It would not be unreasonable to date the historic emergence of "Scotland" from the reign of King Kenneth I. The period of Viking terror was at its height and internal rivalry between Picts and Dalriadic Scots created enormous instability in the land. Kenneth MacAlpine was crowned king of the Scots in 841 and succeeded in quelling (whether through battle or alliance is unclear) the Viking invasions along his coast. Several Pictish kings had been killed in quick succession in battle with the Viking invaders and direct Pict succession to the throne may have been in doubt. The Picts had a strong history of matrilineal succession and when Kenneth married the daughter of Pict King Constantine he assumed the role of High King, on Constantine's death, uniting Celt and Pict. With the at least grudging approval of the other Pictish mormaors, Kenneth was crowned High King in 843 ruling for 16 years, a remarkable term for those troubled times. After him the Picts began to call themselves after his people, the Scots, and their entire country Scotland, possibly in his honour. Of course, in another retelling of the tale, Kenneth, aligned with the Vikings, defeated the Picts, murdered the mormaors and imposed his reign on the majority through brutal repression. Which version you believe probably tells more about you than about Kenneth!

Immortalized by Shakespeare as a devious weakling, the historical Macbeth MacFinnie was a far different man. When Malcolm Forranach, the destroyer, died without direct heir, his grandson Duncan assumed the throne. To solidify his throne, Duncan, together with his ally Echmarcach king of Dublin, attacked Malcolm's other two grandsons, Thornfin Raven-Feeder and Macbeth MacFinnie, mormaor of Moray. In the resulting battles Macbeth killed Duncan and assumed the High Kingship himself. Gruoch, Lady Macbeth, obviously had no role in Duncan's death in battle. In his relatively peaceful 17 year reign, Macbeth instituted the first rules of law, on a national scale, in the country. A very fine King, by the standards of the time, The Laws of Macbeth were the first civilizing influence in an all too troubled land.

Bastard son of Duncan, Malcolm Canmore (Big Head), rallied the English to his cause and, in a series of battles managed to defeat Macbeth in the middle of the 11th century. Lulack was briefly installed as King but within 6 months was in turn killed by Malcolm who then assumed the High Kingship himself. Malcolm spent his reign in bloody raids into Northern England until finally trying the patience of William the Conqueror who moved north with his navy and huge army. As fellow Normans, this may have been the Frasers and the Lindsays first sight of their future home. Facing defeat, Malcolm was forced to swear fealty to William as Lord Paramount--an oath the English, from that point on, used as proof of their right to Scotland as a sub kingdom. William return to England with Malcolm's oldest son, Duncan, as hostage. However, caring little for Duncan or his oath, Malcolm immediately resumed his raids into Northern England where he was finally killed in battle, along with his son Edward, at Alnmouth in 1093.

For such a brutal man, Malcolm Canmore is also remembered for an act of love. In a bid to unseat William the Conqueror from the English throne, Edward Atheling, true heir to the throne, had sail from exile in Europe to arouse the Saxons to his cause. Failing in the attempt, he was fleeing back to Europe when his ship was blown into Sunderland harbour and the hands of Malcolm Canmore who immediately fell in love with Edward's sister Margaret. Or, at least, Malcolm thought an alliance through marriage with Edward would be a good political move on his part. Malcolm banished his wife from Dunfermline and installed Margaret. Shortly afterwards the Queen died ("not without suspicion of poison") and Malcolm married Margaret. What the deeply religious Margaret thought of all this is not known, but she did bear Malcolm 6 sons and two daughters, all of whom where given Saxon names. Margaret's life's work was the conversion of Scotland to Roman Catholicism from its traditional Columban Church. She also improved trade, manufacture, the arts and improved the life of the surfs. Margaret won the love of the people. Near the end of her life, she built the austere "St. Margaret's Chapel" at Edinburgh Castle where she retreated into virtual isolation and died soon after learning of the death of Malcolm and her son.

The youngest son of Malcolm and Margaret was destined to become one of Scotland's greatest kings. In the turmoil following Malcolm's death, David Canmore fled to England for protection. Youngest of six brothers he was unlikely to assume the crown. However, one by one, his brothers either died or were killed and after over twenty years in exile, David moved north to assume the throne. David had married well to Matilda, Countess of Huntington, and was extremely wealthy by this time. William Rufus the Conqueror had died and the less aggressive Henry I was king of England, and friendly toward David. Indeed when he returned to Scotland, David brought many of his Norman friends with him, likely Frasers, Lindsays, Bruce, Stewarts, Chisholm, Comyn, Gordon and Baille among them. David modernized his sadly neglected realm, organizing it into parishes and shires, introduced the feudal system, updating and enforcing the Laws of Macbeth. Deeply religious, he embarked on an ambitious campaign of building dozens of abbeys and monasteries to the glory of his God and to produce the educated man power needed to by his modern realm. He died, after 29 years on the throne of a mostly peaceful, if forcefully feudalized, kingdom, and left behind him a land transformed into one of the wealthiest and best governed counties in Europe.

