My Potential PhD Research Proposal

 

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 of conflict on religious life in the later middle ages.

Since the 2000s, scholars of diverse disciplinary backgrounds have been intrigued by the impact of protracted military conflict and political division in monastic communities. Some have suggested that ‘their extensive networks of landholdings and dependence’ which spanned areas under the control of two hostile kingdoms, undermined their economic and political status, while other writers suggested that rich spiritual and temporal resources have made ‘their abbots and priors figures of political importance, found on the king’s council alongside earls and bishops’[1].

Religious houses should have been protected as sacred sites according to Canon Law, but their locations and political affiliation exposed them to great danger. Gregory M. Reichberg, Henrik Syse and Endre Begby extracted the idea from Augustine’s Summa Theologiae mentioning that ‘the religious houses could not shed blood themselves’ but they were justified to ‘offer spiritual assistance to those who fought justly’, namely, by means of the spiritual weapons.[2] Although Fredrick H. Russell argued that they had the right to ‘demand princes kill evil-doers and make war in defence of the peace of the church’, however, they were advised ‘not to urging the killing of a specific person’.[3]

Due to this reason, they began to seek protection from violence and compensation from kings of both kingdoms and landowners from both kingdoms and sought protection and support from the Papacy. However, both during periods of intensive warfare and during the longer truces between 1323 and 1332 and from 1357 to 1384, these monastic communities faced continued problems in securing protection for their property and rights. This thesis is the first systematic analysis of the experience of the great abbeys and priories of the Scottish borders during these decades of conflict and divided political allegiance in the region.

[1] Richard D. Oram, ‘Dividing the Spoils: War, Schism and Religious Patronage on the Anglo-Scottish Border, c. 1332-c. 1400’, in England and Scotland in the Fourteenth Century: New Perspectives, ed. by Andy King and Michael A. Penman (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2007), pp. 136-56 (p. 138); Michael Brown, The Wars of Scotland, 1214-1371 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), p. 122.

[2] It was extracted from On True Religion, Book XVI, Chap. 31. ‘Augustine (354-430): Just War in the Service of Peace’, in The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings, ed. by Gregory M. Reichberg, Henrik Syse and Endre Begby (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), pp. 70-90 (p. 86); Frederick H. Russell, ‘Just War’, in The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, Vol. II, ed. by Robert Pasnau and Christina van Dyke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 593-606 (pp. 601-2).

[3]  Frederick H. Russell, The Just War in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), p. 251.

Research Questions

More specifically, the research questions of the study are as follows:

1. What was the impact of conflict on the monastic communities of the Scottish borders? How were they affected as corporate bodies and in terms of the experience of individual members of these religious bodies?

2. In what ways and with what success did religious communities seek to protect their people, buildings and rights over land and revenues during and after periods of sustained conflict? Can the strategies they employed be identified?

3. What was the effect of sustained warfare and social change in the border regions of Scotland on the relationship between these religious houses and the local communities, lay and ecclesiastical, which inhabited them?

Methodology and Historiography

To answer these questions this study will focus on a group of key case studies. The houses included will be the abbeys of Melrose, Kelso, Dryburgh and Jedburgh, Coldingham Priory and the nunnery at Coldstream. These houses all have chartularies or other archival material relating to them which will form the basis of this study. The group includes the wealthiest and most significant religious houses in the Scottish borders and represents both different religious orders and a variety of local contexts in relation to both the monastic houses and the location of their principal estates.

While there have been studies of the abbeys of Kelso, Melrose and Dryburgh which include this period, there has been no direct or sustained examination of the experiences of these houses during the period from the 1330s to the 1380s. Similarly, although the status and security of the monks at Coldingham have been examined in isolation, there has been no attempt to use it as an element in wider debates. Similarly, although the status and security of the monks at Coldingham have been examined in isolation, there has been no attempt to use it as an element in wider debates. This period had, in general, received much less attention from Scottish historians and, while this has changed significantly via the work of Michael A. Penman, Michael Brown, Iain A. MacInnes and others, no attention has been played to the questions which form the basis of this study. By applying approaches developed by Emilia Jamiroziak and others in relation to the experience and strategies of Cistercian houses in frontier regions across Europe, this study will make a significant and original contribution to these broad debates and to the understanding of society and religious life in this key region of the British and Irish archipelago during the fourteenth century.

