Provinces of Scotland facts for kids
The Provinces of Scotland were like big regions or areas in the early Kingdom of Alba. This was the name for Scotland a long, long time ago. These provinces were first written about in the 900s. They probably grew out of even older areas where the Pictish people lived.
Each province was led by a powerful person called a mormaer. This mormaer was usually the head of the strongest family group in that area. They were in charge of many things, like leading the army, collecting taxes, and making sure justice was served. Because these provinces had a lot of power on their own, they became important places for different people who wanted to be king of Alba.
Over time, in the late 1100s and early 1200s, the provinces became less important. The king's power grew stronger. Instead of family groups being the main way power was organized, a new system called feudal landholding became more common. This meant power came from owning land, not from being part of a powerful family. Mormaers started to focus more on their own land, called an earldom, rather than leading the whole province. The king also gave large areas of land, called provincial lordships, to his loyal supporters. These lordships were often as big as earldoms. Local justice and government also changed. They became more controlled by sheriffdoms, which were directly under the king's power.
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Where were the Scottish Provinces?
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Before the early 1200s, the area called "Scotland" (also known as Scotia or Alba) was mainly between the Firth of Forth and the River Spey.
In this central area, the provinces directly controlled by the Kings of Alba by the 1100s included:
North of the River Spey, there were other areas also called provinces. But their connection to the King of Alba was not always clear.
- Moray sometimes acted like its own kingdom in the 1000s. The Kings of Alba didn't fully control it until 1230.
- Ross was a mix of Gaelic-speaking people to the south and Norse people to the north. Its status changed a lot until it became an Earldom under King Malcolm III. Royal control here was still uncertain until 1215.
- Caithness was controlled by the Norse Earls of Orkney. These earls answered to the King of Norway until 1231.
South of the Forth, in areas that used to be part of Northumbria or British lands, the Kings of Alba also controlled some areas. These were the Earldoms of Dunbar, The Lennox, and Carrick. They were sometimes called provinces too. However, they were created much later, in the late 1100s. They were always based on the feudal system of land ownership.
How did the Provinces work?
Early Days and Roles
The names of the provinces started showing up in records around the year 900. Before that, records talked about older Pictish areas like Fortriu. We don't know for sure how much the provinces were connected to these older areas. Some names, like Cait, Fife, and Atholl, stayed the same. It's possible some provinces existed as smaller parts of bigger areas before 900.
By the late 900s, the Mormaer (also called Comes in Latin or Earl in Scots) was the main leader in each province. For example, Atholl had a king in 739, but by 965, it had a mormaer.
The mormaer of a province had several important jobs:
- They gathered and led the province's army in battles.
- They made sure justice was carried out in their area.
- They were supported by taxes and payments collected from parts of the province.
Even though the mormaer was the top leader, they worked with other powerful local people. Provincial meetings included many men from the province, and the mormaer was just one important person among them. The position of mormaer wasn't always passed down from parent to child until the late 1100s. Instead, it was held by the strongest family head in the province. Sometimes, different family groups took turns being mormaer.
Provinces could even work without a mormaer. For example, King Edgar took direct control of the mormaership of Mearns in 1097. The mormaership of Gowrie was controlled by the king by the time of Alexander I.
Each province also had at least one Brithem (also called Iudex in Latin or Dempster in Scots). This was a legal expert whose job was passed down through their family. They were chosen locally, not by the king. A province's brithem helped create new laws based on local customs. They settled legal cases, especially land disputes, and were important witnesses for land agreements. Small legal problems were handled in local courts, but big problems were settled at provincial meetings, which also included the provincial army. Each province also had a special place where stolen goods and people who could prove innocence could be brought for hearings. There was also at least one toiseachdeor, who looked after holy objects used for swearing oaths.
At this time, the provinces of Alba were quite independent. They had their own family networks, their own meetings, and even their own church leaders. While the Kings of Alba owned a lot of land within the provinces, their control over the provinces depended on good relationships with local power groups. Provinces could become strong regional centers, and they often supported different royal families. This system, with different royal families and their provincial power bases, often led to violent struggles for the throne. For example, 12 out of 20 kings between 858 and 1093 were killed by their own people. When kings won against mormaer-led rebellions, they could take more provincial land for themselves. The king owned much more land in Angus than the mormaer, possibly after conflicts with kings Kenneth II and Malcolm II. the Mearns was taken completely by King Edgar after the mormaer of Mearns killed his father, Duncan II, in 1094.
Why did Provinces become less important?
A document written between 1202 and 1214, called De Situ Albanie, still described Scotland north of the Forth as being made up entirely of provinces. But in reality, this system was already starting to break apart. From the 1160s onwards, the power of nobles and their legal authority began to change. It was no longer based on the province or social groups. Instead, it was based on owning specific pieces of land. The king's power over land grew, and he started to use formal local government offices called sheriffdoms.
The 1100s and early 1200s saw big changes for the mormaer. They were increasingly called an earl as the Scots language replaced Gaelic as the main language. By the late 1100s, a clear difference was made between the provincia (the broad province from which an earl got their name) and the comitatus or earldom (the smaller land the earl directly controlled from the king). By the early 1200s, the earl's power was mostly focused on their earldom, not on leading the whole province. The earldom became a position that was passed down directly from father to son. This showed that owning land was now more important than family connections for power.
Royal thanages also appeared in provinces from the early 1200s. These were landholdings held by a thane directly from the king, separate from the provincial community. The king's control within provinces was made even stronger when he gave royal land to his supporters. This included large provincial lordships like Garioch, which were as big as earldoms. By 1221, earls were not allowed to enter the land of other lords. They also lost control over raising the provincial army. Now, individual landowners were responsible for raising soldiers from their own lands.
The provincial brithem, who had been important in legal documents in the 1100s, became much less important by the end of the 1200s. Eventually, their role almost disappeared. A law under David I said that every brithem in a province had to attend when the king visited. Between the reigns of David I and William I, kings tried to link brithems more closely to their own authority. By the end of the 1100s, kings increasingly saw themselves, not the brithems, as the main source of lawmaking.
Sheriffs are first mentioned in the areas south of the Forth in the 1120s. Their role spread north of the Forth over the next century. At first, sheriffs mainly collected money from towns (burghs) and other royal lands. But by the 1180s, sheriffs had authority over specific areas. They were expected to hold regular courts and could attend the courts of all nobles, including earls, in their area. By the mid-1200s, a uniform system of sheriffdoms covered the country. These were overseen by a Justiciar of Scotia, who was clearly an agent of the king, unlike the brithem.
By the 1260s, the sheriffdom was the most important part of Scottish government. Sheriffs collected the money that funded the central government. They also extended the king's power into areas controlled by nobles. Over the 1300s and 1400s, the role of an earl became more about honor than real power. Many earls had even fewer direct connections to the provinces they were named after. However, the provinces didn't completely disappear. They kept a symbolic meaning and were still mentioned by writers for centuries afterward.
