"That Fals Traitour" and "Eadweardus Tyrannus": Robert I of Scotland and Edward I of England in the Imaginations of Late Medieval Chroniclers
Open Access
Author:
Schwab, Edward T
Area of Honors:
Medieval Studies
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Benjamin Thomas Hudson, Thesis Supervisor Benjamin Thomas Hudson, Thesis Supervisor Jeanne Elizabeth Krochalis, Faculty Reader Benjamin Thomas Hudson, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
chronicles; Scotland; England; historiography; Rob
Abstract:
Throughout the high to late medieval period, chronicle writing remained a popular form of historiography, even though it was waning during the 14th and 15th centuries. Medieval chronicles often were written from a particular political point of view, containing a good deal of factual distortion and bias. As one of the most controversial topics in the British Middle Ages, the right of English feudal superiority in Scotland was a central point of bias in Scottish and English chronicle histories alike. This paper will discuss and analyze some of the most influential and widely-read Anglo-Scottish chronicles of the Late Middle Ages, focusing on the portrayals of Edward I of England and Robert I of Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence from 1296-1314, and concluding the analysis shortly after the Battle of Bannockburn (1314). Finally, after establishing the particularly nationalist biases present in each chronicle account and discussing the way each author manipulates character presentation and historical information, we will turn our attention briefly to the survival of the chroniclers’ views of Robert I and Edward I into the modern Anglo-Scottish independence debate and popular culture.
