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The Central LowlandsThe Central Lowlands include the valleys of the rivers Tay, Clyde and Forth and contain the main centres of population and industry as well as fertile farmlands. In recent times, this region has had many of the same difficulties as the industrial north of England, although the North Sea oil industry has helped to keep unemployment down. The Southern Uplands Just north of the border with England are the Southern Uplands,an area of small towns, quite far apart from each other, whose economy depends to a large extent on sheep farming. It’s a largely agricultural and pastoral area. Two of Britain’s great rivers, the Clyde and the Tweed, rise within a mile of each other in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. From the history of Scotland Celtic tribes called the Picts penetrated into the mountains on the North; some Picts as well as tribes of Scots crossed over to Ireland and settled there. Later the Scots returned to the larger island and settled in the North beside the Picts. They came in such large numbers that in time the name of Scotland was given to that country. The Romans had left two centuries earlier. Caledoniawas the Roman name for Scotland. The Middle Ages
Scotland was a separate kingdom with powerful local lairds, until 1603, when its King James VI,the son of Mary Queen of Scots became King James I of England. This was because Mary’s cousin Elizabeth I of England had left no heir when she died. James took the name of King of Great Britain, and on his flag he had the crosses of the saints of England and of Scotland. This was the first ‘Union Jack’.From then the two countries were finally united, but ironically, under a royal dynasty which came from Scotland. The two countries had the same monarch, though the Act of Union was not passed until 1707. This Act incorporated Scotland with England in the United Kingdom, but the Scots kept their own legal system, religion and administration. The Protestant Church replaced the Catholic Church as the ruling church in Scotland. The political independence which Scotland won under Robert the Bruce was soon to be paralleled by the establishment of an independent Scottish Church. The drama of Reformation in Scotland culminated in the confrontation between the reformer John Knoxand Mary Queen of Scots. Behind Knox lay a life of struggle against the authority of Rome. That authority obscured the source of truth – the Gude Buik, the Bible, which should be open to all men. Of all rites, the Mass, which to Mary united the living and the dead in God, was to him the most detestable. Knowledge of the Bible, Knox recognized, could be acquired only by reading. Therefore, he argued, there should be a school in every parish, and the implementing of this proposal led to a more literate population than any other in Europe, to a wide dissemination of knowledge and to democratic universities.
In 1745 Charlie landed in the Western Isles. On the 17th of September his father was proclaimed king of Scotland and England. Four days later the Jacobites defeated the English army. With his army of Highlanders he entered Edinburgh. On the 1st of November Charlie led his men as far south as Derby in England. However not as many Jacobite supporters joined them in England as they had hoped. Moreover, when the Highland army was on the way to London, the Highlanders felt unhappy at being so far from home. Bonnie Prince decided to retreat and he moved back to Scotland. By April 1746, however, the Duke of Cumberland had built up a huge army of 9 000 Protestant soldiers from England and Europe. On the 16 th of April they met Charlie’s army of 5 000 tired and hungry men in the wind and the rain at Culloden,near Inverness.There was a terrible and bloody battle and the Jacobites were defeated. Bonnie Prince escaped to the Isle of Skye dressed as a woman. Charlie wandered in exile in the Scottish Highlands and in Europe. There was a reward of £30 000 for his capture but the Highlanders, though poor, never betrayed the man they loved so much. After the rebellion of 1745, the Highlanders were forbidden to carry weapons, to speak their own language, Gaelic, or wear their own dress even the playing of bagpipes. Much of their land was sold by the British government. Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1809
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