As the first millennia dawned, there was no Scotland and no clear motivation for the disparate tribes in the northern third of Britain to unite.

Cináed mac Ailpín, King of the Picts
[Source: Wikimedia]

A history of Scotland begins with the first stirrings of identity as the tribes of a place the Romans called Caledonia first banded together to confront the legions of the Empire. Although the Romans were victorious in the epic battle of Mons Graupius, they eventually withdrew to the South after they failed as Neil Oliver notes "to tame the elusive warriors of North Britain."

For three centuries the Romans kept these tribes at bay, in their northern stronghold, until the Empire itself began to collapse. From this emerged a people with a new name, the Picts.The last British tribe to paint their bodies, Pictish society is now recognised by archaeologists as skilled and well-organised. But the Picts were not alone. The Last of the Free charts their sometime allegiances and wars with the Gaels in the West.

With the growing dominance of the Gaels came a new religion, Christianity, which slowly prised the Picts away from their pagan beliefs. Art flourished on both sides from the book of Kells, created by the monks of Iona, to intricate Pictish carvings. Yet as the native culture flourished, there were brutal challenges to be met including an invader from the sea, the Vikings, who threatened to conquer all of Britain. As the natives fought back, heroic warrior chiefs would come to the fore but what was their relationship to the notion of Scotland?

And what of this nation of Scotland itself? As The Last of the Free highlights, there is a document which marks the arrival of a firmer sense of a Scotland.

This document, The Chronicle of the Kings of Alba, a list of the 12 Kings of the House of Alpin, also charts a critical transition around the period 878 to 889 when all references to Pictland, which did not include the West and the Isles, disappear.

It is held in the Bibliotheque National in Paris, part of a parcel of documents believed to have been brought back to France from London by a courtier in the 17^th century. Within it is the first reference from Scottish sources to a land called Albaniam, the Gaelic for Scotland.

Says Neil Oliver: “This is a brand new name for the kingdom. In this single word, Scotland is created. This is Scotland’s birth certificate!”

Content last updated: 22/10/2008

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