tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85928443103559018592024-03-16T15:28:20.944-07:00History of the Scottish IlkAward-Winning Author of the Black Douglas TrilogyJ. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.comBlogger257125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-20447348035199084712024-03-16T14:32:00.000-07:002024-03-16T15:27:49.080-07:00Were Robert the Bruce and his captains fighting for freedom?<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Someone recently put it to me that Robert the Bruce and his captains were fighting for power, not for freedom. He commented that it was just something that Gibson put in Braveheart. Considering that Gibson got almost nothing right about William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, or the start of the Wars of Scottish Independence, I can understand that skepticism. Certainly, William Wallace did not go around screaming "Freedom!" while wearing blue face paint. But is it just possible that they were fighting for freedom? And if so, what did they mean by 'freedom'? (For that matter, what do we mean by it?)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Well there were certainly mentions of freedom in the writings of the time. The first I am aware of was in the Declaration of Arbroath written in 1320. The word is part of the most famous paragraph of that historic letter, written to Pope John XXII and signed by eight earls and forty barons. It made a profound argument for the recognition of Scotland's independence from English rule and Robert the Bruce as Scotland's lawful king.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It was written in Church Latin, as one would expect in a document to be presented to the pope, and contained one of the most quoted sentences in Scotland's history.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores
pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita
amittit. </i></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gySF4jv6w7PylszfDSdGmDPP-V2dt_UHO12vLihWXyfNHf9KmnR0t6M3VMh2lStClERk3WzCM88jccsB1Q743uQALDF6e1IrG7Tm-rr2ZbqalK65xVDjXyxj20j9-jR8WgS6okswUzG2TWfDUIR4H-T_lSBuK_-rdcujt1hX3KLHenQZtIpFxossW3fK/s1569/Declaration%20of%20Arbroath.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1569" data-original-width="1324" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3gySF4jv6w7PylszfDSdGmDPP-V2dt_UHO12vLihWXyfNHf9KmnR0t6M3VMh2lStClERk3WzCM88jccsB1Q743uQALDF6e1IrG7Tm-rr2ZbqalK65xVDjXyxj20j9-jR8WgS6okswUzG2TWfDUIR4H-T_lSBuK_-rdcujt1hX3KLHenQZtIpFxossW3fK/s320/Declaration%20of%20Arbroath.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Translated into English, it reads: It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom, for that alone which no honest man gives up but with life itself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There are other 14th century references to freedom.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Freedom is mentioned a number of times in the iconic narrative poem <i>The Brus</i> written by Johne Barbour in 1370 about four decades after King Roberts death, when some of his followers were still alive and had been spoken with Barbour, as he actually mentions in the poem. One of the best known references from Barour's work is on a plaque over where the king's heart where it is buried in Melrose Abbey. The plaque entwines a carving of a heart (which you also see on the Douglas coat of arms) with a Saltire, Scotland's national flag.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In the original Early Scots it reads: <span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;">"<i>A noble hart may have no ease, gif freedom faily</i>e.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;">"</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMeCd0gi8vnVSmSdQxKiCxSK7MQj_AHxgknFuAfNeMqH4z08EpKalwW1b9Wq2izOX8I_b7icpu1PZDXh777AI6oCu0Y9KjX1iXqVPjvomT6PqN72BF33ANvykd_mLfFn_NMessZOVgeNiziWmd6aOr6pzz2vhq-_IMLW2hXH_3tEBr_Z7N8WoaMZj4ZVKI/s355/Plaque%20over%20Robert%20the%20Bruce's%20heart.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="355" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMeCd0gi8vnVSmSdQxKiCxSK7MQj_AHxgknFuAfNeMqH4z08EpKalwW1b9Wq2izOX8I_b7icpu1PZDXh777AI6oCu0Y9KjX1iXqVPjvomT6PqN72BF33ANvykd_mLfFn_NMessZOVgeNiziWmd6aOr6pzz2vhq-_IMLW2hXH_3tEBr_Z7N8WoaMZj4ZVKI/s320/Plaque%20over%20Robert%20the%20Bruce's%20heart.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Translated, this reads: "A noble heart shall have no ease if freedom fails." </span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">However, that is only one line of Johne Barbour's paean to freedom.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Because of its length I will only include my own translation into English, but you can find it in the original Early Scots<a href="https://englishverse.com/poems/freedom" target="_blank"> here</a>.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Ah! Freedom is a noble thing.</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Freedom gives man happiness,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Freedom all solace to man gives.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">He lives at ease who freely lives.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">A noble heart may have no ease,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Nor nought that may him please,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">If freedom fail; for freedom to please oneself</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Is loved above all other things. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">No, he who has ever lived free</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Can not well perceive the nature,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">The affliction, no, the miserable woe</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">That is coupled to foul servitude.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">But if he had put it to the proof</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Then he would learn it all by heart,</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">And would think freedom more to prize</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #111111; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">Than all the gold in the world there is.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">(This translation is my own work, so any errors are totally on me. If you believe you have a correction, please let me know.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Thus, Barbour expressed pretty clearly what he thought freedom was, at least in part, the ability to please oneself or do as one pleases, although he certainly also believed in duty to lord and monarch. Probably like most of us who have duty to family and bosses as well as nations to which we are loyal, he and other medieval Scots had a somewhat confused definition of the word. But whatever they believed it was, freedom was a concept many must have fought and died for.</span></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-29583826684146483212024-03-02T16:40:00.000-08:002024-03-06T11:17:10.572-08:00The Bonnie Earl o' Moray<p>I suppose that most of you are acquainted with this ballad. It is worth a look not only because it is a lovely ballad, a very old one at that, but also because it is based on a fascinating historical event.</p><p>For anyone who does not recall this song, here is my favorite performance by Old Blind Dogs.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hq3rHTM_DTw" width="320" youtube-src-id="Hq3rHTM_DTw"></iframe></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>The bonnie Earl o' Moray (yes, it is pronounced like Murray but is not the same thing 😜) was James Stewart, Lord of Doune and 2nd Earl of Moray in that creation, a direct descendant of King Robert the Bruce and distant cousin of the current King of Scots, James VI. As was so often the case in the midst of the Reformation, politics were complicated and too very often bloody. They were when another Stewart, the illegitimate son of King James V and a fervent Protestant and former regent for James VI, was assassinated in 1570 in the street by a carbine shot from a window - possibly the first political assassination by gunfire.</p><p>King James gifted young James with wardship of the deceased earl's two daughters and the right to marry one of them. (Are you getting confused by all the Jameses? Have pity on a poor author who has to deal with all the men in a historical novel having the same first name.) This set off some criticism because the Lords of Doune were much lower in status than the earls of Moray. It certainly indicates that he was on good terms, possibly even close, to his monarch.</p><p>James decided to marry the older daughter and thus became Earl of Moray <i>jure uxuris</i>. The two married on 31 January 1581 in Fife with much of the nobility of Scotland in attendance, including King James. Afterwards was a huge celebration that included jousting. No doubt James rode at the ring as is mentioned in the song, a form of jousting that takes considerable skill. A jouster gallops full tilt and must put the tip of his lance through small rings. You can easily image this was not an easy thing to do on a galloping horse.</p><p>Moray then moved the elaborate celebration to Leith where he set up a large water pageant on the water of the Leith. It culminated with a mock attack on a re-creation he had built of a papal castle. Showing one's anti-Catholic feelings was important in the Scottish court of the very Protestant King James. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhkqTg_6L0Z4fvOMBPV583fCa5xUlLC7SMGqWmP6obh3coF8Kvip15qEnI_p1yJbyw3xz9kFyKOobwAq1o8GG-Wy5UqsbJW5oKwbgydGnAPS17kZmt7hC9W9TKyzr2pQbvSIOfijPMOex6Lqp2YJ63SXNIQyl4fQd-nsKqosF9PAGTvuEHix4YaB95O3rH/s2048/James%20VI.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1415" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhkqTg_6L0Z4fvOMBPV583fCa5xUlLC7SMGqWmP6obh3coF8Kvip15qEnI_p1yJbyw3xz9kFyKOobwAq1o8GG-Wy5UqsbJW5oKwbgydGnAPS17kZmt7hC9W9TKyzr2pQbvSIOfijPMOex6Lqp2YJ63SXNIQyl4fQd-nsKqosF9PAGTvuEHix4YaB95O3rH/s320/James%20VI.jpg" width="221" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">King James VI of Scotland<br />(later King James I of England)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Things seemed to be going along swimmingly for the quite ambitious bonnie young earl. In 1588, he was appointed a commissioner for executing the act against the Spanish armada, and in 1590, was commissioned to execute the acts against the Jesuits. He was, however, at odds with a powerful neighbor, George Gordon, Earl of Huntley, but his favor with the king seemed strong.</p><p>So how did it soon go so wrong? The song mentions that 'he was the Queen's true love'. Anne of Denmark and King James were married in 1589 when she was 14 years old. She did acquire a reputation, whether deserved or not, as being flighty and frivolous, but that a 14-year-old queen was given enough freedom to have an affair is highly unlikely. Nonetheless it is possible she showed some preference for him short of an affair. Possible, barely. Would that be enough to explain later events? I am a more than bit skeptical, especially since the Moray's own actions might explain it.</p><p>Enter stage left, Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell, one of his wife's cousins, scion of another illegitimate branch of the royal Stewarts. Bothwell had spent several years studying in Catholic nations of Europe and was openly a partisan of the recently executed Mary, Queen of Scots. It is possible in my opinion that he was always a secret Catholic. A quarrelsome man, he was involved in a number of fights and duels, at least one resulting in death.</p><p>It would take an entire lengthy blog post to set out his career, but to give the most relevant point, in 1591 Bothwell was accused of practicing witchcraft to call up storms to keep the new queen, Anne of Denmark, from reaching Scotland, which he of course denied. The king, who certainly believed in witchcraft, was furious, so Bothwell was soon an outlaw in hiding. Bothwell led a raid on Holyroodhouse trying to reach the king, probably to plead his cause but several of the king's men were killed. The king and his supporters believed it was an attempted assassination. The king himself led the pursuit of Bothwell which ended with the king being thrown from his horse and having to be rescued. </p><p>So this seems like is a very odd time for Moray to make an alliance with the outlaw nobleman, Francis Bothwell. However, Moray's disagreement with Huntley had degenerated into open warfare when Huntley besieged the home of John Grant of Freuchie, one of Moray's allies. Along with the Earl of Atholl, Moray attacked Huntley, broke the siege, and forced Huntley to retreat to Edinburgh. </p><p>Huntley had the ear of the king and when the king learned of an apparent alliance between Bothwell and Moray, he gave Huntley a commission to pursue them. Moray was tricked by an associate of Huntley's into believing that the king was willing to hear his arguments in his own defense. He started for Edinburgh. Believing that he would momentarily receive a summons from the king, Moray stopped at Donibristle, one of his formidable mother's estates. </p><p>At night, Huntley, who was lurking nearby with a force of his men, attacked the house. He set it afire. Moray did not immediately flee, but eventually he was forced to fight his way through the cordon of Huntley's men. He ran for the rocky shoreline hoping to hide, but the glow of the burning decorations on his helmet gave him away. Huntley pursued him and cut him down. </p><p>The next day Moray's mother, Margaret Campbell of Argyll, retrieved her 27-year-old son's body and that of the Sheriff of Moray who had also been killed in the attack. She took them to Edinburgh and confronted King James. He declared that he had not authorised the killings, but took no action against Huntley. She then had her son's hacked body put on display in the Church of St. Giles. The famous vendetta portrait she commissioned displays his many wounds. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjahBCGTvfNu9v71ICcrOXwco519AOjlklV9srBzWtMX2d3oCuKSqMGfX9nYQkYPBkCTlBBDoF6FFvQMn4Rp3y6FdJuxMnANlqZXqtSJFsoO1h2jZ9d4xq0LMmtpP1Owun4-sCaDr0Z58DoT0NZ1HtKLl4ElTKQcvRJaA_ezeuDhd1r8iaMTxmlHzMjsJOL/s791/BonnieEarlofMoray.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="791" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjahBCGTvfNu9v71ICcrOXwco519AOjlklV9srBzWtMX2d3oCuKSqMGfX9nYQkYPBkCTlBBDoF6FFvQMn4Rp3y6FdJuxMnANlqZXqtSJFsoO1h2jZ9d4xq0LMmtpP1Owun4-sCaDr0Z58DoT0NZ1HtKLl4ElTKQcvRJaA_ezeuDhd1r8iaMTxmlHzMjsJOL/s320/BonnieEarlofMoray.