James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose was a Scottish nobleman, poet, soldier and later viceroy and captain general of Scotland. Montrose initially joined the Covenanters in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, but subsequently supported King Charles I as the English Civil War developed. From 1644 to 1646, and again in 1650, he fought in the civil war in Scotland on behalf of the King. He is referred to as the Great Montrose.
"Sir Patrick Spens" is one of the most popular of the Child Ballads, and is of Scottish origin. It is a maritime ballad about a disaster at sea.
The Fair Maid of Perth is an 1828 novel by Sir Walter Scott, one of the Waverley novels. Inspired by the strange, but historically true, story of the Battle of the North Inch, it is set in Perth and other parts of Scotland around 1400.
A Satire of the Three Estates, is a satirical morality play in Middle Scots, written by makar Sir David Lyndsay. The complete play was first performed outside in the playing field at Cupar, Fife in June 1552 during the Midsummer holiday, where the action took place under Castle Hill. It was subsequently performed in Edinburgh, also outdoors, in 1554. The full text was first printed in 1602 and extracts were copied into the Bannatyne Manuscript. The Satire is an attack on the Three Estates represented in the Parliament of Scotland – the clergy, lords and burgh representatives, symbolised by the characters Spiritualitie, Temporalitie and Merchant. The clergy come in for the strongest criticism. The work portrays the social tensions present at this pivotal moment in Scottish history.
The Burgh Muir is the historic term for an extensive area of land lying to the south of Edinburgh city centre, upon which much of the southern part of the city now stands following its gradual spread and more especially its rapid expansion in the late 18th and 19th centuries. The name has been retained today in the partly anglicised form Boroughmuir for a much smaller district within Bruntsfield, vaguely defined by the presence of Boroughmuir High School, and, until 2010, Boroughmuirhead post office in its north-west corner.
William Lauder was a sixteenth-century Scottish cleric, playwright, and poet.
The Bannatyne Manuscript is an anthology of literature compiled in Scotland in the sixteenth century. It is an important source for the Scots poetry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The manuscript contains texts of the poems of the great makars, many anonymous Scots pieces and works by medieval English poets.
"The Taill of the Cok and the Jasp" is a Middle Scots version of Aesop's Fable The Cock and the Jewel by the 15th-century Scottish poet Robert Henryson. It is the first in Henryson's collection known as the Morall Fabillis of Esope the Phrygian. The Cok and the Jasp is framed by a prologue and a moralitas, and as the first poem in the collection it operates on a number of levels, and in all its parts, to introduce the larger cycle.
William Stewart was a Scottish poet working in the first half of the 16th century.
The Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo or The Tretis Of The Twa Mariit Wemen and the Wedo is a narrative poem in Scots by the makar William Dunbar.
Ane Ballat of the Fenyeit Frier of Tungland, How He Fell in the Myre Fleand to Turkiland is a comic, satirical poem in Scots by William Dunbar composed in the early sixteenth century. The title may be rendered in modern English as A Ballad of The False Friar of Tongland, How He Fell in the Mire Flying to Turkey.
Meditatioun In Wyntir is a contemplative poem in Scots by William Dunbar.
The Dregy Of Dunbar also known as Dumbaris Dirige to the King is a humorous poem in Scots and Latin composed by William Dunbar. at an unknown date.
The Buke of the Howlat, often referred to simply as The Howlat, is a humorous 15th century Scots poem by Richard Holland.
"The Twa Cummeris", also rendered as "The Twa Cumeris", is a short humorous poem in Scots written at an unknown date by William Dunbar
"The Wife of Auchtermuchty" is a Scots poem of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries.
"Quhy Sowld Nocht Allane Honorit Be" is an anonymous allegorical poem of the fifteenth or sixteenth century written in Scots.
The Thrissil and the Rois is a Scots poem composed by William Dunbar to mark the wedding, in August 1503, of King James IV of Scotland to Princess Margaret Tudor of England.
Ane New Yeir Gift to Quene Mary is a poem written by Alexander Scott (1520?-1582/1583) in 1562, as a New Year's gift to Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary had recently returned to Scotland from France following the death of her first husband, Francois II of France (d.1560). The poem was written in an effort to placate Mary's displeasure following her official reception into the City of Edinburgh organised by its burgh council in August 1561, at which Protestant imagery was highlighted. As a committed Catholic Mary had taken offence.
Ane Dance in the Quenis Chalmer or A dance in the Queen's chamber is a humorous or satiric Scots poem by William Dunbar.
