Late Medieval Scotland

With the release of ‘Outlaw King’, the upcoming film ‘Robert the Bruce’ and the long shadow cast by ‘Braveheart’, the wars for Scottish independence of the fourteenth century are being re-fought in modern popular culture, just as they were later in the middle ages, according to Iain MacInnes.

Many of us have by now watched the new Netflix release, Outlaw King. And many on social media have had questions about the film, the period and its history. As I have written elsewhere “historical accuracy” is a problematic consideration, not least because medieval sources never provide a truly “accurate” portrayal of the past. All historical sources, upon which films like Outlaw King are based, were written with a specific purpose in mind, for a specific audience, and with the intention of telling one very specific version of history. This makes it no more accurate, then, than anything we see on the screen. Still, we historians work to interpret the history that has come down to us. As such, we can at least compare Outlaw King to the prevailing historical narrative to sort out what is likely from what is fantasy...

Directed by David Mackenzie and starring Hollywood’s Chris Pine, more usually found in blockbuster franchises such as Star Trek and Wonder Woman, Outlaw King is one of a number of medieval historical dramas soon to make their way to our screens. But, just as the trailer for the upcoming Mary Queen of Scots film prompted criticism across social media for apparent historical inaccuracy after it appeared to show Mary and Elizabeth meeting face to face (an event most historians agree never took place), so too will Outlaw King find itself under similar scrutiny...

This article offers the first analysis of Anglo-Scottish tension at the general ecclesiastical council of Pavia-Siena (1423-4), where Thomas Murray, Abbot of Paisley, spearheaded attacks on the English delegation in the name of the French and Scottish kingdoms with Castilian and Italian allies. Murray's attacks illustrate how the council formed a frontline in the ongoing Anglo-French conflict and that the tensions between the kingdoms of Scotland and England played out on a European stage wider than usually recognised. Often dismissed as a non-event, the article establishes that Pavia-Siena formed a more significant centre for international diplomacy than historians have allowed.
Accessible online: https://academic.oup.com/histres/article-abstract/93/261/420/5879244?redirectedFrom=fulltext

The fighting that occurred in Scotland during the first decade of Edward 111's reign has often been recognized as important in the development of the strategies and tactics that allowed the English to win major victories against the French during the Hundred Years' War. Despite this, few studies exist that consider the wars as their primary focus, instead using the conflict of the 1330s as either a prologue to the fighting in France to follow or as the addendum to the Wars of Independence waged against Edward's father and grandfather. The major study that does focus solely on these wars only covers the first half of the conflict and fails to address the importance of the final three years. This thesis aims to demonstrate the importance of Edward III's wars in Scotland as the break from the military practices of Edward It's reign and the key period for developing the English military machine that would fight the Hundred Years' War. Extensive government records are contrasted with English and Scottish chronicles to provide a comprehensive narrative that shows the wars as the primary focus of political events in England at the time along with its role in military innovation. The same materials are also used to examine the numerical composition of the English military year by year and how those numbers changed as new strategies for fighting the wars became more firmly entrenched Chapter 1 discusses the broad themes that characterize the decade and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the primary and secondary material available. Chapter 2 covers the approaches to Scotland taken by the regency of Isabella and Mortimer that Edward III and others would move away from starting in 1332. Chapters 3-6 will illustrate the events of the war from the preparations for the Dupplin Moor campaign of 1332 to the battle of Culblean in 1335. These events reopened the previously closed question of Scotland's legal relationship with England while dramatically altering the English concept of what constituted a successful military force, though one with important limitations. Chapter 7 addresses the period after Culblean to the siege of Dunbar, left unexamined by the previous major work on this topic. Not only did these years see both continued fighting and negotiation, but they also created the rapid deterioration in relations between Edward and Philip VI of France that would lead to war in 1337. Chapter 8 is concerned with the particulars of English campaigning forces and the changes in their recruiting and operating patterns. Chapter 9 considers the royal garrisons in Scotland, their individual histories, and the necessities for their operation. The final chapter is an examination of the two main components of supporting forces in Scotland: the naval forces to transport and protect supplies, and the means for gathering those supplies. Two appendices are included giving the strengths of individual retinues of men-at-arms and archers for the 1334-7 campaigns as given by the wardrobe book of Richard Ferriby.

