Cynthia Neville
Professor Emeritus; FRHistS, FSA Scot
Email: cneville@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-2011
Fax: 902-494-3349
Mailing Address:
Marion McCain Building, room 1158,
6135 University Ave
PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
Research Topics:PO Box 15000, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2
- Medieval Scottish history
- Social history
- Cultural history
- Religious history
- Medieval English legal history
Education
- BA (Carleton)
- MA (Carleton)
- PhD (Aberdeen)
- George Munro Professor of History and Political Economy
Selected Publications
Books
- The Acts of Alexander III King of Scots 1249-1286: Regesta Regum Scottorum Vol 4 Part 1 Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2013).
- Land, Law and People in Medieval Scotland Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (2010).
- Native Lordship in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox, c. 1140-1386 Dublin: Four Courts Press (2005) WINNER, 2006 Margaret Wade Labarge Prize, Canadian Society of Medievalists. WINNER, Satire Society 2006 "Scottish History Book of the Year."
- Violence, Custom and Law: The Anglo-Scottish Border Lands in the Later Middle Ages. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (1998).
Book Chapters
- Forthcoming ‘“No Remission without Satisfaction”: Canonical Influences on Secular Lawmaking in High Medieval Scotland’, in Memory and Foresight in the Celtic World, ed. Johathan Wooding and Lorna Barrow
- Forthcoming: “The Growth of Royal Pardon in Fourteenth-Century Scotland”, in David Ditchburn and Steve Boardman, eds., Land, Law and People: Essays in Honour of Alexander Grant (Woodbridge: Boydell Press).
- 2017 “Making a Manly Impression: The Image of Kingship on Scottish Royal Seals of the High Middle Ages”, in Lynn Abrams and Elizabeth Ewan, eds., Nine Centuries of Man: Manhood and Masculinity in Scottish History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 101-21.
- 2015: “Preparing for Kingship: Prince Alexander of Scotland, 1264-1284’, in Children and Youth in Pre-Modern Scotland, ed. E Ewan and J. Nugent (Woodbridge: St Andrews Studies in Scottish History and Boydell Press), 155-172.
- 2013 “Neighbours, the Neighbourhood and the Visnet in Scotland, 1125-1300”, in M. Hammond, ed., New Perspectives on Medieval Scotland: 1093-1286 (Woodbridge: Boydell Press), 161-73.
Journal Articles
- “The Beginnings of Royal Pardon in Scotland”, Journal of Medieval History 42 (2016): 1-29.
- "Royal Mercy in Medieval Scotland," Florilegium 29 (2012), 1-31.
- “Knights and Knighthood in Gaelic Scotland, c. 1050 – 1300”, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser. 4 (2007), 57-106 (with R. Andrew McDonald).
- 2005 “Women, Charters, and Land Ownership in Scotland, 1150-1350”, Journal of Legal History, 26 (2005), 21-45.
Select Conference Presentations
- 2016 “‘No Remission without Satisfaction’: Canonical Influences on Royal Pardon in Medieval Scotland, at the History Program Research Seminar, Monash University and Humanities Research Centre Seminar Series, Australian National University, October.
- 2016 ‘Penitence, Reconciliation and Remission: The King’s Pardon in Thirteenth-Century Scotland,’ Keynote Address, Ninth Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, Sydney, Australia, September (by invitation).
- 2015 “The Growth of Royal Pardon in Fourteenth-Century Scotland”, XVth International Congress of Celtic Studies, Glasgow, July.
- 2014 “The Limitations of Royal Justice in Later Medieval Scotland”, at the Workshop “Law Addressing Diversity: Pre-Modern Europe and India in Comparison (12th to 17th Centuries)”, Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Vienna, May.
- 2013 Chair and Commentator, ‘Building and Breaking Bonds: Family Dynamics in Early Modern Scottish and English Households’, Annual Conference of the North American Conference on British Studies, Montreal, November
- 2013 “The King’s Peace and Royal Mercy”, Scottish History Seminar, University of Edinburgh, UK, March.
- 2013 “Royal Mercy and Pardon in Late Medieval Scotland”, Late Medieval Seminar Series, Institute of Historical Research, London, UK, March.
- 2013 “Writing Royal Pardons in Medieval Scotland’, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, February.
- 2012 Chair and commentator, ‘Scottish Courts and People 1530-1738’, annual Conference of the North American Conference on British Studies, Montreal, November.
- 2012 “The King’s Protection and the King’s Peace under the MacMalcolm Kings of Scotland, 1100-1314”, 5th Annual meeting of the Atlantic Medievalists Association, Acadia University, Wolfville, September.
- 2012 “The Development of the King’s Peace in Scotland in the Later Middle Ages”, 47th International Congress on Medieval Studies, University of Western Michigan, Kalamazoo, May.
- 2012 “The Quality of Scottish Mercy: Royal Pardon and Royal Mercy in Medieval Scotland”, Keynote Address, Annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists, Waterloo, May (by invitation).
- 2011 “The King’s Justice and the King’s Peace in Anglo-Norman Era Scotland”, at the conference 'Power and Acculturation in the Norman World’, Lancaster University, Lancaster, December (by invitation).
- 2011 “’A Pearl of Justice Joined to Mercy’? Pardon in Medieval Scotland”, North American Conference on British Studies, annual conference, Denver, Colorado, November.
- 2011 “The King's Peace and the King's Pardon in Later Medieval Scotland’, at the conference Law and Governance in pre-Modern Britain, University of Western Ontario October 2011 (by invitation).
Awards, Fellowships, Distinctions
- 2016 Visiting Fellowship, Humanities Research Centre, National University of Australia, Canberra (Oct-Nov)
- 2016 Keynote speaker, Ninth Australian Conference of Celtic Studies, Sydney, Australia
- 2013 Visiting Research Fellowship, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge UK (Lent and Ester terms)
- 2013 Visiting Research Fellowship, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (Jan-June 2013); subsequently elected Life Member of Clare Hall.
- 2013 Strathmartine Trust, Scotland, Research Grant
- 2013 Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, Research Grant
- 2013 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Research Grant
- 2012 Keynote speaker, annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists
- 2012 Father Lenard Boyle annual lecture, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
- 2010 Special research leave, Winter 2010-11, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
- 2010 Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Shortlisted, Saltire Society/National Library of Scotland, Research Book of the Year ( (Land, Law and People in Medieval Scotland).
- 2009 George Munro Chair in History, Office of the President, Dalhousie University.
- 2009 Mayers Research Fellowship, Institute of Mediaeval Studies University of St Andrews, UK.
- 2008 Identified as one of ‘20 Best Teachers’ in Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Dalhousie University.
- 2008 Invited lecture, Biever Lecture Series, Loyola University, New Orleans, April.