John Barbour's Bruce and National Identity in Fourteenth-Century
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ABSTRACT RENDER, HANNAH GRACE. No True Scotsman: John Barbour’s Bruce and National Identity in Fourteenth-Century Scotland (Under the direction of Dr. Julie Mell). The medieval wars between Scotland and England between 1296 and 1357 have cast a long shadow over the formation of Scottish national identity, but only became the “Wars of Independence” in later fourteenth-century retrospect, as the battles fought and won by the Scots became the basis for a burgeoning Scottish identity, and its victors were legitimized as national heroes. This patriotic myth of Scottish heroism is a romanticized fiction, created by late medieval Scottish kings, nobles, and the writers and artists they employed following the wars’ conclusion. This thesis contributes to the historical understanding of the artistic creation of national identity through the writing of literature and history in late medieval Scotland by analyzing The Bruce. The Bruce is a poetic narrative composed in octosyllabic lines by John Barbour in 1375, during the reign of Robert I’s grandson Robert II, and memorializes its eponymous hero and his followers as the saviors of this idealized Scottish realm, framing the battles they fought in as a war of “independence,” rather than the feudal disputes of Scottish and English nobility. The Bruce consequently was an influential source in the creation of Scottish ideas of national identity during a period of rapid and destructive political change. This thesis considers the literary motifs and developments throughout high and later medieval Europe that had political implications on identity formation. This thesis examines how Barbour’s Bruce was shaped by and shaped the political and cultural mentality of late medieval Scotland, as it was embedded in a wider European political and cultural milieu. I argue that Barbour’s work was informed by centuries of earlier literary explorations of nationhood and identity and highlight this intertextual history by examining the emplotment of The Bruce in relation to the genres of French chansons de geste, Scandinavian sagas, and English Robin Hood ballads. Chapter I examines the influences of the French epic tradition within The Bruce. I argue that the French chansons of Charlemagne gave Barbour the image of an idealized feudal ruler with which to characterize Robert I, the language of noble royal bloodlines through which to glorify the Stewart monarchy, and the incendiary rhetoric of the crusading ethos with which to demonize the English as an antagonistic Other. Chapter II highlights the influences of the Scandinavian tradition of Icelandic family sagas within The Bruce. I argue that the saga motifs of legal assemblies and blood-feuding allowed Barbour to reframe and justify the violence destruction involved in Bruce’s seizure of the Scottish throne, the brutal in-fighting amongst Scottish noble families during and after the wars, and the complicated political relationship between Scotland and Norway. Chapter III investigates the influences of popular outlaw tales, particularly those of the early Robin Hood Ballads, within The Bruce. I argue that the ballads’ motifs of trickster tales and the inclusion of commoners helped Barbour harness the renown of William Wallace in order to memorialize James Douglas as a folk hero and to incorporate Scottish commoners in his conception of a Scottish nation. Discussing The Bruce’s composition in relation to these historical and literary sources, I discuss the political force of medieval literary genres and the cultural creation of a national identity that would shape Scottish politics. © Copyright 2019 by Hannah Grace Render All Rights Reserved No True Scotsman: John Barbour’s Bruce and National Identity in Fourteenth-Century Scotland by Hannah Grace Render A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History Raleigh, North Carolina 2019 APPROVED BY: _______________________________ _______________________________ Dr. Julie Mell Dr. Julia Rudolph Committee Chair _______________________________ Dr. Keith Luria ii DEDICATION For Doris, who told me I should write. iii BIOGRAPHY Hannah Render grew up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana before earning her bachelor’s degree in History at Salem State University in 2016. She completed her master’s degree in History at North Carolina State University in 2019. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am thankful for a large number of people and animals for their consistent support and direction over the past two years. I am extremely grateful for the guidance of my advisor and committee chair Dr. Julie Mell and for her patience and endurance in dealing with my anxious disposition. I am also grateful for the support of my other two committee members – Dr. Keith Luria and Dr. Julia Rudolph — who provided crucial insight to my project. I would also like to thank Dr. Verena Kasper-Marienberg and Dr. Dean Bruno, as both gave me much needed encouragement. I am further indebted to my pre-modern graduate student cohort at NCSU — Tyler Ellis, Kelsey Rosenberg, Crystal Louramore-Kirsanova, Kevin Shuford, and Sarah Cox — who sacrificed their time and energy reading and commenting on this work as it was being written. Outside the department, I am thankful for the efforts of my family and friends — Tirzah Frank, Leslie Josey, Nathan Sperry, along with Todd, Lori, Chelsea, and Jack Render — all of whom saw to it that I made it outside occasionally for a drink or two to preserve my sanity. I am also grateful for the staff and regulars at the Village Draft House who accepted my research-weary presence. Finally, I must acknowledge the contribution of my two cats, Pangur Ban and Jon, who often supported my research by chewing on my pen and sitting on my books. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter I ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Feudal Honor ................................................................................................................... 22 The Geste as Royal Bloodline.......................................................................................... 34 The Non-Christian Other ................................................................................................. 39 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter II ................................................................................................................................... 52 Legal Assemblies ............................................................................................................. 59 Feuding ............................................................................................................................ 68 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 82 Chapter III .................................................................................................................................. 86 The Black Douglas ........................................................................................................... 92 Cunning Conduct ............................................................................................................. 95 Commoners and Oral Culture ........................................................................................ 105 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 116 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 118 Genealogical chart ..................................................................................................................... 122 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 123 1 INTRODUCTION On September 18, 2014 Scotland held a referendum over the question of independence from Great Britain. Calls for independence first emerged in the mid-twentieth century, but this nationalist fervor was not prominent in the political scene until the Scottish National Party (SNP) won a 2011 majority in the Scottish Parliament, enabling their call for the referendum that would occur three years later. Scotland was, of course, already a sovereign nation, but the SNP and other political voices for independence argued that Scotland should also be an independent state.1 Voters that showed up to the polls on September 18 were presented with a simple, yes or no question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”2 In a remarkably close count, 55.3% of voters answered “no” to remain in Great Britain, while 44.7% answered “yes.”3 The 1707 Union that created Great Britain would remain unbroken, but the nationalist fervor that nearly changed the course of Scotland’s history had sparked a larger conversation concerning the roots of Scottish identity. Some political commentators expressed apprehension at the beginning of 2014; that year would mark the seven-hundredth anniversary of Scotland’s victory over England at the 1314 battle of Bannockburn and some feared the date would provide fodder