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This thesis examines the careers of the first four Lindsay earls of Crawford, 1380-1453. Each of these four Scottish earls played an important role in Scottish politics, though they have not been closely examined since A. W. C. Lindsay’s Lives of the Lindsays, or a memoir of the Houses of Crawford and Balcarres, published in 1849. This is despite the fact that these men figured in some of the major events in late medieval Scotland. David 1st earl of Crawford can be linked to the murder of David Stewart duke of Rothesay in 1401-2. David 3rd earl of Crawford (d. 1446) was a marriage ally of William 6th earl of Douglas who was judicially murdered in 1440 by William Crichton and James Douglas earl of Avondale in 1440. Evidence suggests this marriage alliance was a factor in the decision to commit the murder. Alexander 4th earl of Crawford (d. 1453) was involved in the famous Douglas-Crawford-Ross tripartite bond which cost William 8th earl of Douglas his life. All of the first four earls were involved, in different ways, in the disputes to determine the succession of the earldom of Mar during their careers. Although the barony of Crawford was in Lanarkshire, the earls’ main sphere of influence was south of the Mounth, where they held lands stretching from Urie near present-day Stonehaven to Megginch near Perth. Glen Esk, their largest holding, was in Forfarshire, which was where they exerted the most influence. They also maintained a degree of influence in Aberdeenshire, where they were the hereditary sheriffs. A few factors explain their ability to maintain this sphere of influence. The first was an ability to call out a significant armed band of men, something which the first, third and fourth earls of Crawford are all recorded to have done. Most also had an income from annuities from various burghs including Aberdeen, Dundee, and Montrose totaling about £200, and they can be demonstrated to have owned a house in Dundee and maintained connections with burgesses there. This may suggest they were involved in trade. David Lindsay, 1st earl of Crawford (d. 1407), who used all of the above means to propel himself to the top ranks of Scottish politics, also promoted himself through active engagement with the culture of chivalry and crusade. This earned him much praise from the contemporary chronicler, Andrew Wyntoun. There are hints that the third and fourth earl may have maintained this interest as well.

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The present work is the fruit of seven years' research into the history of the earldoms of Orkney and Caithness. No excuse of birth or long acquaintance with northern Scotland can be offered as a reason for the choice of this research topic. An intellectual explanation for the study of the history of these two earldoms in the Middle Ages is that a peculiar problem is provided by their political situation. They were divided between two kingdoms, and the earl of Orkney and Caithness owed dual allegiance, a position which became increasingly anomalous as the Middle Ages advanced. The problems which this situation posed for the earls provide an intellectual rationale for the study of these earldoms during this period. But this is an explanation which can only be offered now after several years' research work and an increasing understanding of northern history. The original reasons for the choice of topic were more empirical and dictated by circumstances and the limitations imposed by academic requirements.

The subject of this study is the earls and earldom of Mar c.1281-1513. Chapter 1 provides a description and analysis of the internal structure and administration of Mar, detailing the lands contained within each of Mar’s lordships and their respective caputs. This is supplemented by a breakdown of the Mar rental yields between 1435 and 1565, sourced from various accounts contained within the Exchequer Rolls. Chapter 2 charts the political development of the early earls and earldom of Mar between c.1281 and 1388. It is argued that the earldom suffered from extended periods of absentee lordship, instigating a decline in the earldom’s fortunes and importance, only interrupted by a brief revival between 1388 and 1435. Chapter 3 is concerned with the fortunes of Mar under the control of Mar’s only female countess to rule in her own right, Isabella Douglas, sister of James Douglas, 2nd earl of Douglas and Mar. The chapter draws particular attention to her attempts to consolidate her authority in the wake of debates surrounding the Douglas inheritance after 1388, and her response to Albany Stewart interference in her earldom between 1402 and 1404. In doing so, it presents an alternative interpretation of Countess Isabella’s role in the coup of 1404 led by Alexander Stewart, son of Alexander Stewart lord of Badenoch. This chapter also explores the issue of female authority, and argues that the proactive policies of Countess Isabella have been largely ignored in the historiography of the period. Chapter 4 provides an assessment of the earls and earldom of Mar from 1435-1513. Building on the examination of the career of Alexander Stewart, earl of Mar contained in chapter 3, this chapter explores the political ramifications of his death and the attempts by both the Erskines and the Lyles to secure their Mar inheritance. Their decision to court the Forbes family in a bid to secure local support for their claims highlights the hitherto underemphasized importance of this family as the font of local authority, and draws attention to the effect of Stewart’s death on the exercise of local lordship in Mar. Taken together, these four chapters will challenge current perceptions of Mar’s geographical development and political decline between c.1281 and 1513.

