The Scottish kingdom: AD 1058-1286 - the Scottish crown remains in the family of Malcolm III for more than two centuries. During this time Scotland becomes more prosperous and more civilized, with the founding of great monasteries in the southern parts of the country. Meanwhile the north is gradually recovered from the Vikings. A turning point is the battle of Largs, in 1263. The king of Norway lands a fleet to assert his long-standing right over the Hebrides and the Isle of Man. He is defeated by the Scottish king, Alexander III. In 1266, at a treaty agreed in Perth, the Norwegians cede the western isles to the Scottish king. Only the Shetlands and Orkneys remain in Norse hands. The most significant theme during these reigns is the relationship of the Scottish kings with their Norman neighbours to the south. It is one of considerable complexity, involving both cooperation and hostility. In several generations the royal families of Scotland and England intermarry. The Scottish kings give land and power to great Norman families. They introduce into Scotland the structures of Norman Feudalism. Yet at the same time the border between the two kingdoms is a region of almost constant warfare. And the relationship between the kings themselves is one of prolonged struggle within a feudal framework. The kings of England like to consider the Scottish kings their vassals, and at certain periods this status is accepted in Scotland - most notably for a while after 1174. In that year William the Lion is captured raiding into Northumberland. After a humiliating journey south, with his feet tied beneath his horse, he is imprisoned by Henry II. He is released only when he does homage to the English king 'for Scotland and all his other lands'. In the long run neither side prevails in this uneasy relationship, until matters are brought to a head by a vacancy on the Scottish throne. In 1286 Alexander III dies. His only heir is Margaret, a young Norwegian princess, the child of his deceased daughter Margaret and of Eric II, king of Norway.

Margaret, the Maid of Norway: AD 1286-1290 - at first the succession of the 4-year-old Margaret to the Scottish throne seems to offer an easy solution to the problem of the two kingdoms. She is acclaimed queen of Scotland in 1286. The king of England, Edward I, sets about arranging a marriage between the child and his own infant son (two years younger than Margaret), the future Edward II. The intention is that the bridegroom shall eventually rule over both kingdoms, with safeguards to ensure the separate integrity of Scotland. In 1289 the pope gives his approval. In 1290 Margaret sails from Norway to meet her intended husband. During the journey she falls ill. She never reaches her Scottish kingdom. She dies, at the age of eight, in the Orkneys.

Edward I and Scotland: AD 1290-1297 - when the Maid of Norway dies, in 1290, there are thirteen claimants to the vacant Scottish throne - each somewhat tenuously related to the royal family. The king of England, Edward I, asserts his right as the feudal overlord to choose between them.

The two most serious contenders, descended from great-granddaughters of David I, are John de Balliol and Robert de Bruce. In 1292 Edward chooses John - an entirely reasonable choice, since John descends from the elder of the great-granddaughters. But Edward's humiliating treatment of the new king as his feudal vassal is less than tactful. So are his demands that Scottish barons shall do service in England's war against France. Scottish resentment is expressed, in 1295, in a treaty with France against England. This prompts, in 1296, a swift and brutally effective invasion by Edward. It begins with the massacre of almost the entire male population of Berwick. Seventeen days later Stirling and Edinburgh castles are in English hands. John de Balliol and his court are prisoners, destined for the Tower of London. The sacred Scottish coronation seat, the Stone of Scone, travels south at the same time - to a new home (until 1996) in Westminster Abbey. An English government is set up north of the border. Scotland is humiliated, but only briefly so. The very next year, 1297, a war of independence is launched.

Scotland's Wars of Independence: from AD 1297 - the main leader to emerge from the uprisings in Scotland in 1297 is William Wallace. Confronted by an English army outside Stirling, on September 11, he holds back his troops and thus entices the enemy across a narrow bridge over the river Forth. When about half are over the river, Wallace attacks so forcefully that nearly all the English on the northern bank are killed or are drowned in flight. The prestige of this victory at Stirling Bridge enables Wallace to rule Scotland briefly on behalf of the imprisoned John de Balliol. But the situation brings Edward I north in person in 1298. At Falkirk, in 1298, Edward avenges the humiliation of Stirling Bridge. English and Welsh archers inflict devastating casualties on the massed ranks of Scottish spearmen, in an early example of the power of the longbow (half a century before its more famous deployment at Crйcy). This defeat undermines the authority of Wallace, who vanishes from history until his capture and execution in 1305. But Edward is committed now to holding down the Scots by force of arms - a task more difficult, over a much wider region, than his subjection of Wales. And from 1306 he is confronted by a newly proclaimed Scottish king, in the person of Robert de Bruce.

