History Research

The Wars of Independence, 1249-1328

Learning Resources

• Dauvit Broun, 'The Medieval Afterlife of the Declaration of Arbroath'.
• Dauvit Broun, Wars of Independence, Scottish History Society Learning Resources.
• Dauvit Broun, The Declaration of Arbroath, Scottish History Society Learning Resources.
• Resources on the Wars of Independence appropriate for all levels of Broad General Education can be accessed through the Education Scotland National Improvement Hub (https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/People%20of%20Medieval%20Scotland). These were produced in an AHRC-funded project with the University of Glasgow and Education Scotland in collaboration with teachers in 2013-2014, under the title 'People of Medieval Scotland'.
• People of Medieval Scotland (POMS), 1093-1371.This is a database of all known people of Scotland between 1093 and 1314 mentioned in over 8600 contemporary documents. It is also being extended to 1371 to include all those lands, peoples and relationships mentioned in royal charters between 1314 and 1371. The People of Medieval Scotland website is an outcome of three projects: The Paradox of Medieval Scotland (2007-2010); The Breaking of Britain (2010-2013); and The Community of the Realm in Scotland (2017-2020), all funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and the Transformation of Gaelic Scotland in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (2013-2016), funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Available here: https://www.poms.ac.uk/.
• The 'Community of the Realm in Scotland' (COTR) Project. The COTR aims to establish a new perspective on the medieval idea of the nation by undertaking the first-empirically grounded, long-term case study of a nationally-defined medieval political community, the kingdom of the Scots (or Scotland, as it came to be known), between the mid-thirteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries. Available here: https://cotr.ac.uk/.
• The Breaking of Britain Project. The Breaking of Britain is a collaborative project, funded by the AHRC, between the University of Glasgow, Lancaster University, the University of Edinburgh, and King’s College London (including the Department of Digital Humanities). The project is concerned with the period which extends from the failure of Alexander II’s short-lived revival of a Scoto-Northumbrian realm in 1216–17 to the formal abolition of cross-border landholding by Robert I in November 1314, following his victory at Bannockburn. The project's website contains a number of useful resources for classroom teaching. Available here: http://www.breakingofbritain.ac.uk/.

Open Access Articles

• Broun, D. (2016) The genealogy of the king of Scots as charter and panegyric. In: Davies, J. R. and Bhattacharya, S. (eds.)&nbspCopper, Parchment, and Stone: Studies in the Sources for Landholding and Lordship in Early Medieval Bengal and Medieval Scotland. Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow: Glasgow. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/128834/
• Broun, D. (2003) The declaration of Arbroath: pedigree of a nation? In: Barrow, G. (ed.) The Declaration of Arbroath: History, Significance, Setting. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, pp. 1-12. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3710/.
• Broun, D. (2001) The church and the origins of Scottish independence in the twelfth century. Records of the Scottish Church History Society, 31, pp. 1-34. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3708/.
• Davies, J. (2013) The execution of William Wallace: Saint Bartholomew’s Eve, Monday 23 August 1305. Breaking of Britain: Cross-Border Society and Scottish Independence 1216-1314. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/87808/.
• Davies, J.R. (2011) The execution of William Wallace: the earliest account. Breaking of Britain 1216-1314. Available here:  http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/80622/.
• Davies, J.R. (2011) The making of the Ragman Roll: the work of the notary. Breaking of Britain 1216-1314. Available here:  http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/80626/.
• Davies, J.R. (2011) The texts of the Ragman Roll. Breaking of Britain 1216-1314. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/80629/.
• Davies, J. R. (2013) Welshmen in the army of Edward I during the Scottish campaign of 1296. Breaking of Britain: Cross-Border Society and Scottish Independence 1216-1314. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/87811/.
• Driscoll, S.T. (1998) Formalising the mechanisms of state power: early Scottish lordship 9th-13th centuries. In: Foster, S., Macinnes, A. and Macinnes, R. (eds.) Scottish Power Centres. Series: University of Glasgow Postgraduate School of Scottish Studies. Cruithne Press, pp. 32-58. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3124/.
• Duncan, A.A.M. (1970) Our kingdom had no head. In: The Nation of Scots and the Declaration of Arbroath (1320). Series: Historical Association, London. General series; 75. Historical Association, pp. 10-18. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/3564/.
• Hammond, M. (2012) How many people are in the Ragman Roll? Breaking of Britain: Cross-Border Society and Scottish Independence 1216-1314. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/92328/.
• Harrison, L. S. (2017) 'That famous manifesto': The Declaration of Arbroath, Declaration of Independence, and the power of language. Scottish Affairs, 26(4), pp. 435-459. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/179112/.
• MacGregor, M. (2018) In search of Robert Bruce. History Teaching Review Yearbook, 2018, pp. 10-31. Available here: http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/186675/.
• MacGregor, M. and Wilkinson, C. (2019) In search of Robert Bruce, part II: reassessing the Dunfermline tomb investigations of 1818–19. Scottish Historical Review, 98(2), pp. 159-182. Available here: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/186906/
• MacGregor, M. and Wilkinson, C. (2019) In search of Robert Bruce, part III: medieval royal burial at Dunfermline and the tomb investigations of 1818–19. Innes Review, 70(2), pp. 171-201. Available here: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/193796/
• Wilkinson, C. M., Roughley, M., Moffat, R. D., Monckton, D. G. and MacGregor, M. (2019) In search of Robert Bruce, part I: craniofacial analysis of the skull excavated at Dunfermline in 1819. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 24, pp. 556-564. Available here: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/186564/

Research Paper Podcast

• 'The Declaration of Arbroath', Vox Populi seminar series, Glasgow University iTunesU.

Related Books

Scottish Independence and the Idea of Britain (Edinburgh, 2007) When did Scots first think of Scotland as an independent kingdom? What did they think was Scotland's place in Britain before the age of Wallace and Bruce? The answers argued in this book offer a fresh perspective on the question of Scotland's relationship with Britain. It challenges the standard concept of the Scots as an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged in the early modern era, but also provides new evidence that the idea of Scotland as an independent kingdom was older than the age of Wallace and Bruce. This leads to radical reassessments of a range of fundamental issues: the fate of Pictish identity and the origins of Alba, the status of Scottish kingship vis-a-vis England, the papacy's recognition of the independence of the Scottish Church, and the idea of Scottish freedom. It also sheds new light on the authorship of John of Fordun's chronicle, the first full-scale history of the Scots, and offers an historical explanation of the widespread English inability to distinguish between England and Britain. All this is placed in the wider context of ideas of ultimate secular power in Britain and Ireland and the construction of national histories in this period. The book concludes with a fresh perspective on the origin of national identity, and the medieval and specifically Scottish contribution to understanding what is often regarded as an exclusively modern phenomenon.