Matthew Hammond

Co-Investigator ‘Paradox of Medieval Scotland, 1093-1286 (PoMS)’ (3-year AHRC project).
Dr Hammond was Lead Researcher on the project from Sept. 2007 to Aug. 2008.
He is now a Lecturer in Scottish History at the University of Edinburgh (m.hammond@ed.ac.uk).

Research interests

I am interested in several related fields of research dealing with the history of Britain and Ireland circa 1000-1300 in general and the history of Scotland in particular:

• The adoption of charters in Scotland, particularly among the laity, and the development of charter diplomatic, especially 1150-1250.
• Aristocracy, prosopographical networks, social structures and the exercise of power Ethnic identities in the British Isles, the interaction of native and colonial aristocracies, Europeanization, Anglicization and ‘Scotticization’.
• Historical models, historiographical narratives and conceptual frameworks, with emphasis on ethnic and nationalist themes Personal names and the development of surnames
• The foundation and reform of monasteries and development of saints’ cults
• The twelfth-century renaissance and intellectual and cultural exchange between Scotland and Europe

Current projects and publications in development

I am the co-developer and Lead Researcher on the AHRC-funded, 3-year project, ‘The Paradox of Medieval Scotland, 1093- 1286’, which includes the following outputs and related publications:

• Scottish Charters, 1095-1286: an annotated list and bibliography (general editor), a comprehensive calendar of Scottish charters, including royal, ecclesiastical and ‘private’, to be published online and in a limited print run by the University of Glasgow Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies.
• The First Generations of Scottish Charters (editor with Dauvit Broun; contributor), a collection of essays on methodological issues relating to Scottish charters, to be published online and in a limited print run by the University of Glasgow Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies.
• A Dictionary of the Origins of Early Scottish Families. This volume would present concise, reliable histories of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century origins of over a hundred well-known Scottish families, presented in a format accessible to family historians and the interested public as well as academics.
• Co-editor and contributor to a collection of essays by project members and other experts on ethnicity, feudalism, Europeanization, charters, law, language and other important themes in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scottish history.
• A free, web-based, prosopographical database covering all individuals appearing in Scottish charters between 1093 and 1286.

I am also working on two volumes that are not related to the PoMS project:

• The Nature of Scottish Europeanization: ethnicity and society in Scotland north of Forth, ca. 1100- ca.1260. Boydell and Brewer have agreed to publish this monograph based on the thesis as part of its ‘Studies in Celtic History’ series.
• The Cartulary and Charters of Coupar Angus Abbey, 1164 to 1329. Contracted by Scottish History Society for 2011. A new edition of the breviary of the lost cartulary of the Cistercian abbey and the surviving original charters from the same period.

I am also an active member of the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies.

Publications

• ‘Ethnicity and the writing of medieval Scottish history’, Scottish Historical Review 85 (2006), 1-29.
• ‘Ethnicity, personal names, and the nature of Scottish Europeanization’, Thirteenth-Century England, 11 (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2007), 82-93.
• ‘The use of the name "Scot" in the central middle ages, part one: "Scot" as a by-name’, Journal of Scottish Name Studies, 1 (2007), 37-60.
• ‘Hostiarii Regis Scotie: the Durward Family and the Exercise of Power in the Thirteeth Century,’ in The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland c.1200- 1500, ed. Steve Boardman and Alistair Ross. (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2003), 118-38.
• ‘A prosopographical analysis of society in east central Scotland with special reference to ethnicity, 1100 - 1260’, University of Glasgow Ph.D. thesis, June 2005.
• ‘Assemblies and the writing of administrative documents in the central medieval kingdom of the Scots’, in Medieval Legal Process: Physical, Spoken and Written Performance in the Middle Ages, ed. Marco Mostert and Paul S. Barnwell (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, forthcoming).
• ‘The Charters of Countesses and Noblewomen, 1150 – 1286’, in On Wummins’ Wayis: Women in Medieval Scotland, ed. Kimm Curran and Mark Zumbuhl (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, forthcoming).
• ‘Founding St Edward’s Abbey’, Citeaux: Commentarii Cistercienses (2008, forthcoming).
• Balmerino Abbey, Syllabus of Scottish Cartularies, 2007.

Scholarly Activities

I am the editor of the longstanding Conference of Scottish Medievalists project, the Syllabus of Scottish Cartularies.

The Syllabus project and other important charter-related work has been made available on-line by the Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, which I also edit.

Here are a few recent conference papers not related to the above publications:

• ‘Domination and Conquest? The Scottish Experience, 1100-1286’, The First English Empire? Cultural Transmission and Political Conflict in the British Isles, c.1100 to c.1500, Trinity College Dublin, Sept. 14, 2007.
• ‘Religious houses and the veneration of saints in twelfth- and thirteenth- century Scotland’, The Cult of Saints in Medieval Scotland, National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, Sept. 9, 2007.
• ‘Scots and Scotland in the Twelfth-Century Renaissance’, Conference of Scottish Medievalists, Pitlochry, Jan. 7, 2007.
• ‘Between Norway and Scotland: Caithness and Orkney, 1231 - 1284’, Medieval Scottish Studies Seminar Series, University of Glasgow, Oct. 20, 2005.