Robert the Bruce: AD 1306-1314 - Robert de Bruce, or Robert the Bruce as he is often known in British history, is the grandson of the Robert de Bruce whose claim to the Scottish throne was rejected in favour of John de Balliol's. The Bruces are one of the great Norman families invited north of the border by the Scottish kings. The eldest son in every generation of the family is christened Robert. The head of the family in the early 14th century is Robert de Bruce VIII. By 1306, with Wallace dead and John de Balliol living privately in Normandy (after renouncing his throne), the Scots lack both a leader and a king. Bruce's ambition to fill both roles becomes evident after an act of violence in 1306. John Comyn, a member of another great Norman family and a nephew of John de Balliol, is a natural rival of Bruce's with perhaps slightly better claims to the Scottish throne. On 10 February 1306 the two men and several of their followers are in the Franciscan church in Dumfries. A quarrel breaks out. It is not known whether the event is premeditated. But it ends with John Comyn lying dead before the high altar. After the murder Bruce moves quickly to secure his position. On March 25 he is crowned at Scone, still the sacred site for the occasion - even though it now lacks the ancient Stone of Scone, linked with Scottish kingship. During the next few months the new king's fortunes could hardly sink lower. Defeated in two battles, in June and August, he flees for safety to the island of Rathlin off the northern Irish coast. (His supposed place of refuge is still shown as Bruce's Cave, but the story of the spider demonstrating to him the importance of perseverance is first told in the 19th century by Walter Scott.) In Bruce's absence three of his brothers are captured by the English and are executed. In February 1307 Bruce returns to Scotland, to persevere in self-advancement. His final success, firmly establishing his authority within the kingdom, comes with victory at Bannockburn in 1314.

Bannockburn and after: AD 1314-1328 - by 1314 Bruce's slow campaign of guerrilla warfare and attrition has brought into his hands all the English strongholds in Scotland except Stirling. The Scottish threat to this great castle brings Edward II north to its defence. On June 24 Bruce, with only about 8000 men, is confronted by an English army of double that size. But he chooses his ground well - an area of boggy turf about two miles south of Stirling, with a narrow front and the Bannock burn to cut off the enemy's retreat. The English cavalry flounder in the face of Scottish footsoldiers armed with spears. The day is a resounding success for Scotland, bringing rich rewards in prestige, booty and ransom. In the years after Bannockburn, Bruce continually raids south across the border into England. And he extends his campaign against the English by sending Edward Bruce, his only surviving brother, to attack them in 1315 in Ireland. The Irish campaign ends in 1318 with the death of Edward Bruce, but in the north of England Robert Bruce's aggressive tactics go unchecked. Edward II marches north with large armies in 1319 and again in 1322, but achieves nothing. After his death, in 1327, the English are ready to come to terms. At Edinburgh, in March 1328, a treaty is agreed - and is ratified at an English parliament in Northampton the following month. The Scots are to pay Ј20,000 in reparation for damage done in the northern counties of England, but otherwise the concessions are all to their benefit. Above all it is agreed that Scotland shall 'remain to Robert king of Scots and his heirs and successors free and divided from the kingdom of England, without any subjection, right of service, claim or demand'. As a token for a better future, Bruce's 4-year-old son David is married in July, in Berwick, to Joanna, the 7-year-old sister of the new English king, Edward III. The agreements of 1328 raise the hope that Scotland is due at last for a period of calm. But the death of Robert the Bruce in 1329 brings his son David, now aged five, to the throne. The English instinct to meddle in Scottish affairs is revived. Edward, the son of John de Balliol (who has died in 1314), is encouraged to stake a claim to his father's throne. Scotland is again plunged into war.

Robert the Bruce's son, David II, spends much of his reign in exile or in captivity. But he is still on the throne when he dies, childless, in 1371. The future of the royal house lies with the descendants of his elder sister, Marjorie. She married, in 1315, one of Scotland's hereditary stewards.

