‘You know nothing, Jon Snow’, is perhaps a fitting introduction to the family history of Rose Leslie, an actress famous for playing Ygritte the Wildling in Game of Thrones. Snow did in fact know nothing about his own true ancestry in the story, but he also did not know that his real-life counterpart, Kit Harington,Continue reading “The Leslies: Just one Duke of Rothes but many generals in Scotland, Russia and Austria”
Category Archives: Scotland
The Princes of the Isles: From Viking Warlords to the Great Clan MacDonald
I’ve been watching ‘Vikings’ on television again this summer, and always find it fascinating to see how Norwegian and Danish seafaring culture impacted the culture of the British Isles in the early medieval period. But this series, or the series ‘The Last Kingdom’, focuses almost entirely on the eastern and southern realms of Anglo-Saxon England:Continue reading “The Princes of the Isles: From Viking Warlords to the Great Clan MacDonald”
Anatomy of a British Queen: Scotland, the Netherlands, and beyond
September 2023 marks the one-year anniversary of the reign of Charles III in the United Kingdom, and in the list of British queen consorts, adds the name of Camilla Shand. In the history of royal consorts, in Britain or elsewhere in Europe, or indeed at the top of the European aristocracy—the dukes and princes—a familyContinue reading “Anatomy of a British Queen: Scotland, the Netherlands, and beyond”
Jacobite Dukes: the Drummonds of Perth and Melfort
Scotland has several families who obtained the highest rank in the peerage: a dukedom. Several of these families come from the borderlands between Highlands and Lowlands that runs from Argyll to Aberdeen. Perthshire is right in the middle of this, and the Drummond family have been a major power here for centuries. But their dukedom,Continue reading “Jacobite Dukes: the Drummonds of Perth and Melfort”
Spare Dukes, Part II, or, What does one do with so many younger brothers?
The violence and in-feuding of royal brothers in the Middle Ages hardly ceased as the histories of England and Scotland transitioned into the Early Modern period. When we last left the Stewarts in Scotland, Robert III, the old king, had died in 1406; his eldest son and heir, the 1st Duke of Rothesay, was alsoContinue reading “Spare Dukes, Part II, or, What does one do with so many younger brothers?”
Spare Dukes: What to do with a younger brother in 1,000 years of English and Scottish royal history (Part I)
Dad: “Why would he do a ridiculous thing like that?”Wally: “‘Cause he wanted to be like you, Dad.”Dad: “But Wally, when I said 20 miles a day, I was just using a round figure.”Wally: “Yeah, well, you and I know that, Dad, ‘cause we’re grown up, but gee, the Beaver, he’s just a kid.” MillionsContinue reading “Spare Dukes: What to do with a younger brother in 1,000 years of English and Scottish royal history (Part I)”
A Highland fling with the Dukes of Gordon
If you visit the northeast corner of Scotland, Aberdeenshire or the Moray Coast, you cannot help but bump into castles built or towns founded by some member of Clan Gordon. Today they are represented in the Scottish peerage by the marquesses of Huntly and of Aberdeen, but in the 18th century the clan was ledContinue reading “A Highland fling with the Dukes of Gordon”
Dukes of Fife: heirs to Macduff
“Lay on, Macduff”, cries Macbeth as he challenges him towards the end of Shakespeare’s historical ‘Tragedie’ set in Scotland in the 11th century. By murdering the usurping tyrant Macbeth and restoring the proper royal line in the person of King Malcolm III, Macduff is the hero of the piece. 800 years later, if following aContinue reading “Dukes of Fife: heirs to Macduff”
Dukes of Hamilton
The name Hamilton is currently very much in the air, as music and theatre fans all over the world learn about this Founding Father of the great experiment in a republican form of government established in North America in the late 18th century. But Alexander Hamilton has always been around, as someone you study inContinue reading “Dukes of Hamilton”
Best Ever Scottish Ducal Drive
Have you ever wanted to just jump in your car, head north, and visits six castles held by Scottish nobles? I’m sure you have. That’s what I did nearly twenty years ago, when I took a break while awaiting the viva for my PhD, spotted a rare sunny spell in the UK, and seized theContinue reading “Best Ever Scottish Ducal Drive”
Dukes and Princes 