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When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. ‘A NATION NOBLER IN BLOOD AND IN ANTIQUITY’: SCOTTISH NATIONAL IDENTITY IN GESTA ANNALIA I AND GESTA ANNALIA II Finlay Young PhD Scottish History The University of Edinburgh 2018 DECLARATION OF OWN WORK I confirm that - a) the thesis has been composed by me; b) the work is my own; c) the work has not been submitted for any other degree or professional qualification except as specified. Finlay Young ABSTRACT OF THESIS The origins and development of a sense of Scottish national identity have long been a matter of critical importance for historians of medieval Scotland. Indeed, this was also the case for historians in medieval Scotland itself: this period saw the composition of a number of chronicles that sought to describe the history of Scotland and the Scottish people from their earliest origins until the chroniclers’ own time. The dissertation explores ideas of national identity within two medieval Scottish chronicles, known today as Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II. Taken together, these two chronicles, one written before the Wars of Independence, the other after, can offer valuable insights into the development of the identity of the Scottish kingdom and its people, and the way in which this was affected by the Wars of Independence, providing evidence both of continuity and of contrast. This is of particular interest with respect to their portrayals of the role of the Scottish king and his relationship with the kingdom, given the way in which Robert I and his supporters later apparently attempted to shape the narrative of Scotland’s past and the position of its king to their own ends. The dissertation therefore seeks to investigate how such issues of Scotland’s identity are presented in Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II. The first section of the study discusses the construction of these texts. The second then looks at how terms such as ‘Scotland’ and ‘Scot’ are understood in the two chronicles, and the relationship between these ideas of the Scottish kingdom and the Scottish people. The third section examines the presentation of the crown, church and language in the chronicles, and the role of these elements in uniting the kingdom and fostering this sense of identity, arguing that the continuity of these ideas between the two texts suggests that many elements of Scotland’s national identity were well- established by the later thirteenth century. CONTENTS Referencing conventions Introduction: National Identity 1 Section I Chapter One: Proto-Fordun, Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II 17 Section II Chapter Two: The Scottish Kingdom 85 Chapter Three: The Scottish People 105 Section III Chapter Four: Kingship 139 Chapter Five: Church 181 Chapter Six: Language and Ethnicity 221 Conclusion 239 Appendix: Manuscripts of Gesta Annalia 245 Bibliography 249 Referencing conventions William Skene’s 1871 edition of John of Fordun’s Chronica Gentis Scotorum remains the standard printed edition not only for Fordun’s chronicle, but also the chronicles now generally referred to as Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II. As this thesis will argue, Gesta Annalia I also formed part of a longer work, known as Proto-Fordun, the remainder of which survives only within Fordun’s Chronica Gentis Scotorum. Skene’s edition, however, does not treat Gesta Annalia I and Gesta Annalia II as separate texts, and further complicates the issue by printing part of Gesta Annalia I in a separate appendix, under the title Capitula ad Gesta Annalia Praefixa. This thesis will, for ease of reference, nevertheless make use of the chapter numbers given in Skene’s edition, which will be cited as follows: For Proto-Fordun chapters within Chronica Gentis Scotorum: Skene (ed.), Chronica Gentis Scotorum [book & chapter no.] (It will be made clear where necessary if Proto-Fordun is not considered to be the author of a given example from Chronica Gentis Scotorum.) For Proto-Fordun chapters printed as Capitula ad Gesta Annalia Praefixa: Skene (ed.), Capitula ad Gesta Annalia Praefixa [chapter no.] For Proto-Fordun chapters printed as Gesta Annalia: Skene (ed.), Gesta Annalia [chapter no.] For Gesta Annalia II: Skene (ed.), Gesta Annalia [chapter no.] 1 INTRODUCTION: National Identity The referendum on Scottish independence has placed the question of Scotland’s national identity, and the country’s place in the world, at the heart of public debate in Scotland since 2014. Recent events such as the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow similarly inspired discussion about Scottish identity. This coincided with occasions such as the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn, not to mention