Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2026
This chapter investigates commemorations of Scottish history. It focuses on the public, festive, and spectacular forms which have multiplied with the late twentieth-century memory boom. The chapter examines a French festival which commemorates the late medieval Scottish noblemen who fought for the French king. This event, with its bewildering mixture of attractions, was explicitly set up to attract tourists. Many commemorative events recall the two world wars. The chapter provides an overview of the different commemorative events in Europe. It identifies some of the historical periods that have been chosen for commemoration. The chapter ends with a visit to Flanders, where local enthusiasts have erected a monument to the Scottish soldiers who fell in the First World War. It appears that commemorations of the Scottish past can become political statements in specific contexts.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.