This thesis considers and critically analyses literary representations of what I have called “alternative masculinities” within a selection of texts by male writers from the turn of the millennium. The novels chosen for this analysis are Last Drinks by Andrew McGahan (2000), World of Chickens (2001) by Nick Earls and Sushi Central by Alasdair Duncan (2003). The work of R.W. Connell, Doreen Massey and Bruce Bennett will inform a framework blending theories of masculinities, spatiality theories and critical regionalism, providing the tools to conduct a reading of the spaces fictional representations of alternative masculinities engage with. Applying Connell’s hierarchy of masculinities (1995) I examine the emerging textual constructions of alternative masculinities that correspond with the changing cityscape of Brisbane. Within the above texts I argue there is a strong emphasis on the connections between identity and place. This is expressed through references to Brisbane’s social and historical identity and the gendered alignment of Brisbane spaces with particular masculinities.

This thesis has set out with the intention of providing a detailed investigation of the pattern of urban development which occurred in the lordships of Glamorgan, Gwynllŵg, Caerleon and Usk between 1217 and 1314, The reason for concentrating upon the period 1217-1314 is that it was during this time that each of the four lordships passed into the hands of a single baronial family, the Clare earls of Gloucester and Hertford. A central theme of the thesis has been to obtain an understanding of the way in which urban development as a whole evolved during this period, with particular emphasis being placed upon the role played by the Clare seigneurs in shaping these developments. This question of seigneurial involvement is important, and sets the study apart from previous investigations into urbanisation in the four lordships. Whilst the individual development of towns within the lordships has generally received a fair amount of historical and archaeological investigation, very little attempt has been made to examine how the towns might have been interactive and interdependent in terms of administration and economic development when under the control of a common lord. In the course of this thesis consideration has been made of the development and evolution of the towns of Cardiff, Newport, Kenfig, Neath, Caerleon, Usk, Cowbridge, Trelech, Llantrisant and Caerphilly, and important aspects regarding the respective influence of the seigneur and the burgesses have been identified. In all the towns held by the Clares, it emerges that it was the seigneur who represented the dominant force in shaping urban development. Moreover, strong evidence has emerged to suggest that the Clares adopted and implemented a homogeneous attitude towards the development of urban centres in their Marcher lordships.

Throughout Victoria's reign, Lord Lindsay and his son Ludovic, respectively twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth earls of Crawford, created one of the largest private libraries ever assembled in Britain. The Bibliotheca Lindesiana included some six thousand manuscripts, which Ludovic sold to Enriqueta Rylands in 1901 for £155,000. The principal problematic that I address in this thesis is: Why did the earls of Crawford invest vast amounts of financial and cultural capital in this endeavour? In other words, what factors - both structural and specific - led to the formation of the library, what purposes did it serve, and what roles did its manuscript components in particular perform? Other questions include: How - and how successfully - did Lindsay and Ludovic maintain physical and intellectual control over the rapidly growing library? How did they position themselves within networks of connoisseurship and collecting in Victorian Britain? How was the formation of the Oriental manuscript collections connected with Lindsay's interest in racial classification and with wider racial discourses? And how did the library reflect and reinforce Lindsay's identity as a gentleman-scholar? Previous studies of this and other manuscript collections have adhered to an antiquarian, bio-bibliographical model, focusing on the detailed matter and mechanisms of collecting, rather than exploring the socio-cultural and epistemological contexts of their development. This thesis, by contrast, constitutes the first extended application of cultural theory to a manuscript collection, or indeed to any private library, in the nineteenth century. I combine close archival work with Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital and habitus to reveal the complex structuration and signification of the library, and to investigate the imbrication between the earls' personal agency and wider forces operating upon the library. My examination of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana has uncovered several key issues and themes hitherto unexplored in this or any other major private library of the nineteenth century. First, I argue that the reasons for the library's development reside principally in various forms of classification, which preoccupied Lindsay and reflected wider societal trends and taxonomies: the classification of libraries and the ramification of knowledge; Lindsay's deployment of the library to corroborate his and his family's social and cultural distinction (i.e. social classification); and an interest in racial classification, which reflected Orientalist discourses associated with imperialism. Secondly, while the dispersal of aristocratic collections in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is a familiar trope, this study is the first to contextualize the decline of a private library within the struggle between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Finally, this is the first examination of the impact of professionalization upon private as opposed to public libraries, revealing the tensions between amateur traditions and growing professionalism and specialization in the nineteenth century. I thus 'read' through the library some of the wider socio-economic and cultural issues operating in Victorian Britain and its empire.