In todays post I will put together a chronology of some of Scotlands history in regards of who was king or queen.
Before the first King’s:
10,000 BC: end of last Ice Age
7000 BC: Mesolithic Age; hunter-gatherers on the island of Rum
3500 BC: Neolithic Age
3100-2600 BC: Neolithic village of Skara Brae (Orkney)
3000 BC: Chambered tomb of Maes Howe (Orkney)
3000-2000 BC: Megalithic standing stones at Calanais (Isle of Lewis)
600 BC: Iron Age starts
500 BC: ‘Oakbank Crannog’ built in Loch Tay
200 BC – 200 AD: Broch-building
55-54 BC: Julius Caesar invades Britain
80 AD: Agricola invades Lowlands of Scotland
84: Battle of Mons Graupius
122: Hadrian starts building Hadrian’s Wall
140-180: Antonine Wall in Scotland
214: The Romans abandon Scotland
297: First reference to ‘Picti’
367: The ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’; Hadrian’s Wall overrun
410: The Romans abandon Britain
500: ‘Scoti’ colonise Dalriada (Argyll); Dunadd
c. 550: St. Ninian comes to Whithorn (Galloway)
563: St. Columba comes to Scotland and the island of Iona
580: Pictish king Bridei mac Máelchú at Craig Phadrig
590: Urien of Rheged assassinated on Lindisfarne
c. 600: The Gododdin defeated at Catterick
603: Áedán, king of Dalriada, defeated by the Anglians
638: Angles from Northumbria capture Edinburgh
685: Battle of Dunnichen: the Picts defeat the Northumbrians
750: Battle of Athelstaneford (St Andrews)
793: Start of the viking age: raid on the Holy Isle of Lindisfarne
795: First viking raid on the island of Iona
840 – 858: Kenneth I (mac Alpin)
c. 840: Kenneth mac Alpin unites Pictland and Dalriada a Alba
849: Iona abandoned; treasures moved to Dunkeld
858: Death of Kenneth I (mac Alpin)
858 – 862: Donald I
860: Norse earldom established in Orkney ans Shetland
862 – 877: Constantin I
870: Vikings storm Dumbarton Castle
874: Norwegian settlers colonise Iceland
877 – 878: Aed
878 – 889: Eochaid
889 – 900: Donald II
890: Vikings storm Dunnottar Castle
900 – 943: Constantin II
900-943: Constantin II rules ‘Scotland’
937: Constantin II and his allies defeated at Brunanburh
943 – 954: Malcolm I
954 -962: Indulph
1005 – 1034: Malcolm II
1018: Malcolm II defeats the Northumbrians at Carham; death of Owain the Bald, last native king of Strathclyde
1034: Dearh of Malcolm II; accession of Duncan I
1034 – 1040: Duncan I
1040: Macbeth defeats and kills Duncan I
1040 – 1057: Macbeth
1050: Macbeath goes on pilgrimage to Rome
1057: Macbeth killed by Malcolm Canmore at Lumphanan
1057 – 1058: Lulach
1058: Macbeath’s stepson, Lulach, killed by Malcolm Canmore; Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) becomes King of Alba
1058 – 1093: Malcolm III (‘Canmore’)
1061: Malcolm III invades Northumbria
c. 1070: Malcolm III marries Margaret of England (St Margaret)
1072: William I invades Scotland; Malcolm III submits
1093: Malcolm III killed at Alnwick; death of St Margaret; Donald III (Malcolm’s younger brother) seizes the throne, but is soon murdered
1094: Donald III
1094: Duncan II
1094 – 1097: Donald III (restored)
1097 – 1107: Edgar (‘The Peaceable’)
1097: Edgar, Malcolm’s eldest surviving son, becomes king
1107 – 1124: Alexander I (‘The Fierce’)
1107: Alexander I (Edgar’s brother) succeeds to the throne
1124 – 1153: David I
1124: David I, Alexander’s brother, succeeds to the throne
1138: David I defeated at Battle of the Standard
1153: Death of David I; Malcolm IV, his grandson, succeeds
1153 – 1165: Malcolm IV (‘The Maiden’)
1165: Death of Malcolm IV; William (‘The Lion’), his brother, succeeds
1165 – 1214: William (‘The Lion’)
1174: William captured by the English at Alnwick; Treaty of Falaise: William pays homage for Scotland
1178: William founds Arbroath Abbey
1189: The ‘Quitclaim of Canterbury’ abrogates Falaise Treaty
