Scotland in the late Middle Ages
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Scotland in the late Middle Ages, between the deaths of
The economy of Scotland developed slowly in this period and a population of perhaps a little under a million by the middle of the 14th century began to decline after the arrival of the
By the end of the period Scotland had adopted many of the major tenets of the
Political history
Wars of Independence 1286–1371
John
The death of king Alexander III in 1286, and the subsequent death of his granddaughter and heir Margaret (called "the Maid of Norway") in 1290, left 14 rivals for succession. To prevent civil war the Scottish magnates asked Edward I of England to arbitrate. He extracted legal recognition that the realm of Scotland was held as a feudal dependency to the throne of England before choosing John Balliol, the man with the strongest claim, who became king as John I (30 November 1292).[1] Robert Bruce of Annandale, the next strongest claimant, accepted this outcome with reluctance. Over the next few years Edward I used the concessions he had gained to systematically undermine both the authority of King John and the independence of Scotland.[2] In 1295 John, on the urgings of his chief councillors, entered into an alliance with France, the beginning of the Auld Alliance.[3]
In 1296 Edward invaded Scotland, deposing King John. The following year William Wallace and Andrew Murrey raised forces to resist the occupation and under their joint leadership an English army was defeated at the Battle of Stirling Bridge. Murrey died of wounds after the battle and for a short time Wallace ruled Scotland in the name of John Balliol as Guardian of the realm.[4] Edward came north in person and defeated Wallace at the Battle of Falkirk.[5] Wallace escaped but probably resigned as Guardian of Scotland. In 1305 he fell into the hands of the English, who executed him for treason although he owed no allegiance to England.[6]
Robert I
Rivals John Comyn and Robert the Bruce, grandson of the claimant Robert Bruce of Annandale, were appointed as joint guardians in Wallace's place.[7] On 10 February 1306, Bruce participated in the murder of Comyn, at Greyfriars Kirk in Dumfries.[8] Less than seven weeks later, on 25 March Bruce was crowned as King Robert I at Scone. However, Edward's forces overran the country after defeating Bruce's small army at the Battle of Methven.[9] Despite the excommunication of Bruce and his followers by Pope Clement V, his support grew; and by 1314, with the help of leading nobles such as Sir James Douglas and the Earl of Moray, only the castles at Bothwell and Stirling remained under English control.[10] Edward I had died in 1307 and his heir Edward II moved an army north to break the siege of Stirling Castle and reassert control. They were defeated by forces under Robert I at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, securing de facto independence.[11]
In 1320 the
David II
Robert I died in 1329, leaving his five-year-old son to reign as David II. During his minority, the country was ruled by a series of governors, two of whom died as a result of a renewed invasion by English forces from 1332. This was on the pretext of restoring Edward Balliol, son of John Balliol, to the Scottish throne, thus starting the Second War of Independence.[16] Despite victories at Dupplin Moor (1332) and Halidon Hill (1333), in the face of tough Scottish resistance led by Sir Andrew Murray, the son of Wallace's comrade in arms, successive attempts to secure Balliol on the throne failed.[16] Edward III lost interest in the fate of his protege after the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with France.[16] In 1341 David was able to return from temporary exile in France. In 1346 under the terms of the Auld Alliance, he invaded England in the interests of France, but was defeated and taken prisoner at the Battle of Neville's Cross on 17 October 1346 and would remain in England as a prisoner for 11 years. His cousin Robert Stewart ruled as guardian in his absence. Balliol finally resigned his claim to the throne to Edward in 1356, before retiring to Yorkshire, where he died in 1364.[17]
Without swearing allegiance to Edward III,[18] David was released for a ransom of 100,000 marks in 1357, but he was unable to pay, resulting in secret negotiations with the English and attempts to secure succession to the Scottish throne for an English king.[19] Major issues were his marriages and the failure to produce an heir. His first wife, Joan, the sister of Edward III, left him for England sometime after his return and she died without children in 1362. His planned second marriage to Margaret, the widow of the knight Sir John Logie, resulted in a factional division that alienated nobles including Robert Steward. Eventually, the king backed the queen's opponents and attempted to divorce her. She fled to the continent and appealed to the Pope for support. Before he could marry again David died, apparently unexpectedly, bringing the Bruce dynasty to an end.[20]
The Stewarts 1371–1513
Robert II, Robert III and James I
