Product Code Database
In early Middle Ages Scotland, a mormaer was the Scottish 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 or Continental , and the term is often translated into English as 'earl'.
The word mormaer may represent a survival of a Pictish language compound form, as despite being a Gaelic form it was used only to refer to nobles of the former Pictish areas of the Kingdom of Alba, and was never used to refer to Ireland. As late as the 15th century Irish sources were using the word mormaer for Scottish earls, instead of the word iarla they used for Irish or English earls.
The second element of mormaer comes from the Gaelic or Pictish maer meaning "steward", but the first element could be either "great" (Gaelic mór or Pictish már), or a genitive form of the word for "sea" (Gaelic moro or Pictish mor). Mormaer could therefore mean either "great steward" or "sea steward".
By the 10th century the mormaer was established as the leading figure of each of the provinces of the Kingdom of Alba. This remained their primary role, with military, fiscal and judicial elements, until the late 12th century. The mormaer was responsible for raising and leading the army of the province, offered protection to those within the province beyond that afforded by their kin-groups, heard and decided upon accusations of theft, and had the right to collect tribute ( càin) from settlements within the province as a source of revenue for their activities. Although the mormaer was the ultimate head of the provincial community and a focal point of its power, his authority was not absolute and could only be exercised in cooperation with other powerful local figures, including thanes, and tòiseach, the leaders of powerful local kin-groups. The role of mormaer at this time does not appear to have been Inheritance: although sons did sometimes succeed their fathers, often they did not, and the position seems to have been occupied by the most powerful member of the most powerful kin-group within a province, sometimes alternating between different branches of a family or switching between different kin-groups.
The Leges inter Brettos et Scottos – a law code reflecting customs in the Kingdom of Alba in the 10th or 11th centuries – lists socio-legal ranks within society and their cro, the payments due in Cattle to the kin of a victim of that rank in the event of a killing. A mormaer is listed at 150 kine, behind a king at 1,000 kine and equal to the value of a king's son, but only 50% higher than that of a thane at 100 kine. While this implies that a mormaer was behind only the King of Scots in rank, it also shows that they were closer in status to a thane than to a king, and that both mormaer and thane were considered to be a noble rank, neither were simply royal officials.
Despite being the leading power within their province, the mormaer did not necessarily hold a large proportion of the land within the province in their own right: land was also held by the King, was granted out by the King to secular vassals, or was held by large religious foundations or other powerful lords. Land held by a mormaer could derive either from their status as mormaer, or from their role of leader of their own kin-group. In Latin the mormaer's provincia – the broad regional division of the kingdom that the mormaer led – was distinguished from his comitatus – the land he controlled directly.
By 1221 mormaers held their earldom from the King and were not permitted to enter the land of any other lord. An exception was made for the Earl of Fife, but this right was expressly separated from his role as mormaer, being held "not as an earl but as the king’s third maer of Fife". The rise of Patrilineality inheritance meant that succession to mormaership became linear and stable; a mormaer's estates, previously split between those he controlled as head of a kindred and those controlled in his capacity as mormaer, came to be viewed as a single entity; and land rather than kinship became the main determinant of secular power. The proportion of a province directly controlled by a mormaer could vary considerably: by 1286 for example, the Earldom of Atholl covered most of Atholl, while the Earldom of Angus covered only a small proportion of Angus.
The earliest mormaers of each province are generally only hazily, if at all, known until the 12th century, by which time mormaer is being referred to in Latin documents as comes. Prior to the 12th century, there were four 'ancient' mormaer dynasties: Cataidh/Caithness, Charraig/Carrick, Dunbarra/Dunbar and Moireabh/Moray. After the 12th century, eight other dynasties are known to be hereditary, continuous and no longer fragmentary.
|
|
