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Scotland in the High Middle Ages

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and
before (including Roman Britain)

   Dunnottar Castle in the Mearns occupies one of the best defensive
   locations in Great Britain. The site was in use throughout the High
   Middle Ages, and the castle itself dates to the thirteenth century.
   Enlarge
   Dunnottar Castle in the Mearns occupies one of the best defensive
   locations in Great Britain. The site was in use throughout the High
   Middle Ages, and the castle itself dates to the thirteenth century.

   The history of Scotland in the High Middle Ages concerns itself with
   Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the
   death of king Alexander III in 1286, which led indirectly to the
   Scottish Wars of Independence.

   In the tenth and eleventh centuries, northern Great Britain was
   increasingly dominated by Gaelic culture, and by a Gaelic regal
   lordship known in Gaelic as " Alba", in Latin as either "Albania" or "
   Scotia", and in English as "Scotland". From a base in eastern Scotland
   north of the River Forth, the kingdom acquired control of the lands
   lying to the south. It had a flourishing culture, comprising part of
   the larger Gaelic-speaking world.

   After the twelfth-century reign of King David I, the Scottish monarchs
   are better described as Scoto-Norman than Gaelic, preferring French
   culture to native Scottish culture. They fostered and attached
   themselves to a kind of Scottish " Norman Conquest". The consequence
   was the spread of French institutions and social values. Moreover, the
   first towns, called burghs, began in the same era, and as these burghs
   spread, so did the Middle English language. To a certain degree these
   developments were offset by the acquisition of the Norse-Gaelic west,
   and the Gaelicization of many of the great families of French and
   Anglo-French origin, so that the period closes with what has been
   called a "Gaelic revival", and an integrated Scottish national
   identity. Although there remained a great deal of continuity with the
   past, by 1286 these economic, institutional, cultural, religious and
   legal developments had brought Scotland closer to its neighbours in
   England and the Continent. By 1286 the Kingdom of Scotland had
   political boundaries that closely resemble those of modern Scotland.
            History of Scotland
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Historiography

   Scotland is relatively well-studied in this period. New works come out
   every year, and the field of Scottish medievalism is a vibrant and
   changing one. Scottish medievalists can generally be grouped into two
   categories: Celticists and Normanists. The former, such as David
   Dumville, Thomas Owen Clancy and Dauvit Broun, are interested in the
   native cultures of the country, and often have linguistic training in
   the Celtic languages. Normanists are concerned with the French and
   Anglo-French cultures as they were introduced to Scotland after the
   eleventh century. The most prominent of such scholars is G.W.S. Barrow,
   who has devoted his life to studying feudalism in Britain and Scotland
   in the High Middle Ages. The change-continuity debate that derives from
   this division is currently one of the most active topics of discussion.
   For much of the twentieth century, scholars tended to stress the
   cultural change that took place in Scotland in the Norman era. However,
   many scholars, for instance Cynthia Neville and Richard Oram, while not
   ignoring cultural changes, are arguing that continuity with the Gaelic
   past was just as, if not more, important.

Origins of the Kingdom of Alba

   Sueno's Stone Located in Forres, in the old kingdom of Fortriu, it is a
   testament to the power of the Kings of the Picts.
   Enlarge
   Sueno's Stone Located in Forres, in the old kingdom of Fortriu, it is a
   testament to the power of the Kings of the Picts.

   During the period of occupation by the Roman Empire, the province of
   Britannia formally ended at Hadrian's Wall. Between this wall and the
   Antonine Wall, the Romans fostered a series of buffer states separating
   the Roman-occupied territory from the territory of the Picts. The
   development of "Pictland" itself, according to the historical model
   developed by Peter Heather, was a natural response to Roman
   imperialism. Around 400 the buffer states became the Brythonic kingdoms
   of " The Old North", and by 900 the Kingdom of the Picts had developed
   into the Gaelic Kingdom of Alba.

   In the tenth century, the Scottish elite began to develop a conquest
   myth to explain their Gaelicization, a myth often known as MacAlpin's
   Treason, in which Cináed mac Ailpín is supposed to have annihilated the
   Picts in one fell takeover. The earliest versions include the Life of
   St Cathróe of Metz and royal genealogies tracing their origin to Fergus
   Mór mac Eirc, . In the reign of Máel Coluim III, the Duan Albanach
   formalised the myth in Gaelic poetic tradition. In the thirteenth and
   fourteenth centuries, these mythical traditions were incorporated into
   the documents now in the Poppleton Manuscript, and in the Declaration
   of Arbroath. They were believed in the early modern period, and beyond;
   even King James VI/I traced his origin to Fergus, saying, in his own
   words, that he was a "Monarch sprunge of Ferguse race".

   However, modern historians are now beginning to reject this
   conceptualization of Scottish origins. No contemporary sources mention
   this conquest. Moreover, the Gaelicization of Pictland was a long
   process predating Cináed, and is evidenced by Gaelic-speaking Pictish
   rulers, Pictish royal patronage of Gaelic poets, Gaelic inscriptions,
   and Gaelic placenames. The term king of Alba, although only registered
   at the start of the tenth century, is possibly just a Gaelic
   translation of Pictland. The change of identity can perhaps be
   explained by the death of the Pictish language, but also important may
   be Causantín II's alleged Scoticisation of the "Pictish" Church and the
   trauma caused by Viking invasions, most strenuously felt in the Pictish
   Kingdom's heartland of Fortriu.

   Outside of Alba, the Kingdom of Strathclyde on the valley of the river
   Clyde remained semi-independent, as did the Gaels of Argyll and the
   islands to the west (formerly Dál Riata). The south-east had been
   absorbed by the English Kingdom of Bernicia/Northumbria in the seventh
   century, and other Germanic invaders, the Norse, were beginning to
   incorporate much of the Western and Northern Isles, as well as the
   Caithness area. Galloway too was under strong Norse-Gaelic influence,
   but there was no one kingdom in that area.

Kingdom of Alba or Scotia

Gaelic kings: Domnall II to Alexander I

   The Pictish Beast, by far the most commonly depicted image on Pictish
   stones. An intriguing question about this period is to what extent
   symbols like this continued to have meaning.
   Enlarge
   The Pictish Beast, by far the most commonly depicted image on Pictish
   stones. An intriguing question about this period is to what extent
   symbols like this continued to have meaning.