The Anglo-Scottish wars of the later middle ages cannot be adequately explained by a catalogue of battles and sieges. Both sides used legal, historical and spiritual arguments to give authority to their respective claims to independence (Scots) or sovereignty (English). Saints played a particularly key role in the Scottish articulation of independence. The official patron St Andrew provided a direct link to the papacy, whilst the careers of a wide range of other saints, from the ‘first bishop’ Palladius to Queen Margaret, were used to demonstrate the richness and longevity of the kingdom’s Christian past and of its independent ecclesiastical institutions. One individual who sat awkwardly in this narrative was Ninian of Whithorn, a saint whose shrine was located in Galloway, a region of traditionally weak royal authority close to the English border and whose bishops were suffragens of York until 1472. A winning blend of specific and general thaumaturgical and protective functions meant that in late medieval Scotland devotion to Ninian far surpassed that of traditional regional patron saints like Columba, Margaret and Kentigern. For many Scots in this period, particularly those who lived or travelled abroad, Ninian had evolved into a popular national patron in addition, or as an alternative, to the formal patron Andrew. This broad popularity led in the fifteenth-century to efforts by the Scottish governmental structures of national church and crown to appropriate the cult to their cause. However, by the late fourteenth century the fame of Ninian and his shrine at Whithorn had spread beyond Scotland and his cult was established in northern England, where in the late fifteenth century it found a high profile patron in the person of Richard III. The establishment of the cult in fifteenth-century England is particularly striking as cross-border saints are extremely rare in the jingoistic political atmosphere that followed the Anglo-Scottish wars of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. This article will explore the attempts by the Scottish authorities to claim Ninian, consider how and why the cult spread into England and examine the motivations behind Richard III’s remarkable patronage of the saint.

The later Middle Ages, the period between the Black Death and the reform movements of the 16th century, was the golden age of the cult of the saints in medieval Europe. This article focuses on two attempts to manipulate and direct this devotion from the NorthEast of Scotland; the inclusion in the calendar of the Aberdeen Breviary (1510) of the feast days of eighty-one saints believed to be of Scottish origin, and a reference to four of these saints, Machar, Devenick, Comgan and Drostan, in the Historia Gentis Scotorum of Hector Boece (1527). Using these two examples from the late medieval diocese of Aberdeen, this article explores the role played by the saints in defining national and local history in the later Middle Ages. They also demonstrate how the liturgy and the literary genre of the chronicle were utilized by local and national clergy in the 16th century in order to direct religious fervour and lay patronage toward particular institutions and their saints. A little over 500 years ago in the city of Aberdeen, a team of clerics was engaged on a major collaborative research project. Under the direction of the lead researcher, the formidable bishop of Aberdeen, William Elphinstone (1483–1514), the clerics were working to create a new liturgical book to serve the Scottish kingdom. Breviaries, as these liturgical books were often known, were in essence service books which guided the clergy as to the relevant psalms, hymns, scriptural readings, legends of the saints and prayers that made up the daily cycle of public worship in medieval churches. This daily system of worship, known as the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office, included the feast days of the saints, and the five major cycles of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, and combined with the four seasons of the agricultural year to structure the lives of medieval Scots. Two authorized systems of worship, known as the Roman and Sarum 'Rites' or 'Uses', were most commonly found in late-medieval Scotland. 1 Sarum and Roman liturgical books provided a framework by including a calendar listing the feasts of authorized saints, a calendar which could be adapted by religious institutions or individuals to reflect changing fashions and local needs. The purpose of Elphinstone's great project was to update and simplify this complex and cumbersome system by introducing a uniform Scottish 'Use'. This would be realized through a comprehensive 239

The impact and legacy of Scottish raiding of Northern England during the First Scottish War of Independence has been the subject of significant study. English evidence in particular provides quite detailed accounts of the extent of the raids of Robert Bruce and his commanders, the amount of money and goods taken, and the impact that such raids had on the economy and society of this region. Considerably less analysis has focused, however, on the raids undertaken by Scottish commanders during the next phase of conflict, in particular in the later 1330s and 1340s.

In part this is because the Neville’s Cross campaign (1346), which acts as an endpoint for this phase of raiding, casts a long shadow and affects the perception of this period of Scottish warfare. Moreover, the relatively short duration of this raiding phase has ensured that it remains a less-appreciated element in discussions of this period of Anglo-Scottish conflict. I would argue, however, that these raids deserve to be re-examined in order to better understand the nature, extent and impact of these attacks on the English countryside during a period when English focus was increasingly drawn towards France.

