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John Bannerman (1932-2008) saw the history of Scotland from a
Gaelic perspective, and his outstanding scholarship made
thatperspective impossible to ignore. As a historian, his natural
home was the era between the Romans and the twelfth century when
the Scottish kingdom first began to take shape, but he also wrote
extensively on the MacDonald Lordship of the Isles in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while his work on the Beatons,
the notable Gaelic medical kindred, reached into the early
eighteenth century. Across this long millennium, Bannerman ranged
and wrote with authority and insight on what he termed the
'kin-based society', with special emphasis upon its church and
culture, and its relationship with Ireland. This collection opens
with Bannerman's ground-breaking and hugely influential edition and
discussion of Senchus fer nAlban ('The History of the Men of
Scotland'), which featured in his Studies in the History of
Dalriada (1974), now long out of print. To this have been added all
of his published essays, plus an essay-length study of the Lordship
of the Isles which first featured as an appendix in Late Medieval
Monumental Sculpture in the West Highlands (1977). The book will be
of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the Gaelic
dimension to Scotland's past and present.
Fresh approaches to one of the most important poems from medieval
Scotland. John Barbour's Bruce, an account of the deeds of Robert I
of Scotland (1306-29) and his companions during the so-called wars
of independence between England and Scotland, is an important and
complicated text. Composed c.1375 during the reign of Robert's
grandson, Robert II, the first Stewart king of Scotland (1371-90),
the poem represents the earliest surviving complete literary work
of any length produced in "Inglis" in late medieval Scotland, andis
usually regarded as the starting point for any worthwhile
discussion of the language and literature of Early Scots. It has
also been used as an essential "historical" source for the career
and character of that iconic monarch Robert I. But its narrative
defies easy categorisation, and has been variously interpreted as a
romance, a verse history, an epic or a chivalric biography. This
collection re-assesses the form and purpose of Barbour's great
poem. It considers the poem from a variety of perspectives,
re-examining the literary, historical, cultural and intellectual
contexts in which it was produced, and offering important new
insights. Steve Boardman is a Reader in History at the University
of Edinburgh. Susan Foran, currently an independent scholar,
researches chivalry, war and the idea of nation in late medieval
historical writing. Contributors: Steve Boardman, Dauvit Broun,
Michael Brown, Susan Foran, Chris Given-Wilson, Theo van
Heijnsbergen, Rhiannon Purdie, Bioern Tjallen, Diana B. Tyson,
Emily Wingfield.
An examination of the Scottish kingdom's historic links with
Ireland, and the beginnings of a Scottish national identity from c.
1290. The close ties between Gaels of Ireland and Scotland are well
known, but in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the elite in the
core areas of the kingdom of the Scots apparently turned their
backs on Gaelic culture. This book takes a new look at the issue,
investigating the extent to which Scottish men of letters of the
period identified the Scottish kingdom and its inhabitants with
Ireland, and exploring the function of the kingdom's Irish
identity. DrBroun argues that a perceived historical link with
Ireland was a fundamental feature of the kingdom's identity
throughout the period, and discusses the beginnings of a Scottish
national identity in the 1290s and early 1300s. His evidence is
based on a thorough examination of accounts of Scottish origins,
the royal genealogy, and regnal lists, which articulated
perceptions of the kingdom's identity; included are new editions of
the origin-legend material inBook I of Fordun's Chronica Gentis
Scottorum; hitherto unknown witnesses of Scottish king-lists; and
texts of the royal genealogy. Dr DAUVIT BROUNis lecturer in
Scottish history at the University of Glasgow.
When did Scots first think of Scotland as an independent kingdom?
What did they think was Scotland's place in Britain before Wallace
and Bruce? The answers put forward in this book provide a fresh
perspective on Scotland's relationship with Britain. Broun
challenges the idea that the Scots were an ancient nation whose
British identity only emerged later on, in the early modern era,
and provides new evidence that the idea of Scotland as an
independent kingdom in actual fact pre-dated Wallace and Bruce.
This leads him to radically reassess several fundamental issues:
the fate of Pictish identity and the origins of Alba; the status of
Scottish kingship vis-a-vis England; the papacy's recognition of
the independence of the Scottish Church; and the idea of Scottish
freedom. He also sheds new light on the authorship of John of
Fordun's 'Chronicle' - the first full-scale history of the Scots -
and explains, in historical terms, the widespread English inability
to distinguish between England and Britain. Broun places his
arguments in the wider context of the concepts of ultimate secular
power in Britain and Ireland and the construction of national
histories which were emerging in the middle ages. In conclusion, he
casts a fresh aspect on how a Scottish national identity emerged
and how the medieval era and, more specifically the Scottish
nation, contributed to what is often regarded as an exclusively
modern phenomenon.
First full-length survey of the fluid relationship between these
two areas at a time of rapid change. This book provides the first
comprehensive analysis of the development of northern England and
southern Scotland in the formative era of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. How did "middle Britain" come to be divided
between twoseparate unitary kingdoms called "England" and
"Scotland"? How, and how differently, was government exercised and
experienced? How did people identify themselves by their languages
and naming practices? What major themes can be detected in the
development of ecclesiastical structures and religious culture?
What can be learned about the rural and the emerging urban
environments in terms of lordly exploitation and control,
settlement patterns and how the landscape itself evolved? These are
among the key questions addressed by the contributors, who bring to
bear multi-faceted approaches to medieval "middle Britain". Above
all, by pursuing similarities and differences from a comparative
"transnational" perspective it becomes clearer how the "old"
interacted with the "new", what was exceptional and what was not,
and how far the histories of northern England and southern Scotland
point to common or not so commonfoundations and trajectories. KEITH
STRINGER is Professor Emeritus of Medieval British History at
Lancaster University; ANGUS WINCHESTER is Professor Emeritus of
Local and Landscape History at Lancaster University. Contributors:
Richard Britnell, Dauvit Broun, Janet Burton, David Ditchburn,
Philip Dixon, Piers Dixon, Fiona Edmonds, Richard Oram, Keith
Stringer, Chris Tabraham, Simon Taylor, Angus J.L. Winchester.
When did Scots first think of Scotland as an independent kingdom?
What did they think was Scotland's place in Britain before the age
of Wallace and Bruce? The answers argued in this book offer a fresh
perspective on the question of Scotland's relationship with
Britain. It challenges the standard concept of the Scots as an
ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early
modern era, but also provides new evidence that the idea of
Scotland as an independent kingdom was older than the age of
Wallace and Bruce. This leads to radical reassessments of a range
of fundamental issues: the fate of Pictish identity and the origins
of Alba, the status of Scottish kingship vis-a-vis England, the
papacy's recognition of the independence of the Scottish Church,
and the idea of Scottish freedom. It also sheds new light on the
authorship of John of Fordun's chronicle, the first full-scale
history of the Scots, and offers an historical explanation of the
widespread English inability to distinguish between England and
Britain. All this is placed in the wider context of ideas of
ultimate secular power in Britain and Ireland and the construction
of national histories in this period. The book concludes with a
fresh perspective on the origin of national identity, and the
medieval and specifically Scottish contribution to understanding
what is often regarded as an exclusively modern phenomenon.
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