   King Domnall II was the first man to have been called rí Alban (i.e.
   King of Alba) when he died at Dunnottar in 900 - this meant king of
   Britain or Scotland. All his predecessors bore the style of either King
   of the Picts or King of Fortriu. Such an apparent innovation in the
   Gaelic chronicles is occasionally taken to spell the birth of Scotland,
   but there is nothing special about his reign that might confirm this.
   Domnall had the nickname dásachtach. This simply meant a madman, or, in
   early Irish law, a man not in control of his functions and hence
   without legal culpability. In fact, the long reign (900–942/3) of
   Domnall's successor Causantín is more often regarded as the key to
   formation of the High Medieval Kingdom of Alba. Despite some setbacks,
   it was during his half-century reign that the Scots saw off any danger
   that the Vikings would expand their territory beyond the Western and
   Northern Isles and the Caithness area.

   The period between the accession of Máel Coluim I and Máel Coluim II
   was marked by good relations with the Wessex rulers of England, intense
   internal dynastic disunity and, despite this, relatively successful
   expansionary policies. In 945, king Máel Coluim I received Strathclyde
   as part of a deal with King Edmund of England, an event offset somewhat
   by Máel Coluim's loss of control in Moray. Sometime in the reign of
   king Idulb (954–962), the Scots captured the fortress called oppidum
   Eden, i.e. Edinburgh. Scottish control of Lothian was strengthened with
   Máel Coluim II's victory over the Northumbrians and the Battle of
   Carham (1018). The Scots had probably had some authority in Strathclyde
   since the later part of the ninth century, but the kingdom kept its own
   rulers, and it is not clear that the Scots were always strong enough to
   enforce their authority..

   The reign of King Donnchad I from 1034 was marred by failed military
   adventures, and he was defeated and killed by the Mormaer of Moray, Mac
   Bethad mac Findláich, who became king in 1040. Mac Bethad ruled for
   seventeen years, so peacefully that he was able to leave to go on
   pilgrimage to Rome. However, he was overthrown by Máel Coluim, the son
   of Donnchad who eighteen months later defeated Mac Bethad's successor
   Lulach to become king Máel Coluim III. In subsequent medieval
   propaganda Donnchad's reign was portrayed positively, while Mac Bethad
   was vilified. William Shakespeare followed this distorted history in
   describing both men in his play Macbeth.
   A modern depiction of Máel Coluim III and his second wife, the
   Anglo-Hungarian princess Margaret.
   Enlarge
   A modern depiction of Máel Coluim III and his second wife, the Anglo-
   Hungarian princess Margaret.

   It was Máel Coluim III, not his father Donnchad, who did more to create
   the dynasty that ruled Scotland for the following two centuries,
   successfully compared to some. Part of the resource was the large
   number of children he had, perhaps as many as a dozen, through marriage
   to the widow or daughter of Thorfinn Sigurdsson, Earl of Orkney and
   afterwards to the Anglo-Hungarian princess Margaret, granddaughter of
   Edmund Ironside. However, despite having a royal Anglo-Saxon wife, Máel
   Coluim spent much of his reign conducting slave raids against the
   English, adding to the woes of that people in the aftermath of the
   Norman Conquest of England and the Harrying of the North. Marianus
   Scotus tells us that "the Gaels and French devastated the English; and
   [the English] were dispersed and died of hunger; and were compelled to
   eat human flesh".

   Máel Coluim's raids and attempts to further the claims for his
   successors to the English kingdom prompted interference by the Norman
   rulers of England in the Scottish kingdom. He had married the sister of
   the native English claimant to the English throne, Edgar Ætheling, and
   had given most of his children by this marriage Anglo-Saxon royal
   names. In 1080, King William the Conqueror sent his son on an invasion
   of Scotland, and Máel Coluim submitted to the authority of the king,
   giving his oldest son Donnchad as a hostage. King Máel Coluim himself
   died in one of the raids, in 1093.

   Tradition would have made his brother Domnall Bán Máel Coluim's
   successor, but it seems that Edward, his eldest son by Margaret, was
   his chosen heir. With Máel Coluim and Edward dead in the same battle,
   and his other sons in Scotland still young, Domnall was made king.
   However, Donnchad II, Máel Coluim's eldest son by his first wife,
   obtained some support from William Rufus and took the throne, but
   according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle his English and French followers
   were massacred,, and Donnchad II himself was killed later in the same
   year (1094) by Domnall's ally Máel Petair of Mearns. However, in 1097,
   William Rufus sent another of Máel Coluim's sons, Edgar, to take the
   kingship. The ensuing death of Domnall Bán secured the kingship for
   Edgar, and there followed a period of relative peace. The reigns of
   both Edgar and his successor Alexander are obscure in comparison with
   their successors. The former's most notable act was to send a camel (or
   perhaps an elephant) to his fellow Gael Muircheartach Ua Briain, High
   King of Ireland. When Edgar died, Alexander took the kingship, while
   his youngest brother David became Prince of "Cumbria" and ruler of
   Lothian.

Scoto-Norman kings: David I to Alexander III

   Image of David I, the Venerable and revolutionary Scoto-Norman king.
   Enlarge
   Image of David I, the Venerable and revolutionary Scoto-Norman king.

   The period between the accession of David I and the death of Alexander
   III was marked by dependency upon and relatively good relations with
   the Kings of the English. As long as one remembers the continuities,
   the period can also be regarded as one of great historical
   transformation, part of a more general phenomenon which has been called
   the "Europeanisation of Europe". As a related matter, the period
   witnessed the successful imposition of royal authority across most of
   the modern country. After David I, and especially in the reign of
   William I, Scotland's Kings became ambivalent about the culture of most
   of their subjects. As Walter of Coventry tells us that "The modern
   kings of Scotland count themselves as Frenchmen, in race, manners,
   language and culture; they keep only Frenchmen in their household and
   following, and have reduced the Scots [=Gaels] to utter servitude."

   The ambivalence of the kings was matched to a certain extent by the
   Scots themselves. In the aftermath of William's capture at Alnwick in
   1174, the Scots turned on the small number of Middle English-speakers
   and French-speakers among them. William of Newburgh related that the
   Scots first attacked the Scoto-English in their own army, and Newburgh
   reported a repetition of these events in Scotland itself. Walter Bower,
   writing a few centuries later albeit, wrote about the same events, and
   confirms that "there took place a most wretched and widespread
   persecution of the English both in Scotland and Galloway".
   The ruins of the main tower of Urquhart Castle. After the Conquest of
   Moray in the 1130s, this castle was one of dozens established in the
   area for the king's Frankish followers.
   Enlarge
   The ruins of the main tower of Urquhart Castle. After the Conquest of
   Moray in the 1130s, this castle was one of dozens established in the
   area for the king's Frankish followers.
   The seal of William I, or Guillaume le Lion as he became known. His
   title among the native Scots was probably Uilleam Garbh (i.e. "William
   the Rough").
   Enlarge
   The seal of William I, or Guillaume le Lion as he became known. His
   title among the native Scots was probably Uilleam Garbh (i.e. "William
   the Rough").