In particular, this paper will consider the depiction of these raids in English sources and the picture that the available evidence presents of these incursions. It is the contention of this paper that: the English north returned to something like the dark days of the 1310s, and that its people quite seamlessly recommenced paying protection money to Scottish raiders to be left in peace; that local lords could not be depended upon to defend the region from Scottish depredations; and that this was a period when the English crown largely abandoned the English north to its fate and northern Englishmen to deal with the Scots as best they could.

During the early and central middle ages St Cuthbert of Durham (d. 687) was arguably the most important local saint in northern England and southern Scotland. His cult encompassed a region approximately corresponding to the ancient kingdom of Northumbria. While Scottish devotion to the saint in that period has been well researched, the later medieval cult in Scotland has been surprisingly little studied. Following the outbreak of Anglo-Scottish warfare in 1296 a series of English monarchs, the Durham clergy and local political leaders identified Cuthbert with military victories over the Scots. Several historians have assumed that this association between Cuthbert and English arms led to the decline of his cult in Scotland. This article surveys the various manifestations of devotion to St Cuthbert in late medieval Scotland in order to reappraise the role of the saint and his cult north of the border in the later middle ages.

For ordinary people, the impact of the Reformation would have centred around local parish churches, rather than the theological debates of the Reformers. Focusing on the Calvinists, this volume explores how the architecture, appearance and arrangement of places of worship were transformed by new theology and religious practice.

Based on original research and site visits, this book charts the impact of the Reformed faith across Europe, concentrating in particular on France, the Netherlands and Scotland. While in some areas a Calvinist Reformation led to the adaptation of existing buildings, elsewhere it resulted in the construction of new places of worship to innovative new designs. Reformed places of worship also reflected local considerations, vested interests and civic aspirations, often employing the latest styles and forms of decoration, and here provide a lens through which to examine not only the impact of the Reformation at a local level but also the character of the different religious settlements across Europe during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

While the bulk of late medieval manuscripts written and decorated for Scottish patrons and book-owners did not outlast the Reformation, there are a number of survivals that merit more attention than they have hitherto received. The Arbuthnott book of hours, now housed at the Paisley Museum and Art Gallery, is part of a uniquely interesting group of manuscripts that was copied by a named scribe between 1482 and 1492 for the Arbuthnott family, who lived in a small, rural village about 26 miles south of Aberdeen. Members of this family were notable patrons of art, architecture and the Franciscan order, and the manuscripts they commissioned illuminate key aspects of indigenous book production in late medieval Scotland. This essay will focus on several illustrations and texts in the book of hours that reveal the liturgical preferences, reading habits, and religious sympathies of its earliest owner, Mariota Arbuthnott. My chief aim is to show how this book of hours reflects very early evidence of the dissemination of Maria in sole (Virgin in the Sun) iconography and of devotion to the Rosary. Hence I hope to show that this manuscript, which reflects both national and regional Scottish concerns as well as certain Continental aesthetic influences, provides important information about book production and religious culture in the far North.

