17. SCOTTISH HISTORY. From the Invasion of Agricola in 80 A.D. to the Death of Alexander III in 1286.— In the main lines of its development Scotland has from the be ginning been subjected to the same general in fluences that have determined the civilization of all the countries of Western Christendom. Like each of these countries, however, it has had a history of its own which has given a specific stamp to the character of its people, to its institutions, laws, customs and social ar rangements. Among the nations of Europe Scotland has an individuality as distinctive as that of any of its more powerful neighbors, and it has made its own contribution to the general sum of knowledge and to the advance ment of humanity.
Remote as is her geographical position, Scotland, from the moment it appears in his tory, was an integral part of Western Europe. Like England, France and other countries she also came under the domination of the Roman Empire, and her history begins with the in vasion of Agricola in the year 80 A.D. In her case, however (and it is a note of difference at the very beginning of her history),. the Roman dominion never passed beyond a military occu pation, and, except material remains, left no permanent impression of its presence. The next powerful influence that helped to determine the future of Europe was the spread of Christian ity, and for this influence Scotland had not long to wait. About the year 563 Saint Columba introduced Irish Christianity into the country north of the River Forth, and by the first quarter of the 8th oentury the whole of North Britain came nominally under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. Christianity was a common factor in the process which led to the formation of the nations of Western Europe, but in Scotland, as in other countries, there were specific conditions that determined the character of her development and permanently influenced the genius of her people. There was first the physical nature of the country, and, second, the fact that peoples speaking dif ferent languages divided the land between them. As far as her internal history is concerned, the dominating physical fact was the division of its surface into a Highland and a Lowland country. The River Forth that bridles the wild dividing these two territorial sections by a natural line, has been, in fact, determining factor in the development of the Scottish nation. To the north and the south of the Forth respectively there have existed to the present day two distinct peoples, speaking dif ferent languages and possessing different char acteristics, partly the result of original racial idiosyncrasies and partly the result of their re spective histories. The mutual relations be
tween these two peoples, it will be seen, have been of the first importance in the history of the Scottish nation.
In the first quarter of the 11th century the entire mainland of Scotland was nominally consolidated under one ruler, Malcolm II, who came of the Celtic race beyond the Forth. Though territorially consolidated, however, there was little cohesion between the northern and southern sections of the kingdom, and the process in the next stage of national develop ment (1100-1300) was the knitting of the bonds between the different peoples and their gradual subjection to an acknowledged head. In this process, also, there were general causes at work which were common to Christendom, and causes which were peculiar to Scotland herself. The general causes were the introduction of the feudal system, the organization of the Church with Rome as its centre, and the growth of towns and municipal institutions — all the result of the general movement among the countries of Western Europe. Peculiar to Scot land itself during this period of her develop ment was the decisive supremacy obtained by the Teutonic over the Celtic peoples in the direction of the national destinies. The mar riage (1068-93) of Malcolm Canmore, a Celtic prince, with the Saxon Margaret marks the beginning of the struggle between the two races which was to decide whether there was to be the Scotland which exists to-day. From that marriage issued a line of Icings with Teu tonic names, Teutonic sympathies, and with the abiding purpose of Teutonizing the national in stitutions. The reasons for this policy are suffi ciently obvious. The country between the Firth of Forth and the Tweet', which had been ac quired through conquest by the Celtic kings of the north, and whose inhabitants were mainly Teutonic, was the most valuable part of their kingdom, and naturally tended to become its political centre. From the death of Malcolm Canmore in 1093 to the death of Alexander III in 1286, therefore, the task of the successive Scottish kings was, on the one hand, to defend the southern part of their dominions against the encroachments of England, and, on the other, to hold in check their Celtic subjects to the north of the Forth and in the extensive district of Galloway (also mainly Celtic) in the south west. By the death of Alexander the task had been accomplished, and Scotland was now a consolidated kingdom, effectually ruled by one acknowledged prince, with Teutonic influences in the ascendant.