“It would ha’ been a good deal easier, if ye’d only been a witch.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Exile: An Outlander Graphic Novel

The last successful invasion of what today is Great Britain was by the French in 1066.  Seems that Edward the Confessor died without children  and according to Edward’s cousin  William Duke of Normandy (later known as the Conqueror) he had promised the throne to him. Harold II (the last of the Saxon Kings) had a different story and was actually in England when Edward died.  He was crowned in January 1066 and defeated by the French under William in October of the same year.  It took the Normans (French mostly from Normandy where a large number of the peoples were of Viking descent) under William quite a while to subdue the populace and was done with harsh measures and a lot of fortresses built across the land.  During this time Duncan II (1060-1094) was king of Scotland.  Once things were under control William returned to the continent for more securing of his lands.  He died in Normandy in 1087 a causality of battle.

Look at Scottish guys wearing kilts – you could look at them and laugh, but the way they carry themselves, how can you? You can wear some of the weirdest things and be cool. If you believe in it, that’s what makes it cool.

The Plantagenet Kings came about when Matilda (after the reign of two of William’s sons) who was to take the throne was usurped by Stephen.  Matilda whose second husband was Duke of Plantagenet, was able to win out over Stephen and it was agreed that upon his death her son Henry would rule.  Henry married Elanor of Aquitaine who held claim to large territories in France and ruled 1154 -1189.  You might remember him as the king whose men murdered Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. He placed his much older wife (and alleged murderer of one of his favorite mistresses)confinement and died with his sons in rebellion.  Richard (the Lion Heart) who spent more time in the Holy lands than in England (1189-1199) and his brother John (the villain in so many stores and legends–1199-1216), and fimally Henry III(1216-1272),

Flow gently, sweet Afton! amang thy green braes,
Flow gently, I’ll sing thee a song in thy praise.
Robert Burns
Afton Water.

 

But it is with Edward III that we look at Scotland.  Edward was a good king to the English, he was respectful of his wife and defined his territories in France as well as subjugating Wales.  He was called Longshanks (it was confirmed by opening his tomb in Westminster where his 6’2″ skeleton–very tall for his times–was examined).  Edward (1272 – 1307) was also called “The Hammer of the Scots” when in the latter part of his reign he embarked on a campaign to bring Scotland under his dominion. 

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,
O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious.
Robert Burns
Tam o’ Shanter.

 Scottish Kings reigned and fought with the English.  Willaim I (1142-1165) who introduced the lion as the heraldic emblem which became all the king’s emblems an he was captured (while invading England) by Henry II and had to accept English Lordship of Scotland.  There followed two Alexander (II & III–1214-1286)  during which time Gaelic (what Jamie and the other Highlanders speak) was driven out of Lowland Scotland by northern English.   His sudden death (and the death of his only heir  Margaret the Maid of Norway on her way to Scotland left the land King-less.   As supposed warlord of Scotland Edward I chose John Balliol (whe reigned until 1296) as king (the other candidate being Robert Bruce.)

Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to Victorie!
Now’s the day, and now’s the hour;
See the front o’ battle lour!
See approach proud Edward’s power,
Chains and slaverie!
Robert Burns
Scots, What Hae.

When in 1296 Edward demoted the king and put an English administration in charge, backed by an occupying army, a resistance movement led by William Wallace  (who was pro-Balliol) began guerrilla warfare against the English and eventually Edward was decisively defeated at the battle of Falkirk (1298).  The Bruce varied  between supporting Wallace and the British and was crowned at Scone but defeated (after which Wallace got away but was captured in 1304 and taken to London where he was drawn, quartered and then had his head cut off) by the English he went into exile.  In 1307 the year of Edward’s death he finally returned and took the throne in 1314 when he defeated Edward II (1307-1327  who was later murdered by those who favored his French wife and her border lord lover–in a gruesome method often used for homosexuals at the time— which he reportedly was)  at Bannockburn near Stirling.

Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty’s in every blow!
Let us do – or die!
Robert Burns
Scots, What Hae.

Edward III was a warrior king and his reign (1327-1377) saw the Black Death which killed 30-50% of the population  which reached London in 1348 and Scotland by1350 with renewed outbreaks occurring at regular intervals over the next 50 years and with the deaths the serf system failed and the rise in the number of yeomen increased.    Also during this time the Hundred Years War started (1337-1453–evidentially they weren’t great at math) between England and France.  While the Scots allied with the French and invaded northern England in 1346 but were defeated and peace between the two countries was made.  The last of the Plantagenet kings Richard II (Grandson of Edward) 1377-1399 was deposed, imprisoned and some say drown in a keg of wine (others that he was starved) beginning the War of the Roses. 

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!
For whom my warmest wish to heaven is sent;
Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil
Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content.
Robert Burns
The Cotter’s Saturday Night.

In Scotland David II (son of the Bruce came to the throne at age 5 1324-1329.  He eventually married a daughter of Edward III and had to flee the country when in 1333 the Balliol family rebelled trying to regain the throne.  He remained in exile for 7 years finally returning and leading the army against the English and himself becoming an English captive after being wounded.  Released in 1357 he returned to a Scotland being ruled by a Governing body led by Robert Stewart a cousin.  When he died without an heir, Stewart stepped into take the throne as Robert II (1329 – 1371)  The last Royal totally Scottish Line had arrived:  The Stewarts. 

For that is the mark of the Scots of all classes:
that he stands in an attitude towards the past
unthinkable to Englishmen, and remembers and
cherishes the memory of his forebears, good or
bad; and there burns alive in him a sense of identity
with the dead even to the twentieth generation.
Robert Louis Stevenson

For so long as one hundred men remain alive,
we shall never under any conditions submit to the
domination of the English. It is not for glory or riches
or honours that we fight, but only for liberty, which
no good man will consent to lose but with his life.
The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320