Hiya, I'm Bruce Fummey. If you’re Scottish, then you might want to be free of English oppression.
So when did English oppression start?
What was it like? …and how did we get out of it?
If they sound like interesting questions then this is the video for you.
When was Scotland free? Well this is the old Scottish Parliament building.
On 16th January 1707, a parcel of rogues inside, voted to adjourn this Parliament and form the United Kingdom… and we’ve been run by English ever since...
or maybe it’s more complicated than that. You see there had already been an act of Union before that, and Scotland had been run by England… more than once.
If you’re interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then hit the subscribe button at the bottom right at any time during this video,
and ring the notification bell to make sure that you’re informed when I bring out new videos.
In the meantime let me tell you five stories.
Yes, that’s right, we’re going to look at five times Scotland threw off the yoke of English oppression, as we ask: When was Scotland free?
I’m tempted to say that almost since it began Scotland’s been fighting to maintain its independence from England,
but then again that assumes that Scotland has always been the same thing,
that England has always been the same thing
that independence has always been the same thing
and none of those things are true.
You could say that Scotland started in 843 AD, when Kenneth MacAlpin, already King of the Scots at Dalriada, became King of the Picts.
I suppose that was a bit like when James VI of Scotland became James I of England. Two kingdoms, one king;
although monarchy and statehood changed dramatically from the time of Kenneth MacAlpin
to the time his descendant, James wanted to turn his two 'possessions' into one.
You could say that Scotland started in 904 AD when Kenneth’s grandson Constantine the Second,
was the first King recorded as bringing the Church, the Crown and the Scots nobility together in a formal ceremony in Scone.
What we do know is that hot on the heels of Mother Scota’s labour,
was born the slightly younger, but larger neighbour, the English magpie.
Neither one was what we’d call Scotland or England today.
Edinburgh here wouldn’t have been part of it either; similarly Newcastle, Carlisle and Glasgow.
Check out my video 'Birth of Scotland'.
The point is that these nascent kingdoms were geographically smaller than today,
and in both cases, these kingdoms only existed as long as the kings
could hold them together by force of arms and personality,
and in both cases the kings were out to expand their authority and control.
Cos that's what Dark Age and Medieval Kings did.
That's why in 934 AD, Athelstan of England came north with an army as far as Dunottar,
and a navy as far as Caithness to impose himself on Scotland.
Scotland became a sub kingdom of England.
Now the idea of a Parliament taking a vote to adjourn itself would have seemed bizarre to Athelstan or Constantine the Second.
Their rule and authority was personal.
What that meant is that Constantine made a personal submission to Athelstan.
Any independence movement would be some other warrior giving Constantine the chop,
telling Athelstan to stick it,
and then waiting to see if Athelstan could be bothered coming all the way back to Stonehaven!
They do have a very good chip shop actually.
So, how DID we get out of it?
Well, five years later Athelstan died, and his authority died with him
and Scotland, such as it was at that time, was once again held by Constantine
until he retired to a monastery at St Andrews four years later.
By the next time England imposed itself, Scotland was a bit bigger.
Malcolm Canmore kind of had control down to the Solway Tweed line, although it was a bit tenuous.
Of course, there were still Viking types in the north, and in the islands. England was different too though.
The Normans hadn’t long invaded. Now obviously there were probably some Saxon English
that still hoped to take back control of their money, laws and borders and the fish, don't forget the fish. What are they like?
William of Normandy (William the Conqueror) wanted to gain control of HIS border in the north,
because Malcolm Canmore kept crossing it and nicking stuff.
He wasn’t finished expanding his kingdom either.
Now William came north and forced Malcolm to pledge an oath of submission at Abernethy in 1093.
Now this was still a personal oath of submission, but kingdoms had solidified,
kings had more authority and oaths on behalf of a kingdom were a wee bit more secure.
So how did we get out of it?
Well fortunately Malcolm gave his oath with his fingers crossed behind his back.
See, the English might be sly, but we’re pretty sneaky too, and it wasn’t long before
Malcolm was up to his old tricks and heading south for loot again.
Actually Malcolm, and his son and heir, were killed on one of those border raids.
I can’t remember if it was the last one or the one before. Don’t worry, that’s a detail.
Malcolm’s Saxon wife died three days after him. That’s a detail as well.
The point is that when Malcolm’s brother Donald became King all bets were off. Scotland was again independent.
And then in 1174, Malcolm’s great grandson got himself into a bit of a fix.
Now by this time Scotland and England were geographically much closer to what they are now.
The border was firmly established, well nearly.