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vendetta portrait of the Bonnie Earl of Moray</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;">Popular opinion, as shown in the ballad, was very much against Huntley who fled to the north, and the king left for Glasgow. Only one of Huntley's followers, a Captain Gordon, was tried and executed. It was no doubt lucky for Huntley that Margaret Campbell died soon after. She would not have been satisfied with the tap on the wrist, not even a slap, that Huntley received which was a week's stay in Blackness Castle until he agreed to give himself up if the king ever had the murder brought to trial. </p><p style="text-align: left;">King James never did.</p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-660288620952579762024-02-17T13:41:00.000-08:002024-02-23T10:58:31.957-08:00William the Rough and the Lion of Scotland<p><span style="font-family: arial;">King William I is no doubt best known for adopting Scotland's royal Lion Rampant banner, hence his sobriquet 'the Lion'. He was not called that during his lifetime, however, but rather Garbh, 'the Rough'. His reign definitely had its ups and downs, and whether 'the Lion' is appropriate or not is open to question.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">There is no clear evidence when William first used the lion rampant as a banner, but it was in used before his son Alexander inherited the throne. It was Alexander who added the fleur de lis border. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt0gXFLsu7PKNfDA8KdBiCutR9BTC-srOIfFLJpVUlDQvBVoCcWamAS4Qv4wNuNekcMcyeS68aGXcO1v-Egs9UtFW6WVrgcoc4alQEj5VGn2OUJfbEkeiZDWuUbqZSHq5UbrIoNRhZ2Mc7yWzu9OBon4Jjl5mvL34p2M95TJo2F2BJCtCiMuyNloDZBCn/s217/Lion%20Rampant.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="145" data-original-width="217" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt0gXFLsu7PKNfDA8KdBiCutR9BTC-srOIfFLJpVUlDQvBVoCcWamAS4Qv4wNuNekcMcyeS68aGXcO1v-Egs9UtFW6WVrgcoc4alQEj5VGn2OUJfbEkeiZDWuUbqZSHq5UbrIoNRhZ2Mc7yWzu9OBon4Jjl5mvL34p2M95TJo2F2BJCtCiMuyNloDZBCn/s1600/Lion%20Rampant.png" width="217" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The royal Lion Rampant Banner</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Born in 1142, he was the younger grandson of King David I. His father, Henry, Earl of Huntingdon and Northumbria. Those earldoms were attached to the Scottish crown at the time, gifts from King David's brother-in-Law, England's King Henry I. Earl Henry<span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"> </span>died when William was ten years old. William inherited the earldoms, a very rich prize indeed, leaving his religious and sickly older brother, Malcolm as heir to the throne of Scotland.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Malcolm inherited from their grandfather in 1153, but soon died in 1165 at the age of 24. Now young William was both King of Scots and Earl of the profitable earldoms of Huntingdon and Northumbria. He granted the earldoms to his younger brother, David (the direct ancestor through his daughter of King Robert the Bruce). William had a perfectly legitimate claim to the earldoms but it so infuriated Henry that even the slightest mention of him threw Henry into one of his infamous furies. William attempted to meet with Henry in 1170 to patch up their badly deteriorated relationship, but Henry refused.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In 1173, three of Henry's sons, Henry (called the Young King), Richard, and Geoffrey along with their mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, rebelled against the king in Normandy which soon spread to England. Since the two kings were on such bad terms, it is not surprising William and his brother decided to join them, leading an army into England, and laying siege to Prudhoe Castle. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now we come to the 'he may not deserve the sobriquet' part.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">King Henry was in Normandy, fighting when the rebellion broke out in England, but he quickly returned. While Henry was in York doing penance for the murder of Thomas Becket quite some time previously, a force of some of Henry's supporters surprised William at night in camp, protected by only a small group of bodyguards. His army was spread out with the siege. William and his men quickly mounted and met the attackers. There is story that King William shouted, "Now we will see who is the better knight!" as he charged impetuously into the fray. Since Henry was not there for him to shout at and it was a surprise attack, I suggest taking the story with a whapping large grain of salt. At any rate, they took him prisoner. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In the aftermath, Henry readily defeated the English rebellion, dragging William about with him and then back to Normandy where he pretty quickly convinced his three sons to surrender and return to his service. In the meantime, he had William in chains in the imposing fortress of Chateau de Falaise. His sons and wife taken care of, Henry sent his army to occupy the southern part of Scotland including its five strongest castles, to which, its king imprisoned and far from his kingdom, Scots put up very little resistance. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmLopOm7sM_zpflDAp3QzP7NSpVo_Xx346msA5q1eZA9eTx5NP5FQ_dggRIM_ixA__emnVa0rvC5XtAbyHPx7SYJFXHvb09-bcY8wj8hOLaEuCcO5B-EIEFa5NcNUMrlZbtQVItA5M_xrZ7hHOPO7UGlBhSlIprfbdZIk-1OiALuEL8eGbTbyZXVZeu-z/s435/Chateau-falaise-calvados.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="435" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmLopOm7sM_zpflDAp3QzP7NSpVo_Xx346msA5q1eZA9eTx5NP5FQ_dggRIM_ixA__emnVa0rvC5XtAbyHPx7SYJFXHvb09-bcY8wj8hOLaEuCcO5B-EIEFa5NcNUMrlZbtQVItA5M_xrZ7hHOPO7UGlBhSlIprfbdZIk-1OiALuEL8eGbTbyZXVZeu-z/s320/Chateau-falaise-calvados.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Chateau de Falaise, Normandy</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Totally at King Henry's mercy, a man who had no fondness for him at all, after about six months of imprisonment, William agreed to the terms of the Treaty of Falaise. It is hard to say what was the worst part of the treaty. He accepted the English king as Scotland's overlord, agreed for the English to hold the castles they had seized, had to get Henry's permission to put down local rebellions, declared the church in Scotland under the authority of the English, gave up his claim to English earldoms, was forced to agree to send his son to England when he had one, and even had to agree for Henry to choose his own bride. It is difficult to imagine the extent and depth of the humiliation. The personal nature of some of it, such as choosing William's bride, seems to indicate personal hatred on the part of King Henry.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">As you can well imagine this caused a lot of problems for William in Scotland and causes later generations to question whether he deserved the nickname of 'the Lion'. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">However, now we come to the part where he may deserve the name.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Galloway, Moray and Ross all almost immediately saw uprisings. William and his brother David personally led the response to the rebellion in Easter Ross. The rebellion in the north was put down, started up again and was once more put down. With the aim of enforcing the peace, they built a castle on the Black Isle and another and another at Dunkeath. In the meantime, he had a castle built at Dundee to contain the Galloway rebellion. He was also appealing to the pope to overturn the English control of the church in Scotland. He finally achieved a papal bull overturning that part of the treaty by the pope issuing a bull in 1184.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">In July 1189, King Henry II died to be succeeded by his son Richard, later referred to as the Lionheart. And unlike the very hostile King Henry, Richard and William had a good relationship thanks to William having sided with him in the Rebellion of 1173. Richard was also in serious need of money and money was something that William had. (The belief that Scotland was always an indigent nation is false which I will discuss another time)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Richard was eager to leave on his planned crusade, so he was happy to agree to nullify the Treaty of Falaise, including the Scotland's subservience to the Engli<span style="color: #202122;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">sh king, for a payment of 10,000 marks.</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">The main issue that remained was the Northumbria earldom that William believed still belonged to Scotland by right, but because William wanted the castles as well as the lands and title, Richard refused to sell it back.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">William then led several campaign to Caithness and Southerland in the far north of Scotland, bringing them under the Scottish crown for the first time. He achieved finally putting down rebellion in Galloway and Easter Ross. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">His other achievements were substantial as well. He increased Scotland's growing trade, largely with the Hanseatic League, clarified Scottish laws, and increased the number of burghs. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">By the time of his death, had there been made a map of Scotland, it would have been near to the Scotland we see on the map today for the first time in history, not a minor achievement.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">William the Lion, whether a lion or not, in my view was a successful king - even with the pretty substantial 'down' part of his reign. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-16454807127108438522024-01-27T23:13:00.000-08:002024-01-28T07:09:22.532-08:00Scotland and the Knights Templar<p class="MsoNormal">First, I apologize for my several months' absence. I won't go
into health issues, but there have been several. Happily, they were not life
threatening but did give me a bit of a kicking. But enough about that. Back to
the Knights Templar...<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">At the Council of
Clermons in 1095, Pope Urban II called for the mobilization of Christians to invade
the Levant and retake Jerusalem, which had been held by the Muslims since 638.
This began the First Crusade. There was a huge reaction all across Europe. Some
entire families joined in the vast army that marched for Constantinople. Much
of the crusade was a horrific mess with thousands of crusaders dying of
starvation at the siege of Antioch. The culmination was the attack on Jerusalem
which combined bizarre fanaticism such as Peter Desiderius claiming to have a
vision revealing that if they fasted and then marched barefoot around the city
that Jerusalem would fall with interesting medieval strategy and viciousness. Of course, what took the city was when the leaders
finally organized a concerted attack, including siege machines. They took
Jerusalem in July 1099. Every contemporary chronicle states that the slaughter
that followed was of nearly every man, woman, and child in the city. Later
historians claim it was exaggerated. I suspect the people who were there knew
what happened. And if anyone is astonished that the decades that followed were a quagmire of infighting between royal factions and often murderous intrigue, they need to
take a look at the history of Europe.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was in this state of affairs that the Knights Templar
were established in 1118. Hughes de Payen with 8 companions took it upon
themselves to found the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of
Solomon. De Payen proclaimed it their duty to protect the route to Jerusalem
for Christian pilgrims. A decade later, they were officially accepted as a
religious order. And this is an important point. Many people do not grasp that
the Templars were exactly that: a religious order sworn to chastity and
obedience. They were even forbidden to enter a home in which there was a woman to
avoid temptation. (Always obeyed? Probably not always, but I would not
exaggerate that. Certainly, the wild charges worshiping idols, devil worship, spitting on the cross, along with some less improbable homosexuality etc. were mostly nonsense
made up by the French king to justify his destruction of the order.)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Templars were very quickly introduced into Scotland. In 1124
Hughes de Payen visited Scotland and was received by King David I. King David made
the Templars welcome, as did all kings across Europe. Their first preceptory, the land probably a gift from King David, was near Midlothian, and called Balantrodoch. A second preceptory was later
established and much property across Scotland came into their hands. They certainly had lands in East Lothian, Falkirk, Midlothian
and Glasgow. They had some status at the Scottish court as the head of the
order in Scotland was the king's almoner (in charge of distributing alms to the
poor), but that was not a particularly influential post. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQvGcVxDTFZeZDiRf29PzwprAItvR64eNGNOdQhbLpY6IJgh2zoqAWMev62qNfeOmi5vfF1pWit-lXq5m4X768VVHnW_TyDIWC6i1VYzH9XQU9O9LqHf_w9UQtBcIrHR0_EpuFZSYQga_gl2U5bBm5VLmiimVe92qrUyQj62JPfhv4ZWgX0Edt-YvmLzA/s1300/Templechurch-wyrdlight.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1300" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRQvGcVxDTFZeZDiRf29PzwprAItvR64eNGNOdQhbLpY6IJgh2zoqAWMev62qNfeOmi5vfF1pWit-lXq5m4X768VVHnW_TyDIWC6i1VYzH9XQU9O9LqHf_w9UQtBcIrHR0_EpuFZSYQga_gl2U5bBm5VLmiimVe92qrUyQj62JPfhv4ZWgX0Edt-YvmLzA/s320/Templechurch-wyrdlight.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Temple Church, Midlothian </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal">The head of the Scottish preceptories were English members
of the order, however, that does not mean that all knights at the preceptories
were English. I have seen it claimed that there were no Scottish Knights
Templar, but the idea that the Templars spend nearly two hundred years with a
presence in Scotland and never gained a single member stretches credibility. It
is in fact is false. Their main purpose was recruiting manpower for the defence
of the Holy Land. It would have been a major failure had they not done so.
