Professor Steve Boardman (PhD)

Professor of Medieval Scottish History

Biography

Background

I was born in Dunfermline, Fife in 1963 but spent the bulk of my childhood in Hertfordshire and Kent where I developed a number of unsavoury personality traits, including an irrational interest in cricket. Returning to Scotland to study English at St Andrews University, I found myself scared and depressed by Anglo-Saxon poetry and eventually retreated into the warm embrace of the Hons. degree in General History.

After three dissolute years, I stumbled into the James IV Special Subject run by Dr Norman Macdougall. The enthusiasm, good humour and excitement that characterised Norman’s teaching set me on the slippery slope to postgraduate study and a lifetime of academic penury. I finished my PhD at St Andrews in 1989 and thereafter held two postdoctoral fellowships in the same institution before spending two ‘interesting’ years as a Lecturer in History at Aberdeen. In 1997 I was appointed to a Lectureship in Scottish History in Edinburgh and, via a series of administrative mix-ups, have since been promoted to a Senior Lectureship and then a Readership in History.

Undergraduate teaching

  • Medieval Voices (4MA)
  • Kings and Kindreds: Scotland, Wales and Ireland in the Later Middle Ages
  • Chivalry, Warfare and Society in Medieval Scotland 

Postgraduate teaching

  • Saints Cults, Pilgrimage and Piety in Scotland
  • The Lordship of the Isles

Current PhD students supervised

Harrison, Laura - PhD - TBC - Secondary - link

Marks, Tom - PhD - Disinherited: Power, loyalty and legitimacy in Scotland during the War of the Three Kings, 1329-1341 - Primary

Shepherd, Hannah - PhD - Gender, space environment: mapping place in saints' lives 1100-1300 - Secondary

Thacker, Mark - PhD - The Archaeology of the Lime Mortars of Scandinavian Scotland - Secondary PhD - Scottish saints cults and pilgrimage from the Black Death to the Reformation, c. 1349-1560 - Primary

Wabon, Callum - PhD - Primary  

Past PhD students supervised

Cox, Jonathan - PhD - The Lindsay Earls of Crawford: The Heads of the Lindsay Family in Late Medieval Scottish Politics and Society, 1380-1453 - Primary - 2009

Hall, Anne - PhD - The Nobility of Late Medieval Lothian- - Primary - 2008

Strauch, Christina - PhD - Apostle Poverty at the Ends of the Earth: The Observant Franciscans in Scotland, c1457-1560 - Secondary - 2007

Brown, Helen - PhD - Lay Piety in Later Medieval Lothian - Primary - 2007

Cox, Jonathan - MScR - The Lindsay Earls of Crawford: The Heads of the Lindsay Family in Late Medieval Scottish Politics and Society, 1380-1453 - Secondary - 2005

Hall, Anne - MScR - The Nobility of Late Medieval Lothian - Primary - 2005

Brown, Helen - MScR - Lay Piety in Later Medieval Lothian - Primary - 2002

Strauch, Christina - MScR - Apostle Poverty at the Ends of the Earth: The Observant Franciscans in Scotland, c.1457-1560 - Secondary - 2001

Research summary

Places: 

  • Britain & Ireland
  • Europe
  • Scotland

Themes: 

  • Politics
  • Religion
  • Society

Periods: 

  • Medieval

Research interests

  • Late medieval Scottish kingship, particularly the early Stewart kings Robert II and Robert III;
  • The aristocratic lordships of Gaelic Scotland, especially that of the Campbell earls of Argyll;
  • The political and social significance of saints’ cults;
  • Chivalry.

Current research interests

The historical context of John Barbour’s Bruce; the life and post-medieval mythologizing of the Wolf of Badenoch; the political culture of late medieval Scotland; the use and significance of armorials and heraldic devices in late medieval society

Affiliated research centres

Project activity

The Chronicle of Andrew of Wyntoun

The list below is a subset of the information held on the University of Edinburgh PURE system, and includes Books, Chapters, Articles and Conference contributions. For a full list, including details of other publication types (e.g. reviews), please see the Edinburgh Research Explorer page for Professor Steve Boardman.

Books - Authored

Boardman, S. (2013) The First Stewart Dynasty. Edinburgh University Press

Boardman, S. (2012) The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III 1371-1406. Birlinn

Books - Edited

Boardman, S. and Ditchburn, D. (eds.) (2022) Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain: Essays in Honour of Alexander Grant. Woodbridge: Boydell PressDOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv25m8dgw

Boardman, S. and Foran, S. (eds.) (2015) Barbour's Bruce and its Cultural Contexts: Politics, Chivalry and Literature in Late Medieval Scotland. Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer

Boardman, S. and Goodare, J. (eds.) (2014) Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1300-1625: Essays in Honour of Jenny Wormald. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Boardman, S. and Williamson, E. (eds.) (2010) The Cult of Saints and the Virgin Mary in Medieval Scotland. Boydell Press

Boardman, S., Davies, J. and Williamson, E. (eds.) (2009) Saints' Cults in the Celtic World. Boydell Press

