The Gaelic word clan literally translates as children, offspring or descendants. But highland clanship not only denotes extended families with a common ancestor. It also evokes a sense of belonging to a special place: the land of the clan
There is no doubt that clans had their heyday from the 15th century and until Culloden in 1745. There is also no doubt that they were very active in the different Jacobite revolts which marred Scotland and Northern England in the late 17th century and onwards, although on different sides. Nor is there doubt that the English establishment after the Glorious revolution in 1688 went for the throat of the Highlanders by attacking the clan-system, which effectively was dissolved after Colloden and the clearances took off (where crofters and tenants de facto were robbed of their land, which they held by costum and not law).
Further it is obvious the clans continue to play an important part in modern Scotland, albeit their new role is to amalgamate Scots from all over the diaspora and make them come home to partake in clan-gatherings (and leave their dollars and pennies).
Thus it was a great disappointment this year that the grand International gathering of the Clans 2014 had to be cancelled. One reason was that although comparable events in 2009 collapsed with a debt of £344.000, it is estimated that the event in itself generated a £10 mill boost for the Scottish Economy with a 98% satisfaction. At the same time the different clans have tradition for organising their own events some of which are highly successful. The traditional clans cannot be regarded as spurious and tacky institutions in 21st century Scotland.
An Ancient Custom
The question, however, remains, to what extent clans were an ancient institution or rather a new invention from the 16th century; or perhaps in their modern guise, an invention of the 20th century tourism industry. Rather astonishingly this question has not been at the fore of academic debates, nor has it caused general research to be carried out by the historical establishment in recent years. It seems as if a sort of embarrassment hoovers over the icon.
In fact, one of the best exposés of the clans as an institution is from 1968 and hidden in a compendium of articles published by Routledge on historical Anthropology. According to this the key to understand the clan-structure is the fact that land in the Highlands – until it became commercialized – was the root of all wealth. A chief reckoned his wealth not in sheep, cattle or acres but in the size of his following. This following was made up of his clan and his dependants. At the inner core of the clan was his immediate agnatic kinsmen (the Daoine Waisle, later known as the “tacsmen”.) They depended on the bounty of the chief to provide them with land, usually one or two extensive and often very large farms. They, in their turn, built a following by granting land to their followers and so on. The Daoine Waisle constituted the chieftains of the clan. As such they were responsible for organizing the clan as a fighting force. Essentially they were a military caste constantly demanded to show off their prowess and courage thourgh warring, feuding and the famous cattle-raiding. Apart from caring for cattle they were not involved in farming. In default of opportunities of serving their chief at home, they sought employment in the continental armies, writes Creegan (p. 161). However bonds between the chief and his chieftains were extremely close if the chief could but provide the necessary hospitality, generosity and protection. This was also the case with the so-called “commoners”, farmers, which might claim kinship with the chief. However, their lot was to work as tenants paying rents in kind or service. In turn they would often sublet to yet another kinsman. Such dependencies were the bread and butter of the clans, where kinship carried inescapable obligations and indisputable claims concerning land. “A clan, however, was never simply a group of kinsmen dwelling together and tracing descent from a common ancestor”, writes Creegan. Dependants might also be families, which had adopted the name of the chief or one of his chieftains, seeking protection in troubled times or during blood-feuds.
Feuding
Creegan’s analysis of the Scottish clan-structure builds on a series of rather old sources, many from the 19th century and several more reminiscent of Scottish Romanticism than medieval practice. On the other hand explorations of feuding in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland conducted by Jenny Wormald in the 70s demonstrates that the ancient custom of blood-feuding and the payment of compensations in Scotland (and Wales and Ireland if not England) was indeed a practice, whereby the killing of a kinsman was a matter for the whole kin-group aka the clan, who was obliged to seek retribution either in the form of blood-feuding or blood-money.
In this work she demonstrates how Scotland possesses a vast collection of “more than 800 private agreements known as bonds of manrent and maintenance – bonds of allegiance and protection between men and their lords – and contracts of friendship between men of equal status.” (p. 57- 58). These agreements stem from the 15th century and onwards with a proliferation of records from the 16th century.) However, compilations of earlier laws also witness to the fact that blood-feuding (and hence clans) were valid medieval institutions in Scotland, and not just in the Western Highlands.
In fact, Jenny Wormald shows that the institutions of clans and the systems of justice ruling bloodfeuds between clans were heavily interlaced with the justice of kings and their wielding of judiciary powers. She claims that what happened was an intermingling of private and public spheres, whereby the private affairs became increasingly codified. But she also notes how this process made the traditional social organisation of agnatic kingroups surface in the material, since the tradition continued to accept local arbitration outside the distinctly narrow royal sphere of influence (read: the Highlands and the Islands).
In this connection Wormald makes it quite clear that these kingroups were not just organised according to their relation to specific agnatic lineages, but also to the land, which belonged to the specific “clans” (she does not use the word: clan, but this is what she refers to). In practice the land-based “kingroups” (= clans) were probably of more importance than the actual degrees of kinship, which might just as well be interwoven with conflicts and even regular feuding. One challenge here is that apart from the ruins of castles it is archaeologically very complicated to study patterns of settlement in ancient Scotland.
On the other hand she also remarks that medieval sources might reflect a decided lack of records of kinship, instead masking relationships as feudal. Chiefs might have turned into lords, but perhaps it had more to do with wording than a substantial change in the inner societal workings, she writes, after which she moves on to uncover the many ways in which the many agreements use kinship-terminology to describe the relationship between the two parties.
In the end Wormald also succeeds in answering the perennial question of why the clans and their feuds went into a political decline after 1603. After that time the absentee king, James VI, governed from London through a privy council supported by an army of lawyers bent on finding other forms of settling conflicts than the old local form reached by framing conflicts as blood-feuds. She writes how these lawyers fostered an increased “suspicion and hatred of the highlander” and that “men looked sideways to the highland area of their country without understanding, but with embarrassment fear and violent hostility” (p. 97). In the end this resulted in the terrible massacre in Glencoe, which later fuelled the Battle at Culloden between cousins and brothers.
Wish to read more about Scotland the Brand and its medieval icons? Please follow the links below
Names, Sprigs, Feathers, Tartans and Kilts
SOURCES:
The Changing Role of the House of Argyll in the Scottish Highlands
By E. R. Creegan
In: History and Social Anthropology. By I.M. Lewis (ed). Routledge 1968
Bloodfeud, Kindred and Government in Early Modern Scotland
By Jenny Wormald
In: Past and Present 1980, Vol. 87, pp. 54 -97
READ MORE:
Scottish Society in the 15th century
By Jennifer M. Brown (ed)
Edward Arnold, London 1977
Court, Kirk and Community: Scotland, 1470 – 1625. (New History of Scotland)
By Jenny Wormald.
University of Edinburgh Press 1981 (new edition 1991)