After the unexpected death of the childless David II, Robert Stewart, the first of the Stewart (later Stuart) monarchs, came to the throne in 1371. Despite his relatively venerable age of 55, his son, John, Earl of Carrick, grew impatient and assumed the reins of government as Lord Lieutenant. A border incursion into England led to the victory at Otterburn in 1388, but at the cost of the life of John's ally James Douglas, 2nd Earl of Douglas. This, along with Carrick having suffered a debilitating horse kick, led to a shift in power to his brother Robert Stewart, Earl of Fife, who now was appointed as Lieutenant in his place. When Robert II died in 1390 John took the regnal name Robert III, to avoid awkward questions over the exact status of the first King John, but power rested with his brother Robert, now Duke of Albany.[21] After the suspicious death of his elder son, David, Duke of Rothesay in 1402, Robert, fearful for the safety of his younger son, James (the future James I), sent him to France in 1406. However, the English captured him en route and he spent the next 18 years as a prisoner held for ransom. As a result, after the death of Robert III later that year, regents ruled Scotland: first Albany and after his death in 1420 his son Murdoch, during whose term of office the country suffered considerable unrest.[22]
When the Scots finally began the ransom payments in 1424, James, aged 32, returned with his English bride, Joan Beaufort, determined to assert this authority.[21] He revoked grants from customs and of lands made during his captivity, undermining the position of those who had gained in his absence, particularly the Albany Stewarts. James had Murdoch and two of his sons tried and then executed with further enforcement of his authority by more arrests and forfeiture of lands. In 1436 he attempted to regain one of the major border fortresses still in English hands at Roxburgh, but the siege ended in a humiliating defeat. He was murdered by discontented council member Robert Graham and his co-conspirators near the Blackfriars church, Perth in 1437.[23]
James II
The assassination left the king's seven-year-old son to reign as James II. After the execution of a number of suspected conspirators, leadership fell to Archibald Douglas, 5th Earl of Douglas, as lieutenant-general of the realm. After his death in 1439, power was shared uneasily between the Douglas family, William, 1st Lord Crichton, Lord Chancellor of Scotland and Sir Alexander Livingston of Callendar. A conspiracy to break the power of the Douglas family led to the "Black Dinner" at Edinburgh Castle in 1440, which saw the judicial murder of the young William Douglas, 6th Earl of Douglas and his brother by Livingstone and Crichton. The main beneficiary was the victims' great uncle James Douglas, Earl of Avondale who became the 7th Earl of Douglas and emerged as the main power in the government.[24][25]
In 1449 James II was declared to have reached his majority, but the Douglases consolidated their position and the king began a long struggle for power, leading to the murder of the 8th Earl of Douglas at Stirling Castle on 22 February 1452. This opened an intermittent civil war as James attempted to seize Douglas lands, punctuated by a series of humiliating reversals. Gradually James managed to win over the allies of the Douglases with offers of lands, titles and offices and the Douglases' forces were finally defeated at the Battle of Arkinholm on 12 May 1455.[24] Once independent, James II proved to be an active and interventionist king. He travelled the country dispensing justice and some of the unpopular policies of the following reign, such as the sale of pardons, may have originated in this period.[26] Ambitious plans to take Orkney, Shetland and the Isle of Man came to nothing. His attempt to take Roxburgh from the English in 1460 succeeded, but at the cost of his life as he was killed by an exploding artillery piece.[24]
James III
James II's son, aged nine or ten, became king as James III, and his widow Mary of Guelders acted as regent until her death three years later. The Boyd family, led by Robert, Lord Boyd, emerged as the leading force in the government, making themselves unpopular through self-aggrandisement, with Lord Robert's son Thomas being made Earl of Arran and marrying the king's sister, Mary. While Robert and Thomas were out of the country in 1469 the king asserted his control, executing members of the Boyd family.[27] His foreign policy included a rapprochement with England, with his eldest son, the future James IV, being betrothed to Cecily of York, the daughter of Edward IV of England, a change of policy that was immensely unpopular at home.[28]
During the 1470s conflict developed between the king and his brothers,
James IV
James IV was 15 when he came to the throne, but soon proved a capable and independent-minded ruler, whose reign is often considered to have seen a flowering of Scottish culture under the influence of the European Renaissance.[21][30] He took a direct interest in the administration of justice and frequently moved his court in legal circuits of justice ayres.[31] He defeated a major Northern rebellion, mainly of supporters of the murdered James III. It began in Dunbarton in 1489, led by the Earl of Lennox and Lord Lyle and spreading through the North.[32] James is credited with finally bringing the Lordship of the Isles under control. He forced through the forfeiture of the lands of the last lord John MacDonald in 1493, backing Alexander Gordon, 3rd Earl of Huntly's power in the region and launching a series of naval campaigns and sieges that resulted in the capture or exile of his rivals by 1507.[33]
