123-501: The Auld Alliance ( Scots for "Old Alliance") was an alliance between the kingdoms of Scotland and France against England made in 1295. The Scots word auld , meaning old , has become a partly affectionate term for the long-lasting association between the two countries. The alliance was never formally revoked, although it is considered by some to have ended with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh in 1560. The alliance played
246-923: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
369-650: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
492-469: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
615-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
738-534: A final peace with England. At the time of his death, the Scottish monarchy was stronger and the country was "a free and independent kingdom" according to a reliable source. The royal finances were more prosperous than might have seemed possible. King David II of Scotland married twice and had several mistresses, but none of his relationships produced children: David II died unexpectedly of natural causes at Edinburgh Castle on 22 February 1371, aged forty-six. David
861-415: A language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although a number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at
984-719: A large portion of the French Army up until the end of the Loire Valley Campaign was made of Scots men at arms and archers.Scottish soldiers also served in the Garde Écossaise , the loyal bodyguard of the French crown. Many members of the Scottish expeditions to France chose to settle there. Some officers were granted lands and titles in France. In the 15th and 16th centuries, they became naturalised French subjects. Through
1107-453: A more phonological manner rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots, especially for the northern and insular dialects of Scots. David II of Scotland David II (5 March 1324 – 22 February 1371) was King of Scotland from 1329 until his death in 1371. Upon the death of his father, Robert the Bruce , David succeeded to the throne at the age of five and
1230-578: A recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced the earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By
1353-573: A repeat of Wakefield when Henry VI and Margret fled to Scotland in 1464, Edward IV made a peace with Scotland with the Treaty of York . That peace however was short lived because once the Yorkists won the war and exterminated the Lancastrians, the Yorkists managed to regain England's lost possessions of Jersey from France in 1468 and Berwick from Scotland in 1482. Around the same time, with
SECTION 10
#17327662074471476-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
1599-467: A sense of emergency. In the winter of 1332, King Philip dispatched a flotilla of ten ships to Scotland with aid, but they were blown off course in a storm and never arrived. In the spring of 1334, £1000 arrived from France to be distributed to the Scottish defenders along with an offer of sanctuary to young David II of Scotland , his queen and members of his court. In May 1334, the two monarchs arrived, along with their confessors, tutors in arts and in arms,
1722-487: A significant role in the relations among Scotland, France and England. The alliance was renewed by all the French and Scottish monarchs of that period except Louis XI . By the late 14th century, the renewal occurred regardless of whether either kingdom was at war with England at the time. The alliance began with the treaty signed by John Balliol and Philip IV of France in 1295 against Edward I of England . The terms of
1845-512: A successful appeal to the Pope Urban V to reverse the sentence of divorce which had been pronounced against her in Scotland. She was still alive in January 1375, four years after David died. From 1364, David governed actively, dealing firmly with recalcitrant nobles, and a wider baronial revolt, led by his prospective successor, the future Robert II . David continued to pursue the goal of
1968-506: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
2091-562: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
2214-673: Is known about the life of the Scottish king in France, except that Château Gaillard was given to him for a residence, and that he was present at the bloodless meeting of the English and French armies in October 1339 at Vironfosse, now known as Buironfosse , in the Arrondissement of Vervins . By 1341, David's representatives had again obtained the upper hand in Scotland. David was able to return to his kingdom, landing at Inverbervie in Kincardineshire on 2 June 1341. He took
2337-463: Is known. Katherine was murdered in 1360 by men hired by the Earl of Angus and other nobles, according to some sources; some accounts say the earl was starved to death, however since his death was not until 1362, two years after the murder, death from the plague or other causes is more likely. She was replaced as mistress by Margaret Drummond . After six years, owing to the poverty of the kingdom, it
2460-712: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
2583-591: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
SECTION 20
#17327662074472706-567: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
2829-540: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
2952-671: The Auld Alliance Trophy is played for when Scotland and France play their match. After extensive research, British historian Siobhan Talbott concluded that the Auld Alliance had never been formally revoked and that it endured and thrived long after the Acts of Union in 1707 and the Entente Cordiale of 1904. Scots language Scots is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in
