Scotland in the High Middle Ages: Encyclopedia II - Scotland in the High Middle Ages - Society

Scotland in the High Middle Ages - Society

Medieval Scottish society was stratified. We know more 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.^[48] 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.^[49] For pre-twelfth century Scotland, we should add slave 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.

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, 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.

A toísech ("chieftain") was like a mormaer, providing for his lord the same services that a mormaer provided for the king. The Latin word usually used is thanus, which is why the office-bearers are often called "thanes" in English. The formalization of this institution was largely confined to eastern Scotland north of the Forth, and only two of the seventy-one known thanages existed south of that river.^[50] 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"). Others include the Cennedig (from Carrick), Morggain (from Buchan), and the MacDowalls (from Galloway). There were probably hundreds in total, mostly unrecorded.

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. The Anglo-Saxon equivalent was perhaps the sokeman. Other known ranks include the scoloc, perhaps equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon gerseman.^[51] 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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Society", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki