The manuscript journals of the trial of Charles I: new evidence on their provenance and purpose*

Historians of the trial of Charles I will be familiar with the two copies of the manuscript journals kept in The National Archives of the U.K. and the U.K. Parliamentary Archives. Besides these manuscripts, two further copies of the trial proceedings are held in the Beinecke Library, Yale, and in the British Library. This article compares these versions to propose a tentative document history of the journals, suggesting that these manuscripts were produced for different purposes: what began as the basis for an authoritative public account of the trial later became a text intended for a more select legal audience.

Ultra mare in servicio domini regis: English barons and the defence of Normandy, 1194–1204

This article analyses the provision of military service by English barons in the wars in Normandy between 1194 and 1204, a topic that has not previously been examined in any depth. It demonstrates that an important section of the English baronage provided regular military service in Normandy, driven by their own personal interests in the duchy and the pursuit of royal favour and rewards. It concludes that these barons were not fundamentally opposed to providing service overseas, and that this was not a factor in the loss of Normandy, but became an important political lever in their conflict with King John.

The Highland Society of London, material culture and the development of Scottish military identity, 1798–1817*

The image of the Highland soldier as a brave, loyal warrior was central to nineteenth-century notions of Scottish national identity. This article uses material culture evidence alongside traditional archival sources to provide an interdisciplinary explanation of how the military dimension of Scottish identity was shaped in the early nineteenth century. It finds that it was the responses of the Highland Society of London to Scottish battlefield valour – rather than the actions themselves – that created the enduring popular perception of the Highland soldier as a desirable national symbol and as an icon of empire.