This is a study of settlement and society in the parish of Torosay on the Inner Hebridean island of Mull, through the earliest known settlement-names of two of its medieval districts: Forsa and Moloros. The earliest settlement-names, 35 in total, were coined in two languages: Gaelic and Old Norse (hereafter abbreviated to ON). The settlement-toponymy provides irrefutable evidence that ON-speakers settled locally and named their settlements in ON. In subsequent centuries, long after ON ceased to be spoken locally, these ON settlement-names were perpetuated by local Gaelic-speakers. Many of these ON settlement-names are still used locally and are recorded on modern maps; others have fallen out of use. The same can be said of the earliest settlement-names of Gaelic origin. New etymological analysis of the earliest known forms of these settlement-names, considered alongside local pronunciation where available, forms the basis of this thesis. Much of this analysis challenges previous research. A number of the settlement-names have not hitherto been located or been subject to etymological analysis, no previous study having comprehensively engaged with their earliest forms. The earliest known forms are recorded in fiscal evaluation dating to the final decade of the 15th century and, as such, the settlement-names provide a window on the Late Medieval period. The settlement-names also provide an invaluable insight into settlement and society in the Norse period; i.e. the period in which ON was spoken locally. Norse is employed here as both an adjective, as in the Norse period, and a noun, in reference to speakers of ON. Thus, application is broadly to what is now Scandinavia and contemporary inhabitants thereof, as opposed to the more typical modern application of Norse to Norway and its inhabitants. Individual place-name elements employed in ON settlement-names provide an insight into how the local landscape was perceived and utilised agriculturally by these immigrant ON-speakers. In some cases, proposed personal names identify individuals associated with specific settlements. At least one ON settlement-name is likely to provide evidence of the religion of those who coined the name. Syntactic analysis of the Gaelic settlement-names highlights the possibility that some were coined in the Early Medieval period. It also identifies names which are perhaps unlikely to have been coined before the early 10th century. Loan-words borrowed in both directions, i.e. from Gaelic to ON and from ON to Gaelic, are identified and these reveal something of the chronology of individual settlement-names, in addition to providing evidence for language contact. The distribution of ON settlement-names and the fiscal status of settlements bearing ON names can also reveal something of the status of immigrant ON-speakers and the status of local Gaelic-speaking communities. The date of the earliest known forms probably post-dates the period in which these ON names were coined by around six centuries and this clearly allows for significant displacement of settlement-toponymy. However, settlement-names of ON origin apply to both settlements of principal and of relatively low fiscal status and the implication is that there was a significant amount of continuity in settlement-toponymy up to the date of the earliest known fiscal sources. The dearth of contemporary textual sources for the Early Medieval and Norse periods and of local archaeology relating to these periods identifies these settlement-names as invaluable sources of information for contemporary settlement, society and language in the districts of Forsa and Moloros. Part One Chapter 1 sets the research in context in providing geographical, geological, topographical, tenurial, ecclesiastical and fiscal information for the two districts. Chapter 2 comprises a review of previous studies on local settlement-toponymy. Chapter 3 identifies the sources which provide the earliest known forms and outlines the employed methodology. Chapter 4 provides an historical framework and engages with Norse toponymy furth of Mull across Britain and Ireland. Chapter 5 presents discursive analysis addressing the predominant research questions. Chapter 6 presents conclusions. Part Two The place-name survey presents raw spatial data and etymological analysis, where not included in chapter 5, for each of the 35 settlement-names.

Around eighty Scottish Lowland effigies dating from the fifteenth century survive. Of these, thirty-five represent men in full plate armour. The group of three armoured effigies in the Kirk of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, should be considered one of the most significant single collections of the art-form remaining in Scotland.

The Augustinian canons have never enjoyed the level of scholarly attention afforded to the monastic and mendicant movements of the central middle ages. This disparity has been particularly acute in the British Isles, despite being its most prolific religious movement. Scholars working in England, Ireland, and Wales have begun to correct this historiographical lacuna. In Scotland, the regular canons have also received comparatively scant attention, and, indeed, have largely been understood on the basis of imported paradigms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address a deficiency in Scottish historiography and make a contribution to the growing scholarship on the regular canons in the British Isles.

The regular canonical movement is examined within the kingdom of Scotland over the course of roughly a century. Eleven non-congregational houses of regular canons are considered, namely Scone, Holyrood, Jedburgh, St. Andrews, Cambuskenneth, and Inchcolm and the dependencies of Loch Tay, Loch Leven, Restenneth, Canonbie, and St. Mary’s Isle. The kingdom of Scotland provides both a common context, and a diverse milieu, in which to consider the foundation and development of these institutions and the movement as a whole. The chronological parameters have been determined by the foundation of the first house of regular canons in Scotland in c. 1120 and the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, which had the effect of artificially creating the Order of St Augustine. By examining individual houses separately, as well as in unison, this study seeks to present an integrated picture of the regular canonical movement in the kingdom of Scotland during the period of its organic development from c. 1120 to 1215.

The fundamental question concerning the regular canons is the nature of their vocation and their societal function. It has increasingly been recognised that a spectrum of different interpretations of canonical life existed ranging from the active – pastoral, practical, and outward looking – to the contemplative – ascetic, quasi-eremitical, and inward looking – which were all part of the same decentralised religious movement. This thesis attempts to situate the Scottish Augustinians, as far as possible, within this spectrum. It argues that a unique manifestation of the regular canonical movement emerged in the kingdom of Scotland as the result of a range of factors – including shared patrons, leadership, and episcopal support – which had the effect of creating a group identity, and, thereby, a collective understanding of their vocation and role in society.

