The English occupied most of Scotland under Edward I and annexed a large slice of the Lowlands under Edward III, but Scotland establishes its independence under figures including William Wallace in the late thirteenth century and Robert I and his successors in the fourteenth century in the Wars of Independence (1296–1357).

This is helped by cooperation with the kings of France, under the terms of what become known as the Auld Alliance, which provides for mutual aid against the English.

In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries under the Stewart Dynasty, despite a turbulent political history, the Crown gains greater political control at the expense of independent lords and regains most of its lost territory to around the modern borders of the country