Scotland Country History

YEAR

EVENT

Late 1st cent. AD	First Roman invasion of Scotland (then known as Caledonia).
AD 122	Roman construction of Hadrian's Wall began.
155-158, 197	Major Pictish breach of Roman walls (both Hadrian's Wall and Antonine Wall).
211	Hadrian's Wall established as the northern limit of Roman Britain.
409	Withdrawal of Romans from Britain.
c. 500	Invasion of Scotland by Celts from Ireland.
c. 550	Angles overran lowland Scotland, incorporating it into the kingdom of Northumbria.
563	St Columba introduced Christianity to the Picts.
685	Picts defeated Northumbrians and gained control over Caledonia.
790s	Vikings settled in Shetland and Orkney and began encroaching on to the Caledonian coasts.
844	Kenneth MacAlpin conquered Pictish kingdom and became first king of Scotland.
1018	Battle of Carham. Scottish king Malcolm II Mackenneth defeated the Northumbrians, thus securing the whole territory of Scotland.
1040-1057	Reign of Macbeth. In 1057 Malcolm Canmore defeated Macbeth and, as Malcolm III of Scotland, introduced the trend towards Anglicization of Scottish institutions.
1130s	Anglo-Norman feudal system was established in Scotland during the reign of David I.
1292	Edward I proclaimed John de Balliol as king of Scotland.
1296	War for independence. Edward I defeated Balliol at the Battle of Dunbar and annexed Scotland to England.
1297	William Wallace destroyed an English army at Stirling.
1298	Edward led a fresh army to Scotland and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk. Wallace retreated and initiated a period of guerrilla warfare against the English.
1305	Wallace betrayed to English and executed in London.
1306	Robert Bruce crowned Robert I, king of Scotland and resumed national uprising against English.
1314	Battle of Bannockburn. English spectacularly defeated.
1326	Meeting of first Scottish parliament at Cambus Kenneth.
1328	Treaty of Northampton. England recognized Scotland as an independent kingdom.
1559	Scottish Reformation. John Knox led Scottish Protestant revolt against the French regency of Mary, Queen of Scots.
1560	Roman Catholic Church abolished in Scotland, which adopted Knox's Calvinistic Confession of Faith.
1567	Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her infant son James VI. Presbyterian Church became established as Scotland's national Church.
1603	Death of Elizabeth I of England. As her nearest heir, James VI inherited the crown of England as James I.
1625	Accession of Charles I.
1639-1640	Charles attempted to impose Anglican forms of worship on Scotland, thus causing the Bishop's Wars.
1649	Death of Charles I.
1650	Cromwell crushed Scots at Dunbar.
1652	Cromwell imposed on Scotland parliamentary union with England.
1660	Charles II restored to the throne. Scotland again politically separated from England.
1688	Glorious Revolution. Scottish Parliament recognized the Protestant William of Orange as new king and he was crowned joint monarch, with his wife Mary II, as William II of Scotland (1689).
1707	Act of Union formally combined England and Scotland as part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Scottish parliament was dissolved.
Post-1707	See 'History of Great Britain' table in United Kingdom: History