Gaelic Scotland - Language

In 1100 Gaelic was the dominant language of the Scottish kingdom. By 1500 it had been replaced across most of lowland Scotland by 'Scots', a northern dialect of English. In the same period the monarchy became strongly identified with the economic, political and cultural interests of the lowland, Scots-speaking, areas of the kingdom. In the fourteenth century the Lordship of the Isles emerged as a new political and cultural focus for Scottish Gaeldom. The fifteenth century saw a series of political clashes between the crown and the lordship which culminated in the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in 1493. At the same time expressions of cultural antagonism between Gaelic and Scots speakers became more widespread. How 'real' was this vision of a culturally split kingdom? What elements in the functioning of Highland society created the image of the wild and
lawless Gael? Were there really profound differences in the organisation of Highland and Lowland society? 

*J.W.M. Bannerman, 'The Lordship of the Isles', in J.M. Brown (ed.), Scottish Society in the Fifteenth Century (1977) 

G.W.S. Barrow, 'The Highlands in the lifetime of Robert the Bruce', in his The Kingdom of the Scots (1973) 

*J. Dawson, 'The Emergence of the Highlands'

*A. Grant, 'Scotland's "Celtic Fringe" in the late middle ages: the MacDonald Lords of the Isles and the kingdom of Scotland', in R.R. Davies (ed.), The British Isles, 1100-1500 (1988) 

*A. Grant, Independence and Nationhood: Scotland 1306-1469 (1984) 

*R. Nicholson, 'The domesticated Scot and the wild Scot', Guelph University Journal

*R.A. McDonald, The Kingdom of the Isles, Scotland's Western Seaboard, c.1100-c.1336 (1997) 

S. Boardman, 'Pillars of the community' 

J. Gillingham, 'Foundations of a disunited kingdom', in A. Grant and K. Stringer (eds.), Uniting the Kingdom? The Making of British History ( 1995) 

W.R. Jones, 'The image of the barbarian in medieval Europe', Comparative Studies in Society and History (1971) 

A.H. Williamson, 'George Buchanan, civic virtue and commerce: European imperialism and its sixteenth-century critics', Scottish Historical Review, 75 (1996) 

A.H.Williamson, 'Scots, Indians and empire: the Scottish politics of civilization, 1519-1609', Past and Present, 150 (Feb. 1996)