Old Alliances Research Articles

Scottish History in the Eyes of Sixteenth-Century France

Scotland's mythical and medieval history has long been acknowledged as of critical importance in its sixteenth-century present. This article tracks these discourses across the channel, showing for the first time the limited circulation of Scottish histories in France and the dominance of English versions of the past in French texts, ranging from short, printed books to royal presentation manuscripts. This Anglocentric view not only helps to explain the discordant French views of the Scots (as loyal yet uncivil, and above all warlike) but also contributes to the ongoing reassessment that the auld alliance was not permanently binding but, rather, intermittently activated when political or economic interests required.

Par-delà le sang et la guerre : les enjeux de la conceptualisation diplomatique de l’Alliance franco-écossaise au Moyen Âge

The history of the relationship between France and Scotland is deeply rooted in the unstable context of late medieval Europe. First drafted in the late 13th century, the yet-to-be Auld Alliance” was to stand for several centuries. Its heritage, overshadowed either by sentimentalism or harsh criticism, is still a matter for debate. This study aims at exploring this narrative and at pushing beyond the usual and restrictive boundaries of traditional warfare. By looking at the diplomatic sources that initially defined and shaped the Alliance, it appears that the Franco-Scottish league was serving more than one purpose, that its military aspects were inherently limited, and that its main ambition was probably not to crush the English might on conventional battlefields. The Alliance was built and promoted in the name of peace, as a public and international display of mutual love between Christian princes, involving their peoples and realms in the process. The Alliance proved to be a powerful tool of legitimacy for the kings of France and Scotland, as well as a political and highly symbolic apparatus aimed at mutually reinforcing the rightful stance of the allies against the cruel and ungodly claims of the English kings.

Renewing the Auld Alliance: Marie Stuart’s poetics and the Catholic League’s politics☆

AbstractFew historical sovereigns’ political fate and posthumous image have been as influenced by creative literature as those of Marie, Queen of Scots, yet comparatively little attention has been paid to how she depicted herself in her own poetry. Most research devoted to her verse over the past two decades has been undertaken by scholars of English literature, despite the fact that Marie Stuart was neither English, nor did she write poetry in that language. Acknowledging that Marie considered France her homeland and French her mother tongue, this article examines the poems contained in Oxford MS. Add C.92, fol.22 as works of Francophone literature and situates them within a transnational historical context that has also been understudied: the intersection of the English Catholic exile cause in Paris with the politics and propaganda of France’s Catholic League, led by Marie’s cousin, Henri, Duke of Guise. It seeks to clarify not only the language and meaning of the poems themselves, but also to highlight how they draw from and contribute to a larger pool of French poetic and political discourse during the French Wars of Religion.

The Lion, the Lily, and the Leopard: The Crown and Nobility of Scotland, France, and England and the Struggle for Power (1100–1204) by Melissa Pollock

Reviewed by: The Lion, the Lily, and the Leopard: The Crown and Nobility of Scotland, France, and England and the Struggle for Power (1100–1204) by Melissa Pollock Lindsay Diggelmann Pollock, Melissa, The Lion, the Lily, and the Leopard: The Crown and Nobility of Scotland, France, and England and the Struggle for Power (1100–1204) (Medieval Identities: Socio-Cultural Spaces, 4), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. x, 526; 4 maps, 20 b/w line art; R.R.P. €120.00; ISBN 9782503540405. Melissa Pollock’s study of family connections and their impact on Anglo-Norman politics is a testament to tenacity and thoroughness. The author’s aim is to reincorporate Scotland into the cultural and family networks of the Anglo-Norman world, in response to earlier scholarship that has often treated the northern kingdom as an outlier or a completely separate case. While studies have been undertaken on local links spanning the Borders, Pollock succeeds in showing just how close and numerous were the ties between aristocratic families with interests in Scotland as well as other more distant regions during the twelfth century. These were disrupted, she argues, by the loss of Normandy to the French monarchy in 1204, after which separate national identities in France, England, and Scotland were more effectively able to emerge. The ‘Auld Alliance’ between France and Scotland, so much a feature of the later Middle Ages, had its origins, in Pollock’s view, in the family associations developed during the twelfth century. In making this claim, Pollock offers a political narrative centred on Norman and Angevin rulership that will be familiar to students of the period. This skeleton is fleshed out with immensely detailed examination, conducted largely on a genealogical and prosopographical basis, of marital alliances and personal relationships among major landholding families. Impressive detective work into the evidence provided by documentary and charter records and witness lists, as well as the reasonably abundant twelfth-century chronicle narratives, allows the author to reconstruct (often tentatively and with appropriate caution) the family trees of those involved in the political machinations of their lords and rulers. Much attention is given, for example, to the conflict of 1173–74 in which Henry II was opposed by a coalition led by his own sons and Louis VII of France, in alliance with William ‘the Lion’, King of Scotland. The lengthy chapters examining this episode and its immediate aftermath are dominated by descriptions of the family groupings that chose to support either side. The risk, though, is that the sheer volume of evidence overwhelms the presentation of the central points that the author wishes to make. In places, the work takes on an almost antiquarian tone, in the sense that it feels as if the details of innumerable family relationships are being presented for their own sake, as much as they are to advance an argument. Furthermore, this attempt at comprehensiveness means that the central focus on Scotland is lost at times. So insistent is the author on identifying every possible family connection between members of the Anglo-Norman elites that the reader is [End Page 242] inclined to ask, on occasion, what all this means for the big picture: it is not always evident how the intricacies of genealogy on either side of the Channel illuminate interconnections with Scotland in the way the author purports to describe. It is also worth noting that the study’s introduction presents a rather curious assemblage of methodological possibilities, most of which are not followed through in the subsequent text. Comments on Arthurian romance, Oedipal psychology, and antiviral drug therapy (the last used as an analogy for co-operative alliances against external threats) are introduced and then just as quickly abandoned (pp. 6–11). Some reference back to these explanatory models at later points in the text would have been helpful to remind the reader of their potential usefulness. These cautions are not meant to undermine the value of the volume. Pollock has completed an enormous task in tracing and setting forth complex sets of relationships among the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. Their exposition (often aided by clearly presented genealogical charts) will, at the very least, be a wonderful resource for future scholars. On...

