Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: Who was the last king of Scotland?
The Kingdom of the Picts just became known as Kingdom of Alba in Gaelic, which later became known in Scots and English as "Scotland"; the terms are retained in both languages to this day. By the late 11th century at the very latest, Scottish kings were using the term "rex Scottorum", or King of Scots, to refer to themselves in Latin. The Kingdom of Scotland was merged with the Kingdom of England to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Thus Queen Anne became the last monarch of the ancient kingdoms of Scotland and England and the first of Great Britain, although the kingdoms had shared a monarch since 1603 (see Union of the Crowns). Her uncle Charles II was the last monarch to be crowned in Scotland, at Scone in 1651. He had a second coronation in England ten years later.
Despite attempts by Edward I to conquer Scotland in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the two countries were entirely separate. However, when Elizabeth I became Queen of England in 1558, a union became increasingly likely as she neither married or had children. From 1558 onwards, her heir was her Catholic cousin Mary, Queen of Scots who pledged herself to a peaceful union between the two kingdoms. In 1567, Mary was forced to abdicate as Queen of Scots and replaced by her infant son James VI and I, who was brought up as a Protestant and became heir to the English throne. After Elizabeth died in 1603, the two Crowns were held in personal union by James and his Stuart successors but England and Scotland remained separate entities.
Scotland under the Commonwealth is the history of the Kingdom of Scotland between the declaration that the kingdom was part of the Commonwealth of England in February 1652, and the Restoration of the monarchy with Scotland regaining its position as an independent kingdom, in June 1660.
The Black Death, which wrought havoc throughout Europe during the 14th century, had decimated the ruling families of Scandinavia. King Olav of Denmark and Norway was the last native ruler in Scandinavia. When he died in 1387, his wife Margareta took over the rule of those two countries and then Sweden as well. In 1397 in the town of Kalmar in Sweden, the Union of the three lands under a single crown was made official and Erik of Pomerania was chosen as king. Erik fatefully chose to govern the three kingdoms from Denmark using the Danish aristocracy.
The Scottish Parliament, which is a unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, was established in 1999 and has authority over many areas of domestic policy that have been devolved by the United Kingdom Parliament. The head of the Scottish Government, the executive of the devolved administration, is the First Minister of Scotland. Scotland is represented in the UK House of Commons by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs. Scotland is also a member of the British–Irish Council, and sends five members of the Scottish Parliament to the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland is divided into 32 subdivisions, known as local authorities, or councils. Glasgow City is the largest subdivision in Scotland in terms of population, with Highland being the largest in terms of area.
"Scotland" comes from "Scotti", the Latin name for the Gaels; "Scotia" initially referred to Ireland. From the ninth century, the meaning of "Scotia" shifted to designate Gaelic Scotland and by the eleventh century the name was being used to refer to the core territory of the Kingdom of Alba in what is now east-central Scotland. The use of the words "Scots" and "Scotland" to encompass most of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages, as the Kingdom of Alba expanded and came to encompass various peoples of diverse origins.
When Elizabeth died, her closest male Protestant relative was the King of Scots, James VI, of the House of Stuart, who became King James I of England in a Union of the Crowns, called James I & VI. He was the first monarch to rule the entire island of Britain, but the countries remained separate politically. Upon taking power, James made peace with Spain, and for the first half of the 17th century, England remained largely inactive in European politics. Several assassination attempts were made on James, notably the Main Plot and Bye Plots of 1603, and most famously, on 5 November 1605, the Gunpowder Plot, by a group of Catholic conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, which caused more antipathy in England towards Catholicism.
Foden's first novel "The Last King of Scotland" (1998), is set during Idi Amin's rule of Uganda in the 1970s. It won the Whitbread First Novel Award, a Somerset Maugham Award, a Betty Trask Award and the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. The feature film, "The Last King of Scotland" (2006) starring Forest Whitaker, is based on Foden's novel with considerable differences, and Foden himself makes a brief cameo as a journalist at one of Amin's press conferences. His second novel, "Ladysmith" (1999), is set during the Anglo-Boer War in 1899 and tells the story of a young woman, Bella Kiernan, who becomes caught up in the Siege of Ladysmith. The book was inspired by letters written by Foden's great-grandfather, Arthur Foden, a British soldier in the Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the conflict.
