Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain: From the Picts to Alexander III

Dauvit Broun

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2007

Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain

From the Picts to Alexander III

Dauvit Broun

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748630110

Overview
Contents

About this book

When did Scots first think of Scotland as an independent kingdom? What did they think was Scotland's place in Britain before the age of Wallace and Bruce? The answers argued in this book offer a fresh perspective on the question of Scotland's relationship with Britain. It challenges the standard concept of the Scots as an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early modern era, but also provides new evidence that the idea of Scotland as an independent kingdom was older than the age of Wallace and Bruce.

This leads to radical reassessments of a range of fundamental issues: the fate of Pictish identity and the origins of Alba, the status of Scottish kingship vis-à-vis England, the papacy's recognition of the independence of the Scottish Church, and the idea of Scottish freedom. It also sheds new light on the authorship of John of Fordun's chronicle, the first full-scale history of the Scots, and offers an historical explanation of the widespread English inability to distinguish between England and Britain. All this is placed in the wider context of ideas of ultimate secular power in Britain and Ireland and the construction of national histories in this period. The book concludes with a fresh perspective on the origin of national identity, and the medieval and specifically Scottish contribution to understanding what is often regarded as an exclusively modern phenomenon.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface and Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Map Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Genealogical Table Publicly Available Download PDF	xiv
1. Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I: THE IDEA OF BRITAIN
2. Ancient Kingdoms and Island Histories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
3. Alba as ‘Britain’ after 900 and the Pictish Antecedents of the Kingdom of the Scots Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
PART II: INDEPENDENCE
4. The Church and the Beginning of Scottish Independence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
5. Whose Independence? Bishop Jocelin of Glasgow (1175–99) and the Achievement of Ecclesiastical Freedom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	124
PART III: SOVEREIGN KINGSHIP
6. The Inauguration of Alexander III (1249) and the Portrayal of Scotland as a Sovereign Kingdom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
7. From Client King to Sovereign Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
PART IV: NATIONAL HISTORY
8. The Principal Source used by John of Fordun for his Chronicle of the Scottish People Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
9. The Scots as Ancient and Free: ‘Proto-Fordun’, ‘Veremundus’ and the Creation of Scottish History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
10. Conclusion: from British Identity to Scottish Nation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Bibliography of Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 328
Keywords: Scottish Studies

eBook

Published: March 26, 2007
ISBN: 9780748630110