Undergraduate Course: 'Keeping up with the Plantagenets'? Royal Families in Scotland and England, 1124-1291 (HIST10526)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | The royal families of Scotland and England were becoming even more intimately connected over the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, through ties of marriage, kinship, lordship and legal jurisdiction. This course scrutinises aspects of Anglo-Scottish relations, English influence, and practices of rulership in both realms, including the prominent roles of royal women and children. Were Scotland's ruling family simply attempting to 'keep up with' their southern neighbours? |
| Course description |
As the descendants of King Malcolm III and Queen Margaret ruled Scotland throughout the twelfth- and thirteenth-centuries, they curated their family's power by stressing their royal legitimacy and eradicating dynastic challenges. Down south, the rulers of England were doing something similar. This course explores the extent to which the Plantagenets served as the inspiration or model for changing ideas of Scottish kingship and practices of royal government, engaging with important debates in modern scholarship over the concept of 'Anglicization'.
As well as considering pivotal moments in Anglo-Scottish relations and external influences on Scottish rulership, the course will introduce comparative case studies to investigate different perspectives from within royal families, including those of ruling women and child kings. Working with a variety of source material -- chronicles, charters, letters, coins and seals -- the course will cover topics such as family and dynasty, homage and overlordship, sovereignty, queenship, royal childhood, (il)legitimacy, and warfare.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third level historical courses or equivalent.
Students should only be enrolled on this course with approval from the History Honours Programme Administrator. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand comparative and cross-kingdom/transnational approaches and be able to integrate these historical methodologies within their work.
- Evidence skill in analysing a wide variety of primary evidence.
- Critically compare and analyse experiences of medieval rulership and royal families in Scotland and England.
- Plan, develop and execute a substantial piece of independent research.
- Communicate initial research framework and findings in a non-written format.
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Reading List
Alice Taylor, The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland: 1124-1290 (Oxford, 2016)
Judith A. Green, 'Anglo-Scottish relations, 1066-1174', in England and Her Neighbours, 1066-1453, ed. Michael Jones and Malcolm Vale (London, 1989), pp. 53-72
R. R. Davies, The First English Empire: Power and Identities in the British Isles, 1093-1343 (Oxford, 2002)
Robert Bartlett, Blood Royal: Dynastic Politics in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 2020)
Chris Wickham, 'Problems in doing comparative history', in Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: the Legacy of Timothy Reuter, ed. Patricia Skinner (Turnhout, 2009), pp. 5-28
Dauvit Broun, Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain: From the Picts to Alexander III (Edinburgh, 2007)
G. W. S. Barrow, Scotland and Its Neighbours in the Middle Ages (London, 1992)
Alice Taylor, 'Recalling Anglo-Scottish relations in 1291: historical knowledge, monastic memory, and the Edwardian inquests', TCE, 16 (2017), 173-206
The English Isles: Cultural Transmission and Political Conflict in Britain and Ireland, 1100-1500, eds. Seán Duffy and Susan Foran (Dublin, 2013)
A. A. M. Duncan, The Kingship of the Scots, 842-1292: Succession and Independence (Edinburgh, 2002)
David A. Carpenter, 'Scottish royal government in the thirteenth century from an English perspective', in New Perspectives on Medieval Scotland 1093-1286, ed. Matthew Hammond (2013), pp. 117-60
Finding the Family in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland, eds. Elizabeth Ewan and Janay Nugent (Aldershot, 2008) |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Analytical skills through investigating and explaining the changing relationship between Scotland and England's ruling families in the Middle Ages
Exercise personal and intellectual autonomy through designing, planning and gathering relevant evidence for a research project
Written communication skills under both independent and timed assessment settings
Oral communication skills, including ability to communicate and seek feedback on research ideas and arguments in the early stages of development
Summarise, interpret and critically compare primary sources and historiographical arguments |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Emily Ward
Tel: (0131 6)50 6693
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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