1214: Death of William the Lion; his son Alexander II succeeds
1214 – 1249: Alexander II
1221: Alexander II marries Joan, sister of Henry III of England
1230: Norwegian expedition to the Western Isles
1237: Treaty of York: Alexnder renounces claims in England
1239: Alexander II marries Marie de Coucy, of France
1244: Alexander II’s infant son Alexander betrothed to Margaret of England
1249: Alexander II mounts an expedition to the Hebrides, dies; Alexander III succeeds, aged seven
1249 – 1286: Alexander III
1251: Alexander III marries Margaret, sister of Henry III
1263: ‘Battle of Largs’
1266: Norway cedes the Western Isles to Scotland
1272: Edward I comes to the throne in England
1281: Alexander III’s daughter Margaret marries Erik of Norway
1283: Birth of Margaret, the ‘Maid of Norway’
1284: Death of Alexander III’s son and heir, Alexander; the Maid of Norway declared heir-presumptive
1285: Alexander III marries Yolande, Comtesse de Montford
1286: Death of Alexander III; Margaret, the Maid of Norway, declared Queen of Scots
1286 – 1290: Margaret (‘The Maid of Norway’)
1290: Margaret betrothed to Edward I’s son, Edward; death of Margaret
1292 – 1296: John Balliol (‘Toom Tabard’)
1292: Edward I nominates John Balliol as King of Scots
1295: Treaty of Paris – the ‘Auld Alliance’ with France
1296: Edward I invades Scotland, deposes Balliol
1297: William Wallace rebels against the English occupation; Battle of Stirling Bridge: Wallace defeats an English army
1298: Wallace defeated at Battle of Falkirk; John Comyn and Robert Bruce appointed guardians
1302: Robert Bruce defects to Edward I
1304: Scotland submits to Edward I
1305: Wallace captured, and executed in London
1306 – 1329: Robert I (‘Robert Bruce’)
1306: Robert Bruce murders John Comyn; Bruce crowned King of Scots; Bruce defeated at Battle of Methven
1307: Bruce emerges from hiding, starts a comeback; death of Edward I
1314: Bruce defeats Edward II at Bannockburn
1320: The Declaration of Arbroath
1327: Edward II deposed
1328: Edward III recognises Scotland’s independence; Bruce’s son David marries Joan, sister of Edward III
1329: Death of Robert Bruce
1329 – 1371: David II
1331: David II crowned King of Scots
1332: Edward Balliol invades Scotland, usurps the throne
1333: Edward III defeats the Scots at Halidon Hill; David II and Joan sent to France for safety
1338: ‘Black Agnes’ defends Dunbar Castle
1341: David II returns to Scotland and starts his personal rule
1346: David II captured at Battle of Neville’s Cross
1357: David II released and returns to Scotland
1371: David II dies, childless; Robert Stewart, his nephew, succeeds as Robert II
1371 – 1390: Robert II
1384: Robert II demits power to his brother John
1388: Battle of Otterburn
1390: The ‘Wolf of Badenoch’ burns Elgin Cathedral; death of Robert II; John succeeds as Robert II
1390 – 1406: Robert III
1396: Battle on the Inch
1401: Duke of Albany kidnaps David, Duke of Rothesay
1402: Rothesay dies during his imprisonment
1406: Robert III’s son James flees to France, is captured by the English; death of Robert III; James I succeeds, while a prisoner in England
1406 – 1437: James I
1411: Battle of Harlaw
1424: James I marries Joan Beaufort, is released and crowned
1425: James I destroys the Albany family
1437: James I assassinated; James II succeeds at the age of six
1437 – 1460: James II
1440: The ‘Black Dinner’ in Edinburgh; Douglas beheaded
1449: James II marries Marie de Gueldres
1452: James murders William Douglas
1455: Wars of the Roses break out in England
1460: James II killed by an exploding cannon; James III succeeds at the age of nine
1460 – 1488: James III
1463: Death of James III’s mother, Marie de Gueldres
1469: James marries Margrethe of Denmark
1482: The Lauder Lynchings; James III arrested
