Hilary Stevenson
Published: 21 January 2019
A new approach to the emergence of regnal solidarity: monastic patronage in Aberdeenshire in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
University of Glasgow
A new approach to the emergence of regnal solidarity: monastic patronage in Aberdeenshire in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
This thesis will seek to understand the role which the patronage of new monastic orders played in forging and maintaining regnal solidarity in the late 12th and 13th centuries, and how this can be understood through combining the resources available via the People of Medieval Scotland (www.poms.ac.uk) with a new methodological approach to medieval cartularies. Scotland offers a test case for exploring regnal solidarity driven more by aristocratic concerns rather than central government. What were the forces and mechanisms behind this? Both Taylor and Broun have pointed to the Church as an underexplored element.
This thesis will address this by focusing on monastic patronage in Aberdeenshire. Aberdeenshire (unlike most other regions) lacked a major monastery; instead major families looked to Arbroath Abbey and St Andrews Priory in particular, both of regnal significance. Did these monasteries become as embedded in Aberdeenshire society as in other regions? Did this allow new regnal networks to develop? As well as studying Aberdeenshire in depth, the results will be placed within an investigation of the entire range of St Andrews Priory and Arbroath Abbey networks, allowing comparisons to be drawn.
First published: 21 January 2019