3075-598: The Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, King David, Queen Joan and the rump of his government were evacuated to France , where he remained in exile until it was safe for him to return to Scotland in 1341. In 1346, David invaded England in support of France during the Hundred Years' War . His army was defeated at the Battle of Neville's Cross and he was captured and held as a prisoner in England for eleven years, while his nephew Robert Stewart governed Scotland. In 1357
3198-787: The Catholic Scots. Throughout the seventeenth century since the House of Stuart acquired the English throne, aside from the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and Oliver Cromwell 's short-lived Commonwealth, relations between England and Scotland, including France for the most part, was neutral. That all changed in the Williamite War when the Stuart Catholic King James VII and II was deposed in favour of
3321-481: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
3444-761: The Highland Clearances soon after, some of the exiled Jacobites in the New World aided their French ally in the Seven Years' War , even on the side of the Patriots in the American War of Independence , an echo to when the Auld Alliance started almost 500 years ago. The Garde Écossaise , since their founding in 1418 continued to protect the kings of France until 412 years later in 1830, when Charles X of France abdicated. In 1848, France abolished
3567-855: The Hundred Years' War , the War of the League of Cambrai , and the Rough Wooing . The dynastic turmoil caused by the death in 1290 of Scotland's seven-year-old queen, Margaret, the Maid of Norway , left the covetous Edward I of England with an opportunity to assert his authority over Scotland . In response, the Council of Twelve, which had taken over the government of Scotland temporarily, sought alliances wherever they could be found. Philip IV declared England's possession of Gascony forfeit in 1294, bringing France and England close to war. Alliance with France
3690-509: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
3813-501: The Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish , the medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are
Auld Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue
3936-592: The Napoleonic Wars . David de Moravia , the 14th-century Bishop of Moray , helped found the Scots College of the University of Paris in 1333. Among those who studied or taught at French universities were: the poets John Barbour and George Buchanan ; the historian Hector Boece ; the founder of St Andrews University , Henry Wardlaw ; the founder of Aberdeen University , William Elphinstone ;
4059-685: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
4182-469: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
4305-651: The Treaty of Arras , the Burgundy threat to France was subdued. After the Lancastrians became extinct, Henry Tudor had been in exile in Brittany . From there, he made attempts to take the throne but failed. But when Henry went to exile in France to escape pro-Yorkists supporters, Henry was able to gain French and Scottish support from King Charles VII of France . Together, they landed in Wales and with Welsh allies defeated
4428-504: The Treaty of Berwick brought the Second War of Independence to an end, the Scots agreed to pay a ransom of 100,000 merks , and David was allowed to return home. Heavy taxation was needed to pay for the ransom, which was to be paid in instalments, and David alienated his subjects by using the money for his own purposes. By 1363 it was found impossible to raise the remaining ransom, and David sought its cancellation by offering to bequeath
4551-536: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
4674-661: The West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic , the Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after
4797-748: The monarchy after restoring it in 1815 after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War , and once more became a Republic under Napoleon III . The Auld Alliance extended into the lives of the Scottish population in a number of ways, affecting architecture , law , the Scots language , and cuisine , among other things. Scottish soldiers served within the French army; there were reciprocal dual nationality agreements; and France granted privileges to Scottish vintners . Many Scots studied at French universities, something which continued up until
4920-627: The prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
5043-555: The " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] , is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans",
Auld Alliance - Misplaced Pages Continue
5166-472: The Bruce sent Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray to negotiate renewal of the alliance with the Treaty of Corbeil . The motive for this renewal was precautionary: neither realm seemed to have much to fear from England at the time. However, this changed after 1332, when Edward III set out to conquer Scotland and reassert his power in France. For the first time, the Franco-Scottish alliance acquired
5289-554: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
5412-502: The English and his Scots adherents. By December, however, Balliol was forced to flee to England after the Battle of Annan , although he returned the following year as part of an invasion force led by the English king. Following the English victory at the Battle of Halidon Hill in July 1333, David and his wife were sent for safety into France, reaching Boulogne on 14 May 1334. They were received very graciously by King Philip VI . Little