However, Scotland had a small population so probably there were not many.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 1302 a Scottish Templar called Richard Scoti was recorded
as visiting the house of the Temple in Paris. In 1309, when Templars in England
were being arrested for trial, one of the Templars arrested was Robert le
Scot. Another Templar, Thomas Scot, managed to flee before he could be seized.
Since only a very few Templar records survive in Scotland, how many others
there may have been is impossible to know. As I mentioned, Scotland's
relatively small population would probably make the number few. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Things changed drastically in 1296. The Knights
Templar in Scotland under their English preceptor claimed they were subject to
the master in England who was subject to the master in France. He in turn was
subject to the master in Cyprus. So when active war broke out between England
and Scotland, the Templars in Scotland along with the Scottish Hospitallers
sided with England. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">When in February 1306 Robert the Bruce, soon to be King of
Scots, killed John Comyn in the chapel of Greyfriars Monastery, he was promptly
excommunicated by the pope. This would of course even further cement the two
military orders to the side of the English, but in France charges were already
being discussed against the Templars. At first Pope Clement seemed to side with
the Templars, dismissing the charges as false which most of them no doubt were.
Certainly, King Philip of France was deeply in debt to the Templars. On Friday
the 13th, 1307, King Philip ordered the arrest of scores of Templars in Paris.
They were tortured and many confessed to the improbable charges. Eventually in November 1307 the pope
gave into King Philip's pressure, ordering every king in Europe to arrest all
Templars and seize their assets. </p><p class="MsoNormal">However, Robert the Bruce was excommunicated and the
kingdom of Scotland under interdict. The pope's writ did not run in Scotland.
Scottish bishops had declared that because the pope had been deceived by the
English that Scots could ignore the excommunication, which most did. Church
life continued as it always had, at least in areas not conquered by the
English.</p><p class="MsoNormal">What did that mean for Templars in Scotland? Well, much of
Scotland was in English hands so several, including the English head of the
Scottish preceptory, were arrested and tried in England. No Scots were arrested in Scotland which might mean that there
were no Scottish Templars in Scotland at the time. A more likely explanation to
my mind is that any Scottish Templars took advantage of the fact that Robert the
Bruce was unlikely to arrest them. Although Bishop Lamberton could have held
trials, no trials took place in Scotland.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In the meantime in Europe, especially France, those Templars
not yet arrested were fleeing. There have always been rumors, both in Scotland
and France, that some went to Scotland where neither the pope nor the French
king could lay hands on them. True? It is certainly possible. It would be the
only place they could possibly flee. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Might some have fought at the Battle of
Bannockburn? This is also a longstanding rumor. Again, that is possible, but they definitely did not fight as a
separate division. The divisions that fought on the Scottish side are well
known, but some individual Templars could have fought with one of the divisions which were led by King Robert, Edward de Bruce, Thomas Randolph, and and jointly by James Douglas and young Walter Stewart. </p><p class="MsoNormal">In the rest of Europe, the leaders of the Templars met
grisly ends. Grand Master Jacques de Molay retracted the confession that had
been obtained under torture and was burnt at the stake, dying as he rained down
curses on King Philip and Pope Clement. Geoffroi de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy, also repudiated his confession and was burnt at the
stake.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Trials were held all across Europe except in Scotland, however,
few former Templars other than their leaders were convicted. Most were eventually released (after a no
doubt charming stay in a medieval dungeon) and assimilated into other orders,
mainly the Knights Hospitaller.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Scottish Knights Hospitaller after the Battle of Bannockburn
decided they were not nearly as fond of the English as they had thought and
shortly came into King Robert's peace. Were some of their members former
Templars? I consider that very likely as they took in Templars in other kingdoms as well as receiving the Templar's properties. At any rate, the Hospitallers came to be a powerful presence in Scotland and influential in the Scottish royal court, free of being headed by an English
master.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><p class="MsoNormal">And is there Templar treasure hidden somewhere in Scotland?
While I remain skeptical, it seems that much of the Templar riches were not
accounted for, so it is not impossible.<o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-78886032001762146132023-10-03T13:23:00.010-07:002023-10-05T13:29:17.400-07:00Scotland and the Crusades<p>Because of the huge interest and emphasis on the centuries of war between England and Scotland, that Scotland was part of the larger community of Europe tends to be overlooked. In fact, Scots were involved in European affairs and Scots took part in the crusades. </p><p>The First Crusade was called by Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. There are references to Scots being amongst the crusaders, but no specific names have survived so it is impossible to tell how many or who took part. After the end of that crusade, most crusaders naturally returned home, leaving the captured Jerusalem and lands known at the time as the Levant short of defenders, leading to the foundation of the military orders of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller. </p><p>In 1198, Hugh de Payens, founder and master of the Knights Templar, arrived in Scotland and met with King David I. That meeting went so well, although there are no records of details, that the Scottish King gave the Templars their liberties of Scotland and land for their first Scottish preceptory (the word used for a monastery of the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller) at what is now Temple in Midlothian.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZtrIpvDFyRbRNm0mxKLBTL9dDrfSEPtZtJTIU4heNKUK1d5KvsmIDtGrgLIEZ2NPltkfkZk9UBHGImlQbj_HYLaoC7p8_ag1EGgxSqM5yuNRzcMdpbx_W0lxwKvU9Y3hgqGs8sJAAiUUuVMZUHKK8UTqNUTnoCcpXybOFOSQ894dLhQXAXoLUJqbW7Eg2/s512/Hugh%20de%20Payens.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="394" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZtrIpvDFyRbRNm0mxKLBTL9dDrfSEPtZtJTIU4heNKUK1d5KvsmIDtGrgLIEZ2NPltkfkZk9UBHGImlQbj_HYLaoC7p8_ag1EGgxSqM5yuNRzcMdpbx_W0lxwKvU9Y3hgqGs8sJAAiUUuVMZUHKK8UTqNUTnoCcpXybOFOSQ894dLhQXAXoLUJqbW7Eg2/s320/Hugh%20de%20Payens.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>There they built one of their typical eight-sided churches. Unnamed Scottish knights then accompanied him on his unsuccessful attempt to capture Damascus the following year. By 1239 the Templars had founded a second preceptory at what is now Maryculter. </p><p>During the Ninth Crusade, led by the future King Edward I of England, we finally have names of Scots who took part led by the Earl of Atholl and included some of the most prominent names in Scottish history. It is a safe assumption that Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller from the Scottish preceptories were there as well. A main responsibility of the knights militant was recruiting members to fight, so without doubt there were at least a few Scottish Templars. The Stewarts and Balliols took part in that crusade. Robert de Bruce, the Competitor, and his son Robert, Lord of Annandale and (through his wife) Earl of Carrick, did as well. </p><p>The widely told story that Marjorie of Carrick held him prisoner to force Robert de Bruce (King Robert's father) to marry her when he brought her word of her husband's death at the fall of Acre is certainly apocryphal as they married before that city's fall. However there are clear records that he did take part in the Crusade. </p><p>The fall of the Templars came in the middle of the Scottish Wars of Independence and I will write about them and their part in Scotland next time. </p><p>After the fall of Acre and the loss of the entire Levant, popes continually called for another crusade, but none happened to recover it. The European nations were too busy fighting each other to mount another crusade to distant lands, but that was not the end of Crusading. Any war against non-Christians or heretics was called a crusade and there again Scots took part.</p><p>Thus when James, Lord of Douglas, carried the heart of Robert the Bruce onto the battlefield fighting the Moors in Grenada, he was following his orders to carry it on crusade. He fell in battle near Teba where a monument to him has been erected.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANW9EvR0BtkoauCysrvJap0QIEXBVa6wkyt8gubbgQg_ltQFEVvnc1EfbBVYstHr4HpWShx8TK9x979x8PgLhjDsLI_t3TEyTgrrwncFSMlvcpPMAHdtKj4lcYWmoq01O2Nb64AF6BTYluyN9dMyZBsZCBVFeUaax2CuKsKeNHp0lc19EmdNWabPWtm2-/s1600/James_Douglas_-_memorial_plaque_in_Teba,_Andalucia.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhANW9EvR0BtkoauCysrvJap0QIEXBVa6wkyt8gubbgQg_ltQFEVvnc1EfbBVYstHr4HpWShx8TK9x979x8PgLhjDsLI_t3TEyTgrrwncFSMlvcpPMAHdtKj4lcYWmoq01O2Nb64AF6BTYluyN9dMyZBsZCBVFeUaax2CuKsKeNHp0lc19EmdNWabPWtm2-/s320/James_Douglas_-_memorial_plaque_in_Teba,_Andalucia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Diana Beach.</p><p>During periods when Scots could not prove their mettle against the English and there were no more crusades to the Levant, many joined in the Baltic Crusades against Baltic non-Christians. Though rarely discussed, they were every bit as violent and harsh as the crusades in the Levant. The last of the Baltic Crusades was the Teutonic Knights against the Lithuanians which lasted until 1410 in which a number of Scots took part. In 1391 William Douglas, Lord of Nithsdale, illegitimate son of the Earl of Douglas, set off with his companion Robert Stewart of Durisdeer. Douglas was assassinated by the English in Danzig. In gratitude for the efforts of the Douglases, the burgh added the Douglas coat of arms to the High Gate. Such was the end of Scotland's part in crusading.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-21530614756508395742023-09-15T10:19:00.004-07:002023-09-21T09:57:53.212-07:00Just where did the Douglases come from? <p> By the time of the death of King Robert the Bruce, his great captain, James, the Black Douglas, was one of the most powerful and richest men in Scotland. But even in James' father's time they were neither rich nor particularly powerful, and it is an good question where they came from and how they ended up so powerful they were seen as a threat to the monarch.</p><p>Like a great many medieval families, the surname Douglas was originally a place name and title. It came from the river Douglas. In Scots Gaelic 'dubh' means black or dark and glas means grey-green. Near the banks of that river the first of the Douglases known to history, named not surprisingly William of Douglas, built his castle and took the name as a title. But where did he come from? </p><p>It is notable that the Douglas escutcheon and that of the very important Murrays are nearly identical, three white stars on a blue band. (In heraldry azure, three mullets argent) That has led to speculation that the two families were related, but speculation is not necessary. In 1362 when Archibald the Grim was preparing to marry the Murray heiress, he had to send to the pope for a dispensation because they were related within six generations which confirms that they were related. It is known exactly where the Murrays, or Morays as they were known earlier, came from. They were originally Flemish and fought as mercenaries for King David I in his war to claim the crown of Scotland. He rewarded them with lands and they became an important family in the Scottish court. </p><p>I think we can safely conclude that the Douglases were a cadet branch of the Murrays. It is likely that William of Douglas set off to build his own power base. He signed various charters as a witness between 1175 and 1215, so he is firmly placed in history.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvw3IYsAiyQUg78s2horKpLkKrt2KA8loOhlYzJgSyGFRe5HdRnFLP3FU22dgKl_hVu4c5bqiYLOM5ycHnpp-pYI2lzjMVBTw86BrzcZLJRT8GolUeu4Avm1c0ALy-mGBTXYJ7RviAuCjgbTVw_JwE6TQ0gZjXe2qOiSnv9vJYKw4ZZOpTrMb_eTBYNLz/s743/Ancient%20Douglas%20Coat%20of%20Arms.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="743" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNvw3IYsAiyQUg78s2horKpLkKrt2KA8loOhlYzJgSyGFRe5HdRnFLP3FU22dgKl_hVu4c5bqiYLOM5ycHnpp-pYI2lzjMVBTw86BrzcZLJRT8GolUeu4Avm1c0ALy-mGBTXYJ7RviAuCjgbTVw_JwE6TQ0gZjXe2qOiSnv9vJYKw4ZZOpTrMb_eTBYNLz/s320/Ancient%20Douglas%20Coat%20of%20Arms.png" width="276" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>However, they had neither their relatives wealth or status, and were not of great significance on the national stage. They worked to build their power base, which was land in medieval Scotland, but little is heard of them. In 1263, William of Douglas, known by the sobriquet 'Longlegs', fought for the Scots at the Battle of Largs, in 1263, a battle between the Norwegian army and the Scots which the young Scottish king Alexander III won. It would surprise many that Scotland was at peace with England but fighting the King of Norway who wanted to claim western Scotland. </p><p>It was Longleg's son, yet another William of Douglas referred to as William le Hardi (William the Bold) who began the family's real climb to prominence. In 1270 and still in his twenties, he accompanied David, Earl of Atholl, and many other Scottish nobles on the Eighth Crusade. By 1289, the ambitious young man was styling himself Lord of Douglas, the first time that title was used. He had become important enough to marry Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of the High Stewart of Scotland. She died shortly after giving birth to James of Douglas, probably of complications of child birth.</p><p>At about that time King Alexander, after a long and successful reign, died when thrown from his horse. </p><p>William le Hardi was not a man to let the grass grow under his feet. Pretty shortly after his first wife's death, he laid siege to Castle Fa'side and kidnapped Eleanor, widow of William de Ferrers, a considerable landowner in both England and Scotland. The Scots arrested him but then released him, and the two were married. She obviously could have escaped his grasp while he was imprisoned so one must make of that what you will. At any rate, King Edward I of England was enraged as usual and demanded that William be turned over to him, a demand the Scottish guardians of the realm chose to ignore.