Lys de la royauté ou croix de l’Église, l’espace des villes médiévales se caractérise par les marques qu’y ont apposées les institutionsmédiévales. À la fin du Moyen Âge, les nouvelles élites urbaines s’approprient ce marquage de l’espace public par l’image en yimposant leurs propres signes. Elles affirment alors leur présence sur la scène publique et artistique. Aux XIVe et XVe siècles, ledécor civil se fait l’expression tangible de cette transformation sociale ; des signes emblématiques et de petites sculptures figuréesinvestissent l’espace urbain. L’institution municipale fait édifier un bâtiment emblématique, l’hôtel de ville, dont le portail armoriéfait écho aux emblèmes qu’elle fait placer dans les lieux stratégiques. Les particuliers, à leur tour, transposent à leurs habitations cesmodes de représentation monumentale. Officiers ou marchands, ces hommes nouveaux couvrent leurs résidences de blasons, figuresreligieuses ou emblématiques. Les ensembles décoratifs, en les rattachant à un métier, une institution ou une paroisse, disent laposition sociale et les valeurs morales que revendiquent les commanditaires bourgeois. Ceux-ci, par la présentation de leurs insignespersonnels, de leur devise ou de leur nom, mettent en scène leur identité, introduisant dans l’espace public urbain des fragments desubjectivité. Des petites figures singulières et radicales se déploient : corps nus et exposés, scènes grotesques et allégoriques, quifigurent la déchéance possible pour valoriser le statut. Structurés et hiérarchisés, ces décors forment un système relationnel danslequel l’ascension répond à l’exclusion, signes d’un ordre social en transformation. / Whether royal lily or Christian cross, the space of medieval towns is characterized by the marks placed on it by medieval institutions.At the end of the Middle-Ages, the new urban elites make the process of marking the city their own by imposing their own signs onthe public space. Thus, they assert their presence on the public and artistic scene. In the 14th and 15th century, civilian decorationbecomes the tangible expression of this social transformation ; emblems and small sculptural figures conquer the urban space. Anemblematic edifice, the town hall, is erected by the municipal institution, whose emblazoned portal echo other emblems placed atstrategic locations. Private citizens, in turn, transplant into their homes these monumental modes of representation. Officers ormerchants – these men of a new kind – cover their residences with coats of arms, religious or emblematic figures. By linking them toa profession, an institution or a parish, these decorative programs state the social standing and moral values that those affluentcommissioners claim for themselves. By presenting their personal insignia, their motto or their name, they put their identity on stage,thereby introducing fragments of subjectivity in the public and urban space. Some singular and radical small figures begin toproliferate: exposed, naked bodies, grotesque and allegorical scenes that foreshadow one’s possible downfall in order to exalt one’scurrent status. Structured and hierarchically organized, these decors form a relational system in which social promotion dialogueswith exclusion : telltale signs of a social order in transformation.

This thesis examines the development the cult of St Margaret at Dunfermline as a royal cult from 1070, the moment when St Margaret married King Malcolm III at Dunfermline, to 1420, the year of the burial of Robert duke of Albany who was the last royal member to be buried at Dunfermline. Scholars have focused on the life of St Margaret and her reputation or achievement from the biographical, institutional and hagiographical point of view. Although recent historians have considered St Margaret as a royal saint and Dunfermline as a royal mausoleum, they have approached this subject with relatively simple patterns, compared to the studies of the cults of European royal saints and their centres, in particular, those of English and French Kingdoms which influenced Scottish royalty. Just as other European royal cults such as the cults at Westminster and St-Denis have been researched from the point of view of several aspects, so the royal cult at Dunfermline can be approached in many ways. Therefore, this thesis will examine the development of Dunfermline Abbey as a royal cult centre through studying the abbey and the cult of St Margaret from the point of view of miracles and pilgrimage, lay patronage, and liturgical and devotional space. The examination of St Margaret’s miracles stories and pilgrimage to Dunfermline contribute to understanding these stories in the context of the development of the cult. The study of lay patronage explains the significance of royal favour and non-royal patrons in relation to the development of the cult, and how and why the royal cult developed and declined, and how the monks of Dunfermline promoted or sustained the cult of the saint. Lastly, the research of the liturgical and devotional space provides an explanation of the change of liturgical space from the point of view of the development of the cult.