Scotland

Scotland the Brave

August 27, 2019

Aviemore, Scotland

What happens to your identity when you live in a little land with a long military tradition and no one to fight? The Scots are in the process of figuring that out now.

I don’t know that I’ve ever visited a small country so proud of its military heritage. The Israelis are rightfully pleased with their military prowess, but they are a young country with a short history of self defense. The Irish appreciate their centuries of fighting the Vikings, Anglo Normans, and British, but while they served in large numbers in British and American armies, they could not field highly organized units against their English overlords.

Neither could the Scots. So they figured, if we can’t beat ‘em, let’s join ‘em.” And join ‘em they did.

Until I arrived in Scotland five days ago, I couldn’t understand how or why the Scots would so willingly embrace their hated English enemies. A Celtic people like their Irish cousins, the Scots bitterly resisted invasions by their more powerful English neighbors to the south. Heroes such as William Wallace and Robert the Bruce fought valiantly against superior English numbers. And today I visited the Culloden battlefield near Inverness, where the Highland warriors of Bonnie Prince Charlie were destroyed by English forces in 1746 in a devastating loss that crushed the Scottish clans and Gaelic culture once and for all.

So what made the Scots change their minds?

In a word, opportunity.

Two days ago I was in the National War Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh Castle, and that’s where I learned much of what I now know about Scottish military history.

It turns out that Scottish businessmen were lured by access to English trade with its colonies. “Scotland alone could not compete for dominance or empire. England’s growing power depended on the stability of the whole of mainland Britain. The 1707 Union between Scotland and England offered Scotland a share in England’s wealth and power. In return, England gained greater military security.”

It didn’t hurt that, unlike the Irish, the Scots were Protestants, and so were able to assimilate more easily into English society than were the detested Irish Catholics.

A career or even a shorter stint in the English military offered Scottish young men employment, advancement, discipline, pride, ritual, pomp and circumstance, and a sense of adventure, purpose, and identity. The Scots redirected their fighting spirit in the cause of their new-found membership in something greater than Scotland or England: the British Empire.

“Military service had become a powerful expression of Scottish identity…The Scottish military legacy still stands as a symbol of Scottish identity…The essence of Scotland is its military tradition.”

This tradition is celebrated most notably in the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo performance at Edinburgh Castle each August that features mostly military bands and especially bagpipers. And the pipers always play that great classic, Scotland the Brave.

But after 148,000 Scottish soldiers were killed in World War I, and another 58,000 in World War II, the British Empire collapsed and large numbers of Scots emigrated to Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. The British military has reduced its size and eliminated many decorated Scottish regiments. And if the United Kingdom leaves the European Union via Brexit in a couple of months, the Scottish National Party may call for another referendum on having Scotland leave the United Kingdom to become an independent nation.

If “the essence of Scotland is its military tradition,” what happens if its military mostly disappears?

Maybe the Scots will find a new way to channel their fighting spirit into a cause greater than themselves. If so, I’ll be curious to see what that cause might be. Fighting climate change? Combatting fear and ignorance? Becoming the champions of love and tolerance?

May the Scottish bravehearts find a worthy opponent.