The subject institutions have been particularly fortunate in terms of the quality and variety of the surviving source material. The evidence is comprised principally of charter material, but also includes chronicles and foundation narratives produced by Scottish Augustinians, and these provide an essential supplement. This thesis sheds light on an important group of religious houses in Scotland and on a complex religious movement that is only beginning to be fully understood, and, thus, it is hoped that this study will lay the groundwork for future research.

There has been a growing awareness in recent years that ethnic and national identities in the Scottish kingdom in the central Middle Ages were less clear-cut and more complex than previously imagined. 1 Dauvit Broun, for example, has elucidated changes in the ways in which the Melrose chroniclers used the term Scot in the 13th century, which in turn highlighted the redefinition of Scottishness away from a purely Gaelic identity, incorporating for the first time people from regions like Lothian and Strathclyde. 2 Beyond this, however, is a seeming morass of evidence describing the immigration, settlement and blending together of several medieval gentes that had to take place before this new sense of Scottishness could emerge. Broun has also posited a modus vivendi between native and immigrant aristocracies, and my own work has shown how the lack of any legalised 'apartheid' resulted in a degree of equality among ethnic groups in various social contexts, but there is still a long way to travel from these more limited concepts to the willingness of former Angli, Franci, Flandrenses and others to think of themselves as Scotti (Broun 1999a, 140; Hammond 2005, especially ch. 5). The idea of the Franci had a certain ethnic cachet, associated as it was with chivalry -French, for example, was the language of the chansons de geste, lais and other tales, the language of the archetypes of the warrior class: Charlemagne, Roland, Tristan and Isolde, and the knights of the Round Scotti, on the other hand, was associated in the minds of some with barbarism, religious backwardness, sexual perversity, raiding and slave-taking, a lack of chivalry and piety, and cruelty towards infants, women and monks (Gillingham 2000, 10-11, 101-05). For all of that, people abandoned their French, English, Flemish and other identities to redefine themselves as Scottish, and they appear to have done so in their droves -whether knights, merchants or servants -over the course of the 13th century. 3 JSNS 1, 2007, 37-60 1 I would like to thank Dauvit Broun, Archie Duncan, Nick Evans, Peadar Morgan, Alasdair Ross and Simon Taylor for useful discussions on this topic. On concerns over ethnicity, see the editors' introduction in Boardman and Ross 2003, 17-19; and Broun 1999a. 2 Broun 1998. This is complicated further by the tendency of contemporary writers in Alba to think of their kingdom as Irish (Broun 1999, 195-200). 3 The sense of Scottishness that they adopted, of course, was different from modern notions of national identity, and many of these individuals may have still seen themselves as Angli, Franci etc. in certain contexts. This does not make the shifts in the meaning of Scot and its use as an ethnonym any less remarkable given the strong contemporary negative ethnic stereotypes against Scottishness.

Originally published in the Journal of The Scottish Local History Forum this article draws attention to two significant, but little-known events when Scotland was seen as a key player in European politics. The 1434 French embassy mission to fetch the Scots Princess Margaret, aged ten, for marriage to the twelve-year old Dauphin Louis, showed their ambassador, Scotsman Hugh Kennedy, draw on his clan and political connections to bring about a successful conclusion.

The shuttle diplomacy of the French 'King of Arms', Gilbert Chauveau (Montjoie) is understandably less well documented due to the delicate nature of his discussions with the kings of France, England, Scotland and Denmark. His appearance at a small, sequestered Cluniac monastery in south-west Scotland would been facilitated by the clan descendants of Hugh Kennedy. It would have been the perfect venue well away from the eyes of the curious in the political hotbed of Scotland's parliament and royal palaces.