   Opposition to the Scottish kings in this period was indeed hard. The
   first instance is perhaps the revolt of Óengus, the Mormaer of Moray.
   Other important resistors to the expansionary Scottish kings were
   Somairle mac Gillai Brigte, Fergus of Galloway, Gille Brigte, Lord of
   Galloway and Harald Maddadsson, along with two kin-groups known today
   as the MacHeths and the MacWilliams. The latter claimed descent from
   king Donnchad II, through his son William fitz Duncan. The MacWilliams
   appear to have rebelled for no less a reason than the Scottish throne
   itself. The threat was so grave that, after the defeat of the
   MacWilliams in 1230, the Scottish crown ordered the public execution of
   the infant girl who happened to be the last of the MacWilliam line.
   This was how the Lanercost Chronicle related the fate of this last
   MacWilliam:

   "the same Mac-William's daughter, who had not long left her mother's
   womb, innocent as she was, was put to death, in the burgh of Forfar, in
   view of the market place, after a proclamation by the public crier. Her
   head was struck against the column of the market cross, and her brains
   dashed out"

   Many of these resistors collaborated, and drew support not just in the
   peripheral Gaelic regions of Galloway, Moray, Ross and Argyll, but also
   from eastern "Scotland-proper", and elsewhere in the Gaelic world.
   However, by the end of the twelfth century, the Scottish kings had
   acquired the authority and ability to draw in native Gaelic lords
   outside their previous zone of control in order to do their work, the
   most famous examples being Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Ferchar mac
   in tSagairt. Cumulatively, by the reign of Alexander III, the Scots
   were in a strong position to annex the remainder of the western
   seaboard, which they did in 1265, with the Treaty of Perth. The
   conquest of the west, the creation of the Mormaerdom of Carrick in 1186
   and the absorption of the Lordship of Galloway after the Galwegian
   revolt of Gille Ruadh in 1235 meant that the number and proportion of
   Gaelic speakers under the rule of the Scottish king actually increased,
   and perhaps even doubled, in the so-called Norman period. It was the
   Gaels and Gaelicised warriors of the new west, and the power they
   offered, that enabled King Robert I (himself a Gaelicised Scoto-Norman
   of Carrick) to emerge victorious during the Wars of Independence, which
   followed soon after the death of Alexander III.

Other Kingdoms

   Map of Comital and other Lordships in Medieval Scotland, c. 1230.
   Enlarge
   Map of Comital and other Lordships in Medieval Scotland, c. 1230.

   Amidst the genre of National histories and the scholarly desire to
   explain and legitimise modern national entities, it is easy to forget
   that the Kingdom of Alba was not the only source of regal authority in
   northern Britain. In fact, until the Norman era, and perhaps even until
   the reign of Alexander II, the Scottish king controlled only a minority
   of the people who lived inside the boundary of modern Scotland, in the
   same way as the French monarchs of the Middle Ages only had control of
   patches of what is now modern France. The ruler of Moray was called not
   only king in both Scandinavian and Irish sources, but before Máel
   Snechtai, king of Alba/Scotland. After Máel Snechtai, Irish sources
   call them merely kings of Moray. The rulers of Moray in fact took over
   the entire Scottish kingdom in 1040, under the famous Mac Bethad mac
   Findláich (1040– 1057) and his successor Lulach mac Gillai Choemgáin
   (1057– 1058). However, Moray was subjugated by the Scottish kings after
   1130, when the last native ruler, Óengus of Moray was defeated in an
   attempt to seize the Scottish throne.

   Galloway, likewise, was a Lordship with some regality. In a Galwegian
   charter dated to the reign of Fergus, the Galwegian ruler styled
   himself rex Galwitensium, King of Galloway. We know that Irish
   chroniclers continued to call Fergus' successors King. Although the
   Scots obtained greater control after the death of Gilla Brigte and the
   installation of Lochlann/Roland in 1185, Galloway was not in fact fully
   absorbed by Scotland until 1235, after the rebellion of the Galwegians
   was crushed.

   Galloway and Moray were not the only other territories whose rulers had
   regal status. Both the rulers of Mann & the Isles, and the rulers of
   Argyll had the status of kings, even if some southern Latin writers
   called them merely reguli (i.e. "kinglets"). The Mormaers of Lennox
   referred to their predecessors as Kings of Balloch, and indeed many of
   the Mormaerdoms had been kingdoms at an earlier stage. Another kingdom,
   Strathclyde (or Cumbria), had been incorporated into Scotland in a slow
   process that started in the ninth century and was not fully realized
   until perhaps the twelfth.

Geography

   Neither the political nor the theoretical boundaries of Scotland in
   this period, as both Alba and Scotia, corresponded exactly to modern
   Scotland. The closest approximation came at the end of the period, when
   the Treaty of York (1237) and Treaty of Perth (1266) fixed the
   boundaries between the Kingdom of the Scots with England and Norway
   respectively; although in neither case did this border exactly match
   the modern one, Berwick and the Isle of Man being eventually lost to
   England, and Orkney and Shetland later being gained from Norway.

   Until the thirteenth century, Scotland referred to the land to the
   north of the river Forth, and for this reason historians sometimes use
   the term "Scotland-proper". By the middle of the thirteenth century,
   Scotland could include all the lands ruled by the King of Scots, but
   the older concept of Scotland remained throughout the period.

   For legal and administrative purposes, the Kingdom of the Scots was
   divided into three, four or five zones: Scotland-proper (north and
   south of the Grampians), Lothian, Galloway and, earlier, Strathclyde.
   Like Scotland, neither Lothian nor Galloway had its modern meaning.
   Lothian could refer to the entire Middle English-speaking south-east,
   and latterly, included much of Strathclyde. Galloway could refer to the
   entire Gaelic-speaking south-west. Lothian was divided from
   Scotland-proper by the river Forth. To quote the early thirteenth
   century tract, de Situ Albanie,

   "the excellent piece of water that is called in Scottish the 'Froth',
   in British the 'Werid', and in Romance the 'Scottewatre' that is, the
   Water of the Scots, which divides the kingdoms of the Scots and of the
   English, and runs near the town of Stirling"

   Here Scottish refers to the language now called the Middle Irish
   language, British to the Welsh language and Romance to the Old French
   language, which had borrowed the term Scottewatre from the Middle
   English language.

