Society of Scotland in the High Middle Ages

Last updated

Scottish Society in the High Middle Ages pertains to Scottish society roughly between 900 and 1286, a period roughly corresponding to the general historical era known as the High Middle Ages.

Contents

Stratification

High Medieval Scottish society was stratified. More is known about status in early Gaelic society than perhaps any other early medieval European society, owing primarily to the large body of legal texts and tracts on status which are extant. These texts give additional understanding on high medieval Scottish society, so long as inferences are kept conservative. The legal tract that has come down to us as the Laws of Brets and Scots , lists five grades of man: King, mormaer/earl, toísech/thane, ócthigern and serf. For pre-twelfth century Scotland, slaves are added to this category. The standard differentiation in medieval European society between the bellatores ("those who fight", i.e. aristocrats), the oratores ("those who pray", i.e. clergy) and the laboratores ("those who work", i.e. peasants) was useless for understanding Scottish society in the earlier period, but becomes more useful in the post-Davidian period.

Early Gaelic Society
  • Nemed (sacred person, highest rank )
    • Ard rí (High King)
    • Rí ruirech (King of overkings)
    • Ruiri (Overking)
    • Rí Túaithe (Local king)
    • Flaithe (Lord, prince)
  • Nemed non-rulers
    • Ollam (master of some knowledge or skill)
    • Fili (poets)
    • Clerics
  • Dóernemed (lit. Base-Nemed)
    • Brithem, tradesmen, harpists, etc.
  • Freeman
    • Bóaire (Cattle lord)
    • Ócaire (Little Lord)
    • Fer midboth (semi-independent youth)
    • Fuidir (semi-freeman)
  • Unfree
    • Bothach (serf)
    • Senchléithe (hereditary serf)
    • Mug (slave)

King and court

The structure of the Scottish royal court in the period before the coming of the Normans to Scotland, before the reign of David I, is unknown. A little more is known about the court of the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the words of Geoffrey Barrow, this court "was emphatically feudal, Frankish, non-Celtic in character". Some of the offices were Gaelic in origin, such as the hostarius, the man in charge of the royal bodyguard, and the rannaire, the Gaelic-speaking member of the court whose job was to divide the food.

In the thirteenth century, all the other offices tended to be hereditary, with the exception of the Chancellor. The royal household of course came with numerous other offices. The most important was probably the hostarius, usher or durward (also Doorward), but there were others such as the royal hunters, the royal foresters and the cooks (dispensa or spence).

Mormaers and Earls

Most of the territory subject to the King of Scots north of the Forth was directly under a lord who in medieval Scottish was called a Mormaer. The term was translated into Latin as comes, and is misleadingly translated into modern English as Earl. These secular lords exercised secular power and religious patronage like kings in miniature. They kept their own warbands and followers, issued charters and supervised law and internal order within their provinces. When actually under the power of the Scottish king, they were responsible for rendering to the king cain, a tribute paid several times a year, usually in cattle and other barter goods. They also had to provide for the king conveth, a kind of hospitality payment, paid by putting-up the lord on a visit with food and accommodation, or with barter payments in lieu of this. In the Norman era, when called upon to do so, they provided the servitum Scoticanum ("Gaelic service", "Scottish service" or simply forinsec) and led the exercitus Scoticanus , the Gaelic part of the king's army that made up the vast majority almost any national hosting (slógad) in the period.

Toísechs and Thanes

A toísech ("chieftain") was like a mormaer, providing for his lord the same services that a mormaer provided for the king. A toísech was normally a hereditary tenant of either a King (on royal demesne), a mormaer (on comital demesne), an abbot or a bishop. The Latin word usually used is thanus, which is why the office-bearers are often called "thanes" in English. Although toísech, as the older word, was broader in meaning than thanus, many scholars spend a great deal of time arguing over when the office of thanus was introduced, when it is perhaps more reasonable to regard this institution, like other institutions, as formalisations and incorporations of pre-existing social structures by the Scottish rulers. However, it was perhaps in the tenth century that this particular institution acquired its Latin name, borrowed from Anglo-Saxon England. The formalization of this institution was largely confined to eastern Scotland north of the forth. Seventy-one thanages are on record from the Middle Ages, sixty-nine of which are in the eastern part of Scotland-proper, and two in Lothian.

