Events in Scottish History
June
1st June 1679: The Covenanters defeated John Graham of Claverhouse at Drumclog.
1st June 1843: Dr Henry Faulds, pioneer of fingerprinting, was born in Beith, Ayrshire.
1st June 1878: The first Tay rail bridge, which was to collapse 18 months later, opened.
2nd June 1581: James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, was beheaded in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket, having been found guilty of the murder of Lord Darnley.
2nd June 1953: Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
3rd June 1726: James Hutton, father of modern geology, was born.
3rd June 1774: The Poet Robert Tannahill was born in Paisley.
3rd June 1863: < Neil Munro, novelist and poet, perhaps best known for his “Para Handy” stories, born in Inverary.
4th June 1792: The King’s Birthday Riots took place in Edinburgh.
5th June 1592: Act of the Scottish Parliament came into force “concerning the Office of Lyoun King of Armes and his brether Heraldis” judged the best regulated system of heraldry in Europe. This became The Court of the Lord Lyon.
5th June 1723: Adam Smith, known as “the father of economics”, author of the “The Wealth of Nations” was born in Kirkcaldy.
5th June 1916: The loss of “HMS HAMPSHIRE” off Marwick Head, Orkney, with the loss of 660 lives, including Lord Kitchener. Only 12 survived.
6th June 1838: Thomas Blake Glover, “The Scottish Samurai”, born in Fraserburgh.
6th June 1944: D-Day Landings in Normandy. The Allies including 73,000 British and 21,400 Canadian Seaborne, 59,000 US Seaborne and 15,500 US Airborne and 7,900 British Paratroops landed in and parchuted into Normandy.
BBC – Press Office – D-Day facts
The British Normandy Memorial
7th June 1329: Robert the Bruce died at his manor near Cardross, Dumbarton. He was buried at Dunfermline Abbey, and his heart was removed and embalmed. As recorded in 14th Century John Barbour’s “The Bruce”, as the Bruce requested, his heart was to be taken to Jerusalem by Sir James Douglas, known as “The Black Douglas” , accompanied by Sir William St Clair of Roslin, Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan, Sir William Keith, Sir Alan Cathcart and Sir Symon Loccard of Lee, and one other knight unnamed. Sir James Douglas was killed at the Battle of Teba, on 25th August, 1330, giving rise to the “Braveheart” story.
An embalmed heart, thought to be that of Robert the Bruce was discovered at Melrose Abbey in 1921, re-located in 1996 and re-interred in 1998 marked with a memorial which reads “A Nobel Hart May Have Nane Ease Gif Freedom Failye.” written by John Barbour in 1375, which translates, “A noble heart can know no ease without freedom.”
8th June 1772: The Earl of Seaforth raised a regiment in 1778 for the American War from the MacKenzies and MacRaes of Ross-shire and Sutherland. In 1961 the Seaforth Highlanders amalgamated with the Camerons to form the Queen’s Own Highlanders. In 1994 they were merged with the Gordon Highlanders to form The Highlanders. In March 2006 all the prestigious Scottish Regiments were merged into with The Highlanders becoming 4th Bn The Royal Regiment of Scotland or “4 Scots”.
9th June 597: St Columba died on Iona. Born in what is now Donegal, Columba moved to Scotland as a penance after victory over the Irish king Dermott at the battle of Battle of Cúl Dreimhne in 561. He arrived in Scotland in 563 and founded a monastery on Iona which would be a leading Christian centre, and the base from which he would convert the Picts.
9th June 1573: William Maitland, Scottish statesman, died. Known as Secretary Maitland, he was Mary, Queen of Scots’ Secretary of State, and one of the country’s ablest administrators. He sought to bring about the union of England and Scotland through the recognition of Mary as Elizabeth I’s heir.
9th June 1704: Duncan Forbes, 3rd of Culloden, died.