</p><p>Sadly the long peace between England and Scotland was rapidly coming to an end. It was the mistake of the Scots to think that they could trust Edward of England. They should have taken his brutal conquest of Wales as an example but did not.</p><p>When King Alexander's last direct heir of his body, his granddaughter Margaret, died on her way to Scotland, there was no clear heir to the throne. The Scots asked King Edward to mediate between the several claimants, prominently Robert the Bruce, called the Competitor and grandfather of Scotland's hero king, and John of Comyn. Primogenitor had still only been loosely adopted in Scotland and laws of inheritance in Scotland differed from those in England. Because of later events, it is largely assumed that King Edward decided to declare John the king because he was a weakling. Edward may have believed that. Certainly, in Scottish tradition, which Edward ignored, Robert the Bruce had a better claim. He was closer by one generation to the late king.</p><p>Edward lost no time in trying to force King John and the Scots into subservience to him and his rule. He even overturned a ruling by a Scottish court and demanded that King John appear before him in England. John at first gave way, but the Scottish nobles forced him into defiance. Thus began the war. After the disastrous Battle of Dunbar in which thousands of Scots died and hundreds taken prisoner, King Edward stripped King John of the throne of Scotland and declared Scotland his personal possession by conquest.</p><p>It did not take long for rebellion to rise. Douglas's cousin in the north of Scotland, Andrew de Moray, son of the Lord of Petty, raised his banner in rebellion while in the south of Scotland, the more renowned William Wallace did the same. William the Hardi promptly joined with Wallace in fighting the English. He was twice taken prisoner. The second time, he died of maltreatment in the Tower of London, but the English had failed to gain possession of William's young son. James of Douglas was safely in France, but he soon joined the household of Bishop Lamberton as a squire. </p><p>When Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick, raised his banner and seized the throne, young James threw his lot in with the new king.</p><p>It was James who earned the title of Black Douglas and fought, side by side, through the long years of struggle and war with King Robert the Bruce. In that was richly rewarded with vast land holdings and powers as they pushed the English out of Scotland. King Robert on his deathbed tasked James with carrying his heart on crusade. James died doing so and ever since the Douglas escutcheon has shown a heart below the three stars. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0N-kcxI52rMyAyHt2tzYDCQFAUyBsUnYrj1BcRdXWvoLGBMK0cyVs-DK88by1lLr4biAGA1l0LRnFkJh6OBrRSQnGBpvAq3ZBvynLcWrWwRlWNM_D0kVQBBV_5aS9-T9BzKm_Q7OsR4ABOxMjDOWtDZ87R4-kixbuxhHJNoBkq690wzb-6IyKyWSZcPc/s235/William%20Lord%20of%20Douglas%20coat%20of%20arms.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="235" data-original-width="214" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK0N-kcxI52rMyAyHt2tzYDCQFAUyBsUnYrj1BcRdXWvoLGBMK0cyVs-DK88by1lLr4biAGA1l0LRnFkJh6OBrRSQnGBpvAq3ZBvynLcWrWwRlWNM_D0kVQBBV_5aS9-T9BzKm_Q7OsR4ABOxMjDOWtDZ87R4-kixbuxhHJNoBkq690wzb-6IyKyWSZcPc/s1600/William%20Lord%20of%20Douglas%20coat%20of%20arms.jpg" width="214" /></a></div><br /><p>Only three years after James's death, the English once again invaded Scotland, for a time pretending to do so on behalf of the son of the man they had stripped of the crown. James's only legitimate son, young William, died on the field as a squire to his uncle Archibald. Through forty more horrendous years of fighting, the Douglases led the fight for Scotland's freedom, but with great power and wealth too often comes arrogance. It was unweaning arrogance that was a few decades later their downfall.</p><p><br /></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-70950199725061695932023-08-02T09:48:00.004-07:002023-08-02T09:48:45.983-07:00One of Scotland's great heroines! Part 2<p>Agnes Reynolds, Countess of Dunbar, must have watched from the ramparts as William Montague, Earl of Salisbury's huge English army surged into view and formed a camp, cutting her off from aid. A woman of only about thirty who had spent most of her life in the midst of a desperate war, she knew what to expect. Of course, that did not prevent her defiance, but she had to wonder how long even her well-provisioned castle with a deep well within its thick walls could hold out. Her husband, Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and most of the Scottish army were in the north of Scotland. </p><p>Three years before under the leadership of Andrew Murray, the Scots had destroyed the army of David de Strathbogie, the chief lieutenant of the English in the north. Now even the walled city of Perth and Stirling Castle were in danger of falling if Salisbury did not lead his army to their relief. But first Dunbar Castle had to be taken. </p><p>The construction of trebuchets began. Then they flung massive rocks and even boulders. Day and night, they pounded the castle walls. However, bombarding Dunbar Castle was not an easy task. They could not be brought close enough to do maximum damage despite the size of the stones used. Some of those boulders the canny Agnes ordered saved for her own use. </p><p>The crashes of huge stones against the ramparts were constant. So were the taunts from Agnes as she sent her women to dust the castle's crenellations behind which her archers took potshots at the enemy. At one near miss, Salisbury is said to have quipped, "There comes one of my lady's cloak pins. Agnes's love shafts go straight to the heart."</p><p>After weeks of frustration at watching little damage from their bombardment, Salisbury ordered the construction of a battering ram, sometimes referred to as a 'sow'. Out of reach of her archers, his men hung the trunk of an ancient pine by chains from a slanted roof mounted on wheels. Fresh cow hides covered the roof.</p><p>As the English soldiers heaved beneath the protection of the roof and pushed it closer and closer to the castle's thick wooden gates, her archers shot fire arrows at it. They all sputtered out when they struck the damp hides. If the English broke through the gate, even her strong castle could not hold out. The sow must be destroyed!</p><p>There was still one last hope. That hope had been sent her by the English. Her men dragged and hauled the largest of the boulders that had been flung against her walls onto the ramparts above the gate. Agnes ordered them to hold until the sow was immediately beneath the gate and the first blow resounded. Then they shoved it off. It smashed the sow to splinters. The English attackers not killed fled, many falling to arrows from the walls as they ran.</p><p>Salisbury knew that there was more than one way to take a castle. Many castles had fallen to treachery. He managed to get word to one of Agnes's guardsmen that he would be well paid for leaving the gate open the following night. The guardsman agreed. He then revealed the plot to Agnes. When Salisbury led the sneak attack, he was also not stupid. He let his men go first. The portcullis crashed down and the earl barely escaped capture and Agnes called down, "Farewell, Montague, I mean for you to sup with me the night."</p><p>Salisbury was frustrated beyond words. No progress had been made, the costs were piling up, and the siege needed to end before Scottish winter set in. As it happened Agnes's brother, Thomas, Earl of Moray, had been taken by the English in an ambush three years previously. He was being held in the dungeon of Nottingham Castle, far to the south as they had wanted to take no chances on his being rescued. But needs must, so a message was sent hundreds of miles south and the prisoner dragged in chains to outside Dunbar. A gallows was constructed, a rope placed around Thomas's neck, and Agnes told that if she did not surrender that her brother would hang.</p><p>Agnes sent back the message that as her brother had no children that she was his heir. Hang him if you will, she declared, and I will profit. After a few days, Thomas was returned to Nottingham and his dungeon.</p><p>By June Dunbar still had not fallen, but supplies were growing desperately low. The eventual enemy of even the strongest castle was starvation. Agnes sneaked word that she needed aid to the one man who might be able to help. She knew she could count on Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie and she was right. He found a few small boats. With twoscore of his men, he sneaked by night past English ships that guarded the sea approach, reached the seaward gate, and brought ashore fresh supplies. The English saw the resupply effort going on and charged. Ramsay and his men chased the English back to their camp.</p><p>Shortly after, on June 10, 1338, Walter Montague, Earl of Salisbury, gave up and retreated to England having done nothing but expend a lot of English gold and make 'Black' Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar, into a heroine of legend. As the ballad puts into Salisbury's mouth, "Came I early or came I late, I found Agnes at the gate!"</p><p>(Postscript: I find it amusing that two years later Thomas Randolph was exchanged for that same earl of Salisbury who had himself been taken prisoner.)</p><p><br /></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-5101600489083748192023-07-12T17:36:00.003-07:002023-07-12T17:45:22.735-07:00Let's talk about kilts<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Or in the case of my novels, let's not, because
medieval Scots did not wear kilts. Yes, like almost everything else in <i>Braveheart</i>,
the kilts were wrong. Mel Gibson lied to you. Of course, those kilts were extra wrong since not only
did William Wallace not wear one, the one the characters in the movie wore were wrong
in size and drape besides that it was the wrong period. Scots, by the way, also had armor and hair combs. *sigh*</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Let me clarify the terms used regarding kilts and
what they are made of, which are what I use. A plaid was a piece of cloth,
usually of a tartan pattern, 4 to 5 yards long and 50 to 60 inches wide. Because
of the size of medieval looms, it took 2 pieces of cloth sewn together to make
one. It was often used as a cloak cast about the shoulders. It now refers to
the small cloth worn over the left shoulder when wearing a small kilt. Tartan
is a pattern of stripes running vertically and horizontally, resulting in
square grids. (I am not saying it is wrong to use other terms such as plaid for the pattern, but for
discussing kilts, I prefer to use the Scottish terms) </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The earliest piece of tartan found in Scotland was from the 3rd century AD so they predated the medieval period in Scotland and no doubt tartans were woven. However, they had absolutely no 'clan' association. That was an 18th century invention. It is safe to assume that the colors before that invention were those found in easily made dyes such as yellow from the very common gorse flower, blues from woad, and browns and whites from the natural colors of the wool.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Medieval lowland Scots seem mostly to have worn pretty
much the same clothes as the people of any other western or northern European nation, with
probably some regional variations because of availability. They probably used
plaids as cloaks, or that seems likely. Highlanders wore a knee-length tunic
called a léine which was also worn by the Irish and, of course, over this they
wore a plaid as a cloak. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr480zt6NIQQvsbo8_XpOeDbXn6nTSD3XvMLbLW-sGOlQn_RkXjJZlIQ-2BYNZVZYvQ-yp_xgQM0j-LrftzQHe8iCDMv5noKSI1SnjwyKoaMwtdLRhl4lU_Mc4qt_LJyDw_YCvNVbuYPT8LwLt_C43Hkx2L0A0zQYgY-88xgCEKz0qSx7PgnJj97E-gwna/s471/Leine.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="351" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr480zt6NIQQvsbo8_XpOeDbXn6nTSD3XvMLbLW-sGOlQn_RkXjJZlIQ-2BYNZVZYvQ-yp_xgQM0j-LrftzQHe8iCDMv5noKSI1SnjwyKoaMwtdLRhl4lU_Mc4qt_LJyDw_YCvNVbuYPT8LwLt_C43Hkx2L0A0zQYgY-88xgCEKz0qSx7PgnJj97E-gwna/s320/Leine.jpg" width="238" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">There are no references at all to Scots wearing kilts
until near the end of the 16th century, when there are descriptions of them
worn by Scottish mercenaries fighting in Ireland. The garment from the
description seems to have been the great kilt or feileadh mor which is what I
think Mel Gibson was trying for in <i>Braveheart</i>. It differed
vastly from the small kilt that is worn today as it has been for several
centuries. They seem to have worn a léine under the great kilt as a shirt. The
tail end of the kilt seems to have often been worn over the shoulder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">How the great kilt was put on is a matter of some
disagreement. There are stories that the material was laid out on the floor on
top of the belt, the pleats formed by hand, and then the wearer laid down and
fastened it around themselves. The problem with this is a practical one. Many
homes would not have a room large enough to lay out a cloth 5 yards long,
especially without removing the furniture. Another explanation which has no
evidence to back it up but sounds practical is that they had loops sewn inside
and were drawn up the much as a hoodie can be drawn up. The problem with that,
other than the lack of evidence, is that it would really not form pleats. So I
honestly do not know and anyone who says they know for sure is being economical
with the truth.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1024" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEiPq7fVT0l48MESmY5S9e0433nrGEmysBg1A6aWs9cGGBBOrsx9QyC-gwIDoqi9VGAThrrk-yLdRn5oCXt3-pJ4GkoHY79oykpS55Cdn5vjQfxckradeqU39Jn29fX-XFf2Gi_c1DQQzYW79pzEu8bilGdJ1SxMYZknvz-iYHuIMa1LLkWSqOasfCpp8/s320/Donning-the-Belted-Plaid-1024x725.jpg" width="320" /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The great kilt was amazingly functional. Even in the
midst of a Highland winter, that amount of wool cloth would keep you warm. It
had enough width to be draped to cover the entire leg and use as a hood to
protect the head, but it could also be draped higher so that it did not get wet
crossing streams and rivers. Much of the Highlands is marshy moorlands such as Rannoch Moor. If you wore clothing that covered your legs, you would go around with wet clothing. So both the </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">léine with a plaid or a great kilt are practical clothing. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Of course, you run into the usual stories about
people in earlier periods claiming they were never washed, which is nonsense and
would make it extremely uncomfortable to wear. Having clothing full of filth, as well as ticks, etc. was no more comfortable to people in the middle ages and early modern era than they are to us today.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What by far most kilt wearers now wear is a small
kilt. It did not come into use until around the start of the 18th century.
