Who are Scotland's Clan Chiefs?

[Nathan]

My standard disclaimer is that I'm no expert, and there is no subject about which I know enough. That said, I have a
family that has long had a strong interest in genealogy, with individuals on three continents creating paper trails, not
supposition, back 500 years on many lines, even 1000 on a very few. That digging has led through a lot of original
documents with a lot of years; wills, marriages, land records, and court records. IIRC, I have read through land and
court records involving women inheriting land, titles, and chief of clan back a thousand years. As well, I have seen
articles and book extracts that indicated in certain clans there was a tradition of matrilineal inheritance. Tradition was
overturned by the claiming of Scotland's throne by David in 1124, and by 1136 he had solidified his position and put
in place the Norman French system whereby the eldest son got everything. Some traditional ways were allowed to
continue for a couple or three hundred years for convenience, but by law all property, titles, and power belonged to
the crown. Period. Barons and chiefs were relied upon to collect taxes, raise troops, keep order, and dispense justice.
If the crown was unhappy with the result, said individual was replaced. Even earls, even chiefs. All power to the crown,
no power to the people. The position of chief was generally allowed to stand, but at the king's leisure. I imagine some
may feel my assessment to be in error, but history is not a kind and gentle landscape. By making it clear that no
position was held without crown approval, and that clan lands no longer were lands held in common by the clan with
the chief holding for the clan, it gradually moved to a perception of an inherited position, with no need to be concerned
about the clan. Hence the clearances. So, technically, the system ended with David. Even that was not hard and fast.
Henry I was succeeded by Matilda, though Stephen took that crown by force, and he was displaced by Henry II. David
defended Matilda's right to the throne, and, IIRC, he knighted Henry II as Henry made his bid for the throne he felt was
through his mother. I'll shut up now.

Though I will add that I am happy to defer to the Lyon Court on these matters.

My only issue with this analysis is that it ends the Clan system just as Clan Donald, one of the oldest and most powerful clans in the Highlands emerges. what the Crown claims to own is one thing but what it actually controls is another. Another matter still is the degree of control once allegiance is sworn. Complex stuff in the more remote areas of North Western Scotland.