Lords of Alba

by Ian W. Walker

  The king of Alba also controlled significant personal resources in terms of the ownership of lands and estates and of payments, usually in kind, due from the lands of the entire kingdom. The lands originally controlled directly by the kings are generally believed to be indicated by the later existence of units of land subsequently known as ‘thanages’. If the sites of these thanages, as recorded in twelfth-century or later records, are plotted on a map they reveal a concentration in the eastern lowlands of the kingdom. They are sited mainly in the eastern plains between Moray and Fife with relatively few outliers in the upland areas. This represents the heartlands of the kingdom of Alba and of its predecessor, the Pictish realm. This area might perhaps be expected to contain the bulk of royal lands since it also provided the richest agricultural lands. It would be natural for the kings to retain this wealth in their own hands to provide a secure basis for their power. The thanages also include a significant number of royal centres, including Forteviot and Scone.

  The royal lands in these thanages were supervised by officials later known as ‘thanes’ but probably at this time still identified by the Gaelic title of toiseach or ‘leader’. The Book of Deer mentions a number of these officials whose role was to run an estate or estates on behalf of the king and to ensure that its surplus was available for royal consumption. This consumption would occur either when the king visited the estate in person or when the surplus was delivered by the toiseach to wherever the king currently resided. In order to minimise the need for transportation, important royal residences were often located at or near royal estates, such as the palaces recorded at Forteviot and Scone. It was at these residences that the thanes would collect the food and other resources collected from surrounding royal estates. At this time, kings did not have single capitals but toured the country visiting a number of different residences during the year. This allowed them to consume local resources evenly across the kingdom without depleting those of a particular area. In this period before fast transport and refrigeration, food needed to be stored and consumed as close as possible to where it was produced.

  In addition to the produce from their own royal estates the kings of Alba had access to dues drawn from lands across from the whole kingdom. There were two principal items which fell due to the kings by right of their position of lordship over the kingdom. The first of these was cain or ‘tax’, which was a tribute due from all the king’s subjects in respect of his royal lordship. It was normally paid in kind during this period and only much later converted into a monetary payment. There are mentions in the charters of cain in the form of corn, malt, cattle, sheep, swine, cheese, hides and foals and it could also be collected on trade goods. This is the most prominent royal resource in later charters and was undoubtedly the most substantial source of royal wealth in this early period. The second royal resource was coinmed, ‘conveth’ or ‘hospitality’, which represented the hospitality due from a subject to his lord, the king. It was obtained from all royal subjects from a mormaer or ear downwards and consisted of a duty to accommodate and supply the royal Court as it toured the country. This had over time been transformed into an equivalent payment in kind. The royal dues of cain and coinmed were collected by the toiseach or thane from across the kingdom and brought to central points at particular thanages and royal residencies.

  The king of Alba appears to have maintained himself using the resources of his own royal lands and the dues and hospitality collected from his subjects, along with whatever additional resources could be secured by pillage. There are no indications in this early period of attempts to introduce new forms of revenue. The distribution of these resources to the king and his family and wider household or to particular subjects was organised by a royal official. He is not noticed by contemporary sources but twelfth-century charters record the existence of a man called the rainnaire or ‘distributor’. The function of this man was clearly to allocate or redistribute the resources collected at royal residences or estates by the toiseach or thane. He appears to have done so regardless of whether the resources derived from the royal estates themselves or had been received as dues from royal subjects. He was obviously a key official of the royal household or Court who fulfilled the duties of the later stewards, but there must also have been others.

  Unfortunately, the royal household or Court of Alba at this time is nowhere described in detail in contemporary sources. It can only be reconstructed from occasional hints, since it is unwise to depend on Irish comparisons, and it is impossible to be certain about its precise composition. It centred on the king, his wife and their children and perhaps a wider family group, including foster-children. It is unlikely, however, that it ever extended to the entire derbfine. This inner family circle would have been accompanied by a body of servants of various ranks and slaves, who would attend to all their bodily needs. The Life of St Margaret mentions men and women, including stewards, in the service of the royal couple, many of whom were themselves of noble origin. It would also have included a military retinue or bodyguard to provide immediate protection for the family, its household and its transportable wealth. It would have included the rainnaire and various subordinate stewards. On the basis of Irish comparisons and later evidence, it is likely that it also included at least one bard or ‘poet’ to provide praise poems for the king, satires about his enemies and other entertainment and a sennchaid or ‘historian’ to record the genealogy and deeds of the king. It must also have included a number of clerics, who provided not only spiritual services but also, as almost certainly the only literate individuals available, administrative ones. The Life of St Margaret states that King Malcolm III was illiterate and it seems likely that most other rulers in this period were the same.

  In addition to these constituent parts of the royal household or Court there would have been a variety of other figures who either followed the Court as it toured around the kingdom or who visited it while it was in the local area. This might include secular individuals, including mormaers, thanes and other landowners, clerics including bishops, abbots and priests, as well as sundry merchants, poets or warriors. Whether secular or clerical, the individuals who accompanied the Court on these occasions were probably either seeking royal favour and rewards or offering advice and counsel. The material rewards of patronage that the king could bestow were potentially immense. They could involve a wide range of things from resources of food, drink or goods in kind, livestock, rich treasure items, secular and religious offices and lands. The sort of advice or counsel that they offered the king could similarly relate to a wide range of subjects including royal marriages, foreign policy and warfare, internal politics and religious policy.