s romantic epic, The Bruce, is one of the major sources for researching the First Scottish War of Independence (1296-1328). Barbour's work has been the subject of an ongoing discourse regarding its validity as a primary source for historical study. 1 The central issues are the work's status as a 'romanys', as defined by Barbour himself, and the text's production up to eighty years after the events it describes. Previous research has focused on Barbour's description of chivalric conduct and behaviour, with the suggestion that Barbour confounds traditional representations of chivalry by privileging military expediency and success over acts of personal heroism. 2 The style of warfare practised by Robert I and his commanders was not traditionally chivalric. Though Barbour writes in a stylised romantic fashion, the guerrilla raids and stratagems adopted during the Scottish Wars of Independence are depicted in a realistic manner and this emphasis on verisimilitude is reflected in his sources. Barbour writes that The Bruce is based in part on oral testimony, garnered both from men who fought in the campaigns described and their descendants. 3 Other medieval writers, such as Jean Froissart and Thomas Gray, utilised similar sources of information reflecting a contemporary desire for realistic depictions of warfare. 4

St Duthac of Tain was one of the most popular Scottish saints of the
later middle ages. From the late fourteenth century until the reformation
devotion to Duthac outstripped that of Andrew, Columba, Margaret and
Mungo, and Duthac’s shrine in Easter Ross became a regular haunt
of James IV (1488–1513) and James V (1513–42). Hitherto historians
have tacitly accepted the view of David McRoberts that Duthac was one
of several local saints whose emergence and popularity in the fifteenth
century was part of a wider self-consciously nationalist trend in Scottish
religious practice. This study looks beyond the paradigm of nationalism
to trace and explain the popularity of St Duthac from the shadowy origins
of the cult to its heyday in the early sixteenth century.

The Augustinian canons have never enjoyed the level of scholarly attention afforded to the monastic and mendicant movements of the central middle ages. This disparity has been particularly acute in the British Isles, despite being its most prolific religious movement. Scholars working in England, Ireland, and Wales have begun to correct this historiographical lacuna. In Scotland, the regular canons have also received comparatively scant attention, and, indeed, have largely been understood on the basis of imported paradigms. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to address a deficiency in Scottish historiography and make a contribution to the growing scholarship on the regular canons in the British Isles. The regular canonical movement is examined within the kingdom of Scotland over the course of roughly a century. Eleven non-congregational houses of regular canons are considered, namely Scone, Holyrood, Jedburgh, St. Andrews, Cambuskenneth, and Inchcolm and the dependencies of Loc...

This article investigates the deliberate use and manipulation of chivalric culture and iconography by James IV of Scotland to position the Stewart dynasty's claims to the English throne in contest with the concurrent consolidation of Tudor dynastic security. This resulted in a dialogue developing between the two kingdoms concerning the relationship between sovereignty, dynasty and chivalry. This article argues for a new approach to the study of chivalry, by considering it as a meaningful language in political communication. It finds that chivalry had a strong currency in diplomatic discourse and was used to transact political issues of sovereignty and dynasty.

Between the Treaty of Paris in 1259 and the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453, the kings of England claimed dominion over a wide range of territories in both the British Isles and continental Europe, and the existence, and attempts to preserve, this empire were major features of late-medieval politics, society and culture. This new collection of essays reflects the geographical and thematic range of this phenomenon and, in the tradition of the Harlaxton symposia, takes a distinctively interdisciplinary approach to the topic through contributions focusing on historical, literary, linguistic and visual materials and associated methodologies. Grouped into four thematic sections, a series of original and innovative studies explore aspects of 'Empire, dynasty and identity', 'Regional responses to empire', 'Networks and communications' and 'The empire in retrospect and prospect'. A major question running through the collection, and brought into concentrated focus in a major conceptual essay by the editors, is the meaning and meaningfulness of 'empire', both for those who inhabited the Plantagenet dominions in the later Middle Ages and for modern scholars interrogating the dimensions of the imperial experience in comparative contexts.

During the Scottish Wars of Independence many Scots chose, or were forced to choose, the apparent security of English allegiance. In the years when Edward I, for example, appeared most likely to win his war with Scotland, many opted to enter the English king's peace in the hope of retaining their lands, rights and privileges under the new administrative order. This acknowledgement of the likelihood of an Edwardian victory prompted a practical response from most leading Scottish figures.

This single-authored book critically evaluates the concept of sacred heritage. Drawing on global perspectives from heritage studies, archaeology, museology, anthropology and architectural history, Gilchrist examines the multiple values of medieval Christian heritage. She investigates monastic archaeology through the lens of the material study of religion and reveals the sensory experience of religion through case studies including Glastonbury Abbey and Scottish monasticism. The work offers new insights into medieval identity and regional distinctiveness, healing and magic, and memory practices in the sacred landscape. It also reflects on the significance of medieval sacred landscapes as contested heritage sites which hold diverse meansings to contemporary groups.

