The Breaking of Britain: cross-border society and Scottish independence 1216-1314

苏格兰独立战争在英国北部造成了新的根本分歧。北部长期存在政治边界，但到1314年，也出现了社会边界：不可能在分界两边都拥有土地，同时成为英格兰和苏格兰王国的成员。有人认为，这是一次剧烈的方向转变，因为在13世纪，英格兰和苏格兰一直在靠近，而不是远离。另一种说法是，在第二次世界大战之前的一个世纪里，英格兰和苏格兰之间的“国家屏障”正在下降。根据编年史证据，也有人认为苏格兰东南部的居民在13世纪初认为自己是英格兰人，但到了1280年代，他们认为自己是苏格兰人。该项目旨在调查这些不同的观点是否可以通过关注社会和身份的关键要素来解决。为了获得对社会的全新理解，研究社会结构和模式所需的大量关键细节将通过创建两个免费访问的基于web的资源来实现。第一个是对“中世纪苏格兰悖论，1093-1286”（PoMS）数据库的扩展，以涵盖1286-1314年苏格兰相关文件中记录的所有个人及其社会互动。第二个是一个新的数据库，它包含了1216-1307年英格兰皇家记录中与英格兰北部三个郡的诺森伯兰、坎伯兰和威斯特摩兰有关的所有现存王室记录中的所有个人信息。两者将相互联系，并将被设计为富有成果的学者和初学者的信息。它们将使该项目能够调查边界两侧的社会结构和发展模式。特别是，尽管作为当地社会和政府支柱的绅士阶层一直是学术争论的主题，但其在英格兰北部的确切性质，以及是否与边境以北的情况相似，还有待研究。对诺森伯兰郡和坎伯兰郡一组贵族家庭的详细调查将作为数据库研究的补充。再往下看，中产阶级和组成苏格兰军队的大量农民在战争中发挥了至关重要的作用。他们在和平时期和战争时期的角色是什么，如果有的话，这与英格兰北部的同行有什么不同？为了重新理解身份，关键的资源是编年史，不是作为事件的来源，而是作为一个窗口，了解那些撰写和批准这些文本的人的假设和兴趣。在12世纪晚期的这种背景下，苏格兰南部对英格兰身份的惊人陈述可以找到。这一时期最重要的苏格兰编年史《梅尔罗斯编年史》（chronicle of Melrose）以手稿的形式（非常罕见地）保存了下来，在13世纪由44位抄写员进行了更新。最后一部分（1216年至1282年）将采用一种创新的方法进行编辑和翻译，以增强读者对编年史记录员所揭示的各种变化的兴趣模式的理解。它还将与苏格兰一位修士保存的跨国界编年史（至1297年）和另一部苏格兰编年史（可追溯至1285年）一起被调查，以揭示独立战争前苏格兰人对英格兰王权的看法。通过创造新的研究工具和方法，《英国的分裂》将调查独立战争及其在跨境社会中造成的分裂是一种破裂，还是长期发展的自然结果。研究结果将免费提供给广大用户，并有助于更深入地了解英国历史上的一个关键阶段，这在今天苏格兰和英格兰之间的关系正受到积极讨论的时候尤为重要。

The Scottish Wars of Independence created a new and fundamental divide in the north of Britain. There had long been a political border in the north, but by 1314 there was a social border as well: it was no longer possible to hold land on both sides of the divide and be a member of both the English and Scottish realms. It has been argued that this was a violent change of direction because England and Scotland had been moving closer together, not further apart, during the thirteenth century. Alternatively, it has been suggested that in the century before the Wars 'the national shutters' between England and Scotland were coming down. It has also been argued from chronicle evidence that inhabitants of south-east Scotland saw themselves as English at the beginning of the thirteenth century but by the 1280s identified themselves as Scots. The project seeks to investigate whether these divergent views can be resolved by focusing on the key elements of society and identity. To gain a fresh understanding of society, the critical mass of detail that is required for researching social structures and patterns will be achieved by creating two free-access web-based resources. The first is an extension of the database of the 'Paradox of Medieval Scotland, 1093-1286' (PoMS) to embrace all individuals and their social interactions recorded in documents relating to Scotland 1286-1314. The second is a new database of all information about all individuals in extant royal records relating to Northumberland, Cumberland and Westmorland for the three northern counties of England in English Royal Records 1216-1307. Both will be interlinked, and will be designed to be fruitful for scholars and informative for beginners. They will enable the project to investigate social structures and patterns of development on both sides of the Border. In particular, although the gentry-who were the backbone of local society and government-have been the subject of scholarly debate, its precise nature in northern England and whether it had parallels north of the Border has yet to be researched. The database research will be complemented by a detailed investigation of a cohort of gentry families in Northumberland and Cumberland. Further down the social scale, the middling folk and more substantial peasantry who formed the common army of Scotland played a crucial role in the Wars. What was their role in peacetime as well as war, and how (if it all) did this differ from that of their counterparts in northern England? To gain a fresh understanding of identity the key resource is chronicles, not as a source for events but as a window into the assumptions and interests of those who wrote and approved these texts. Striking statements of English identity in southern Scotland can be found in this context in the late twelfth century. The most important Scottish chronicle of the period, the Chronicle of Melrose, survives (very unusually) as a manuscript updated by 44 scribes during the thirteenth century. The last section (1216 to 1282) will be edited and translated deploying an innovative method that will enhance the reader's understanding of the varied and changing patterns of interest revealed by the chronicle's scribes. It will also be investigated, alongside a cross-border chronicle kept by a friar in Scotland (to 1297) and another Scottish chronicle (datable to 1285), for what they reveal about Scottish perceptions of English kingship immediately before the Wars of Independence. By creating new research tools and methods, the Breaking of Britain will investigate whether the Wars of Independence and the divide they created in cross-border society were a rupture or a natural outcome of longer-term developments. The results will be freely accessible to a wide spectrum of users, and should contribute a deeper understanding of a pivotal phase in British History that is particularly relevant today when the relationship between Scotland and England is being actively debated.