1488: James III dies after Battle of Sauchieburn; James IV succeeds
1488 – 1513: James IV
1503: James IV marries Margaret Tudor
1511: Launch of the Great Michael
1513: James IV killed at Battle of Flodden; James V succeeds at the age of seventeen months
1513 – 1542: James V
1515: Duke of Albany apppointed regent
1517: Martin Luther launches the Reformation in Germany
1526: James V ‘captured’ by the Earl of Angus
1528: James ‘escapes’
1537: Execution of Lady Glamis; James V marries Madeleine of France
1538: James V marries Marie de Guise
1542: Birth of Mary Queen of Scots; Scots defeated at Battle of Solway Moss; death of James V; Mary succeeds at the age of one week
1542 – 1567: Mary (‘Queen of Scots’)
1543: Mary crowned Queen of Scots; betrothal of Mary to Prince Edward of England fails
1544: Start of the ‘Rough Wooing’
1546: George Wishart burned for heresy
1547: John Knox captured and sentenced to the galleys; defeat of the Scots at Battle of Pinkie
1548: Mary betrothed to the Dauphin and sails to France
1557: ‘Lords of the Congregation’ support the Reformation
1558: Mary marries the Dauphin; Elizabeth becomes Queen of England
1559: Mary becomes Queen of France as the wife of Francois II; John Knox inflames the mob with a sermon in Perth
1560: Mary is widowed; death of Mary’s mother, Marie de Guise; parliament accepts the Reformation in Scotland
1561: Mary returns to Scotland, and is berated by John Knox
1565: Mary marries Henry, Lord Darnley
1566: Murder of David Rizzio
1567: Murder of Darnley; Mary marries the Earl of Bothwell; Mary surrenders at Carberry Hill; Mary deposed; James VI crowned king
1567 – 1626: James VI (from 1603 James I of England)
1568: Mary escapes from Lochleven; Mary defeated at Langside, flees to England; ‘trial’ of Mary in England
1570 – 1573: Civil war in Scotland
1572: Death of John Knox
1582: The ‘Ruthven Raid’: the kidnap of James VI
1583: James escapes
1586: The Babington Plot
1587: Execution of Mary Queen of Scots
1589: James VI marries Anne of Denmark
1592: Death of the ‘Bonnie Earl of Moray’
1600: The ‘Gowrie Conspiracy’
1603: Union of the Crowns; James VI becomes James I of England
1604: James VI & I proposes a full inion of the United Kingdom
1605: The ‘Powder Treason Plot’
1611: The ‘King James Bible’
1617: James VI & I pays his only visit to Scotland as king
1625: Death of James VI & I; Charles I succeeds; Charles I marries Henrietta Maria of France
After the Union of the Crowns:
1633: Charles I crowned in Edinburgh
1637: The ‘Jenny Geddes’ riot against the Prayer Book
1638: The National Covenant launched and signed
1639-1640: The ‘Bishops’ Wars’
1641: Charles I visits Edinburgh
1642: Charles I declares war on Parliament
1643: The Solemn League and Covenant
1644: Scottish troops at Battle of Marston Moor; Montrose starts his great campain
1645: Montrose defeats the Campbells at Inverlochy; Montrose defeated at Philiphaugh
1646: Charles I surrenders to the Scots at Newark
1648: ‘The Engagement’ forces defeated by Cromwell; the ‘Whiggamores Raid’
1649: Execution of Charles I
1650: Montrose invades the north of Scotland, is captured and executed; Charles II lands in Scotland; Cromwell defeats the Scots at Battle of Dunbar
1651: Charles II crowned by the Scots at Scone; Charles II defeated at Worcester, and escapes to France; the rescue of the Scottish Regalia at Dunnottar Castle
1652: Cromwell ‘incorporates’ Scotland
1658: Death of Cromwell
1660: Restoration of Charles II
1661: Execution of the Marquis of Argyll
1666: The ‘Pentland Rising’
1677: William of Orange marries James VII’s daughter Mary
1679: Archbishop Sharp murdered by Covenanters; Battle of Drumclog; Battle of Bothwell Brig
1680: James, Duke of York, comes to Scotland