   In this period, little of Scotland was governed by the crown. Instead,
   most Scots lay under the intermediate control of Gaelic and
   increasingly after the twelfth century, French-speaking Mormaers/Earls
   and Lords.

Economy

   The Scottish economy of this period was dominated by agriculture and by
   short-distance, local trade. There was an increasing amount of foreign
   trade in the period, as well as exchange gained by means of military
   plunder. By the end of this period, coins were replacing barter goods,
   but for most of this period most exchange was done without the use of
   metal currency.
   Burghs established in Scotland before the accession of Máel Coluim;
   these were essentially Scotland-proper's first towns
   Enlarge
   Burghs established in Scotland before the accession of Máel Coluim;
   these were essentially Scotland-proper's first towns

   Most of Scotland's agricultural wealth in this period came from
   pastoralism, rather than arable farming. Arable farming grew
   significantly in the "Norman period", but with geographical
   differences, low-lying areas being subject to more arable farming than
   high-lying areas such as the Highlands, Galloway and the Southern
   Uplands. Galloway, in the words of G.W.S. Barrow, "already famous for
   its cattle, was so overwhelmingly pastoral, that there is little
   evidence in that region of land under any permanent cultivation, save
   along the Solway coast." The average amount of land used by a
   husbandman in Scotland might have been around 26 acres. There is a lot
   of evidence that the native Scots favoured pastoralism, in that Gaelic
   lords were happier to give away more land to French and Middle
   English-speaking settlers, whilst holding on tenaciously to more
   high-lying regions, perhaps contributing to the
   Highland/Galloway-Lowland division that emerged in Scotland in the
   later Middle Ages. The main unit of land measurement in Scotland was
   the davoch (i.e. "vat"), called the arachor in Lennox. This unit is
   also known as the "Scottish ploughgate." In English-speaking Lothian,
   it was simply ploughgate. It may have measured about 104 acres, divided
   into 4 raths. Cattle, pigs and cheeses were among the most produced
   foodstuffs, but of course a vast range of foodstuffs were produced,
   from sheep and fish, rye and barley, to bee wax and honey.

   Pre-Davidian Scotland had no towns. The closest thing to towns were the
   larger than average population concentrations around large monasteries,
   such as Dunkeld and St Andrews, and regionally significant
   fortifications. Scotland, outside Lothian at least, was populated by
   scattered hamlets, and outside that area, lacked the continental style
   nucleated village. David I established the first burghs in Scotland,
   initially only in English-speaking Lothian. David I copied the burgher
   charters and Leges Burgorum (rules governing virtually every aspect of
   life and work in a burgh) almost verbatim from the English customs of
   Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Early burgesses were usually Flemish, English,
   French and German, rather than Gaelic Scots. The burgh’s vocabulary was
   composed totally of either Germanic and French terms. The councils
   which ran individual burghs were individually known as lie doussane,
   meaning the dozen.

Demographics

   Linguistic division in early twelfth century Scotland. By the end of
   the period, Gaelic displaced Norse in much of the Norse-Gaelic region,
   but itself lost ground to English in much of the region between
   Scotland-proper and Galloway.
   Enlarge
   Linguistic division in early twelfth century Scotland. By the end of
   the period, Gaelic displaced Norse in much of the Norse-Gaelic region,
   but itself lost ground to English in much of the region between
   Scotland-proper and Galloway.

   The population of Scotland in this period is unknown. Not until 1755 do
   we get reliable information about the population of Scotland, when it
   was 1,265,380. However, best estimates put the Scottish population in
   this period between 500,000 and 1,000,000 people, growing from a low
   point to a high point. This population was much more evenly spread than
   today. We can estimate that between 60 and 80% of people lived north of
   the Forth river, with the remainder being divided between Galloway,
   Strathclyde and Lothian. Bishopric and Justiciar distribution suggests
   a relatively even divide between these three zones.

   Linguistically, the vast majority of people within Scotland throughout
   this period spoke the Gaelic language, then simply called Scottish, or
   in Latin, lingua Scotica. Other languages spoken throughout this period
   were Norse and English, with the Cumbric language disappearing
   somewhere between 900 and 1100. Pictish may have survived into this
   period, but there is little evidence for this. After the accession of
   David I, or perhaps before, Gaelic ceased to be the main language of
   the royal court. From his reign until the end of the period, the
   Scottish monarchs probably favoured the French language, as evidenced
   by reports from contemporary chronicles, literature and translations of
   administrative documents into the French language. English, with French
   and Flemish, became the main language of Scottish towns ( burghs),
   which were created for the first time under David I. However, burghs
   were, in Barrow's words, “scarcely more than villages … numbered in
   hundreds rather than thousands”, and Norman knights were a similarly
   tiny in number when compared with the Gaelic population of Scotland
   outside of Lothian.

Society

   Medieval Scottish society was stratified. We know more about status in
   early Gaelic society than perhaps any other early medieval European
   society, owing primarily to the large body of legal texts and tracts on
   status which are extant. The legal tract that has come down to us as
   the Laws of Brets and Scots, lists five grades of man: King, mormaer/
   earl, toísech/thane, ócthigern and serf. For pre- twelfth century
   Scotland, we should add slave to this category. The standard
   differentiation in medieval European society between the bellatores
   ("those who fight", i.e. aristocrats), the oratores ("those who pray",
   i.e. clergy) and the laboratores ("those who work", i.e. peasants) was
   useless for understanding Scottish society in the earlier period, but
   becomes more useful in the post-Davidian period.

   Most of the territory subject to the King of Scots north of the Forth
   was directly under a lord who in medieval Scottish was called a
   Mormaer. The term was translated into Latin as comes, and is
   misleadingly translated into modern English as Earl. These secular
   lords exercised secular power and religious patronage like kings in
   miniature. They kept their own warbands and followers, issued charters
   and supervised law and internal order within their provinces. When
   actually under the power of the Scottish king, they were responsible
   for rendering to the king cain, a tribute paid several times a year,
   usually in cattle and other barter goods. They also had to provide for
   the king conveth, a kind of hospitality payment, paid by putting-up the
   lord on a visit with food and accommodation, or with barter payments in
   lieu of this. In the Norman era, they provided the servitum Scoticanum
   ("Gaelic service", "Scottish service" or simply forinsec) and led the
   exercitus Scoticanus , the Gaelic part of the king's army that made up
   the vast majority almost any national hosting (slógad) in the period.
   This is a rough model of early Gaelic society gained from early Gaelic
   legal texts. The structure is applicable to pre-Norman Gaelic Scotland,
   although the terminology very different in Scottish Latin sources.
   Enlarge
   This is a rough model of early Gaelic society gained from early Gaelic
   legal texts. The structure is applicable to pre- Norman Gaelic
   Scotland, although the terminology very different in Scottish Latin
   sources.

   A toísech ("chieftain") was like a mormaer, providing for his lord the
   same services that a mormaer provided for the king. The Latin word
   usually used is thanus, which is why the office-bearers are often
   called "thanes" in English. The formalization of this institution was
   largely confined to eastern Scotland north of the Forth, and only two
   of the seventy-one known thanages existed south of that river. Behind
   the offices of toísech and mormaer were kinship groups. Sometimes these
   offices were formalized, but mostly they are informal. The head of the
   kinship group was called capitalis in Latin and cenn in medieval
   Gaelic. In the Mormaerdom of Fife, the primary kinship group was known
   then as Clann MacDuib ("Children of MacDuff"). Others include the
   Cennedig (from Carrick), Morggain (from Buchan), and the MacDowalls
   (from Galloway). There were probably hundreds in total, mostly
   unrecorded.

   The highest non-noble rank was, according to the Laws of Brets and
   Scots, called the ócthigern (literally, little or young lord), a term
   the text does not bother to translate into French. The Anglo-Saxon
   equivalent was perhaps the sokeman. Other known ranks include the
   scoloc, perhaps equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon gerseman. In the earlier
   period, the Scots kept slaves, and many of these were foreigners
   (English or Scandinavian) captured during warfare. Large-scale Scottish
   slave-raids are particularly well documented in the eleventh century.

Law and government

   The Royal Standard of Scotland, first adopted by king William I,
   (1143–1214).
   Enlarge
   The Royal Standard of Scotland, first adopted by king William I,
   (1143–1214).

   Early Gaelic law tracts, first written down in the ninth century,
   reveal a society highly concerned with kinship, status, honour and the
   regulation of blood feuds. Scottish common law began to take shape at
   the end of the period, assimilating Gaelic and Celtic law with
   practices from Anglo-Norman England and the Continent. In the twelfth
   century, and certainly in the thirteenth, strong continental legal
   influences began to have more effect, such as Canon law and various
   Anglo-Norman practices. Pre- fourteenth century law amongst the native
   Scots is not always well attested. However, our extensive knowledge of
   early Gaelic Law gives some basis for reconstructing pre- fourteenth
   century Scottish law. In the earliest extant Scottish legal manuscript,
   there is a document called Leges inter Brettos et Scottos. The document
   survives in Old French, and is almost certainly a French translation of
   an earlier Gaelic document. The document retained untranslated a vast
   number of Gaelic legal terms.. Later medieval legal documents, written
   both in Latin and Middle English, contain more Gaelic legal terms,
   examples including slains (Old Irish slán or sláinte; exemption) and
   cumherba (Old Irish comarba; ecclesiastic heir).

   A Judex (pl. judices) represents a post-Norman continuity with the
   ancient Gaelic orders of lawmen called in English today Brehons.
   Bearers of the office almost always have Gaelic names north of the
   Forth or in the south-west. Judices were often royal officials who
   supervised baronial, abbatial and other lower-ranking "courts".
   However, the main official of law in the post-Davidian Kingdom of the
   Scots was the Justiciar. The institution has Anglo-Norman origins, but
   in Scotland north of the Forth it probably represented some form of
   continuity with an older office. For instance, Mormaer Causantín of
   Fife is styled judex magnus (i.e. great Brehon), and it seems that the
   Justiciarship of Scotia was just a further Latinisation/Normanisation
   of that position. The formalized office of the Justiciar held
   responsibility for supervising the activity and behaviour of royal
   sheriffs and sergeants, held courts and reported on these things to the
   king personally. Normally, there were two Justiciarships, organized by
   linguistic boundaries: the Justiciar of Scotia and the Justiciar of
   Lothian. Sometimes Galloway had its own Justiciar too.

   The office of Justiciar and Judex were just two ways that Scottish
   society was governed. In the earlier period, the king "delegated" power
   to hereditary native "officers" such as the Mormaers/Earls and
   Toísechs/Thanes. It was a government of gift-giving and bardic lawmen.
   There were also popular courts, the comhdhail, testament to which are
   dozens of placenames throughout eastern Scotland. In the Norman period,
   sheriffdoms and sherrifs and, to a lesser extent, bishops (see below)
   became increasingly important. The former enabled the King to
   effectively administer royal demesne land. During David I's reign,
   royal sheriffs had been established in the king's core personal
   territories; namely, in rough chronological order, at Roxburgh, Scone,
   Berwick-upon-Tweed, Stirling and Perth. By the reign of William I,
   there may have been about 30 royal sheriffdoms, including ones at Ayr
   and Dumfries, key locations on the borders of Galloway- Carrick. As the
   distribution and number of sheriffdoms expanded, so did royal control.
   By the end of the thirteenth century, sheriffdoms had been established
   in westerly locations as far-flung as Wigtown, Kintyre, Skye and Lorne.
   Through these, the thirteenth century Scottish king exercised more
   control over Scotland than any of his later medieval successors. The
   king himself was itinerant and had no "capital"; but if there was such
   a thing, it was Scone. By ritual tradition, all Scottish kings in this
   period had to be crowned there, and crowned there by the Mormaers of
   Strathearn and, especially, Fife. Although King David I tried to build
   up Roxburgh as a capital, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, more
   charters were issued at Scone than any other location. Other popular
   locations were nearby Perth, Stirling, Dunfermline and Edinburgh
   (especially popular during the reign of Alexander II), as well as all
   other royal burghs. In the earliest part of this era, Forres and
   Dunkeld seem to have been the chief royal residences.