Essentially the small kilt is the bottom half of the great kilt and more
practical if you are wearing it for urban life. However, a small kilt contains
about 8 yards of material so it can be very, very hot in the summer. The separate
piece that goes over the shoulder is also called a plaid.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The other part of the history of the kilt is, of
course, its banning. After the Uprising of 1745, King George II banned the wearing of any
piece of traditional Highland dress, including the kilt, with the purpose of
destroying all traces of Highland culture. The penalties were severe: six
months' imprisonment for the first offense and transportation for the second. The only exceptions were military brigades such as the Black Watch and even they had to immediately take them off when they were not with their brigade. The ban was not lifted until thirty-five years later in 1782, by which time
severe damage had been done to the Highland way of life</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrK3RZFe8som5xET5MqlV9leQBTMAjtq7XYnFEMejyzIGNZzEvRUuoKfahYKDyQrLnYsTiMPQjMPHI8x9WKsXanpxlqfE8sEqNm_4fzDeerNvrk0vldwT0v-I9-2zZX_xJa594XnVlLOawu2PkNa4qZUMmQVrNerRKswWPJxfsz_oubcncR-OPF5j0qmC/s330/330px-The_British_Army_in_France_1939-40_O620.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="248" data-original-width="330" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDrK3RZFe8som5xET5MqlV9leQBTMAjtq7XYnFEMejyzIGNZzEvRUuoKfahYKDyQrLnYsTiMPQjMPHI8x9WKsXanpxlqfE8sEqNm_4fzDeerNvrk0vldwT0v-I9-2zZX_xJa594XnVlLOawu2PkNa4qZUMmQVrNerRKswWPJxfsz_oubcncR-OPF5j0qmC/s320/330px-The_British_Army_in_France_1939-40_O620.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">So the kilt has a very interesting history, but not much of it is medieval. I can sincerely promise that you will never find one in one of my medieval novels.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">I apologise for the delay in finishing the story the amazing Agnes, Countess of Dunbar and not posting at the first of the month. I have been swamped finishing my latest novel, but I will complete her story in my next post, at the first of August.</span></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-59537175282409430502023-06-18T13:21:00.005-07:002023-06-21T16:36:53.809-07:00One of Scotland's great heroines! Part 1<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">We should not be surprised that Agnes Randolph, Countess of Dunbar, often called Black Agnes because of her black hair and dark complexion, was a heroine. She was after all the daughter of one of Scotland's greatest heroes, Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, companion and nephew of King Robert the Bruce. There were many female heroes in medieval Scotland though, and she was one of them.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is some doubt when she was born since there is no record of it. Wikipedia says 1314, but I believe that is in error and that she was born four or five years previous to that. At any rate, she was one of four children of Sir Thomas and Isabel Stewart of Bonkyll.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Like all women of noble birth, one of her primary duties was to marry to establish an alliance or increase the family's wealth and power. The Randolphs, whose earldom covered a large swathe of Scotland north of the Firth, did not need more wealth or power. However, Sir Thomas wanted to tie the sometimes-fickle Patrick, 9th Earl of Dunbar more closely to the Scottish cause. After all, while supporting the English, the earl had given shelter to the fleeing King Edward II after the Battle of Bannockburn and aided in his escape to England. Many felt his loyalty was in doubt. Surely Randolph marrying his eldest daughter to him, a man at least three decades her elder, and thus tying him to the royal family would fix his loyalty. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, imagine her reaction when on 20 July 1332<span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"><span> her father suddenly died on the way to do battle against invading English-supported pretender to the throne of Scotland. Rumor had it, whether true or false, that her father was poisoned by supporters of the English.</span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With a child king and only, at best, second-rate or very inexperienced commanders left to protect Scotland from the invaders, it was not long before disaster struck at the Battle of Dupplin Moor at which her older brother was killed. A shocking loss of much of her family in a very short time. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus began the up and down fortunes of Scotland in the Second War of Scottish Independence. The pretender was chased from Scotland and then returned with a larger army, given him in payment for making Scotland his vassal state, a much larger army. A year later after the equally disastrous Battle of Halidon Hill, Earl Patrick surrendered the city of Berwick-upon-Tweed to the English and switched sides. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4d5156;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No one knows what Lady Agnes thought about this. Her remaining brother was one of the defenders of Scottish independence, after all. However, both her father and King Robert had supported the English in order to live to fight another day. Perhaps she was pragmatic. But her husband attended the Scottish parliament in 1334 which shamefully ceded Berwick, Dunbar, Roxburgh and Edinburgh Castles and all of Scotland's southern counties to England. At the least, it would have been a painful period.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">Earl Patrick's reward for switching sides was being forced to rebuilt at his own expense Castle Dunbar, only 20 miles from the English border, which had been slighted (torn down) at the orders of King Robert. It was then garrisoned by the English. Extended by passages onto rocks in the sea, Dunbar Castle had always been a formidable fortress. Now it was even more so. Not surprisingly at first the English garrisoned it and kept it for their but apparently confident that Earl Patrick had truly changed sides, they eventually returned to him. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4eSwB4L-cdlx8JpD2_eDtvKsF1-IuCbPT879kJyH3WbzjgrOu5zfoHTUeKghfXrE-sL6voO-zdpJQamWdzCzHPcqhdF2hVwqJSTsax7o5xa2B3zlqLs887gddjVN_8oE2YIm2WRbt5kdFcohC1cWB5oKsBM9koJB0wzmjRAmn2lU2iG-jnEtelB2S4A/s1144/Dunbar%20castleFromaPaintingbyAndrew.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="826" data-original-width="1144" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4eSwB4L-cdlx8JpD2_eDtvKsF1-IuCbPT879kJyH3WbzjgrOu5zfoHTUeKghfXrE-sL6voO-zdpJQamWdzCzHPcqhdF2hVwqJSTsax7o5xa2B3zlqLs887gddjVN_8oE2YIm2WRbt5kdFcohC1cWB5oKsBM9koJB0wzmjRAmn2lU2iG-jnEtelB2S4A/w400-h289/Dunbar%20castleFromaPaintingbyAndrew.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Image of Dunbar Castle from a painting by Andrew Spratt</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 1335, when he fought on the Scottish side at the Battle of <span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Boroughmuir along with his brother-in-law,</span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">the castle</span> had been returned. He was firmly on the side of the Scots where he remained for the rest of his life. I suspect Agnes always had been. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By 1338, the fight for independence was going much better for the Scots. North of the Firth, only Cupar Castle, Stirling Castle and the strongly fortified city of Perth remained in English hands. (Most of southern Scotland still was although under pressure from Scottish guerilla tactics.) Dunbar Castle was the southernmost Scottish castle.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The English had no intention of sitting back and allowing their newly conquered nation to be reclaimed by the Scots. In December of 1337 at King Edward's command, William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, raised a large army to take relief to the remaining northern strongholds in English hands. First they must take Dunbar Castle which they dare not leave at their back. So on 13 January 1338, he laid siege.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps Montagu thought because it was held by a woman that taking Dunbar would be an easy task. If so, he was wrong. He demanded the castle's surrender, assuring her that she would be well treated. She had an unequivocal response. The exact words may be apocryphal. The sentiment is not.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of Scotland's King I haud my house, </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">I pay him meat and fee, </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">And I will keep my gude auld house, </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">while my house will keep me.</span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And so began the famous siege of Dunbar Castle.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-54751837051102626302023-06-03T19:23:00.006-07:002023-06-10T16:17:46.791-07:00Did the Normans ever conquer Scotland? Part II<p class="MsoNormal">First, I apologise for being a few days late with this post.
