The Battle of Largs was a battle between the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. The conflict formed part of the Norwegian expedition against Scotland in 1263, in which Haakon Haakonsson, King of Norway attempted to reassert Norwegian sovereignty over the western seaboard of Scotland. Victory was achieved by the Scots with a crafty three-tiered strategy on the part of the young Scottish king, Alexander III: plodding diplomacy forced the campaign to bad weather months and a ferocious storm ravaged the Norwegian fleet, stripping it of many vessels and supplies and making the forces on the Scottish coast vulnerable to an attack that forced the Norwegians into a hasty retreat that was to end their 500-year history of invasion, and leaving Scotland to consolidate its resources into building the nation.
Detail from William Hole's mural of the Battle of Largs, in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Haakon's ships depicted on William Hole's mural in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
This Neolithic chambered cairn near Largs is sometimes known as "Haco's Tomb". Local tombs, such as this, were once believed to have been erected as grave markers for warriors slain during the battle.
The Pencil stands about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Largs, along a shoreline footpath.
The Kingdom of Scotland was a sovereign state in northwest Europe traditionally said to have been founded in 843. 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. During the Middle Ages, Scotland engaged in intermittent conflict with England, most prominently the Wars of Scottish Independence, which saw the Scots assert their independence from the English. Following the annexation of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles from Norway in 1266 and 1472 respectively, and the capture of Berwick by 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. In 1603, James VI of Scotland became King of England, joining Scotland with England in a personal union. In 1707, during the reign of Queen Anne, the two kingdoms were united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain under the terms of the Acts of Union.
James VI, whose inheritance of the thrones of England and Ireland created a dynastic union in 1603
Coronation of Alexander III of Scotland at Scone Abbey; beside him are the Mormaers of Strathearn and Fife while his genealogy is recited by a royal poet.
The Regiam Majestatem is the oldest surviving written digest of Scots law.
Institution of the Court of Session by James V in 1532, from the Great Window in Parliament House, Edinburgh