Ewan / Meikle Women in Scotland c.1100-c.1750

1. Auflage 1999
ISBN: 978-1-78885-445-0
Verlag: John Donald
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 300 Seiten

This collection of essays addresses women in Scotland in the medieval and early modem period, drawing on archival sources from Court of Session records to Middle Scots poetry. The editors argue persuasively that it is important to know about Scotswomen from all social levels. The book includes a time line and introductory bibliographical essay. The twenty essays in the collection are arranged under the themes of religion, literature, legal history, the economy, politics and the family. They demonstrate the connections between Scottish women's experience and those in England and the continent, as well as highlighting what was unique for the history of Scottish women. Through this comprehensive review of the feminine situation during more than six hundred years of Scottish history, the reader will discover how women really lived and what they really thought, whatever their place in society.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ewan, Elizabeth L.

Meikle, Maureen M.

Leseproben

CHAPTER ONE The Foundation and Patronage of Nunneries by Native Elites In Twelfth- and Early Thirteenth-Century Scotland R. Andrew McDonald IN THE CENTURY between about 1140 and 1240, at least eleven Benedictine, Cistercian, or Augustinian nunneries were founded in Scotland: Lincluden (Benedictine); Berwick, Coldstream, Eccles, Elcho, Haddington, Manuel, North Berwick and Abbey St Bathans (Cistercian); Iona and Perth (Augustinian).1 Geographically, their distribution was centred in the east with only two located in the west and southwest. In general, the growth of nunneries reflects the transformation of religious life taking place in the twelfth-century kingdom, while at the same time mirroring the widening opportunities for religious women that characterises the twelfth century across western Europe. Although the Scottish foundations pale in comparison with both the number of monasteries established for men in the same kingdom and with the contemporary growth of nunneries in other regions of Britain (notably Ireland and England), the subject of Scottish nunneries has been too much neglected. English nunneries have received significantly more study than their Scottish counterparts.2 In part this is because communities of religious women in Scotland were neither as large nor as numerous as those in England, and, as with almost all monastic foundations of the native Scottish nobility, they are particularly poorly served with documentary evidence: only one cartulary survives, that of Coldstream.3 Moreover, because so many were located between the Forth and the Tay, they suffered greatly during the Anglo-Scottish conflicts of the early fourteenth century onward. Many had already disappeared before the Reformation, and there are few significant architectural remains.4 Indeed, so scanty is the evidence for communities of religious women that one authority, referring to Eileen Power’s study of English nunneries, remarked that, ‘no comparable account of the contemporary Scottish nunneries has been attempted nor indeed is it possible . . .’5 In light of Roberta Gilchrist’s recent stimulating work on ‘gender archaeology’, however, it is doubtful whether such a statement will remain valid for much longer, and systematic archaeological investigation and new methodological approaches might well greatly enhance our knowledge of Scottish nunneries.6 Nevertheless, I will concentrate here on one particular (and largely traditional) aspect of the nunneries: their foundation and patronage by members of the native Scottish élite. Such a focus is dictated by two principal factors: first, the fact that, of the eleven nunneries founded in our period, no fewer than five were founded by native nobles not of the royal Canmore dynasty; and second, while the patterns of this dynasty’s religious patronage are well-known, patronage of religious houses by native élites remains a virtually untapped subject.7 Scotland before the time of King Malcolm III (1058–93) and Queen Margaret possessed none of the monastic institutions so typical of the rest of western Europe. Monasteries, hermits, and other communities of religious there were, but the Rule of St Benedict appears to have been unknown before about 1070, when Margaret brought Benedictine monks to Dunfermline. The continuity of this community through the troubled 1090s is difficult to trace, however, and it was really the early twelfth century which saw the Benedictines and other reformed religious orders established in the country under the patronage of the royal family, Anglo-Norman settlers, and native magnates. The first Augustinian community was planted at Scone c.1120 while the first Cistercian monastery was Melrose, founded in 1136 by David I (1124–53), and this order eventually had eleven monasteries in Scotland. Although there is some evidence for communities of religious women in the early middle ages, it is doubtful whether any continued into the twelfth century. In c.1136, David I founded a nunnery at Berwick-on-Tweed, and later in the twelfth century, other members of the royal family established nunneries at Manuel (Malcolm IV, 1153–65), and Haddington (Ada, countess