Scottish Wars Research Articles

Katherine Beaumont, Countess of Atholl, and the Second Scottish War of Independence (c. 1327–c. 1336)

Katherine Beaumont, countess of Atholl, spent several months besieged within Lochindorb Castle before being rescued by King Edward III of England in July 1336. The king’s campaign through the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire has been seen by modern historians as one of his more chivalric enterprises, but very little is known about Katherine herself beyond her presence at Lochindorb. This article will begin the process of uncovering more of her own history and participation in the Second Scottish War of Independence. It will evaluate the importance of her marriage to David IV Strathbogie and her motherhood of David V within Scottish succession politics, look at her experience in Scotland as it was fought over between Bruce and Balliol, and provide a revised consideration of the siege of Lochindorb. It will also explore how and why such women’s lives and actions are difficult to discern in medieval chronicles, addressing this through the use of alternative documentary and material evidence.

Intruders in the Scottish church: clerical allegiance and English clergymen in Scotland during the Second War of Independence, 1332–57

Abstract Ecclesiastics on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish border have often been forgotten in discussions of allegiance and political identity during the Scottish Wars of Independence. This article explores the careers and loyalties of English clergymen working in Scotland, their relationship to their Scottish counterparts, and their influence on the political landscape of the Anglo-Scottish border. It argues that the lives of these men can offer unique insights into the English administration of Scotland between 1332 and 1357, and challenges claims that the English sought to incorporate the regions of Berwickshire and Roxburghshire into the kingdom of England.

The Road to Scottish Dominican Independence 1230–1511

AbstractIn 1221 the General Chapter of the Order of Preachers (Dominican friars) sent out groups of friars to various European countries. The largest group was sent to England where they established their first priory in the University city of Oxford on the Feast of the Assumption, 1221. Within a decade they had spread to Ireland and has established their first houses in Scotland. The Scottish Dominicans remained part of the English province for close on 300 years. The Scottish Wars of Independence forced a reconsideration of that relationship. In 1481 Scotland became an independent province and adopted the Strict Observance initiated by Raymond of Capua (1330-1399). The province flourished for the first sixty years of its existence before being overwhelmed by the Scottish Reformation.

A Forgotten Hero?: The Influence of Andrew Murray during the Scottish Wars of Independence, 1296-1298

William Wallace is a highly renowned Scottish legend, who led his nation to victories against the English in battles such as Stirling Bridge. There are also some other less known figures who contributed to this success but are lost in the Wallace romance. The most notable of these figures is Andrew Murray. Murray is a forgotten hero in Scottish legacy, and played a major role in Wallace's success. Andrew Murray was a strong military leader and was greatly admiried by the lower classes of Scotland. Murray's character and tactics as a military leader were instrumental in Wallace's campaigns against the English, particularly at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. This was made further evident by his death in late 1297 and his absence in the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Falkirk the following year.

The Personal Ambitions of a National Hero

Abstract: The purpose of this essay was to put the Scottish king and war hero, Robert the Bruce on trial based on the model of the Ted-Ed miniseries ‘History on Trial’. The overarching argument is explored through a dialogue between the prosecutor and defendant of Robert and centres on how Robert Bruce should be remembered; either a Scottish nobleman fueled by personal ambition or a good, strong-willed king who did what was best for his kingdom and people. Both sides present evidence surrounding Bruce’s dedication to his personal ambition to becoming king which included murder and is contrasted by the clemency he should to his rivals/enemies upon becoming king. This leads to a critical approach on the nature of Robert’s loyalty during the early period of Scottish War for Independence and his later uncompromising drive to see Scotland become independent. The nature of how Robert achieved independence is also brought under scrutiny with the suffering he brought to the English and Irish populations. Concluding remarks on Robert’s verdict express the difficult nature of how to accurately remember national heroes and in ensuring a balance between the good and bad sides of them.

