Studies of the uses of literacy for the exercise of political and economic power, in Latin Christendom and the wider world. This pioneering collection of studies is concerned with the way in which increasing literacy interacted with the desire of thirteenth-century rulers to keep fuller records of their government's activities, and the manner in whichthis literacy could be used to safeguard or increase authority. In Europe the keeping of archives became an increasingly normal part of everyday administrative routines, and much has survived, owing to the prolonged preference forparchment rather than paper; in the Eastern civilisations material is more scarce. Papers discuss pragmatic literacy and record keeping in both West and East, through the medium of both literary and official texts. Thelate Professor RICHARD BRITNELL taught in the Department of History at the University of Durham. Contributors: RICHARD BRITNELL, THOMAS BEHRMANN, MANUEL RIU, OLIVER GUYOTJEANNIN, GERARD SIVERY, MANFRED GROTEN, MICHAELNORTH, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, PAUL HARVEY, GEOFFREY MARTIN, GEOFFREY BARROW, ROBERT SWANSON, NICHOLAS OIKONOMIDES, ELIZABETH ZACHARIADOU, I.H. SIDDIQUI, TIMOTHY BROOK, YOSHIYASU KAWANE

This book explores the formative period when Scotland acquired the characteristics that enabled it to enter fully into the comity of medieval Christendom. These included a monarchy of a recognisably continental type, a feudal organisation of aristocratic landholding and military service, national boundaries, and a body of settled law and custom. By the end of the thirteenth century Scotland had a church based on territorial dioceses and parishes, centres of learning including monastic houses representing the main orders of western Europe, and thriving urban communities whose economic power counterbalanced the aristocracy's. How and to what effect these characteristics were acquired are the main subjects of the book. After the introduction eighteen chapters are divided into three parts devoted to government, church and society. The volume comprises some of the most important as well as the most consistently readable work ever published on medieval Scotland. First published in 1973, it is now reissued in an updated edition. Three additional chapters are included: on the Scots and the north of England in the time of King Stephen, on the Anglo-Scottish border in the middle ages, and on King David I and the church of Glasgow. The book also appears in paperback for the first time.

This is a stunning overview of the medieval landscape of Scotland. This is a history of the forging of the Scottish kingdom during the first three centuries of the second millennium. G. W. S. Barrow describes the evolution of Scottish kingship and government during the period, in the process examining the character of Scottish feudalism and the manner of its imposition. He discusses the social, economic and political changes of the period, with separate chapters on the expansion of towns and trade, the role of the church, and advances in education and learning. A sense of national identity had, he argues, become sufficiently strong by the end of the 13th century for the country to survive humiliation by Edward I and to reunite under Robert Bruce. With Bruce's coronation as Robert I in 1306 this richly detailed and readable account of Scotland's formative period comes to an end. Since its first edition in 1981, this revised edition in The New History of Scotland series, as indicated in the preface by the series editor Jenny Wormald, can now rightly take its place amongst the classics of Scottish history. It was long seen as a key text for students of medieval Scotland. It is written by a respected and renowned historian. It is readable, cinematic and yet scholarly in its scope.

The story of how Robert Bruce outwitted Edward I, the shrewd and ruthless King of England, defeated his son Edward II, and in doing so regained Scotland's independence. Professor Barrow describes the dazzling and tragic career of William Wallace, the English military occupation of Scotland that was its consequence, and the emergence of Robert Bruce as the centre of Scottish resistance. The author pieces together from the surviving evidence a vivid and almost day-by-day account of Bruce's daring tactics, his crowning at Scone in March 1306, his defeat by the English three months later, and his life as a fugitive.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1965.