For a time he supported
Geography
The defining factor in the geography of Scotland is the distinction between the
It was in the later medieval era that the borders of Scotland reached approximately their modern extent. The
Demography
Because medieval Scotland lacked the intrusive government and growing bureaucracy that can be found in contemporaneous England, there is very little evidence on which to base reliable estimates of population before the early 18th century. On the basis that it had roughly a sixth of the farmable land of England, it has been suggested that the population would have been of a similar proportion, probably a little less than a million at its height before the
Economy
Agriculture
Scotland is roughly half the size of England and Wales, but has only between a fifth and a sixth of the amount of arable or good pastoral land, making marginal pastoral farming and, with its extensive coastline, fishing, the key factors in the medieval economy.[47] With difficult terrain, poor roads and methods of transport there was little trade between different areas of the country and most settlements depended on what was produced locally, often with very little in reserve in bad years. Most farming was based on the lowland farmtoun or highland baile, settlements of a handful of families that jointly farmed an area notionally suitable for two or three plough teams, allocated in run rigs to tenant farmers. They usually ran downhill so that they included both wet and dry land, helping to offset some of the problems of extreme weather conditions.[48] This land was divided into the infield, which was in continuous arable cultivation, and the outfield which was rotated between arable and grass.[49] Most ploughing was done with a heavy wooden plough with an iron coulter, pulled by oxen, who were more effective and cheaper to feed than horses. Obligations to the local lord usually included supplying oxen for ploughing the lord's land on an annual basis and the much-resented obligation to grind corn at the lord's mill.[48] The rural economy appears to have boomed in the 13th century and in the immediate aftermath of the Black Death was still buoyant, but by the 1360s there was a severe falling off of incomes, which can be seen in clerical benefices, of between a third and half compared with the beginning of the era. This was followed by a slow recovery in the 15th century.[50]
Burghs
Most of the burghs were on the east coast, and among them were the largest and wealthiest, including Aberdeen, Perth and Edinburgh, whose growth was facilitated by trade with the continent. Although in the southwest Glasgow was beginning to develop and Ayr and Kirkcudbright had occasional links with Spain and France, sea trade with Ireland was much less profitable. In addition to the major royal burghs this era saw the proliferation of lesser baronial and ecclesiastical burghs, with 51 being created between 1450 and 1516. Most of these were much smaller than their royal counterparts; excluded from international trade, they mainly acted as local markets and centres of craftsmanship.[51] In general burghs probably carried out far more local trading with their hinterlands, relying on them for food and raw materials. The wool trade was a major export at the beginning of the period, but the introduction of sheep-scab was a serious blow to the trade and it began to decline as an export from the early 15th century and despite a levelling off, there was another drop in exports as the markets collapsed in the early-16th century Low Countries. Unlike in England, this did not prompt the Scots to turn to large-scale cloth production and only poor quality rough cloths seem to have been significant.[48]
Crafts, industry and trade
There were relatively few developed crafts in Scotland in this period, although by the later 15th century there were the beginnings of a native iron casting industry, which led to the production of cannon, and of the silver and goldsmithing for which the country would later be known. As a result, the most important exports were unprocessed raw materials, including wool, hides, salt, fish, animals and coal, while Scotland remained frequently short of wood, iron and, in years of bad harvests, grain.[48] Exports of hides and particularly salmon, where the Scots held a decisive advantage in quality over their rivals, appear to have held up much better than wool, despite the general economic downturn in Europe in the aftermath of the plague.[50] The growing desire among the court, lords, upper clergy and wealthier merchants for luxury goods that largely had to be imported led to a chronic shortage of bullion. This, and perennial problems in royal finance, led to several debasements of the coinage, with the amount of silver in a penny being cut to almost a fifth between the late 14th century and the late 15th century. The heavily debased "black money" introduced in 1480 had to be withdrawn two years later and may have helped fuel a financial and political crisis.[48]