10th June 1688: James Francis Edward Stuart, the future “Old Pretender” was born (there are allegations that he arrived in a warming pan). Son of King James VII, and father of Charles Edward Stuart, the “Young Pretender”, better known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”, he made repeated attempts to regain the throne for the Stuarts, failed to land in 1708 and defeated at Sherriffmuir in 1715. In 1745 the Jacobite Rising, led by his son, got as far south as Derby, but was defeated at Culloden bringing an end to Jacobite ambitions.
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart (1688-1766), Son of James II; ‘The Old Pretender’
The history of Scotland – The Two Pretenders – The Old Pretender and Bonnie Prince Charlie,The Young Pretender
10th June 1719: Battle of Glenshiel, the final act of the minor Jacobite rising. The Jacobite side, led by the 10th Earl Marischal was just 1,000 strong and were defeated by a Hanoverian army under General Wightman after several hours of fighting.
11th June 1488: The Battle of Sauchieburn. James III and the Royalist army fought against his son and a collection of nobles. James was wounded falling from his horse after fleeing the battle and was subsequently killed by one of the rebels who was pretending to be a priest.
11th June 1560: Mary of Guise, Regent of Scotland, died. Mary was the wife of James V and the mother of Mary Queen of Scots . Her main aim was the union of her native France and Scotland. She brought French Troops to Scotland to assert her role and her conflict with the Protestant Lords of Scotland was probably the lowest point in the “Auld Alliance” /”Vieille Alliance”.
11th June 1930: The “EMPRESS OF BRITAIN” launched from Clydebank by the Prince of Wales.
12th June 1298: William Wallace defeated Sir Aymer de Vallance, Earl of Pembroke, Sir John Sieward, son of the Earl of March and the English army, killing the general and a great number of the troops, at the Battle of Black Ironside Forest, near Crail in Fife.
12th June 1940: The 51st (Highland) Division was forced to surrender at St Valéry-en-Caux. Left in France after the Evacuation of Dunkirk (completed 4th June) the Division fought on for a further 8 days as part of the French Army. The Divisional Badge in 1940 was the Saltire, the badge recreated in the Reel of the 51st when the dancing couple balance in line across the set when the reel is danced correctly.
13th June 1814: The Strathnaver Clearances began on the Sutherland estates. Families were given half an hour to remove their belongings before their cottages were set on fire.
13th/14th June 1982: The Scots Guards, assaulted and captured Mount Tumbledown in a night attack in the Falklands War, with the loss of eight lives and forty one wounded. They were opposed by the Argentine 5th Marine Infantry Battalion who lost thirty lives.
14th June 1946: John Logie Baird, inventor of the first television, died.
15th June 1844: Thomas Campbell, poet, died.
15th June 1996: Soldier and author, Sir Fitzroy Maclean, died.
16th June 1338: Siege of Dunbar Castle, defended for 5 months by Black Agnes, countess of Dunbar against the English was raised by Alexander Ramsay, who with 40 men slipped through through the English lines with supplies.
16th June 1807: The Rev. John Skinner, author of “Tullochgorum”, described by Robert Burns as “the best Scotch song ever Scotland saw”, died.
16th June 1971: Lord Reith died. Born in Stonehaven in 1889, son of a Church of Scotland Minister. He was General Manager/Managing Director of the BBC from 1922 to 1927 and set the non commercial model for the corporation that has continued to this day. The Reith Lectures are held in his Memory.
Hear Lord Reith.
17th June 1390: Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, burned Elgin Cathedral.
17th June 1567: Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle, on the island in the middle of the loch after the her defeat at the battle of Carberry Hill. In the spring of the following year before Mary made her escape from the castle, dressed as a servant girl.
17th June 1823: patented the waterproof cloth he was using to make raincoats.
18th June 1639: Pacification of Berwick. Charles I’s Army reaches Berwick-upon-Tweed, but being met by a larger Scottish Army, agrees a truce.
