Gender in Scotland, 1200-1800

Janay Nugent is Associate Professor of History and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. Her research specialisation is gender, family and youth in early modern Scotland. She is co-editor with Elizabeth Ewan of Finding the Family in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland (Ashgate, 2008) and Children and Youth in Premodern Scotland (Boydell, 2015), as well as co-author with Laura A. M. Stewart of Union and Revolution: Scotland and Beyond, 1625-1745 (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), shortlisted for the Scotland’s National Book Awards in 2021 (Saltire Society Scotland / Comannn Crann Na H-Alba). Cathryn Spence is Associate Professor in the Department of History at University of Guelph, Canada. She specialises in late medieval and early modern history, and is secretary for the Economic and Social History Society of Scotland. She is author of Women, Credit, and Debt in Early Modern Scotland (Manchester, 2016), which won the Women’s History Network Prize, and co-editor with Aaron Allen of The Housemails Tax 1634-6 (Boydell, 2014). Mairi Cowan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga, Canada. She specialises in medieval and early modern history and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is the author of Death, Life, and Religious Change in Scottish Towns c. 1350-1560 (Manchester, 2012) and The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada (McGill-Queen's, 2022).

Medieval and Early Modern Scottish Gender History is flourishing, and this volume brings together its leading scholars to display the fruits. Themed around place, faith and politics, these cutting-edge essays consider questions of women’s agency, presence and power in shaping Scottish society and economy. An important state of the field.

• List of FiguresNotes on ContributorsAbbreviationsPrefaceIntroduction ‘Engendering Scottish History for the Medieval and Early Modern Periods’ by Cathryn Spence, Janay Nugent and Mairi CowanPart I: PlaceChapter 1. ‘Mary, Queen of Scots, Three Noblewomen and a Fife "Murder Mystery"’ by Jane E.A. DawsonChapter 2. ‘"Scottish Portias" Revisited: Women in the courts in early modern Scottish towns’ by Rebecca MasonChapter 3. ‘Punching Back Against Patriarchy: The story of Jean Weir’ by Michael F. GrahamChapter 4. ‘Always at the Gate? Unlocking medieval women’s stories in modern-day Edinburgh’ by Rachel M. DelmanPart II: FaithChapter 5. ‘"She displays by her speeches": Marion Walker, Catholic speech and local resistance in early modern Glasgow’ by Daniel MacLeodChapter 6. ‘Memory and Materiality: John Knox and the resilience of relic-thinking in the continuity and gender of cult in late medieval and early modern Perth, Scotland’ by Mark A. HallChapter 7. ‘"She-zealots" and "Satanesses": Women, patriarchy and the covenanting movement’ by Michelle D. BrockChapter 8. ‘Emotion, Authority and Griefwork in the Spiritual Poetry of Lilias Skene’ by Sarah DunniganPart III: PoliticsChapter 9. ‘Displaying Support for Women’s Lineage: Late medieval seals and family identity’ by Rachel Meredith DavisChapter 10. ‘Another Damsel in Distress? Katherine Beaumont, a disinherited noblewoman in fourteenth-century Scotland’ by Iain A. MacInnes and　Morvern　FrenchChapter 11. ‘Negotiating Youth, Old Age and Manhood: A comparative approach to late medieval Scottish kingship’ by Lucy DeanChapter 12. ‘Sons and Daughters, Mothers and Mercenaries: Agency and agenda in the cross-North Channel context c.1550–c.1600’ by Alison CathcartConclusion ‘New Vistas and the Future for Scottish Gender History’ by Cathryn Spence, Janay Nugent and Mairi Cowan　Bibliography