Networks of power in Southeast Scotland, circa 1370-1420

Abstract

This study is an analysis of the structure of power, predominantly political, in southeast Scotland between the closing years of David II's reign and 1420. In addition to the chronological treatment and a consideration of the interface between the landed nobility and the urban elite, several family histories of second rank nobility, specifically Haliburton, Preston, Forrester, Sinclair earls of Orkney, Sinclairs of Herdmanston, Edmonstone and Grierson, are used to illuminate the methods of attaining influence. The usage of offices, political participation, landholding, marriage and burghal relations are examined as evidence for socio¬ political networksThe thesis' argument is that the region lacked a dominant power, and that this permitted a competitive-cooperative system, which created opportunities of advancement for the second rank nobility. Five main points of power existed throughout the period: the Crown, the earls of Angus, Douglas and March, and a fluid group of second rank nobility. All five were capable of acting independently, in concert with one or more of the others, or with subsets within one of the others. Success in this system demanded multiple contacts, an ability to use or ignore contacts as the situation demanded, an ability to extend power directly or indirectly through subordinates and access to the economic and administrative levers held by Crown officers or burghal contactsIn the 1370s the demand for cooperation in the face of the external, English threat tempered internal competition. This gradually gave way during the 1380s, and by the late 1380s internal competition, as evidenced by the Douglas inheritance dispute, was the primary feature. This internal competition climaxed in 1400-06, during which the external threat was used as a weapon in the internal conflict. By 1406 the collapse of the majority of alternate centres of power, including an attempt to form an explicitly royal affinity, permitted Douglas a near-monopoly of power during the Albany government. However, the alternate channels of power were not removed, and continued contact with James I, negotiated settlements with the earl of March and the duke of Albany, the resurgence of the earl of Angus and the continued existence and usage of administrative structures by men whose alliance with Douglas was fundamentally pragmatic demonstrate the temporary nature of Douglas ascendancy. The actions of James I, who drew heavily on second rank nobility from the southeast for support, indicate the continued power of these individuals.