Murder, Intrigue & Conspiracy in Medieval Scotland Political Violence in the 14th and 15th Century

Murder, Intrigue & Conspiracy in Medieval Scotland presents a history of fourteenth and fifteenth-century Scotland through the lens of moments of exceptional political violence. It seeks to examine these incidents to understand why they happened, how the community at large responded to them, and what this tells us about the place of violence in late medieval Scottish politics. In the popular consciousness, there has been a common impression that late medieval Scotland was a particularly rough and brutal place. A kingdom riven by war and internal strife, dominated by over-mighty magnates who maintained their authority through violence and showed no compunction in pursuing ruthless methods to achieve their ambitions. This image is particularly strongly reinforced in media directly depicting late medieval Scotland or in imaginative fiction inspired by the period. This is the first book to draw together the most noteworthy episodes of political violence and examines how political violence was used – and countered – throughout the period. It offers insights into how the community of the realm perceived, employed, and controlled this violence. Instances of individual violence are analysed and contextualised within the wider periods of conflict between the Scottish crown and its magnates, giving an understanding of how the various parties involved pursued their grievances, and ultimately how they were resolved. The book also covers periods when royal authority was delegated to other influential figures – whether due to a king’s youth, infirmity, or absence from the kingdom – and explores how the community worked to keep political violence to a minimum during such periods. While violence could be deployed in pursuit of political ambition in late medieval Scotland, it was no more endemic there than any other late medieval kingdom.