The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tanistry \Tan"ist*ry\, n. [See Tanist.] In Ireland, a tenure of family lands by which the proprietor had only a life estate, to which he was admitted by election.
Note: The primitive intention seems to have been that the inheritance should descend to the oldest or most worthy of the blood and name of the deceased. This was, in reality, giving it to the strongest; and the practice often occasioned bloody feuds in families, for which reason it was abolished under James I.
Wiktionary
n. (context historical English) A form of tenure, in ancient Scotland and Ireland, whereby succession was passed to an elected member of the same extended family.
Wikipedia
Tanistry was a Gaelic system for passing on titles and lands. In this system the Tanist (; ; ) was the office of heir-apparent, or second-in-command, among the (royal) Gaelic patrilineal dynasties of Ireland, Scotland and Man, to succeed to the chieftainship or to the kingship.
Usage examples of "tanistry".
Llauron was elected Invoker by the rites of Tanistry, as you yourself were named his Tanist.
Scottish tradition of tanistry allows for much greater freedom of selection.
Her father had told her there were other men, most of them from northern Alba, who held tightly to the old tribal ways and believed that by the ancient Law of Tanistry not Duncan, but his cousin Macbeth, had the better right to be king.
Designated heir to the crown by his grandfather in an attempt to change the ancient Law of Tanistry, he ruled as King of Alba from 1034 to 1039.
The rightful king by the old Law of Tanistry, Macbeth represented the tribal and northern people of Alba, in contrast to Duncan and his family, who favored succession by direct inheritance and were affiliated by marriage and customs with the south and the much-hated English.
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.
That day has not yet come for you, because you must first win the tanistry and then the earldom of Catterstow.