Olivia Dunderdale

Co-supervised between St Andrews and Dundee, my research accesses exceptional and understudied archival material to investigate governance and re-negotiations of power in northern Scottish burghs between c.1540 and 1603. In this period, Scotland was subject to intense socio-economic pressures which lent new significance to the preservation of social order through the household and community. Thus, governance intentionally involved the whole populace, opening room for negotiation between the authorities and subordinates and allowing scope for sustained popular political action. Behaviour that deviated from expected gender norms within this hierarchy in turn assumed heightened political significance. Positioning urban inhabitants as political protagonists in this gendered political culture, this study will enhance understanding of the exercise and experience of power in sixteenth-century Scotland, asking first, how burgh governance took place in northern Highland burghs, and second, what strategies and spaces urban inhabitants employed to renegotiate power.