Conclusions

Abstract

For most of the medieval period there existed in Scotland a structure of royal legal remedies (brieves) for the recovery of land. The ultimate origin of the system derived from the concepts of the king’s peace and protection. Royal authority was made effective through courts and through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there was a growing systematisation and regularisation of royal justice. This was not at the expense of lords’ courts but these were clearly subordinate to the king’s. In many respects, however, they were complementary rather than conflicting institutions. At least part of the aim of the system was to ensure that lords complied with established norms in dealing with those who held land of them. The development also owed something to the pressure applied by ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Scottish royal justice (or its common law) was not centralised until the sixteenth century and was built upon local community links. But legal concepts which continue to inform Scots law were clearly first developed in the medieval period. English law was significant for the early development but this legal transplant was matched later by others from the canon law. Legal development was not necessarily the product of social or political change but was nonetheless critical to medieval society.