Aulic Spaces Transplanted: The Design and Layout of a Franco-Burgundian Court in a Scottish Palace

The Scottish court in the sixteenth century is usually described and analysed in terms of its relationships with its neighbours: as a partner in the Auld Alliance with France, or as the ancient enemy of England. This article focuses instead on the independence of the Scottish court, and the choices made by one king in particular, James 11, as reflected in his designs for a new palace structure at Stirling Castle. I will argue that, rather than being a mere emulation of the French court, its styles and its protocols, the palace block at Stirling is evidence of a strategy of balance between several evolving court systems on the continent, including the Burgundian. By balancing his loyalties and relationships between the Valois in France and the Habsburgs as heirs to the Burgundian dukes in the Low Countries, James V astutely demonstrated the independence of hiscourt and his kingdom, and his place as an independent, equal sovereign among the princes of Europe.

The diagnosis of art: Alice, the Duchess, Sir John Tenniel, foxgloves, and roses

The diagnosis of art: Alice, the Duchess, Sir John Tenniel, foxgloves, and roses

The Poetics of Psychoanalysis: In the Wake of Klein by Mary Jacobus

II30 Reviews published, in I834, a translation ofGoethe's Faust which won praise fromCarlyle. His horizons were Scottish with a strong sympathy for mainland Europe rather than England (his hostility toOxford and Cambridge was legendary,despite frequent visits there), and Germany and Greece were particularly important tohim. Though unusu ally non-sectarian foraVictorian Scottish Calvinist, he regarded Roman Catholicism as backward, as a result ofwhich he was not especially interested in the 'AuldAl liance', preferring the idea of a new one with Germany. Yet he was also an unorthodox Calvinist who almost lost theAberdeen chair because of an equivocating declaration thathemade afterhe had signed theConfession of Faith. Blackie's achievements cover a vast span of nineteenth-century Scottish life.He became a champion of Gaelic, a defender of the crofters, and a Home Ruler (while also supporting theBritish Empire). He almost single-handedly raised themoney to set up the firstChair of Celtic in Scotland, at Edinburgh University in I882, even securing a ?200 donation fromQueen Victoria. He was an educational reformerwho called for less political patronage in the appointment of professors as well as more Scottish scholarly self-reliance, forexample on the question of pronouncing Greek. He wrote on Christianity, beauty, atheism, German war songs, and 'TheWise Men ofGreece'. He was a biographer ofBurns, wrote poetry of his own, and published in i866 a four-volume translation of the Iliad. His 'gospel of hard work and fresh air' (p. 232), entitled On Self-Culture (I874), remained popular inBritain and theUSA until the igios, long afterhis death in 1895. Till now students have had to rely for information on a rather uncritical i895 biography by one of his students,Anna M. Stoddart, which was based on theunpub lished manuscript of an autobiography, and on his diaries and letters published by a nephew in I90I and I9I0. Wallace has sourced awealth ofmaterial to reconstruct some of theminutiae of Blackie's lifewhile never losing sight of the bigger issues inwhich he played a significant part. He succeeds in conveying to the reader a keen understanding of these issues and debates and of Blackie's role in them. For all his obvious sympathywith theprofessor,Wallace also retains a very necessary degree of critical distance from his subject. Blackie was an essentially cosmopolitan figure in a society riven by parochialism and sectarian infighting.This is an extremely well researched and written biography of one of themost important and, till now, most neglected figures innineteenth-century Scottish life. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER P6L 0 DOCHARTAIGH The Poetics of Psychoanalysis: In theWake ofKlein. By MARY JACOBUS. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005. xii+303 pp. C58. ISBN 978-o-ig-924636-6. This excellent study ofBritish object-relations theoryhas definitive chapters on Ella Freeman Sharpe, Joan Riviere, Melanie Klein, Susan Isaacs, Marion Milner, D. W. Winnicott, andWilfred Bion, which constitute variations on themes thatMary Ja cobus circles round again and again. For example, with Ella Sharpe the issue is the relationship ofmetaphor tobodily experience (a point returned to, forexample with Susan Isaacs on eating, where words are thought of as 'devoured' (p. I02)). There is also a reading of Sharpe's work on Hamlet, bringing out Lacan's relationship to it. Jacobus gives an analysis of Joan Riviere's 1936 paper on 'negative therapeutic reaction', discussing sadism as at the root of a disabling reaction to the 'unmasking' effects of psychoanalysis: 'the loved ones within, by whom the patient fears to be abandoned, are at the same time revealed tobe theobjects of her undying hatred and cruelty' (p. 39). And cruelty is at the heart of this book; Jacobus twice (pp. 87, I47) quotes Derrida (inWithout Alibi (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002), MLR, I02.4, 2007 113I P. 28o), saying 'cruelty therewill have been, before any personal figure,before "cruel" will have become an attribute, still less anyone's fault'. That quotation, depersonal izing cruelty,making it an aspect of language itself,comes first in the conclusion of a chapter on Klein's Envy and Gratitude, and on her reading of theOresteia, with its discussion of the 'need' tomurder the mother-all suggestivematerial, and linked to discussion ofHannah Arendt, and her comments on forgiveness (mediated through JuliaKristeva, who...