of Northumberland). It is generally acknowledged that the re-introduction of communities of religious women in Scotland (as with religious houses for men) owed much to royal initiative,8 but this is not the whole story. One of the most significant contrasts between the Norman conquest of England and the process whereby Scotland was Normanized in the twelfth century is that Scotland did not experience a tenurial revolution, and a dynamic and powerful native aristocracy was left firmly intact. In the west and southwest, regions little affected by initial Norman infiltration, powerful native dynasties ruled largely autonomous territories that were peripheral to the Scottish kingdom itself. In the east, the pre-eminent native dynasty was the earls of Fife, descended from royal stock, who enjoyed the privilege of inaugurating the Scottish kings. Another powerful but more recently established family was that of the earls of Lothian. Of Anglo-Saxon stock, they were exiles from the Norman conquest of England, settled in Lothian by King Malcolm III.9 Both these families were closely connected to the royal family, and were among its most dedicated supporters; both were also active patrons of the new religious orders making their way into Scotland from c.1120 onward. Despite being the premier earls in the country, the earls of Fife are not particularly distinguished as founders of monasteries. Earl Malcolm I (1204-c.1228) founded a Cistercian monastery at Culross in 1217–18, but the earls of Fife also patronised at least one house of religious women: the Cistercian nunnery at North Berwick. This was a large house, holding a number of parish churches, but only conventual buildings, much fragmented, remain.10 There is little doubt that this nunnery owed its origin to Earl Duncan I (1136–54), for he is mentioned in the charter of his successor, Earl Duncan II (1154–1204), as having made a donation to the nuns there.11 The seventeenth-century antiquarian, Dalrymple, reported that he had seen a charter of King David confirming Earl Duncan’s grant.12 Other writers attribute North Berwick to Malcolm I, Duncan II’s successor as earl of Fife, but this cannot be correct.13 While Malcolm did grant a charter to the nunnery c.1199, the evidence is overwhelmingly against him as the founder.14 Like most of the other nunneries in question here, North Berwick’s date of origin is difficult to pinpoint. While c.1150 is usually favoured,15 some scholars have attempted to push the foundation back to c.1136;16 lacking a foundation charter, the matter cannot be settled with certainty. If an earlier date is accepted, however, North Berwick would become one of the earliest monasteries for women founded by any Scottish noble, whether native or Anglo-Norman. It is also of interest that in conjunction with the nunnery two hospitals were endowed, the terram hospitalem de Norberwich et terram hospitalem de Ardros,17 on the north and south ends of the ferry across the Forth at North Berwick and Ardross. These hospitals appear to have been granted to the nuns before 1177 and probably erected by Earl Duncan I, for the poor people who used the ferry.18 This was the period when the shrine of St. Andrew was drawing large numbers of pilgrims, and these hospitals may have been erected for their use.19 About the same time, Robert, bishop of St Andrews, built a hospital at St Andrews to receive pilgrims, perhaps providing an inspiration for Duncan’s foundations.20 In an English context, the association of a nunnery with a hospital was not unusual: ‘the line between hospital and nunnery is by no means clear’.21 At Bury the nuns seem to have cared for the poor as well as the saint and the abbey, while those at St Albans were housed in and around the almonry.22 The earls of Lothian were more prominent as patrons of communities of religious women, and it is notable that the women of this dynasty seem to have played a significant role in the establishment of several nunneries. “Without doubt the Cistercian priory of Coldstream was their most important foundation; it is attributed to Earl Gospatrick III (1138–66) or his wife, Deirdre.23 Since the earl’s wife figures prominently in the foundation charter, as well as others, it seems possible that she played an important role in creating the nunnery at Coldstream; Sally Thompson has suggested that where a nunnery was established by a husband and wife, the role of the wife can be subsequently obscured.24 It is impossible to determine from whence the nuns came. The nineteenth-century historian and antiquarian, Chalmers, probably following the earlier antiquarian, Spottiswoode, believed they came from ‘Witehou’ in England, and, although me charter does mention the ‘sisters of Witehou’, this is generally regarded as the place where the nunnery was established.25 Coldstream was generously endowed by several earls of Lothian, suggesting a strong family link with this monastery.26 Attempting to date the community’s origin is difficult; it certainly existed by 1166, when Earl Gospatrick died.27 Since the foundation charter was confirmed by Richard, bishop of St Andrews,28 a narrower dating can be suggested. Richard was not consecrated until March 1165.29 Thus, the establishment of the nunnery may lie between 28 March 1165 and the death of Gospatrick III in 1166, although too...