it ends with King George IV. It ended here because as Marshall says in the book "And here I think I must end, for Scotland has no more a story of her own – her story is Britain's story."
Pretender
After the execution of the Stuart King Charles I in 1649, his son Charles II became pretender until restored to the throne 11 years later. Charles II died in 1685 and his brother James II and VII came to the throne. He was the last Catholic monarch of England, Scotland and Ireland. James was deposed during the Glorious Revolution in 1688, and lived the remainder of his life as a pretender to the throne in exile. He made several attempts to regain the throne before his death in 1701. The Jacobite risings (or rebellions) were a series of uprisings or wars between 1688 and 1746 in which his supporters attempted to restore his line to the throne.After 1807, the line of James II and VII became extinct. The Jacobites had ceased to have much political significance after the failure of the 1745 uprising, and the movement essentially became completely dormant after Henry's death. Genealogically, the next most senior line to the English and Scottish thrones was through James II's youngest sister, Henriette Anne, whose daughter had married into the House of Savoy. To the very limited extent that Jacobitism survived the death of Cardinal York, they supported the claims of this line. Its current representative is Franz, Duke of Bavaria, though he himself does not claim the title, his secretary having announced once that "HRM (sic) is very content being a Prince of Bavaria".
Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford
He would also have been associating with young Robert Bruce during the early campaigns in Scotland, since Bruce, like many other Scots and Border men, moved back and forth from English allegiance to Scottish. Robert Bruce, King Robert I of Scotland, is closely connected to the Bohuns. Between the time that he swore his last fealty to Edward I in 1302 and his defection four years later, Bruce stayed for the most part in Annandale, rebuilding his castle of Lochmaben in stone, making use of its natural moat. Rebelling and taking the crown of Scotland in February 1306, Bruce was forced to fight a war against England which went poorly for him at first, while Edward I still lived. After nearly all his family were killed or captured he had to flee to the isle of Rathlin, Ireland. His properties in England and Scotland were confiscated.
Etymology of Scotland
Scotland ( ) is a country that occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain and forms part of the United Kingdom. The name of "Scotland" is derived from the Latin "Scoti", the term applied to Gaels. The origin of the word "Scoti" (or "Scotti") is uncertain. Brian Boru famously referred to himself in an inscription in the Book of Armagh as a Scot. "Brian “Boru” MacCinneteig, Lion of Thomond, and Emperor of the Irish, was “the last great High King of Ireland” from 1002-1014; Famous for crushing the Viking oppression of Ireland in Limerick and Dublin, subduing those overbearing northern O’Neill kings, and unifying the regional kings into one great nation of peace and prosperity... His inscription on the Book of Armagh enhanced his own legend: in conspectu Briain… Imperator Scottorum: In the presence of Brian… Emperor of the Irish." This was in the early 10th Century.
History of Scotland
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. 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. In 1295, John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, known as the Auld Alliance.
In 1296, Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace and Andrew de Moray raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. For a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm. Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Wallace escaped but probably resigned as Guardian of Scotland. In 1305, he fell into the hands of the English, who executed him for treason despite the fact that he owed no allegiance to England.
Scottish independence
A watershed in the Scottish kingdom's history was a succession crisis that erupted in 1290 where Edward I of England claimed the right of succession to the Scottish throne. The Auld Alliance of Scotland and France against English interests was first invoked at this time and remained active through to the 1500s. The Wars of Scottish Independence ended in a renewed kingdom under Robert the Bruce (crowned 1306), whose grandson Robert II of Scotland was the first Scottish king of the House of Stuart.
Robert the Bruce
Despite Bannockburn and the capture of the final English stronghold at Berwick in 1318, Edward II refused to renounce his claim to the overlordship of Scotland. In 1320, the Scottish nobility submitted the Declaration of Arbroath to Pope John XXII, declaring Robert as their rightful monarch and asserting Scotland's status as an independent kingdom. In 1324, the Pope recognised Robert I as king of an independent Scotland, and in 1326, the Franco-Scottish alliance was renewed in the Treaty of Corbeil. In 1327, the English deposed Edward II in favour of his son, Edward III, and peace was concluded between Scotland and England with the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton, by which Edward III renounced all claims to sovereignty over Scotland.
Robert the Bruce
Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), popularly known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: '; modern Scottish Gaelic: '; Norman French: ' or '; Early Scots: "Robert Brus"; ), was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert was one of the most famous warriors of his generation, and eventually led Scotland during the First War of Scottish Independence against England. He fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotland's place as an independent country and is today revered in Scotland as a national hero.