Society
Kinship and clans
The fundamental social bond in late medieval Scottish society was that of kinship. Descent was
The combination of agnatic kinship and a feudal system of obligation has been seen as creating the highland
Social structure
In the late medieval era the terminology used to describe the different ranks of Scottish social structure was increasingly dominated by the Scots language and as a result began to parallel the terminology used in England. This consciousness over status was reflected in military and (from 1430)
Social conflict
Historians have noted considerable political conflict in the burghs between the great merchants and craftsmen throughout the period. Merchants attempted to prevent lower crafts and gilds from infringing on their trade, monopolies and political power. Craftsmen attempted to emphasise their importance and to break into disputed areas of economic activity, setting prices and standards of workmanship. In the 15th century a series of statutes cemented the political position of the merchants, with limitations on the ability of residents to influence the composition of burgh councils and many of the functions of regulation taken on by the bailies.[64] In rural society historians have noted a lack of evidence of widespread unrest similar to that evidenced by the Jacquerie of 1358 in France and the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 in England, possibly because there was relatively little of the type of change in agriculture, like the enclosure of common land, that could create widespread resentment before the modern era. Instead, a major factor was the willingness of tenants to support their betters in any conflict in which they were involved, for which landlords reciprocated with charity and support.[65] Highland and border society acquired a reputation for lawless activity, particularly the feud. However, more recent interpretations have pointed to the feud as a means of preventing and speedily resolving disputes by forcing arbitration, compensation and resolution.[66]
Government
The Crown
The Crown was at the centre of government in late medieval Scotland. The unification of the kingdom, the spread of Anglo-Norman custom, the development of a European trading economy and Robert I's success in achieving independence from England, all did much to build up the prestige of the institution.[67] However, its authority within the kingdom was not unchallenged, not least from the many semi-independent lordships and it endured a series of crises, particularly frequent minorities and resulting regencies. All of this, in addition to the relative poverty of the kingdom and the lack of a system of regular taxation, helped to limit the scale of central administration and government.[31] Much more than the English monarchy, the Scottish court remained a largely itinerant institution, with the king moving between royal castles, particularly Perth and Stirling, but also holding judicial sessions throughout the kingdom, with Edinburgh only beginning to emerge as the capital in the reign of James III at the cost of considerable unpopularity.[31] Like most Western European monarchies, the Scottish Crown in the 15th century adopted the example of the Burgundian court, through formality and elegance putting itself at the centre of culture and political life, defined with display, ritual and pageantry, reflected in elaborate new palaces and patronage of the arts.[68]
Privy Council
After the Crown the most important government institution was the Privy Council, composed of the king's closest advisers, but which, unlike in England, retained legislative and judicial powers. It was relatively small, with normally less than 10 members in a meeting, some of whom were nominated by Parliament, particularly during the many minorities of the era, as a means of limiting the power of a regent.[69] The council was a virtually full-time institution by the late 15th century, and surviving records from the period indicate it was critical in the working of royal justice. Nominally members of the council were some of the great magnates of the realm, but they rarely attended meetings. Most of the active members of the council for most of the period were career administrators and lawyers, almost exclusively university-educated clergy, the most successful of which moved on to occupy the major ecclesiastical positions in the realm as bishops and, towards the end of the period, archbishops. By the end of the 15th century this group was being joined by increasing numbers of literate laymen, often secular lawyers, of which the most successful gained preferment in the judicial system and grants of lands and lordships. From the reign of James III onwards the clerically dominated post of Lord Chancellor was increasingly taken by leading laymen.[69]
Parliament
The next most important body in the process of government was parliament, which had evolved by the late 13th century from the King's Council of Bishops and Earls into a 'colloquium' with a political and judicial role.
