'Inressyng of kyndnes, and renewing off thair blud': the family, kinship and clan policy in Sixteenth-Century Scottish Gaeldom

Abstract

Kinship was an organising principle throughout pre-industrial Scottish society. However, as a consequence of political, social and economic change, there appears to have been a lessening of kin relations throughout the wider community during the late medieval period. This was evidence in the Highlands where kinship and the expression of kinship and 'kyndnes' were of heightened significance. This chapter seeks to emphasise the contribution of the chiefly family to the maintenance of internal clan cohesion as well as the creation of external political and military alliances with neighbouring clan chiefs and client clans. In the formation of these alliances, the chief's blood relatives were significant, but it is not just who created them that is important. In light of the argument of declining kinship within the wider community this paper will also explore how such alliances were established and maintained.