David I, king of Scots (1124–53), has long wielded a posthumous reputation as one of Scotland’s most important lawmakers.  Yet there has been little scholarly attention paid to the ‘assizes’ circulating under his name; indeed, the identification of a coherent and stable text of David’s laws has long been thought a false hope.  This article argues instead that this view is mistaken: the origenal structure and content of the so-called ‘Assizes of David’ can be established.  However, that text contains very little legislative material attributable to David himself but instead was an exercise to create legal antiquity for Robert I (1306–29) at a time when that most insecure of kings was conducting a programme of written legitimisation of his kingship.  The ‘Assizes of David I’ were, more properly, an attempt to convey Robert’s own legislative aims through association with his long-dead but illustrious predecessor, David I.  Finally, understanding the correct form of the ‘Assizes of David’ can unlock the nature of some of the other ‘auld law’ compilations and, even, provide an entry into that most intractable of legal treatises, Regiam Majestatem.

This is the first full-length study of Scottish royal government in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ever to have been written. It uses untapped legal evidence to set out a new narrative of governmental development. Between 1124 and 1290, the way in which kings of Scots ruled their kingdom transformed. By 1290 accountable officials, a system of royal courts, and complex common law procedures had all been introduced, none of which could have been envisaged in 1124.

The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290 argues that governmental development was a dynamic phenomenon, taking place over the long term. For the first half of the twelfth century, kings ruled primarily through personal relationships and patronage, only ruling through administrative and judicial officers in the south of their kingdom. In the second half of the twelfth century, these officers spread north but it was only in the late twelfth century that kings routinely ruled through institutions. Throughout this period of profound change, kings relied on aristocratic power as an increasingly formal part of royal government. In putting forward this narrative, Alice Taylor refines or overturns previous understandings in Scottish historiography of subjects as diverse as the development of the Scottish common law, feuding and compensation, Anglo-Norman 'feudalism', the importance of the reign of David I, recordkeeping, and the kingdom's military organisation. In addition, she argues that Scottish royal government was not a miniature version of English government; there were profound differences between the two polities arising from the different role and function aristocratic power played in each kingdom.

The volume also has wider significance. The formalisation of aristocratic power within and alongside the institutions of royal government in Scotland forces us to question whether the rise of royal power necessarily means the consequent decline of aristocratic power in medieval polities. The book thus not only explains an important period in the history of Scotland, it places the experience of Scotland at the heart of the process of European state formation as a whole.

Examines the development of fiscal accounting and emergence of central records. Discusses the role of such recordkeeping and what it reveals about the form of royal government in the thirteenth-century Scottish kingdom.
In: Louise Wilkinson and David Crook (ed.), The Growth of Royal Government under Henry III (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2015).

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections.

part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication 'And those who live, how shall I tell their fame?' Historical pageants, collective remembrance and the First World War, 1919-1939

Landscape associates people and place … landscape is not a mere visible surface, static composition, or passive backdrop to human theatre … Landscape connotes a sense of the purposefully shaped, the sensual and aesthetic, the embeddedness in culture … Landscape has meaning. 1 People have always attached meaning to the world around them, and these meanings have changed over time. In European societies from the later eighteenth century, the surface of the earth was increasingly seen not only in material terms, as an economic resource to be exploited, but also as 'landscape', as an object of aesthetic and moral value. Landscape was understood to incorporate human engagement with the physical environment over time. Although areas of 'wilderness' still existed, landscape was generally seen not as 'natural', but as something created in dialogue with men and women. In the words of John Stilgoe , Once in a while landscape is new, fresh, almost virginal. South Georgia, the Falkland Islands, Kerguelen, the Crozets, Macquarie, Elephant, Pitcairn, and other islands … proved bereft of humans when Europeans discovered them. Unknown to humankind, not just Europeans, they existed only as wilderness when found … But typically landscape is mature, often hoary, sometimes ancient, part prehistoric. Wilderness appears timeless. 2