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The House of Moray or Clann Ruaidrí is a historiographical and genealogical construct to illustrate the succession of rulers whose base was in Moray and who ruled sometimes a larger kingdom. It is much the same as Cenél Loairn , an originally Gaelic concept to express one of the two rivalling leader clans of early medieval Scotland.
The so-called house of Loairn or of Moray was distantly related to the Scottish House of Alpin, its rival, and claiming descent from the eponymous founder Loarn mac Eirc. Some of its members became the last kings of the Picts while three centuries later, two members succeeded to the Scottish throne ruling Scotland from 1040 until 1058.
At the times when the rival house held the throne, the Loairn leaders usually had their effectively independent state of Moray, where a succession of kings or mormaers ruled.
The Loairn succession followed quite loyally the rules of tanistry, resulting in practice to outcomes where branches of the leaders' extended family rotated on the rulership, possibly keeping a balance between important branches. This is quite typical for tribal societies, where primogeniture is much less usual than agnatic seniority or turns on the throne. For example, Macbeth, King of Scotland descended from one branch, and his stepson Lulach from another.