The history of Scotland is that of an ancient, proud kingdom that for centuries defended its independence from England, joined with it first through the crown and then through parliament, and today still openly debates whether to stay in the United Kingdom. For the wider picture see the history of the United Kingdom.
Picts, Scots and the birth of the kingdom
The Romans never managed to conquer the north of the island for good and protected themselves with Hadrian's Wall and then the Antonine Wall (see the Roman conquest of Scotland). The region was inhabited by the Picts, famous for their carved stones, while from Ireland came the Gaelic-speaking Scots, who gave the country its name. In 563 the Irish monk Saint Columba founded the monastery of Iona, from which Christianity spread across Scotland. Around 843 Kenneth MacAlpin united Picts and Scots in a single kingdom, Alba, which over the following centuries expanded to include the lands of the Britons in the south-west and Lothian, while the northern and western isles long remained under Norwegian rule: the Hebrides passed to Scotland in 1266, Orkney and Shetland only in 1468-1469.
The Wars of Independence
When the young Queen Margaret died in 1290, the English king Edward I was called on to arbitrate the succession and used the opportunity to subjugate the country, also carrying off to London the Stone of Destiny, on which Scottish kings were crowned. Resistance was led first by William Wallace, victor at Stirling Bridge in 1297 and executed in London in 1305, and then by Robert the Bruce, crowned in 1306, who defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. In 1320 the Declaration of Arbroath, a letter from the Scottish barons to the Pope, asserted in famous words the country's right to freedom. Independence was recognised in 1328.
The Stewarts and the Union of the Crowns
From 1371 the Stewart dynasty reigned. Scotland formed the Auld Alliance with France against England, which proved costly at the disaster of Flodden in 1513, where King James IV died. In the 16th century the Reformation, led by John Knox, made Scotland a Protestant country with a Presbyterian church (see the Presbyterian Church). The Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, queen from 1542, was forced to abdicate in 1567, fled to England and was executed in 1587 on the orders of her cousin Elizabeth I. Yet it was her son James VI who, on Elizabeth's death in 1603, also became King of England: the Union of the Crowns, though the two kingdoms remained separate, with different parliaments, laws and churches.
The Union of 1707 and the Jacobites
The 17th century was marked by religious wars and the resistance of the Presbyterian Covenanters. At the end of the century the failure of the Darien scheme, a Scottish colony in Panama that burned perhaps a quarter of the country's capital, pushed the elites towards union with England: with the Acts of Union of 1707 the Kingdom of Great Britain was born and the Edinburgh parliament was dissolved, but Scotland kept its own legal system, church and education (see the Scottish legal system). Supporters of the Catholic Stuarts, the Jacobites, tried several times to regain the throne: the last rising, led by Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, ended at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, the last pitched battle fought on British soil. Repression of Highland culture followed: tartan and weapons were banned for decades.
Enlightenment, industry and emigration
In the 18th century Edinburgh became one of the centres of the European Enlightenment, with philosophers and economists such as David Hume and Adam Smith, while James Watt perfected the steam engine (see the Industrial Revolution). Glasgow, thanks to the tobacco trade, shipyards and heavy industry, became the "second city of the Empire". In the Highlands, by contrast, the Clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries evicted tens of thousands of crofters to make way for sheep: many emigrated to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where millions of people of Scottish descent live today.
From devolution to the referendum
The decline of heavy industry in the 20th century and the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s fuelled the rise of the Scottish National Party (SNP). A first referendum on home rule in 1979 failed to reach the required threshold, but in 1997 Scots voted overwhelmingly for their own parliament, which met in 1999. In 1996 the Stone of Destiny had returned to Scotland, and since 2024 it has been displayed at Perth Museum. The SNP has governed since 2007; in the independence referendum of 18 September 2014, No prevailed with 55.3%. Two years later, however, Scotland voted 62% to remain in the European Union, ending up outside against its will, and independence has returned to the centre of debate. In May 2026 the SNP won the election for the fifth consecutive time and John Swinney was confirmed as First Minister.