This list of kings and queens of the Kingdom of England begins with Alfred the Great, King of Wessex, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (Heptarchy) which made up modern England. Alfred styled himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons" from about 886, and while he was not the first king to claim to rule all of the English, his rule represents the start of the first unbroken line of kings to rule the whole of England, the House of Wessex. The last monarch of a distinct kingdom of England was Anne, who became Queen of Great Britain when England merged with Scotland to form a union in 1707. 
Arguments are made for a few different kings deemed to control enough of the Heptarchy to be deemed the first king of England. For example, Offa, king of Mercia, and Egbert, king of Wessex, are sometimes described as kings of England by popular writers, but it is no longer the majority view of historians that their wide dominions are part of a process leading to a unified England, as highlighted by historian Simon Keynes stating, for example, that "Offa was driven by a lust for power, not a vision of English unity; and what he left was a reputation, not a legacy." This refers to a period in the late 8th century when Offa achieved a dominance over many of the kingdoms of southern England, but this did not survive his death in 796. In 829 Egbert of Wessex conquered Mercia, but he soon lost control of it. It was not until the late 9th century that one kingdom, Wessex, had become the dominant Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Its king, Alfred the Great, was overlord of western Mercia and used the title "King of the Angles and Saxons", but he never ruled eastern and northern England, which was then known as the Danelaw, having earlier been conquered by the Danes from Scandinavia. His son Edward the Elder conquered the eastern Danelaw, but Edward's son Æthelstan became the first king to rule the whole of England when he conquered Northumbria in 927, and he is regarded by some modern historians as the first true king of England. The title "King of the English" or "Rex Anglorum" in Latin, was first used to describe Æthelstan in one of his charters in 928.
After the execution of the king in January 1649 England was declared a commonwealth and the Scots declared his son king as Charles II. The English responded with an armed invasion and after defeats for the Scots at Dunbar in 1650 and Worcester in 1651, the English occupied the country in 1652 and Scotland was declared part of the Commonwealth. The Kirk became deeply divided, partly in the search for scapegoats for defeat. Different factions and tendencies produced rival resolutions and protests, which gave their names to the two major parties as Resolutioners, who were willing to make an accommodation with royalism, and more hard line Protesters who wished to purge the Kirk of such associations. Subsequently, the divide between rival camps became almost irrevocable. The regime accepted Presbyterianism as a valid system, but did not accept that it was the only legitimate form of church organisation and the Kirk functioned much as before. Toleration, did not extend to Episcopalians and Catholics, but if they did not call attention to themselves they were largely left alone.
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death on 24 March 1603. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the last of the five monarchs of the House of Tudor.
Oscar II (Oscar Fredrik; 21 January 1829 – 8 December 1907) was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death, and the last Bernadotte King of Norway from 1872 until his dethronement in 1905.
During the Scottish–Norwegian War, the last Norse king who invaded Scotland, Haakon IV of Norway, sent an advance party under Anders Nicolassen who was his foster brother and one of his chief barons, to plunder the Isle of Bute before joining the main Norse fleet off the coast of Largs. In the ensuing Battle of Largs the Norsemen were defeated but there is a persistent tradition that Anders Nicolassen settled in Scotland after he had been sent as an envoy from Norway to conclude the Treaty of Perth. The treaty finally ceded Norwegian sovereignty of the isles over to the king of Scotland.
John Willock, who had been exiled to Emden, and John Knox, who had spent five years exiled in Geneva, were the most influential figures of the Scottish Reformation. Knox preached to Scottish noblemen from 1555–56, though he did not encourage the establishment of independent churches as was done in France. In 1557 a group of noblemen known as the Lords of the Congregation swore an oath, following a Scottish custom, to promote Protestant reforms in churches. Knox and Willock encouraged radical militant action even on the part of independent laypeople in areas where Catholic practices were re-instituted. In 1560 the Scottish Parliament adopted the broadly Reformed Scots Confession and instituted the Church of Scotland along Reformed lines, though bishops were retained within a presbyterial system. Despite the success of the Reformed in Scotland many people retained Catholic practices such as holy days and pilgrimages and the majority of parishes did not have qualified Reformed ministers by the end of the century.
