Tanistry
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Tanistry (from Gaelic tana, lordship) was a custom among various Celtic tribes, by which the king or chief of the clan was chosen from among the heads of the septs, or alternatively among all males of the clan in question, and elected by them in full assembly.
The rules of succession of the dynasty of Alpin of kings of Scotland, and their successors, abided the tanistry rules until at least 1034, were used in certain successions in 1090's, and were pleaded as a part of succession litigation as late as in 1290's.
He held office for life and was required by custom to be of full age, in possession of all his faculties and without any remarkable blemish of mind or body. At the same time, and subject to the same conditions, a tanist or next heir to the chieftaincy was elected, who if the king died or became disqualified, at once became king. Most usually a former king's son became tanist (sometimes the son of the king simultaneously elected), but not because the system of primogeniture was in any way recognized; indeed, the only principle adopted was that the dignity of chieftainship should descend to the eldest and most worthy of the same blood. These epithets, as Hallam says, were not necessarily synonymous, but merely indicated that the preference given to seniority was to be controlled by a due regard to merit (Consul. Hist., vol. iii. c. xviii.).
This system often lead to rotation between most prominent branches of the clan or the reigning house. Particularly in Middle Ages when an average lifespan was usually shorter than required for one's children grow up into adults. Tanistry, though not intended basically to be such, was perceived to be synonymous with balance between branches of family. A most publicized case was when the Bruce candidate to inherit the crown of Scotland in 1296 pleaded, among other grounds, the traditional tanistry in his favor. He was primogeniturally seen from a cadet branch of the old royal descent, and thus primogeniture would not have favored him, but idea of rotation (and his seniority in physical age) made him a credible competitor. (Although the judicial resolution of that quarrel went in favor of the Balliols on basis of primogeniture, the subsequent political events reverted that result, and Robert the Bruce, the grandson of the candidate who pleaded tanistry, ascended the throne despite of the fact of representing a rather junior cadet line of the original Royal House - all future monarchs of Scotland then were succeeding on basis of rights of the Bruce.)
Tanistry as the system of succession left the headship open to the ambitious, and was a frequent source of strife both in families and between the clans. Tanistry was abolished by a legal decision in the reign of James I and the English land system substituted.
The word is preserved in the government of the Republic of Ireland, where the prime minister is the Taoiseach while the deputy prime minister is the Tánaiste.
The concept of the tanist or substitute for the sacred king was taken by by Sir James Frazer and incorporated as a central element in his study of European mythologies, The Golden Bough. Through Frazer the figure of the tanist has appeared in modernist poetry, such as T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and has influenced Robert Graves' interpretation of The Greek Myths (1955) and The White Goddess. Tanist figures appear in much popular neo-paganism.