The Scottish Crown adopted the conventional offices of western European monarchical states of the time and developed a Privy Council and great offices of state. The Crown remained at the centre of political life and in the 16th century emerged as a major centre of display and artistic patronage, until it was effectively dissolved with the Union of Crowns in 1603. The Scottish monarchy in the Middle Ages was a largely itinerant institution, before Edinburgh developed as a capital city in the second half of the 15th century.

The Crown was the most important element of government. In 1707, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. Following the annexation of the Northern Isles from the Kingdom of Norway in 1472 and the final capture of the Royal Burgh of Berwick by the Kingdom of England in 1482, the territory of the Kingdom of Scotland corresponded to that of modern-day Scotland, bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. It suffered many invasions by the English, but under Robert the Bruce it fought a successful War of Independence and remained an independent state throughout the late Middle Ages. Its territories expanded and shrank, but it came to occupy the northern third of the island of Great Britain, sharing a land border to the south with the Kingdom of England. The Kingdom of Scotland ( Scottish Gaelic: Rìoghachd na h-Alba Scots: Kinrick o Scotland) was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. English began to have increased influence in Scotland from the mid-16th century. French was widely spoken in Scotland at the height of the Auld Alliance.

^ The Pictish and Cumbric languages became extinct during the 10th and 11th centuries.

Ck2 found a new kingdom