Elizabeth II is the current longest-reigning monarch, having been Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand since 6 February 1952. She is also the monarch of 12 other Commonwealth realms which have become independent states since 1952 and is therefore listed multiple times in the table below.
On 9 September 2015 (at the age of ), Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning female monarch in world history. On 23 May 2016 (at the age of ), her reign surpassed the claimed reign of James Francis Edward Stuart (the "Old Pretender"). On 13 October 2016 (at the age of ), she became the world's longest-reigning current monarch (and the world's longest-serving current head of state) after the death of Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), King of Thailand.
On 28 October 1651 the English Parliament issued the "Declaration of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England, concerning the Settlement of Scotland", in which it was stated that "Scotland shall, and may be incorporated into, and become one Common-wealth with this England". Eight English commissioners were appointed, Oliver St John, Sir Henry Vane, Richard Salwey, George Fenwick, John Lambert, Richard Deane, Robert Tichborne, and George Monck, to further the matter. The English parliamentary commissioners travelled to Scotland and at Mercat Cross in Edinburgh on 4 February 1652, proclaimed that the Tender of Union was in force in Scotland. By 30 April 1652 the representatives of the shires and Royal burghs of Scotland had agreed to the terms which included an oath that Scotland and England be subsumed into one Commonwealth. On the 13 April 1652—between the proclamation and the last of the shires to agree to the terms—a bill for an "Act for incorporating Scotland into one Commonwealth with England" was given a first and a second reading in Rump Parliament but it failed to return from its committee stage before the Rump was dissolved. A similar act was introduced into the Barebones Parliament but it too failed to be enacted before that parliament was dissolved.
The longest reign of a British monarch is that of the current monarch, Elizabeth II ( since 6 February 1952). The second longest reign is the 63 years 216 days of Victoria between 1837 and 1901. Queen Elizabeth II's reign became longer than Queen Victoria's on 9 September 2015. The third longest reign (and longest of a King) was that of George III, who reigned for 59 years 96 days between 1760 and 1820.
Edward the Elder was succeeded by his son Æthelstan, who Simon Keynes calls the "towering figure in the landscape of the tenth century". His victory over a coalition of his enemies – Constantine, King of the Scots, Owain ap Dyfnwal, King of the Cumbrians, and Olaf Guthfrithson, King of Dublin – at the battle of Brunanburh, celebrated by a famous poem in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", opened the way for him to be hailed as the first king of England. Æthelstan's legislation shows how the king drove his officials to do their respective duties. He was uncompromising in his insistence on respect for the law. However this legislation also reveals the persistent difficulties which confronted the king and his councillors in bringing a troublesome people under some form of control. His claim to be "king of the English" was by no means widely recognised. The situation was complex: the Hiberno-Norse rulers of Dublin still coveted their interests in the Danish kingdom of York; terms had to be made with the Scots, who had the capacity not merely to interfere in Northumbrian affairs, but also to block a line of communication between Dublin and York; and the inhabitants of northern Northumbria were considered a law unto themselves. It was only after twenty years of crucial developments following Æthelstan's death in 939 that a unified kingdom of England began to assume its familiar shape. However, the major political problem for Edmund and Eadred, who succeeded Æthelstan, remained the difficulty of subjugating the north. In 959 Edgar is said to have "succeeded to the kingdom both in Wessex and in Mercia and in Northumbria, and he was then 16 years old" (ASC, version 'B', 'C'), and is called "the Peacemaker". By the early 970s, after a decade of Edgar's 'peace', it may have seemed that the kingdom of England was indeed made whole. In his formal address to the gathering at Winchester the king urged his bishops, abbots and abbesses "to be of one mind as regards monastic usage . . . lest differing ways of observing the customs of one Rule and one country should bring their holy conversation into disrepute".
The standard title for monarchs from Æthelstan until John was ' ("King of the English"). Canute the Great, a Dane, was the first to call himself "King of England". In the Norman period ' remained standard, with occasional use of ' ("King of England"). From John's reign onwards all other titles were eschewed in favour of ' or "". In 1604 James I, who had inherited the English throne the previous year, adopted the title (now usually rendered in English rather than Latin) "King of Great Britain". The English and Scottish parliaments, however, did not recognise this title until the Acts of Union of 1707.