The Stewart dynasty: AD 1371-1503 - the Stewarts, a family from Brittany, take their name from their job. In Brittany in the 11th century they are stewards to the local count. In about 1136 one of the family, Walter, becomes steward to the king of Scotland. Two decades later the appointment is made hereditary. Another Walter, the 6th steward in this line, fights beside Robert the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314. He is knighted by the king on the field of battle. In the following year he marries Bruce's daughter Marjorie. Their child Robert, the 7th steward, succeeds his uncle David II as king of Scots in 1371 - ruling as Robert II, and establishing the Stewart dynasty on the Scottish throne. Stewart rule in Scotland is bedevilled from the start by the power of great barons (in particular the Douglas family), whose rich ancestral territories have been the reward for their support of Robert the Bruce or of his son David II. To the south the English remain as eager as ever to foment trouble when an opportunity presents itself. Even so, during the 15th century, royal authority is gradually established in most parts of the kingdom. And the marriage of James III in 1469 to Margaret of Denmark brings into Scottish hands the last two island groups held by Scandinavians - the Orkneys and Shetlands. Even the long centuries of turmoil with England seem to be settled (once again), when James IV makes two promising alliances with Henry VII. In 1502 the monarchs agree to a 'treaty of perpetual peace'. And in 1503 James marries Henry's daughter, Margaret Tudor. In exactly 100 years' time this marriage will result in a final ironic reversal of the long English struggle to dominate the royal family of Scotland. It will deliver the English crown to the Stewarts. But the intervening years bring many setbacks for the Scots [5, p. 62 - 65].

2.2 The foundation of St. Andrew`s University

One of the greatest event of cultural life of Scotland 15th century was the foundation of the oldest University in Scotland - St. Andrew`s. The university was founded in 1410 when a charter of incorporation was bestowed upon the Augustinian priory of St Andrews Cathedral. A Papal Bull was issued in 1413 by the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII. A royal charter was granted in 1532. The University grew in size quite rapidly; A pedagogy, St John's College was founded 1418-1430 by Robert of Montrose and Lawrence of Lindores, St Salvator's College was established in 1450, St Leonard's College in 1511, and St Mary's College in 1537. St Mary's College was a re-foundation of St Johns College and earlier pedagogy. Some of the early college buildings that are in use today date from this period such as St Salvator's Chapel and St Leonards College chapel and St Mary's College quadrangle. At this time, much of the teaching was of a religious nature and was conducted by clerics associated with the cathedral. From the 17th to 19th centuries, St Andrews underwent a dramatic decline which at some point even menaced the university's own survival. Pupil numbers were very low; for instance, when Samuel Johnson visited the university in 1773, the university barely had 100 pupils, and this situation did not improve during the 19th century, as in the 1870s, the student population was fewer than 150. Apart from a low number of pupils, it was also unusual for them to graduate: especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, students would attend college for a term or two. This was due to relative irrelevance of academic degrees for educated people at that time, as they did not secure any social position for those coming from upper classes, and those coming from more humble origins could not commonly afford a college education if they did not hold a scholarship. The poverty of Scotland also damaged St Andrews, as few were able to patronise the university and its colleges -state support being improbable- and the income these ones got was scarce. Hence Samuel Johnson's depiction of St Andrews as a place of quiet decadence. In 1747, severe financial problems triggered the dissolution of St Leonard's College, whose properties and staff were merged into St Salvator's College to finally form the United College of St Salvator and St Leonard [6, p. 2].

In the 19th century, St Andrews offered a traditional education based on classical languages, divinity and philosophical studies, and at that time was slow to embrace more practical fields such as science, medicine and law that were the vogue. Perhaps partly in response to this and to the low number in pupils, the university merged with University College in Dundee in 1897, which became a centre of medical, scientific and legal excellence. This affiliation ended in 1967 when the college, renamed Queen's College, became a separate and independent institution as the University of Dundee. The loss of teaching facilities for clinical medicine caused the university's Bute Medical School to form a new attachment with the University of Manchester, which was then expanding its clinical medicine intake. After the foundation of University College, the decadence of St. Andrews came to an end. It became increasingly popular amongst the Scottish upper class to send their children to their oldest higher learning institution, and the university soon enough saw a renaissance that has been maintained to date. Its current world-class reputation in teaching and research consistently place St Andrews as the top university in Scotland and often amongst the top five in the UK, according to annual league tables produced by The Times, Sunday Times and The Guardian.(see Rankings of universities in the United Kingdom) The Times Higher Education World Universities Ranking named St Andrews among the world's Top 20 Arts and Humanities universities in 2010 [7].