5535-495: The English at the Battle of Baugé in 1421. It marked the turning point of the Hundred Years War , but the victory was short-lived for Scotland. The Scots army was defeated at Verneuil in 1424. Despite this defeat, the Scots had given France a valuable breathing space, effectively ensuring the continued power of the French state. In 1429, Scots came to the aid of Joan of Arc in her famous relief of Orléans , and
5658-426: The English would return to fight France through Burgundy. Neither France nor Scotland had the stomach to fight after the Hundred Years War that the former was recovering from. To prevent England from becoming strong enough to fight against them, the allies created a proxy war out of it by siding with their former enemy in the last phases of the Hundred Years War , and Yorkists enemy, the Lancastrians. Not wanting
5781-406: The English, even without King Edward, raised an effective defence. King David was captured at the Battle of Neville's Cross . In March 1355, John II of France commanded Sire Eugene de Garancières to lead a force of sixty knights and their retinues, probably a force of about two hundred men, to Scotland to join the Scots in an attack on northern English strongholds. The Scots did not agree to make
5904-419: The French at the Battle of Poitiers . The king's 11-year absence as Edward's prisoner only increased the internal turmoil and power struggles within Scotland. David II was forced to make a deal with Edward III to gain his freedom. After his release in 1357, while resisting more conflict with England, David successfully consolidated royal power in Scotland and cut down the power of the barons who opposed him with
6027-671: The King of France would make a truce with the English for two or three years and then march to Scotland and utterly destroy it". However, necessity had driven the two kingdoms together and the need to resist aggressive new Lancastrian kings kept the alliance together in the 15th century. In 1418, with France on the brink of surrendering to the forces of Henry V , the Dauphin, Charles VII , called on his Scottish allies for help. Between 1419 and 1424, as many as 15,000 Scottish troops were sent to France. French and Scottish forces together won against
6150-399: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
6273-418: The Lancastrian cause and thus, the Auld Alliance in a way was engaging in a war that they've caused by their own victory in the Hundred Years War . The true reasoning for the alliance's existence is to fight against the English, not end up aiding one side in their enemy's own civil war. Their reason being was that the Yorkist had sided with the Burgundian State , and with the Yorkists on the throne meant that
SECTION 50
#17327662074476396-489: The Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from the Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from
6519-409: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
6642-541: The Protestant William of Orange , husband to James's eldest daughter, Mary II . After losing in Ireland, and Scotland before the century came to a close, James went into exile in France, and through his lineage there would try to retake the crown with their Catholic Scots and French backed allies in the Jacobite Wars throughout the early and mid eighteenth century, with the closest from Bonnie Prince Charlie getting as far south as Swarkestone Bridge near Derby before retreating back to Scotland. After Culloden in 1746 and
6765-415: The Reformation, the Protestant Lords of the Congregation rejected the Auld Alliance and brokered English military support with their treaty of Berwick , aimed against the French Regent Mary of Guise . Two hundred Scottish soldiers were sent to Normandy in 1562 to aid the French Huguenots in their struggle against royal authority during the French Wars of Religion . The Auld Alliance still lived on with
6888-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
7011-419: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
7134-448: The Scots' regency council, a treaty was signed at Berwick-upon-Tweed under which Scotland's nobility agreed to pay 100,000 marks , at the rate of 10,000 marks per year, as a ransom for their king. This was ratified by the Scottish Parliament at Scone on 6 November 1357. David returned to Scotland accompanied by a large contingent of Scottish nobles and clergy. He also brought his mistress, Katherine (or Catherine) Mortimer, of whom little
7257-410: The Scots. Nevertheless, Scotland, as remote and impoverished as it was, was now aligned to a major European power. Even if they were more symbolic than actual, the benefits of the alliance mattered greatly to Scotland. In the short term, however, the treaty proved to be no protection against Edward, whose swift and devastating invasion of Scotland in 1296 all but eradicated its independence. Furthermore,
7380-512: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
7503-505: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
SECTION 60
#17327662074477626-497: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
7749-498: The Yorkist King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. When Henry VII married Elizabeth of York , it ended England's turmoiled war and began its gradual recovery with the Tudor Dynasty . To maintain peace with the Franco-Scottish alliance as the sixteenth century began, Henry VII gave to marriage his eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor to James IV of Scotland and his younger daughter, Mary Tudor to Louis XII of France . The former's lineage would inevitably give rise to