Local government
At a local level, government combined traditional kinship-based lordships with a relatively small system of royal offices. Until the 15th century the ancient pattern of major lordships survived largely intact, with the addition of two new "scattered earldoms" of
Warfare
Armies
Scottish armies of the late medieval era depended on a combination of familial, communal and
These systems produced relatively large numbers of poorly armoured infantry, often armed with 12–14 foot spears. They often formed the large close order defensive formations of
Artillery
The Stewarts attempted to follow France and England in building up an artillery train. The abortive siege of Roxburgh in 1436 under James I was probably the first conflict in which the Scots made serious use of artillery.
After the establishment of Scottish independence, Robert I turned his attention to building up a Scottish naval capacity. This was largely focused on the west coast, with the Exchequer Rolls of 1326 recording the feudal duties of his vassals in that region to aid him with their vessels and crews. Towards the end of his reign he supervised the building of at least one royal man-of-war near his palace at
James IV put the enterprise on a new footing, founding a new harbour at
Religion
The Church
Since gaining its independence from English ecclesiastical organisation in 1192, the Catholic Church in Scotland had been a "special daughter of the see of Rome", enjoying a direct relationship with the
Popular practice
Traditional Protestant historiography tended to stress the corruption and unpopularity of the late medieval Scottish church, but more recent research has indicated how it met the spiritual needs of different social groups.
Culture
Education
In medieval Scotland, education was dominated by the
Until the 15th century those who wished to attend university had to travel to England or the continent, but this situation was transformed by the founding of the University of St Andrews in 1413, the University of Glasgow in 1451 and the University of Aberdeen in 1495.[101] Initially these institutions were designed for the training of clerics, but they would increasingly be used by laymen who would begin to challenge the clerical monopoly of administrative posts in the government and law. Scottish scholars continued to visit the continent for their second degrees and this international contact helped bring the new ideas of humanism back into Scottish intellectual life.[102]
Art and architecture
Scotland is known for its dramatically placed castles, many of which date from the late medieval era. In contrast to England, where the wealthy began to move towards more comfortable grand houses, these continued to be built into the modern period, developing into the style of
Parish church architecture in Scotland was often much less elaborate than in England, with many churches remaining simple oblongs, without transepts and aisles, and often without towers. In the highlands, they were often even simpler, many built of rubble masonry and sometimes indistinguishable from the outside from houses or farm buildings.[108] However, there were some churches built in a grander continental style. French master mason John Morrow was employed at the building of Glasgow Cathedral and the rebuilding of Melrose Abbey, both considered fine examples of Gothic architecture.[109] The interiors of churches were often more elaborate before the Reformation, with highly decorated sacrament houses, like the ones surviving at Deskford and Kinkell.[108] The carvings at Rosslyn Chapel, created in the mid-15th century, elaborately depicting the progression of the seven deadly sins, are considered some of the finest in the Gothic style.[110] Late medieval Scottish churches also often contained elaborate burial monuments, like the Douglas tombs in the town of Douglas.[108]
There is relatively little information about native Scottish artists during the late Middle Ages. As in England, the monarchy may have had model portraits used for copies and reproductions, but the versions that survive are generally crude by continental standards.