I misjudged and was overwhelmed with other commitments. I know better, but that
does not mean I always do better. <span face=""Segoe UI Emoji",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Emoji";">🤦♀️</span> <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">So, back to what is often called the Normanisation of
Scotland, which I believe has often been (and still is, at times) exaggerated.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 1102, King Henry's brother, Robert, Duke of Normandy,
disputed Henry's right to the throne of England. They were saved from open war
through negotiations by Bishop Flambard. Henry then set out to punish anyone he
felt had not been sufficiently loyal during his dispute with his brother and
eventually accused his brother of violating their agreement. Normandy slid into
chaos. In July 1106, Henry invaded Normandy. At the Battle of Tinchebray, Henry
took his brother prisoner and became de facto Duke of Normandy, although he did
not use the title. The King of France reacted by raising an army, and Henry was
very busy dealing with the threats on the continent.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>All of this would have had little to do with David, except
David's older brother, King Edgar, died in 1107. The next older brother,
Alexander, took the throne. David's relations with Alexander were pretty
obviously bad since now King Alexander refused to allow David to claim his
lands in the south of Scotland. Whether it was because Alexander thought it
would make David too powerful or for some other reason is unclear. (I would go
with a fear that David would be too powerful. What happened between Henry and
Robert is a case study of the problems with a powerful brother).</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It was not until Henry returned to England in 1113 that
David could claim his Scottish lands. Though there was no open aggression on
either side, there is no doubt David had to use threats to do so.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">David married Matilda of Huntingdon, daughter and heiress of
the Earl of Northumberland, in 1113, with King Henry's approval. That brought
with it the extremely rich Honour of Huntingdon, making David a very wealthy
and powerful man. He even named their son Henry out of gratitude to the English
king. David was also now in a position to gift lands and power to his many
young Norman followers, which he he began to do. Even after Queen Matilda died
in 1118, David and King Henry remained good friends, and he kept the king's
favour.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Then in 1124, Scotland's King Alexander died.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Scotland did not use Norman rules of primogeniture. Other
claimants to the throne had as good a claim as David, perhaps even better, the
main one being Máel Coluim, David's nephew, son of King Alexander. But David's
father had been king, and he had every intention of claiming a throne he
considered his. So the other claimants had the choice of accepting him or
accepting war with him and with his Norman friends. Máel Coluim chose war.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">After two battles, the defeated Máel Coluim retreated into the vastness
of the Highlands, and in April or May, David was crowned King of Scots on the
Moot Hill in Scone. However, Máel Coluim continued to fight for the throne, and
in 1130, Máel Coluim led a general uprising against David, a very serious one.
It included David's most powerful vassal, the sub-king of Moray.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">This was when David called for the full support of all of
his Norman friends. King Henry sent a large army and a large fleet to support
him in rooting out the rebels. There were four years of all-out war until Máel
Coluim was captured and imprisoned in Roxburgh Castle, after which no more was
heard of him. Now David had friends to support and owed them a great debt. He
repaid this debt by granting them lands and titles.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>This brought Scotland further into a
European model of governance. It did not sweep away Scottish and Gaelic customs or noble
families as the Norman conquest did in England. The ruling family remained the very Scottish
House of Dunkeld. It did not import the Norman custom of serfdom. The lower
levels of Scots remained freemen, and the freeholders of Scotland remained a large and potent force, one of the major forces that a century later would fight
fiercely against English conquest. Nor did Scotland adopt the legal ownership
by the king of all the land. All these factors made the situation in Scotland very different than that in England, where native Anglo-Saxons lost their titles and lands, and the lower classes almost universally were forced into serfdom.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">What was adopted with considerable enthusiasm was military
feudalism. Castle-building, the use of knights as cavalry, and homage and
fealty between king and nobles became the norm. These fit well into existing
Scottish attitudes and customs. However, despite the enthusiasm, infantry, wielding spears in schiltrons, remained Scotland's main military tactic, demonstrating how the two cultures came to mix. Along with this, of course, were Norman
incomers, not as conquerors but as invited members of the society, who quickly
married into existing Scottish nobility so that the upper classes soon became largely Scoto-Normans. As one would expect, this led to a multi-lingual
society where most nobility spoke Scots and Norman French and, especially in
the Highlands, Gaelic.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Thus, it was that in 1296, when commanded to attack
Douglasdale by the English king, Robert the Bruce, Earl of Carrick, of both Scottish and Norman
heritage, would proclaim before joining the Scottish rebellion, "No man holds his own flesh and blood in hatred,
and I am no exception. I must join my own people and the nation in which I was
born."</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-68534987381882684712023-05-16T13:26:00.005-07:002023-05-17T12:57:47.327-07:00Did the Normans ever conquer Scotland? Part I<p> Short answer: No.</p><p>But there is another longer, more complicated answer about how and why so many people of Norman ancestry ended up in Scotland and as Scottish nobility. But first, let us deal with the complicated part. </p><p>We have to go back to King Malcolm III<span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-size: 14px;">, who ruled after King Macbeth. He</span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </i>and his second wife, Margaret of Wessex, daughter of Edgar Ætheling and better known as Saint Margaret of Scotland, were firmly on the throne of Scotland in 1093. Whether or not their marriage was a love match, and there are hints that it might have been, it was a long and seemingly happy one. Malcolm had a son with his first wife, but he and Margaret had seven children. </p><p>Then it ended in horrible tragedy.</p><p>After some initial hostilities, King Malcolm made a lasting peace treaty with King William, who had recently conquered England. However, when King William died, his son and heir to the English throne, William Rufus, tried to seize Cumbia, which his father had granted to the Scottish king. William gathered his army, including two of his sons, Edward and Edgar, and marched on England. Ambushed by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northumbria, the Scots suffered a crushing defeat. King Malcolm and Edward were killed in battle. </p><p>Edgar escaped the slaughter to carry the news home to his mother at Edinburgh Castle. Queen Margaret died a few days later of grief. </p><p>Shortly after the queen's death, their uncle, Donald III, attacked Edinburgh. He forced the brothers Edgar, Alexander, and David, then 9 years old, into exile, and had himself crowned King of Scots. A civil war ensued (of course, it did 😜). King William Rufus backed Malcolm's son by his first wife, Duncan. That backing included lending him Norman knights. After Duncan was assassinated, he backed Edgar. Tradition, very possibly true, has it that Edgar had Donald blinded and confined to a monastery, and the brothers were able to return to Scotland.</p><p>William Rufus was killed in what may have been but probably was not an accident when out hunting in 1100. His brother Henry I immediately seized the throne and married Edgar and David's sister, Matilda. From that point on, David seems to have been mostly in the English court of King Henry I although Edgar had granted him substantial lands below the Forth.</p><p>David may have already been childhood friends with Norman knights such as Robert de Brus, Hugh de Morville, and Walter Fitzalan. But they were no longer children, and those friendships would eventually change the fate of both Scotland and England forever.</p><p>That is only the start. I'll write about what happened then next time. </p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-43902745729087642592023-04-29T11:12:00.007-07:002023-04-29T15:23:08.579-07:00Who was the first King of the Scots?<p class="MsoNormal">The Gaelic kingdom of Dál Riada encompassed much of the southwestern
seaboard of what is now Scotland. In 841, King Coinneach mac Ailpein, more
commonly Anglicized as Kenneth MacAlpin, was crowned King of Dál Riada, inheriting it from
his father, who was killed in battle with Wrad, King of Pictavia. Kenneth's mother was a Pictish
princess. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">To the east was the Kingdom of the Pictavia, the largest and most fertile kingdom in early medieval Scotia. Wrad soon died and was succeeded by his son, King Bred.</p><p class="MsoNormal">King Kenneth was both an ambitious man and one under serious
pressure. The Vikings were attacking Dál
Riada in the west. They conquered its coastlands. Either Kenneth took action,
or his kingdom might cease to exist. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Picts had driven off both the Romans and expelled the
Angles. However, they also were being slaughtered by a Viking invasion. This
was a fact King Kenneth was happy to take advantage of, especially since, in
Gaelic Dál Riada, inheritance could be through the female line. So Kenneth had
a claim to the throne of Pictavia. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">As the author of <i>the Chronicle of Huntington</i> put it:<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0.5in 8pt;">Kynadius, passing into their remaining territories, turned
his arms against them and, having slain many, compelled them to take flight,
and was the first king of the Scots who acquired the monarchy of the whole of
Alban, and ruled in it over the Scots.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Pictish king, King Bred, fell in battle against King
Kenneth and his men. From that bloody battlefield, the Scots and Picts emerged
one nation. In fact, myth to the contrary, the Picts were not wiped out. The
Gaels migrated in large numbers into the more fertile and accessible Pictavia. King
Kenneth moved his government to Scone in the east of the kingdom, brought the
kingdom's most important relic, the Stone of Destiny, from Iona, and ruled as
the two kingdoms peacefully merged.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">But peace was not to be. The Vikings conquered the entire
coast of Dál Riada. Without the strength to expel the Vikings, he turned his
armies south, invading the part of (then) Northumbria north of the River Tweed.
Time after time, he invaded, burning towns as he went. By his death, he still had
not managed to take what would eventually be southeastern Scotland, but he laid
the groundwork for it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">In 858, King Kenneth I died peacefully in his bed from a
tumor. Because succession was by tanistry (inheritance by second-in-command), his
brother King Donald I inherited the throne of Alba, forming the Alpínid
dynasty, which ruled Scotland for two hundred years.<o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-44150013011944551972023-04-17T13:23:00.002-07:002023-04-17T16:21:20.283-07:00So who was Macbeth really?<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks to Shakespeare, Macbeth is one of the better-known of
the early kings of Scotland - or Alba as it was then known. Supposedly, he was
a murderous regicide influenced by witchy hags, who quickly met his deserved fate.
