Monday 4 July 2022

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There was quite a lengthy and interesting article by John R. Barrett in the March/April 2022 issue of History Scotland entitled “Building Burghs: The Conquest and Civilisation of Moray, c1150-c1250. Since Gervaise de Rait and brother Andrew were at least likely lads during the latter part of this period, and their unknown ancestors as well as family were presumably around too, then I thought it might be worthwhile summarizing a few relevant aspects from the article (in mostly Barrett's own words) to try and shed some further light on our ancestors.

Of course, it may be that the brothers were not actually born in Moray or roundabouts, but came to the province from elsewhere in the very late 13th century. In fact, they may have been born after 1250, because apparently the life expectancy at birth for males born in the UK between 1276 and 1300 was just over 31 years. But for those who reached age 20, it jumped to 45 years. And if they reached 30, then living into their fifties became likely. We assume that Gervaise died about 1297 because that's when his lands were given to his brother - though it's possible he was in disgrace and forfeited his lands and thus dropped out of history. To be a knight and Constable of Nairn castle in 1292 probably meant that Gervaise was at least in his early thirties or forties.

From the mid-10th century onwards, the process of embracing Moray into the emergent empire of Scotland continued through five generations under ten monarchs. This process, in Moray at least, may be characterized as a Norman conquest. Anglo-Norman infiltration into Scotland began under Macbeatha (Macbeth) who welcomed two marcher lords, Osbern de Pentecost and his companion Hugh, to his court who presumably arrived with an appropriate entourage of men-at-arms, priests and retainers. [A marcher lord was a noble appointed by the king of England to guard the border between England and Wales. Sir Osbern Pentecost was a Norman knight who followed Edward the Confessor to England upon Edward's return from exile in Normandy in 1041. He was one of the few Norman landholders in England prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066. Osbern built the castle at Ewyas in Herefordshire, one of the first motte and bailey types to be constructed in England. On the return from exile in 1052 of Godwin, Earl of Wessex, the Normans were banished from England. Osbern obtained a safe passage from Leofric of Mercia and ventured north to join the court of Mac Bethad mac Findlaích, King of Scots. During Earl Siward's invasion of Scotland in 1054, Osbern Pentecost was one of the Normans killed at the Battle of Dunsinane.]  Macbeatha's  Normans all perished on the battlefield at Dunsinane and Lumphanan, but Anglo-Norman immigrants found a new and lasting foothold under Mael Coluim mac Donnchadh (Malcolm III) after 1058 as the vanguard of an invited colonial class.

Malcolm's son Alexander I introduced Anglo-Norman cavalry into his army, while his brother David was immersed in Anglo-Norman culture at the court of Henry I in England (who married his sister). David himself married an Anglo-Norman noblewoman and planted Anglo-Norman feudal tenants and abbeys in his lands in Lothian. The influx continued under David's kingship and under his grandsons Malcolm IV and William I. Anglo-Normans and Flemings were settled in Scotland as feudal landowners and continental orders of monks moved north from England. Managerial bishops (many with Anglo-Norman names) were installed in new cathedrals to bring organization to the Church of Scotland. New trading settlements were established in southern and eastern Scotland with immigrant traders from England, Normandy, Brittany and Flanders - the name burgh being adopted for these new towns. However, Anglo-Norman immigrants arrived by royal invitation only and though the nation was profoundly changed, this was no conquest as in 1066. Buchan was Normanized when the mormaer heiress married the Norman immigrant William Comyn. At present it is not known the full extent to which lesser native landowners in Moray and elsewhere in Scotland were either dispossessed of their lands or incorporated into the new mainstream. Some deserted their Moray mormaers and accepted David I as overlord and thus retained their lands which were transmitted to their descendants with alternating Norman and Gaelic names. The kings of Scots defeated challenges from Moray pretenders to the throne with forces reinforced with Anglo-Norman heavy cavalry brought from England. As successive Moray uprisings were crushed, native landowners were dispossessed, sidelined and exiled. Confiscated estates were redefined as royal forests and held by the king to be granted to Anglo-Norman and Flemish immigrant lords. The new colonial elite was represented by a string of castle mottes throughout Moray, especially along the coast. The development of Moray's coastal zone was an assertion of royal power and colonial conquest that broke the grip of native elites in upland, inland and western Moray.

A chain of burghs was established around 1150 to secure the Anglo-Norman coastal culture zone in Moray, with immigrant communities forming nodes of commercial activity and cultural influence. The primary purpose of these burghs was economic - as focal points for organized trade and wealth creation, and so placed to enjoy easy access to the sea and attract Norse, English and continental traders. Initially populated with immigrant entrepreneurs from England and northern France, the burghs were also seeded with Flemish settlers who traded with textile centre in The Netherlands. One of the new towns was at Auldearn (just a couple of miles from Rait Castle!) which was captured in the 1180s and its population moved to Invernairn (Nairn). As noted the Moray burghs were populated with Anglo-Norman and Flemish entrepreneurs - each settler receiving a plot of land in the town and acres of commonfield arable to cultivate beyond the urban boundaries. The whole burgess class in Moray was recognized as having a collective identify under William I from the early 13th century.

A castle was planned into the landscape of each burgh site. These royal residences accommodated the king when he was in the neighbourhood collecting dues, administering justice and receiving homage, as well as a sheriff to conduct business when the king was not there. Castles were designed as typical motte and bailey earth and timber fortifications. At Nairn the castle was engineered from natural bluffs by the river and both castle and town were packed together reflecting Nairn's origins as a militarized settlement conceived to replace Auldearn.

The Moray burghs exemplify the visionary ability of Scottish kings and their officials to plan landscapes, promote cultural change and direct economic activity. Burghs formed the stiff spine of an exemplary Anglo-Norman culture zone established in the coastal lowland power-base of Moray's mormaer princes and their markets and commercial monopolies drew the men of Moray into the Anglo-Norman world.

So the questions remain - Gervaise and his brother were in Moray some 200 years after the Norman Conquest - thus there were at least four possibly five generations in between. Perhaps their original progenitor came over with William from France and the family gradually assimilated itself in England before moving north to Scotland at some point and becoming Scoto-Normans. Or were they invited to Moray by King David or his successors? Were they descendants from Macbeth's Norman men-at-arms? The fact that Gervaise was Constable at Nairn Castle in 1292 and as Sir Gervaise de Raite of Rait Castle, Nairn, swore fealty to Edward I at Elgin Castle on 26 July 1296 would inform that he was already well established in Moray (at least Nairn) and thus, if not actually born in the province, had come there (invited?) some time earlier.