Ayrshire Clans
Left is a list of the most
prominent Clans in Ayrshire. Each
page has information and images
of their castles.
Below is a list of events
through history that were
influential in the way Scottish
Clans gained or lost their
power.
1018, victory for King Malcolm
II of Scotland at the Battle of
Carham (Northern England) against
the Northern English defined the
Kingdom of Scotland’s
borders to roughly what is seen
today. The Scots made a few
attempts over the following years
to capture lands in Northern
England but failed to hold on to
them.
1263 1st October, the forces
of King Alexander III of Scotland
crushed the forces of the
Norwegian King Haakon at the
Battle of Largs. The Vikings had
been raiding the Western Isles
and west coast of Scotland for
over 400 years. The Battle of
Largs saw the Vikings forced out
of Scotland forever.
1286, the death of King
Alexander III of Scotland and
that of his sole heir the four
year old Princess Margaret (Maid
of Norway) four years later, led
to the mighty English King Edward
I (Longshanks) sending his forces
into Scotland with a view of
gaining control for himself.
1292, John Balliol chosen by
the Scottish Nobles as their King
began his unsuccessful quest to
remove the English from Scotland.
Edward imprisoned Balliol in the
Tower of London until his release
in 1299. Balliol then moved to
France where he lived on his
estates until his death.
1297 11th September, William
Wallace lead 15,000 Scottish
rebels against an English army,
50,000 strong, on route to
Stirling Castle at Stirling
Bridge. Wallace’s victory
saw him rewarded with the title
Guardian of Scotland.
1298, William Wallace’s
army is crushed by a massif
English army led by Edward I at
Falkirk. Wallace escaped with his
life only to be captured at
Glasgow August 5th 1305 and
executed in London August 23rd
1305.
1314 June 23rd, a Scottish
army led by Robert the Bruce
confronts an English army led by
King Edward II (son of Edward 1
who died in July 1307) at
Bannockburn, Stirlingshire.
Bruce’s victory saw the
English flee towards their
strongholds and eventually out of
Scotland altogether. After a
further 14 years of war, the
treaty of Edinburgh was signed
March 17th 1328, this allowing
Bruce to become king of an
independent Scotland. Bruce died
at Cardross, probably from
leprosy June 7th 1329.
1371, the death of
Bruce’s son David II
without leaving an heir led to
the crowning of Robert the
Bruce’s grandson Robert II
(Stewart) this beginning the
house of Stuart that eventually
ruled Scotland and England.
1488, the unpopular King James
III (Stuart) is killed at the
battle of Sauchieburn by the army
of his son James who became King
James IV.
1513 9th September, Battle of
Flodden Moor, Northuberland
England, between the armies of
James IV (Stuart) of Scotland and
King Henry VIII (Tudor) of
England. Henry provoked the
Scottish attack as his forces had
been plundering Scottish ships
travelling between Scotland and
France. Scotland’s losses
in the battle were high including
the king himself and many
nobles.
1530s, King Henry VIII of
England (Tudor) steers England
towards Protestantism. The German
monk Martin Luther’s ideas
that the Christian Catholic
religion centred on the Pope in
Rome should be reformed.
Luther’s preaching’s
lead to the split of the
Christian religion into Catholic
and Protestant. The Protestant
religion appealed to Henry as
money raised by English churches
would then go to him instead of
the Pope. Other advantages of
Protestantism were divorce was
then legal and clerics could
marry. Hundreds of thousands of
British died and were forced to
emigrate over the following two
century’s fighting over the
two religions.
1542, King James V (Stuart) of
Scotland died one week after the
birth of his sole heir Mary. The
death of James V lead to Henry
VIII of England sending troops
into Scotland on raids to put
pressure on the Scots to have
Mary married to his son Edward.
