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Alexander II
By equal measure state-builder and political unifier and ruthless opportunist and bloody-handed aggressor, Alexander II has been praised or vilified by past historians but has rarely been viewed in the round. This book explores the king's successes and failures, offering a fresh assessment of his contribution to the making of Scotland as a nation. It lifts the focus from an introspective national history to look at the man and his kingdom in wider British and European history, examining his international relationships and offering the first detailed analysis of the efforts to work out a lasting diplomatic solution to Anglo-Scottish conflict over his inherited claims to the northern counties ...
Scotland's Kings and Queens
Part of a series that offers a survey of the major aspects of Scotland's history and culture, this volume looks at the monarchs who ruled Scotland from the earliest kings of Picts and Scots to James IV and the time of the union with England.
Domination and Lordship
This volume centres upon the era conventionally labelled the 'Making of the kingdom', or the 'Anglo-Norman' era in Scottish history. It seeks a balance between traditional historiographical concentration on the 'feudalisation' of Scottish society as part of the wholesale importation of alien cultural traditions by a 'modernising' monarchy and more recent emphasis on the continuing vitality and centrality of Gaelic culture and traditions within the twelfth- and early thirteenth-century kingdom. Part I explores the transition from the Gaelic kingship of Alba into the hybridised medieval state and traces Scotland's role as both dominated and dominator. It examines the redefinition of relationsh...
The Lordship of Galloway
In viewing Galloway from the wider context of the northern British mainland, Irish Sea and wider Hebridean zone, it has been possible to explore the dynamics of state-building, dynastic interactions, and the close inter-relationships of the territories connected by the western seaways, which most traditional 'national' histories obscure. From this wider perspective, the development of the lordship of Galloway can be considered in the context of the spreading power and regional rivalries of English, Irish and Scottish kings, and a reassessment of the emergence of the unitary lordship controlled by Fergus of Galloway and his family. Traditional interpretations of the relationship of Fergus and his successors with the kings of England and Scotland are challenged and new light is thrown on the beginnings of the processes of progressive domination of Galloway by, and integration into, the kingdom of the Scots. The end of the autonomous lordship in the 1230s is projected against the backdrop of the aggressive state-building activities of King Alexander II and the transformation of its rulers from independently minded princes and warlords into Anglo-Scottish barons.
Moray & Badenoch
Moray and Badenoch is an area of geographical diversity and contrasting landscape, set in the heart of the Scottish Highlands. The region has been of great historical importance for centuries, controlling access to and from the far north of Scotland. As a result, the area has a wealth of archaeological remains and sites of historic interest: huge burial cairns near Aviemore date back to the Neolithic period, and signal the importance of the area as early as 3500 BC; Sueno's Stone, the 9th-century monolith, stands near Forres and bears scenes of Pictish battles and the bloody aftermath of war, the only one of its kind in Europe; Duffus Castle and Elgin Cathedral, both monuments to the growing wealth and power of the area in the Middle Ages; and Ruthven Barracks near Kingussie, captured and blown up the Jacobites on their march to Culloden.
The Kings and Queens of Scotland: Classic Histories Series
The history of the Scottish monarchy is a long tale of triumph over adversity, characterised by the personal achievements of remarkable rulers who transformed their fragile kingdom into the master of northern Britain. The Kings and Queens of Scotland charts that process, from the earliest Scots and Pictish kings of around ad 400 through to the union of parliaments in 1707, tracing it through the lives of the men and women whose ambitions drove it forward on the often rocky path from its semi-mythical foundations to its integration into the Stewart kingdom of Great Britain. It is a route waymarked with such towering personalities as Macbeth, Robert the Bruce and Mary Queen of Scots, but directed also by a host of less well-known figures such as David I, who extended his kingdom almost to the gates of York, and James IV, builder of the finest navy in northern Europe. Their will and ambition, successes and failures not only shaped modern Scotland, but have left their mark throughout the British Isles and the wider world.
Domination and Lordship
Examines the processes by which the Gaelic kingdom of Alba established its mastery over the lesser kingdoms of northern mainland Britain and transformed itself into a state recognisable as 'Scotland'
Viking Empires
Viking Empires, first published in 2005, is a definitive global history of the Viking World.
The Lordship of the Isles
In The Lordship of the Isles, twelve specialists offer new insights on the rise and fall of the MacDonalds of Islay and the greatest Gaelic lordship of later medieval Scotland. Portrayed most often as either the independently-minded last great patrons of Scottish Gaelic culture or as dangerous rivals to the Stewart kings for mastery of Scotland, this collection navigates through such opposed perspectives to re-examine the politics, culture, society and connections of Highland and Hebridean Scotland from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. It delivers a compelling account of a land and people caught literally and figuratively between two worlds, those of the Atlantic and mainland Scotland, and of Gaelic and Anglophone culture. Contributors are David Caldwell, Sonja Cameron, Alastair Campbell, Alison Cathcart, Colin Martin, Tom McNeill, Lachlan Nicholson, Richard Oram, Michael Penman, Alasdair Ross, Geoffrey Stell and Sarah Thomas.
David I
David I was never expected to become king, but on succeeding to the Scottish throne in 1124 he quickly demonstrated that he had the skills, ruthlessness and ambition to become one of the kingdom's greatest rulers. Drawing on the experiences and connections of his youth spent at the court of his brother-in-law, Henry I of England, and moulded by the dominant personality and intense piety of his mother, St Margaret, he set out to transform his inheritance and create a powerful and dynamic kingship. After neutralising all challengers to his position and building a new powerbase that drew on support from both Scotland's native nobles and the English and French knights whom he settled in his real...
