Quote Originally Posted by King Malcolm
The Feudal system didn't replace the Clan system, it sort of ran along side it.
I'm not saying it was an instantaneous change, but once the idea of the nasty, Beurla Feudal System made its way into Ceanmore's head, the clan system began to see its decline. Let me illustrate.

Under the clan "system", a term used loosely because there were few rules that each clan followed, portions of land belonged to each clan, or Tuath.
Several clans formed a Mortuath, or great clan, and two more great clans formed a Coicidh, which could be equated to a province. As each denomination had a leader, each Coicidh elected their own king, or Ri, and among them was elected the equivalent of the term "king" as we know it, the Ard-Ri (High King).

The Feudal System gave supreme authority to the king, who, instead of being elected to serve his people, was basically a tyrant (not in the Greek sense of the word). The fiefs granted by a Feudal king were used to help guarantee loyalty among the nobles, who used the same tactic until the line worked itself down to the common men. This is a striking difference with the Clan System's method of government.

Malcolm, here, once his head had been a little poisoned by his foreign wife, decided to incorporate the Feudal ideas into his kingdom, and began to disrupt the social order by granting lands to other nobles as gifts or bribes, as would a Feudal king, without thought to the clans who inhabited the areas. Despite how Malcolm's brother did his best to re-Gaelify, if you will, the kingdom after he became king, it didn't quite have the desired effect. The rest is history.