The Scottish war on puppy farming

The message for Scotland’s veterinary profession at the forthcoming BSAVA Scottish Congress in September will be that all members can play a big part in tackling an illegal trade that causes not only significant animal welfare abuses but also emotional distress and financial losses to innocent pet owners. Hannah Medley, an inspector for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will bring delegates up-to-date on the charity’s ‘war on puppy farming’ and explain how vets and VNs can help the campaign.

Nature’s Song under the Bombs: Pastoral Echoes in some Scottish War Poems

Scotland has a great tradition of nature writing, but by the end of the 19th century, glens, bens, lochs, bracken and quiet clachans seemed to have become the essential props of any would-be Scottish author, solidly rooted in his homeland, as part of a made-up romanticized tradition. Since the First World War, however, many authors have been rejecting or trying to build the tradition anew. After a rapid overview of Gaelic, Scots and English nature writing, this article explores the particular roles of this tradition in World War I and World War II poetry, both in terms of theme and structure, focusing particularly on aural elements. It first shows the slow degradation of nature’s sounds in the poems on the First World War – from nostalgic reminiscences, comforting memories or patriotic pleas to human cries in the din of guns. It then focuses on anti-pastoral and the impact the idea of a waste-land had on World War II poetry, considering how the sounds of nature can still be heard in a ruined world of bombed cities and human atrocities. A last part is dedicated to the new poetic forms authors try to create in order to struggle against silence and destruction, as well as to pastoral as a subversive form and the use of sonic “carnivalesque” and resistance.

Behind Enemy Lines: The German Connection in the Middle English Sir Degrevant

This paper explores the cultural and economic context of the references to German luxury trade goods, German legend, and German political power in the late fourteenth-century/early fifteenth-century Middle English poem Sir Degrevant. All of the German references in the poem pertain to the Rhineland, which formed the western branch of Hanseatic trade throughout this period, the branch that conducted trade with England and Scotland. I argue that these German references form part of a pattern, seen throughout the poem, whereby the northern English poet recreates the international politics surrounding the Scottish Wars of Independence, which dominated northern English life throughout the fourteenth century, and in which German merchants played a controversial role. All of the poem’s references to German goods and culture center in the enemy earl’s household exclusively, casting the aggressive earl of the poem as a Scottish-style Border lord.

Pole Nets and Prises: A Newly Published Charter of John de Warenne to the Burgesses of Wakefield, 4 October 1307

The Latin text and a translation of a second charter of 1307 granted by John de Warenne, seventh earl of Surrey, to the borough of Wakefield, following an earlier charter of the 1190s, has not previously appeared in print. It extended the rights of the burgesses but also had a feature of more than local interest in its slight regulation of the lord’s rights of prise taking, or purveyance. This unusual provision appears to be related to the prominent military role of the sixth earl in the Scottish wars of Edward I and the burden of supplying military needs which fell heavily upon Yorkshire.

The Middle English Sir Degrevant and the Scottish Border

This article recovers the Scottish context of the Middle English Sir Degrevant, reading the main conflict of the poem against the backdrop of the Scottish Wars of Independence, which dominated life in the northern counties throughout the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, when the poem was written. It explores the Scottish cultural identities of all three of the main characters of the poem, Degrevant, the earl, and Melidor through the material culture and custom of the poem, and reads the central conflict of the poem in light of the border raids. It argues that Degrevant is a latter-day incarnation of the Arthurian knight Agravain, a Scottish knight fighting for the English crown, while the earl is a Scottish border lord. Melidor’s own Scottish identity finds expression in her name as well as in her adherence to Scottish social custom.

“Sacred Food for the Soul”: In Search of the Devotions to Saints of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, 1306–1329

The personal piety and devotions to saints and their relics of Scotland's most famous medieval monarch, Robert Bruce, or Robert I (1306–29), is an underexplored topic. This neglect is perhaps due both to a predominantly Protestant post-Reformation Scottish historiographical tradition and to a perceived lack of sources. The latter sense is heightened by a general awareness that large quantities of records and artifacts were plundered or destroyed during the prolonged hostilities of the Scottish wars of succession and independence, ca. 1286–ca. 1357, and that further losses occurred in successive centuries. Nevertheless, this paper offers new approaches to identifying and understanding the saintly venerations of King Robert. It seeks to illuminate the wide spectrum of motivations for his acts of piety throughout his reign, from clearly political or dynastic public demonstrations of faith to intensely personal expressions of belief. As a result, some aspects of the changing expectations of both Scottish roya...