Visit of King George IV to Scotland
Next day the King went in state to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland Sunday service at St. Giles' Cathedral. On the Monday he made a private visit to the Holyrood Palace apartments of his ancestor Mary, Queen of Scots, then in the evening attended the "Caledonian Hunt Ball" in a Guards uniform. Again many of the dancers were kilted, and the King was excited by the reels and strathspeys. Once more his wish was met, that while he was in Scotland all music would be "purely national and characteristic". On the Tuesday, 27 August, George made his last and least formal public appearance, showing his evident pleasure at a theatre performance of Scott's "Rob Roy" adapted and produced by William Henry Murray.
Henry of Scotland
Henry of Scotland ("Eanric mac Dabíd", 1114 – 12 June 1152) was heir apparent to the Kingdom of Alba. He was also the 3rd Earl of Northumberland and the 3rd Earl of Huntingdon. He was the son of King David I of Scotland and Queen Maud, 2nd Countess of Huntingdon.
Competitors for the Crown of Scotland
Margaret died on 26 September 1290 in Orkney on her way to Scotland, leaving the throne vacant. The Guardians called upon her fiancé's father, Edward I of England, to conduct a court in which 104 auditors would choose from among the various competitors for the Scottish throne in a process known as the Great Cause (). One of the strongest claimants, John Balliol, Lord of Galloway, forged an alliance with the powerful Antony Bek, Bishop of Durham, the representative of Edward I in Scotland and began styling himself 'heir of Scotland', while another, Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale, turned up to the site of Margaret's supposed inauguration with a force of soldiers amidst rumours that his friends the Earl of Mar and the Earl of Atholl were also raising their forces. Scotland looked to be headed for civil war.
John Balliol
In 1284 Balliol had attended a parliament at Scone, which had recognised Margaret, Maid of Norway, as heir presumptive to her grandfather, King Alexander III. Following the deaths of Alexander III in 1286 and Margaret in 1290, John Balliol was a competitor for the Scottish crown in the Great Cause, as he was a great-great-great-grandson of David I through his mother (and therefore one generation further than his main rival Robert Bruce, 5th Lord of Annandale, grandfather of Robert the Bruce, who later became king), being senior in genealogical primogeniture but not in proximity of blood. He submitted his claim to the Scottish auditors with King Edward I of England as the administrator of the court, at Berwick-upon-Tweed on 6 June 1291. The Scottish auditors' decision in favour of Balliol was pronounced in the Great Hall of Berwick Castle on 17 November 1292, and he was inaugurated accordingly King of Scotland at Scone, 30 November 1292, St. Andrew's Day.
Duncan I of Scotland
Donnchad mac Crinain (Modern Gaelic: "Donnchadh mac Crìonain"; anglicised as Duncan I, and nicknamed An t-Ilgarach, "the Diseased" or "the Sick"; ca. 1001 – 14 August 1040) was king of Scotland ("Alba") from 1034 to 1040. He is the historical basis of the "King Duncan" in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth".
Owain Foel
Owain Foel could have lived into the 1050s. In 1054, Siward, Earl of Northumbria invaded Alba and defeated the reigning Mac Bethad. According to the twelfth-century texts "Gesta regum Anglorum", and "Chronicon ex chronicis", Siward set up a certain Máel Coluim—identified as the son of the king of the Cumbrians—in opposition to Mac Bethad. Máel Coluim appears to have been a member of the Cumbrian royal dynasty, and may well have been a descendant of Owain Foel himself: perhaps a son or grandson. The Gaelic personal name borne by this man could be evidence of an ancestral link with the ruling Scottish Alpínid dynasty: perhaps a matrilineal link to Owain Foel's confederate at Carham, Máel Coluim mac Cináeda. If the Máel Coluim of 1054 was indeed a member of Owain Foel's family, one possibility is that the Scots had deprived him of the Cumbrian kingship following Owain Foel's demise, and that Siward installed him as king over the Cumbrians following the English victory against Mac Bethad. Another possibility, suggested by the account of events dictated by "Chronicon ex chronicis", is that Siward installed Máel Coluim as King of Alba. If Máel Coluim was indeed placed upon the Scottish throne, one possibility is that Owain Foel was still reigning as King of Strathclyde. Whatever the case, Owain Foel is the last known king of the realm.
Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I
However, David's claim to be heir to the Scottish kingdom was spurious. David was the youngest of eight sons of the fifth from last king. Two more recent kings had produced sons. William fitz Duncan, son of King Donnchad II, and Máel Coluim, son of the last king Alexander, both preceded David in terms of the slowly emerging principles of primogeniture. However, unlike David, neither William nor Máel Coluim had the support of Henry, and both were claimed to be illegitimate. The death in 1122 of Sibylla, daughter of King Henry and wife of King Alexander, increased David's prospects of becoming King, which in turn made David even more important to Henry; it was probably for this reason that King Henry strengthened his military presence in the north of England at this point in time. This act was probably designed to make Alexander acknowledge David as heir, or at least to intimidate Alexander's vassals for this same purpose. So when Alexander died in 1124, the Gaelic aristocracy of Scotland had no choice but to accept David as King, or face war with both David and Henry I.
List of Scottish consorts
In 1660, Charles II, son of the executed Charles I, was restored to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Stuart rule began again. James VII, his brother, was overthrown in 1688–89 because of his Catholic faith; his daughters, Mary II and Anne, were the last Stuarts to rule in the British Isles, Anne dying in 1714. The Kingdom of Scotland, however, had already ceased to exist in 1707, when the Act of Union amalgamated the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into a united Kingdom of Great Britain. James VII's son, James Francis Edward Stuart, refusing to accept the Act of Union, claimed the English and Scottish thrones, as did his son Charles Edward Stuart; however, they are not considered legitimate Kings of Scotland, since they never effectively secured their claims, and so their wives are not listed here.
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), often called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England. His death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England.
List of heirs to the Scottish throne
At the time of James's accession he had no heir-apparent; of the three sons born to his late wife Anne Hyde and the one born to second wife, Mary of Modena, only one had survived past the age of three. The heiress-presumptive to the throne was therefore the King's eldest daughter
The King's Roman Catholic faith and policy of religious tolerance towards Catholics, particularly the Declaration of Indulgence, alarmed the Anglican hierarchy in his realm of England. James's imprisonment of seven Bishops who protested at his policy, and then the birth of a Catholic male heir, which raised the prospect of a Catholic dynasty on the throne, led a group of English noblemen to invite the King's Protestant nephew and son-in-law, William of Orange, to invade. This became known as the Glorious Revolution, and resulted in James's flight to France in December 1688. The English Parliament declared the throne vacant and offered it to William and his wife Mary. All these events in England had no bearing on the constitutional situation in Scotland, and it was only on 11 April 1689, the day of William and Mary's coronation in England, that the Estates of Scotland declared that James VII was no longer King, and offered the Crown jointly to the King and Queen of England. They accepted on 11 May, becoming William II and Mary II of Scots.
List of last scions
The Clan Bruce ruled Scotland from 1306 to 1371. Its last royal member was "King David II" (1324–1371), upon whose death without issue the throne passed to his nephew Robert Stewart. The Clan continues today through other lines that do not have patrilineal royal ancestry, although the current clan chief, Andrew Bruce, 11th Earl of Elgin, is descended from King Robert Bruce in the female line.
Isabel Bruce
Isabel was king Erik's second wife, he having previously been married to the daughter of King Alexander III of Scotland, Margaret of Scotland, who died in childbirth in 1283. Upon the death of King Alexander three years later, his granddaughter, Eric's daughter Margaret, Maid of Norway became heir to the throne of Scotland. King Eric arranged the marriage of his daughter to the English King Edward I's son Edward, which became moot upon the child's death in 1290. The death of Queen Margaret left Scotland without a monarch, and at the mercy of Edward I of England. 
Soon, John Balliol tried to take the Scottish crown with the aid of John Comyn, the Red Comyn. The Bruce family captured strongholds in Galloway, and fighting in the name of the Maid of Norway (Margaret), suppressed the rebellion with many important families like the Stewards supporting them. At the time of Isabel's marriage in 1293, her brother was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne. The Bruces were aligned with King Edward against King John Balliol and his Comyn allies. In 1306, Robert the Bruce was chosen to be King of Scot. British historian G.W.S. Barrow observed that King Eric's renewed contacts with Scotland "increased the ties of friendship which bound him to the English king."
