The community of the realm in Scotland, 1249–1424
History, law and charters in a recreated kingdom

CITE THIS PAGE: Matthew Hammond, 'David II's charter witnesses', The community of the realm in Scotland, 1249 -1424: History, law and charters in a recreated kingdom, 21 Nov. 2019, https://cotr.ac.uk/social-network-analysis-political-communities-and-social-networks/networks-david-ii-king-scots-1329-71/david-iis-charter-witnesses/

The People of Medieval Scotland database contains document pages for 724 documents of David II, king of Scots (1329-71). Of these, 320 are charters with witness lists. We can analyse these 320 witness lists to see who the most prominent witnesses of David's charters were, who witnessed alongside whom, and to calculate who were the most central actors within the context of the royal court and household as expressed in the act of charter witnessing, according to social network analysis.

As the following graph showing the number of royal documents of King David II by year of his reign illustrates, peaks in the number of witnesses in the network in any given regnal year (orange line) are reflections of peaks in the production or survival of witnessed documents (blue line). There were very few such sources in the first twelve years of his reign, due to his minority, when dispositive witnessed charters were rare, and to the most violent phase of the second war of independence. The spike in activity during David's first phase of personal rule took place between the king's return from French exile in 1341 and his capture at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. During the more than a decade in which David was in English captivity, Robert Stewart was in charge of the kingdom. By far the most productive period of the king's rule was that between his return in 1357 and his death in 1371.

This network comprises 115 individual witnesses to David II's 320 charter texts with witness clauses. We can view this network as a Gephi sociogram. The names are colour-coded to reflect the status category of the individuals.

Explore the witness network of David II at the People of Medieval Scotland website: (nodes coloured according to basic status) (nodes coloured according to status category)

The following table lists the 115 witnesses of David II's charters in order of degree centrality. Degree is the measure of how many other actors to which each witness is directly connected. In the context of a network of charter witnesses, this means how many of the 99 known witnesses each actor witnessed alongside; we may think of them as 'co-witnesses'. Robert Stewart, the king's steward, nephew and future King Robert II, witnessed alongside 84 out of 115 people. In that context, he had 'contact' with 73% of witnesses. Robert is clearly the most central figure in the king's charter witnessing network.

A. Method One: Co-witnessing instances

Raising the co-witnessing threshold to more than 20 co-witnessing instances. (Netdraw sociogram)

more than 40 co-witnessing instances...

more than 75...

and more than 150.

This final sociogram illustrates the remarkably large number of times a few key actors were witnessing charters of David II together. These five men were all of a generation who died between 1383 and 1390, and the high number of co-witnessing instances here reflect the large number of charters produced between 1357 and 1371. Patrick of Leuchars, bishop of Brechin, was the king's chancellor throughout this period, and the fact that he witnessed 219 times alongside Robert Stewart attests to the near ubiquitous presence of both men at the king's court. Remarkably, the bishop of St Andrews, William Landellis, was a constant attendant too, witnessing 217 times with Robert and 207 times with Patrick. Other lay figures, like William Douglas, earl of Douglas; sometime chancellor Robert Erskine; the long-lived Patrick (V) earl of March and now Moray, as well as Archibald Douglas, future earl of Douglas, were frequent witnesses but stayed well below the 200 mark.

B. Method Two: Degree Centrality

We can raise the threshold for inclusion in the network by limiting to actors with a degree of 20 or above, i.e., those who have witnessed with 20 or more others in the network.

The network with actors of 30 or more degrees...

And the network constrained to those of only 50 or higher degree.

A. Eigenvector Centrality

Eigenvector centrality is a measurement which adds a layer of nuance to degree, in terms of thinking of power elites. Eigenvector takes into account the degree centrality of those actors who are immediately adjacent to ego. This allows us to see not simply how many people with whom each individual co-witnessed, but also whether those connections were themselves central players or more peripheral figures within that network. Eigenvector centrality as calculated in Gephi sets the person with the highest degree, in this case Robert Stewart, at a value of one (or we can think of this in terms of percentage, with Robert at 100%), and reckons the value of all the other actors in relation to him. The eigenvector values of the most central figures in David's reign differ little from the picture given by degree centrality.

B. Betweenness Centrality

Betweenness centrality is a measurement intended to reflect influence in a network. The number is calculated by adding the shortest paths between two nodes in the network that pass through ego. In theory, if individuals have to go through ego to get to other nodes, this places ego in a position of power, although the importance of this in terms of witness networks is less obvious than other kinds of networks. The significant outlier in David II's betweenness network is Master Adam Murray, bishop of Brechin, and chancellor at the beginning of David's reign. The most central actors in David's reign were either active throughout the reign (e.g. Patrick, earl of March) or very prominent in the period 1357-71 (e.g. Patrick of Leuchars, bishop of Brechin). The sociogram reveals the secret to Adam Murray's high betweenness: he acts as a conduit between important actors at the very beginning of the reign, such as Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray (d. 1332) and John Stewart, earl of Angus (d. 1331), and the main body of key players across the span of David's reign, those who survived the bloody battles of the 1330s. In short, Adam is a bridge between generations.

C. Weighted degree

Weighted degree is calculated by adding up all the individual links between nodes, as opposed to the number of contacts. In that sense, it is more concerned with edges (the lines between nodes) than the nodes themselves. It is calculated by adding up all the instances of co-witnessing, so the number of times one has co-witnessed matters more than just how many people one has appeared alongside. While the future King Robert II dominates the centrality league tables across the board, the weighted degree table makes clear that Robert not only witnessed alongside the highest number of people (84 out of 119), but also, just how often he did so (1684 unique co-witnessing instances). The sheer number of times Robert witnessed with other actors sits at an astounding 199 times more often than any other player, in this case, William Landellis, bishop of St Andrews. Because this measure looks at how many times each actor witnessed with another, the top ten is finished out with regular household knights, men like Walter of Halliburton and John of Preston, rather than some more prestigious figures with higher degrees, such as Malcolm Fleming, earl of Wigtown.