L'Histoire de l'Ecosse

L'Ecosse pendant la préhistoire

Nous savons que l'Ecosse est habitée depuis 6 à 8 000 ans et qu'elle a connu des vagues successives de colons et d'envahisseurs. Les Celtes arrivèrent de l'Europe du nord-ouest aux environs de 500 avant Jésus-Christ. Les Romains, envahissant par la suite, leur donnèrent le nom de Bretons. Ces conquérants temporaires appelèrent Calédonie les terres situées au nord des rivières Forth et Clyde et nommèrent également Pictes les tribus du nord ; tous ces termes sont utilisés de nos jours pour décrire l'histoire ancienne de l'Ecosse. Le nom Ecosse est dérivé du nom Scoti, une autre tribu celte venue d'Irlande qui, au Ve et au VIe siècle, s'était établie sur la côte ouest dans la région appelée maintenant Argyll en nombre suffisant pour former le Royaume de Dalriada. Cette tribu parlait le gaëlique.

Vers les Guerres d'indépendance

Le premier millénium AD connut une série de guerres au cours desquelles les peuples d'Ecosse - Scots, Pictes, Bretons et Angliens - se rapprochèrent progressivement. En 843AD un royaume uni Ecossais/Picte vit le jour. En 1018, à la suite de la défaite des Anglais du nord à la Bataille de Carham, la frontière fut établie le long de la rivière Tweed. Dès 1034, les Bretons de Strathclyde vinrent s'ajouter au royaume, donnant ainsi à l'Ecosse une forme très approchante de celle d'aujourd'hui.

En 1070, le roi Malcolm III épousa Margaret, petite-fille d'Edouard le Confesseur d'Angleterre - l'une des nombreuses occasions où les maisons royales d'Angleterre et d'Ecosse furent alliées par mariage.

Les influences normandes (à la suite de la conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands) progressivement se répandirent en Ecosse Des familles anglo-normandes, aux noms tels que Graham ou Bruce, vinrent s'établir. En 1286, la mort du roi Alexandre III entraîna une crise de succession dans une Ecosse qui connaissait à ce moment-là une période de paix et de prospérité. Comme il existait des liens étroits par mariage entre l'Ecosse et l'Angleterre, le roi Edouard Ier d'Angleterre fut invité à jouer le rôle de médiateur dans le litige. Il choisit un roi fantoche et envahit ensuite en 1295. William Wallace, le premier militant écossais pour la liberté, vainquit les occupants anglais à Stirling Bridge en 1297, mais son armée fut battue l'année suivante. Robert the Bruce (le roi Robert Ier) dans un geste de défi, fut couronné à Scone en 1306. Sa campagne provoqua finalement la Bataille de Bannockburn en 1314 au cours de laquelle les forces anglaises furent chassées d'Ecosse. En 1320, les Scots rédigèrent une Déclaration d'indépendance à Arbroath Abbey.

Tiré du site:
http://www.rabbies.com/ecosse_ecossais_clans_histoire.asp?lng=fr

Si vous souhaitez en savoir + téléchargez "A history of Scotland", un documentaire en anglais de 10 episodes :
vraiment bien fichu !


[/A History of Scotland (TV series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Presented by Neil Oliver, A History of Scotland is a television series first broadcast in November 2008 on BBC One Scotland and later shown UK-wide on BBC Two during January 2009.[1]

The series resumed on BBC One Scotland in early November 2009, with transmission at a later point on network BBC Two.

Along with the series, BBC Scotland planned a range of radio programmes, a new website, an interactive game, and concerts. The Open University, in collaboration with the BBC, also created a series of audio walks around historic locations in Scotland[2], with narration from Oliver.

Episodes are 60 minutes in length.

The following information was sourced from the BBC website[3].
[edit] Series 1

Episode 1 - The Last of the Free
At the dawn of the first millennia, there was no Scotland or England. In the first episode Oliver reveals the mystery of how the Gaelic Scottish Kingdom - Alba - was born, and why its role in one of the greatest battles ever fought on British soil defined the shape of Britain in the modern era.

Episode 2 - Hammers of the Scots
Oliver charts the 13th century story of the two men who helped transform the Gaelic kingdom of Alba into the Scotland of today. While Alexander II forged Scotland in blood and violence, William Wallace's resistance to King Edward I of England hammered national consciousness into the Scots.

Episode 3 - Bishop makes King
Robert Bruce's 22-year struggle to secure the Scots' independence is one of the most important chapters in Scotland's story. Oliver explores the role the Scottish church played in promoting Robert Bruce, the propaganda campaigns, both at home and abroad, and how the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath persuaded the Pope to finally recognise Scotland as an independent nation.

Episode 4 - Language is Power
At one time, Gaelic Scotland - the people and the language - was central to the identity of Scots. But as Oliver reveals, Scotland's infamous Highland/Lowland divide was the result of a family struggle that divided the kingdom. This is the story of how the policies of the Stewart royal family in the 15th century led to the Gaels being perceived as rebels and outsiders.

Episode 5 - Project Britain
Oliver describes how the ambitions of two of Scotland's Stuart monarchs were the driving force that united two ancient enemies, and set them on the road to the Great Britain we know today. While Mary Queen of Scots plotted to usurp Elizabeth I and seize the throne of England, her son James dreamt of a more radical future: a Protestant Great Britain.

[edit] Series 2

Information obtained from iPlayer descriptions. Accessed 20 Dec 2009.

Episode 1 - God's Chosen People
Neil Oliver continues his journey through Scotland's past with the story of the Covenanters, whose profound religious beliefs were declared in the National Covenant of 1638. This document licensed revolution, started the Civil War that cost King Charles I his head, cost tens of thousands of Scots their lives and led to Britain's first war on terror.
First aired on BBC2: 24 November 2009

Episode 2 - Let's Pretend
Bitterly divided by politics and religion for centuries, this is the infamous story of how Scotland and England came together in 1707 to form Great Britain. Over time the Union matured into one of the longest in European history, but it very nearly ended in divorce. Exploiting the Union's unpopularity, the exiled Stuarts staged several comebacks, selling themselves as a credible and liberal alternative to the Hanoverian regime. Neil Oliver reveals just how close they came to succeeding.
First aired on BBC2: 1 December 2009

Episode 3 - The Price of Progress
Through the winning and losing of an American empire and the impact of the Scottish Enlightenment, Neil Oliver reveals how in the second half of the 18th century Scotland was transformed from a poor northern backwater with a serious image problem into one of the richest nations on Earth. This was the dawn of the modern age when Scotland made its mark on the world by exporting its most valuable commodities - its people and ideas.
First aired on BBC2: 8 December 2009

Episode 4 - This Land Is Our Land
At the start of the 19th century, everything familiar was swept away. People fled from the countryside into the industrial towns of Scotland's central belt. Rural workers became factory workers - in some of the worst conditions in Europe. This new Scotland became a seedbed of revolution. But it wasn't just force that kept the Scottish people in their place, it was fantasy. Neil Oliver reveals how Sir Walter Scott created so powerful a myth, it haunts the Scots collective imagination to this day.
First aired on BBC2: 15 December 2009

Episode 5 - Project Scotland
As a partner in the British Empire, Scotland began the 20th century with an advanced economy and a world-beating heavy industry. But in the closing decades its sense of Britishness was in doubt and a Scottish Parliament sat in Edinburgh for the first time since 1707. Charting Scotland's darkest century, Neil Oliver discovers a country driven to self-determination through a series of economic crises so deep that her most striking export became her own disillusioned population.
First aired on BBC2: 19 December 2009.]

Voici un avant gout !
Vise un peu ces paysages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hG01ZzlKxI