Military

   Medieval Gaelic warrior, as depicted on a later medieval grave-slab
   from Finlaggan. This warrior is Hebridean, but as such is closely
   related to the warrior of the high medieval Exercitus Scoticanus
   Enlarge
   Medieval Gaelic warrior, as depicted on a later medieval grave-slab
   from Finlaggan. This warrior is Hebridean, but as such is closely
   related to the warrior of the high medieval Exercitus Scoticanus

   After the "Norman Conquest" of David I, the warriors of Scotland can be
   classed as of two types. Firstly, the native exercitus Scoticanus (i.e.
   "Gaelic army"); and, secondly, the exercitus militaris (i.e. "feudal
   army"). The Gaelic army formed the larger part of all pre-Stewart
   Scottish armies, but in the wider world of European (i.e. French)
   chivalry the feudal section was the more prestigious. The native Scots,
   like all early medieval Europeans, practiced organized slave-raiding.
   Presumably, they did so with each other. However, our main record of it
   comes from when they practised it against their Norman and
   post-Conquest Anglo-Saxon neighbour. John Gillingham argues that this
   was one of the things which made the Scots (and other Celts)
   particularly barbarous in the eyes of their "Frankish" neighbours,
   because the French had largely abandoned this form of warfare.
   Jousting was a staple entertainment for medieval Frankish aristocrats.
   Many Scottish kings took part in tournaments, a fact remembered by
   Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal, where the exotic Scottish king is a
   celebrated jouster.
   Enlarge
   Jousting was a staple entertainment for medieval Frankish aristocrats.
   Many Scottish kings took part in tournaments, a fact remembered by
   Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzifal, where the exotic Scottish king is a
   celebrated jouster.

   As with so many changes in this period, the introduction of the feudal
   army can be traced primarily to the reign of David I, although French
   and English knights were used in moderation by his older brothers. The
   tension which these knights produced is well recorded in contemporary
   sources. At the Battle of the Standard, the Gaels oppose the
   positioning of the French soldiers in the van of the king's army.
   Ailred of Rievaulx attributes this opposition to the Galwegians, but we
   know it was the Scottish Gaels in general, as the native spokesman is
   given as Máel Ísu , then the Mormaer of Strathearn and highest ranking
   noble in the army.

   The advantage French military culture possessed was manifold. French
   knights used expensive suits of armour, whereas the Scots were "naked"
   (of armour, rather than dress). They possessed heavy cavalry, and other
   weapons such as crossbows and siege engines, as well as fortification
   techniques far more effective and advanced than anything possessed by
   the native Scots. Moreover, their culture, particularly their feudal
   ideology, made them reliable vassals, who because they were foreign,
   were even more dependent on the king. Over time, the Scots themselves
   became more like the French warriors, and the French warriors adopted
   many of the Gaelic military practices, so that by the end of the
   period, a syncretic military culture existed in the kingdom. When the
   feudal army was destroyed at the Battle of Dunbar (1296), the Scots
   were dependent once again on the Gaelic army. However, owing to two
   centuries of adaptation and the leadership of the Gaelic-speaking
   Scoto-Norman Robert Bruce, this army was able to defeat the attempted
   takeover by the English-crown.

Christianity & the Church

   We can be sure that at least all of northern Britain, except the
   Scandinavian far north and west was Christian by the tenth century. The
   most important factors for the conversion of Scotland were the Roman
   province of Britannia to the south, and later the so-called Gaelic or
   Columban church, an interlinked system of monasteries and aristocratic
   networks which combined to spread both Christianity and the Gaelic
   language amongst the Picts.

Saints

   The crozier of Saint Finan, and early medieval staff-head used by
   Gaelic clergymen. Now in Museum of Scotland.
   Enlarge
   The crozier of Saint Finan, and early medieval staff-head used by
   Gaelic clergymen. Now in Museum of Scotland.
   The Monymusk Reliquary. This is often thought to be the Brecbennoch,
   which purportedly enclosed bones of Columba, the most popular saint in
   medieval Scotland. It was carried by the Scots into the Battle of
   Bannockburn in 1314. The actual Monymusk reliquary dates from c. 750.
   Enlarge
   The Monymusk Reliquary. This is often thought to be the Brecbennoch,
   which purportedly enclosed bones of Columba, the most popular saint in
   medieval Scotland. It was carried by the Scots into the Battle of
   Bannockburn in 1314. The actual Monymusk reliquary dates from c. 750.

   Like every other Christian country, one of the main features of
   Scottish Christianity is the Cult of Saints. Saints were the middle men
   between the ordinary worshipper and God. In Scotland north of the
   Forth, local saints were either Pictish or Gaelic. The national saint
   of the Scottish Gaels was Colum Cille or Columba (in Latin, lit. dove),
   in Strathclyde it was St Kentigern (in Gaelic, lit. Chief of the Lord),
   in Lothian, St Cuthbert. Later, owing to learned confusion between the
   Latin words Scotia and Scythia, the Scottish kings adopted St Andrew, a
   saint who had more appeal to incoming Normans and was attached to the
   ambitious bishopric that is now known by the saint's name, St Andrews.
   However, Columba's status was still supreme in the early fourteenth
   century, when King Robert I carried the brecbennoch (or Monymusk
   reliquary) into battle at Bannockburn. Around the same period, a cleric
   on Inchcolm wrote the following Latin poem:
   Latin                   English
   Os mutorum,

   lux cecorum,
   pes clausorum,
   porrige
   lapsis manum,
   Firma vanum
   et insanum
   corrige
   O Columba spes Scottorum
   nos tuorum meritorum
   interventu beatorum
   fac consortes angelorum
   Alleluia
                           Mouth of the dumb people,

                           light of the blind people
                           foot of the lame people
                           to the fallen [people]
                           Stretch out thy hand
                           strengthen the vain people
                           and the insane [people]
                           Invigorate!
                           O Columba Hope of the Scots/Gaels
                           by thy standing
                           by mediation
                           make us the companions of the beautiful Angels
                           Halleluia.

   The poem illustrates both the role of saints, in this case as the
   representative of the Scottish (or perhaps just Gaelic) people in
   heaven, and the importance of Columba to the Scottish people.

Monasticism

   The typical features of native Scottish Christianity are relaxed ideas
   of clerical celibacy, intense secularization of ecclesiastical
   institutions, and the lack of a dioscesan structure. Instead of bishops
   and archbishops, the most important offices of the native Scottish
   church were abbots (or coarbs). Scotland was untouched by continental
   forms of monasticism until the late eleventh century. Instead,
   monasticism was dominated by monks called Céli Dé (lit. "vassals of
   God"), anglicised as culdees. In most cases, these monks were not
   replaced by new continental monks in the Norman period, but usually
   survived, even gaining the patronage of Queen Margaret, a figure
   traditionally seen as hostile to Gaelic culture. At St Andrews, the
   Céli Dé establishment endured throughout the period, and even enjoyed
   rights over the election of its bishop. In fact, Gaelic monasticism was
   vibrant and expansionary for much of the period. For instance, dozens
   of monasteries, often called Schottenklöster, were founded by Gaelic
   monks on the continent, and many Scottish monks, such as St Cathróe of
   Metz, became local saints.
   Dundrennan Abbey, founded by Fergus of Galloway, was one of scores of
   new continental monasteries founded in the twelfth century.
   Enlarge
   Dundrennan Abbey, founded by Fergus of Galloway, was one of scores of
   new continental monasteries founded in the twelfth century.

