The Acts of Alexander III King of Scots 1249 -1286

Brings together 330 legal documents from the reign of King Alexander III of Scotland This volume contains the full texts of 175 acts issued under the seal of King Alexander III, together with notes on a further 155 'lost acts' that survive only in notices. These acts, many of which have never been published before, have been collected from a variety of archives in Scotland, England, Belgium and France. The Introduction examines the administrative contexts of the later thirteenth century in which the royal chancery drafted and authenticated charters, brieves and other written instruments, and discusses the varied sources from which the collection is compiled. The texts include full Latin transcriptions and detailed English-language summaries of the contents of each act, together with a series of notes and comments on context and significance. By drawing together both original archive sources and widely scattered published sources, the volume offers a unique opportunity to understand how Scottish government and administration operated in the key period before the reign of Robert Bruce. The Regesta Regum Scottorum series has already made available in print a definitive edition of the written acts of several of the medieval kings of Scotland. It remains the standard reference for Scottish, British and European scholars interested in the history of royal chanceries, the evolution of medieval royal government and the growth of literate modes of expression in the Middle Ages.

Cynthia J. Neville is the George Munro Professor of History at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada. She has published extensively on various aspects of the legal and social history of the Anglo-Scottish border lands in the period 1200-1500 and on the social and cultural encounter between Gaels and Europeans in medieval Scotland. She is the author of Violence, Custom and Law: The Anglo-Scottish Border Lands in the Later Middle Ages (Edinburgh University Press, 1998) and Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c.1140-1365 (2005). Grant G. Simpson, formerly of Aberdeen University, is the author of many books and articles, including Scottish handwriting, 1150-1650: An introduction to the reading of documents, and is a Fellow of the Societies of Antiquaries of Scotland and of London.

INTRODUCTION Analysis of the Acts of Alexander III I. Diplomatic analysis II. Classification and subject matter III. The hands IV. The king's V. Place dates in the acts of Alexander III Appendix I. The Inventory of 29 September 1282 Methods of editing List of sources Notes to the Introduction THE ACTS OF ALEXANDER III Dated acts, full texts, Numbers 1-165 Undated acts, full texts, Numbers 166-175 Calendar of lost acts, Numbers 176-330 Index of Persons and Places Map of places at which Alexander III's acts were issued