History of Scottish Gaelic
Many historians mark the reign of King Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) as the beginning of Gaelic's decline in Scotland. In either 1068 or 1070, the king married the exiled Princess Margaret of Wessex. This future Saint Margaret of Scotland was a member of the royal House of Wessex, which had occupied the English throne from its founding until the Norman Conquest. Margaret was thoroughly Anglo-Saxon, and is often credited (or blamed) for taking the first significant steps in anglicising the Scottish court. She spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, and brought many English bishops, priests, and monastics to Scotland. Her family also served as a conduit for the entry of English nobles into Scotland. When both Malcolm and Margaret died just days apart in 1093, the Gaelic aristocracy rejected their anglicised sons and instead backed Malcolm's brother Donald as the next King of Scots. Known as Donald ("the Fair"), the new king had lived 17 years in Ireland as a young man, and his power base as an adult was in the thoroughly Gaelic west of Scotland. Upon Donald's accession to the throne, in the words of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", "the Scots drove out all the English who had been with King Malcolm". Malcolm's sons fled to the English court, but in 1097 returned with an Anglo-Norman army backing them. Donald was overthrown, blinded, and imprisoned for the remaining two years of his life. Because of the strong English ties of Malcolm's sons Edgar, Alexander, and David – each of whom became king in turn – Donald is sometimes called the "last Celtic King of Scotland". He was the last Scottish monarch to be buried on Iona, the one-time centre of the Scottish Gaelic Church and the traditional burial place of the Gaelic Kings of and the Kingdom of Alba.
Constantine II of Scotland
Later national myth made Kenneth MacAlpin the creator of the kingdom of Scotland, the founding of which was dated from 843, the year in which he was said to have destroyed the Picts and inaugurated a new era. The historical record for 9th-century Scotland is meagre, but the Irish annals and the 10th-century "Chronicle of the Kings of Alba" agree that Kenneth was a Pictish king, and call him "king of the Picts" at his death. The same style is used of Kenneth's brother Donald I (Domnall mac Ailpín) and sons Constantine I (Constantín mac Cináeda) and Áed (Áed mac Cináeda).
Alexander, Prince of Scotland
Alexander (21 January 1264 – 17 January 1284) was the son of Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret of England, and heir apparent to the throne of Scotland.
Scotland in the Late Middle Ages
Robert I died in 1329, leaving his five-year-old son to reign as David II. During his minority, the country was ruled by a series of governors, two of whom died as a result of a renewed invasion by English forces from 1332. This was on the pretext of restoring Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, to the Scottish throne, thus starting the Second War of Independence. Despite victories at Dupplin Moor (1332) and Halidon Hill (1333), in the face of tough Scottish resistance led by Sir Andrew Murray, the son of Wallace's comrade in arms, successive attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed. Edward III lost interest in the fate of his protege after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with France. In 1341 David was able to return from temporary exile in France. In 1346 under the terms of the Auld Alliance, he invaded England in the interests of France, but was defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346 and would remain in England as a prisoner for 11 years. His cousin Robert Stewart ruled as guardian in his absence. Balliol finally resigned his claim to the throne to Edward in 1356, before retiring to Yorkshire, where he died in 1364.
List of Scottish monarchs
The reign of Kenneth MacAlpin begins what is often called the House of Alpin, an entirely modern concept. The descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin were divided into two branches; the crown would alternate between the two, the death of a king from one branch often hastened by war or assassination by a pretender from the other. Malcolm II was the last king of the House of Alpin; in his reign, he successfully crushed all opposition to him and, having no sons, was able to pass the crown to his daughter's son, Duncan I, who inaugurated the House of Dunkeld.
List of Scottish monarchs
The last King of the House of Dunkeld was Alexander III. His wife had borne him two sons and a daughter but by 1286 his sons were dead and his daughter, Margaret, had borne only a single daughter, also named Margaret, to her husband Eric II of Norway before herself dying. Alexander had himself remarried, but in early 1286 he died in an accident while riding home. His wife, Yolande of Dreux, was pregnant but by November 1286 all hope of her bearing a living child had passed. Accordingly, in the Treaty of Salisbury, the Guardians of Scotland recognised Alexander's three-year-old granddaughter, Margaret of Norway, as Queen of Scots. Margaret remained in her father's Kingdom of Norway until Autumn 1290, when she was dispatched to Scotland. However, she died on the journey in Orkney, having never set foot on Scottish soil, and without being crowned at Scone. She is thus sometimes not considered Queen.
