Michael Brown (6) (1965–)

If you need to know about the late Middle Ages in Scotland, this is a book you really should have. Which sort of makes me hope you aren't interested in the late Middle Ages in Scotland....

There was probably no one King Robert I Bruce trusted more than Sir James Douglas, the man the king asked to carry his heart to Jerusalem after he died. (Douglas tried but was killed on the way in 1330.) James Douglas was not a member of the nobility, but with that sort of history, small wonder that his descendants became Earls of Douglas and gained many other honors. Over time, the family split into branches -- the Black Douglases, the Red Douglases, the Douglases of Dalkeith. The Black Douglases were the most important branch -- they were the ones who became the Earls of Douglas, and were the most powerful lords in the southern lowlands. They, more than anyone else, were responsible for guarding the march with England.

But their life expectancy, as a result, was poor. Died in battle, assassinated (in one case, murdered by King James II himself!), captured at a dinner and executed after a mock trial -- rarely did the earldom descend from father to son, and I lost track of the times when it went to an illegitimate offspring of someone-or-other. I don't think there was a living legitimate descendant of the Good Sir James left by the year 1400. Yet they still kept their earldom until 1455.

You truly can't understand the story of Scotland from 1340 to 1460 without knowing about the Black Douglases, and this is just about the only book on the subject.

It is also absolute torture to read. There are useful genealogies, and the index is excellent. But the text... to call the prose "leaden" is an insult to lead. The sentences run on forever, and most paragraphs are at least half a page in length. The syntax is awful, and there are so many names that you're always thinking, "Wait, do I know this person?" It doesn't help that more than half the Douglases seem to have been named either James or Archibald, but if every one of them had had a different name, it still would have been a great burden to plow through this thing. It took me about three weeks to slog through this thing -- five to eight pages per day was the most I could usually manage. Where was Michael Brown's editor? Did he die of exhaustion along the way, perhaps?

Bottom line: To the best of my knowledge, there is no better reference about the Black Douglases than this book. And there is no worse monument than this thing that should have been entered into a bad writing contest.… (mehr)

This is an academic read and not a light romp down a historical lane. Not to excuse his actions, I'm not sure but that I would be less than thrilled with a relative who starved my sibling to death and allowed me to be held in captivity for 16 years, taking over the lands that would have provided the funds for clothing, household goods, and pay for the household small though it was. Nor was James I interested in being a sidelined in a Stewart castle somewhere like Robert II and Robert III while a relative was an uncrowned King of Scots with an eye to becoming king. Uneasy is the head that wears the crown with grasping magnates all around!… (mehr)

The Wars of Scotland is absolutely terrific historical analyais. Covering the period 1214-1371 in which Scotland battled successfully for its survival against England, the work is a fascinating peek into the events and the people who influenced them. Despite the title, the book is not really about wars. There is very little reproduction of battle and no real military analysis. Instead, Michael Brown has put together a brilliantly cogent analysis of the various factions competing for power both within and without Scotland in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Where Brown succeeds so expertly is in not reducing his analysis merely to the exploits of kings. It is all too easy to tell the story of a nation as if it was the story of the nation's leader. Brown delves into the aspirations and struggles of the class of people who strove for power. This is a story of Robert the Bruce but it is also the story of the Balliols, Stewarts, Gordons, MacDonalds and many many more from the north of Scotland, from Ireland, England, France, and Rome.

Wars of Scotland is the 4th book chronologically in the New Edinburgh History of Scotland series and it is inarguably one of the best. Brown's treatment of the material seems vigorously fair, the people he describes are multi-faceted. Robert the Bruce is not just a war leader, not just the man who murdered his rival, not just a leader who balanced factions against one another. The people described really emerge from the pages.

The work begins at the start of the reign of Alexander II. This period is also covered in the 3rd book of the series [[ASIN:0748614974 Domination and Lordship]]. Brown's coverage is better. Alexander's attempts to centralise authority are set in the context of continued rivalry with the MacWilliams and the divergent culture of the Gaelic west. Brown does not devote too much time to Norwegian interests, perhaps because those interests had so severely diminished by the end of the work's time period. Above all though is the continual tension with England and attempts by all of the Scottish kings to prevent English overlordship.

It is through the prism of the threat from England that this period is analysed. The factions within Scotland jockey for position against one another all the while knowing that support from England or antipathy towards it can tip the hand. The early wars in this period are described by Brown in quite an overarching and general manner. There is very limited detail on the actual wars themselves, more what these wars meant in the longer term. William Wallace and his campaign for instance are not detailed in terms of the relative military virtue but instead Wallace's place within the feudal oligarchy and the impact on later decision makers plays more strongly in Brown's analysis.

Still, this is a period of conflict and the outcomes of that conflict are manifold. Brown uses the case of Berwick to show the impact of war most clearly. From being Scotland's richest burgh, it becomes a meaningless English outpost. Brown's analysis makes this really quite a sad case. Berwick should now be one of the most significant places in Britain but it isn't and this period is why.

As well as the various mainstream factions within Scotland, Brown also cleverly devotes a separate section to the Isles. His analysis of the rise of the MacDonalds is remarkably clear. Such clarity is not always evident. Instead of delving into the details of MacDonalds being a critical component of the most famous Bruce victory, Brown analysis the rise in terms of power structures. It is the weakening of a rival that gives John of Islay the opportunity which he takes.

While the rise of the Stewarts is within the mainstream, Brown does not really devote quite so much time to explaining how they managed to be the ones to outlast the rest. The Stewarts just seem ever-present. As other houses fall, the Stewarts continue. Without devoting specific attention to the Stewarts, Brown gives an impression of their rise being inexorable.

Brown's narrative is fast-flowing and easy to consume. He is writing about an exciting time in Scottish history and he does so in a way that really makes it easy to engage. While this is not exactly popular history, it is very accessible and given it covers one of the crucial phases in the history of Scotland it should be read by a wide audience.

One aspect that isn't really fleshed out is detail on the lives of ordinary folk. There is not a huge amount about social conditions or the economic environment. The church gets a lot of detail because it is a power structure. The only real references to ordinary folk are the fates of the burghers of Berwick who are on the receiving end of some pretty nasty English brutality and a brief reference to the impact of the Black Death. Given that this form of plague happened only once and that it happened during the period in question, it is perhaps a bit of a surprise to see it play such a minor role in the narrative. Equally, there is not a huge amount about any technological development. The arrival of the English long bow for instance as a weapon of massive amounts of destruction seems an obvious starting point.

Minor quibbles aside, Wars of Scotland is really excellent. It is a well-written piece of historical analysis that covers a genuinely fascinating part of British history. Rather than going into the detail of various wars, this is the broad sweep of history, it is the outcomes and their impact that really matter. Where Brown succeeds above other historical analysts is that this is not the story of a King, it is the story of a complex web of power structures. It is the story of the Scottish State and in telling the story of that State, it is the story of the many factions and outsider competitors all striving against one another in shifting allegiances. Wars of Scotland is first rate, well worth reading.… (mehr)