Perhaps this implies a system of tanistry, with preference given to candidates drawn from the female line?.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Female Royal Line: matrilineal succession amongst the Picts?] Reference

Maybe the Pictish armour bearers often were nephews as well, and in case tanistry came into play - another thing that has been assumed for the Picts though it cannot be proven - a grown, and perhaps educated successor in the female line would have been prefered to a boy in direct line.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Female Royal Line: matrilineal succession amongst the Picts?] Reference

The customs of "gavelkinde" and "tanistry" were attended with the same absurdity in the distribution of property.    From Wordnik.com.  [The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part D. From Elizabeth to James I.] Reference

Perhaps the author's silence might proceed from his doubts on the sub - ject See further the case of tanistry, Dav.    From Wordnik.com.  [The First Part of the Institutes of the Laws of England, Or, A Commentary Upon Littleton: Not ...] Reference

It is permissible to think that this conception (related to the conception of tanistry) played an important part in the life of the period; but research has not yet been directed that way.    From Wordnik.com.  [Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution] Reference

The early Norman and English settlers denounced the tanistry system as barbarous and uncivilized, and acted towards it in the same manner as the English of recent times have acted towards the Hindoo and New Zealand land systems.    From Wordnik.com.  [ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science] Reference

The English title carried with it, according to English law, the principle of hereditary succession; but when the first earl died, the clan of O'Neil refused to adopt the English practice, and, according to the Irish principle of tanistry, chose as his successor the member of the house for whom they had the highest regard.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 10] Reference

An enormous amount of litigation as to the law of real property was created by a judgment of the Court of King's Bench at Dublin, in 1605, by which the ancient Irish customs, of tanistry and gavelkind, were declared null and void, and the entire Feudal system, with its rights of primogeniture, hereditary succession, entail, and vassalage, was held to exist in as full force in England.    From Wordnik.com.  [A Popular History of Ireland : from the Earliest Period to the Emancipation of the Catholics - Volume 2] Reference