St Duthac of Tain was one of the most popular Scottish saints of the later middle ages. From the late fourteenth century until the reformation devotion to Duthac outstripped that of Andrew, Columba, Margaret and Mungo, and Duthac's shrine in Easter Ross became a regular haunt of James IV (1488–1513) and James V (1513–42). Hitherto historians have tacitly accepted the view of David McRoberts that Duthac was one of several local saints whose emergence and popularity in the fifteenth century was part of a wider self-consciously nationalist trend in Scottish religious practice. This study looks beyond the paradigm of nationalism to trace and explain the popularity of St Duthac from the shadowy origins of the cult to its heyday in the early sixteenth century.

This article examines the portrayal of Macbeth and Malcolm Canmore as illegitimately born men in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Cronikyl. Portraying two kings of Scots as illegitimate sons was an unusual choice and was one that had textual and narrative implications. Wyntoun increased the role and political agency of Macduff of Fife in the narrative to create an eleventh-century precedent that explained the political career of Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany and Earl of Fife and Menteith, as a regent for three Scottish kings. In order to make sense of Macbeth and Malcolm's portrayals, it is crucial to differentiate between different types of illegitimacy in early fifteenth-century Scotland, as well as identify how each type of illegitimacy impacted issues of good kingship and magnate-noble relations in the text. Although illegitimacy did not outright prevent Malcolm and Macbeth from becoming kings, it did explain Macbeth's descent into tyranny and Malcolm Canmore's political impotence. In both cases, the intervention of Macduff of Fife as a kingmaking figure and as representative of the community of the realm of Scotland guaranteed the proper functioning of governance in a manner similar to how Albany served as regent in Scotland at the time.

Scottish History has often dwelled on the extent to which Robert I of Scotland unified the kingdom under his leadership and successfully defended its independence from English overlordship and conquest. What this view often overlooks, however, is that the wars also contained a large degree of civil conflict within Scotland in which an alternative dynasty was promoted in opposition to the Bruce seizure of the throne and his family's continued possession of the crown. The Second Scottish War of Independence (1332-1357) witnessed a recurrence of this conflict and arguably the successful prosecution of the Balliol claim - even if only for a short time - which resulted in the inauguration of King Edward (Balliol) of Scotland in 1332 in opposition to the succession of King David II (Bruce). This paper considers those who supported the Balliol claim, often elided in Scottish history, and the extent of Balliol support in Scotland during this period.

This article is a critical assessment of the evidence of heresy and heterodoxy in late medieval Scotland and demonstrates the development of inquisition in Scotland from the late fourteenth century to the Reformation.  The overarching argument presented here is that while there is slim and problematic evidence, the pattern in Scotland of a continuum of heightened concern about heresy from both church and civil authorities from the 1390s correlates to broader European patterns. In repositioning  this history within a framework of Continental religio-politics, this article argues that inquistion was fairly quickly established and examines the reasons for this development. It considers the dual roles of the church and crown in inquistorial processes and suggests that one of the known trials for Lollardy was staged with royal support, to demonstrate the authority and reach of the newly-raised archbishopric of Glasgow in opposition to the preeminent archbishopric of St Andrews.

David I, king of Scots (1124–53), has long wielded a posthumous reputation as one of Scotland’s most important lawmakers.  Yet there has been little scholarly attention paid to the ‘assizes’ circulating under his name; indeed, the identification of a coherent and stable text of David’s laws has long been thought a false hope.  This article argues instead that this view is mistaken: the original structure and content of the so-called ‘Assizes of David’ can be established.  However, that text contains very little legislative material attributable to David himself but instead was an exercise to create legal antiquity for Robert I (1306–29) at a time when that most insecure of kings was conducting a programme of written legitimisation of his kingship.  The ‘Assizes of David I’ were, more properly, an attempt to convey Robert’s own legislative aims through association with his long-dead but illustrious predecessor, David I.  Finally, understanding the correct form of the ‘Assizes of David’ can unlock the nature of some of the other ‘auld law’ compilations and, even, provide an entry into that most intractable of legal treatises, Regiam Majestatem.

