Scotland
-
Act of Union between England and Scotland
On May 1st 1707 the last in a series of attempts at a union between the kingdoms of Scotland and England finally succeeded. Over a period of several centuries, many attempts to unite the crown under the rule of an English monarch had taken place, most notably including the Wars of Scottish Independence in the 13th and 14th Centuries, where the English tried to forcibly take control of Scotland. Later, when looking to take back the Scottish Throne in the 1560’s, Mary, Queen of Scots pledged to support peace between the two nations. Her son, James VI of Scotland after succeeding Elizabeth Tudor and being crowned as James I of…
-
Lady Katherine Gordon- Wife of a Pretender
Highborn, beautiful and rich, Lady Katherine Gordon was an ideal wife for any young man. The daughter of George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly. There is some dispute if her mother was Princess Annabella, daughter of King James and Joan Beaufort, or the Earl’s third wife Elizabeth Hay. Either way, she was related to the Scottish royal family. The king called her his “tender cousin”. She was a catch. Whose hand did this luscious plum fall into? The answer is surprising. The end of the 1400s were not an easy time in Great Britain. Henry Tudor defeated Richard III to become Henry VII. Depending on who you asked, his crown…
-
The Lion and the Unicorn
“The lion and the unicorn Were fighting for the crown The lion beat the unicorn All around the town. Some gave them white bread, And some gave them brown; Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town” The Old English nursery rhyme described the enmity between these two great heraldic animals. They are symbols of the United Kingdom and appear in the full Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom. The lion stands for England and the unicorn for Scotland. The combination therefore dates back to the 1603 accession of James I of England who was already James VI of Scotland. By extension, they have also…
-
ST COLUMBA AND THE LOCH NESS MONSTER
Columba was newly converted to Christianity when he was partly responsible for the Battle of Culdrebene. Thousands of people lost their lives so he sailed to Britain repentant and founded a monastery at Iona. He travelled all across northern Britain spreading Christianity. His life as a saint was documented by adamnan where he gives what is possibly the first ever recorded sighting of The Loch Ness Monster.This is his account; Whilst travelling across Scotland Columba had to cross Loch Ness. While waiting to cross he came upon some locals who were carrying a man who had been bitten by a water monster. His body had been pulled from the lake…
-
DRUIDS
Ah the druids. For most, the very name conjures images of white-robed, long bearded pale guys with a “special” relationship with nature and a penchant for speaking in riddles and cryptic messages. Dark druids who chant around purple bonfires at midnight and sacrifice babies on an altar of antlers and bone…. Okay, I totally ripped that last one from a D&D game I played once, but lets face facts, it was meant to be allegorical. Druids get a bad rap overall and I totally don’t think that is fair. What follows are a series of theories based on new(ish) archeological research and speculation by people smarter than me, because the…
