Grenzen und Grenzregionen

Haubrichs, Wolfgang

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Persistent identifier:: 1655724991

URN:: urn:nbn:de:bsz:291-sulbdigital-108918

Title:: Grenzen und Grenzregionen

Author:: Haubrichs, Wolfgang

Place of publication:: Saarbrücken

Publisher:: Saarbrücker Dr. und Verl.; Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek

Document type:: Monograph

Collection:: Kommission für Saarländische Landesgeschichte; History; Earth Sciences; Language

Volume number:: 22

Year of publication:: 1994

Number of pages:: 283 S.

Copyright:: Saarländische Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek

Language:: eng

Digitised pages:: 284

Chapter

Title:: The Anglo-Scottish Border: Growth and Structure in the Middle Ages

Author:: Barrow, Geoffrey W.

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Digitised pages:: 16

Norwegian kingdom until 1468-9.69 Although the water frontier was truly international it seems to have been much less sharply defined than the Border and it was certainly never policed. The people of the west highlands and the isles came and went freely regardless of nominal Norwegian or, it has to be said, often nominal Scottish royal overlordship. The great nobles of the region, many of whom used the standard Gaelic style of righ, 'king', ruled over extensive lordships whose boundaries ignored the technical divide between a mainland in the kingdom of Scotland and islands in that of Norway70. The treaty of Perth (1266) did little more than formalize an already established situation, although it was important for the Scots monarchy that the great men of the west - MacDougalls, MacRorys, MacDonalds and so on - were thenceforward their liege subjects71. In the far north, the stormy waters of the Pentland Firth which separate the islands of Orkney from the Scottish mainland probably presented more serious problems of weather and navigation than of politics. For at least a century before the Northern Isles were pledged to Scotland in the reign of James III Scots had been settling in Orkney, perhaps also in Shetland. By the end of the fourteenth century the earl of Orkney was a Scot, and by 1461 there had been several Scottish bishops of Orkney72. One final and rather elusive 'border' in medieval Scotland may be mentioned. This was a cultural frontier which to some extent was connected with the advance and expansion of English speech - which confusingly came in the sixteenth century to be called 'Scots' - and the retreat of historically 'Scottish', i.e. Gaelic, speech73. Military feudalism, often called 'Anglo-Norman' or even simply 'Norman', came into Scotland from the early decades of the twelfth century with the active encouragement of the royal house - especially of David I and his three grandsons Malcolm IV, William the Lion and David earl of Huntingdon, whose reigns or active careers spanned over a century from 1113 to 12 1 974. An immediate result of this feudalism was the allocation of large lordships to major feudatories almost all with a continental or English or mixed background. They in turn subinfeudated to their dependants, creating many scores or hundreds of 'knights' fees'. These tended to be provided with fortified residences of the 'motte and bailey type', though we must note that in Scotland the bailey is often absent, and we have only a 'motte' 69 Duncan, A.A.M. and Brown, A.L., "Argyll and the Isles in the early Middle Ages", in: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 90 (1956-7), 192-220; Barrow, G.W.S., Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306 (2nd edn., Edinburgh, 1989), 105-121. 70 Ibid. 71 This appears clearly in the period of die first War of Independence (1296-1328), for which see generally Barrow, G.W.S., Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland. 72 Crawford, B.E., "The pawning of Orkney and Shetland: a re-consideration of the events of 1460-9", in: Scottish Historical Review 48 (1969), 35-53. 73 See map no. 74 in: McNeill and Nicholson, .4/7 Historical Atlas of Scotland C.400-C.1600. 74 Barrow, G.W.S., The Anglo-Norman Era in Scottish History (Oxford, 1980). 210

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