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Welcome to Bonnie Scotland, the home of the Murrays.  
 The British isles (Or the United Kingdom) is made up of England, northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Scotland makes
up the top section of the distinctive shape. As shown in the diagram below.
The history of Scotland is a long and troubled tale of wars and battles and conflict with England (amongst a long list
of opponants).
Scotland has always fought fearcly for it's indepandence and recognition as a country in it's own right.
 This is Edinbourgh castle, one of the main symbols of scotland. It stands on a hill in the great city and the views
are breathtaking!
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| Glammis castle |
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| Head of loch Tay |
| Loch Katrine |
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A BRIEF BIT OF SCOTTISH HISTORY |
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At the head of the Annandale Valley, along
the English border in southern Scotland, lies Lochmaben. In the late twelfth century, on a small, level peninsula that thrust
out into the loch, there was built a defensive structure called a motte. This was little more than a hill, a massive earthwork,
surrounded at its base by the waters of the loch and earthen ramparts and ditches.
Perhaps a century later, a wooden tower,
thought to have been built by the Bruce, or de Brus, family, was added atop the hill, and buildings of stone were established
there by 1298. Shortly after, the structure was altered to become a full-fledged castle, complete with a formidable gray stone
curtain wall surrounding a typically square courtyard. A wide moat fed by waters of the loch changed the peninsula into an
island, and, with other channels, allowed none to enter the castle without approaching by boat or drawbridge. The main gate,
which opened upon the ditch, was defended by positions on all four walls of the court.
It was one of the strongest of Scotlands
fortresses, and a breathtakingly awesome sight when viewed from any direction across the rugged Scottish landscape.
Robert de Brus, "The Noble," lived at
Lochmaben before his death in 1296. He was the esteemed Lord of Annandale who had vied for the Scottish crown against John
Balliol and others, after the child heir to the throne, "The Maid of Norway," died before reaching Scotland from her native
land. (Thus did de Brus come ever after to be called "The Competitor.") Both Balliol and de Brus were of royal blood and held
the strongest of the claims, thus the decision eventually came down between those two.
The Scottish nobles, unable to decide
amongst themselves who should ascend the throne, called upon Edward, king of neighboring England, to aid in deciding whose
claim was the stronger. His requirements before giving such help to the Scots included the stipulation that Scotland be placed
under his direct suzerainty until the matter was settled. Rankled and hesitant, the Scots nevertheless agreed.
After much formality and legal wrangling
Balliol was awarded the crown, only to be bullied and eventually dethroned, imprisoned, and exiled to the Continent by King
Edward. Whether premeditated or not, Edward had set upon the Scottish throne the one who was less competent to withstand his
hectoring, and with the Scottish throne again vacant, Edward assumed overlordship of the sovereign land.
The stubborn Scots resisted with all their
might through the blood and strength of her people, led by two patriot sons, the noble Andrew Murray and the commoner William
Wallace.
Murray died late in the year of the tremendous
Scottish victory at Stirling Bridge, possibly of wounds received there, and Wallace became Scotlands champion, knighted by
her nobles and appointed sole Guardian of Scotland. Just in his early twenties, Sir William fought valiantly, and his efforts
at first gave great courage and hope to the Scots. However, his lack of training and battlefield experience eventually led
to failed campaigns and lost battles, and Scottish hopes were dashed. Sir William escaped capture and was unheard from for
several years. When he returned and again attempted to gather and lead an army of Scots, he was betrayed to and captured by
English forces.
Wallace was tortured and executed August
23, 1305. It was a bloody affair that ended with the misfortunate Sir William beheaded and his body quartered by a London
butcher and sent for display in four separate parts of the land. His severed head was set upon a pike high on London Bridge
as fair warning of the punishment meted out for "insurrection." Many of Scotlands patriots had suffered similar fates.
"Good King Edward" must have been of particularly
cruel bent to have created such a horrible death for his enemies, but times were generally harsh. Most commoners of the period
were literally enslaved to lands they would never own, and the savagery of life itself could easily spell a meanness to the
spirit and body of the beholder.
Robert de Brus "The Competitor" had a
son, also named Robert, who held the title Earl of Carrick in right of his wife, her late father having been so titled. When
Earl Robert died on a crusade to the Holy Land in 1304, his eldest son and namesake inherited the earldom, as at "The Competitors"
death he had become Lord of Annandale.
Through various other family affiliations,
thirty-two year old Lord Robert de Brus, grandson of "the Competitor," also owned or controlled many estates and lands other
than Carrick and Annandale, both in Scotland and in England. Though he had initially supported Wallace, de Brus was looked
upon with favor by the King of England for his part in bringing peace, such as it was, between the two nations.
He was a wealthy, powerful man. |
A Brief History of Scotland
The long history of the lands of the northern third of Great
Britain has been violent and often tragic. The castles and ruins, the songs and the legends tell Scotland's tale. It is the
harshness of its history and the ruggedness of its land that have shaped its proud inhabitants. How the country came to be,
and evolved, has long taxed the minds of many historians.
Archaeological records show that the first nomadic hunters
and gatherers came to the area over 6,000 years ago, as the last remains of the ice age crept northward. The first recorded
history of Scotland was by the Roman historian Tacitus in the first Century A.D., who called the people the Picts, and referred
to them as "savages", and "fierce enemies". It was in order to fight the Romans that the warring clans began to unite. The
Romans had conquered all the rest of Britain, but were never able to subdue the Caledonian clansmen of the north, and in the
end constructed Hadrian's Wall, an imposing stone barrier stretching from sea to sea, to protect them from the marauding Picts.
