When is the Kingdom of Scotland shown on the map?

The border data draws the Kingdom of Scotland 1294–1304, 1314–1608, in 2 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.

How large was the Kingdom of Scotland?

At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Scotland covered about 93,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Europe · High and late Middle Ages

Kingdom of Scotland

drawn on the map 1294–1304, 1314–1608

The Kingdom of Scotland (Gaelic Alba; the name "Scotland/Scotia" gradually displacing Alba) endured from the consolidation of the 9th–11th centuries until the Union of 1707. It was a feudal monarchy, increasingly Europeanised from the 12th century.

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗

Shown on the map: 1294–1304, 1314–1608 (2 periods)
Peak area: 93k km²
Region: Europe

Names and span

Key rulers and turning points

Macbeth (Mac Bethad mac Findláech, r. 1040–1057) took the throne after killing Duncan I near Elgin (1040); his relatively long, largely stable reign was ended when he fell at the Battle of Lumphanan (1057), after which (in 1057/58) Malcolm III Canmore (r. 1058–1093), Duncan's son, restored the House of Dunkeld and married the Saxon princess (later St) Margaret. David I (r. 1124–1153) presided over the "Davidian Revolution," introducing Anglo-Norman feudalism, burghs, a reformed coinage and church structures, and continental religious orders.

Wars of Independence

After the death of Alexander III (1286) and the disputed succession, Edward I of England intervened. Resistance rose under William Wallace and Andrew Murray, who won the Battle of Stirling Bridge (11 September 1297); Wallace was defeated at Falkirk (1298) and executed (1305). Robert the Bruce seized the throne (1306) and won the decisive Battle of Bannockburn (23–24 June 1314) over Edward II. The Declaration of Arbroath (6 April 1320), a letter of the Scottish barons to Pope John XXII, asserted Scottish independence in ringing terms ("for as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule"); scholars such as G. W. S. Barrow have shown its "freedom clause" was crafted from Sallust, and Broun argues its idea of freedom drew on a mid-13th-century history. Independence was recognised by the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton (1328).

Later monarchy and unions

The Stewart (Stuart) dynasty ruled from 1371. In 1603 the Union of the Crowns brought James VI of Scotland to the English throne as James I (a personal union), and the Acts of Union (1 May 1707) merged the Scottish and English parliaments and kingdoms into the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Common questions

What was the Kingdom of Scotland?: The Kingdom of Scotland (Gaelic Alba; the name "Scotland/Scotia" gradually displacing Alba) endured from the consolidation of the 9th–11th centuries until the Union of 1707. It was a feudal monarchy, increasingly Europeanised from the 12th century.
When is the Kingdom of Scotland shown on the map?: The border data draws the Kingdom of Scotland 1294–1304, 1314–1608, in 2 separate periods. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large was the Kingdom of Scotland?: At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Scotland covered about 93,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
What did the economy and culture of the Kingdom of Scotland rest on?: After the death of Alexander III (1286) and the disputed succession, Edward I of England intervened. Resistance rose under William Wallace and Andrew Murray, who won the Battle of Stirling Bridge (11 September 1297); Wallace was defeated at Falkirk (1298) and executed (1305).

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each kingdom as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, national heritage bodies (Historic Environment Wales and Scotland, the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust), museum sources and the Dictionary of Irish Biography, read against the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede and the Irish annals with their own biases. The article this entry is anchored on:

Wikipedia — Kingdom of Scotland en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Scotland

This entry was last updated 27 September 2026.

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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