:An Antidote to the English: The Auld Alliance, 1295-1560

:<i>An Antidote to the English: The Auld Alliance, 1295-1560</i>

Charles VII's dynastic policy and the 'Auld Alliance': the marriage of James II and Marie de Gueldres

Charles VII's dynastic policy and the 'Auld Alliance': the marriage of James II and Marie de Gueldres

Charles VII's dynastic policy and the ‘Auld Alliance’: the marriage of James II and Marie de Gueldres

Charles VII's dynastic policy and the ‘Auld Alliance’: the marriage of James II and Marie de Gueldres

Laidlaw (ed.), The Auld Alliance: France and Scotland over 700 Years

Laidlaw (ed.), <i>The Auld Alliance: France and Scotland over 700 Years</i>

The Apogee of the ‘Auld Alliance’ and the Limits of Policy, 1369-1402

The Apogee of the ‘Auld Alliance’ and the Limits of Policy, 1369-1402

Scotland's ‘Auld Alliance’ with France, 1295–1560

To a greater or lesser degree all historical phenomena have their realities and myths, the facts and fables that surround them and are inherent within them. But the ‘Auld Alliance’, as the Scots referred to their relationship with France, is more than usually endowed with fable, while the facts have often been obscured, selectively refined or omitted altogether. The ‘Auld Alliance’ has generally been held to have ended with the death on 5 December 1560 of Mary, Queen of Scots' first husband, Francis II, who was the first and last king of both France and Scotland. The origins of the Anglo‐Franco‐Scottish relationship are to be found in 1295 when the Scots formed the first defensive/offensive alliance with France against the English king, Edward I. But from its very shaky beginnings, as a mutually offensive/defensive military alliance against England, the ‘Auld Alliance’ gradually developed other familial, personal, social and cultural associations which did not die with Francis II, nor entirely ever disappeared. However, it was the advent of Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Anglo‐French competition for her hand in marriage; the treaties, alliances and military engagements this provoked; the resulting role of France in the government of Scotland, culminating in the union of the French and Scottish crowns; and the effects of the Habsburg/Valois conflicts of the 1550s, which inevitably included England and Scotland, which ultimately led to the end of the formal military ‘Auld Alliance’ in 1560.

Review: L'Ecosse Contemporaine

The 'Auld Alliance' between France and Scotland celebrated its 700th anniversary in 1995, and it is appropriate to have a new book by French authors (in French) on contemporary Scotland. It will make its readers in France aware that Scotland is not England, a fact they know only in the sphere of rugby, despite the existence of a Franco-Scottish Society and a few academic specialists on Scotland working in France, mainly in the area of language and literature.

The renaissance tradition in the reformed church of Scotland(presidential address)

In the sixteenth century Scotland was in close conscious relation with the continent. In international politics she had through the dynastic connections of her royal house acquired a crucial importance, and in ecclesiastical, academic, and literary spheres that relationship had never before and perhaps has never since been quite so intimate or so fully developed. The end of the Auld Alliance in 1560 did not weaken although it may have changed these ties. Indeed they were in many ways strengthened. In ever increasing numbers the sons of Scottish nobility went abroad in the furtherance of their general education and experience of the world. Almost every university in Europe was at some time visited by Scottish scholars and almost every educated Scot who in this century achieved distinction in religion, education or politics had spent some time at one or more of the great centres of learning. Nor was this traffic one way. Scotland had its modest share of travellers from overseas in the early days of the grand tour, and although only a few itineraries have so far come to light there is ample evidence in surviving alba amicorum and in the university rector’s books that a visit to the northern kingdom and an extended period of residence at one of its universities was unexceptional.

EDITORIAL: NSF—New Goals and Old Alliances

EDITORIAL: NSF—New Goals and Old Alliances

Old Alliance under Attack in Boston

Old Alliance under Attack in Boston