   The continental type of monasticism was first introduced to Scotland
   when King Máel Coluim III persuaded Lanfranc to provide a few monks
   from Canterbury for a new Benedictine abbey at Dunfermline (c. 1070).
   However, traditional Benedictine monasticism had little future in
   Scotland. Instead, the monastic establishments which followed were
   almost universally either Augustinians or of the Reformed Benedictine
   type, especially Cistercians, Tironensians, Premonstratensians and
   evens Valliscaulians.

Ecclesia Scoticana

   The Ecclesia Scoticana (lit. Scottish church) as a system has no known
   starting point, although Causantín II's alleged Scoticisation of the
   "Pictish" Church might be taken as one. Before the Norman period,
   Scotland had little dioscesan structure, being primarily monastic after
   the fashion of Ireland. After the Norman Conquest of England, the
   Archbishops of both Canterbury and York each claimed superiority over
   the Scottish church. The church in Scotland attained independent status
   after the Papal Bull of Celestine III (Cum universi, 1192) by which all
   Scottish bishoprics except Galloway were formally independent of York
   and Canterbury. However, unlike Ireland which had been granted four
   Archbishoprics in the same century, Scotland received no Archbishop and
   the whole Ecclesia Scoticana, with individual Scottish bishoprics
   (except Whithorn/Galloway), became the "special daughter of Rome". The
   following is a table of Bishoprics present in "Scotland-proper" in the
   thirteenth century:
   The ruins of St Andrews cathedral, the centre of the Ecclesia Scoticana
   in the Norman period.
   Enlarge
   The ruins of St Andrews cathedral, the centre of the Ecclesia Scoticana
   in the Norman period.
     * Bishop of Dunkeld
     * Bishop of St Andrews, then called Kilrymont.
     * Bishop of Brechin
     * Bishop of Dunblane (often called Bishop of Strathearn)
     * Bishop of Mortlach-Aberdeen
     * Bishop of Ross (often called Bishop of Rosemarkie then Fortrose )
     * Bishop of Moray (often called Bishop of Elgin )
     * Bishop of Caithness (often called Bishop of Dornoch)
     * Bishop of Argyll (often called Bishop of Lismore)

   Outside of Scotland-proper, the bishopric of Glasgow managed to secure
   its existence in the twelfth century with a vibrant church community
   who gained the favour of the Scottish kings. The Bishopric of Whithorn
   (Galloway) was resurrected by Fergus, King of Galloway, and Thurstan,
   Archbishop of York. The bishopric of the isles, under the nominal
   jurisdiction of Trondheim (and sometimes York), had its Episcopal seat
   at Peel, Isle of Man, later moving to Iona. Lothian had no bishop, but
   was controlled by St Andrews, Dunkeld and Glasgow. Its natural overlord
   was the Bishopric of Durham, and that bishopric continued to be
   important in Lothian, especially through the cult of St Cuthbert. There
   was also a bishopric of Orkney, based at Kirkwall.

Culture

   Coronation of King Alexander on Moot Hill, Scone. He is being greeted
   by the ollamh rígh, the royal poet, who is addressing him with the
   proclamation "Benach De Re Albanne" (= Beannachd Dé Rígh Alban, "God
   Bless the King of Scotland"); the poet goes on to recite Alexander's
   genealogy.
   Enlarge
   Coronation of King Alexander on Moot Hill, Scone. He is being greeted
   by the ollamh rígh, the royal poet, who is addressing him with the
   proclamation "Benach De Re Albanne" (= Beannachd Dé Rígh Alban, "God
   Bless the King of Scotland"); the poet goes on to recite Alexander's
   genealogy.

   As a predominantly Gaelic society, most Scottish cultural practices
   throughout this period mirrored closely those of Ireland, or at least
   those of Ireland with some Pictish borrowings. After David I, the
   French-speaking kings introduced cultural practices popular in
   Anglo-Norman England, France and elsewhere. As in all pre-modern
   societies, storytelling was popular. In the words of D.D.R. Owen, a
   scholar who specialises in the literature of the era, writes that
   "Professional storytellers would ply their trade from court to court.
   Some of them would have been native Scots, no doubt offering legends
   from the ancient Celtic past performed ... in Gaelic when appropriate,
   but in French for most of the new nobility" Almost all of these stories
   are lost, or come down only vaguely in Gaelic or Scots oral tradition.
   One form of oral culture extremely well accounted for in this period is
   genealogy. There are dozens of Scottish genealogies surviving from this
   era, covering everyone from the Mormaers of Lennox and Moray, to the
   Scottish king himself. Scotland's kings maintained an ollamh righe, a
   royal high poet who had a permanent place in all medieval Gaelic
   lordships, and whose purpose was to recite genealogies when needed, for
   occasions such as coronations.
   Book of Deer, Folio 5r contains the text of the Gospel of Matthew from
   1:18 through 1:21. Note the Chi Rho monogram in the upper left corner.
   The margins contain Gaelic text.
   Enlarge
   Book of Deer, Folio 5r contains the text of the Gospel of Matthew from
   1:18 through 1:21. Note the Chi Rho monogram in the upper left corner.
   The margins contain Gaelic text.

