Reign of Alexander II, 1214-49 (The Northern World)

388 Pages·2005·4.54 MB·English

by  Richard D. Oram

THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II, 1214-49
THE NORTHERN WORLD
North Europe and the Baltic c. 400-1700 AD
Peoples, Economies and Cultures
EDITORS
BarbaraCrawford(St. Andrews)
DavidKirby(London)
Jon-Vidar Sigurdsson(Oslo)
IngvildØye(Bergen)
Richard W. Unger(Vancouver)
PrzemyslawUrbanczyk(Warsaw)
VOLUME 16
THE REIGN OF
ALEXANDER II, 1214-49
EDITED BY
RICHARD D. ORAM
BRILL
LEIDEN•BOSTON
2005
On the cover: Beauly Priory, Highland. Photo: R.D.Oram.
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ISSN 1569–1462
ISBN 90 04 14206 1
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CONTENTS
List of Contributors .................................................................. vii
List of Illustrations .................................................................... ix
List of Maps and Plans ............................................................ xiii
Introduction: An Overview of the Reign of Alexander II .... 1
Richard D. Oram
‘A great prince, and very greedy of this world’s honour’.
The Historiography of Alexander II .................................... 49
Norman H. Reid
Contemporary Perspectives on Alexander II’s Succession:
The Evidence of King-Lists .................................................. 79
Dauvit Broun
Kingship, Conflict and State-Making in the Reign of
Alexander II: The War of 1215–17 and its Context ........ 99
Keith J. Stringer
Scotland and the Papacy in the Reign of Alexander II ........ 157
Andrew D.M. Barrell
Saints and Silver: Scotland and Europe in the Age of
Alexander II .......................................................................... 179
David Ditchburn
Alexander II and the Double Tressure .................................. 211
John Malden
Canon Law, Custom and Legislation: Law in the Reign of
Alexander II .......................................................................... 221
Hector L. MacQueen
Burghs and Burgesses: A Time of Consolidation? .................. 253
E. Patricia Dennison
Swerving from the Path of Justice: Alexander II’s
Relations with Argyll and the Western Isles, 1214–1249 .... 285
Noel Murray
List of Abbreviations .................................................................. 307
Bibliography ................................................................................ 313
Index .......................................................................................... 329

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Richard D. Oram is Senior Lecturer in Scottish Medieval History
and Environmental History at the University of Stirling.
Norman H. Reid is Keeper of Manuscripts and Muniments at the
University of St Andrews.
Dauvit Broun is Senior Lecturer in Scottish History at the University
of Glasgow.
Keith J. Stringer is Professor of Medieval British History at Lancaster
University.
Andrew D.M. Barrell is Lecturer in History at the Queen’s Univer-
sity, Belfast.
David Ditchburn is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of
Aberdeen.
John Malden is Director of the Paxton Trust.
Hector L. MacQueen is Professor of Private Law at the University
of Edinburgh.
E. Patricia Dennison is Director of the Centre for Scottish Urban
History at the University of Edinburgh.
Noel Murray is formerly a Postgraduate Research Student in the
Department of History, University of Aberdeen.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Great Seal of Alexander II, showing the king enthroned in state.
(From Walter de Gray Birch, History of Scottish Seals)
Introduction, Oram
2. Arbroath Abbey, Angus. The assembly of Alexander’s kinsmen
and the Scottish magnates here in December 1214 for the funeral
of William the Lion marked the opening of Alexander’s offensive
against the English king, John. (Oram)
3. Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland. The chief stronghold of the
earldom that Alexander regarded as his rightful inheritance, his
failure to take Bamburgh weakened his grip on his northern
English conquests. (Oram)
4. Tomb effigy of Alan of Galloway, Dundrennan Abbey, Galloway.
The greatest magnate of the first half of Alexander II’s reign,
Alan controlled an inheritance that stretched from Lauderdale
and Cunningham, Ulster and Galloway, to the English Midlands.
His power gave him a key role in moulding Alexander’s policies
in the maritime west. (Oram)
5. Tomb effigy of an unknown abbot, Dundrennan Abbey, Galloway.
With a dagger’s hilts protruding from his left breast and his staff
resting on the head of a partly disembowelled man, it has been
suggested that this Cistercian abbot was a casualty of the politi-
cal turmoil in Galloway which followed the death of Alan in
1234/5 and the forced partition of the lordship by the king.
(Oram)
6. Kildrummy Castle, Aberdeenshire. Control of such centres of
power lay at the heart of Alexander’s settlement of the long-run-
ning dispute over the succession to the earldom of Mar. (Oram)
7. Peel Ring of Lumphanan, Aberdeenshire. While the Durwards
lost the competition over the earldom of Mar, they received a
substantial landed lordship between the Dee and the Don as com-
pensation. Lumphanan, at the heart of that lordship, was one of
many centres on which Alan Durward built his political domi-
nance in the second half of Alexander’s reign. (Oram)
x list of illustrations
8. Beauly Priory, Highland. For the Bisset family, there could have
been no clearer demonstration of their closeness to Alexander
II and their arrival in the social elite of the kingdom than the
foundation of a Valliscaulian priory on their Inverness-shire
estates, emulating Alexander’s own recent foundation at Pluscarden.
(Oram)
9. Hermitage Castle, Borders. One factor in the Anglo-Scottish
diplomatic crisis of 1243 was the alleged fortification of castles
on the border by the Scots. It has been suggested that the ear-
liest stages of building at Hermitage represent one of these
provocative fortifications. (Oram)
10. Castle of Old Wick, Highland. For centuries, the lands and cas-
tles of the earls of Caithness and Orkney, such as the cliff-top
stronghold at Wick, had lain beyond the effective reach of the
Scottish crown. Alexander’s successful campaign into Caithness
in 1222 demonstrated beyond question how radically that posi-
tion had changed. (Oram)
A Great Prince, Reid
11. Melrose Abbey, Borders. Alexander’s devotion to the Church
was more than mere posturing for political ends. Melrose, his
great-grandfather’s greatest foundation, benefited significantly
from Alexander’s patronage and was his chosen burial place.
(Oram)
Contemporary Perspectives, Broun
12. Seal of Scone Abbey showing inauguration of a Scottish king.
(Facsimile image from Liber Ecclesie de Scon)
Kingship, Conflict, Stringer
13. Great Seal of Alexander II, showing the king mounted as an
armoured knight. (From Walter de Gray Birch, History of Scottish
Seals)
14. Barnard Castle, Co. Durham. The Teesdale stronghold of John’s
leading northern loyalists, the Balliols, proved too strong for
Alexander to capture. (Oram)