Kingship and Unity

This is a stunning overview of the medieval landscape of Scotland. This is a history of the forging of the Scottish kingdom during the first three centuries of the second millennium. G. W. S. Barrow describes the evolution of Scottish kingship and government during the period, in the process examining the character of Scottish feudalism and the manner of its imposition. He discusses the social, economic and political changes of the period, with separate chapters on the expansion of towns and trade, the role of the church, and advances in education and learning. A sense of national identity had, he argues, become sufficiently strong by the end of the 13th century for the country to survive humiliation by Edward I and to reunite under Robert Bruce. With Bruce's coronation as Robert I in 1306 this richly detailed and readable account of Scotland's formative period comes to an end. Since its first edition in 1981, this revised edition in The New History of Scotland series, as indicated in the preface by the series editor Jenny Wormald, can now rightly take its place amongst the classics of Scottish history. It was long seen as a key text for students of medieval Scotland. It is written by a respected and renowned historian. It is readable, cinematic and yet scholarly in its scope.