Religious Houses on the Anglo-Scottish Borders during the Scottish War of Independence

  Title Religious Houses on the Anglo-Scottish Borders during the Scottish War of Independence  (1323-84): Violence, Strategy and Local Communities Introduction The outbreak of war between England and Scotland in 1296 ended an era during which the border region between the two kingdoms had developed as a socially-interconnected and generally peaceful environment. During this period a group of richly-endowed monastic houses had been founded in southern Scotland. Abbeys like Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh, Coldingham Priory and the nunnery at Coldstream developed as centres of landholding and local influence. Warfare changed this permanently. The experience of sustained conflict through the fourteenth century fundamentally altered the security of these monastic communities and their relationship with the wider regional society in which they were situated. An understanding of the process by which this occurred in the fourteenth century raises fundamental questions about the impact