Scotland Archive
-
More skeletons discovered at medieval site in Edinburgh
Posted on April 25, 2013 | No CommentsArchaeologists working on the building site of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation have discovered what appears to be a family tomb, perhaps related to a medieval knight who was discovered in the same location last month. -
Medieval Astrology and The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis
Posted on April 20, 2013 | No CommentsIt is useful to begin by comparing the way the sages are initially described to the Emperor in the Latin, Middle English, and Middle Scots texts. Although the Middle Scots text is not connected to the English ones, they serve as a useful backdrop to illustrate the singular nature of the Scottish version of the story. -
The Highland Tiger: Scotland’s critically Endangered Wildcat
Posted on April 17, 2013 | No CommentsThe Highland Tiger has roots that run deep in Scottish consciousness. The area now called Caithness means 'Land of the Cats' or 'Land of the Cat People.' -
Saint Margaret, Queen of Scotland
Posted on March 26, 2013 | No CommentsBy all accounts, Margaret was a beautiful, blond Saxon princess in her twenties who was educated and had learned the art of being a royal wife from Edward’s Queen Edith. -
Scotland’s St Oran’s Cross to be restored
Posted on March 26, 2013 | No CommentsOne of the most important symbols of medieval Scotland, St Oran’s Cross, will be re-erected for the first time in centuries, as part of the celebrations of the 1450th anniversary of the established of a monastery on Iona in Scotland. -
The Hundred Years Wars: Not One but Many
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsIn fact, the Hundred Years War was not fought only during the period 1337-1453, the most commonly given dates, nor was it fought only by England and France. -
Grave of medieval knight and monastery site found in Edinburgh
Posted on March 13, 2013 | No CommentsThe discovery was made when archaeologists uncovered the corner of an elaborately decorated sandstone slab with the telltale markings of a member of the nobility - the carvings of the Calvary Cross and an ornate sword, which tells us this belonged to a high status individual such as a knight or other nobleman. -
Moors at the Court of James IV, King of Scots
Posted on March 7, 2013 | No CommentsWere sub-Saharan Africans part of the court of a medieval Scottish king? -
Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland
Posted on March 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe marriage of Margaret of Denmark and King James III of Scotland may not have been very happy. But the union had a significant impact on the territorial gains of Scotland. -
Castle for Sale in Scotland
Posted on March 5, 2013 | No CommentsThis 14th-century Scottish keep is surrounded by an 18th-century estate with homes and gardens. Located the on the Isle of Bute, the current owners are renting out five of its cottages for tourists. -
King James III of Scotland
Posted on March 2, 2013 | No CommentsA man of artistic temperament with an elevated sense of self importance, he does not appear to have had any idea how to handle the Scottish nobility. -
Scotland’s Pope: Benedict XIII
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsScotland’s Pope: Benedict XIII J. H. Baxter (Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University ofSt. Andrews) Scot’s Magazine (1929) Abstract In the latter half of the month of August,... -
Mary of Guelders, Queen of Scotland
Posted on February 20, 2013 | No CommentsMary was born c. 1434, the daughter of Arnold, Duke of Guelders and Catherine of Cleves, a great aunt of Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII of England. -
A History of Everyday Life in Medieval Scotland, 1000 to 1600
Posted on February 18, 2013 | No CommentsThis book examines the ordinary, routine, daily behaviour, experiences and beliefs of people in Scotland from the earliest times to 1600. -
King James II of Scotland: A Reign of Murder and Mayhem
Posted on February 13, 2013 | No CommentsHistory repeats itself. This aphorism is especially true for the Scottish monarchy. There was a period during Scottish history where Kings would die, leaving a child as heir to be ruled by a regency council. This happened over and over and it happened to King James II. -
Sir John Fortescue and the French Polemical Treatises of the Hundred Years War
Posted on February 10, 2013 | No CommentsInevitably Fortescue had to adopt new arguments for the defence of Henry VI. To this end he asserted that the Lancastrians now had a just title through divine and ecclesiastical approbation, popular consent and prescription, but the core of his case was a direct response to the Yorkist claim that they had a superior hereditary title to the throne. -
Coastal Command: Surveying Scotland’s maritime superhighway
Posted on February 3, 2013 | No CommentsFrom ground level, the western Scottish seaboard can be a place of glorious isolation. Dave Cowley and Colin Martin climb to 2,000 feet to reveal once bustling sea-lanes and a Viking harbour. -
How useful is Blind Hary’s ‘The Wallace’ as a source for the study of chivalry in late medieval Scotland?
Posted on January 26, 2013 | No CommentsWhat scholars consider to have constituted a chivalric attitude needs to be considered at this point. To live the chivalrous life was to seek to imitate the great deeds of others, which could be learned from the extensive literature that dealt with the idea of knighthood. In chivalric literature, the knight was expected to have a strong sense of personal honour and had to be willing to defend it against affronts -
The man who lost at Stirling Bridge
Posted on January 19, 2013 | No CommentsThe Battle of Stirling Bridge, fought on September 11, 1297, is remembered as one Scotland's greatest military victories and the high point in the career of William Wallace. A new article now explores the other side of that battle, seeking to understand how the English lost that day. -
The Scottish wars of Edward III, 1327-1338
Posted on January 13, 2013 | No CommentsThis thesis deals with the events of the Anglo-Scottish wars of the 1330s and the English military machine that allowed Edward III to win numerous successes against the Scots yet was unable to secure a permanent conquest of any portion of Scotland save Berwick-upon Tweed. -
Matrimonial politics and core-periphery interactions in twelfth- and early thirteenth-century Scotland
Posted on December 31, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval kingdom of Scotland was a rich amalgam of diverse ethnic elements which reflected the turbulent history of the first millennium of its development. -
Late Medieval Scottish Swords: Strength and Balance from the North
Posted on December 22, 2012 | No CommentsLike the warriors who wielded them, late medieval Scottish swords were distinctive and deadly. The cutting power of these weapons was awesome, and some were reckoned better even than the blades of Gaelic legend. -
Sir Thomas Gray’s Scalacronica: a medieval chronicle and its historical and literary context
Posted on December 20, 2012 | No CommentsSir Thomas Gray's Scalacronica is almost unique amongst medieval English chronicles in having been written by a knight, and it is therefore surprising that so little work has been done on it; this thesis attempts to remedy that omission. -
Holy Women in the British Isles: A Survey
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsRepresentations of holy women appear in a wide variety of textual, dramatic, and iconographic forms across medieval Europe during the central and late Middle Ages (c.1100-1530). -
Up Helly Aa: an ancient Viking festival?
Posted on December 11, 2012 | No CommentsEach year on the last Tuesday of January the town of Lerwick is awash with Vikings. The day culminates with the burning of an ornate longship, complete with dragon head and tail, thus creating a striking image of a Norse sea - king’s funeral pyre.
