Bases of magnatial power in later fifteenth-century Scotland

Abstract

The wholesale restructuring of the higher nobility, which was largely effected between the mid-points of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. left Scotland with a body of secular magnates whose regional spheres of influence were not as obvious or clearly defined as hitherto - either territorially or in terms of the men upon whom they depended and through whom they acted. The exercise of local power - the magnates' chief governmental function - was made still less easy by the fall in revenues and decay of feudal ties which afflicted landlords throughout western Europe during the later middle ages. With a view to assessing how swiftly the magnates contrived to come to terms with these difficulties, an examination of the affinities - the networks of clients and servants .. and the financial resources of three great lords of the later fifteenth century has been undertaken. This deals with the fifth earl of Crawford (1461-1495), the first Earl of Morton (1458-1493) and James III's brother, the Duke of Albany (1467-83). and involves the identification and classification of the men who served and associated with themp and an estimate of each magnate's gross income* Some confirmation emerges for the view that lord-man relationships were no longer based chiefly upon tenancy.

Financial constraints ensured that relationships wherein the man was provided with any sort of material reward for his service involved only a small proportion of the affinity - generally that part in most regular association with the lord. There is less certain indication in the case of these three magnates that non-feudal contracts between lords and men (bonds of manrent and maintenance) or the agnatic kinship group - which were to become the principal instruments through which regional authority was exercised - were yet of great significance.

The three affinities seem somewhat narrowly-based, and there is little to suggest that these magnates enjoyed comprehensive power within their several localities.