Mobility, mortality, and the middle ages: Identification of migrant individuals in a 14th century black death cemetery population

Mobility and migration patterns of groups and individuals have long been a topic of interest to archaeologists, used for broad explanatory models of cultural change as well as illustrations of historical particularism. The 14th century AD was a tumultuous period of history in Britain, with severely erratic weather patterns, the Great Famine of 1315-1322, the Scottish Wars of Independence, and the Hundred Years' War providing additional migration pressures to the ordinary economic issues drawing individuals to their capital under more stable conditions. East Smithfield Black Death Cemetery (Royal Mint) had a documented use period of only 2 years (AD 1348-1350), providing a precise historical context (∼50 years) for data. Adults (n = 30) from the East Smithfield site were sampled for strontium and oxygen stable isotope analyses of tooth enamel. Five individuals were demonstrated to be statistical outliers through the combined strontium and oxygen isotope data. Potential origins for migrants ranged from London's surrounding hinterlands to distant portions of northern and western Britain. Historic food sourcing practices for London were found to be an important factor for consideration in a broader than expected (87) Sr/(86) Sr range reflected in a comparison of enamel samples from three London datasets. The pooled dataset demonstrated a high level of consistency between site data, divergent from the geologically predicted range. We argue that this supports the premise that isotope data in human populations must be approached as a complex interaction between behavior and environment and thus should be interpreted cautiously with the aid of alternate lines of evidence.

The Making and Re-making of the Gough Map of Britain: Manuscript Evidence and Historical Context

ABSTRACT The results of a palaeographical and linguistic study of the Gough map demonstrate that although it was initially produced in the 1370s, the map was extensively revised not long thereafter. The pictorial features south of Hadrian's Wall were outlined in a darker ink and many place-names overwritten by a scribe who probably worked in the first thirty years of the fifteenth century. Discussion of the methods and scope of this revision is followed by an attempt to consider its historical context. The revision is most discernible in southeast England with virtually no changes made to Scotland, and only occasional changes made in Wales and the north of England. The reviser's focus on the south contrasts with the decision of the map's original makers to depict the whole island of Britain. This difference in approach raises questions about the ideological and political circumstances that made possible the original conception of the Gough map as a map of the whole island, and about an apparent decline of interest in or need for such a cartographic approach in the first decades of the fifteenth century. The original mapmaker's political outlook reflected the aspirations of the English kings in the late thirteenth and throughout the fourteenth centuries and the context of the Scottish wars of the period, whereas the different approach of the reviser may attest to changes in the political situation and ideology early in the fifteenth century.

Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature by Robert Macfarlane

MLR, Io3.3, 2oo8 839 reversal of the conventional view of poetry and patriotism as antitheses and a broad ening of the canon such that disparate responses towar might be admitted. David Goldie's 'Was There a Scottish War Literature?' examines thework of Scottish First World War poets in terms of a number of uneasy formal and cultural alliances. In a later section, Roderick Watson asks how class and national allegiances mingle with the exigencies ofwar in thework of Scottish poets of the Second World War. Peter McDonald's essay on Louis MacNeice brings to the foreconcerns about nationality and responsibility and about public and private commitment. Brendan Corcoran's essay and others in the final section of thebook on Heaney, Muldoon, and thepoetry of theTroubles return to this theme. Some of thebest essays here are thosewhich invite the reader to rethinkpreviously held convictions. Fran Brearton's 'A War of Friendship: Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon' provides a useful corrective to tendencies to view war poetry as always 'ex periential' and 'anti-war' (p. 209). Similarly, John Lyon and Jon Stallworthy revisit W H. Auden's andWilfred Owen's assertions that 'poetrymakes nothing happen' and that 'the Poetry is in the pity', offering thought-provoking assessments of the nuances of both. Claire M. Tylee's well-argued 'BritishHolocaust Poetry: Songs of Experience' restores toprominence a range ofBritish-Jewish poets. The collection stops just short of a full consideration of poetry from and about current conflicts. This may be because, as earlier contributors note of the establish ment of a canon of First World War poetry, it isnecessary for time to pass before a significant body ofwork can emerge. Nevertheless, The Oxford Handbook ofBritish and IrishWar Poetry offers a thorough, inclusive, and invaluable guide to the field, combining accessible and informativeoverviews with original and insightfulresearch. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER Jo GILL Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality inNineteenth-Century Literature. By ROBERT MACFARLANE. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. xii+244 pp. ?30. ISBN 978-O-I9-929650-7. This perceptive study investigates a 'reappraisal of literaryoriginality and plagia rism' between I859 and I900' (p. 6). Macfarlane argues that in the firsthalf of the nineteenth century 'a crisis of authenticity in literature [. . .]was brought about by the advent of techniques ofmass production' (p. 24) but a change came from the late i850s onwards as 'the inventive reuse of thewords ofothers [. . .]came increasingly to be discerned as an authentic formof creativity' (p. 8). The readings that Macfarlane produces to support his claims are provocative and fruitful,offeringnew insights into links among theworks ofDickens, Eliot, Pater,Wilde, and thenow less-read Charles Reade and Lionel Johnson. I do, nevertheless, have a reservation about this study. Macfarlane argues that in thisperiod 'inheritance' came to 'replace the image of debt' (p. 48) as the defining characteristic of literarypilfering.He also writes of Shelley's 'anxiety at influence' (p. 30) and notes that the textshe examines here do not 'conceal' or 'deny' thenotion of 'aprecursor or precursors' (p. I3). Strange thatsuch tropes are used in a book thatmakes only one (rather dismissive) reference (p. I85 n.) toHarold Bloom and The Anxiety of Influence (New York: Oxford University Press, I973). Not that Macfarlane copies Bloom, far from it. While Bloom reads literary inheritance as a burden that must be concealed and negotiated even to thedeath,Macfarlane's study neatly argues theopen and collaborative response of authors toworks of thepast. So why the concealment of Bloom? Iwish I knew.Macfarlane's otherwise convincing arguments begin with two theories of originality: creatio, an ex nihilomaking, versus inventio, a creation that relies on an encounter with thatwhich already exists. As 840 Reviews Macfarlane explains, creatio posits art as 'an addition towhat exists', inventio as 'an edition of it' (p. I), and he reads this split in thewriting of several finde siecle authors as evidence of awider social debate about origins and originality.Macfarlane begins with Edward Young (I 759) and theRomantic poets who answered his call fora genius which 'grows' and 'isnotmade' (p. i8).Macfarlane then traces a swing away from this perception firstin theworks ofBrowning, whose poetry envisions God as theonly au tonomous creator.He argues that a growing sense of the...

