Bøker av Michael Penman

David II (1329-1371), son of the hero King of Scots, Robert Bruce (1306-1329), has suffered a harsh historical press, condemned as a disastrous general, a womaniser and a sympathiser with Scotland's 'auld enemy', England. Bringing together evidence from Scotland, England and France, Michael Penman offers a different view.

An interdisciplinary approach to a crucial part of the systems of medieval authority and governance.In the medieval world, what happened when a figure of recognised authority was absent? What terminology, principles and solutions of proxy authority were developed and adopted? Did these solutions differ and change over time depending on whether the absence was short or long and caused by issues of incapacity, minority, disputed succession, geography or elective absenteeism? Did the models of proxy authority adopted by ruling dynasties and large institutions influence the proxy choices of lesser authority? The circumstances and consequences of absentee authority, a major aspect of the systems of medieval power, are the focus of this volume. Ranging across the realms of medieval Europe (but with a focus upon the British Isles and France), its essays embrace a wide variety of experience - royal, parliamentary, conciliar, magnatial, military, ecclesiastical (papal to parochial), burghal, household, minoror major, male or female, exiled, captive or infirm - and explore not merely political developments, but the dynastic, diplomatic, financial, ideological, religious and cultural ramifications of such episodes. Frederique Lachaud is Professor of medieval history at the Universite de Lorraine, France; Michael Penman is Senior Lecturer in history at the University of Stirling, Scotland. Contributors: James Bothwell Michelle Bubenicek, Leonard Dauphant , Bruno Dumezil, Laurent Hablot, Torsten Hiltmann, Tom Horler-Underwood, Robert Houghton, Olivier de Laborderie, Frederique Lachaud, Hans Jacob Orning, Michael Penman. Norman Reid

This fascinating new biography of the great Scottish hero focuses on his kingship in the fifteen years that followed his triumphant victory at Bannockburn.