Death and the Royal Succession in Scotland, C.1214-C.1543 - by Lucinda H S Dean (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Illuminates how the ceremonial dimension of death and the succession reflected both Scottish royal identity and a broader culture of ceremony.

To date, scholarly attention to royal ceremony in Scotland from the Middle Ages into the early modern period has been rather haphazard, with few attempts to explore how these crucial moments for the representation of royal authority. This monograph provides a long durée analysis of the ceremonial cycle of death and succession associated with Scottish kingship from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, including the final century of the Canmore dynasty, the crisis of the Bruce-Balliol conflict, and the emergence and consolidation of the Stewart family up to the funeral of last monarch buried in Scotland, James V, in 1543. Using a broad range of primary sources, including financial records and material culture, many of them previously untapped, it addresses key questions about kingship and power, the function of ceremony in legitimising royal authority, its significance in relation to the practical exercising of power, and evidence for Scottish similarities and distinctiveness within wider European contexts.

Review Quotes

This book is a thought-provoking read that poses questions about the ways kings portrayed their authority in late medieval Scotland, how periodisation effects how we perceive these ceremonies and how rituals could simultaneously be moments of continuity and innovation. With the sheer range of material discussed, it has a lot
to offer its readers.-- "JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY"