When Did Scotland Become Scotland?

Dauvit Broun looks at the making of a nation, 1000-1300, which formed a crucial element in the shaping of medieval Britain.

In a recent article in History Today Patrick Wormald tackled the fascinating question 'when did England become England?' His persuasive answer was: in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when kings of Wessex conquered all England and established a new political order with the 'king of the English' at its apex. He emphasised, however, that the idea of 'the English people' was much older – as old as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) – and played a vital role in lending legitimacy to the English state created in the tenth century.

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