[120] An. Ult. 1033. He is called M., son of Boedhe, probably Malcolm.
[121] Tigh. 1034. Wynton, bk. 6, c. 10. Fordun, l. 4, c. 46. Angus was as fatal to Malcolm and his father Kenneth, as the neighbourhood of Forres had proved to the first Malcolm and his father Donald.
[122] Tigh. 975–997.
[123] Sim. Dun. de Gestis, 1018. Lutinenses is evidently a clerical error for Clutinenses.
[124] Flor. Wig., 1054. Malm. de Gest., l. 2., c. 196. The Cumbrensis regio was again detached and given by Edgar to his brother David, who held it, in spite of the opposition of Alexander, throughout that king’s reign. Ailred in Twysden, p. 344.
[125] Fordun, l. 4, c. 44. He connects it with a victory over the Danes. Whatever may have been the cause of its erection, the founder must have possessed an influence over the surrounding territory. In the preface to the Register of Aberdeen, the editor inclines to the opinion that Malcolm the Third was the founder of Mortlach, in which case the annexation of Strathbogie and the Garioch to the Scottish crown would have been the result of the successful northern wars of the latter king.
[126] Strathbogie and the Garioch were “in the crown” at a later period, and before the reign of David, though it would be difficult to say with certainty when these districts were annexed. Moray was forfeited under David, and the summary manner in which that king and his successors were able to deal with church property in the diocese of that name, as well as in that of Aberdeen, discloses the different relation in which the Scottish kings stood towards the people of those bishoprics and towards the population of some of the other dioceses. No Culdees appear struggling for their rights in the earlier charters of Moray and Aberdeen (though in the thirteenth century the Culdees of Monymusk tried to shake off the supremacy of St. Andrews), a proof that the powerful Gaelic families in whom these rights would have been vested, were either extinct, or so far reduced as to be in no condition to offer any resistance to the measures of David. Such was not the case in the bishoprics of Brechin and Dunblane, where the Culdees held their ground long after the time of that king, owing probably to a reluctance on his part, and on that of his successors, to alienate their great feudatories, the earls of Strathearn and abbots of Brechin, by an over prompt interference with Church property in their possession. The tradition connecting Mortlach with Malcolm the Second, has induced me to notice the annexations of these districts under this reign, in which the royal authority may have been considerably extended and consolidated in this direction, though I think it most probable that the final conquest and submission of the province was the result of the frequent and successful, though little known, northern wars of Malcolm the Third, and the subsequent successes of his son Alexander in the same quarter. The last Mormaor of the mysterious province of Mærne appears in alliance with Donald Bane; the people of the district attempted, in conjunction with the Moray men, to assassinate Alexander at Invergowrie, and then nothing more is heard either of the Mormaor or the men of Mærne; and I am inclined to connect with this disappearance the forfeiture of the ancient family, and the distribution of the ancient kingdom between Dee and Spey into the two subordinate earldoms of Mar and Buchan, and the two lordships of Strathbogie and the Garioch, long retained by a member of the royal family.
[127] This subject is further treated in Appendices D and N.
[128] Triocha-ced is the proper name, often rendered Cantred, but erroneously. The Irish Triocha-ced was supposed to be a collection of thirty Baille-biataghs, or hundreds, each supposed to contain four hundred and eighty Irish acres, thus constituting a Barony of nominally 14,400 Irish acres (A.F.M., 1225, Note S). The Cantred—the hundred trefs or villages—belonged properly to Wales, and was supposed to contain 25,600 Welsh acres, answering rather to the Continental Canton. The Irish and Welsh Cantred, therefore, must not be considered identical. For Thanes, V. Appendix N.
[129] There appears to have been the same difference amongst the ancient Irish between the Brugaidh and the Biotagh, as between the Bonder and Landbu amongst the Scandinavians. The Brugaidh was originally the free or adopted member of the Clan or Cyn, tracing his origin either really or theoretically to the founder of the race, and hence entitled to his free allotment, or duchas, of the tribe land; the freeholder, in short, deriving his name from his Brugh, Burh, or separate house, just as the Bu-ander (Bonder) from his Bu—the Hus-bond; V. “Hy Fiachrach,” passim. The Biotagh was the man who held his land by paying Biodh—Feorm or rent—the colonus Geneat or tenant farmer, dwelling in the baille or village. The Brugaidh might have complained, like his type the Bonder, at a very early period, of being changed into a Biotagh or Land-Bu—made to pay rent; when his position must have somewhat resembled that of the Kentish Alodiarius or Gaveller at the time of the Norman Conquest; but after the English invasion all distinction between the two classes was speedily forgotten, both merging in the Villeinage. In later times, indeed, the Biotagh occasionally appears to have been of more consequence than the Brugaidh, probably because members of the former class might be holders of a far wider extent of land than the small peasant proprietor, and of comparatively greater importance. Hence the Ard-Biotagh, sometimes met with in the Irish annals, was probably nothing more than “a great land-holder”,—the possessor of many “benefices” held by payment of Biodh or rent.—V. Appendix O.