Connecting Scotland's History - Anna Groundwater

What was happening elsewhere in the world when Robert the Bruce was outlawed and Mary Queen of Scots lost her head? When Genghis Khan was on the warpath and Ivan the Terrible was the Russian czar, what was happening in Scotland? Find the answers to these questions in 2,000 years of Scottish history presented alongside what was happening in the rest of the world. By placing events in Scotland in relation to those elsewhere, we can see what is different or distinctive about Scotland’s experience. Simultaneously we can also see where movements in Scottish history were part of wider cultural or political change in Europe and beyond. John Knox’s fiery sermons of the 1560s were connected into a wider Protestant Reformation, but they also represented a singularly Scottish version of a European phenomenon. Connecting Scotland’s History also gives us a history of ‘many Scotlands’. We see the hybrid nature of a country where multiple peoples have come together in a distinctively Scottish mixture. From the Gaels, Picts and Norse people to more recent influxes from England, Ireland, continental Europe and beyond, Scotland’s history tells us of internal connections as well as connections between Scotland and the wider world.