On this day in 1560

An defence pact known as the Auld Alliance, signed by Scotland and France in 1295, committed the two powers to looking after each other’s interests in their disagreements with England. Signed by Scotland’s John Balliol and France’s Philip IV, it was much like the treaty that binds together the members of NATO, where it was agreed that if either party was attacked by England, the other would come to its aid.

English troops leave Scotland

The treaty was renewed by the monarchs of each state for the next two and a half centuries until, in 1560, Queen Elizabeth I agreed the Treaty of Edinburgh with King Francis II of France, who was the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Upon its signing, both sides agreed to remove their troops from Scotland in accordance with clause three.

As worded, it was a comprehensive peace treaty under the terms of which neither country could send troops to the other except under the authority of their monarchs. Moreover, in its own words, “it was agreed and concluded, That the fort built at Aymouth in the kingdom of Scotland, should have been demolished within three months after the date of the [Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis], razed to the ground, and nothing ever thereafter to have been built there: And although the said fort be in some sort demolished, yet not so as was agreed upon; therefore it is now appointed, agreed, and concluded, That the said fort of Aymouth shall be utterly demolished and razed before the end of four days, after the demolition of Leith shall begin.”

Controversial fort

Aymouth Fort, now known as Eyemouth Fort, had sat on the Scottish-English border at Berwick, and was a Franco-Scottish fort built on the remains of an earlier English structure. It was such an important part of the campaign against England that, when the Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis was signed, ending the Italian War of 1551 to 1559 in which England had sided with the Holy Roman Empire, its destruction was one of the terms.

 

...and on this day in 1948

NHS Scotland was founded under the authority of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 and came into existence on 5 July the following year. It wasn’t the nation’s first public health system, as the Highlands and Islands Medical Service had already been providing state-funded care for more than three decades. Nonetheless, the idea of a health service covering the whole country, paid for out of tax revenues seemingly needed some explanation.

Healthcare without fees

The government published explanations in newspapers. The issue of The Scotsman published on the day the service came into being carried one such panel. It outlined how the National Health Service “provides all forms of medical advice and care, medicines, drugs and appliances, as well as a family doctor. [It] is available to everybody, whether insured or not, and there are no fees to pay. You can use any part of it, or all of it, as you wish.”

Readers were urged to get application form EC1 from the post office or public library and use it to choose their preferred doctor.

 

...and on this day in 1966

Dundee Airport’s grass runway hosted its first scheduled flight on 5 July 1966, when a plane set off for Glasgow. The airport wasn’t immediately successful, and it was closed for several years from the late 1960s. The following decade, upon its reopening, the runway was extended and re-laid using Tarmac.

 

...and on this day in 2001

Queen Elizabeth II opened the Glasgow Science Centre on the Clyde waterfront, close to the new headquarters of BBC Scotland and Scottish Television. The development also included Scotland’s first IMAX cinema and the Glasgow Tower, the tallest freely rotating tower in the world.