female succession from within the nuclear
family alone. This is significantly different from the Irish style "high
kingship," and the growing strength of the Scottish royal house at this early date
seems clearly to reflect Pictish notions regarding central monarchy, notions for which the
Anglo-Normans had a special affinity. This fact, together with their attractiveness as
allies because of their martial prowess, may explain why David l’s line encouraged
their importation as feudal settlers in the border regions after 1124.
There are a number of medieval exceptions to
the generally Gaelic-patrilineal norm of tribal succession, showing that Gaelic
patrilineality in Picto-Gaelic Scotland was no longer an inflexibile system, if it ever
had been. Matrilineal irregularities within the patrilineal norm occur at key points in
the history of the Campbells, Rosses, Mackintoshes, Erskines and MacLeods of Raasay. In a
similar way, there occurs within the general context of Gaelic patronymic names several
which are matronymic in origin though nonetheless following the standard patronymic
format. These include 0 Cnaimhsighe (Kneafsey), 0 Doirinne (Dorney) and 0 Grainne
(Greany). Yet at the same time it is interesting to note that as late as 1228 the Gaelic
earls of Fife, chiefs of the Clan MacDuff (who were the senior representatives of the
Kindred of St. Columba in Scotland, descended from a branch which had supported David
I),
were still passing their earldom exclusively to male heirs, though by this time the Norman
feudal laws, which favored daughters over male cousins, were the rule (especially when
these feudal laws could aid the king in gaining control of earldoms, property and revenue
by marrying his kin to noble heiresses).
Aside from the fate of the Kindred of St. Columba, the Celtic
church as a whole began to lose power as early as the twelfth century. This loss of power,
indirectly the result of the reforming influence of St. Margaret, directly related to the
growing influence at the Scottish court of the Normans, who fostered Roman customs and
monastic rules, as well as strict observance of papal authority. Even so, Celtic church
practices, though not officially recognized at the Scottish court (sound politics:
Religion was the quickest excuse for outsiders to invade in the name of "Holy
Church"), nonetheless went on in the Highlands and other more purely Celtic areas for
much longer than generally acknowledged, while the original Culdees of Saint Andrew’s
in Fife continued for a time to fight for their ancient rights against the new and more
powerful Norman Augustinians, who had royal patronage. Similarly, the Culdees of Abernethy
in Perthshire resisted the Augustinians until about 1272. Abernethy was originally a
Pictish foundation (the site of which is still marked by a fine Celtic round-tower from
the Viking period). At the time in question, however, Abernethy was administered by the
Clan MacDuff, descendants of Aethelred, last Abbot of Dunkeld, a member of the Kindred of
St. Columba. More specifically, it was the Abernethy family (named for the abbey); they
were the ecclesiastical branch of the Clan MacDuff branch of the successful |