Kinship Groups

Behind the offices of toísech and mormaer were kinship groups. Sometimes these offices were formalized, but mostly they are informal. The head of the kinship group was called capitalis in Latin and cenn in medieval Gaelic. In the Mormaerdom of Fife, the primary kinship group was known then as Clann MacDuib ("Children of MacDuff"). The head of the group seems to have borne the right to use the title MacDuib, which is why some of the heads of the Fife kin-group are known only by that name. Similarly, the Lords of the Isles could and would call themselves simply MacDomhnaill. In Fife, the Mormaer was usually the head of Clann MacDuib, but not always. After the introduction of primogeniture, many mormaers succeed as minors; invariably though in this scenario, the leadership of the kin-group did not fall to a minor, but to another senior figure. Other kin-groups which are famous from medieval Scotland are Cennedig (from Carrick) and Morggain (from Buchan).

Lower freemen and serfs

The highest non-noble rank was, according to the Laws of Brets and Scots, called the ócthigern (literally, little or young lord), a term the text does not bother to translate into French. Although the exact status of these men in uncertain, it seems likely that this would refer to the freeman equivalent of the early Gaelic Bóaire (i.e. "Cattle lord") or Ócaire. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was perhaps the sokeman. The highest rank of the serf on monastic estates, and beyond, was called a scoloc. The latter term literally meant scholar, and was derived from the usage of the term for the lowest rank of pupil in a monastic school. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was probably the gerseman. In the earlier period, the Scots kept slaves, and many of these were foreigners (English or Scandinavian) captured during warfare. Large-scale Scottish slave-raids are particularly well documented in the eleventh century.

Notes

  1. ^ , Grant, "Thanes and Thanages", (1993), p. 42
  2. ^ , Kelly, Early Irish Law.
  3. ^ , Barrow, Robert Bruce, (1998), p. 7.
  4. ^ , Barrow, Kingship and Unity, p. 34.
  5. ^ , Grant, "Thanes and Thanages", pp. 43–44.
  6. ^ Barrow, Kingship and Unity, pp. 16–17.

Related Research Articles

Macbeth, King of Scotland King of Scotland from 1040 to 1057

Macbeth was King of Scots from 1040 until his death. He ruled over the Kingdom of Alba.

Cináed mac Duib, anglicised as Kenneth III, and nicknamed An Donn, "the Chief" or "the Brown", was King of Scots from 997 to 1005. He was the son of Dub. Many of the Scots sources refer to him as Giric son of Kenneth son of Dub, which is taken to be an error. An alternate explanation is that Kenneth had a son, Giric, who ruled jointly with his father.

In early medieval Scotland, a mormaer was the Gaelic name for a regional or provincial ruler, theoretically second only to the King of Scots, and the senior of a Toísech (chieftain). Mormaers were equivalent to English earls or Continental counts, and the term is often translated into English as 'earl'.

The Earl of Fife or Mormaer of Fife was the ruler of the province of Fife in medieval Scotland, which encompassed the modern counties of Fife and Kinross. Due to their royal ancestry, the earls of Fife were the highest ranking nobles in the realm, and had the right to crown the king of Scots.

Causantín or Constantine of Fife is the first man known for certain to have been Mormaer of Fife.

Donnchad II, anglicized as Duncan II or Dunecan II, succeeded his father Duncan I as Earl of Fife in childhood. As a child of the previous mormaer, he was entitled to succeed his father through primogeniture, but not to lead his kin-group, Clann MacDuib. That probably fell to his cousin, Aed mac Gille Míchéil. Like previous mormaers of Fife, Duncan II was appointed Justiciar of Scotia. Donnchad's minority also meant that Ferchar, Mormaer of Strathearn, took supreme place as head of the Gaelic nobility and guide for the boy-king Malcolm IV.

Donnchadh III or Duncan was Earl of Fife from 1270/2 to 1288.

The Kingdom of Alba was the Kingdom of Scotland between the deaths of Donald II in 900 and of Alexander III in 1286, which then led indirectly to the Scottish Wars of Independence. The name is one of convenience, as throughout this period the elite and populace of the Kingdom were predominantly Pictish-Gaels or later Pictish-Gaels and Scoto-Norman, and differs markedly from the period of the House of Stuart, in which the elite of the kingdom were speakers of Middle English, which later evolved and came to be called Lowland Scots. There is no precise Gaelic equivalent for the English terminology "Kingdom of Alba", as the Gaelic term Rìoghachd na h-Alba means 'Kingdom of Scotland'. English-speaking scholars adapted the Gaelic name for Scotland to apply to a particular political period in Scottish history during the High Middle Ages.

