Back to Scotland with the story of the wife of King James I. Her husband was murdered before her eyes
Medieval murder uncovered in Scotland
February 25, 2014 By
Archaeologists working in southeastern Scotland have made a grisly discovery – the remains of a young man from the 12th or 13th century, who was murdered with multiple stab wounds in his back.
The impact of the crusading movement in Scotland, 1095-c.1560
February 15, 2014 By
The involvement of Scots in the Crusades has never been studied in detail either by historians of Scotland or of the Crusades, but it is hoped that the present thesis will show such a detailed study to be worthwhile.
Warriors and warfare: ideal and reality in early insular texts
February 6, 2014 By
This thesis investigates several key aspects of warfare and its participants in the Viking Age insular world via a comparison of the image which warriors occupy in heroic literature to their concomitant depiction in sources which are primarily nonliterary in character, such as histories, annalistic records, and law codes.
Comforting sentences from the warming room at Inchcolm abbey
February 3, 2014 By
Inchcolm abbey has the best-preserved medieval conventual buildings
in Scotland.
Depictions of the Scots in the Arthurian Legend
January 22, 2014 By
Depictions of the Scots in the Arthurian Legend Diana Jefferies Journal of the Sydney Society for Scottish History: Vol 14 (2013) Abstract This paper will explore how motifs of Scotland and Scottishness are portrayed in medieval versions of the Arthurian Legend. I will discuss how the context of what is alleged to be the first […]
Arms and the Man: how the Scots who bled with Wallace fought in Braveheart and in History
January 21, 2014 By
What Braveheart showed was a parody of an archery barrage which, in fact, would be fairly continuous until most of the arrows available, about forty to each bowman, had been shot. Nor would there be longish pauses between single flights of arrows, in perhaps a sporting spirit in order to give the Scots time to recover their spirits and dress their ranks in time for the next hail of missiles, or, in the film, to bare their arses in vulgar mockery of their enemies.
Orkneyinga saga : A Work in Progress?
January 19, 2014 By
The reconstituted text conventionally known as Orkneyinga saga has many points of interest for Old Icelandic literary history, in addition to any intrinsic literary qualities, and its interest as a source for the history and culture of Scandinavian Scotland.
Ragnhild Simunsdatter and women’s social and economic position in Norse society
January 13, 2014 By
In this paper I will focus on Norse women’s social and economic position in the high and late Middle Ages, with Ragnhild Simonsdatter and the Papa Stour document of 1299 as a point of departure.
Reconsidering Agatha, Wife of Eadward the Exile
January 11, 2014 By
The antecedents of Agatha, wife of Eadward the Exile and ancestress of Scottish and English monarchs since the twelfth century and their countless descendants in Europe and America, have been the subject of much dispute…
Fairy Lore of the Isle of Skye
January 5, 2014 By
Due to this sea access, Skye became a Viking hot spot, like so many of the other Scottish Isles.
The Origins of the Wars of Independence in Scotland, 1290-1296
December 30, 2013 By
Very late on the 19th March 1286, in the teeth of a howling gale on a dark and stormy night, Scotland’s history was changed forever with the death of King Alexander III.
Conference: Death in Scotland, from the medieval to the modern: beliefs, attitudes and practices
December 29, 2013 By
The conference is organised in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and takes place 31 Jan. 2014 – 2nd Feb 2014. Our aim is to take a look at Scottish history from a different angle by concentrating on beliefs, attitudes and practices of death.
Would the Real William Wallace Please Stand Up
December 28, 2013 By
The object of this paper is to give a brief outline of the life of William Wallace, and to make references in passing to the film, Braveheart, loosely based on the life of William Wallace, starring the Australian actor Mel Gibson.
A Postmodem Look at a Medieval Poet: The Case of William Dunbar
December 26, 2013 By
Recently, Umberto Eco, that well-known postmodemist critic/writer, has lamented that “‘postmodem’ is a term bon atout jaire. I have the impres- sion that it is applied today to anything the user happens to like.
The Unicorn, St Andrew and the Thistle: Was there an Order of Chivalry in Late Medieval Scotland?
December 26, 2013 By
A common expression of kingship throughout Europe in the fifteenth century was the founding of orders of chivalry. Whether the Scottish crown also attempted to appropriate the ideologies of chivalry in this way is important to establish.
Murder Will Out: Kingship, Kinship and Killing in Medieval Scotland
December 17, 2013 By
In fifteenth-century France and England, however, murder became more general, encompassing premeditated killing just as nowadays. Scottish fifteenth-century legislation shows a similar blurring, but in the opposite direction…
King James V of Scotland
December 12, 2013 By
James’ rule was to be dominated in foreign policy by shifting alliances between Scotland and France, England, the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy. At home, his kingdom was fractured.
Scottish Monastic Life
December 9, 2013 By
The first thing one has to remember is that most of these visible symbols are the symbols of the very last period of monasticism in Scotland. Monasteries in Scotland were peculiarly likely to suffer the ravages of siege and fire. If they lay on the borders or along the main routes from England into Scotland, they fell victim to the periodic invasion of the English.
St. Ninian of Whithorn
December 9, 2013 By
My interest here is in finding usable information regarding the centuries before Bede and in the way in which new data, especially the outstanding recent archaeological discoveries at Whithom in Wigtownshire (which is certainly the site of Candida Casal. might support and add to his picture of St. Ninian and the importance of his church at Candida Casa.
The Enigma of the Picts
December 8, 2013 By
Yet superficially the subject does not seem so problematical. The task in hand is that of identifying the general political, linguistic and cultural personality of the people, or peoples, who lived to the north of the Forth- Clyde line from the first century B.C. (around when the first historical details were collected) to the ninth century A.D. (when the Pictish kingdom disappeared).
Archaeological dig in Scotland reveals medieval building
November 25, 2013 By
Dig Dunfermline was a community project that included an archaeological team and 83 volunteers who spent several weeks examining an area where a museum and art gallery will be built next spring.
Take a (Virtual) Tour of St.Andrew’s Cathedral in the year 1318
November 5, 2013 By
An Open Virtual Worlds project is allowing people in 2013 to go back nearly seven hundred years to explore one of Scotland’s most important medieval cathedrals.
What has been found now under a car park? A Viking Þing
October 24, 2013 By
Archaeological research has backed up findings that a Viking assembly ground, known as a Þing, is located under a car park in northern Scotland.
Castle for Sale in Scotland: Cavers Castle
October 16, 2013 By
Although now in ruins, this 15th century tower house located in the Scottish borderlands was once an impressive home.
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