However, by the early 14th century Scotland was virtually a captive land, reeling under Edward, Hammer of the Scots. Robert the Bruce was the first of the Norman Lords whose ancestors had conquerored England under William, to become King of Scotland. The heroic battles of William Wallace for Scotland's Independence had put the Norman immigrant families in a difficult position. England was now, essentially, a Norman land where many of them owned estates, so to whom did the Scotish Norman's owe allegiance, their Norman heritage or their Scottish home? Indeed it took betrayal by the Comyns and Bruce's vengeful murder of John Comyn, Lord of Badenock, in a church, to bring Robert the Bruce to the Throne and to make Wallace's campaign for independence his own. At first little more than a fugitive in a land dominated and impoverished by Edward I, Bruce's small victories began to rally the support of the Frasers, the Douglas, the Campbells and the Stewarts. Then the Hammer of the Scots died and at the greatest military victory in Scottish history, Edward II and his overwhelming English forces were defeated at the Battle of Bannockburn. A peace treaty with England was finally signed by Edward III in 1328.

In the late 15th century James Stewart IV inherited a nation fallen far from the dream of Wallace and Bruce. The power of the nobles had come to rival that of the king and the nation was desperate for a strong and able monarch. They found it at last in James, who was also one of the most chivalrous and romantic kings in the nations history. James began by constructing a fleet of warships which balanced the English might at sea, he defeated the powerful Lord of the Isles and merged the Lordship with the crown, he passed the Education Act of 1496 requiring all 1st borns to attend school and he won the love and respect of a beleaguered nation. The people found in the dashing king a man they could finally admire. However, in England, Henry VII had died and was replace by the powerful and aggressive Henry VIII. It wasn't long before Henry was at war with France and France called upon her Auld Alliance with Scotland. James assembled the largest army Scotland had ever raised, but unfortunately, was defeated and killed in the ensuring battle.

Mary Stewart became Queen of Scots at one week of age and was the widowed Queen of France as well before she was out of her teens. Returning to her troubled homeland in 1561, at 19 years of age, after 17 months on the French Throne, she found the usual threats from England and plotting by the aristocracy but also the religious turmoil of the Reformation led by the eloquent and strong willed John Knox. The young and Catholic Mary and the hardened and middle-aged Knox clashed several times with neither giving ground. She took him to task for his views of women as weak, feeble and foolish creatures and he compared her subjects to children whose father has gone insane. Young and passionate, most of Mary's nobles and courtiers were in love with her. In the harsh Reform climate of the day, several admirers where put to death in front of her, one dragged from under her bed. Very shortly after the mysterious death of her husband, in 1567, James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, "kidnapped" Mary and "forced" her to marry him. Outraged by both of them, Moray together with other Lords of the realm, besieged the castle in which the couple were staying. Bothwell quickly escaped leaving Mary behind. But she, dressed as a boy, climbed down a rope from a window, found her way through the besieging army and returned to Bothwell. Recaptured by Moray, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son, James VI, with Moray named Regent. Locked, this time in an island castle, Mary again escaped, this time to England where she threw herself on the mercy of Elizabeth I, who immediately imprisoned her in the Tower for 18 years before finally having her executed.

James Stewart had four Regents before he was 12. Severely schooled by George Buchanan, by age 8 he had mastered Latin, French, English, Greek and Hebrew, and was thoroughly grounded in Theology, astronomy, demonology, geography etc. and had learned well to hate his mother as a murderer and an adulteress. At 16 he was kidnapped as pawn in the eternal power struggles of the Scottish nobles and held in Ruthven Castle for a year before he was rescued by the Machiavelli of Scottish politics, Patrick, Master of Gray. It was largely through Gray's political machinations that James was guided safely through the dangers of Scotland's violent politics until he succeeded to the throne of England upon the death of the Virgin Queen Elizabeth uniting the two kingdoms under Scottish rule. After leaving to assume the English Crown as James I, he returned to Scotland only once in 1617. He died in 1625, a monarch for 58 of his 59 years.

James VII & II, a fervent Catholic had reeked such havoc on Protestant England that he was forced to flee the country. The English Parliament declared he had deserted the nation and forfeited the crown. On his death, his son, "The Old Pretender" proclaimed himself James VIII & III in exile. Protestant England chose the German Protestant George, Elector of Hanover as successor to the crown. Eventually, James son, the Italian born Charles Stewart, with what he believed to be the backing of France under the Auld Alliance, sought to reclaim the crown for his now aged father, from the German born George II. Backed by the still largely Catholic Highlanders, ill prepared, badly led, underfinanced, he almost succeeded. Finally at Derby, after a successful military campaign down the length of Scotland and England, less than 130 miles from London (where George II was busy packing in preparation to flee), with none of the promised money from France to pay his impoverished soldiers and rumours of massive English forces arranged against him, the decision was made to turn back. Finally at Culloden, the last military battle on British soil, Charles was defeated by the overwhelming forces of George II's brother, William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland. Charles was forced into hiding. For his support of Charles, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovatt was the last man beheaded in England. Cumberland's reprisals against Scotland for its support of Charles were savage and terrible and would earn him the nickname, the Butcher. The entire country was made to pay with the Disarming Act under which only a single blunt tipped eating knife was permitted any Highlander, and the Unclothing Act under which the tartan and highland dress were outlawed. The Jacobite chiefs fortified their titles and estates, and all symbols of nationhood were forbidden. The ill conceived and executed campaign of 1745 cost the country greatly, its effects felt to this day.

