1650s in Scotland

Events from the 1650s in the Kingdom of Scotland.

Incumbents

 * Monarch – Charles II (until his disposition in 1651)
 * Commonwealth of England from 1651 until the Restoration in 1660 which reinstates Charles II.

Events

 * 1650:
 * 21 May - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose executed in Edinburgh after his defeat at the Battle of Carbisdale.
 * 29 June - "the Lord General Cromwell went out of London towards the North: and the news of him marching Northward much startled the Scots". Oliver Cromwell leads the New Model Army to Edinburgh.
 * 3 September - Battle of Dunbar takes place between Cromwell's Army and the Scottish Covenanters. Cromwell's army wins and the battle results in southern Scotland surrendering to England; it is administered from Dalkeith.
 * 1651:
 * 1 January - Charles II crowned King of Scotland at Scone Palace.
 * 20 July - Battle of Inverkeithing: The English Parliamentarian New Model Army, under Major-General John Lambert, defeats a Scottish Covenanter army acting on behalf of Charles II, led by Sir John Brown of Fordell.
 * 1 September - Siege of Dundee ends with the English Parliamentarian army, under General Monck, decisively defeating Covenanters in the last battle of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in Scotland.
 * 3 September - Battle of Worcester takes place after Charles II has raised an army (largely from Scotland) and invaded England. It results in his defeat by Cromwell and the king escaping abroad.
 * 1652: 17 June - A large fire breaks out in Glasgow, which destroys around a third of the city and leaves approximately 1,000 families homeless.
 * 1653: 16 December - Cromwell is made Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
 * 1654:
 * 12 April - Cromwell creates a union between England and Scotland, with Scottish representation in the Parliament of England.
 * 5 May - Cromwell's Act of Grace, which pardons the people of Scotland for any crimes they may have committed during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, is proclaimed in Edinburgh.
 * 1658: 3 September - Cromwell dies and the title of Lord Protector passes to his son, Richard Cromwell.
 * 1659:
 * 25 May - Richard Cromwell forced to resign as Lord Protector.
 * Heriot's Hospital opens in Edinburgh.

Publications

 * 1655 - History of the Church and State of Scotland by John Spottiswoode.

Births

 * 1650:
 * Sir James Dalrymple, 1st Baronet, writer and Principal Clerk of Session (d. 1719)
 * George Brown, inventor and arithmetician (d. 1730)
 * Henry Erskine, 3rd Lord Cardross, Covenanter (d. 1693)
 * 1654: 23 November - George Watson, accountant (d. 1733)
 * 1658: 11 April - James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton, nobleman (d. 1712)
 * 1659
 * 1 January - Margaret Wemyss, 3rd Countess of Wemyss, noble (d. 1705)
 * 3 June - David Gregory, mathematician and astronomer (d. 1708)
 * 13 September - Claud Hamilton, 4th Earl of Abercorn, Scottish and Irish peer (k. in action 1691)

Deaths

 * 1650:
 * 21 May – James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose (b. 1612)
 * 29 October - David Calderwood, divine and historian (b. 1575)
 * 1654: Alexander Ross, writer (b. c.1590)