Well... that was Shakespeare's story and a good one at that. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p>But it is not quite what happened.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p>Mind you, Macbeth (or, more correctly, Mac Bethad mac
Findlaìch) was a man on whose bad side you did not want to be. His story
really starts in 1032 with his killing of Gille Coemgáin mac Maíl Brigti,
Mormaer (the Scottish equivalent of an earl) of Moray, in a house-burning that
killed him and 50 of his men. Mac Bethad became Mormaer and married Brigti's
widow, Gruoch, a year later, adopting her son by Brigti.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mac Betha's overlord was Malcolm II, King of Alba, and then
his second-in-command and successor, King Duncan I. An important thing to know
about royal succession in the Kingdom of Alba is that it was by tanistry,
inheritance by the second-in-command, not by primogenitor. For a while, things
went all right for King Duncan until, in 1039, he was attacked by the
Northumbrians. When he led a retaliatory attack against Durham, it was a total
disaster that he barely escaped with his life. In medieval times, a king who
could not win battles rarely remained king long.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The next year, Mac Bethad took advantage of King Duncan's
weakened position to raid Duncan's lands. Duncan led a retaliatory raid into
Moray, where he met Mac Bethad in the Battle of Bothagowan near what is now
Elgin. He was killed in battle on 14 August 1040. Duncan's two sons fled, but
there is considerable debate about where they fled to.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p>Mac Bethad immediately took the throne of Alba with no
opposition. Did I mention that if a king could not win battles, he did not stay
king - or alive - long?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although there was no immediate opposition, Duncan's father
and brother were killed in battle against the army of Alba in 1045. Otherwise,
matters in the kingdom were peaceful, with no opposition to Mac Bethad's rule
within Scotland. In 1050, his kingdom was so peaceful that he took a year to
travel to Rome, where he scattered coins to the poor as though they were grains
of seed. His marriage may not have been so successful since he and Gruoch had
no children. He named his adopted son Lulach as his successor, violating the
laws of tanistry.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He returned to a Scotland no longer peaceful. Thorfinn
Sigurdsson, Jarl of Orkney, pillaged and burned as far as Fife. Since Mac
Bethad survived as king, it is safe to say he pushed back Thorfinn's invasion.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">However, only a short time later, in 1052, Siward, Earl of
Northumberland, invaded Alba with a large army. He met Mac Bethad's army in a
bloody battle. There were tremendous deaths on both sides, including Siward's sons
and son-in-law, but they still restored the man the English preferred to the
throne of Strathclyde. This was a severe blow to Mac Bethad's prestige, but he
was still largely admired. He was still referred to as "Mac Bethad the renowned."</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But having lost once, he was on a rapid downward slide. After all, having ruled for seventeen years. He was no longer a young man
at the height of his battle strength. The eldest son of <span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13.2px;">King Duncan I (remember Mac Bethad killing him?) </span></span>Malcolm III, Maol Chaluim mac Dhonnchaidh, continued the invasion after Siward's death and
killed Mac Bethad in battle at Lumphanan in August 1057.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poor King Lulach, given the sobriquet the Feeble Minded, was
crowned but survived only a few months. His coronation was against the rules of
tanistry, so whether his assassination by Malcolm III was unlawful might be
open to question. But certainly, Malcolm was no innocent child who had been
deprived of his throne by murder. And it is beyond question that Mac Bethad or
Macbeth was no tyrant.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So why did Shakespeare claim that Macbeth was a tyrant who
only ruled for a short time? Because King James I of England (King James VI of
Scotland) traced his ancestry to Malcolm III. It was
good, old-fashioned political propaganda done by one of the world's greatest
authors. Successful propaganda is when, hundreds of years later, people still believe the lies. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p><span face="sans-serif" style="color: #202122;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-32371608339393406942023-04-01T11:51:00.004-07:002023-04-01T11:52:33.935-07:00A Return to Blogging<p> After an absence of six years from blogging, let me reintroduce myself. I am J R Tomlin, author of historical fiction. Although my university degree is in history, my writing is based much more on research in primary sources, this is first-hand accounts from people who had a direct connection with the events. Secondary sources, historians who later make a living disagreeing with primary sources, often have something worth considering, but I always give the people who were there more weight.</p><p>Then my job is fitting fiction in the blank spaces. Going forward, I am not going to blog about the writing part but about the history part. The history of Scotland has been so twisted out of all resemblance of reality by movies such as Braveheart and most novels including some very recent ones, and some Anglophile historians, that if I can make even a tiny stand against untruths and misinformation, I will have done something worthwhile. I'll try not to spend too much time on a soap box though. </p><p>The history of Scotland, the real history, is full of more twists, turns, and amazing happenings, that it is entertaining so I will try not to bore.</p>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-74869746257951604912017-01-14T09:58:00.000-08:002017-01-14T10:59:28.948-08:0099 Cent Mysteries and Thrillers This Weekend!<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Check it out! 40+ </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/thriller?source=feed_text&story_id=750345598446634" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="_58cm">thriller</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> and </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/mystery?source=feed_text&story_id=750345598446634" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="_58cm">mystery</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/ebooks?source=feed_text&story_id=750345598446634" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="_58cm">ebooks</span></span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> for 99 cents. This weekend only! </span><a href="http://bit.ly/2jGV9SJ" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2jGV9SJ</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-78391074116636689102016-12-15T10:04:00.002-08:002016-12-15T10:07:02.026-08:00Scots at War: Guest Post by the author of Devil's Bible Series, Michael Bolan<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><i>Today, I have a guest blog from Michael Bolan, author off '</i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;"><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sons-Brabant-Book-Devils-Bible-ebook/dp/B00SWWIWPI/">Devil's Bible Series</a>'</i></span><i>. Let me mention that the opinions are his. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Of all the small nations of this earth,
perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to
mankind.” <i>Winston Churchill</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To hear such the quintessential Englishman so
eloquently and enthusiastically praising the Scots is perhaps surprising, but
one must consider the curious relationship that the Scots have with their big
brother south of the border. Centuries of rivalry, royal disputes and
land-grabbing have left their mark on the pair, from the heated enmity of Robert
the Bruce and Bonnie Prince Charlie, to the less violent, but equally bitter fighting
between Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Churchill was right. The Scots have
traditionally punched above their weight, providing the world with poets,
playwrights, engineers and scientists, to name but a few. They even produced
the world’s current number one tennis player. Per capita, they enjoy more Nobel
laureates than any country outside the Nordic region. Unlike most countries,
however, most of Scotland’s finest have risen to fame outside their native
land.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This phenomenon is nothing new, and starts
way before the infamous clearings of the mid-18<sup>th</sup> century, where
hundreds of thousands were effectively forced from the land of their birth. The
truth of the matter is that Scotland is like many other small countries which
find themselves on the periphery of Europe – there’s a desire to be closer to
the action, a curiosity about what lies beyond the hill/ valley/ river. So the
Scots have found themselves exercising their innate wanderlust for millennia – even
Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set one thousand years ago, makes mention of mercenaries
travelling from the Western Isles to fight in foreign wars.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After having lived in Russia for some
years, I noticed that the flag of the Russian Navy was a saltire – just like
the Scottish flag, but reversed – a blue cross on a white background. When I
commented on the similarity, I was told that a Scot had founded the Russian
Navy. It turns out that the Scottish naval officer Samuel Grieg didn’t quite
found the Russian navy, but he did make it professional for the times, earning
several major victories on behalf of his adopted nation. One of a dozen
officers selected by the Royal Navy to support the Russians, his rash courage
set him apart and led to his swift promotion to Admiral. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps it’s the whisky, but the Scots
throughout history have always enjoyed a good fight. It’s natural that the
British Army would be full of Scottish regiments, but their Celtic wanderlust
could never be completely satisfied by remaining in Britain, so thousands took
ship for wherever they could. In later centuries, this meant the New World –
especially Canada and New Zealand, but in the 17<sup>th</sup> century, the time
in which The Devil’s Bible Series is set, this meant mainland Europe.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Europe was fractured beyond current
recognition during the 1600s. There was no Germany, no Italy, no Belgium.
Instead there were dozens of duchies, principalities and tin-pot city-states,
whose borders shifted on an almost daily basis. This was also the time of the
birth of international commerce, as the Dutch East Indies Company and other
multinationals became more powerful than many kingdoms. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This was a world of opportunity, and the
Scots seized that opportunity with both hands. Between 1620 and 1640, some
forty thousand Scottish men served in European armies, over 15% of the adult
male population. I knew that Scotland’s history was littered with emigration,
but I had no idea of the scale.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And these men were no mere squaddies, either.
Many of them rose to fame and prominence in their adopted nations. My favourite
success story is that of Alexander Leslie. Born on the wrong side of the
sheets, Leslie ploughed all his energy into fighting, first in Scotland, then
in the Netherlands and finally in Sweden, where he was knighted and rose to the
rank of Field Marshal. When he finally left Swedish service, he returned to his
native Scotland where he became Lord Balgonie, Earl of Leven, and captain of
Edinburgh Castle. Not bad for the son of "a wench in Rannoch".<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Churchill might have overstated the case of
Scotland’s contribution to civilisation, but in one respect, the northerly
nation is beyond compare. Be it the Picts that forced Hadrian to build his
wall, the gallowglasses that held the Vikings at bay for centuries, Alexander
Leslie and his European armies, the kilted regiments that travelled to the
farthest reaches of the British Empire – the Scots have raised fighting to an
art form. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And if you don’t believe me, just walk down
Edinburgh’s Rose Street at closing time.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-44364507146290867482016-11-26T11:15:00.001-08:002016-11-26T11:17:41.941-08:00The Intelligencer is off the the editor! Here's a look at Ch. 1<i><b>Intelligencer</b>: <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">a person who gathers intelligence, especially an informer, spy, or secret agent.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , , sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Careful you don't give her a good show,"
said Cormac the minstrel, lanky and grinning, one shoulder resting on the wall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Wheesht. I'm giving no one a show," Sir
Law Kintour said. He reached for a tiny jar sitting in the window, pulled out
the cork releasing a sharp, musty smell. The canoness had told him swallowed it
was poison, but when the cream was rubbed on his scars it eased them a bit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When there was a tap on the door, Cormac opened it.
Anny Cullen stood there with a steaming bowl in her hands. At twelve, she had
started to look much like her mother, sturdy and muscular. She smiled at him
shyly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He watched as she put the bowl on the wobbly little
table in the middle of the room and pulled a long rag out. She twisted it hard
to wring out the excess water. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 10pt;">He held out his hand. "Give it. You'd best run
along to help your mam." He took the rag gingerly away from her since it
was still steaming in the chill morning air.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Careful and don't let it cool off."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You could have brought us up some bread and
cheese when you came," Cormac grumbled. He gave her his best attempt at a
piteous look, but it worked poorly with the wry twist to his mouth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"If you want bread and cheese, you go down and
tell my mam." She frowned at him, but then her round, freckled face lit up
with a smile for Law. "Go ahead, Sir Law. You dinnae want to wait. It will
only help while it's still hot."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law smiled but he thrust his chin toward the door.
"Not until you're gone, now shoo."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You will use it?" she asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"I shall." He forced a smile over his
gritted teeth, just anxious for her to leave. "Thank you, lass."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You're welcome." With a glance over her
shoulder, Anny left and the door closed behind her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law unfastened the laces of his tights and pushed
down the one on his left leg. He rubbed a bit of the thick, numbing ointment
on, and gave Cormac a look. Cormac had seen the ropy, red scars before, mangled
by a lance during the Battle of Verneuil in France, but Law still didn't like
showing them. But Cormac had taken out the deadly sharp <i>sgian-achlais </i> he had taken
to carrying in an armpit sheath and was cleaning his fingernails. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law breathed out a soft snort. You could take off a
finger with that knife but shook his head and quickly wrapped the steaming
cloth around his thigh and sucked in his breath at the heat on the sensitive
scars. He trained the day before with wardens of the burgh to keep himself in
fighting fit, and now his bad leg felt like it was being ripped with a lance
all over again. Even after these months, he missed his life before. It had been
good, but in the end the battle lost him his lord, his rank, and his dearest
friend. Now he had nothing but his armor in a bag, some worn clothes, and a
limp. He still had a fading bruise that covered his forehead from when he was
attacked a few weeks before by a mad friar.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cormac held out his hand, examining his nails
closely. They were longer than most men's because the clàrsach that he favored
was plucked with the fingernails.
"She's sweet on you, you ken." He seemed satisfied with the
state of his nails and slid the blade away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law lived in a small room above a shabby tavern run
by the girl's mother and father, although she was now old enough to do some of
the serving. "She's still a wean," Law said. "What is she?
Twelve?" Law grimaced at the heat from the cloth wrapped tightly around
his leg. It hurt so that he could barely keep still, but it was beginning to
ease the deep pain in his leg. He could feel the muscles unknotting as the heat
seeped in. Though still a bit tight lipped, he said, "She'll soon find
someone else to make doe eyes at. You, mayhap."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cormac threw up his hands. "Not if I can help
it. Her mam would have my hide and hers if she looked at a Hielander. Any road,
soon enough they'll look for a sturdy burgher for her. Neither of us are such a
prize."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He grunted. Cormac was right that he was no prize. A
landless knight was never a sought after, and he even less than most. He might
have been born into the small nobility from a family with ties to the great
Douglas clan, but he had fallen as low as a knight could. He still had his gold
spurs and his arms, but what good did that do him with a lame leg? He wasn't so
bad looking, or so he'd some had told him even if it was at night in a hot
embrace. He was taller than most men and lean and muscular with a full head of light
brown hair, but a lord didn't take a knight into his service for his looks, but
on how well they could fight. He might hold his own in a street brawl, but he
would never be fit for battle again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cormac smoothed his red and white striped doublet
and re-tied one of the green ribbons on his sleeve while Law unwrapped the
cooled cloth from his leg and pulled his stocking up. He turned to look for his
boots to find Cormac holding one and shaking his head over its worn state.
"That's pathetic. Dinnae you ever buy new ones?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Give it here," Law said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cormac tossed the boot to him and turned to open the
door. "I'd better find someone to pay for my songs," he called back.
