An historical view on Scottish independence

Robert the Bruce

Whether we like it or not history shows us that Scotland and England have very close ties and their economies have been intertwined for over 1000 years. Even before the Norman conquest Anglo-Saxons arrived in some parts of Scotland and so we can see that ‘Alba’ was made up of Gaels, Scots, Picts Vikings, Britons, Angles and latterly Anglo-Saxons. After the Norman conquest there was intermarrying between the powerful Scottish and Norman families which added Normans into the mix. So by the time the great Robert the Bruce is crowned King of Scotland it was already a country with roots leading back into many other countries and cultures. Indeed Robert the Bruce was himself of Norman origin.

Looking back we can see as early as 1100 there was integration between the crowns of Scotland and England - Edith known as Matilda, daughter of Malcolm III of Scotland, marries King Henry I of England. There were many twists and turns over the centuries which could have led to a different outcome today. After the death of Alexander III of Scotland, Margaret, Maid of Norway inherited the Crown in 1286. Had she not drowned on her way to Scotland in 1290 the map of Europe might have been very different with Scotland and Norway being united. However that wasn’t the case and the entanglement between the Scottish & English crowns became ever closer. After Margaret died an heir could not be agreed amongst the Scottish lords and so they appealed to Edward I of England. In 1292, Edward I of England grants the Scottish throne to John Balliol, an Scottish/Anglo-Norman. He was followed by another Scottish/Anglo-Norman, Robert I (Robert de Brus), popularly known as Robert the Bruce. So, one can see that the influence of the Normans in the British Isles culminated in Norman ascendancy in the Scottish Crown. This may have led to disputes but inevitably it led to economic and political integration.

Some may see the action of the Scottish lords as being fatal but in practical terms it set the seal on the future destiny and later integration of both crowns of Scotland and England. 

Eventually in 1603 James VI of Scotland inherited the English crown and by his own words he declared the joining of the two crowns as ‘Britain.’ Under James both parliaments continued to sit, one in Scotland and one in England. As we see so expertly revealed in Episode 1 of BBC Scotland series – 'The Stuarts' by Dr Clare Jackson it was the English Parliament who were reluctant to integrate with the Scottish Parliament. 

This integration wasn’t to happen until 1707 when the Scottish Parliament voted for a single parliament under the Crown of Great Britain. Why did they do this? It was claimed that union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial disaster wrought by the ‘Darien’ scheme. (The colonization project that became known as the Darien Scheme was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called "Caledonia" on the Isthmus of Panama on the Gulf of Darién in the late 1690s. Today, the site of the colony is now called Puerto Escocés, or Port Scotland).

From 1707 onwards Scottish MPs sit in the British Parliament.

Of course that is not the end of the matter. Charles Edward Stuart, (Bonnie Prince Charlie), grandson of James II of Britain, is the cause of an uprising after he arrives from the continent where he had been born and lived all his life and where he had been encouraged by the Pope and Catholic forces on the continent to claim the throne of Scotland. This Jacobite uprising fails as we all know. Scotland certainly suffered after this uprising and we can see the physical evidence of military occupation under the Georgian kings around Scotland. 

However much happened in terms of the economic, engineering, artistic and academic development in Scotland in the 18th, 19th & 20th centuries which puts Scotland on the world stage where it remains. So, why is independence necessary? Perhaps some of the leaders of the independence movement want to strut the world stage like kings of old?