Alexander Alesius
(1500–65),alternatively ‘Aless’ or ‘Alane’, Scottish Lutheran divine. A native of Edinburgh, he studied at St Andrews, where he became a canon. Selected in 1527 to confute Patrick Hamilton, who ...
architectural styles and features
With the reign of King David I (1124–53), Scotland became a part of the western European polity of feudalism. Its most visible symbol was the castle, which was introduced by ...
Borders
From 1973, an administrative region of Scotland, comprising the counties of Berwick, Peebles, Roxburgh, and Selkirk. A hilly area, its economy has continued to be dominated by sheep‐farming and ...
coinage
The WestByzantiumThe WestByzantiumInstrument of an exchange economy, as standard of values and principal means of payment, Money was not in exclusive use, everywhere and always, in the ...
David Beaton
(1494?–1546), archbishop of Saint Andrews (1539–1546), abbot of Arbroath (1524), bishop of Mirepoix (1537), cardinal (1538), and papal legate a Latere (1544) who led the Scottish ecclesiastical ...
Earl of Murray, James Stewart
(c.1531–1570),Regent of Scotland. An illegitimate son of James V, James Stewart was half-brother to Mary, Queen of Scots, whose marriage to the future Francis II he helped to negotiate ...
France: the ‘Auld Alliance’
The French connection, often whimsically known as the ‘Auld Alliance’, was an intermittent phenomenon but in the three centuries or so after 1296, it operated in four main areas: warriors ...
François Quesnel
(b Edinburgh, c.1545; d Paris, 1619).The best-known member of a dynasty of French painters active in the 16th and 17th centuries. His father Pierre (d c.1574) worked at the ...
gardening and landscapes
Shaped by topography (see geology and landscape) and climate, tempered by horticultural skill, and infused with a deep sense of history and national identity, Scotland's gardens and designed ...
gipsy
(singular Rom, feminine Romni).The earliest known Gipsy migrations into Europe occurred in the fifteenth century. Their place of origin was thought to be either Egypt (hence the the Greek ...
Guise
A branch of the ducal house of Lorraine that rose to prominence in 16th-century France. Claude de Lorraine (1496–1550) was created duke in 1528; he had distinguished himself in a number of French ...
iconoclasm
The odd pair of beliefs shared by enthusiasts including Cromwell and the Taliban, that while ‘false idols’ have no supernatural powers they are nevertheless so dangerous that they must be destroyed ...
maps and map-making
Scotland's rich cartographic heritage derives from several distinct phases of map‐making over five centuries. Because map‐makers select only certain features and then portray them as they wish them ...
Mary of Guise
(1515–60),queen of James V of Scotland. The daughter of Claude, duke of Guise, Mary married James in June 1538. By him she bore two sons, who both died in infancy, and a daughter, Mary, who was ...
Mediterranean lands in the Middle Ages
Medieval Scots were well aware of the apparent remoteness of their land. The barons who sealed the Declaration of Arbroath sent to the pope in 1320 referred to ‘this poor ...
Pierre de Ronsard
(1524–1585) French poetOdes (1550) PoetryAmours [‘Love Poems’] (1552) PoetryBocage [‘Grove’] (1554) PoetryHymnes (1555) PoetryAmours [conclusion] (1556) PoetryLa Franciade [‘The Hymn of France’; ...
Queen of Scots Mary
B. 7 Dec. 1542, da. of James V and Mary of Guise; acc. 14 Dec. 1542, abdic. 24 July 1567; m. (1) Francis, dauphin of France, 24 Apr. 1558; (2) Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, 29 July 1565; (3) James ...
Robert Carver
(b 1484/5; d after 1568).Scottish composer, a monk of Scone Abbey. Comp. in melismatic style. Wrote several masses on song ‘L'homme armé’, only known use of this cantus firmus by a Brit. composer. ...
rough wooing
1544–8.The birth of Mary, queen of Scots, in December 1542, only a week after her father's death, seemed an ideal opportunity to unite the thrones of England and Scotland. Prince Edward, Henry VIII's ...
royal court
1. to 1542;2. 1542–1603.1. to 1542;2. 1542–1603.Cultural centre, symbol of the ruling dynasty and even of the kingdom itself, the court was always much more than a functional ...
