Gaelic Scotland in the Later Middle Ages from 1325 to 1625

This book operates at two levels. The first is as a history of Gaelic Scotland from the early fourteenth century to 1625. No such history currently exists, and the current state of research and knowledge is very uneven. This is pioneering work: some topics – matters economic, social structure, and the history of a number of specific regions/lordships – are so poorly understood as to make only preliminary comment possible. Equally, there is the opportunity to bring together and build upon recent and pending work on several crucial themes including the pre- and post-Reformation church, the Irish Sea World in the later middle ages, and kindreds and lordships such as the Campbells, ‘Clan Chattan’, and the MacKenzies. To date most attention has been devoted the west, particularly the dramatic trajectory of the MacDonald Lordship of the Isles, which has generated a clutch of notable studies in the last generation. This volume seeks to break out of the straitjacket of the western Gàidhealtachd, and see late medieval Gaelic Scotland as a whole. While remaining sensitive to external perceptions and actions, and their influence, the perspective is firmly rooted within Gaelic Scotland itself. As such, it seeks to see the region in its own terms, rather than as the problem of another; to investigate more critically a political process which superficial and external analysis could all too readily characterise as a wearisome continuum of ‘feuds, forays and rebellions’. The book is organised in thematic chapters dealing with society, politics, economic life, religion and belief, culture, and identity. Each of these is structured chronologically. The opening and concluding chapters present and draw together the strands of the story.