Scotland in the Middle Ages History from Romans departure to 16th century

Scotland in the Middle Ages concerns the history of Scotland from the departure of the Romans to the adoption of major aspects of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century.

Mormaer Beth is a name of a Mormaer mentioned in an unreliable charter granted to Scone Priory, later Scone Abbey, by king Alexander I of Scotland.

Scottish legal institutions in the High Middle Ages are, for the purposes of this article, the informal and formal systems which governed and helped to manage Scottish society between the years 900 and 1288, a period roughly corresponding with the general European era usually called the High Middle Ages. Scottish society in this period was predominantly Gaelic. Early Gaelic law tracts, first written down in the ninth century reveal a society highly concerned with kinship, status, honour and the regulation of blood feuds. The early Scottish lawman, or Breitheamh, became the Latin Judex; the great Breitheamh became the magnus Judex, which arguably developed into the office of Justiciar, an office which survives to this day in that of Lord Justice General. Scottish common law began to take shape at the end of the period, assimilating Gaelic and Celtic law with practices from Anglo-Norman England and the Continent.

Scotland in the High Middle Ages Scotland between about 900 and 1286 CE

The High Middle Ages of Scotland encompass Scotland in the era between the death of Domnall II in 900 AD and the death of King Alexander III in 1286, which was an indirect cause of the Wars of Scottish Independence.

The Meic Uilleim (MacWilliams) were the Gaelic descendants of William fitz Duncan, grandson of Máel Coluim mac Donnchada, king of Scots. They were excluded from the succession by the descendants of Máel Coluim's son David I during the 12th century and raised a number of rebellions to vindicate their claims to the Mormaerdom of Moray and perhaps to the rule of Scotland.

Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I

Political and military events in Scotland during the reign of David I are the events which took place in Scotland during David I of Scotland's reign as King of Scots, from 1124 to 1153. When his brother Alexander I of Scotland died in 1124, David chose, with the backing of Henry I of England, to take the Kingdom of Alba for himself. David was forced to engage in warfare against his rival and nephew, Máel Coluim mac Alaxandair. Subduing the latter took David ten years, and involved the destruction of Óengus, mormaer of Moray. David's victory allowed him to expand his control over more distant regions theoretically part of the Kingdom. In this he was largely successful, although he failed to bring the Earldom of Orkney into his kingdom.

Davidian Revolution

The Davidian Revolution is a name given by many scholars to the changes which took place in the Kingdom of Scotland during the reign of David I (1124–1153). These included his foundation of burghs, implementation of the ideals of Gregorian Reform, foundation of monasteries, Normanisation of the Scottish government, and the introduction of feudalism through immigrant Norman and Anglo-Norman knights.

Gowrie

Gowrie is a region in central Scotland and one of the original provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. It covered the eastern part of what became Perthshire. It was located to the immediate east of Atholl, and originally included the area around Perth, though that was later detached as Perthia.

Thane was the title given to a local royal official in medieval eastern Scotland, equivalent in rank to the son of an earl, who was at the head of an administrative and socio-economic unit known as a thanedom.

Scottish society in the Middle Ages Overview of aspects of Scottish society in the Middle Ages

Scottish society in the Middle Ages is the social organisation of what is now Scotland between the departure of the Romans from Britain in the fifth century and the establishment of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. Social structure is obscure in the early part of the period, for which there are few documentary sources. Kinship groups probably provided the primary system of organisation and society was probably divided between a small aristocracy, whose rationale was based around warfare, a wider group of freemen, who had the right to bear arms and were represented in law codes, above a relatively large body of slaves, who may have lived beside and become clients of their owners.

Government in medieval Scotland Political history topic

Government in medieval Scotland, includes all forms of politics and administration of the minor kingdoms that emerged after the departure of the Romans from central and southern Britain in the fifth century, through the development and growth of the combined Scottish and Pictish kingdom of Alba into the kingdom of Scotland, until the adoption of the reforms of the Renaissance in the fifteenth century.

The Provinces of Scotland were the primary subdivisions of the early Kingdom of Alba, first recorded in the 10th century and probably developing from earlier Pictish territories. Provinces were led by a mormaer, the leader of the most powerful provincial kin-group, and had military, fiscal and judicial functions. Their high degree of local autonomy made them important regional powerbases for competing claimants to the throne of Alba.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.