Scotland Archive
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Edward I and the Ritualization of English Royal Round Table Festivals
Posted on May 21, 2012 | No CommentsIn the Annales Angliae et Scotiae, a chronicle written around the year 1312 by a monk from the abbey of St Albans, there is a description of the wedding ceremonies between King Edward I and Margaret of France, that took place on 10 September 1299. -
The Pictish Tattoo: Origins of a Myth
Posted on May 20, 2012 | No CommentsBy tracing the extant literary references based on Caesar’s remark it is possible to see just how the innocent observation came to apply to a totally different people—how the myth was born. -
Men for all seasons? The Strathbogie earls of Atholl and the Wars of Independence, c.1290-c.1335
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsWhen Edward Balliol died without direct heirs in 1364, the dynastic rivalry between the Bruce and Balliol families that existed since 1290 came to an end. -
Stress Along the Medieval Anglo-Scottish Border? Skeletal Indicators of Conflict-Zone Health
Posted on April 15, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval British populations living along the Anglo-Scottish border from the 10th through the 16th century were hypothesised to have significantly higher mortality and morbidity rates than contemporary populations living in other regions of Britain that were not exposed to chronic border warfare. -
The higher nobility in Scotland and their estates, c.1371-1424
Posted on April 11, 2012 | No CommentsThe material available for the study of the Scottish nobility in this period consists almost entirely of charters, especially those issued by the crown. -
Situational Poetics in Robert Henryson’s Testament of Cresseid
Posted on April 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis is the first full-length study of Henryson to appear in nearly a generation. -
Prehistoric Annals and Early Medieval Monasticism: Daniel Wilson, James Young Simpson and their Cave Sites
Posted on April 6, 2012 | No CommentsCaves marked with early Christian motifs on Scotland’s western and eastern coasts have attracted scholarly attention for over a hundred years, where they have been associated with early medieval monastic communities. -
An Iona of the East: The Early-medieval Monastery at Portmahomack, Tarbat Ness
Posted on April 3, 2012 | No CommentsThe new excavations have shown that a Christian mission was established there by the later 6th century, had grown to international status by 800, and shortly afterwards was partly destroyed and largely erased from the communal memory. This interim report is designed to present the discoveries made so far, assess their significance and highlight some of the problems that remain to be solved. -
Hidden Manna and the Holy Grail: The Psychedelic Sacrament in Arthurian Romance The Mystery of Manna: The Psychedelic Sacrament of the Bible Park Street Press (2000)
Posted on April 3, 2012 | No CommentsScholars are generally agreed that Arthurian wonder tales like “Cullhwch and Olwen” must have been widely distributed in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany in advance of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. Belief in a living Arthur was then in the air. -
Philosopher-king: Nechtan mac Der Ilei
Posted on March 25, 2012 | No CommentsLike so much of the history of the early church in Scotland, it is bound up with modern political and religious factionalism. Was Naiton an English imperialist flunky? A Romanist stooge, allowing the authority of the Pope and St Peter into his realm? -
The Kingship of Robert I (1306-29)
Posted on March 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe year 1318 was dramatically representative of the fortunes of the kingship of Robert Bruce. It was also typical of his flint-edged and adaptable response to such fates and makes it plain that Robert's strongest model for his own style of rule and the recasting of the office of King of Scots was surely that of his early antagonist, the formidable Edward I of England. -
The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries
Posted on March 11, 2012 | No CommentsAccording to DeVries, historians (myself specifically included) who argue for the lethal efficacy of the longbow are committing the sin of technological determinism, and indeed ‘have done military history and the history of technology a disservice’... -
Where and how was Gaelic written in late medieval and early modern Scotland? Orthographic practices and cultural identities
Posted on March 11, 2012 | No CommentsClassical ‘Common’ Gaelic, also known as Early Modern Irish or Classical Irish (the names favoured in Ireland), are the terms used to describe written Gaelic between c.1200 and c.1650 in Ireland, and also in Scotland. -
‘With a Vertu and Leawté’: Masculine Relationships in Medieval Scotland
Posted on February 22, 2012 | No CommentsWhen the subject of men in medieval Scotland is mentioned, it often conjures up images of muscular, kilted, claymore-wielding warriors intent on national independence, an image informed more by Mel Gibson’s 1995 Braveheart than by historical fact. -
Christian Days and Knights: The Religious Devotions and Court of David II of Scotland, 1329-71
Posted on February 12, 2012 | No CommentsYet relative to his resources, David’s favour to the Scottish church and to Christian works in general was arguably as extensive as that of his aforementioned royal peers and predecessors, men who besides had a profound influence upon David’s nonetheless very individual court style.