Dunfermline Palace
After the Union of Crowns in 1603, the removal of the Scottish court to London meant that the building came to be rarely visited by a monarch. Ten tapestries from the royal tapestry collection were still there in 1616, left from the time the infant Prince Charles resided at the Palace. When Charles I returned in 1633 for his Scottish coronation he only made a brief visit to his place of birth. The last monarch to occupy the palace was Charles II who stayed at Dunfermline in 1650 just before the Battle of Pitreavie. Soon afterwards, during the of Scotland, the building was abandoned and by 1708 it had been unroofed.
List of Scottish consorts
Upon the death of David II in 1371, his nephew, Robert Stewart (the son of Walter Stewart and Marjorie Bruce, herself the daughter of Robert I by his first marriage) acceded to the throne. His direct line of heirs would continue to rule until the death of his last direct descendant, James V. James left only a six-day-old girl as his heir, prompting his angry exclamation, "The devil go with it! [The rule of the Stewarts] will end as it began. It came with a lass, and it will pass with a lass." In this he was wrong: Mary would marry a member of a junior branch of the Stewart family, and the line they founded would rule not only Scotland but also England and Ireland until 1714. However, the final Stewart monarch was a woman, Anne, Queen of Great Britain.
List of Scottish monarchs
James VII continued to claim the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland. When he died in 1701, his son James inherited his father's claims, and called himself James VIII of Scotland and III of England and Ireland. He would continue to do so all his life, even after the Kingdoms of England and Scotland were ended by their merging as the Kingdom of Great Britain. In 1715, a year after the death of his sister, Queen Anne, and the accession of their cousin George of Hanover, James landed in Scotland and attempted to claim the throne. He failed, and was forced to flee back to the Continent. A second attempt by his son, Charles on behalf of his father, in 1745, also failed. Both James's children died without legitimate issue, bringing the Stuart family to an end.After 1807, the Jacobite claims passed first to the House of Savoy (1807–1840), then to the Modenese branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (1840–1919), and finally to the House of Wittelsbach (since 1919). The current heir is Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Neither he nor any of his predecessors since 1807 have pursued their claim.
James VI and I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until his death in 1625. The kingdoms of Scotland and England were individual sovereign states, with their own parliaments, judiciaries, and laws, though both were ruled by James in personal union.
Style of the monarchs of Scotland
In the late Middle Ages the styles "rex Scottorum" ("king of the Scots") and "rex Scotiae" ("king of Scotland") were used interchangeably. Similarly, the Monarchs of England could be referred to as the "king of the English" as indeed Edward II of England was in the Declaration of Arbroath (1320). King of the Scots was used in "The Declaration of the Clergy in favour of Robert the Bruce" (1334), as it was in the charter by which Edward Balliol ceded the southern counties of Scotland to England. However, in many other documents King of Scotland was the preferred style, including "The Letter of the Magnates of Scotland to the King of France" (1308), "The Settlement of Succession on Robert the Bruce" (1315), the Treaty of Corbeuil (1326), the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton (1328), the Papal Bull authorising the anointing of Scottish Kings (1329) and the Treaty of Berwick (1357). This remained the case until the last three monarchs of Scotland, William II, Mary II and Anne, who became Queen of Great Britain following the Acts of Union 1707.
Neo-Jacobite Revival
The House of Stuart was a European royal house that originated in Scotland. Nine Stuart monarchs ruled Scotland alone from 1371 until 1603. The last of these, King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England and Ireland after the death of Elizabeth I in the Union of the Crowns. The Stuarts ruled the United Kingdom until 1714, when Queen Anne died. Parliament had passed the Act of Settlement in 1701 and the Act of Security in 1704, which transferred The Crown to the House of Hanover, ending the line of Stuart monarchs.
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III (Medieval Gaelic: "Alaxandair mac Alaxandair"; Modern Gaelic: "Alasdair mac Alasdair") (4 September 1241 – 19 March 1286) was King of Scots from 1249 until his death in 1286.
