Visual Arts and the Auld Alliance offers an original and sophisticated exploration of the artistic and literary patronage of Scottish émigré in late medieval and early modern France. The volume places particular emphasis on visual imagery as a means to convey and depict ideas about individual, lineage and collective ‘national’ identities, the histories that underpinned them, and the nature of the relationship between the French and Scottish realms. The rich array of visual images discussed, including many previously unknown to Scottish historians, is used to analyse and interrogate the way in which these families and individuals articulated their sense of Scottish identity within a French milieu. The study rests on an impressive scholarly engagement with manuscripts held in a variety of French archives. Coombs marshals her evidence deftly and perceptively to add new insights and nuance to our understanding of the cultural connections that ran alongside and deepened the political and military ties between the two kingdoms. Through a series of well-chosen case studies, the book investigates the interplay between art, politics and historical understanding, using visual material to cast new light on the framing of individual and collective identity. This is an important study that will be required reading for anyone interested in the cultural and political history of late medieval and early modern Scotland. More generally, Coombs’s work offers a striking contribution to wider debates about the potential use of art to convey, express or encourage a range of political and cultural ideas and to articulate notions of both difference and belonging.