The Oxford Handbook of British and Irish War Poetry by Tim Kendall

838 Reviews theonly grand comparison on Gaskell's behalf. Elisabeth JayseesMargaret Hale as a 'Homeric wanderer' (vii, p. ix)who is also like theNightingale sisters, Florence and Parthenope, occupying their timewith household chores when they long tobe doing something more socially meaningful, though as she notes the novel itself is strangely silent about the Crimean War despite its interest in themixed ethics of violence. Several editors notice other unexpected silences inGaskell's ethical position: forex ample, the lack of any direct naming ofUnitarianism, though 'dissenters' appear in her novels. As Jay notes, Gaskell is vague about the precise religious allegiance of theThorntons or Bessy Higgins, and is reluctant topush her husband's and her own professed faith into any prominent or proselytizing position in thenovels. JaneCarlyle may have shrunk from a certain earnestness inGaskell, mixed with a tendency toover-dramatize, but toview all herwriting piled high in tenvolumes is to appreciate just how wide-ranging shewas; how willing to tryher hand at anything especially anything controversial-from a Salem witchcraft story ('Lois the Witch') to thebiography ofCharlotte Bronte. In tracking her development, her editors have chased obscure allusions, updated ever-increasing bibliographical data, noted textual variants, and provided freshcritical insights inan already overcrowded field.This isof course an expensive library set,unlikely to replace the friendly,dog-eared, personally annotated paperback favoured by seminar tutors; nor will ithave the lastword on Gaskell's achievement as a novelist; but itdoes provide an enduring testimony toher importance, and should outlast thecentury, as those of Ward and Shorter did before it. UNIVERSITY OF HULL VALERIE SANDERS The Oxford Handbook ofBritish and IrishWar Poetry. Ed. by TIM KENDALL. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. xvi+754PP. ?85s. ISBN 978-O-I9-928266-I. Tim Kendall's rich and wide-ranging edited collection assembles original essays by an impressive range of contributors, including Jon Stallworthy, Edna Longley, Mar jorie Perloff, and Stan Smith. Equally importantly, it allows a new generation of scholars to be heard, including Sarah Cole and Cornelia D. J.Pearsall, whose essays on 'The Poetry of Pain' and 'TheWar Remains ofKeith Douglas and Ted Hughes', respectively, are striking fortheir suggestive invocation of current theoretical insights and sensitive handling of archival material. It isdifficult,of course, to do justice to a field as complex, broad, and (regrettably) expanding as 'War Poetry'. Kendall wisely structures the book in sixmain chro nological parts-a strategywhich allows the development of clear and historically specific concerns without hindering either the emergence of cross-period issues or the kinds of detailed focuswhich the poetry demands. Within this framework, con textual chapters such as Hugh Haughton's 'AnthologizingWar' sit alongside close readings of individual poets and texts,e.g. Perloff on Yeats's 'Easter, I91 6'. Matthew Bevis's opening essay on 'VictorianWar Poetry' identifies theBoer War as an important starting-point while recognizing the debt that theVictorians owed to earlier literary traditions (the argument is expanded in John Lee's later essay on 'Shakespeare and theGreat War'). He also establishes the importance of technological change for theproduction and reception of poetry and, crucially, the construction of a popular audience. Santanu Das opens Part ii of the book with a persuasive new reading of iconicmaterial. His essay on Owen and Rosenberg argues for thepowerful transmutation in the best war poetry of sense experience into a finely imagined lyric 'at once rich and strange' (p. 77). Stacy Gillis, like several other contributors (e.g. Simon Featherstone and Helen Goethals), notes the importance of class and gen der difference in theperception ofwhat constitutes war poetry. Goethals proposes a MLR, Io3.3, 2oo8 839 reversal of the conventional view of poetry and patriotism as antitheses and a broad ening of the canon such that disparate responses towar might be admitted. David Goldie's 'Was There a Scottish War Literature?' examines thework of Scottish First World War poets in terms of a number of uneasy formal and cultural alliances. In a later section, Roderick Watson asks how class and national allegiances mingle with the exigencies ofwar in thework of Scottish poets of the Second World War. Peter McDonald's essay on Louis MacNeice brings to the foreconcerns about nationality and responsibility and about public...

A county community or the politics of the nation? Border service and baronial influence in the palatinate of Durham, 1377-1413

This article considers gentry service and community in Durham, 1377–1413. The Durham gentry were increasingly constrained by the ongoing reform of the bishop's palatine administration – which favoured his own men – even as the focus of gentry service was shifting northward, to the Scottish border. Brought on by the Scottish wars and border instability, the great beneficiaries of this shift were the Nevilles and Percys, who gained power and prestige as royal march wardens, and who amassed still greater private retinues. These shifts altered the character of gentry service and community in the region, even as some talented gentry men redefined their roles and forged successful careers.

Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in fourteenth-century Northumberland

The fourteenth century saw a dramatic upsurge of new castle building in northern England. Not unreasonably, historians have associated this with the Scottish wars, seeing this proliferation as a direct response to Scottish raiding, and assuming that these castles were designed and built solely to perform a defensive military function. However, recent work on castles has questioned such purely functionalist interpretations. This article examines the castles built in the fourteenth century by the ‘gentry’ of Northumberland, the most exposed of all the border counties to Scottish attack, and sets them in their local and national contexts. Were these castles just built as defensive fortresses, or did they also serve a more symbolic role, in a society which had rapidly become militarised with the onset of war in 1296? Were they in fact intended as much to keep up with the neighbours as to keep out the Scots?

The Franciscans and the Scottish Wars of Independence: an Irish perspective

The intention of this paper is to examine the role of the Franciscans in the Scottish Wars of Independence. Many of the studies relating to this period have been confined to either the political or ecclesiastical arena. They also choose to treat the individual countries of the British Isles in an unconnected fashion. This paper is intended to redress the balance, using the involvement of the Franciscan friars in Ireland and Scotland to study political events on either side of the Irish Sea. By examining the actions of diverse nationalities belonging to a single order I hope to establish why the Franciscans saw fit to involve themselves in either the nativist or royalist causes and to determine it was purely race that dictated their actions when their countrymen went to war.

‘According to the custom used in French and Scottish wars’: Prisoners and casualties on the Scottish Marches in the fourteenth century

John Balliol’s defiance of Edward I in 1296 saw the beginning of a century of intermittent warfare and raiding on the Anglo-Scottish borders. It might be expected that this would have led to a heavy casualty rate amongst the border gentry, but, in fact, the conventions of fourteenth-century chivalry and the nature of the war worked to keep fatalities to a surprisingly low level. The chivalric ethos and the customs of war ensured that prisoners were well treated, and that ransoms were not too exorbitant, while the practice of allowing prisoners to substitute hostages ensured that their captivity was frequently only of short duration; furthermore, English prisoners were often able to solicit aid from the king in paying their ransoms. As a result, the risks inherent in a military career in the Scottish marches were not actually all that great, and very few of the marcher gentry were either killed or ruined by ransom demands. This, along with the benefits of royal wages for military service, goes a long way towards explaining why the marchers remained committed to the Scottish wars, despite the devastation that was wrought within the border counties.

The Scots at the Battle of Neville's Cross, 17 October 1346

David II (1329-71) was a king unable to celebrate military victory against England, either of his own or of his father's making. David and his royal host succumbed to an improvised English militia led by the archbishop of York at Neville's Cross on parkland outside Durham on 17 October 1346. As a result of that crushing defeat, David's commemoration of each anni versary of the most famous triumph of his father, Robert I, became tainted: for after 1357 Edward III would insist that the Scots pay David's ransom annually on 24 June, St John the Baptist's day, but also the anni versary of Bannockburn. Ironically, however, David's capture in 1346 meant that Neville's Cross was far more influential in bringing about peace between the houses of Bruce and Plantagenet and their realms than any of the other pitched battles of the Scottish Wars of Independ ence. Although it would take over a decade to reach a settlement and require England's additional capture of Scotland's ally, John II of France, at Poitiers (September 1356) the 'battle of Durham' is now rightly held as having had telling diplomatic consequences in both the British Isles and mainland Europe.1 To mark the 750th anniversary of the battle, the strategies and leader ship displayed in the field during the four or so hours over which it was fought have received fresh historical attention. Previously overlooked chronicle and letter accounts of the battle have been brought together to give a clearer picture of the winning combination of archery, infantry and cavalry tactics deployed by quick-thinking English captains. The Scottish leaders' fatal choice of poor ground and tactics have also become apparent, providing a strong contrast to Robert I's masterful exploitation of the terrain around Stirling in 1314.2