2.3 Mary the Queen of Scots

Scotland in the 16th century was associated with the name of Queen Mary. Born at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian on 8 December 1542, Mary became Queen of Scots when she was six days old. Her claims to the throne of England were almost as strong as her claims to the Scottish throne. As Henry VII of England's great-granddaughter, Mary was next in line to the English throne, after Henry VIII's children. Given her youth and sex, the Scottish nobility decided that they must make peace with England, and they agreed that she should marry Henry VIII's son, the future Edward VI. No sooner had the treaty been arranged, however, than Catholics opposed to the plan took the young Mary to Stirling Castle and, to Henry's fury, they broke the match, preferring to return to Scotland's traditional alliance with France. Henry thereupon ordered the savage series of raids into Scotland known as 'The Rough Wooing'. His army set fire to the Abbey of Holyroodhouse where James V was buried, burned crops in the Tweed Valley and set ablaze the Border abbeys of Melrose, Jedburgh and Dryburgh. Undeterred, the Scots in 1548 betrothed Mary to the French King Henri II's heir, the Dauphin Francis, and sent her to be brought up at the French Court. It is said that the spelling of the royal family name of Stewart changed to Stuart at that time, to suit French conventional spelling. Tall, graceful and quick-witted, Mary married the Dauphin in Paris on 24 April 1558. He succeeded to his father's throne in 1559, making Mary Queen of France as well as Scotland, but his reign was brief for he died of an ear infection in 1560. The following year, despite the warnings of her friends, Mary decided to go back to Scotland, now an officially Protestant country after religious reforms led by John Knox. She was a Roman Catholic, but her half-brother, Lord James Stewart, later Earl of Moray, had assured her that she would be allowed to worship as she wished and in August 1561 she returned, to an unexpectedly warm welcome from her Protestant subjects. At first Mary ruled successfully and with moderation, advised by Lord James and William Maitland of Lethington, a subtle diplomat. However, her marriage in 1565 to her second cousin Henry, Lord Darnley (great-grandson of Henry VII) initiated a tragic series of events made worse by factious Scottish nobles. Spoiled and petulant, Darnley became the tool of Mary's enemies and, with a group of conspirators, burst into her supper chamber, threatened the heavily pregnant queen and murdered her secretary, David Riccio, on 9 March 1566 inside the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

The birth of Mary and Darnley's son James that summer did nothing to improve their relationship, and when Darnley was murdered at Kirk o'Field, just outside the walls of Edinburgh on 10 February 1567, people suspected that she was implicated in the crime. Her subsequent marriage three months later to the Earl of Bothwell (generally believed to be the principal murderer) brought her inevitable ruin. Her Protestant Lords rose against her and her army confronted theirs at Carberry Hill, near Edinburgh, on 15 June 1567. She surrendered, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle, Kinross-shire and forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son. Bothwell fled to Scandinavia, where he was arrested and held prisoner until his death. Mary escaped from Lochleven in 1568, only to be defeated at the Battle of Langside, near Glasgow, on 13 May. Fleeing south, she sought shelter in England, believing that Queen Elizabeth I would support her cause, but instead she was kept in captivity in England for 19 years. The focus of a long series of Roman Catholic plots against Elizabeth, culminating in the Babington Plot to assassinate the English queen, led to Elizabeth's ministers demanding Mary's execution: 'so long as there is life in her, there is hope; so as they live in hope, we live in fear' [8, p. 24, 69, 118, 206]. Mary was finally executed at Fotheringhay Castle in Northamptonshire on 8 February 1587, at the age of 44. She was buried in Peterborough Cathedral, but in 1612 her son James VI and I had her body exhumed and placed in the vault of King Henry VII's Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

3. Scotland`s nation

3.1 John Knox - the leader of the Scottish reformation

The most important religious event of 16 c. was The Scottish Reformation. John Knox is regarded as the leader of the Scottish reformation. The Scottish Reformation was Scotland's formal break with the Papacy in 1560, and the events surrounding this. It was part of the wider European Protestant Reformation; and in Scotland's case culminated ecclesiastically in the re-establishment of the church along Reformed lines, and politically in the triumph of English influence over that of the Kingdom of France. The Reformation Parliament of 1560, which repudiated the pope's authority, forbade the celebration of the Mass and approved a Protestant Confession of Faith, was made possible by a revolution against French hegemony. Prior to that, Scotland was under the regime of the regent Mary of Guise, who had governed in the name of her absent daughter Mary, Queen of Scots (then also Queen of France). The Scottish Reformation decisively shaped the Church of Scotland and, through it, all other Presbyterian churches worldwide. John Knox is considered to be the greatest Reformer in the history of Scotland. The exact place and date of his birth is not known with certainty, but it is generally accepted to be Giffordgate, 16 miles east of Edinburgh, in 1513 to 1514. Knox dies at Edinburgh on November 24, 1572. His father was William Knox, who fought at the Battle of Flodden, and his mother was an educated woman named Sinclair.