Shortly
after 400 A.D., the Romans left the British Isles, and Scotland began to emerge from the dark ages. There were four peoples
inhabiting what was then called Alban: the Picts, the Scots, the Britons, and the Angles, when invasions by Norwegian Vikings
began. By 843, Kenneth MacAlpin, King of the Scots of Dalriada held all lands north of the river Forth, and renamed the kingdom:
Scotia. Duncan I (portrayed in Shakespeare's Macbeth) added to this kingdom the rest of mainland Scotland. Although there
followed a period of peace with England, war between Scotland and Norway was constant, as was infighting in Scotland itself.
King
Edward I of England fought off a Scottish invasion by John Balliol, and then rampaged through Scotland, eventually capturing
the Stone of Scone, the ancient stone of destiny upon which Scottish kings had been crowned for seven centuries. He placed
the stone in Westminster Abbey, where it stayed until it was stolen back by Scottish nationalists in 1950. The stone was formally
returned to Scotland on November 15, 1996, and is now on display in Edinburgh Castle. For his exploits, Edward I earned the
nickname "Hammer of the Scots".
The Scots continued attempts to free themselves of England's tyranny. One of Scotland's
greatest national heroes, Robert the Bruce, had himself crowned at Scone in 1306. His uprising was defeated, but Bruce was
not killed. He became a famed outlaw who harassed the English armies using guerilla tactics, and uniting Scottish noblemen
to his cause. By 1314, Bruce had driven the English out of every town in Scotland, save Stirling.
In 1371, Robert Stewart
became the Scottish king, the first in a long line of Stewarts (later spelled "Stuart"). There had been several child kings
and much strife when James IV came to the throne at age fifteen. He managed to control lowland rebellions, and attempted to
make peace with the Highland clan chiefs. In 1502, James IV signed a treaty of perpetual peace with England, and married Margaret
Tudor, daughter of King Henry VII of England, thus paving the way for the eventual union of the crowns.
The Stuart
line was to come to an end with Mary Queen of Scots, one of history's most prominent women. Mary became Queen of Scotland
when she was just a week old. Henry the VIII arranged for Mary to marry his young son, and so when Mary's mother rejected
this treaty of marriage, Henry responded with a vengeful onslaught, burning and pillaging in Edinburgh and the Border Country.
Mary returned from France at age eighteen, widowed, beautiful, strong-willed, and Catholic. Her attempt to rule a Scotland
that had renounced the Catholic Church in favor of Protestantism in 1557 was plagued with difficulties. Eventually, Mary was
forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son James VI. She fled to England, to her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Due to
her claims to the English throne, Mary was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and then beheaded in 1587. The two queens never
met, and some historians suggest that Elizabeth was insanely jealous of Mary's beauty and charm.
In 1583, James VI
escaped from his Protestant kidnappers, and resumed the throne of Scotland. When Elizabeth I died in 1603, James was her only
heir; thus he became James I of England, as well as James VI of Scotland. James' most lasting legacy is the King James Bible;
the translation of the bible into English still favored by many Protestants. The union of the crowns did not however put an
end to struggles in Scotland.
Civil war in England in 1642 pitted the cavaliers fighting for King Charles I against
the Roundheads of Oliver Cromwell's parliament. When the victorious Cromwell forced the execution of Charles I, the Scottish
proclaimed Charles' son as their king. Cromwell, incensed, invaded Scotland, uniting the two countries under a strong, central,
civil government. Upon Cromwell's death, the English Monarchy was restored to the throne. Many Scots felt they had lost their
independence, and the stage was set for uprisings.
The Jacobites wanted the return to a Stuart king for Scotland, and
periodically took up arms to this end. By 1707, the English line of succession had passed to the Queen Sophia of the German
Hannover family. The Scots agreed to a union of parliaments and a Hannoverian succession in return for commercial equality,
use of their own legal system and the Presbyterian religion. The Jacobite rebellion grew, as did opposition to the union of
the parliaments. In 1715, James Edward rallied the Scottish clans around him, and was proclaimed king of Scotland. However,
the great families of Scotland were not united, and the uprising was defeated.
Despite attempts by the English to disarm
the clansmen and ship Jacobites to plantations in America, the Jacobites rose again. Bonnie Prince Charlie, a handsome and
charming man, gradually drew support until he led 3,000 clansmen to Edinburgh to reinstate his father, James Edward, as king
of Scotland. After winning several battles in Scotland, Charles crossed the border and pushed southward toward London. Only
a few hundred kilometers from London, a fatal decision was made to withdraw to the highlands in order to raise more troops.
Scotland was as divided as ever, many clans supporting the Honoverian side, and a large, well-equipped army was facing Charles.
Finally, on Culloden Moor in 1746, Charles' ragged and hungry Highlanders were slaughtered by the English cavalry. Charles,
however, escaped by rowboat to the Isle of Skye, disguised as a maidservant. And, even though the English put a price on his
head of 30,000 pounds (an incredibly large sum of money for the time), no one ever betrayed him.
The English response
to these uprisings was vengeful and cruel: whole villages were burned and clansmen were slaughtered or shipped to the plantations.
In fact, the English tried to destroy the clan system with the Disarming Act of 1746: no Scot was allowed to bear arms, and
the wearing of clan tartans and even the playing of bagpipes were banned. The penalty for wearing 'any part whatsoever' of
the Highland dress was six months in jail for a first offence.
Miraculously, many of the Scottish traditions survived
and have flourished, making the clan tartan one of the most powerful worldwide symbols of kinship. Gradually, the restrictions
were dropped, and Scotland as part of Great Britain entered a period of peace and prosperity that continues to the present
day.
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