History of local government in Scotland
Charles III William, Duke of Rothesay Swinney government The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP Kate Forbes MSP Sixth session Alison Johnstone MSP Angela Constance MSP Dorothy Bain KC The Rt Hon Lord Carloway KC PC United Kingdom Parliament elections European Parliament elections Local elections Referendums Starmer ministry The Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP The Rt Hon Ian Murray MP The history of local government in Scotland is a complex tale of largely ancient and long established Scottish political units being replaced after the mid 20th century by a frequently changing series of different local government arrangements.
The statuses of Fortriu and Dalriada are extremely unclear; it seems that theoretically they were meant to owe some form of vassalage to the King of Alba, but in practice were somewhat independent.
Until the 15th century the ancient pattern of major lordships survived largely intact, with the addition of two new "scattered earldoms" of Douglas and Crawford, thanks to royal patronage after the Wars of Independence, mainly in the borders and south-west.
Their acquisition of the crown, and a series of internal conflicts and confiscations, meant that by around the 1460s the monarchy had transformed its position within the realm, gaining control of most of the "provincial" earldoms and lordships.
In the highlands James II created two new provincial earldoms for his favourites: Argyll for the Campbells and Huntly for the Gordons, which acted as a bulwark against the vast Lordship of the Isles built up by the Macdonalds.
In medieval Latin, the latter was referred to as a comitatus which, in Scotland, was the region controlled as a province or lordship (as opposed, for example, to a Lairdship), such as a mormaerdom, or an early Earldom, and typically survived as a regality (though this is a broader term encompassing also more junior authority).
Malcolm III appears to have introduced sheriffs as part of a policy of replacing native "Celtic" forms of government with Anglo Saxon and Norman feudal structures.
In the south-west, Glasgow, Ayr and Kirkcudbright were aided by the less profitable sea trade with Ireland and to a lesser extent France and Spain.
[8] Burghs were typically settlements under the protection of a castle and usually had a market place, with a widened high street or junction, marked by a mercat cross, beside houses for the burgesses and other inhabitants.
[8] Burghs were centres of basic crafts, including the manufacture of shoes, clothes, dishes, pots, joinery, bread and ale, which would normally be sold to "indwellers" and "outdwellers" on market days.
He sent colonists from Fife to parts of the region and forced the Highland chiefs to accept Lowland language and culture through the Statutes of Iona 1609.
They were held at the behest of the local baron when there was a backlog of cases and could appoint birleymen, usually senior tenants, who would resolve disputes and issues.
The combination of kirk sessions and courts baron gave considerable power to local lairds to control the behaviour of the populations of their communities.
At the same time, the role of local government in postwar Britain reduced due to the Labour Party's social and economic reforms, which nationalized many functions traditionally performed by them such as healthcare and electricity.
