King of Scotland

The King or Queen of Scotland was the title given to the ruler of the country of Scotland.

In the mid-13th century, the King of Scotland was Alexander II. He died "five or six years" prior to 1242 and was succeeded by his son. During this time, the Bruce family maintained that they had the right of succession but were kept at bay by John Baliol. (PROSE: Sanctuary)

In 1540, James V was the King of Scotland. (TV: Tooth and Claw) Around this time, Mary Stuart, better known as Mary, Queen of Scots, acceded to the throne. (PROSE: Verdigris et al.) The future James VI was the son of Mary and Darnley. (PROSE: Girl Power!) When he was a baby, his father was murdered and, at the age of one, his mother abandoned him. Mary was later scapegoated for the crime (TV: The Witchfinders) and subsequently imprisoned and executed by Elizabeth I, Queen of England, (PROSE: Girl Power!) though not until the 1580s. (AUDIO: The Flames of Cadiz) This left James to be raised by several regents, of whom one was assassinated, one died in battle and one died in "suspicious circumstances". (TV: The Witchfinders)

In 1603, James also became King of England upon the death of Elizabeth I. (PROSE: Birthright) According to one account, with the union of the English and Scottish crowns, "James VI of Scotland [became] James I of the United Kingdom". (PROSE: The Dying Days) According to another account, the two kingdoms continued to exist seperately (PROSE: The Roundheads) with James serving as James I of England until his death in 1625. (WC: Case File Eight)

James was succeeded by his son Charles I, who ruled England, Scotland and Ireland. However, he was executed on 20 January 1649 and soon afterwards all three countries became part of the Protectorate led by Oliver Cromwell as its Lord Protector. He ruled until his death in 1658 at which point he was succeeded by his son Richard Cromwell. Richard's tenure of only a few months demonstrated that it had been wrong to use the hereditary principle in the assignment of Lord Protectors. Charles II was subsequently invited to take the throne, thus restoring the monarchies of England, Scotland and Ireland. (PROSE: The Roundheads)

The three thrones eventually passed to James VII of Scotland, who was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, to be replaced by his daughter Mary II and her husband William of Orange. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution) William outlived Mary and was succeeded by Anne when he died on 8 March 1702. (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria) In an alternate timeline created by Jamie McCrimmon where the Glorious Revolution never happened and James was never deposed, his grandson Bonnie Prince Charlie was the reigning monarch in 1788. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution) Bonnie Prince Charlie was ultimately unsuccessful in regaining the English and Scottish thrones for his family with the Jacobite Risings in the corrected timeline. (TV: The Highlanders et al.)

By George III's reign in the 18th century, Scotland had apparently formally united with England because the country was known as the Kingdom of Britain. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street) In 1879, Victoria described herself as the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. (TV: Tooth and Claw)