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

As part of the Community of the Realm project, we aim to understand better the workings of royal government between 1249 and 1424. Extending the People of Medieval Scotland database (www.poms.ac.uk) will help us greatly in the process. The written acts of Scottish kings and guardians between 1314 and 1371 are currently being added to the database. This includes the vast majority of King Robert I’s charters, as well as those of his son, David II (1329-71). For the first time, scholars will be able to access evidence from the entirety of the corpus of the acts of these two kings, including those charters surviving only in the charter rolls printed in John Maitland Thomson’s Register of the Great Seal of Scotland.

We are also including charters and letters in the names of guardians in the minority of David II and during his captivity. The lion’s share of these were produced by Robert Stewart, the future King Robert II, but there are also texts by Thomas Randolph, earl of Moray, his son John Randolph, and Andrew Murray II. Finally, as a king crowned at Scone in 1332, Edward Balliol, son of King John (1292-96) issued royal charters and letters, which we are also including in the database. There are 78 such texts dating from Edward’s coronation to his abdication in 1356, which are calendared in Appendix D of Amanda Beam’s book The Balliol Dynasty, 1210-1364 (2008).