Scotland And The Clans Of The Highlands
The Highlands of Scotland have been well documented for their conflicts and betrayals in fact it is surely legitimate that from the reign of James IV in the 1490′s life in the Highlands had been fairly tumultuous. In 1493, James went against the powerful chiefs of the MacDonald Clan and forfeited the MacDonald Lord of the Isles in favour of himself along with the Campbell Clan. Therefore the Campbell’s took over as powerhouse in that time at the expense of the MacDonalds.
Issues came about not merely with the MacDonalds but also with several other Scottish clans because of this unhealthy power divide that the Campbells held over everyone else. The Campbell were in such a position that they could buy up readily available land and charge a kind of rent upon anybody who wanted to utilize the area for cows or sheep. The MacLeans were especially aggrieved Clan. As a sidenote here, the word Clan originates from the Gaelic word “clann” which actually signifies “children”.
It would seem to be this could mean that any member inside a clan were closely associated however this was not necessarily the case. Only the higher echelons of a specific clan were linked to the chiefs. Everyone else merely considered the chief as the leader instead of as a relative as such.
The particular system of clans originated in a mixture of early Celtic idealism and feudal procedures, the main point being the possession of lands. The clan chief was the proprietor of the lands of the clan and he had the ability to grant the land out to his fellow clans men. The status of a clan nonetheless was not necessarily about how much land that the family held but more concerning the amount of males the clan may muster in order to fight in war. Due to the Highlands being very militaristic they would be looked to for fighting men during discord among the King and his opposition. For the highland clans this grew to become problematic because they frequently became embroiled in lowland politics.
When James VI came to be King however, civil war broke out. When he called on the clans to assist the Campbells decided otherwise. It was not merely the Campbells who were to lead to difficulties for James – he extirped (sent away) the clan MacGregor in 1603, and in 1609 he introduced new laws in to force which curtailed all clan chiefs from using and abusing their earlier power.
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