7872-467: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
7995-426: The attack until the receipt of the promised payment of 40,000 mouton d’or, which was distributed to the chief leaders of the Scots. They then marched to the vicinity of Norham Castle, where Sir William Ramsay lured the defenders of the castle out by driving away their herds of cattle. He then led the English into an ambush by William, Lord of Douglas and the French. The English were defeated, and Thomas Grey (chronicler)
8118-419: The beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all the other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards
8241-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
8364-435: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
8487-400: The cessation of hostilities between England and France in 1299, followed by the treaty of "perpetual peace and friendship," allowed Edward to devote all of his attention and forces to attacking the Scots. In the end, Scotland owed its eventual survival to the military acumen and inspiration of Robert the Bruce and the mistakes of Edward II , rather than to its bond with France. In 1326, Robert
8610-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
8733-460: The destiny of France was at stake, there were always men of Scotland to fight side by side with men of France, and what Frenchmen feel is that no people has ever been more generous than yours with its friendship. In 1995, celebrations were held in both countries marking the 700th anniversary of the beginning of the alliance. In the Six Nations Championship , a rugby union tournament played between England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy,
8856-749: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
8979-580: The end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as a name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as
9102-594: The face and was captured and taken prisoner by Sir John de Coupland . The king was taken to Wark on Tweed , and then to Bamburgh Castle , where barber-surgeons from York were brought to treat his serious injuries. David II was transferred to London , where he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in January 1347. David was transferred to Windsor Castle in Berkshire upon the return of Edward III from France. The depiction of David being presented to King Edward III in
9225-461: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
9348-568: The founder of the Advocates Library , George Mackenzie , and the noted translator of Rabelais , Sir Thomas Urquhart . Scottish castles built with French construction in mind include Bothwell and Kildrummy . In a speech which he delivered in Edinburgh in June 1942, Charles de Gaulle described the alliance between Scotland and France as "the oldest alliance in the world". He also declared that: In every combat where for five centuries
9471-568: The help of Archibald Douglas, 3rd Earl of Douglas . The accession of pro-French Robert II led to immediate renewal in 1371 , with the embassy of the Bishop of Glasgow and the Lord of Galloway to France. The treaty was signed by Charles V at the Château de Vincennes on 30 June, and at Edinburgh Castle by Robert II on 28 October. The benefits to Scotland were mixed. The Scots benefited from
9594-408: The joint ruler of both Scotland and England in 1603, King James VI & I , 43 years after the Auld Alliance was abolished. The alliance underwent a dramatic revival when it was formally reviewed in 1512 and again in 1517 and 1548. Scotland still suffered badly following the death of James IV and most of his nobles at Flodden in 1513. Periodic Anglo-French and Anglo-Scottish conflict throughout
9717-426: The king's sisters, the Douglas children, the late regent's sons, other children of Scottish nobles, a number of clerics, and nobles who would act as envoys between the court in exile, the French and the defenders at home in Scotland. They were given Château Gaillard as a residence. In 1334, peace talks between France and England were proposed, but when King Philip insisted that the Scots be included, King Edward broke off
9840-622: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
9963-574: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
10086-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
10209-493: The looming English attack in France. In light of this, the Scots planned a chevauchee in the north of England. Edward overwhelmed French forces at the Battle of Crécy in August before the planned Scottish attack. Despite that it was too late to help the situation of the French, King David and his advisors decided to go ahead with the chevauchee, possibly believing it would repay a considerable debt to France for their aid. However,
10332-614: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
10455-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
10578-574: The next king. Over the next few years, David strung out secret negotiations with Edward III, which apparently appeased the matter. His wife, Queen Joan, died on 7 September 1362 (aged 41) at Hertford Castle , Hertfordshire , possibly a victim of the Black Death . He remarried, on about 20 February 1364, to Margaret Drummond , widow of Sir John Logie, and daughter of Sir Malcolm Drummond. He divorced her on about 20 March 1370. They had no children. Margaret, however, travelled to Avignon , and made
10701-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
10824-456: The other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or
10947-497: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
