Queen's 'Enduring Love For Scotland'
When Queen Elizabeth II awoke on the morning of September 19 last year it was to find that the now 308-year-old union of which she is sovereign remained intact.
When Queen Elizabeth II awoke on the morning of September 19 last year it was to find that the now 308-year-old union of which she is sovereign remained intact.
Issuing a message of reconciliation to the nation from Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, she spoke of an enduring love of Scotland'' as she acknowledged the victory of the No campaign in the Scottish referendum on independence.
The rare intervention into politics illustrated the deep affection the Queen has had for Scotland and her people since her reign began more than 60 years ago.
The Queen's Scottish heritage has been an important part of her life, with her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, hailing from an ancient aristocratic Scottish family.
Each summer the Queen makes the journey to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, her official residence in Scotland, for a week of engagements celebrating Scottish culture, history and achievement.
A highlight includes the garden party at the palace, where she and Duke of Edinburgh entertain around 8,000 guests from all walks of Scottish life.
She is reportedly never happier than at the haven of Balmoral, where the Royal family spend each August and September riding, fishing and walking and where the Queen hosts an annual Ghillies Ball for staff.
The estate was handed down to her through generations of royals and bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert in 1852.
The Queen and her husband are familiar faces in the local area, joining worshippers for services at nearby Crathie Kirk and presiding over the Braemar Gathering, the biggest event in the Highland Games calendar.
Scottish cultural historian Professor Murray Pittock, from the University of Glasgow, believes that this strong link to Balmoral has played an important role in securing her popularity in Scotland.
He said: You could say that the Queen, and Prince Charles as well, are the last representatives of what you might call the Balmoral generations.
The Royal family was quite unpopular in the early 19th century, there was a lot more republicanism in 1820 than there is now, but one of the key elements of transformation was first of all the clear adoption of Scotland through the redecoration of Balmoral in the 1850s, but then also the creation at Balmoral of an idealised middle-class family.
That gave them a different image right from the Victorian period onwards and the Queen has very much continued with that image.
She wears a headscarf, she has always downplayed glamour, she has always downplayed reckless expense and exhibitionism and all those things, and actually clung to what you might call Victorian values.
That has a resonance throughout the UK but it has been positive in Scotland because the Queen has certainly been very unpretentious in the way that she has presented herself and it is a generally held view that one thing Scots cannot stand is pretension.
I think that has been very much part of her continued popularity.''
It was at Crathie at the height of the independence campaign where controversy erupted after the Queen reportedly told a well-wisher that Scots should think very carefully about the future''.
She faced the prospect of becoming Elizabeth I of Scotland or even Elizabeth, Queen of Scots had the Scottish people voted in favour of independence.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen had followed the campaign very closely but were quick to dismiss the suggestion she was concerned about the break up of the union, insisting she was politically neutral.
Mr Pittock said the Royal family had been able to reaffirm their Scottish relationship without making any constitutional statements or indicating a preference.
The Queen and the Royal family were exceptionally diplomatic and I don't think there's good evidence which suggests anything else,'' he said.
Nonetheless, when the Queen was crowned at Westminster Abbey at the age of 27 her solemn oath was to ''govern the peoples of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland''.
On that occasion she wore a coronation gown that clearly demonstrated the importance of the union, featuring all four emblems of the United Kingdom - the rose, the shamrock, the leek and the thistle.
During her silver jubilee year of 1977 she felt compelled to invoke the oath she had sworn at a time of growing calls for power to be devolved to Scotland and to Wales.
In a speech to both houses of Parliament, the Queen said she understood the aspirations of Scotland and Wales but added: ''I cannot forget that I was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
''Perhaps this Jubilee is a time to remind ourselves of the benefits which union has conferred, at home and in our international dealings, on the inhabitants of all parts of this United Kingdom.''
Scotland chose to remain a part of that union but almost a year to the day since that poll, talk has increasingly turned to the possibility of a second referendum.
Mr Pittock said that even if Scotland were to vote Yes, the popularity of the Royals in Scotland would ensure it was a racing certainty'' that they would remain.
He said: I think they've certainly anticipated that possibility, whether they welcome it is quite another matter.
All the indications are that the vast majority of Yes voters are pro-royalist. They are not republicans.
The anecdotal difference in Scotland is that there is less interest in the Royal family and new Royal babies and so forth.
But nonetheless the Queen remains every bit as popular in Scotland as she does in England.''