Analysis of the interaction of Gilbert Lord Kennedy of Dunure in the fifteenth century between the Gaelic and the Scottish common law worlds, focused on his ultimately successful claim to the headship of the kindred (kenkynnol) of Kennedy and an action of his against Robert Lord Fleming, brought by brieve of mortancestor, to recover lands held of Fleming in his barony of Kirkintilloch.  Both claims were made by heritable right, and the background to them both is explored in detail and in political and social context.

The resumption of Anglo-Scottish conflict in 1332-3 brought with it a replication of some of the major issues of the First War of Independence, reigniting the Scottish civil conflict between Bruce and Balliol. This manifested itself in the invasion of Edward Balliol and his Disinherited allies, whose early success encouraged other disaffected Scots to rally to their support as they sought to gain possession of Scottish territories to which they retained claims. 1 The active entry of Edward III into the war in 1333 also brought about a return of large-scale English invasions of Scotland over a prolonged period, with the subsequent devastation that accompanied such forays. The involvement of Edward III and the participation of his armies in the Balliol attempts to regain the throne came at a cost, and 1 The Disinherited were a group of English and Anglo-Scottish nobles and others whose lands in Scotland had been forfeited as a result of their failure to support the Bruce cause during the reign of Robert I. Although raised during the Anglo-Scottish peace negotiations of 1327-8, the issue of outstanding Disinherited claims to Scottish lands was not resolved. The Disinherited party thereafter formed a close association with the young Edward III, and were prominent in the 1330 coup that saw him overthrow the ruling minority government and seize power. Sonja Cameron and Alasdair Ross, 'The Treaty of Edinburgh and the Disinherited (1328-1332)', History lxxxiv (1999), pp. 237-56; Caroline Shenton, 'Edward III and the Coup of 1330', in The Age of Edward III, ed. J.S. Bothwell (Woodbridge, 2001). Edward III demanded £2,000 worth of Scottish land as reimbursement for his efforts. 2 At Newcastle in February 1334, the English king received his reward. The sheriffdoms of Berwick, Roxburgh, Peebles, Selkirk, Dumfries and Edinburgh (the latter with its associated constabularies of Haddington and Linlithgow) became the possessions of Edward III, as southern Scotland was effectively annexed to England. 3 An English administrative apparatus was quickly established in the region, and individual sheriffs reported to the head of English administration for Scotland at Berwick. 4 For the period of the 1330s there exist, therefore, detailed records produced by the new English administration in these areas. These records include the accounts of those same English sheriffs as they sought to establish control over their new territories. For the period from 1335 until 1337 they contain lists of territories from which the sheriffs were expected to collect revenue due to the English Crown. The records themselves have existed in published form for quite some time within the appendices of volume three of Bain's Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland. 5 Despite the potential significance of these records, Bain's at-times inaccurate recording of documentary evidence has resulted in these sources being used relatively sparingly. Many historians have utilised them, but usually as a source of historical detail within a larger study of specific geographical areas or individuals and families. 6 No-one has, as yet, examined the 2 Foedera (RC edn), II, ii, 847-8; Ranald Nicholson, Edward III and the Scots. The Formative Years of a Military Career, 1327-1335 (Oxford, 1965), pp. 97-9. 3 Foedera (RC edn), II, ii, 888-90; Nicholson, Edward III and the Scots, pp. 158-62. 4 Rot. Scot., i, 271, 275, 276. 5 CDS, iii, appendices iii and vi. The original records are held in the TNA, E 101/331/21 and E 101/331/22. 6 See, for example, Richard D. Oram, 'Bruce, Balliol and the Lordship of Galloway: South-West Scotland and the Wars of Independence', TDGNHAS, 3rd ser., lxvii (1992), pp. 29-47; Bruce Webster, 'The English Occupation of Dumfriesshire in the Fourteenth Century', TDGNHAS, 3rd ser., xxxv (1956-7), pp. 64-80; idem, 'Scotland without a King', in Medieval Scotland. Crown, Lordship and

Studies of price patterns in medieval economies generally highlight three main factors: population levels, harvests, and money supply. These are all crucial; but what I want to do here is discuss a fourth factor, [slide 2] which I think is equally significant, namely changes in the values of the coins in circulation. I'm using England and Scotland as my main case studies, though a brief comparison with the Netherlands will also illustrate my arguments.