At any rate, just like his great grandad, William the Lion of Scotland crossed it and got himself caught.
Watch my video The King Who Lost Scotland. The title is a bit of a spoiler.
Things were more complicated by this stage.
Norman feudalism, people are signing treaties, checking for fingers crossed behind your back; it was a nightmare.
There were legal systems, there were courts and stuff like that.
Now don’t get me wrong, ultimately force still won the day, but with no get out of jail free card
William had to sign the treaty of Falaise, and that meant that Scotland was once again subject to England and oaths weren’t enough this time.
Key Scottish castles would be handed over to English garrisons and the Scottish treasury would have to pay for it.
Other than that a lot of things ran as they had before.
So this was worse than the previous oath swearing and tata the noo, but not as bad as … well that’s for later.
How did we get out of it? Well in a stroke of good luck, Richard the First of England, Richard the Lion,
wanted to go on crusade, but he didn’t have the money, and so we bought ourselves out of the treaty of Falaise.
Turns out that Richard’s crusade DID liberate the holy land… this one.
By 1296 Scotland was Scotland… apart from Orkney and Shetland.
The iron fist of Edward the First of England (booo, I think they know who he is), the fist of Edward Longshanks was now wrapped in the mitten of legal niceties,
that to this day provide a façade of justification for the powerful to control the weaker.
And as the dance of legal justification was performed, Edward’s army watched and waited ... Stand back, and stand by.
But what Edward did in 1296 was new. Scotland was subsumed into England.
He took the symbols of nationhood: the sceptre, the royal records. THE STONE OF SCONE!
We were now part of Edward’s kingdom, we were now England?
How did we get out of it? You’re joking aren’t you?
Whether you count Scotland’s independence from Bannockburn in 1314, or the Treaty of Edinburgh Northampton in 1328 matters not.
Independent we were until Oliver Cromwell.
Now the Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a messy business and I need to make some more videos to simplify it for folks, folks like you and me
but by the 17th Century Scotland, England and Ireland had the same king, but different religions and different internal power structures.
Have you ever been to a party with a family like that? Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe it.
By the end of the night everyone has turned on everyone else, dad’s playing the kids off against each other,
everyone’s changed sides more than once, dad won’t back down, mum’s greetin’ in the kitchen,
then the eldest chops off dad’s head and you haven’t even had your pudding.
Elder brother calls it the English Civil War, because he thinks it’s all about him.
Then in 1649 Scotland welcomes a new King Charles the Second to replace his father, Charles the First, who’s had his head chopped off.
Oliver Cromwell (who’s clearly the elder brother in this tortured metaphor) says he’s not having this.
He invades and annexes Scotland a year later.
Now the official legal veneer takes till 1657 to polish, but a proclamation is made at this Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 4th February 1652.
That Parliament is closed, and Scots get 30 seats in the English parliament.That was the first Act of Union between Scotland and England
How did we get out of it? Well Oliver Cromwell died.
The English decided that their republican experiment hadn’t really worked out as well as they’d thought,
and they decided to reinstate the monarch who’s Scottish coronation had set off the invasion and union ten years before.
That’s when the Union was dissolved and Scotland became independent again.
So by the time 16th January 1707 arrived, and those parcel of rogues, motivated by a combination of threats and bribes, voted:
Scotland in its various forms had already been subject to England in its various forms in a variety of different forms.
From loosely based personal oaths, to brute force couched in legal justifications, to more brute force and a union.
1707 had included the threat of brute force, but also included explicit commercial and economic threats, including Aliens Act.
You know I’ve got a video about that don't you?
Over 900 year things had been changing; from Monarchies held together by the personal prestige of kings
to modern nation states with legal structures masking more subtle threats and power balances
So how did we get out of it? First I should make the point that I’ve only spoken here about five events:
two submissions, one takeover and two unions.
What about all the other invasions and occupations: The rough Wooing’s of Henry VIII:
what about the economic blockades; what about the subtle inference of military threat that made treaty negotiations imbalanced?
These things aren’t exclusive to the relationship between Scotland and England. These are the universal political realities of power balances between larger nations and smaller ones.
Our situation isn’t unique. It’s replicated around the globe in locations you’ve never heard of and who care little about Scotland or our southern neighbour.
China and Taiwan, Estonia and Russia, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Syria, Panama and the United States
Independence and freedom are not the same thing
So how do we get out of this? Two things are certain
However bitter you get on twitter, the ballot box is better than the sword. And…
Whatever happens in 2021 history suggests it probably won’t be the end of it Tha mi an dochas gum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.