Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306A stunning overview of the medieval landscape of ScotlandThis is a history of the forging of the Scottish kingdom during the first three centuries of the second millennium. In AD 1000 the Scottish kings had embarked on the annexation of English-speaking Lothian and of Cumbric-speaking Clydesdale, Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire. The countrys enlargement continued under a line of remarkably able kings with the inclusion first of the highlands and then, after the defeat of the Norwegians in 1263, of the islands of the Inner and Outer Hebrides. How Scotlands landscape influenced its people and conditioned its outlook on the world is a theme running throughout the book.Geoffrey 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 thirteenth century for the country to survive humiliation by Edward I and to reunite under Robert Bruce. With Bruces coronation as Robert I in 1306 this richly detailed and readable account of Scotlands formative period comes to an end.Since first publication in 1981, this reissued edition for The Edinburgh Classic Editions series, as indicated in the preface by the series editor Jenny Wormald, can now rightly take its place amongst the classics of Scottish history.Key features:Long seen as a key text for students of medieval ScotlandWritten by a respected and renowned historianReadable, cinematic in scope, colourful and scholarly at the same time |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
Kings and Kingship | |
The Feudal Settlement | |
The Church Transformed | |
Education and Learning | |
Burghs and Burgesses | |
The Winning of the West | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abbey abbot Alexander Alexander III Angus Argyll Argyll and Bute Balliol barons Berwick upon Tweed brother Bruce burgesses burgh Caithness castle cathedral Celtic church clergy Comyn court crown Cumbria daughter death diocese Duncan Dunfermline earl earldom east East Lothian Edinburgh Edward English king estates feudal Fife Firth Gaelic Galloway Glasgow Haakon heir held Henry Henry II Highland homage III’s Inverness Ireland Irish isles John King David king of England king of Scots king’s kingdom kingship Kintyre knights land Loch lord lordship Lothian magnates Malcolm Malcolm III Margaret marriage married Maud medieval merks monks Moray normal northern Northumberland Northumbria Norwegian Orkney parish period Perth and Kinross ploughgate ref1 ref2 ref3 ref4 ref5 ref6 ref7 reign Robert Roxburgh Saint Scotland Scottish Borders shire Somerled St Andrews Stirling surviving tenants thane thirteenth century throne town treaty treaty of Birgham twelfth century vassal Walter William