  In the hierarchy immediately below the king stood a cadre of regional rulers, who appear to be unique to the kingdom of Alba and who probably therefore derive ultimately from Pictish origins. They were known by the Gaelic title of mormaer or ‘great steward’ and later by the English title of ‘earl’. The precise origins of this office are now lost to history but the inclusion in their title of the term ‘steward’ clearly implies a relationship of service to the king on the model of the equivalent English office of ealdorman or ‘earl’. It seems likely that this office originated and evolved in a similar way. The English title ealdorman originally referred to either previously independent subordinate kings, who were reduced in status to subordinate officials, or to royal officials appointed to rule conquered areas under the authority of the king. They were usually men with strong local power bases built around local landholdings whose service to the king ensured the loyalty of their locality. They represented the king in areas where he was perhaps seldom seen in person and in turn represented their local areas before the king. They allowed the king to extend his personal sphere of influence far beyond the core area of his kingdom where his own lands were situated.

  This situation is reflected in the locations, as recorded in the thirteenth century, of the provinces ruled by men who had previously been mormaers but were then known
as earls. There is a need for caution here since it is not entirely certain that all the later earldoms existed in the early kingdom. If the earldoms of Dunbar, created in the 1070s, and Carrick, created in the 1150s, are ignored, the nine other earldoms are all located within or on the edge of the former Pictish kingdom. There are no records of any mormaers or earls based in the former Dalriada. This seems to confirm the likelihood that they have Pictish origins. The nine earldoms appear to form a defensive shield around the heartlands of the Pictish kingdom and its successor the kingdom of Alba. They run in an arc from north to south along the western fringes of the eastern lowland heart of the kingdom. They range from Moray and Buchan in the far north on the borders of Viking-occupied territory, through Mar, Atholl, and Strathearn on the edge of the Highlands to the west of the central core of the kingdom, ending with Mentieth and Lennox in the south on the borders of the British kingdom of Strathclyde. The exception to this pattern is represented by Fife and Angus which are located within the old heartlands. It is almost certain, however, that Fife is a later creation set up, perhaps during the eleventh century, to accommodate an ousted royal line. This leaves Angus as the odd man out positioned in the heart of the kingdom of Alba. Its mormaers feature prominently in the Scottish Chronicle – perhaps a reflection of their importance or their central location.

  In the context of a cautious approach, it is true that only four of the nine future earldoms (excluding Dunbar and Carrick) can with certainty be established to have existed before the eleventh century. They are Angus, Atholl, Mar and Moray. There seems, however, no good reason to discount the existence of the others. The Book of Deer preserves the memory of a mormaer of Buchan from early times. The locations of the earldoms suggest that their most important function was to protect the heart of the kingdom where the bulk of royal lands and wealth were located, as signified by the location of the thanages (see Map 3). An enemy invading the kingdom of Alba from the north, west or south-west would need to penetrate one or more of these provinces before they could reach the heart of the kingdom. This effectively meant that the mormaers, who had a vested interest in protecting their own lands, were also protecting the entire kingdom. The king effectively had a first line of defence for his own lands against his external enemies.

  The mormaers who ruled these important border provinces were clearly important figures in the kingdom. The fact that the contemporary Scottish Chronicle and the Irish annals record the deaths of some of them in their extremely brief entries is enough to show this. The office of mormaer, whatever its origins and its relationship to the kings, appears to have become hereditary by the tenth and eleventh centuries. This occurred not only in the distant and semi-independent province of Moray, which might have been beyond royal control, but also in the central province of Angus. Thus Maelbrigte succeeded his father Dubucan as mormaer of Angus, and a number of individual mormaers of Moray were from the same family. If Moray can be considered typical of other provinces – and there are reasons to think that this may not be the case – then they also appear to have adopted a similar succession system to that of the kings themselves. They appear to have recognised a derbfine or ‘certain kin’ in their own province which offered suitable candidates for mormaer. There is, however, not enough evidence to reach any similar conclusions about the other provinces.

  The mormaers were important supporters of the king but if he did not foster them, they could also pose a threat. A number of mormaers were caught up in the struggles for the kingship between rival lineages, including Dubduin, Mormaer of Atholl who was killed in battle at Duncrub in 965 during the struggle between Dub and Culen. Others were more directly implicated in the deaths of kings. In 995 Cunthar, Mormaer of Angus killed King Kenneth II at the thanage of Fettercairn. The men of the Mearns were accused of killing two kings, Malcolm I at Fetteresso in 954 and Duncan II at Mondynes in 1094. On the second occasion, the men of the Mearns were commanded by Maelpetair, son of Malcolm, Mormaer of Angus, and this was probably also the case in 954, when Maelbrigte, son of Dubucan was Mormaer of Angus. In the ultimate betrayal, one of these men, Macbeth, Mormaer of Moray, who had probably been installed with help from King Malcolm II, killed King Duncan I and seized the kingship itself.

