Anglo-Norman Research Group in Scotland

'I have long had the dream that Scotland is the link between England and Normandy,' wrote Maitland, that great historian of medieval English law. Few modern scholars of the Anglo-Norman era have closely compared and integrated primary and secondary material from both sides of the border into their work. Those who have, for the most part historians of Scotland (few of whom have taken the further step, much more common among historians of England, to Normandy), have shown that comparison of what were fundamental periods in the development of both countries can be extremely valuable. Such work though, despite its manifest benefits, remains rare, even though there are now more academic staff and more research students working on more aspects of the Anglo-Norman period in Scotland than ever before. More scholars, at more universities, but, as yet no community of scholars across the universities.

This Research Workshop aims to forge a new identifiable research community, which draws on inter-institutional as well as interdisciplinary relationships, and which combines Scottish and Celtic histories with English and Norman. It seeks to unite and to recognise the skills and talents of a number of prominent scholars in Scotland who work in the field of Anglo-Norman history, and provide a forum for postgraduate students from the various Scottish universities to showcase their work. It seeks to inspire cooperation, collaboration and cohesion among these scholars, and to have the collective presence and strength necessary to regularly bring international scholars to Scotland to work with the group.

To encourage participation among as broad a range of scholars as possible we have decided to emphasise the theme of power in our bid and in our first year. Broadly speaking definitions of power centre on the effective exercise of influence over others. In recent years historians have become aware that as an historical concept power adopts a variety of different guises in terms of both form and function. Whilst traditional methodologies of power have generally focused on either military or governmental might, there is a growing tendency to recognise more subtle avenues as means through which power can be displayed. This includes diplomacy and persuasive literature as well as thinking about how power can be exercised by non-traditional groups like women and peasants. Arguably, these issues have a special resonance within the Anglo-Norman period (tenth to thirteenth centuries) where tumultuous changes in the political-cultural fabric as well as the physical landscape impacted upon society writ large. The proposed workshops seek to engage with this theme of power in dramatic new ways and in particular to explore the ways and means by which it developed and devolved at international, national and local levels. It provides opportunities for comparative analysis between the areas which made up the Anglo-Norman realm, including, Scotland, Normandy and England as well as key research strands such as law, monastic patronage, the expression of lordship, courtly life and gender studies. Whilst many of these research strands are well known to Anglo-Norman scholars, this project represents the first sustained effort to pull them together as a unified whole in order to establish the ways and means by which power developed and devolved during this critical period. This is a particularly significant moment in which to engage with such debates given the current political climate.