Home Scottish History CSYS Scottish Links  Music Books Scottish Literature Current Affairs Blog
 
 
Reading Lists
  Scottish History Reading list  
  Wars of Independence Reading List  
Scottish History 1286-1513
  The Wars of Independence -Who, What, When and Why  
  What happened next - What happened after Bannockburn?.  
  Braveheart - Fact or Fiction  
Prehistory-1200
  Dalriada - History of Settlement  
  Scotland c.1000-1200: The Shire, the Thane, the Sheriff and the Sheriffdom  
The Highlands
  Were the Highlands unstable 1660-1700?  
  The Highland Clearances - the patterns of clearance  
  The decline of Scots Gaelic since the sixteenth century  
Union
  The Union of the Crowns - changes in government  
Scots Law
  The Foundation of the College of Justice  
Miscellaneous
  Scottish Arms and Armour  
  Mac vs Mc a myth debunked  
History Links
 
 

Scotland c1000-1200: The Shire, the Thane, the Sheriff and the Sheriffdom

Ewan J. Innes, MA(Hons Scot. Hist.) FSA Scot

© 1994

Synopsis:  This essay describes the origins and development of the shire, thane, sheriff and sheriffdom in Scotland in the early middle ages.

Please see my copyright policy if you wish to cite any part of this essay.

| Abbreviations | 1 | 2 | 3 | Thanes and Thanages | Bibliography | Printer Friendly |

Primary
Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, F. Liebermann. (Aalen Scientia 1960)
Early Scottish Charters prior to 1153, ed. A.C. Lawrie (Glasgow 1905)
John of Fordun's Chronicle of the Scottish Nation. Historians of Scotland Series Vols I & IV. W.F. Skene (Edinburgh 1872)
Regesta Regum Scottorum:
  • Vol. I. The Acts of Malcolm IV King of Scots 1153-1165, ed. G.W.S. Barrow (Edinburgh 1960)
  • Vol. II. The Acts of William I King of Scots 1165-1214, ed. G.W.S. Barrow & W.W. Scott (Edinburgh 1971)
Scotichronicon, Walter Bower, ed. D.E.R. Watt (Aberdeen 1987-)
The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, eds. T. Thomson and C. Innes (Edinburgh 1814-75)
 
Secondary
J. Bannerman, "The Scots Language and the Kin-based Society", Gaelic and Scots in Harmony: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Languages of Scotland, ed. D.S. Thomson (Glasgow, 1990)
Barrow G.W.S.
  • The Anglo-Norman era in Scottish History (Oxford 1980)
  • David I of Scotland (1124-1153): The Balance of New and Old (The Stenton Lecture, 1984)(Reading 1985)
  • Feudal Britain: The completion of the Medieval Kingdoms 1066-1314 (London 1956)
  • Kingship and Unity: Scotland 1000-1306 (Edinburgh 1981)
  • The Kingdom of the Scots (London 1973)
  • "Northern English Society in the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries" Northern History Vol. IV
  • "Badenoch and Strathspey, 1130-1312, 1: Secular and Political" Northern Scotland, VIII
  • "Badenoch and Strathspey, 1130-1312, 2: Ecclesiastical" Northern Scotland, IX
Davies R.H.C.
  • A History of Medieval Europe: From Constantine to Saint Louis (London 1988)
  • The Kalendar of Abbot Samson of Bury St. Edwards and Related Documents (Royal Historical Soc., Camden 3rd Series, LXXXIV)
  • "East Anglia and the Danelaw" TRHistS, 5th Series.
Dickinson W.C.
  • Scotland from the Earliest Times to 1603 (Oxford 1977)
  • The Sheriff Court Book of Fife Scottish History Society, Third Series, Vol. XII (Edinburgh 1928)
Duncan A.A.M. Scotland: The Making of the Kingdom (Edinburgh 1989)
Frame R. The Political Development of the British Isles 1100-1400 (Oxford 1990)
Grant A. "Thanes and Thanages, from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Centuries" Medieval Scotland Crown, Lordship and Community. Essays presented to G.W.S. Barrow Edinburgh 1993)
Hill D. Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford 1981)
Jackson, K. The Gaelic Notes in the Book of Deer (Cambridge 1972)
Jensen G.F. "The Vikings in England: a review" Anglo-Saxon England, IV, 1975.
Jolliffe J.E.A.
  • "Northumbrian Institutions" EHR XLI
  • "The Era of the Folk in English History" Oxford Essays in Medieval History presented to Herbert Edward Salter ed. F.M. Powicke (Oxford 1934)
Jones G.R.J. "Early Territorial Organisation in Northern England and Its Bearing on the Scandinavian Settlement" The Fourth Viking Congress (Aberdeen 1965)
Kapelle W. The Norman Conquest of the North: The Region and its Transformation 1000-1135 (London 1979)
Loyn H.R. "Gesiths and Thegns in Anglo-Saxon England from the Seventh to the Tenth Century" EHR LXX
Lynch M. Scotland- A New History (London 1991)
McNeill P. & Nicholson R. An Historical Atlas of Scotland c.400-c. 1600 (1975)
Maitland F.W.
  • Domesday Book and Beyond (London 1960)
  • "Northumbrian Tenures" EHR, V
Morris W.A. The Medieval English Sheriff to 1300 (Manchester 1927)
Poole A.L.From Doomsday Book to Magna Carta 1087-1216 Oxford History of England Vol. III (Oxford 1955)
Reid R. "Barony and Thanage" EHR XXXV
Richardson H.G. & Sayles G.O. The Governance of Medieval England from the Conquest to Magna Carta (Edinburgh 1963)
Ritchie R.L.G. The Normans in Scotland (Edinburgh 1954)
Roffe D.
  • "From Thanage to Barony: Sake and Soke, Title and Tenants-in-Chief", Anglo-Norman Studies, XII: Proceedings of the Battle Conference, 1989
  • "Domesday Book and Northern Society: a reassessment", EHR, CV (1990)
Sawyer P.H. "The Density of the Danish Settlement in England" University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 6, (1958)
Stenton D.M. "English Society in the Early Middle Ages" EHR Vol.40
Stenton F.M.
  • Anglo-Saxon England c.550-1087 Oxford History of England Vol. II (Oxford 971)
  • "The Danes in England" Proceedings of the British Academy, XIII
  • The First Century of English Feudalism (Oxford 1961)
  • "Types of Manorial Structure in the Northern Danelaw"Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History ed. P Vinogradoff, ii (1910)
Whitelock D.The Beginnings of English Society Pelican History of England Vol. II (London 1952)

| Abbreviations | 1 | 2 | 3 | Thanes and Thanages | Bibliography | Printer Friendly |