   Before the reign of David I, the Scots possessed a flourishing literary
   elite who regularly produced texts in both Gaelic and Latin that were
   frequently transmitted to Ireland and elsewhere. Dauvit Broun has shown
   that a Gaelic literary elite survived in the eastern Scottish lowlands,
   in places such as Loch Leven and Brechin into the thirteenth century,
   However, the records which have come down to us are predominantly
   written in Latin, and their authors would usually translate vernacular
   terms into Latin, so that historians are faced with a Gaelic society
   clothed in Latin terminology. Even names were translated into more
   common continental forms; for instance, Gilla Brigte became Gilbert,
   Áed became Hugh, etc. As far as written literature is concerned, there
   may be more medieval Scottish Gaelic literature than is often thought.
   Almost all medieval Gaelic literature has survived because it was
   allowed to sustain in Ireland, not in Scotland. Thomas Owen Clancy has
   recently all but proven that the Lebor Bretnach, the so-called "Irish
   Nennius," was written in Scotland, and probably at the monastery in
   Abernethy. Yet this text survives only from manuscripts preserved in
   Ireland. Other literary work which has survived include that of the
   prolific poet Gille Brighde Albanach. About 1218, Gille Brighde wrote a
   poem — Heading for Damietta — on his experiences of the Fifth Crusade.
   In the thirteenth century, French flourished as a literary language,
   and produced the Roman de Fergus, the earliest piece of non-Celtic
   vernacular literature to survive from Scotland. There is no extant
   literature in the English language in this era. There is some Norse
   literature from Scandinavian parts, such as the Northern Isles and the
   Western Isles. The famous Orkneyinga Saga however, although it pertains
   to the Earldom of Orkney, was written in Iceland.
   The harp (or clarsach) was an instrument associated with medieval
   Scottish culture. This one, now in the Museum of Scotland, is a one of
   only three surviving medieval Gaelic harps.
   Enlarge
   The harp (or clarsach) was an instrument associated with medieval
   Scottish culture. This one, now in the Museum of Scotland, is a one of
   only three surviving medieval Gaelic harps.

   In the Middle Ages, Scotland, perhaps more than any country in Europe,
   was renowned for its musical skill. Gerald of Wales tells us that:

   "Scotland, because of her affinity and intercourse [with Ireland],
   tries to imitate Ireland in music and strives in emulation. Ireland
   uses and delights in two instruments only, the harp namely, and the
   tympanum. Scotland uses three, the harp, the tympanum and the crowd. In
   the opinion, however, of many, Scotland has by now not only caught up
   on Ireland, her instructor, but already far outdistances her and excels
   her in musical skill. Therefore, [Irish] people now look to that
   country as the fountain of the art."

   The medieval Scots indeed took harping very seriously. We know that,
   even half a century after Gerald was writing, King Alexander III kept a
   royal harpist. Of the three mediaeval harps that survive, two come from
   Scotland (Perthshire), and one from Ireland. Singers also had a royal
   function. For instance, when the king of Scotland passed through the
   territory of Strathearn, it was the custom that he be greeted by seven
   female singers, who would sing to him. When Edward I approached the
   borders of Strathearn in the summer of 1296, he was met by these seven
   women, "who accompanied the King on the road between Gask and Ogilvie,
   singing to him, as was the custom in the time of the late Alexander
   kings of Scots".

Outsiders' view

   The Irish thought of Scotland as a provincial place. Others thought of
   it as an outlandish or barbaric place. To the Holy Roman Emperor
   Friedrich II, Scotland was associated with having many lakes; to the
   Arabs, it was an uninhabited peninsula to the north of England.

   "Who would deny that the Scots are barbarians?" was a rhetorical
   question posed by the author of the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi (i.e.
   "On the Conquest of Lisbon"). A century later St Louis of France was
   reported to have said to his son “I would prefer that a Scot should
   come from Scotland and govern the people well and faithfully, than that
   you, my son, should be seen to govern badly”. To their English-speaking
   and French-speaking neighbours, the Scots, especially the Galwegians,
   became the barbarians par excellence. After David I this ceased to be
   applied to their rulers, but the term barbarus was used to describe the
   Scots, as well as a large number of other European peoples, throughout
   the High Middle Ages. This characterisation of the Scots was often
   politically motivated, and many of the most hostile writers were based
   in areas frequently subjected to Scottish raids. English and French
   accounts of the Battle of the Standard contain many accounts of
   Scottish atrocities. For instance, Henry of Huntingdon tells us that
   the Scots:

   "cleft open pregnant women, and took out the unborn babes; they tossed
   children upon the spear-points, and beheaded priests on altars: they
   cut the head of crucifixes, and placed them on the trunks of the slain;
   and placed the heads of the dead upon the crucifixes. Thus wherever the
   Scots arrived, all was full of horror and full of savagery".,

   A less hostile view was given by Guibert of Nogent in the First
   Crusade, who encountered Scots and who wrote that:

   “You might have seen a crowd of Scots, a people savage at home but
   unwarlike elsewhere, descend from their marshy lands, with bare legs,
   shaggy cloaks, their purse hanging from their shoulders; their copious
   arms seemed ridiculous to us, but they offered their faith and devotion
   as aid”

   In many ways, these accounts tell us merely that in the Frankish
   cultural milieu, the Scots were seen as outsiders. Moreover, the fact
   that outlandishness did not apply to the new feudal elite meant that by
   the end of the period, the Scottish aristocrat was seen as little
   different from his English or French equivalent.

   There was a general belief that Scotland-proper was an island, or at
   least a peninsula, known as Scotia, Alba(nia), or, in the map of
   Matthew Paris, called Scotia ultra marina. In fact, it was in this
   manner that the land was drawn in the mid- thirteenth century by the
   aforementioned Matthew Paris. A later medieval Italian map applies this
   geographical conceptualization to all of Scotland. The Arab geographer
   al-Idrisi, shared this view. He tells us that Scotland:

   "adjoins the island of England and is a long peninsula to the north of
   the larger island. it is uninhabited and has neither town nor village.
   Its length is 150 miles"

   Such an observation encapsulates how Scotland, on the edge of the world
   as it was, was being imagined in the High Medieval western Eurasian
   world.

National identity

   In this period, the word Scot was not the word used by vast majority of
   Scots to describe themselves. This was in fact only the word they used
   to describe themselves to foreigners, amongst whom it was the most
   common word. The Scots called themselves Albanach or simply Gaidel. As
   with Scot, in the latter word, they used an ethnic term which connected
   them to the majority of the inhabitants of Ireland. As the author of De
   Situ Albanie tells us at the beginning of the thirteenth century:

   "The name Arregathel [=Argyll] means margin of the Scots or Irish,
   because all Scots and Irish are generally called "Gattheli""

   Likewise, the inhabitants of English and Norse-speaking parts were
   ethnically linked with other regions of Europe. At Melrose, people
   could recite religious literature in the English language. In the later
   part of the twelfth century, the Lothian writer Adam of Dryburgh, tells
   us that Lothian was “the Land of the English in the Kingdom of the
   Scots”.

   However, if Scotland possessed large ethnic differences, then it also
   possessed a unity which transcended Gaelic, French and Germanic ethnic
   differences. By the end of our period, the Latin, French and English
   word Scot could be used for any subject of the Scottish King.
   Scotland's multilingual Scoto-Norman monarchs and mixed Gaelic and
   Scoto-Norman aristocracy all became part of what many scholars call the
   "Community of the Realm", in which these ethnic differences were
   largely irrelevant.
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