This thesis is an investigation of elite normative masculinity in medieval Scotland. The attempts of medieval men to claim, enforce or deny personal obligations within homosocial relationships provide evidence of how aristocratic Scotsmen ought to have behaved. These obligations appear in documentary and literary sources and indicate the importance of the relationships associated with them. Charters and bonds of friendship, fealty, and indenture, and three fourteenth-century literary sources, the Liber Extravagans, Gesta Annalia, and The Bruce, provide evidence of normative expectations of men in medieval Scotland. These sources present a picture of an ideal man whose interactions with other men were governed by expectations of loyalty, honesty, bravery, wisdom, and valour. It is also apparent that while courtly chivalry was an influential normative source, its precepts were of secondary importance to the welfare and protection of one’s dependants. This study contributes to the growing body of work that emphasizes the importance of understanding manliness and male experiences as a gendered, constructed, and important force within society. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Ontario Graduate Scholarship
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OGU.10214/2936 |
| Date | 01 September 2011 |
| Creators | Holton, Caitlin |
| Contributors | Ewan, Elizabeth |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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