Jump to content

House of Moray: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Cenél Loairn link now shown to be a 12th century fabrication
remove further mention of Cenél Loairn link
Line 7: Line 7:
At the times when the rival house held the throne, the Moray leaders usually had their effectively independent state of Moray, where a succession of kings (kinglets) or [[mormaer]]s ruled.
At the times when the rival house held the throne, the Moray leaders usually had their effectively independent state of Moray, where a succession of kings (kinglets) or [[mormaer]]s ruled.


The Loairn succession followed quite loyally the rules of [[tanistry]], resulting in practice to outcomes where branches of the leaders' extended family rotated on the rulership, possibly keeping a balance between important branches. This is quite typical for tribal societies, where [[primogeniture]] is much less usual than [[agnatic seniority]] or turns on the throne. For example, [[Macbeth, King of Scotland]] descended from one branch, and his stepson [[Lulach]] from another.
The succession followed quite loyally the rules of [[tanistry]], resulting in practice to outcomes where branches of the leaders' extended family rotated on the rulership, possibly keeping a balance between important branches. This is quite typical for tribal societies, where [[primogeniture]] is much less usual than [[agnatic seniority]] or turns on the throne. For example, [[Macbeth, King of Scotland]] descended from one branch, and his stepson [[Lulach]] from another.


==Kings of Scots==
==Kings of Scots==

Revision as of 18:45, 26 February 2023

The House of Moray or Clann Ruaidrí[1] is a historiographical and genealogical construct to illustrate the succession of rulers whose base was in Moray and who ruled sometimes a larger kingdom.

Clann Ruaidri has been claimed to have been descended in the male line from the Cenél Loairn, one of the ruling kindreds of Gaelic Dál Riata, based on a genealogy of Máel Snechtai reproduced in four Irish manuscripts.[2] This genealogy has now been shown to be a clear and chronologically impossible fabrication made in the 11th or 12th centuries, constructed by joining three existing genealogies together.[3][4][5][6] The pedigree lists only one further name beyond the ancestors of Máel Snechtai already identifiable from annalistic sources - that of Domnall, the father of Ruaidrí, who was the father of Findláech of Moray.[2] The immediate ancestor of Domnall is given as Mongán mac Domnaill, who in fact died c. 700, over three centuries before the death of Findláech in 1020.[5]

At the times when the rival house held the throne, the Moray leaders usually had their effectively independent state of Moray, where a succession of kings (kinglets) or mormaers ruled.

The succession followed quite loyally the rules of tanistry, resulting in practice to outcomes where branches of the leaders' extended family rotated on the rulership, possibly keeping a balance between important branches. This is quite typical for tribal societies, where primogeniture is much less usual than agnatic seniority or turns on the throne. For example, Macbeth, King of Scotland descended from one branch, and his stepson Lulach from another.

Kings of Scots

See also: Rí

Following the death of Donnchad mac Crínáin in 1040, two members of the kindred ruled as Kings of Scots.

Additionally, Giric mac Dúngail (878–889) may have been a member of this kindred.

Already MacBeth's father and cousin (Lulach's uncle) had been "kings of Alba":

Lulach's son and grandson were, however, titled kings of Moray, not of Alba:

Mormaers of Moray

Main article: Mormaer of Moray

Óengus of Moray (died 1130), who has no attestation of descending in male line from Cenel Loairn clan (he was son of daughter of Lulach), is the last known member of the kindred to have ruled Moray, after which it (supposedly) passed to William fitz Duncan of the Cenél nGabráin descended royal family. While the Meic Uilleim and MacHeths are sometimes associated with Moray, it is no longer widely supposed that they were claiming the Mormaerdom or that they belonged to this kindred, except possibly through female descent.

See also

References

  1. ^ McGuigan 2021, p. xxxv.
  2. ^ a b Woolf 2000, p. 148.
  3. ^ Ross 2011, pp. 86–87.
  4. ^ McGuigan 2021, p. 58.
  5. ^ a b Woolf 2000, pp. 148–149.
  6. ^ Broun 2019, pp. 232–234.
  7. ^ "PEP Web - Doubling, Mythic Difference, and the Scapegoating of Female Power in MACBETH". www.pep-web.org. Retrieved 12 May 2008.

Bibliography

  • Broun, Dauvit (2019). "The genealogy of the king of Scots as charterand panegyric". In Davies, John Reuben; Bhattacharya, Swapna (eds.). Copper, Parchment, and Stone - Studies in the sources for landholdingand lordship in early medieval Bengal and medieval Scotland. Glasgow: University of Glasgow Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies. pp. 209–260. ISBN 9780852619575.
  • McGuigan, Neil (2021). Máel Coluim III, 'Canmore': An Eleventh-Century King. Edinburgh: John Donald. ISBN 9781910900192.
  • Ross, Alasdair (2011). The Kings Of Alba: c.1000-c.1130. Edinburgh: John Donald. ISBN 9781906566159.
  • Woolf, Alex (2000). "The 'Moray Question' and the Kingship of Alba in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries". Scottish Historical Review. 79 (2): 145–164. doi:10.3366/shr.2000.79.2.145. S2CID 162334631.
  • Woolf, Alex (2007). From Pictland to Alba 789–1070. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748612345.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=House_of_Moray&oldid=1141773677"