Scone, Perth and Kinross
Scone's role therefore came under threat as Scotland's twelfth century kings gradually became more French and less Gaelic. Walter of Coventry reported in the reign of William I of Scotland that "The modern kings of Scotland count themselves as Frenchmen, in race, manners, language and culture; they keep only Frenchmen in their household and following, and have reduced the Scots to utter servitude." Though exaggerated, there was truth in this. Apparently for this reason, when the Normanized David I of Scotland ("") went to Scone to be crowned there in the summer of 1124, he initially refused to take part in the ceremonies. According to Ailred of Rievaulx, friend and one time member of David's court, David "so abhorred those acts of homage which are offered by the Scottish nation in the manner of their fathers upon the recent promotion of their kings, that he was with difficulty compelled by the bishops to receive them". Inevitably then this was bound to affect the significance of Scone as a ritual and cult centre, yet the inauguration ceremony was preserved with only some innovation through the thirteenth century and Scottish kings continued to be crowned there until 1651, when Charles II became the last King of Scotland to have a coronation there (see List of Scottish monarchs). Moreover, until the later Middle Ages kings continued to reside there, and parliaments, often some of the most important parliaments in Scottish history, frequently met there too.
Giles Foden
Giles Foden (born 11 January 1967) is an English author, best known for his novel "The Last King of Scotland" (1998).
Wars of Scottish Independence
King Alexander III of Scotland died in 1286, leaving his three-year-old granddaughter Margaret (called "the Maid of Norway") as his heir. In 1290, the Guardians of Scotland signed the Treaty of Birgham agreeing to the marriage of the Maid of Norway and Edward of Caernarvon, the son of Edward I, who was Margaret's great-uncle. This marriage would not create a union between Scotland and England because the Scots insisted that the Treaty declare that Scotland was separate and divided from England and that its rights, laws, liberties and customs were wholly and inviolably preserved for all time.
William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale
A party known as the "Disinherited" (senior Anglo-Scottish Nobles on the losing side after Bannockburn) lured Edward Baliol, son of former King John of Scotland from France in 1331, with the aim of restoring him to the throne and their privileges. Throughout the winter and spring of 1332 the "Disinherited" led by a veteran campaigner Henry de Beaumont and Baliol, with tacit support, but outward neutrality from Edward III, were gathering supplies and men for the invasion of Scotland. The last of the old guard Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray, Bruce's nephew died in July and the leadership crisis in Scotland made it ripe for the picking. In violation of the Treaty of Northampton, which forbade any military incursions across the Border, Baliol's forces set sail from the Yorkshire coast and landed at Kinghorn in Fife, and marched to meet the forces of David Bruce. The Battle of Dupplin Moor, was a decisive defeat for the defenders and Baliol was crowned King of Scots on 24 September. Baliol had little support in his new kingdom, except in his ancestral lands in Galloway. Baliol and his army marched across the Lowlands, and was being slowly eroded by guerrilla tactics learnt only twenty years previously. Baliol was ambushed at the Battle of Annan on 16 December 1332. Baliol's brother Henry is said to have died in the skirmish, and it is the first time that William Douglas is recorded in battle, and Baliol himself had to flee south ignominiously.
Kenneth II of Scotland
Cináed mac Maíl Coluim (Modern Gaelic: "Coinneach mac Mhaoil Chaluim" anglicised as Kenneth II, and nicknamed An Fionnghalach, "The Fratricide"; died 995) was King of Scots ("Alba"). The son of Malcolm I (Máel Coluim mac Domnaill), he succeeded King Cuilén (Cuilén mac Iduilb) on the latter's death at the hands of Rhydderch ap Dyfnwal in 971.
Catholic Church in England and Wales
Henry Benedict Stuart (Cardinal-Duke of York), the last Jacobite heir to publicly assert a claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, died in Rome in 1807. A monument to the Royal Stuarts exists today at Vatican City. Franz, Duke of Bavaria, head of the Wittelsbach family, is the most senior descendant of King Charles I and is considered by Jacobites to be the heir of the Stuarts.
Constantine III of Scotland
Constantine is not known to have any descendants and he was the last of the line of Áed (Áed mac Cináeda) to have been king. With his death, the rivalry between descendants of Causantin and Áed gave way to a rivalry between two new royal lines, both descended from Causantin. One line descended from Kenneth II and was represented by his son Malcolm II. The other line descended from his brother Dub, King of Scotland (reigned 962-967) and was represented by Kenneth III.
Constantine II of Scotland
Compared to neighbouring Ireland and Anglo-Saxon England, few records of 9th- and 10th-century events in Scotland survive. The main local source from the period is the "Chronicle of the Kings of Alba", a list of kings from Kenneth MacAlpin (died 858) to Kenneth II (Cináed mac Maíl Coluim, died 995). The list survives in the Poppleton Manuscript, a 13th-century compilation. Originally simply a list of kings with reign lengths, the other details contained in the Poppleton Manuscript version were added in the 10th and 12th centuries. In addition to this, later king lists survive. The earliest genealogical records of the descendants of Kenneth MacAlpin may date from the end of the 10th century, but their value lies more in their context, and the information they provide about the interests of those for whom they were compiled, than in the unreliable claims they contain.
