The House of Strathearn, which fell in
the mid-fourteenth century, was made up of the families immediately connected with the
earls of Strathearn. These earls were, together with the earls of Fife, foremost among the
seven original Celtic earls who were peers of the Kings of Scots under the old
high-kingship. They seem clearly to have represented the "tribe of the land" of
Fortrenn, the Pictish kingdom on which the Pictish high-kingship had been based before the
merging of that kingdom with Dalriada. The earls bore no surname other than the title of
Earl of Strathearn, but their various branches throughout the High Middle Ages usually
took surnames from their estates during the thirteenth century or later, as per Scottish
custom. The only two exceptions to this rule were the MacLarens of the Clan Laurin, and the MacLeishes. The families of the House of Strathearn include the
MacLarens, de Baiquhidders, Tyries, Logies, Glencairnies, Buries, Strathearns and MacLeishes.
The MacLarens (Mac Labhruinn) take their patronymic from Laurence, who was the hereditary Celtic
abbot (see Chapter II) of Achtow in Balquhidder in the thirteenth century. This line of
abbots, being descended from the earl who founded Achtow, appears to have
assumed the leadership of the earl’s clan-family following the death of the
last earl, who died about 1350. The clan was at that time reduced from being
independent owners of their lands to being perpetual tenants under the new overlords, the Murrays of Tullibardine, Lords
of Balquhidder and Stewards of Strathearn. These Murrays, with their kinsmen the Morays of
Abercairney in Strathearn, both remembered their descent from the Celtic earls
through different heiresses in the female line (by whom they acquired their lands). The
Clan Laurin, in the plural sense, were probably identical with the "Lavernani"
who fought under Malise, Earl of Strathearn at the Battle of the Standard in 1138. They
held land in Balquhidder and Strathearn, and spread later, under the Murray earls of
Atholl, into that district as well. In the fifteenth and especially the sixteenth century
they were constantly at feud with the MacGregors. The MacLarens followed and supported the
Stewarts of Appin in their struggles; this as a result of kinship, fosterage and alliance
between their respective clans (see under Stewart of Appin in Chapter X). They also
followed their Murray kinsmen, the Tullibardine branch of which family became Dukes of
Atholl (and we find some MacLaren families holding land in Atholl).
The de Balquhidders, who appear in
early records of ca. 1285—1305, were MacLarens (Duncan de Balquhidder appears in
1284, and Conan de Balquhidder in 1296), probably from before the name MacLaren came into
general use. The Tyries
and Logies are
important younger (cadet) branches of the earls of Strathearn from the latter thirteenth
century who founded houses in the lowland part of the earldom. The Tyries were closely associated
with the Clan Laurin at the end of the thirteenth century, and originally bore as arms a
different version of the Strathearn arms, but also variously bore a different version of
the original Mentieth arms (see under Drummond, following). |
