The England and Scotland of today exist together within the same nation state. During the Middle Ages they existed as distinct kingdoms or realms, and as will be seen their relationship was strenuous and broke down into major political disputes and warfare on many an occasion. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, these issues became more serious, erupting into what is now called the First Scottish War of Independence in 1296. This paper aims to analyze the feudal politics underlying the relationship between the two realms particularly in regard to feudal homage and how kings such as Edward I of England and Robert I of Scotland and their predecessors approached and understood that relationship. I will present the situation leading up to the war as well as the war itself and provide a brief look into how it affected the future relationship. Scottish independence after the conflict will be included as well. I will make use of primary sources such as treaties, charters, letters and the Chronicle of Lanercost as well as secondary sources from historians.

This project is focused on slavery in the medieval Islamic world. The aim of the study is to understand in more depth the way in which race and color were incorporated into understandings of slavery by medieval Islamic writers, and also who was able to be enslaved from their perspective. A genre of slave buying manuals will be analyzed in order to gain a greater understanding of these concepts. Research focused primarily on three authors. These authors were Ibn Al-Akfani who lived most of his life in Cairo during the 14th century, Ibn Butlan who lived in the 11th century in Baghdad, and Al-Saqati who lived in the 13th century in Málaga. I argue that there are clearly ideas of race and racial constructions within the medieval Islamic context as evidenced by these texts, but that there is not enough evidence to support a connection between these ideas of race and ideas of color or enslaveability. Additionally, I argue that there is no connection between color and enslaveability during this period as reflected in these texts.