Scotland, England and France after the Loss of Normandy, 1204-1296 : "Auld Amitie"

Following King John's loss of Normandy to King Philip Augustus in 1204, the ties that had bound the Anglo-French nobility across the Channel began to dissolve. The Scottish nobility had also been part of the Anglo-French structure of lordship; and thus the loss of Normandy made a deep and profound impact on Scotland, as Anglo-French Scottish families began to redefine their identity within a native Scottish and English context apart from their French roots. The author of this book investigates this complex set of connections. She shows that by the end of the thirteenth century, the number of Scottish families who still held land in France or made French marriages was slashed by two-thirds. Cross-Channel relations were maintained mainly through the extended kin of the Scottish royal family, while the crown of Scotland focused more on promoting relations with England. Ironically, it was precisely this disintegration of kin-based, personal relations between the nobility of these three polities that made it necessary for a formal bond (The Treaty of Paris) to be forged between France and Scotland in 1295, referred to as an "Auld Amitie".