Scotland
The Treaty of Perpetual Peace was signed in 1502 by James IV of Scotland and Henry VII of England. James married Henry's daughter, Margaret Tudor. James invaded England in support of France under the terms of the Auld Alliance and became the last British monarch to die in battle, at Flodden in 1513. In 1560, the Treaty of Edinburgh brought an end to the Anglo-French conflict and recognized the Protestant Elizabeth I as Queen of England. The Parliament of Scotland met and immediately adopted the Scots Confession, which signaled the Scottish Reformation's sharp break from papal authority and Catholic teaching. The Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots was forced to abdicate in 1567.
History of the formation of the United Kingdom
Deeper political integration was a key policy of Queen Anne (1702–14), who succeeded to the throne in 1702 as the last Stuart monarch of England and Scotland (she was also the only Stuart monarch of Great Britain). The Queen appointed Commissioners for the union on the part of Scotland and England respectively, and in 1706 they began negotiations in earnest, with agreement reached on the terms of a Treaty of Union on 22 July 1706. The circumstances of Scotland's acceptance of the Bill are to some degree disputed. Scottish proponents believed that failure to accede to the Bill would result in the imposition of Union under less favourable terms, and the Lord Justice Clerk, James Johnstone later observed that ""As for giving up the legislative power, we had none to give up... for the true state of the matter was whether Scotland should be subject to an English ministry without the privilege of trade or be subject to an English Parliament with trade."" Months of fierce debate on both sides of the border were to follow, particularly in Scotland where debate could often dissolve into civil disorder, most notably by the notorious "Edinburgh Mob". The prospect of a union of the kingdoms was deeply unpopular among the Scottish population at large; however, following the financially disastrous Darien Scheme, the near-bankrupt Parliament of Scotland did accept the proposals.
Fergus I (mythological king)
The "first king of Scotland", according to the fictitious chronologies of Boece and Buchanan, is said to have come to Scotland from Ireland about 330 B.C. to assist the Scots already settled in Scotland against the joint attack of the Picts and Britons. After succeeding in this he is further said to have gone back to Ireland to quell disturbances which had arisen in his absence, and to have been drowned in the passage off the port which got the name of Carrickfergus from him. According to Fordoun, Wyntoun, and most of the earlier genealogical lists of Scottish kings, the same account is given of the settlement of the Scots from Ireland by a King Fergus, son of Ferchard. According to others of the lists, Ferchard or Feardach, the father of Fergus, was the first and Fergus the second king. There follows a series of thirty-nine or forty-five kings between Fergus I and Fergus II, son of Earc. The critical insight of Father Innes demolished these fabulous lists of kings, and put the chronology of Scottish history on a sound foundation, by his proof that Fergus II, son of Earc, who came to Scotland about the end of the fifth century A.D., was in reality the first Dál Riata king in Scotland. Innes's results have been adopted by subsequent historians.
History of England
In parts of Scotland and Ireland, Catholics loyal to James remained determined to see him restored to the throne, and staged a series of bloody uprisings. As a result, any failure to pledge loyalty to the victorious King William was severely dealt with. The most infamous example of this policy was the Massacre of Glencoe in 1692. Jacobite rebellions continued into the mid-18th century until the son of the last Catholic claimant to the throne, James III & VIII, mounted a final campaign in 1745. The Jacobite forces of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, the "Bonnie Prince Charlie" of legend, were defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
List of Scottish monarchs
The death of Margaret of Norway began a two-year interregnum in Scotland caused by a succession crisis. With her death, the descent of William I became extinct and there was no obvious heir by primogeniture. Thirteen candidates presented themselves; the most prominent were John de Balliol, great-grandson of William I's younger brother David of Huntingdon, and Robert de Brus, 5th Lord of Annandale, David of Huntingdon's grandson. The Scottish Magnates invited Edward I of England to arbitrate the claims. He did so but forced the Scots to swear allegiance to him as overlord. Eventually, it was decided that John de Balliol should become King. He proved weak and incapable and, in 1296, was forced to abdicate by Edward I who then attempted to annex Scotland into the Kingdom of England.