The Campbells, 1250 - 1513

by Stephen Ian Boardman

The spectacular advance of Campbell Power in the medieval Scottish kingdom has normally been explained in terms of the family's ruthless and duplicitous suppression of their fellow-Gaels in Argyll and the Hebrides at the behest of the Scottish crown. In particular, Clan Campbell's success is seen to be built on the destruction of older and more prestigious regional lordships in the west, such as those of the MacDougall lords of Argyll and the MacDonald lords of the Isles. But in this book the lords who dominated the medieval Clan Campbell emerge more as individuals enjoying complex and ambiguous relationships with the Scottish crown and the culture and politics of Gaelic-speaking Scotland, rather than as unquestioning agents of the Stewart monarchy and committed converts to the aristocratic culture of lowland Scotland.

Genres: Scotland

374 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Stephen Ian Boardman is Lecturer in Scottish History in the Department of Scottish History, University of Edinburgh. He was previously Mackie Lecturer in History at the University of Aberdeen, and has held the Glenfiddich Research Fellowship at St Andrews.

Reviews

[Brett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned "personal" history at least according to my grandfathers' research