18th June 1815: The Battle of Waterloo was fought in Belgium. Many Scottish regiments took part in the battle, which ended Napoleon’s “hundred days”. Perhaps the most prominent action involving the Scottish contingent was that of The Gordon Highlanders and the Scots Greys. A French column with over 4,000 men advanced on the Highlanders, while the Gordons, with only about 300 men, were under strict orders not to give way. As the situation reached its most critical moment, suddenly the Scots Greys appeared on the top of the hill. It is improbable that it happened but the tradition of The Gordons is that they and Scots Greys charged the French column, crying “Scotland Forever”, the Gordons hanging on to the stirrups of the cavalry horses.
19th June 1566: J ames VI was born to Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley. He acceded to the throne at the age of one, after his mother was forced to abdicate. Taught by protestant, George Buchanan, he became known as the “wisest fool in Christendom”, an ironic tribute to his sharp wit by Henri IV of France. He is known for the King James Authorised Version of the Bible, published in 1611. He gaining the English throne in 1603 and only returned once to Scotland, in 1617.
19th June 1606: James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton born.
19th June 1861: Earl Haig was born in Edinburgh. He rose through the ranks of the 7th Hussars and became Commander in Chief of British Forces in 1915. His use of the Army in the First World War has been called wasteful of lives, and his own grief at the casualties was given by him as the impetus for founding the Royal British Legion and initiation of the Poppy Day Appeal.
19th June 1937: JM Barrie, the Scottish playwright and novelist, died. Mainly remembered today for “Peter Pan” his works include “A Window in Thrums” and the “The Admirable Crichton”.
20th June 1723: Adam Ferguson, philosopher and historian, born at Logierait, Perthshire.
21st June 1813: W E Aytoun, lawyer and poet, author of “The Heart of the Bruce”, sherriff of “Orkney and Zetland” born.
22nd June 1679: The Battle of Bothwell Bridge. The Covenanters were defeated by Royal Troops led by the Duke of Monmouth. Deaths on the field were few but more were killed later, and of the captured or surrendered, some were shipwrecked while being transported in “The Crown of London”.
22nd June 1680: The Sanquhar Declaration. The Rev. Richard Cameron, and his brother Michael, rode into Sanquhar with 20 Covenanter horsemen, and called for an end to the reign of Charles II. The so-called was viewed as an act of treason and the heads of all involved were declared forfeit to the Crown. Richard Cameron’s head was valued at 5,000 merks, his brother’s at 3,000. One month later that bounty was collected at Aird’s Moss when both brothers were killed.
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23rd June 1314: Robert the Bruce , King of Scots, killed Henry de Bohun on the eve of the The Battle of Bannockburn. “I have broken my good battle-axe.“ are the words attributed to him by H E Marshall in “Scotland’s Story”.
24th June 1314: Robert the Bruce , King of Scots, defeats Edward II of England on at the Battle of Bannockburn. Edward’s force by various accounts amounted to 40,000 and the Scots some 9,000-13,000. Bruce had chosen his ground carefully and pursued successful tactics to secure victory, and is seen now as the moment when Scotland’s sovereignty was confirmed against apparently overwhelming odds. 2014.
24th June 1777: Sir John Ross, Scots Arctic Explorer born.
25th June 1936: Roy Williamson, Scottish folk musician and songwriter, born. A founder member of the folk group, “The Corries”, for whom he wrote the song which has since become Scotland’s Anthem, “Flower of Scotland”.
The Corries
26th June 1695: “The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies” Act passed by The Scottish Parliament. Its capital was to be £600,000 sterling, half to be subscribed in London and half in Scotland. This was the first event in the ill-fated Darien Scheme.
RBS: Darien Adventure – National Guidelines, Illustrated history for teachers
27th June 1583: James VI escaped from Ruthven Castle to St Andrews Castle.
28th June 1746: Flora MacDonald and Prince Charles Edward Stuart “The Young Pretender” set sail from Benbecula to Skye.
Scotsman.com Heritage & Culture – The Skye Boat Song
28th June 1838: Queen Victoria Coronation.
29th June 1914: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip was the spark that ignited the First World War.
29th June 1917: Prime Minister Lloyd George made a speech in Glasgow on peace terms during WWI.
30th June 1857: 1st Day of the Trial of Madeleine Smith for Murder which ended “not proven”.