1682-1685: The ‘Killing Time’
1685: Death of Charles II; James VII & II succeeds
1688: Birth of James Stuart, the ‘Old Pretender’; William of Orange lands in England: the ‘Glorious Revolution’; James VII & II flees to France
1689: William and Mary crowned in England; William and Mary accept the crown of Scotland; ‘Bonnie Dundee’ wins Battle of Killiecrankie but is killed; Battle of Dunkeld
1690: James VII & II defeated at Battle of the Boyne
1692: Massacre of Glencoe
1694: Death of Queen Mary
1698-1700: The Darien expedition
1701: Death of James VII & II in exile
1702: Death of King William; accession of Queen Anne
1704: Scotland’s parliament passes the Act of Security
1705: England’s parliament passes the Alien Act
1706: Joint Parliamentary Commission on Union
1707: Act of Union passed
1708: First Jacobite Rising fails
1714: Death of Queen Anne; George I succeeds
1715: The 1715 Rising; Battle of Sheriffmuir
1716: The ‘Old Pretender’ returns to France
1717: The ‘Old Pretender’ marries Clementina Sobieska
1719: The 1719 Rising; Battle of Glenshiel
1720: Birth of charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’
1725: General Wade comes to Scotland to build military roads
1736: The Porteous Riot
1745: Prince Charles lands in Scotland; the ’45 Rising; Battle of Prestonpans; the march to Derby, and the retreat
1746: Battle of Falkirk Muir; Battle of Culloden; Prince Charles escapes to France
1746-1782: Act of Prescription bans Highland dress and language
1771: Birth of Walter Scott
1789: French Revolution
1802: The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border
1805: The Lay of the Last Minstel
1808: Marmion
1810: The Lady of the Lake
1811: Scott starts to build Abbotsford
1814: Waverley
1815: End of Napoleonic Wars
1818: Scott rediscovers the Scottish Crown Jewels
1819-1820: ‘Radical Wars’ in Scotland
1820: Cato Street Conspiracy
1822: Royal visit of George IV to Edinburgh
1824: Redgauntlet
1826: Scott’s financial cras
1827-1829: Tales of a Grandfather
1831: History of Scotland
1831: Scott booed at Jedburgh
1831: First Reform Bill passed
1832: Death of Walter Scott
1838: ‘People’s Charter’ – the rise of Chartism
1846: Scott Monument in Edinburgh completed
1853: National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights
1885: Scottish Office established in London
1900: Liberal Party’s Young Scots Society founded
1914: Home Rule Bill lapses at the start of World War I
1919: ‘Red Clydesiders’ riot in Glasgow
1922: ‘Red Clydesiders’ elected to Parliament
1924: Home Rule Bill ‘talked out’
1928: National Party of Scotland founded
1932: Scottish Party founded
1934: Scottish National Party (SNP) founded
1939: St Andrew’s House opens in Edinburgh
1942: SNP splits; McCormick founds ‘Scottish Convention’
1945: SNP wins the Motherwell and Wishaw by-election
1949: National Covenant launched
1950: Young nationalists abuct the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey
1967: Winnie Ewing wins Hamilton by-election for the SNP
1968: Ted Heath makes ‘Declaration of Perth’
1974: SNP wins eleven parliamentary seats
1978: Scotland Act 1978 passed
1979: (1 March) Scotland referendum; (May) general election: SNP loses nine parliamentary seats
1988: Marco MacDonald wins Govan by-election for SNP; A Claim of Right for Scotland published
1989: Scottish Constitutional Convention begins
1994: Death of John Smith
1996: Stone of Destiny returns to Scotland
1997: Referendum on a parliament for Scotland
1998: Scotland Act 1998 passed
1999: (May) Elections for Scotland’s parliament; (1 July) Royal opening of Scotland’s new parliament
That is a lot that happened and of course even more what didn’t get listed here.
I hope this chronology is usefull for you since it splits everything up at least a little bit.
