Survival and Success on Medieval Borders: Cistercian Houses in Medieval Scotland and Pomerania

This project considered the role of Cistercian monasteries on the frontiers of northern Europe. Spanning twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it explored six case studies of Cistercian foundations in Pomerania and Neumark (southern Baltic) and on the Scottish-English border focusing on their involvement in the trans-border networks, relationships with the local and external centres of power as well as the impact of wars and other forms of violence on those monastic communities. The outcomes of the project are a monograph ‘Border loyalties and disloyalties: a comparative study’ (Brepols, forthcoming in 2010), a database of Melrose Abbey charters created by Dr Katharine Keats-Rohan, and a collected volume resulting from the conference ‘Monastic houses on the frontiers of medieval Europe' which took place at the University of Leeds in September 2008.