Summary of George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Wall is a monument to the Roman emperor Aulus Platorius Nepos, who conceived it, and the three legions who dug the complex of ditches and mounds, and raised the parapet and intervening fortresses. It was a dividing line between civilization and barbarism, between safety and danger, between the tamed and the wild, and between the settled country and the outland which was not worth fighting over.

#2 The Wall was a permanent reminder of division, but it also had a lasting effect on those who lived either side of it. The regions and the people might have different names from those they bear today, but the Wall stayed, a permanent reminder of division.

#3 The Romans came, and with them, the deluge. The frontiers of middle Britain moved as forgotten kingdoms were made and unmade. The English kings loosened the hold of the searover people, and what may be seen as the prototype of an English-Scottish struggle took place in the tenth century when Athelstan of England fought a great and successful battle against a combined force of Scots, Norsemen, and Britons.

#4 The last three words of Malcolm’s submission to William the Conqueror in 1072 were peace and stability. The period of tranquillity between England and Scotland began when Henry I married Malcolm Canmore’s daughter in 1107.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822508682

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Insights on George MacDonald Fraser's The Steel Bonnets

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Wall is a monument to the Roman emperor Aulus Platorius Nepos, who conceived it, and the three legions who dug the complex of ditches and mounds, and raised the parapet and intervening fortresses. It was a dividing line between civilization and barbarism, between safety and danger, between the tamed and the wild, and between the settled country and the outland which was not worth fighting over.

#2

The Wall was a permanent reminder of division, but it also had a lasting effect on those who lived either side of it. The regions and the people might have different names from those they bear today, but the Wall stayed, a permanent reminder of division.

#3

The Romans came, and with them, the deluge. The frontiers of middle Britain moved as forgotten kingdoms were made and unmade. The English kings loosened the hold of the searover people, and what may be seen as the prototype of an English-Scottish struggle took place in the tenth century when Athelstan of England fought a great and successful battle against a combined force of Scots, Norsemen, and Britons.

#4

The last three words of Malcolm’s submission to William the Conqueror in 1072 were peace and stability. The period of tranquillity between England and Scotland began when Henry I married Malcolm Canmore’s daughter in 1107.

#5

The Scottish kings were part-English, and took an active interest in the English succession. They promoted Norman settlement in Scotland, which introduced another civilizing influence. The feudal system was introduced into Scotland, but it never entirely displaced the old system of clanship and family chieftainship.

#6

The Scottish invasion of England in 1215 was the worst from the Border’s point of view. The Scottish retaliatory sweep through the English Borders was equally barbarous. However, in the end, all that Scotland achieved was the loss of the Northern English counties.

#7

The relationship between England and Scotland was changed in 1286, when King Alexander III of Scotland fell over a cliff. From then on, Scotland was of increasing importance to England.

#8

The Scots are a very proud people, and they have reason to be. They have been resisting English domination for quite some time now, and they are still sensitive about it. The English, on the other hand, tend to take Scotland for granted.

#9

The English king, Edward I, saw the possibilities of bringing Scotland under control. He used the situation to realize his own claim to overlordship of Scotland. He sent reinforcements to Wark, but the English lord returned unexpectedly with a Scottish raiding party and cut the reinforcements to pieces in the dark.

#10

Edward I of England went to Scotland to subdue it, but instead he made the mistake of treating it as he had treated Berwick. He left an elderly and incompetent governor behind, and hoped for peace. What he got was William Wallace.

#11

After Wallace’s victory at Stirling, the Scottish army invaded Northern England and completely destroyed the English army. The high point in Scotland’s fight for independence, the battle of Bannockburn, was a crushing victory for the Scots.

#12

The War of Independence left the Borderland in a terrible state. It had been brutally used, and the Scots had been pushed to their limits. They had to learn new