"Bidh mi 'gad fhaicinn." He ran down the rickety stairs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Aye, see you later, Cormac."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law drew on the boot, found the other and followed
Cormac down the stairs. The minstrel had disappeared although he'd be back
later to play for the inn's customers. For now, the only people there were Anny
sweeping the bare wood floor, Mall stirring a big pot that had a scent of thyme
that must be for dinner, and Wulle talking to the only customer, a tall
red-haired man named Andrew Bouquhen, a candle maker with a shop not far away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was barley bread and a big round of cheese on
the long table that separated the room from the barrel of ale, so Law helped
himself. Mall nodded, and he knew she'd add a chit to his tab for his room did
not include meals. The he carried them to seat at the back of the inn. He put a
sliver of cheese on a bit of the barley bread and chewed them. Simple but
hearty and he was not going to complain. Besides, he was glad not to have any
reason to go out. Here inside, the rich cheese and the soft crackle of the peat
fire in the open hearth were as warm as a grandmother’s embrace. He chuckled at
the thought. He must be getting soft.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mall brought over a cup of ale. He was about to take a swallow when he noticed a small,
bow-legged man standing in the doorwas, picking bits of straw off his blue
knitted cap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"You're letting in the damp," Mall
scolded. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The man closed the door, raised his blue knit cap to
Law, and clapped it back on his head. “You’re Sir Law Kintour, are you?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Law contemplated his half-finished piece of cheese,
the fire and the cup of malty ale. He sighed. “Aye. What is it you need?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Mistress Elspeth Buchan said to fetch you, sir,” he
said. “The maister has gone missing and she wants you to come right away. She’s
that upset about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-90099397617515185702016-09-25T17:24:00.000-07:002016-10-03T17:07:48.077-07:00A King Imperiled (Opening of the first chapter)<h2 style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.5in;">
A King Imperiled</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
James Douglas of
Balvenie. He waddled out the door of the tower that was the royal residence of
Edinburgh Castle. In spite of the damp and chill, Balvenie was wearing no cloak. Sweat dribbled down his round cheeks into the
folds of his double chins. He paused, smoothing his black velvet doublet over
his belly, blocking the way like a ponderous mountain. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“What are you
doing snooping about?” Balvenie asked.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick Gray pressed his lips together to hold
back a sharp retort. “My lord father summoned me.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“He must have
meant you to wait for him at Holyrood Kirk. We have important matters afoot
here preparing for the coronation. It’s no place for a whelp.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Preparing for the
coronation, Patrick wondered, but he was not going to ask this man. James Douglas, Earl of
Balvenie, was eaten with envy for the power his cousin the Black Douglas had.
Everyone said so. Balvanie was a rich holding, but not even a tiny fraction of
the holdings of his cousin. He resented that his cousin had had the ear of the
king until the king was murdered. He no doubt resented the fact that his cousin
would soon be lieutenant general of Scotland, but Patrick saw no reason the man should take out that ire on himself.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Bland faced, Patrick
gave a polite nod. It was best to avoid arguments with any of the Douglases,
even this one. “No, My Lord, he said he awaited me here. I’d best hie to find
him.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Do so then,”
Balvenie said, passing into the watery morning light.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick hurried through a long enfilade of
stuffy rooms and waves of the scent of moth-herbs, wet wool, and oak smoke from
hearth fires. A few people huddled in corners whispering. Rumors must have run
like wild fire since the king’s murder. Had the gossips learned that the leader
of the assassins, Robert Stewart, would be put to the torture? That he had already implicated
his grandfather, the Earl of Atholl, Patrick wondered. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The glances at him
were wary. No one went anywhere for the nonce without a hand on their sword.
Some nodded to Patrick as he passed but no one spoke.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
When Patrick
closed the door behind him, the inmost chamber was silent. His father, face haggard,
stared into a small fire on the hearth. Without looking up he said, “Patrick. I
expected you sooner.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
He sighed under
his breath. He had been travelling since yesterday morning from their home at Longforgan
and in the saddle for most of the past three weeks riding with the Earl of
Angus as they hunted down the men who has assassinated King James. He had
stopped at an inn only long enough to change out of clothing that had been
rain soaked and mud and dirt splattered to the shoulder. He hadn’t even eaten since the night
before. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
At a table
scattered with documents, a flagon of wine, and a lit stand of candles sat
James Kennedy, Canon of Dunkeld, youngish, thin, with a short beard and
tonsured. He gave Patrick a bleak smile. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick approached the hearth and held out his hands. “I saw Balvenie on my way. He said you’re
preparing for the coronation…here? Not in Scone?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Kennedy motioned to
the flagon of wine on the table. “You look fit to fall over from exhaustion,
Sir Patrick. Drink whilst we talk.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick’s father
grunted, but with unusual patience for him, folded his hands behind his back
and waited as Patrick poured and took a seat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Kennedy folded his
hands atop the pile of documents. He continued, “Of course it is unheard
of to have the coronation in Edinburgh. But the Earl of Atholl is still on the
loose and Scone is too near his lands. We will take nae chances with the life
of our new king.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick had just
taken a drink, so it took a moment for him to swallow and ask, “You cannae
think they would make an attempt on the prince’s life?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“We do.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
The boy was only
six. He'd not considered that they'd murder a child. “Aye, I suppose they would
have to kill him as well.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick’s father
shrugged, propped an elbow on the mantel, and considered his son like a
merchant regarding his wares. At fifty, he was still as lean and fit as he must
have been at thirty. He was dressed in his finest doublet of green satin and
blue silk. His height and broad shoulders were still impressive and his thick,
gray hair gave him gravitas. “So tell me about catching up with Robert Stewart.
How went the business?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Evidently his
questions were to be ignored. Patrick sighed again. “As filthy as you’d expect
and knee deep in snow for much of the chase. He was abandoned by most of his
followers before we caught them. We only gave him a beating, since the queen
wanted him alive.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Go on,” Kennedy
said. As he listened to Patrick recount their long, hard ride through the
Highlands led by the Earl of Angus, the churchman’s face creased occasionally
into an attentive frown. When Patrick
described riding down Robert Stewart’s party, he leaned forward and tilted his
head. He poured a cup of wine and took a sip. When Patrick finished, he said,
“After the coronation, Robert will nae last long. He’s being put to the torture
and in two days he’ll be beheaded.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“So they meant to
kill young James?” Patrick asked again. “And to make Atholl king?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Not to make
Atholl king, no, but if the lad were dead and one of his sisters married to
Robert Stewart, that would have had the same affect. They would have ruled in
her name.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
Patrick’s father
cleared his throat. “That will nae happen and our new liege lord shall be kept
safe. That’s why I sent for you.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Keep him safe?
Me? How so?”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“This afternoon
wee James will be crowned. He will have a household of his own, gentlemen of
the bedchamber, a master of his guard. And the master of the guard will be you.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
“Wait.” Patrick
held up both hands and reared back. Since when did his father and Kennedy have
the managing of the prince? <o:p></o:p></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-15594230663735036622016-09-16T19:25:00.000-07:002016-09-16T19:43:56.893-07:00What I have in the works!<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">I am very busy with two new novels.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">I'm aiming for a December 20, 2016 release for the third novel in the Stewart Chronicles, <i>A King Imperiled. </i>That day I also plan to release the third novel in the Sir Law Kintour mystery series, and I'm still deciding on the title for that one. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><b>Yes, two on the same day!</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;"><br /></span>J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-64719887209918874202016-09-10T10:10:00.002-07:002016-09-10T10:11:34.260-07:00Find Some Good Books Here!<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.histfiction.com/september-2016-special-99cent-ebooks-now-open.html">Historical Fiction Promotion</a></h2>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRQxZiheJk9y1t-WqvmKEjooDdWwJglqcS6PS7eN9xf4q03IlO3QXX01J54XhV9cz0_ZsR8_gBzoGiI1Y8cukX6YgPZAYEZfORxHUYp8h7qGH9cVsvmHA1vEh8yG2R7RxQIH0BIk058v2/s1600/HFpromotion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRQxZiheJk9y1t-WqvmKEjooDdWwJglqcS6PS7eN9xf4q03IlO3QXX01J54XhV9cz0_ZsR8_gBzoGiI1Y8cukX6YgPZAYEZfORxHUYp8h7qGH9cVsvmHA1vEh8yG2R7RxQIH0BIk058v2/s320/HFpromotion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-44729478773876804272016-08-14T10:55:00.004-07:002016-08-14T10:56:31.836-07:00A Nice Surprise for MeIt was just announced at the <i>2016 eFestival of Words, </i>a well-established virtual book fair<i>,</i> that <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Templars-Cross-Medieval-Mystery-Kintour-ebook/dp/B01ETKCW16">The Templar's Cross</a> is the winner of Best Historical Novel of 2016.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Yay!</b></div>
<br />
Whatever your preferred genre, I strongly suggest checking out the list of winners. There are some great books on it.<br />
<br />
Here is the complete list of winners. These are novels nominated by industry professionals and voted on by readers.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://bardsandsages.com/efestivalofwords/2016-winners/">2016 eFestival of Words Winners</a></div>
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<br />J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-11445537899258804912016-07-25T23:18:00.005-07:002016-07-26T12:51:24.603-07:00The Winter Kill now available on Amazon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s1600/winterkill-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s320/winterkill-final.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;">Thieves and the unsavory of Perth: All in a day’s work for lordless Sir Law Kentour…until a mysterious death in the midst of a Highland blizzard. When the sheriff of Perth demands that Sir Law show that the death was not an inconvenient murder, Law thinks this looks like an easy job. But circumstances seem to conspire against him, and another murder follows. Soon the King's chancellor becomes involved, making the mystery even more dangerous. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls, his friend Cormac plunges into danger; and Law again encounters the thief who has already been a thorn in his side. When answers start to emerge, Sir Law gets more than he bargained for…</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GIO8UFS">The Winter Kill</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b>A Medieval Mystery Novella</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-34886647993363283852016-07-25T23:18:00.004-07:002016-07-26T12:51:01.556-07:00The Winter Kill now available on Amazon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s1600/winterkill-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s320/winterkill-final.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;">Thieves and the unsavory of Perth: All in a day’s work for lordless Sir Law Kentour…until a mysterious death in the midst of a Highland blizzard. When the sheriff of Perth demands that Sir Law show that the death was not an inconvenient murder, Law thinks this looks like an easy job. But circumstances seem to conspire against him, and another murder follows. Soon the King's chancellor becomes involved, making the mystery even more dangerous. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls, his friend Cormac plunges into danger; and Law again encounters the thief who has already been a thorn in his side. When answers start to emerge, Sir Law gets more than he bargained for…</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GIO8UFS">The Winter Kill</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b>A Medieval Mystery Novella</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-41831461816946576852016-07-25T23:18:00.002-07:002016-07-26T12:50:39.538-07:00The Winter Kill now available on Amazon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s1600/winterkill-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7VPY2tgm1KZnhyphenhyphenIxxmDrLKMDbolIa5iyEKC8_KMdAsTEXDAbPHYiGDWDWPESg4QJ8H4pUvLG8cLK6vq6rNq12hTGoanWWCelmmSCBYCPqVHo3EWSJ_ZN_GRkCB424KsEOc-8toLgcmmK/s320/winterkill-final.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;">Thieves and the unsavory of Perth: All in a day’s work for lordless Sir Law Kentour…until a mysterious death in the midst of a Highland blizzard. When the sheriff of Perth demands that Sir Law show that the death was not an inconvenient murder, Law thinks this looks like an easy job. But circumstances seem to conspire against him, and another murder follows. Soon the King's chancellor becomes involved, making the mystery even more dangerous. Not only does the murder investigation keep running into brick walls, his friend Cormac plunges into danger; and Law again encounters the thief who has already been a thorn in his side. When answers start to emerge, Sir Law gets more than he bargained for…</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><a href="http://mybook.to/TheWinterKill">The Winter Kill</a></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b>A Medieval Mystery Novella</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.4px;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8592844310355901859.post-69536845678449716052016-07-23T22:26:00.001-07:002016-07-23T22:26:36.009-07:00Celebrating a new novella!<i>The Winter Kill</i> will be released on Monday, so I am celebrating by putting the first novel in the series free through Wednesday!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://mybook.to/TemplarsCross">The Templar's Cross</a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsfDbVq0sjzfXui0quZ8yvVGmkLZHWELMcfMWL4TGaU3r8oVeuIJ8PeWutOukN7uLvhq6hEsC6TY8c6kEnUyit-RsOC2waBnLtR-3TSSzFqdnrUVnjSZqPuPxkOgLPC52K-7QdlYxGKHx/s320/Templar%2527sCross_Ebook+%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="213" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />J. R. Tomlinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01109874615059334200noreply@blogger.com0