Mary was moved to safety in
France 1548. She eventually
married a French prince and
became Queen of France. After the
death of her husband followed by
the death of her mother in 1560
who had been leading Scotland in
her absence, Mary returned to
Scotland where she took on the
title Mary Queen of Scots. These
were dangerous times as Scotland
and England were at that time
torn between the Catholic and
Protestant religions. Catholics
in Scotland, England and France
claimed the protestant Queen
Elizabeth I(Tudor) of England
since 1558 should be replaced by
the catholic Mary who had claims
to the English throne, as she was
the granddaughter of Margaret
Tudor. Battles that raged at that
time ended with Mary imprisoned
by Elizabeth’s forces and
eventually executed in 1587. In a
twist of fate, the death of Queen
Elizabeth in 1603 without leaving
an heir saw Mary Queen of Scots
son James VI of Scotland declared
King of England and Scotland.
1642, Charles I (Stuart) of
England & Scotland finds
himself embroiled in the English
Civil War. His attempts to force
a new prayer book on the Scots
and take little notice of the
English Parliament led to the
war. The parliamentarians
(Roundheads) led by Oliver
Cromwell eventually defeated the
Monarchy (Cavaliers) in 1649,
Charles was beheaded soon after.
Cromwell then ruled England &
Scotland as Lord Protector till
his death in 1658. The death of
Cromwell’s son the
following year saw the
Stuart’s returned to the
throne.
1560, the Scottish Parliament
passed an Act, abolishing the
Roman Catholic Church within the
realm, this seeing most of the
Abbey's in Scotland destroyed and
their stonework carried of for
the construction of other
buildings.
1707, Queen Anne (Stuart)
presides over the Union of the
parliaments of Scotland and
England. The parliaments then
become known as the Parliament of
Great Britain.
1714, the death of the
protestant Queen Anne (Stuart)
without leaving an heir lead to
George I (Hanover) taking over
the throne of Great Britain. This
was a last request of Queen Anne
to stop her exiled Catholic
brother, James the old Pretender,
from gaining control. George was
the son of the Electress Sophia
of Hanover /Germany who was a
granddaughter of King James I of
England. With George being a
protestant German chosen before
decendants of the catholic
Stuart’s that had a greater
claim to the throne, the
Stuart’s began disputing
his right to be king.
1715, the sixth Earl of Mar
(John Erskin) declared himself
for James Francis Stuart (the Old
Pretender) and set out with his
forces in an attempt to meet up
with English forces also inspired
to have King George I overthrown
in favour of James Stuart. That
attempt scuppered by Hanoverian
supporters became known as the
first Jacobite Rising.
1719, Battle of Glenshiel ends
with another defeat of the
Jacobites by the Hanovarians.
1745 September 19th, Battle of
Prestonpans led by Prince Charles
Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince
Charlie) defeats Sir John Cope to
achieve the first Jacobite
victory.
1746 January 17th, Jacobites
defeat English government troops
at Falkirk.
1746 April 16th, the Battle of
Culloden Moor near Inverness ends
within one hour with the defeat
of the Jacobites and the fleeing
of Bonnie Prince Charlie to
France. The final battle was
fought.
1837-1901, Queen Victoria
(Hanover) rules Britain with her
offspring marrying throughout
Europe. Her marriage to Prince
Albert (son of Ernest Duke of
Saxe-Coburg & Gotha, Germany)
results in a family of 9 children
and 40 grandchildren. The first
child, Victoria Adelaide, married
Frederick III, German Emperor,
with their son becoming Kaiser
Wilhelm II, World War I era.
Their second child, Edward VII,
ruled Britain under his fathers
title Saxe-Coburg & Gotha,
with his son becoming George V of
Britain, World War I era. Their
third child, Princess Alice,
married the German Louis IV of
Hesse, Grand Duke, with their
daughter Princess Alexandria
marrying Csar Nicholas II of
Russia, World War I era.
1917, in the midst of World
War One, King George V of Britain
adopts the name House of Windsor
for the royalty, this distancing
them from their German relations.
As the war came to an end,
George’s cousin Kaiser
Wilhelm II of Germany was forced
to abdicate and move to Holland.
George’s other cousin, Czar
Nicholas II of Russia, was forced
to abdicate in 1917 by the
Bolshevik Revolution. The Czar,
Princess Alexandria and their
family were shot by the
Bolshevik’s July 16th 1918.
The House of Windsor survived the
war to go on as Britain’s
monarchs into the 21st
Century.
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