11070-561: The play The Raigne of King Edward the Third is fictitious. David and his household were later moved to Odiham Castle in Hampshire . His imprisonment was not reputed to be a rigorous one as was typical of most royal prisoners. However, the fact that from 1355 he was denied contact with any of his subjects may indicate otherwise. He remained captive in England for eleven years. On 3 October 1357, after several protracted negotiations with
11193-541: The regents reigned Scotland until King James III was old enough to rule, Margaret of Anjou made a compromise by giving Berwick to Scotland in 1461 in exchange that they would aid the Lancastrian cause in the war. Scotland agreed and together they gained their victory in the Battle of Wakefield with the death of Richard of York . Margaret of Anjou made a similar compromise the same year with Scotland's ally, France by giving them Jersey in exchange for support for
11316-518: The region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until the thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from
11439-485: The reins of government into his own hands, at the age of 17. In 1346, under the terms of the Auld Alliance , David invaded England to try to draw King Edward away from the French, who had been invaded by the English and badly defeated at the battle of Crécy . After initial success at Hexham, David's army was soundly defeated at the battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346. David suffered two arrow wounds to
11562-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
11685-742: The rest of the 15th century, the alliance was formally renewed four times, until the eventual victory of France in the Hundred Years War . The aftermath of the Hundred Years War in England that led to the Wars of the Roses meant that the English threat was greatly reduced, thus rendering the alliance almost obsolete. Scotland and France at first saw England's turmoil as an opportunity to carry out raids without opposition. But Scotland went further by seeing this as its chance of retaking Roxburgh and Berwick in 1460. Despite their victory of capturing Roxburgh , it unfortunately cost King James II 's life. While
11808-458: The royal government of King Robert remained largely in place from 1329 to 1332. After Moray's death, on 20 July 1332, he was replaced by Donald, Earl of Mar , elected by an assembly of the magnates of Scotland at Perth , 2 August 1332. Ten days later, Mar fell at the Battle of Dupplin Moor . Sir Andrew Murray of Bothwell, who was married to Christian (or Christina) , the sister of King Robert I ,
11931-427: The same year of the marriage, the French successfully retook their last position of Calais and driven the English off the continent once and for all from ever retaking it in 1563. In order to make England recognise France's claim over Calais, they gave Queen Elizabeth I 120,000 crowns as a barter. After Mary's exile to England in 1568, Scotland was transformed into a Protestant nation by its new king, James VI , who
12054-521: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
12177-436: The sixteenth century continued, but the certainties that had driven the Auld Alliance were disappearing. As Protestantism gained ground in Scotland, more and more people favoured closer links with England than with France . In 1558, the alliance between the two kingdoms was revived with the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the future Francis II of France , but it lasted only until 1560 when Francis died prematurely. At
12300-578: The sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by the Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing
12423-410: The successful raids of the French admiral Jean de Vienne's on the southern coast of England which relieved military pressure on them. In 1385 Vienne used a 180 ship fleet to land an army in Scotland with the intent of invading England, but the force had to withdraw. This caused relations between France and Scotland to deteriorate which was summed up by the French chronicler Jean Froissart when he "wished
12546-517: The succession to the Scottish throne to Edward III or one of his sons. In 1364, the parliament of Scotland rejected David's proposal to make Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence , the next king. Despising his nephew, David sought to prevent him succeeding to his throne by marrying his mistress Margaret Drummond and producing an alternative heir. When his second wife failed to do so, David unsuccessfully attempted to divorce her. Although David spent long periods in exile or captivity, he managed to ensure
12669-473: The survival of his kingdom, reformed the machinery of government, and left the Scottish monarchy in a strong position. The last male of the House of Bruce , he died childless in 1371 after a reign of 41 years and was succeeded by his nephew Robert II. David II was born on 5 March 1324 at Dunfermline Abbey in Fife , one of twin sons born to King Robert the Bruce , and Elizabeth de Burgh . Soon after his birth he
12792-467: The suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and the complementary decline of French made Scots
12915-535: The talks. In addition to sending regular supplies to the Scots, the French paid an annual pension of £2000 for the upkeep of King David's court in exile. In June 1339, William Douglas, Lord of Liddesdale visited King David in France and returned to Scotland, taking with him Arnoul d'Audrehen in command of 200 French troops as well as several ships which aided in the capture of Perth. In June and again in July 1346, King Philip of France wrote desperate letters to King David begging him to attack England, hoping to draw off
