Scotland

Mary Queen of Scots left Calais for Scotland on August 14th, 1561, aged 18 years old.

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson’s future biographer, found Glasgow a dull place. Yet it was at the city’s university that he came into contact with the political economist Adam Smith, whose insights forced the student to grapple with competing claims on his conscience, as Robert Zaretsky explains.

Richard Cavendish traces the evolution of today's 'mega-bucks' sports industry back to 17 October 1860 and a small competition in Scotland.

Martin Greig reveals the intimate relationship between the powerful Earl of Lauderdale, Charles II's Secretary for Scotland in the 1660s, and a Scottish spinster who became the earl's 'Presbyterian conscience' during a tumultuous period for kirk and crown.

Richard Cavendish remembers the death of an ill-fated medieval Scottish king, on August 3rd 1460.

The visually spectacular Scottish capital witnessed fierce dynastic struggle before it welcomed the spirit of the Enlightenment, as Patricia Cleveland-Peck discovers.

Rebecca Abrams discovers the history of a forgotten Aberdonian doctor who could – if anyone had listened to his ideas  – have saved the lives of countless women in childbirth over the following centuries.

The emperor Hadrian presided over the Roman empire at its height, defined its borders and was one of the most cultured rulers of the ancient world.

Richard Cavendish marks a failed attempt on the Scottish and English thrones by the last Stuart pretender, on March 23rd, 1708.

R.S. Taylor Stoermer takes a transatlantic perspective on the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707.