Language and literature
It was in this period that the Scots language became the dominant language of the state and the social elite, while also becoming linked with Scottish national identity and making inroads into the highland zone at the expense of Gaelic. Middle Scots, often called "English" in this period, was derived largely from Old English, with the addition of elements from Gaelic and French. Although resembling the language spoken in northern England, it became a distinct dialect from the late 14th century onwards.[111] It was the dominant language of the lowlands and borders, brought there largely by Anglo-Saxon settlers from the 5th century, but began to be adopted by the ruling elite as they gradually abandoned French in the late medieval era. By the 15th century it was the language of government, with acts of parliament, council records, and treasurer's accounts almost all using it from the reign of James I onwards. As a result, Gaelic, once dominant north of the Tay, began a steady decline.[111]
Gaelic was the language of the
It was Scots that emerged as the language of national literature in Scotland. The first surviving major text is
Much Middle Scots literature was produced by
In the late 15th century, Scots prose also began to develop as a genre. Although there are earlier fragments of original Scots prose, such as the Auchinleck Chronicle,[115] the first complete surviving works include John Ireland's The Meroure of Wyssdome (1490).[116] There were also prose translations of French books of chivalry that survive from the 1450s, including The Book of the Law of Armys and the Order of Knychthode and the treatise Secreta Secetorum, an Arabic work believed to be Aristotle's advice to Alexander the Great.[111] The landmark work in the reign of James IV was Gavin Douglas's version of Virgil's Aeneid, the Eneados, which was the first complete translation of a major classical text in an Anglian language, finished in 1513, but overshadowed by the disaster at Flodden.[111]
Music
National identity
The late Middle Ages has often been seen as the era in which Scottish national identity was initially forged, in opposition to English attempts to annexe the country and as a result of social and cultural changes. English invasions and interference in Scotland have been judged to have created a sense of national unity and a hatred towards England which dominated Scottish foreign policy well into the 15th century, making it extremely difficult for Scottish kings like James III and James IV to pursue policies of peace towards their southern neighbour.[123] In particular the Declaration of Arbroath asserted the ancient distinctiveness of Scotland in the face of English aggression, arguing that it was the role of the king to defend the independence of the community of Scotland. This document has been seen as the first "nationalist theory of sovereignty".[124]
The adoption of Middle Scots by the aristocracy has been seen as building a shared sense of national solidarity and culture between rulers and ruled, although the fact that north of the Tay Gaelic still dominated may have helped widen the cultural divide between highlands and lowlands.
It was in this period that the national flag emerged as a common symbol. The image of St. Andrew, martyred while bound to an X-shaped cross, first appeared in the
See also
Notes
- ISBN 0-415-27880-5, p. 40.
- ISBN 0-415-27880-5, p. 42.
- ISBN 1-86232-145-0, p. 9.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, p. 107.
- ISBN 0-415-27880-5, pp. 43–4.
- ISBN 0-631-21466-6, p. 31.
- ISBN 0-946487-52-9, p. 21.
- ISBN 0-521-84600-5, p. 116.
- ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1965), p. 216.
- ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley, CA.: University of California Press, 1965), p. 273.
- ISBN 0-7486-3333-2.
- ISBN 0-7486-1238-6, p. 217.
- ISBN 0-330-46415-9, p. 123.
- ISBN 90-04-16821-4, pp. 9–10.
- ISBN 0-86241-616-7, p. 222.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-27293-9, pp. 86–8.
- ISBN 1-84176-980-0, p. 8.
- ISBN 1-4039-0816-8, p. 126.
- ISBN 0-85115-804-8, pp. 334–9.
- ISBN 0-333-56761-7, pp. 95–6.
- ^ ISBN 0-631-21785-1, pp. 301–2.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, pp. 151–4.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, pp. 154–60.
- ^ ISBN 0-521-58602-X, pp. 160–9.
