Awards

• Winner of Joint winner of the 2017 Whitfield Prize of the Royal.

Overview

This is the first full-length study of Scottish royal government in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ever to have been written. It uses untapped legal evidence to set out a new narrative of governmental development. Between 1124 and 1290, the way in which kings of Scots ruled their kingdom transformed. By 1290 accountable officials, a system of royal courts, and complex common law procedures had all been introduced, none of which could have been envisaged in 1124.The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290 argues that governmental development was a dynamic phenomenon, taking place over the long term. For the first half of the twelfth century, kings ruled primarily through personal relationships and patronage, only ruling through administrative and judicial officers in the south of their kingdom. In the second half of the twelfth century, these officers spread north but it was only in the late twelfth century that kings routinely ruled through institutions. Throughout this period of profound change, kings relied on aristocratic power as an increasingly formal part of royal government. In putting forward this narrative, Alice Taylor refines or overturns previous understandings in Scottish historiography of subjects as diverse as the development of the Scottish common law, feuding and compensation, Anglo-Norman 'feudalism', the importance of the reign of David I, recordkeeping, and the kingdom's military organisation. In addition, she argues that Scottish royal government was not a miniature version of English government; there were profound differences between the two polities arising from the different role and function aristocratic power played in each kingdom. The volume also has wider significance. The formalisation of aristocratic power within and alongside the institutions of royal government in Scotland forces us to question whether the rise of royal power necessarily means the consequent decline of aristocratic power in medieval polities. The book thus not only explains an important period in the history of Scotland, it places the experience of Scotland at the heart of the process of European state formation as a whole.

Full Product Details

9780198861256

Table of Contents

Reviews

In the next generation, all arguments on Scottish governance (and much else) will start from this book. * Paul R. Hyams, American Historical Review * This volume represents a truly remarkably scholarly achievement. Without doubt, it is the single most significant work to be published on the Scottish legal system during the central Middle Ages in over 20 years. ... Its revolutionary conclusions convincingly explain how the laws of the realm were transformed by shifting power structures in twelfth-century and thirteenth-century Scotland ... it achieves this goal in such a way as to demonstrate that the Scottish experience is of great comparative significance. * Andrew R.C. Simpson, Comparative Legal History * [Alice Taylor] is to be congratulated and thanked, not only for a remarkable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of medieval Scotland and its systems of government and law, but also for the stimulation which her work will undoubtedly provide. * Hector L. MacQueen, Edinburgh Law Review * excellent ... a historian with Taylor's rare accomplishments will be able to shed more light on the matter ... So much illumination has already been provided by this remarkable book that to ask for more would be unreasonable * J.D. Ford, Modern Law Review * [A]uthoritative new study....Through a close reading of the surviving source material that challenges several long-held assumptions, Taylor breaks new ground. This book is the culmination of more than a decade of detailed studies by Taylor. It is a challenging work, informed by profound scholarship and a keen sense of purpose. It is sure to lead to considerable discussion and inspire further work in this difficult area of study. * J.S. Hamilton, Scotia: Interdisciplinary Journal of Scottish Studies * Every generation or so a book is produced that is truly transformative of our understanding of the historical processes that led to evolutionary step changes in the development of a culture or polity. Such is the status of Alice Taylor's magisterial study of the formation of the medieval Scottish state. ... Through Alice Taylor's scholarship we have been presented with a new historiographical horizon; now we need to populate the new landscape with the detail of the new world beyond it. * Richard Oram, Renaissance Quarterly * In this hugely significant and ambitious book, Alice Taylor offers a detailed survey of the developing form of royal government in Scotland during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Through rigorous and insightful analysis, Taylor has constructed a vital interpretive model for understanding the dynamics of royal power in Scotland during this period. * Victoria Hodgson, University of Stirling * The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland is a work of great scholarship and insight. Through its penetrating analysis of detailed evidence and complex sources, it builds a picture of the gradual development of the state in early Scotland, drawing upon fresh approaches and evidence to yield a textured and nuanced understanding of the growth of royal government in 12th and 13th-century Scotland ... Situating its analysis in a European perspective, it makes an important contribution to the study of medieval kingship, statecraft and the aristocracy. This is a ground-breaking book which will set the terms of debate for many years to come. * Judges' comments for the 2017 Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society *

The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland is a work of great scholarship and insight. Through its penetrating analysis of detailed evidence and complex sources, it builds a picture of the gradual development of the state in early Scotland, drawing upon fresh approaches and evidence to yield a textured and nuanced understanding of the growth of royal government in 12th and 13th-century Scotland ... Situating its analysis in a European perspective, it makes an important contribution to the study of medieval kingship, statecraft and the aristocracy. This is a ground-breaking book which will set the terms of debate for many years to come. * Judges' comments for the 2017 Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society * In this hugely significant and ambitious book, Alice Taylor offers a detailed survey of the developing form of royal government in Scotland during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries... Through rigorous and insightful analysis, Taylor has constructed a vital interpretive model for understanding the dynamics of royal power in Scotland during this period. * Victoria Hodgson, University of Stirling * Every generation or so a book is produced that is truly transformative of our understanding of the historical processes that led to evolutionary step changes in the development of a culture or polity. Such is the status of Alice Taylor's magisterial study of the formation of the medieval Scottish state. ... Through Alice Taylor's scholarship we have been presented with a new historiographical horizon; now we need to populate the new landscape with the detail of the new world beyond it. * Richard Oram, Renaissance Quarterly * [A]uthoritative new study....Through a close reading of the surviving source material that challenges several long-held assumptions, Taylor breaks new ground. This book is the culmination of more than a decade of detailed studies by Taylor. It is a challenging work, informed by profound scholarship and a keen sense of purpose. It is sure to lead to considerable discussion and inspire further work in this difficult area of study. * J.S. Hamilton, Scotia: Interdisciplinary Journal of Scottish Studies *

Author Information

Alice Taylor is a Reader in Medieval History at King's College London. She was born in London and studied History at St Peter's College, Oxford. After receiving her doctorate from Oxford in 2009, she was a Research Fellow at King's College, Cambridge until 2011, when she joined the History Department at KCL. The Shape of the State was her first book, and was jointly awarded the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize in 2017. Also in 2017, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for History.

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