Earls and Earldoms in Medieval Scotland

Sheds new light on how the structure of Scotland as a kingdom and political society changed during the medieval period. Medieval Scotland was defined not just as a kingdom but as a collection of provinces, such as Fife, Angus, Atholl, Buchan and Moray; they were deeply-rooted and are still well-known today. In many of these provinces, some sense of leadership became embodied in a single lord, described as mormaer, comes or earl. Between the ninth and fifteenth centuries the meaning and use of these titles changed, but individually and collectively the earls were a key group in the kingdom, whose existence became bound up with the standing of the royal dynasty. This study of the earls and earldoms of medieval Scotland is not simply an examination of a single group within the nobility. More widely, it considers the ways in which the structure of Scotland changed during the Middle Ages, from a regional perspective. Through its analysis of the changing nature of provincial societies within Scotland and the roles assigned to the earls, it demonstrates how, developing in parallel with the government and society of the kingdom, these earldoms represented both distinctive entities and core elements of Scotland from its origins to the early sixteenth century.