Articles

Boardman, S. (1997) Chronicle propaganda in fourteenth-century Scotland: Robert the Steward, John of Fordun and the "Anonymous Chronicle". The Scottish Historical Review, 76, pp. 23-43DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/shr.1997.76.1.23

Boardman, S. (1996) Alexander earl of Buchan, the Wolf of Badenoch. Northern Scotland, 16, pp. 1-29

Chapters

Boardman, S. (2022) Saint Ninian, war and the Lordship of Galloway: The fourteenth century miracle stories in the Scottish Legendary. In: Boardman, S. and Ditchburn, D. (eds.) Kingship, Lordship and Sanctity in Medieval Britain: Essays in Honour of Alexander Grant. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, pp. 233-258DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv25m8dgw.16

Boardman, S. (2018) Commemorating the Battle of Harlaw (1411) in Fifteenth-Century Scotland. In: Butler, S. and Kesselring, K. (eds.) Crossing Borders: Boundaries and Margins in Late Medieval and Early Modern Britain: Essays in Honour of Cynthia J. Neville. Leiden: Brill, pp. 61-82

Boardman, S. (2015) 'Thar nobill eldrys gret bounte’: The Bruce and early Stewart Scotland. In: Boardman, S. and Foran, S. (eds.) Barbour's Bruce and its Cultural Contexts: Politics, Chivalry and Literature in Late Medieval Scotland. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, pp. 191-212

Boardman, S. and Foran, S. (2015) Introduction: King Robert the Bruce's Book. In: Boardman, S. and Foran, S. (eds.) Barbour's Bruce and its Cultural Contexts: Politics, Chivalry and Literature in Late Medieval Scotland. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, pp. 1-31

Boardman, S. (2014) Lords and women, women as lords: The career of Margaret Stewart, Countess of Angus and Mar, c. 1354-c.1418. In: Boardman, S. and Goodare, J. (eds.) Kings, Lords and Men in Scotland and Britain, 1300-1625: Essays in Honour of Jenny Wormald. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 37-58DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748691500.001.0001

Boardman, S. (2009) A People Divided? Language, History and Anglo-Scottish Conflicts in the Work of Andrew of Wyntoun. In: Smith, B. (ed.) Ireland and the English World in the Late Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 112-129

Boardman, S. (2008) Robert II (1371-1390). In: Brown, M. and Tanner, R. (eds.) Scottish Kingship, 1306–1542: Essays in Honour of Norman Macdougall. John Donald, pp. 72-108

Boardman, S. (2008) Royal finance and regional rebellion in the reign of James IV. In: Goodare, J. and MacDonald, A. (eds.) Sixteenth-Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch. Brill, pp. 15-42

Boardman, S. (2007) The Gaelic World and the Early Stewart Court. In: D Broun, M. (ed.) Miorun Mor nan Gall, The Great Ill-Will of the Lowlander?. Glasgow University Press, pp. 83-109

Boardman, S. (2005) Dunfermline as a royal mausoleum. In: Fawcett, R. (ed.) Royal Dunfermline. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, pp. 139-153

Boardman, S. (2005) Pillars of the Community: Campbell lordship and architectural patronage in the fifteenth century. In: R Oram, G. (ed.) Lordship and Architecture in Medieval and Renaissance Scotland. Tuckwell Press Ltd, pp. 122-159

Boardman, S. (2005) Survival and Revival' Late Medieval Scotland. In: Wormald, J. (ed.) Scotland, A History. Oxford University Press, pp. 77-106

Boardman, S. (2004) Coronations, Kings and Guardians: Politics, Parliament and General Councils, 1371-1406. In: K M Brown, R. (ed.) Parliament and Politics in Scotland, 1235-1560: The History of the Scottish Parliament. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 102-122

Boardman, S. (2004) Twenty-four entries. In: New Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press

Boardman, S. (2003) Introduction and chapter on 'The Campbell's and charter lordship in medieval Argyll'. In: Steve Boardman, A. (ed.) The Exercise of Power in Scotland, 1250-1500. Fourt Courts Press

Boardman, S. (2003) The Campbells and charter lordship in medieval Argyll. In: Steve Boardman, A. (ed.) The Exercise of Power in Medieval Scotland, C.1200-1500. Four Courts Press Ltd, pp. 95 - 117

Boardman, S. (2002) Late Medieval Scotland and the Matter of Britain. In: Finlay, E. (ed.) The Power of the Past. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 47-72

Boardman, S. (2002) The Burgh and the Realm: Medieval Politics, c. 1100-1500. In: E P Dennison, D. (ed.) Aberdeen Before 1800: A New History. Tuckwell Press Ltd, pp. 203-223

Boardman, S. (2000) The tale of Leper John and the Campbell acquisition of Lorn. In: E J Cowan, R. (ed.) Alba: Celtic Scotland in the Middle Ages. East Linton, pp. 219-47

Conference contribution

Boardman, S. (2010) A saintly sinner? The 'martyrdom' of David, Duke of Rothesay. In: The Cult of Saints and the Virgin Mary in Medieval Scotland. Boydell Press, pp. 87-104

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