In 2014, the people of Scotland voted in a referendum offered by the UK on whether Scotland should sever her political and economic ties with England and go her own separate way as an independent nation. National sentiment behind this referendum is not without precedent, as Scotland has borne the yoke of English subjugation in one form or another for almost a millennium. This is not the first attempt by the Scots to gain their independence from their southern overlord. It should, however, be the last. Throughout the past thousand years, while English conquest of Scotland was in many cases brutal, Scotland’s attempts at independence have been half-hearted and only rebounded to cause her to rely logarithmically more heavily on the English Crown. This paper will deal with the history of Scottish subjugation, why all but one bid for independence from the Crown failed, and the political, economic, and historical reasons why Scotland should cease further suits for total and sovereign self-governance. The relationship between England and Scotland is among the most complicated in history. Their proximity to each other and the vast differences between the two cultures create a boiling whirlpool of national tensions, beginning in the 11th century and only reducing to a simmer within the last 300 years. Despite what Hollywood would have you believe, for instance, Edward I did not simply invade Scotland because “Scotland is full of Scots.” This is a quote from the movie Braveheart, the wildly inaccurate portrayal of the events leading up to and during William Wallace’s rebellions between 1297 and 1305. In fact, relations between the two kingdoms were much more amicable at that point than they would become in the following 400 years. Causes have actions have effects, and where the history of Anglo-Scottish tensions actually begins is much less grandiose than a king mounting a large-scale invasion upon his neighbor for the prize of ruling a larger portion of the island. That honor goes to Wales. The initial cause which would spark the chain reaction of Scottish subjugation actually begins almost 200 years prior to the First Scottish War of Independence. Several small-scale “wars” and skirmishes occurred between Scottish and English forces in the years immediately before and continuing after the Norman Conquest in 1066. Most of these fracases took place in the Borders, the long-disputed regions along the frontiers of England and Scotland; for the most part, these were territorial wars that were often demonstrations of frustration by either side at the boundaries which were established in 973. The most consequential of these meetings often ended with the death or imprisonment of a Scottish king, whether by English or Scottish hands.>