Jackson W. Armstrong is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Aberdeen, where he specialises in late medieval Scottish and English history. He has led two major funded projects concerned with Scotland's earliest and most complete body of legal and town records, the UNESCO-designated Aberdeen council registers. Armstrong has previously served as book reviews editor for the Scottish Historical Review and as a trustee of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

1. Introduction; Part I: 2. Frontiers and borderlands; 3. Earth and stone; Part II: 4. The nobility, gentry and religious houses; 5. Lordship, kinship and the surnames; Part III: 6. The administration of justice; 7. Patterns of conflict; 8. Cross-Border conflict; 9. Discord; 10. Concord; 11. Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.