Cynthia J. Neville – författare

Centuries-long hostility between Scotland and England affected the pattern of criminal activity in the Anglo-Scottish Border lands. This is a fascinating account of how the area created and refined a new system of law to deal with the conflict in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.

This volume contains the full texts of 175 acts issued under the seal of King Alexander III, together with notes on a further 155 'lost acts' that survive only in notices. These acts, many of which have never been published before, have been collected from a variety of archives in Scotland, England, Belgium and France.The Introduction examines the administrative contexts of the later thirteenth century in which the royal chancery drafted and authenticated charters, brieves and other written instruments, and the varied sources from which the collection is compiled. The texts include full Latin transcriptions and detailed English-language summaries of the contents of each act, together with a series of notes and comments on context and significance. By drawing together both original archive sources and widely scattered published sources, the volume offers a unique opportunity to understand how Scottish government and administration operated in the key period before the reign of Robert Bruce.The Regesta Regum Scottorum series has already made available in print a definitive edition of the written acts of several of the medieval kings of Scotland. It remains the standard reference for Scottish, British and European scholars interested in the history of royal chanceries, the evolution of medieval royal government and the growth of literate modes of expression in the Middle Ages.

This ambitious book examines the encounter between Gaels and Europeans in Scotland in the central Middle Ages, offering new insights into an important period in the formation of the Scots' national identity. It is based on a close reading of the texts of several thousand charters, indentures, brieves and other written sources that record the business conducted in royal and baronial courts across the length and breadth of the medieval kingdom between 1150 and 1400.Under the broad themes of land, law and people, this book explores how the customs, laws and traditions of the native inhabitants and those of incoming settlers interacted and influenced each other. Drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches, the author places her subject matter firmly within the recent historiography of the British Isles and demonstrates how the experience of Scotland was both similar to, and a distinct manifestation of, a wider process of Europeanisation.