13038-417: The treaty stipulated that if either country were attacked by England, the other country would invade English territory. The 1513 Battle of Flodden , where the Scots invaded England in response to the English campaign against France, was one such occasion. Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray , negotiated the renewal of the alliance in 1326. The alliance played an important role in the Wars of Scottish Independence ,
13161-820: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
13284-542: The uncertainty of the Anglo-Scottish peace meant he was not moved from Turnberry to Scone for his coronation for two-and-a-half years. The seven-year-old king and his wife were crowned at Scone Abbey on 24 November 1331, with David becoming the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at their coronation. Upon David's accession, Thomas Randolph, 1st Earl of Moray was appointed as Guardian under Robert I's orders, to govern Scotland until David reached adulthood, and
13407-673: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
13530-414: Was wet nursed at the Bishop of St Andrews ' manor at Inchmurdoch in Fife . David was created Earl of Carrick by his father in 1326, and an official household was established for the prince at Turnberry Castle . Very little is known of his youth, though it is recorded that King Robert paid for Dominican friars to educate David, and also purchased books for him. David's mother died in 1327, when he
13653-489: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
13776-530: Was a clear course for Scotland to take. In October 1295, a Scottish embassy to France agreed to the Treaty of Paris, which was signed on 23 October. As with all subsequent renewals of what became the Auld Alliance, the treaty favoured France. The French were required to do no more than continue their struggle against the English in Gascony. The cost of any war between Scotland and England was to be borne entirely by
13899-538: Was also heir to the English throne. His desire to form close ties with England, and England's complete removal from the French mainland after Calais, meant that the alliance had outlived its usefulness. In the 1560s, after more than 250 years, formal treaties between Scotland and France were officially ended by the Treaty of Edinburgh . With the Scottish Reformation , Scotland was declared Protestant , and allied itself with Protestant England instead. During
14022-519: Was chosen as the new Guardian. The English took him prisoner at Roxburgh in April 1333 and was accordingly replaced as Guardian by Archibald Douglas (the Tyneman) , who fell at the Battle of Halidon Hill that July. Meanwhile, on 24 September 1332, following the Scots' defeat at Dupplin, Edward Balliol , a protégé of Edward III of England , and a pretender to the throne of Scotland, was crowned by
14145-513: Was crowned at Scone in November 1331, becoming the first Scottish monarch to be anointed at his coronation. During his childhood, David was governed by a series of guardians , and Edward III of England sought to take advantage of David's minority by supporting an invasion of Scotland by Edward Balliol , beginning the Second War of Scottish Independence . Following the English victory at
14268-446: Was found impossible to raise the ransom instalment of 1363. David then made for London and sought to get rid of the liability by offering to bequeath Scotland to Edward III, or one of his sons, in return for a cancellation of the ransom. David did this with the full awareness that the Scots would never accept such an arrangement. In 1364, the Scottish parliament indignantly rejected a proposal to make Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence ,
14391-659: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
14514-423: Was not buried – as he had previously planned – beside his parents at Dunfermline Abbey , but before the high altar of Holyrood Abbey . This choice may have been made because Holyrood was the closest church to hand, only a mile away from Edinburgh Castle, and because David's successor wished to quickly draw a line under the previous reign. The funeral was overseen by Abbot Thomas. As David II left no children, he
14637-415: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
14760-671: Was taken prisoner, to be held for a substantial ransom. They then withdrew to Scotland in order to make an approach by sea and land on the beach of Berwick-upon-Tweed. They made an escalade attack on the walls. Although taking the city, they failed to take Berwick Castle. Robert II of Scotland , presently Earl of Strathern and heir to the throne of Scotland, made his only venture south of the English border to order them to withdraw back to Scotland. The French force then returned home. Some Scottish knights continued, during truces, to go to France to aid their allies. William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas led 200 men-at-arms and forty knights to fight with
14883-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
15006-503: Was three years old. In accordance with the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton 's terms, on 17 July 1328, when he was four years old, David was married to seven-year-old Joan , the daughter of Edward II of England and Isabella of France , at Berwick Castle . The young earl of Carrick received a visit from his ailing father at Turnberry in February 1329. David became king upon the death of his father on 7 June 1329. David II's youth and
15129-497: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
#446553