Tanistrie
The tanistrie is a law of usual succession which was practiced in a form or another by certain groups Celtes and Pictes.
According to this habit, the successor of a king or a chief of clan must be selected among his relationship, but preferably among the collateral ones (brothers, cousins, nephews) rather than among his direct descendants. The successor is in general selected the alive one of the preceding chief and is then called tanist . The law generally specifies that the tanist (scot tànaise ), should suffer from no mental or physical infirmity, and that it must be recognized like more deserving among the candidates. According to the cases, it is chosen by the king preceding itself or a council of old, chiefs and princes.
Quality and defect of the system
If the law makes it possible to choose a powerful man by making sure in particular that it is always about an adult, it is on the other hand source of conflicts violent one in the event of dissension, since it does not specify any hierarchy among the potential successors.
The first kings Scot made for example the expenses of them, since for the period when it was applied, at least five kings in exercise were assassinated for a problem of succession and many potential applicants eliminated on suspicion by the murder, sometimes on order of the king himself. The crown passes unceasingly from a branch of the family to the other, and with each generation, the cousins do not hesitate with étriper the ones the others. Between 843 and 1005, time when the tanistrie applied in Scotland, only two sovereigns out of fourteen died in their bed.
Nowadays
The name - originating in the Gaélique tanned : seigniory, authority - perdure still in the titles of the Prime Minister Irish, the Taoiseach and of its substitute, the Tánaiste .
Related articles
Sources
Warlords and Holy Men Scotland AD 80~1000 Edinburgh University Close (1984) ISBN 0748601007 Count 4 off Kings Scotland AD 850~1050 Pages 220 & 221.
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