When Did Scotland Become Scotland?

In a recent article in History Today Patrick Wormald tackled the fascinating question 'when did England become England?' His persuasive answer was: in the tenth and eleventh centuries, when kings of Wessex conquered all England and established a new political order with the 'king of the English' at its apex. He emphasised, however, that the idea of 'the English people' was much older – as old as Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) – and played a vital role in lending legitimacy to the English state created in the tenth century.