Scotland was beaten and dispirited under the Hammer of the Scots. All the major castles in the land were under the control of the savage Edward Plantagenet and his garrisons ruled the land. The people were frightened and humiliated. Initially without the support of the Norman or Anglo Saxon peoples of his country, Wallace small band of celtic warriors made their first inroads against the power of Edward in Moray, the former home of MacBeth. Together with Sir Andrew Moray, his first powerful assistant, they defeated Edwards forces at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Fresh from this victory, the newly knighted Wallace called an assembly and counsil of the Scots at Selkirk. Among the Normans to now rally to his support was young Robert the Bruce. Enragaged, Edward's powerful English army roared up from the south. Unable to defeat so mighty a force, Wallace turned to guerilla tactics, winning many minor battles before being forced to confront Edward head on at Falkirk where he was finally defeated. Although Wallace escaped, he was betrayed and captured at Robberstone by Sir John Stewart of Menteith who handled him over to Edward's wrath. Taken to London, Wallace was hung until nealy dead, then cut down, disembowled, his intestines burned before his very eyes, then decapitated and dismembered.

Simon the patriot, a famous general under William Wallace, defeated the English army 3 times in one day at the Battle of Roslin Muir, February 24, 1302. With a force of only 9,000 men he faced an army of 30,000 on its way to plunder the Lothians. However the English force had divided in three and Simon and his army defeated each wave in turn. Fraser helped bridge the gap between the death of Wallace and Robert the Bruce taking up the fight. He was captured at Methven, near Perth, in 1306. Taken to London he was hung, drawn "his head smyten of, and hanged agene with chynes of iren uppon the gallwes, and his head uppon London brig on a sper."

Chamberlain of Scotland under Robert the Bruce, he took part in the battle of Bannockburn that defeated the forces of Edward III in 1314. As Chamberlain, his seal appears on the Declaration of Arbroath , a letter to Pope John XXII dated April 20, 1320 requesting recognition of the Independance of Scotland. He married Robert the Bruce's widowed sister, Lady Mary, who had been imprisoned in a cage by the Hammer of the Scots, Edward I. From him descend the Frasers of Philorth, later Lords Saltoun.

In the early days of the Stewarts reign weak kings were on the throne and the mighty nobles of the realm fought terrible battles amongst themselves. In 1388, the most powerful of them all, the Earl of Douglas, raised an army of 40,000 men in his family feud with Percy, Earl of Nothumberland. He chased Percy deep into Northumderland right to the doors of Alnwick Castle. But Percy refused his provacation and unable to mount an extended seige, Douglas retired toward Scotland. Percy attacked his sleeping camp in the middle of the night. His force in disarray, Douglas was helped into his armour and leaped to the front of the battle only to die without a blow being struck. Puzzled but outraged, his men rallied with the cry "A Douglas, A Douglas", and held the body upright until the battle was won and Percy captured. This is the famous battle of Chevy Chase that was won by a dead man. It was later learned that Douglas armour-bearer, having a grudge against the Earl, had used the opportunity of the battle to kill him.

Somerled the Mighty, Lord of the Isles

During the reign of Malcolm IV, Somerled and his forces drove the Vikings out of the Hebrides and the Western Coast of Scotland and established a sub kingdom there. From Somerled are descended some of the greatest Scottish Clan such as the MacDonalds and the MacDougals. His descendants continued to play a powerful role in the history of the country until defeated by James IV who sumsumed the Lordship under the titles of the crown.

Sir Thomas Boyd, Earl of Arran

Alexander Boyd, together with his brother Robert, Lord Boyd of Kilmarnock, and Gilbert, Lord Kennedy, seized the young King James III and imprisioned him in Edinburgh Castle. Alexander then married his son, Thomas, Earl of Arran to James sister Princess Mary Stewart. Thomas then, virtually took over Scotland. Under his rule, the Orkney and Shetland Island became, once more, a part of Scotland. Thomas arranged for James to marry Margaret, daughter of the King of Denmark. Unfortuantely the King of Denmark could not come up with the dowery and pledged instead the Islands of Orkney and Shetland to the Scottish crown. Unfortunately, while Thomas was away negiotiating with the Danish King, the Earls of Buchan and Etholl, had his father Alexander arrested for treason and beheaded. Robert fled to England and Thomas, wisely turned around and scampered back to Denmark. Orkney and Shetland remained with Scotland.