William the Lion granted the town the status of burgh by royal charter in 1191. His brother, David, 8th Earl of Huntingdon is said to have named the town Donum Dei ('God's gift') upon narrowly escaping death during his return from the Crusades. However, this is probably folk etymology, as the name appears to come from Dun Dèagh meaning Fort on the Tay ("Dun" is a common prefix in Scottish placenames, cf Dunfermline and Dunkeld) 

Dundee suffered periods of occupation and destruction in the late 13th and early 14th Centuries. Following John Balliol's renunciation (1295) of Edward I's authority over Scotland, the English King twice visited Scotland with hostile intent. Edward (the 'Hammer of the Scots') removed Dundee's royal charter — denying the town's people the right to control local government and the judiciary. He occupied the Castle at Dundee in 1296, but was successfully removed by William Wallace in 1297. From 1303 to 1312 the city was occupied again. This time, Edward's removal resulted in the complete destruction of the Castle by Robert the Bruce (who had been proclaimed King of Scots at nearby Scone in 1309). In 1327, the Bruce granted the town a new charter. Later in the 14th Century, during the Hundred Years War, the French invoked the Auld Alliance. Richard II marched North and reduced Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee to ashes.

Dundee became a walled city in 1545 during a period of English hostilities known as the 'rough wooing' (Henry VIII's violent attempt to extend his Protestant ambitions North by marrying his youngest son Edward, Duke of Cornwall to Mary, Queen of Scots). Mary maintained an alliance with the French, who successfully captured Protestant rebels (including John Knox) at St Andrews Castle, near Dundee, in July 1547. That year, however, buoyed by victory at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, the English occupied Edinburgh and went on to destroy much of Dundee by naval bombardment. The Howff Burial Ground, granted to the people of Dundee in 1546, is the city's lasting gift from Mary.

During a period of relative peace between Scotland and England, the status of Dundee as a Royal Burgh was once more confirmed in The Great Charter of Charles I, dated 14 September 1641. Ironically, however, with the outbreak of the Scottish Civil War in 1644, Dundee continued to suffer at the hands of nobles loyal to the English monarch — the Royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose besieged the town in April 1645. Nor were Dundee's misfortune's over when the hostilities between Scottish Royalists and Covenanters were brought to an end. On 1 September 1651 during the English Parliamentarian invasion of Scotland of the Third English Civil War, General Monck (commander of Cromwell's forces in Scotland) captured Dundee. His troops pillaged the town, destroying much of it and killing up to 2,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants.

John Graham, 1st Viscount Dundee raised the Stuart standard on Dundee Law in 1689. For this significant early contribution to the Jacobite uprising, Graham quickly earned the name Bonnie Dundee.

After Union with England ended military hostilities, Dundee was able to redevelop its harbour and establish itself, as an industrial and trading centre. The industrial history of Dundee is traditionally summarised in the expression "the three Js". 

Jute

During the 18th and 19th Centuries, flax was imported for the production of linen. Dundee supported 36 spinning mills by 1835, paving the way for a flourishing industry in the production of jute, a common fiber. This growth precipitated a large increase in population.

By the end of the 19th Century the majority of Dundee's working population were occupied in jute manufacture, but the industry began to decline in 1914, when it became cheaper to rely on imports from India. (Ironically, Dundee's 'jute barons' had invested heavily in Indian factories). Commercial jute production in Dundee came to an end in the 1960s. Some manufacturers successfully diversified to produce synthetic fibres and linoleum for a short time. Many mills were destroyed, but others have been redeveloped for residential use. An award-winning museum, based in the old Verdant Works, commemorates the city's manufacturing heritage and operates a small jute-processing facility.

Jam

The second "J" should really be an "M": Dundee's link with jam stems from Janet Keiller's 1797 'invention' of marmalade. Mrs. Keiller is said to have devised the recipe in order to make use of a cargo-load of bitter Seville oranges acquired from a Spanish ship by her 'husband', James. This account is fiction, but nevertheless marmalade became a famed Dundee export after James Keiller (in reality Janet's son) industrialised the production process during the 19th Century. Traditional marmalade production has fallen victim to corporate takeovers, but distinctive white jars of Keiller's marmalade can still be bought.

Journalism

Journalism is the only "J" which continues to thrive in Dundee — the publisher DC Thomson & Co. celebrates its centenary in 2005. The firm publishes a wide spectrum of newspapers, children's comics and magazines, including The Sunday Post, The Courier and children's favourites, The Beano and The Dandy.

As a whaling port, Dundee developed a prosperous maritime industry. In 1857 the whaling ship Tay was fitted with steam engines. By 1872 Dundee had become the premier whaling port of the British Isles. Over 2,000 ships were built in the city between 1871 and 1881. The last whaling ship to be built at Dundee was the Terra Nova, in 1884. Shipbuilding came to a halt altogether in 1961. The Dundee Perth & London Shipping Company (DPLC) ran steamships down the Tay from Perth and on to Hull and London. The firm still exists, but is essentially now a travel agency. RRS Discovery, the ship taken to the Antarctic by Robert Falcon Scott, was built in Dundee in 1901. It returned to its birthplace in the 1980s and is moored next to a purpose-built visitors' centre. An older ship, HMS Unicorn, is moored in the docks. It was not actually built at Dundee, but as the oldest wooden British warship still afloat it is a prestigious addition to a city with a rich maritime heritage.

This page was last updated: 21 Januar 2006

Town history extracts are taken from Wikipedia and are licensed under GFDL