the rerelease of yet another edition of Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (conveniently timed to fall on the same day), that have drawn attention to how Scotland’s medieval past has helped to shape this identity.1 The origins, emergence and development of this sense of Scottish identity have, however, long been a matter of critical importance for historians of medieval Scotland.2 Indeed, it was arguably a central theme in the work of historians actually living and writing in medieval Scotland: the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries saw the composition of a number of chronicles that sought to describe the history of Scotland and the Scottish people from their earliest origins until the chroniclers’ own time. This dissertation will investigate ideas of national identity within two medieval Scottish chronicles, known today as Proto-Fordun (of which the chronicle Gesta Annalia I forms part) and Gesta Annalia II. I The question of whether national identities could even exist in the Middle Ages is potentially controversial, at least from the perspective of many modern historians of nations, nationalism and identity, who have suggested that such concepts have little relevance to societies before the industrial and political revolutions of the 1 This heady mix of circumstances was perhaps best encapsulated in the Scottish swimmer Daniel Wallace yelling ‘For freedom!’ after his victory in the 400m medley in said Commonwealth Games, having watched the film beforehand: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth- games/28501031 [accessed 09/08/2014]. 2 Michael Brown, The Wars of Scotland 1214-1371 (Edinburgh, 2004), p.354. 2 eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.3 As medieval historians have observed in response, however, it is clear that those who lived in the medieval period frequently identified themselves as belonging to distinctive nations, peoples and kingdoms, understanding this to be a natural division, and, moreover, discussion of how particular groups originated, what linked them together, and what set them apart from one another, is a common theme in medieval writing.4 Thus, medieval authors conceived of the world as being populated by different peoples or races, who shared a common descent and even common characteristics and qualities.5 The particular language, laws and customs associated with such groups distinguished the different peoples from one another.6 Such groups were not necessarily regarded as forming a distinctive political entity, with no higher external authority: it was possible for a kingdom to contain within it many different peoples, who nevertheless retained their own laws and identity.7 Increasingly, however, as governments developed, so did the idea that nations and kingdoms naturally coincided, a sense of regnal solidarity, so that a people formed a kingdom and a kingdom consisted of a people.8 This can be seen in the case of Britain: where kings of England and Scotland once addressed several different races in their 3 R.R. Davies, ‘The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400, I: Identities,’ Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6.4 (1994), pp.1-20 at pp.2-4; Dauvit Broun, Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain: From the Picts to Alexander III (Edinburgh, 2007), pp.280-1; Anthony D. Smith, The Antiquity of Nations (Cambridge, 2004), pp.3-17; Susan Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities in Western Europe, 900-1300 (2nd edition, Oxford, 1997), p.251. 4 Davies, ‘The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400, I: Identities,’ pp.4-8; Robert Bartlett, ‘Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity,’ Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 31.1 (2001), pp.39-56 at pp.42-50; Susan Reynolds, ‘Medieval Origines Gentium and the Community of the Realm,’ History 68 (1983), pp.375-90 at p.375; Broun, Scottish Independence, pp.280-281; Dauvit Broun, The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Woodbridge, 1999), pp.7-9; Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, p.253. 5 Peoples were usually described as sharing descent from a founding figure in biblical or classical times: Broun, Irish Identity, p.8; Reynolds, ‘Medieval Origines Gentium,’ pp.375-6; Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, p.8; Matthew H. Hammond, ‘Ethnicity and the Writing of Medieval Scottish history,’ Scottish Historical Review 85 (2006), pp.1-27 at p.16; Davies, ‘The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400, I: Identities,’ pp.5-7; Bartlett, ‘Medieval and Modern Concepts,’ pp.44-7 6 Davies, ‘The Peoples of Britain and Ireland 1100-1400, I: Identities,’ pp.8-9; Bartlett, ‘Medieval and Modern Concepts,’ p.47; Reynolds, Kingdoms and Communities, p.256-7.