The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland, 1124-1290
Alice Taylor
Reviews and Awards
Joint winner of the 2017 Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society
"In the next generation, all arguments on Scottish governance (and much else) will start from this book." -- Paul R. Hyams, American Historical Review
"[Alice Taylor] is to be congratulated and thanked, not only for a remarkable contribution to our knowledge and understanding of medieval Scotland and its systems of government and law, but also for the stimulation which her work will undoubtedly provide." -- Hector L. MacQueen, Edinburgh Law Review
"Every generation or so a book is produced that is truly transformative of our understanding of the historical processes that led to evolutionary step changes in the development of a culture or polity. Such is the status of Alice Taylor's magisterial study of the formation of the medieval Scottish state. ... Through Alice Taylor's scholarship we have been presented with a new historiographical horizon; now we need to populate the new landscape with the detail of the new world beyond it." --Richard Oram, Renaissance Quarterly
"In this hugely significant and ambitious book, Alice Taylor offers a detailed survey of the developing form of royal government in Scotland during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.... Through rigorous and insightful analysis, Taylor has constructed a vital interpretive model for understanding the dynamics of royal power in Scotland during this period." -- Victoria Hodgson, University of Stirling
"[A]uthoritative new study....Through a close reading of the surviving source material that challenges several long-held assumptions, Taylor breaks new ground. This book is the culmination of more than a decade of detailed studies by Taylor. It is a challenging work, informed by profound scholarship and a keen sense of purpose. It is sure to lead to considerable discussion and inspire further work in this difficult area of study."--J.S. Hamilton, Scotia: Interdisciplinary Journal of Scottish Studies
"The Shape of the State in Medieval Scotland is a work of great scholarship and insight. Through its penetrating analysis of detailed evidence and complex sources, it builds a picture of the gradual development of the state in early Scotland, drawing upon fresh approaches and evidence to yield a textured and nuanced understanding of the growth of royal government in 12th and 13th-century Scotland....Situating its analysis in a European perspective, it makes an important contribution to the study of medieval kingship, statecraft and the aristocracy. This is a ground-breaking book which will set the terms of debate for many years to come."--Judges' comments for the 2017 Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society
"This volume represents a truly remarkable scholarly achievement. Without doubt, it is the single most significant work to be published on the Scottish legal system during the central Middle Ages in over 20 years. And yet is does more. Its revolutionary conclusions convincingly explain how the laws of the realm were transformed by shifting power structures in twelfth-century and thirteenth-century Scotland. Furthermore, it achieves this goal in such a way as to demonstrate that the Scottish experience is of great comparative significance."--Comparative Legal History
"As another referendum looms, this book comes at an opportune moment to act as a corrective to the co-opting of the medieval past. It is ambitious and thorough; it succeeds in its stated aims, and then some."--Toby Salisbury, Reviews in History
"The scope of the ground-breaking scholarship displayed by Taylor in this book is remarkable. Through meticulous and rigorous research into extremely difficult manuscript traditions--which were once described as an 'Augean Stable' of texts by their early-modern editor--she has recovered much evidence which was previously simply unavailable to Scottish historians."--Andrew RC Simpson, Comparative Legal History
"Alice Taylor is to be congratulated on an outstanding work."--Stephen Marritt, Sehepunkte
"[E]xcellent....[A] historian with Taylor's rare accomplishments will be able to shed more light on the matter....So much illumination has already been provided by this remarkable book that to ask for more would be unreasonable..."--J. D. Ford, Modern Law Review
"[T]his impressive and timely monograph...does indeed represent the most significant contribution in a generation to the study of the development of government and law (the 'state' in anachronistic terms) in the emerging medieval Scottish kingdom. Moreover, it must prompt careful reassessment of much of our understanding of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in that realm and beyond. It is a challenging but undeniably rewarding read on many levels, a model in structure, historiographical context and the layering in and critical evaluation of complex, often seemingly contradictory, records sources (many of them freshly translated and reconsidered by the author)."--Michael Penman, Parliaments, Estates and Representation