By commencing with an understanding of the patrons, possessions and experiences of these houses in the period before the war and during the initial conflicts up to 1332, the thesis will prepare the ground for the more detailed assessment of the environment in the decades which followed. The intention is to develop a structure which explores and analyses points of contrast and comparison between the different communities in relation to the key research questions outlined above. In particular, the religious houses will be studied as a major landowner within local communities. The research will examine their interactions with merchants, burgesses, local secular elites and sheriffs whose interests and responsibilities overlapped with, or conflicted with those of the religious houses.

Sources

The principal primary sources for this research will be the monastic records of the houses themselves. Printed editions of the chartularies of Melrose, Kelso, Dryburgh, Coldingham and Coldstream exist. The original manuscripts of these will also be consulted in the National Library of Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and Durham Cathedral Library. The other major source of information will be derived from the records of English warfare and administration in the region (part of which was under the English king’s authority through this period). These are housed in the National Archives at Kew and in the British Library. A third body of material will be provided by the Papal registers, much of which has been calendared for the period or can be consulted in microfilms held at the University of Glasgow.

Discussion of the wider communities in which the abbeys existed will be based upon research on the extensive collections of family papers held in the National Archives of Scotland, the National Library of Scotland and other collections. Printed editions of private collections, for example, the family books produced by William Fraser, will also be used to develop a sense of the wider social and tenurial structures of the region. Contemporary chronicles, for example, Knighton’s Chronicle, Scalacronica, The Chronicle of Lanercost, Scotichronicon and The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland, provide narratives of the period with unique and differing perspectives on events in the borders from monastic, secular clerical and lay perspectives.

In terms of secondary scholarship, this project spans a number of different areas of study. These include combining medieval warfare studies, examinations of monastic houses and religious orders, historical overview of frontier and border, as well as studies of local landowning and society. Monographs focusing on war studies will be therefore added while examining the situation of the religious houses under the concept of immunity from war and the Just War Theory. By ensuring that this research draws upon these different fields, the intention is to locate its approach and conclusions at a critical intersection within different fields of study.

 

Knowledge Exchange, Public Engagement and Impact

The Scottish border abbeys are among the country’s most iconic heritage sites. The abbeys considered in the thesis are in the care of the state via Historic Environment Scotland or in the possession of the Church of Scotland. Both organisations are keen to uncover new information and analysis about these buildings and the communities which inhabited them. As stated above, the fourteenth-century history of these monastic houses has been understudied and this thesis is intended to add to the understanding of their experiences. Using Professor Michael Brown’s record of working with Historic Environment Scotland, it is intended to work with heritage bodies to inform their presentation of the abbeys at Melrose, Jedburgh, Dryburgh and Kelso to visitors and to local communities in the borders.

The Scottish Wars of Independence in the fourteenth century occupy a pivotal significance in public perceptions about the history of the country. They provide modules which are taught within schools for the National 5 and Higher level examinations taken in Scotland and ages 15 and 16. The subject is also a very popular topic at the primary school level. It is intended that the results of this research will be incorporated into presentations for these different school groups. The monastic houses provide a rare example of the experience of the non-combatant in these wars to which many pupils will be able to relate.

The mapping project which forms part of this proposal will be utilised to develop pictorial representations of the experience of the monks and their communities. Such an approach will also be adapted to meet the interests of local historical and social groups (such as Probus Club and Rotary Club) and an exhibition (physical or virtual) will be designed to make them available to the boarder interested public. To coordinate these approaches, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which ran a recent Borders history project, will be contacted to assist with promotion and support. [4]

[4] The link of the Borders history project: Independence and the border - Royal Society of Edinburgh (rse.org.uk)

Timetable

Year One

• Undertake a full survey of printed primary sources and secondary literature
• Undertake initial visits to archives and libraries to consult manuscript materials.
• Work towards a clearer sense of the structure, the detailed research questions and the evidential base of the thesis.
• Undertake preliminary written samples based on the initial research and historiography
• Develop a full sense of the structure of the thesis
• Establish a website and databases based on the thesis

Year Two

• Do the bulk of the archival research for the project
• Identify and secure images of manuscript sources
• Undertake the transcription and translation of manuscript materials
• Continue with shorter written pieces to solidify research findings and develop a detailed structure of the whole thesis
• Plan a research trip to monastic houses in the Scottish Borders

 

Year Three

• Collate the material and develop the mapping and social network analysis as core elements of the thesis project.
•  Ensure that all the research elements of the project are complete
•  Produce first drafts of all the chapters of the thesis.

 

Year Four

• Redraft the thesis as necessary and bring the project to the submission

 

 

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