Scotland, A Very Peculiar History – Volume 1

Grieving widow Devorgilla Balliol wore her dead husband’s heart like a jewel – and founded Sweetheart Abbey near Dumfries as a place where it, and she, could be buried.

Books, songs, poems and blockbuster films praise Wallace as one of Scotland’s greatest heroes. It is strange but perhaps inevitable that a statue below the massive Wallace monument at Stirling is modelled on Australian movie star Mel Gibson.
A group of Scots, averse to this cinematisation of history, protested at the likeness. Soon the statue had to be cordoned off to protect it from vandalism. Strange that a statue proclaiming ‘FREEDOM’ should have to be locked behind bars for its own protection!

The Stone of Destiny (real or fake) was ‘kidnapped’ from Westminster Abbey in London by Scottish students in 1950. It was found in Arbroath Abbey, returned to London, and then officially given back to Scotland in 1996.

Thousands of Scottish mercenary soldiers emigrate to fight in France, often against the English. The Garde Écossaise (Scots Guard) is founded in 1415 and remains a part of the French Army until after the French Revolution of 1789.

Colonies of Scots also move to live in wine-growing regions of south-west France (there is a whole Scottish suburb of Bordeaux), buying vineyards, making wine, speaking French and paying French taxes.

Balliol’s treaty is the first of many agreements between Scotland and France. In these bargains of friendship, both sides promise help to each other – especially against England.

English kings, especially warlike Edward I (who came to power in 1272), have plans to conquer all of Scotland. Edward’s nickname? The ‘Hammer of the Scots’!

Now that he’s king, David invites English and Norman knights to help him control his kingdom. He gives them estates in southern Scotland, and they build fine castles

AD 1066–1068
Normans (people of Viking origin settled in France) conquer England.

Highland Games were banned after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, but the Braemar games were started again in 1832 and still continue today.