ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Scottish kings created a network of baronies in medieval Scotland; and to assess the extent of Anglo-French participation in this process, while considering what happened to the native Anglians who had previously served as thanes and drengs. By taking a structural approach to Scottish society, it is possible to lose the ethnic baggage while still assessing the political role of ethnicity in the changes that affected in twelfth-century Scotland. In a British context, such arguments fit comfortably with the wider movement whereby an Anglo-French aristocracy extended its influence into the outer reaches of the British Isles. In Wales and Ireland, this is aptly described as a process of domination and conquers; yet in the Scotland the Anglo-French were invited guests rewarded by the royal patronage of an existing monarchy, and large numbers of the native nobility maintained their status and power.