  The powers of these provincial rulers seem to represent a reduced or subordinate form of royal powers. They appear to have commanded the military forces of their provinces either in local defence or as an element of the larger royal army. This is clear from contemporary sources which record the presence of mormaers in a number of battles. The report on the Battle of Corbridge in 918 in the Annals of Ulster mentions that ‘none of their [the Scots] kings or mormaers were killed.’ The military responsibility of mormaers is also indicated by twelfth-century and later charters which record the duty of the earls to lead the ‘common army’ of their earldom.

  The mormaers also appear to have had subordinate judicial functions, like Constantine, Mormaer of Fife, who features as a judex or ‘judge’ in twelfth-century charters. They were also able to collect cain and coinmed from their own lands and others on a lower scale to that collected for the king. This was their share of the surplus produced by farming. It supported their office in the same way that it supported the king himself, but on a smaller scale. They could also grant lands and a share of the dues that fell to them to secular individuals and to churches. This allowed them to build up personal support in their provinces by winning over other local men and local churches with gifts of lands and dues. The Book of Deer records grants of land by Maelsnechtai, son of Lulach, Mormaer of Moray and Muiredach, son of Morgann, another mormaer, possibly of Buchan. They also record the grant of dues by a mormaer called Matain, son of Cairell, whose province is unknown but could have been Mar or Buchan. The Book of Deer also reveals that mormaers also had the power to ‘quench’ the collection of cain and coinmed. This freed churches from the need to collect and deliver these dues and to use them themselves instead. It was another way to secure support and one used by Colban, Mormaer of Buchan.

  In the social hierarchy immediately below the mormaers were the men known by the Gaelic title of toiseach or ‘leader’, who feature in Gaelic grants inserted into The Book of Deer. They would later be known by the imported English term ‘thane’ from the Anglo-Saxon thegn or ‘servant’. They also may have Pictish origins, if we can rely on the locations of the royal thanages which are located in the heart of the old Pictish kingdom. As mentioned above, these men were initially royal servants, who administered the royal estates or thanages later associated with them, but the term was probably later extended to all noble landowners of a certain rank. The toiseachs or thanes managed individual estates or thanages across the kingdom and provided support and services to the king. They provided the key link between the mormaers at provincial level and the local communities on individual estates in the same way as the mormaers themselves mediated between the provincial communities and the kings.

  They were also, as their Gaelic title toiseach or ‘leader’ suggests, the leaders of local groups which are described in The Book of Deer as ‘clans’ or ‘kindreds’, which appear to have claimed descent from a common ancestor. Comgell, son of Cainnech was toiseach of Clann Channann and Donnchad, son of Sithech was toiseach of Clann Morgainn. The toiseach was probably responsible for the collection of dues from this clan and its lands and offered them his protection in exchange. He also led the military forces of this clan in the common army of the mormaer or king. He also had some role in judicial proceedings and was able to grant lands or dues to the Church and others. The extensive grants made by Cathal, son of Morgann, toiseach and probably brother of Muiredach the Mormaer, and recorded in The Book of Deer are described below. Other toiseachs also made grants, including Cu Li, son of Baithen.

  The Life of St Cadroe of Metz, which was composed around 980, provides a flavour of the life of a noble who was probably of the rank of toiseach. Cadroe was the only son and heir of a rich and noble couple called Fochertach and Bania, who own
ed an estate that included a stable and horses. He was weaned and fostered by another noble family, according to the Gaelic custom of the land. Once he had reached maturity, he returned to his own family to be educated in secular matters, presumably including the arts of war, by his father Fochertach. It was at this point that Fochertach was approached by a cousin, who wanted the boy to train as a priest. Fochertach rejected this request since Cadroe was his only son and would be expected to inherit the family lands. He was expected to defend not only his own family property but also that of his foster-family. The latter were robbed by thieves and Cadroe was preparing to pursue them and recover the stolen goods by force. It was then that he received the call to religion fortuitously when he also had a new brother to inherit the family land.

  The Christian Church played a central role in the society of Britain in the early medieval period. What do we know about the Christian Church in the kingdom of Alba? The answer to this question is: surprisingly little in view of the fact that the Church in Alba was presumably, as elsewhere in Europe, the main repository of literacy and learning. In fact, there is remarkably little surviving evidence for this undoubtedly important institution. The subsequent erosion and eventual demise of the Gaelic language in eastern Scotland presumably contributed to this circumstance. It meant that any records or documents in the Gaelic language lost their usefulness and were thereafter lost or destroyed. This cannot, however, explain the scarcity of Latin documents from this period which obviously did not suffer any loss of intelligibility. If, however, the Church in the kingdom of Alba reflected the practice of its Irish neighbours, then a large portion of its records were presumably in Gaelic and were therefore lost. In addition, the introduction of new clergy and new practices from England and the Continent from the twelfth century onwards probably hastened the replacement of old records.