John Knox is the author of “The History of the Reformation in Scotland”. The name “John Knox” is first recorded among the records of the University of Glasgow, where Knox enrolled in 1522. There, he is stated to have studied under John Major, one of the greatest scholars of his time. Major was at Glasgow in 1522 and at St. Andrews in 1531. How long John Knox remained at college is uncertain. He was ordained to the priesthood at some date prior to 1540, when his status as a priest is first mentioned. John Knox's Conversion to Protestantism:John Knox first publicly professed the Protestant faith about the end of 1545. His mind had in all probability been directed to that faith for some time before the change was avowed. The immediate instrument of his actual conversion was probably George Wishart, who, after a period of banishment, returned to his native country in 1544, to perish, within two years, at the stake, as the last and most illustrious of the victims of Cardinal Beaton. Among other places where he preached the Reformed doctrines Wishart had come to East Lothian in Dec., 1545, and there he made Knox's acquaintance. John Knox was first called to the Protestant ministry at St. Andrews, which was throughout his life intimately associated with the Reformer's career. There appears to have been no regular ordination. Of course, he had been already ordained as a priest in the Church of Rome. A detailed account of the whole proceedings connected with his call to the ministry, together with a report of the first sermon he delivered in St. Andrews, will be found in Konx's most famous book, “The History of the Reformation in Scotland”. The Travels of John Knox: from England, after the death of Edward, Knox proceeded to the continent, traveling for a time from place to place in some uncertainty. In Sept. 1554, while living at Geneva, he accepted in accordance with Calvin's counsel a call to the English Church at Frankfurt. Here controversies in connection with vestments, ceremonies, and the use of the English prayer-book met him He later returned to Geneva, where he was invited to become minister of the refugee English congregation. In August of 1555, Knox set out for Scotland, where he remained for nine months preaching Evangelical doctrine in various parts of the country, and persuading those who favored the Reformation to cease from attendance at mass, and to join with himself in the celebration of the Lord's Supper according to a Reformed ritual. In May, 1556, he was cited to appear before the hierarchy in Edinburgh, and he boldly responded to the summons; but the bishops found it expedient not to proceed with the trial. In July an urgent call from his congregation at Geneva, along, probably, with the desire to prevent the renewal of persecution in Scotland, caused him to resume his Genevan ministry. His marriage to Marjorie Bowes, daughter of Richard Bowes, captain of Norham Castle, had meanwhile taken place, and his wife along with her mother accompanied him to Geneva, where they arrived in September. The church in which he preached there (called the Eglise de Notre Dame la Neuve) had been granted, at Calvin's solicitation, for the use of the English and Italian congregations by the municipal authorities. Knox's life in Geneva was busy. In addition to preaching and clerical work he added a large correspondence; and he was constantly engaged in literary work. His publications at Geneva included his First Blast Against the Monstrous Rule of Women; and his long and elaborate treatise on predestination published 1560 was composed in Geneva. Knox's “History of the Reformation in Scotland”: Knox's life from the time of his return to Scotland in 1559 is a part of the history of his country. When the Reformed Protestant religion was formally ratified by law in Scotland in 1560 he was appointed minister of the Church of St. Giles, then the main church of Edinburgh. He was at this time in the fullness of his powers, as is manifest abundantly in the style of his “History of the Reformation”, a work which appears to have been begun about 1559, and completed in the course of the next six or seven years. Knox's “History”, if sometimes rough and even coarse in language, is written with a force and vigor not surpassed by any of his other writings, of all which it may be said that whatever their faults, they are works of true genius, and well worthy in their character of the great leader and statesman who wrote them. The Death of John Knox: a higher testimony to the worth of a man not without faults was pronounced at his grave in the churchyard of St. Giles by the Earl of Mortoun, the regent of Scotland, in the presence of an immense funeral procession, who had followed the body to its last resting-place: "Here lyeth a man who in his life never feared the face of man, who hath been often threatened with dagger, but yet hath ended his dayes in peace and honour" [9].