- ^ A. Macquarrie, Medieval Scotland: Kinship and Nation (Thrupp: Sutton, 2004), p. 220.
- ^ R. Tanner, The Late Medieval Scottish Parliament: Politics and the Three Estates, 1424–1488 (Edinburgh: Tuckwell, 2001), pp. 201–4.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, pp. 171–2.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 6.
- ISBN 0-313-30588-9, pp. 244–5.
- ISBN 0-7486-1455-9, p. 117.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 14–15.
- ISBN 1-86232-114-0, p. 221.
- ISBN 0-85976-663-2, p. 189.
- ISBN 0-521-42034-2, p. 162.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 7.
- ISBN 1-902930-38-X, p. 179.
- ISBN 0-415-27880-5, p. 2.
- ISBN 0-7614-7883-3, p. 13.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 39–40.
- ^ A. G. Ogilvie, Great Britain: Essays in Regional Geography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952), p. 421.
- ^ R. R. Sellmen, Medieval English Warfare (London: Taylor & Francis, 1964), p. 29.
- ISBN 0-415-13041-7, p. 101.
- ^ ISBN 1-84384-096-0, pp. 21.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 5.
- ISBN 0-631-21785-1, pp. 109–11.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 61.
- ^ ISBN 0-521-47385-3, pp. 8–10.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 41–55.
- ISBN 0-85664-646-6, pp. 86–9.
- ^ ISBN 0-631-21785-1, pp. 111–6.
- ISBN 0-415-27880-5, p. 78.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 29–35.
- ISBN 0-7546-6421-X, p. 71.
- ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley CA.: University of California Press, 1965), p. 7.
- ISBN 0-87972-339-4, p. 98, n.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-1393-5, p. 13.
- ISBN 0-415-14627-5, p. 667.
- ISBN 0-8063-1268-8, pp. 99–104.
- ^ ISBN 0-85115-814-5, pp. 145–65.
- ISBN 1-84383-192-9, pp. 13–15.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-820762-X, pp. 57–60.
- ISBN 0-415-13041-7, p. 99.
- ISBN 1-84383-270-4, p. 38.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 48–9.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 50–1.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 28 and 35-9.
- ISBN 0-7486-1110-X, p. 221.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 18.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 22.
- ^ K. M. Brown and R. J. Tanner, The History of the Scottish Parliament volume 1: Parliament and Politics, 1235–1560 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), pp. 1–28.
- ISBN 0-7546-5328-5, p. 14.
- ISBN 0-7486-1485-0, p. 50.
- ^ R. J. Tanner, 'The Lords of the Articles before 1540', in Scottish Historical Review, 79 (2000), pp. 189–212.
- ISBN 1-86232-174-4.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 21.
- ISBN 0-415-12231-7, p. 179.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-1238-6, p. 58.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, p. 108.
- ISBN 1-84603-325-X, p. 23.
- ISBN 0-85976-341-2, pp. 16–30.
- ISBN 3-05-004131-5, p. 51.
- ISBN 1-84383-318-2, p. 69.
- ISBN 1-85109-556-X, p. 47.
- ISBN 0-521-31923-4, p. 100.
- ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, p. 19.
- ISBN 0-7486-1455-9, p. 76.
- ISBN 1-59884-429-6, p. 156.
- ^ a b c d J. Grant, "The Old Scots Navy from 1689 to 1710", Publications of the Navy Records Society, 44 (London: Navy Records Society, 1913-4), pp. i–xii.
- ^ N. Macdougall, James IV (Edinburgh: Tuckwell, 1997), p. 235.
- ^ ISBN 0-85976-338-2, p. 45.
- ISBN 90-04-18568-2, pp. 33–4.
- ^ ISBN 1-84384-096-0, pp. 26–9.
- ^ G. W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce (Berkeley CA.: University of California Press, 1965), p. 293.
- ^ ISBN 0-7486-0276-3, pp. 76–87.
- ISBN 0-521-44461-6, pp. 349–50.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, p. 246.
- ISBN 0-521-58602-X, p. 254.
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