Women of the Highlands by Katharine Stewart sampler

chapter 2
Mediaeval Times – Women of the
Castles
in mediaeval times, the pattern of life began to change. Power
was now vested in the king rather than shared among the kins or
tribes, with charters of land granted to the chiefs of what were
to become clans. The structure of the erstwhile tribe had become
hierarchical.
As the demand for land became competitive the chief
required military support from the lower orders as a form of
rental for their holdings. As he was frequently feuding with other
equally pugnacious or territorial chiefs, his followers were often on
active service. At these times work on the land and the handling
of stock were all done by women. Many were widowed, for clan
battles were fierce, but some provision was made for women
thus left. Meanwhile other ways of acquiring territory were
being exploited by some chiefs – the marrying-off, often at a very
early age, of their daughters to the sons of other chiefs.
Euphemia of Duffus Castle
Euphemia, daughter of Farquhar MacTaggart, the lay Abbot of
Applecross, on the north-west coast, had an ‘arranged marriage’
to Walter, grandson of Freskin the Fleming, an incoming feudal
knight who had been given the lands of Duffus in Moray by King
David i.
She was baptised Eighrig, Gaelic being the tongue of all her
people in Applecross. Her upbringing had been that of the daughter
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