The Kingdom of Saxony was abolished in 1918 when King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony abdicated. The succession law until the abolition of the monarchy was semi-Salic primogeniture and required the successor to be born of an equal marriage, approved in advance by the head of the house. Accordingly, the last undisputed male member of the family was Prince Albert of Saxony, who assumed the headship of the royal house and the title "Margrave of Meissen" upon the death of his brother the Margrave Maria Emanuel in July 2012. This was challenged, however, by his nephew Prince Alexander of Saxe-Gessaphe who also claimed the headship based on a 1997 agreement, and who is said to have reached an agreement with Albert just prior to the funeral of Maria Emanuel which recognised Alexander as the dynasty's heir. With the death of Albert in October 2012 the dispute continued with Prince Rüdiger of Saxony, the only agnatic great grandson of the last King of Saxony, claiming the headship.
Sir John Maclean, 4th Baronet of Duart and Morvern (1670–1716) was the 20th Clan Chief of Clan Maclean from 1674 to 1716. He was the 16th and last Laird of Duart, when in 1691 he lost Castle Duart to Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll. The castle wasn't recovered by Clan Maclean until 1912 until it was purchased by Fitzroy Donald Maclean, 221 years later.
The last member of the House of Dunkeld was "King Alexander III" (1241–1286), ending the family's rule over Scotland that had persisted since 1058. Alexander, the last male-line descendant of King Donnchad I, who ruled from 1034 to 1040, outlived his own children, leaving only his granddaughter (though his daughter) Margaret, Maid of Norway as heir; her death a few years later plunged Scotland into an interregnum.
Many historians mark the reign of King Malcolm Canmore (Malcolm III) as the beginning of Gaelic's decline in Scotland. In either 1068 or 1070, the king married the exiled Princess Margaret of Wessex. This future Saint Margaret of Scotland was a member of the royal House of Wessex, which had occupied the English throne from its founding until the Norman Conquest. Margaret was thoroughly Anglo-Saxon, and is often credited (or blamed) for taking the first significant steps in anglicising the Scottish court. She spoke no Gaelic, gave her children Anglo-Saxon rather than Gaelic names, and brought many English bishops, priests, and monastics to Scotland. Her family also served as a conduit for the entry of English nobles into Scotland. When both Malcolm and Margaret died just days apart in 1093, the Gaelic aristocracy rejected their anglicised sons and instead backed Malcolm's brother Donald as the next King of Scots. Known as Donald ("the Fair"), the new king had lived 17 years in Ireland as a young man, and his power base as an adult was in the thoroughly Gaelic west of Scotland. Upon Donald's accession to the throne, in the words of the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", "the Scots drove out all the English who had been with King Malcolm". Malcolm's sons fled to the English court, but in 1097 returned with an Anglo-Norman army backing them. Donald was overthrown, blinded, and imprisoned for the remaining two years of his life. Because of the strong English ties of Malcolm's sons Edgar, Alexander, and David – each of whom became king in turn – Donald is sometimes called the "last Celtic King of Scotland". He was the last Scottish monarch to be buried on Iona, the one-time centre of the Scottish Gaelic Church and the traditional burial place of the Gaelic Kings of and the Kingdom of Alba.
The last member of the House of Stuart was "Henry Benedict Stuart" (1725–1807), a Roman Catholic cardinal. He was the last legitimate male-line descendant of Robert II, who became King of Scots in 1371. The House of Stuart had ruled Scotland since then and England since 1603, replaced temporarily from 1649 to 1660 by the Covenanters and permanently in 1714 when Queen Anne died without surviving children, although Henry Cardinal Stuart's grandfather King James II & VII had been dethroned in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution. The headship of the house is usually associated today with Franz, Duke of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach, the senior heir-general of James II & VII's sister Henrietta Anna, Duchess of Orléans. Non-royal branches of the family still survive. The Earls of Galloway are the senior surviving line of the Stuarts, they descend from a line which originated from the second son of Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland.
The Last King of Scotland is a 1998 novel by journalist Giles Foden. Focusing on the rise of Ugandan President Idi Amin and his reign as dictator from 1971 to 1979, the novel is written as the memoir of a fictional Scottish doctor in Amin's employ. Giles Foden's novel received critical acclaim and numerous awards when it was published by Faber and Faber in 1998. It interweaves fiction and historical fact. In 2006, a film by the same name was produced based on the novel.