The answers put forward in this book provide a fresh perspective on Scotland's relationship with Britain. Broun challenges the idea that the Scots were an ancient nation whose British identity only emerged later on, in the early modern era, and provides new evidence that the idea of Scotland as an independent kingdom in actual fact predated Wallace and Bruce. This leads him to radically reassess several 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...

The close ties between Gaels of Ireland and Scotland are well known, but in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the elite in the core areas of the kingdom of the Scots apparently turned their backs on Gaelic culture. This book takes a new look at the issue, investigating the extent to which Scottish men of letters of the period identified the Scottish kingdom and its inhabitants with Ireland, and exploring the function of the kingdom's Irish identity. Dr Broun argues that a perceived historical link with Ireland was a fundamental feature of the kingdom's identity throughout the period, and...

First published in 2002, and here introduced by Dauvit Broun as a core text in Scottish medieval history, this classic work is considered one of the most invaluable critiques of kingship in Scotland during the nation's foundations.
In the early years of the period a custom of succession within one royal lineage allowed the Gaelic kingdom to grow in authority and extent. The Norman Conquest of England altered the balance of power between the north and south, and the relationship between the two kingdoms, which had never been easy, became unstable. When Scotland became kingless in 1286,...