This collection of essays, in honour of Professor Roger A. Mason, critically re-assesses what we understand by the terms "Renaissance" and "Reformation" in Scottish History.Roger Mason's research in the field of pre-modern Scottish history has proved ground-breaking and iconoclastic. He recast late-medieval Stewart kingship within the framework of renaissance monarchy and Christian humanism; led the application of intellectual- and literary-historical approaches to early modern Scottish studies; and produced novel and highly influential analyses of a wide canon of key texts, from Mair's History of Greater Britain to the writings of John Knox and George Buchanan. This volume celebrates his "rethinking" of the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland by applying the core elements of his historical approach to a broader temporal period between the fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries and to a new range of texts. Its essays, by leading scholars of pre-modern Scotland, explore aspects of the cultural transition from medieval to renaissance, the role of historical memory in defining and redefining Scottish identity, the interface between literature, politics and religion in a period of confessional strife and, above all, the importance of ideas in shaping the political and religious outlook of pre-modern Scots.

AcknowledgementsContributorsList of AbbreviationsPart I: Memory and Identity: Mason and the HistoriansIntroduction: Re-thinking the Renaissance and Reformation in Scotland: Roger A. Mason's Work and Legacy - Steven J. Reid 1. Contesting the Reformation: Roger Mason's ('sufficiently plausible') debt to David Hay Fleming and Andrew Lang - Catriona M.M. MacdonaldPart II: Kingship and Political Culture: From Medieval to Renaissance2. A New Perspective on John of Fordun's Chronica Gentis Scotorum as a Medieval 'national history' - Dauvit Broun3. 'A Traitor to the Kingdom': Robert Bruce and the Use of Treason in Fourteenth-Century Scotland - Michael H. Brown 4. James and John: James I (1406-37), Monastic Reform, Kingship, and the Cult of John the Baptist - Stephen Boardman 5. Sent Abroad to Talk for Their Country: Two Examples of Early Scottish Humanist Diplomacy - Nicola Royan 6. 'O wretched king!': Ireland, Denmark-Norway, and Kingship in the Reign of James V - Alison CathcartPart III: Literature, Politics and Religion: Renaissance and Reformation7. 'The Time of Reformation': The Evolution of Early Modern Protestant Memories of the Scottish Reformation - Bess Rhodes 8. James and John: the Stormy Relationship between James Stewart, Regent Moray and John Knox - Jane E. A. Dawson 9. A Disciple of Buchanan in the Marian Civil War: Thomas Maitland's 'The Consecration of James VI, King of Scots' ('Jacobi VI, Scotorum Regis Inauguratio') - Steven J. Reid 10. "Long lyf and welth vith veilfair and great gloir": New Year and the Giving of Advice at the Stewart Court - Kate McClune 11. John Leslie, Bishop of Ross, and the Design of Mary, Queen of Scot's Defence - Tricia A. McElroy 12. Alexander Hume's Hymnes or Sacred Songs - Joanna Martin 13. The Dutch in Scotland: The Diplomatic Visit of the States General upon the Baptism of Prince Henry - Esther MijersAfterword: The Renaissance of Roger Mason - Sally MapstoneRoger A. Mason: A Select BibliographyIndex