Murder, Intrigue & Conspiracy In Medieval Scotland: Political Violence In The 14th And 15th Century

Murder, Intrigue & Conspiracy in Medieval Scotland presents a history of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Scotland through the lens of moments of exceptional political violence. It seeks to examine these incidents to understand why they happened, how the community at large responded to them, and what this tells us about the place of violence in late medieval Scottish politics. In the popular consciousness, there has been a common impression that late medieval Scotland was a particularly rough and brutal place. A kingdom riven by war and internal strife, dominated by over-mighty magnates who maintained their authority through violence and showed no compunction in pursuing ruthless methods to achieve their ambitions. This image is particularly strongly reinforced in media directly depicting late medieval Scotland or in imaginative fiction inspired by the period. This is the first book to draw together the most noteworthy episodes of political violence and examines how political violence was used and countered throughout the period. It offers insights into how the community of the realm perceived, employed, and controlled this violence. Instances of individual violence are analysed and contextualised within the wider periods of conflict between the Scottish crown and its magnates, giving an understanding of how the various parties involved pursued their grievances, and ultimately how they were resolved. The book also covers periods when royal authority was delegated to other influential figures whether due to a king's youth, infirmity, or absence from the kingdom and explores how the community worked to keep political violence to a minimum during such periods. While violence could be deployed in pursuit of political ambition in late medieval Scotland, it was no more endemic there than any other late medieval kingdom. AUTHOR: Callum Watson has PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh, with a focus on warfare, politics, and society in late medieval Scotland. He works for the National Trust for Scotland at the Battle of Bannockburn Visitor Centre, where he provides guided tours of the exhibition and the battlefield. He writes on various subjects relating to Scotland's fourteenth and fifteenth century history at Knight of the Two L's blog, drcallumwatson.blogspot.com, which is regularly featured in Dubh Ghlase newsletter of the Clan Douglas Society of North America, and can be found on Facebook www.facebook.com/DrCallumWatson and Instagram www.instagram.com/cpwatson1375. He has appeared in BBC's 'Rise of the Clans' episodes on Robert Bruce and James I, and in Channel 5's 'Britain's Lost Battlefields' episode on Bannockburn, as well as serving as one of the historical advisors for the Netflix film 'Outlaw King'. His article appeared in the September 2022 edition of History Scotland, on non-noble Scots in Barbour's Bruce, and has been interviewed by the Herald to promote a presentation given as part of the History Scotland seminar series. 15 b/w illustrations