A Cruel Courtship (Margaret Kerr Mysteries 3)
Page 30
Standing atop Kinnoull Hill one can see a faint square scar in a farmer’s field if one knows where to look – that’s what is left of Elcho Nunnery. But the ruins of the Cistercian nunnery on Iona, hints from various archaeological digs, and educated guesses formulated with the assistance of my friend Kimm Perkins helped me recreate the small but lovely nunnery on the Tay. Stirling Castle and town are also mostly conjured from maps, contemporary accounts, and geological aspects that remain beneath newer buildings.
There are also people whose names and positions we know but who are never fleshed out in the narratives – I’ve included a few here: Abbot Adam, Sir Simon Montagu, Master Thomas of Soutra, Sir Marmaduke Twenge, and prioress Agnes de Arroch.
Even the phenomenon of Second Sight has proved tantalisingly elusive. I’ve listed Michael Hunter’s book below, but even in that one book the record of Second Sight is contradictory. We have far better records of the Church mystics than we do of the lay seers. I’ve depicted them as parallel points on a continuum, not so different from one another.
We know more about the Battle of Stirling Bridge than the bridge itself. With their victory at Stirling Bridge the Scots proved themselves a force to be reckoned with, proving to King Edward that his progress around the country the previous summer had not subdued the resistance. Warenne, his lieutenant and thus chief commander in Scotland, and his treasurer, Cressingham, also underestimated the determination of the Scots. The treasurer had sent reinforcements back to England claiming they were too expensive. Andrew Murray and William Wallace had won back many of the northern castles and towns taken by the English, and in early September had gathered an army to the north of the River Forth; the English seemed confident that they could win by virtue of their greater numbers alone. The following description is taken from Barrow (see Further Reading).
When Warenne reached Stirling he granted James Stewart and Earl Malcolm of Lennox a week to try to pacify the Scots. They returned on schedule to admit failure, but promised to appear with forty barded, or caparisoned, horses the following day – if they couldn’t provide more men, they’d at least help equip the English. But as they rode off one of Lennox’s men killed an English soldier. Warenne had difficulty calming his army. What I find amazing is that he overslept the next morning. Someone had already sent many of the infantry across the bridge over the Forth River, which was the only route across from where they had encamped, but they were recalled. Once Warenne rose, he sent them across again, but again they were recalled when Stewart and Lennox appeared. The two Scots nobles claimed they’d been unable to detach any of their own troops from Wallace and Murray. Warenne postponed the charge yet again to allow two Dominican friars to ask Wallace if he would yield. Wallace reportedly responded, ‘Tell your commander that we are not here to make peace but to do battle to defend ourselves and liberate our kingdom. Let them come on, and we shall prove this in their very beards.’
When the Dominicans reported Wallace’s reply, Cressingham rejected a knight’s proposal to go with a detachment of horse upriver to the wide Fords of Drip where sixty men might cross the river at once and take up a position behind the Scots. Instead, Warenne gave the order to cross Stirling Bridge. Wallace and Murray swooped down on them when half of the English army had crossed, surrounding them while the other half were unable to cross the river to their aid. On the north side the carse was too soft on either side of the causeway for heavy horse. The result was a slaughter. Warenne, who had not crossed, escaped south; but Cressingham had ridden across and was torn to pieces by the Scots. The Scots army also suffered casualties, including the mortal wounding of Murray, who never fully recovered and died that winter. (A more detailed description of the Battle is available on the website: www.bbc.co.uk/history/scottishhistory/independence/trails_independence_stirlingbridge.shtml)
FURTHER READING
Geoffrey W. S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland. (Edinburgh University Press, 1988)
Elizabeth Ewan, Townlife in Fourteenth-Century Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 1990)
Andrew Fisher, William Wallace (John Donald Publishers Ltd, 1986)
Michael Hunter, The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland. A New Edition of Robert Kirk’s The Secret Commonwealth and Other Texts (The Boydell Press,2001)
Perthshire Society of Natural Science, Pitmiddle Village and Elcho Nunnery: Research and Excavation on Tayside, undated
Fiona Watson, Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland 1286–1307 (Tuckwell Press, 1998)
An expanded list for the Margaret Kerr and Owen Archer mysteries is available on my website: www.candacerobb.com
To find out more about my novels read the Candace Robb Newsletter. For your free copy, write to The Marketing Department, William Heinemann, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA. Please mark your envelope Candace Robb Newsletter.
If you enjoyed A Cruel Courtship why
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When a young nun dies of a fever in the town of Beverley in the summer of 1365, she is buried quickly for fear of the plague. But one year later a woman appears, talking of relic-trading and miracles. She claims to be the dead nun resurrected. Murder follows swiftly in her wake, and the worried Archbishop of York asks Owen Archer to investigate.
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Thus Owen Archer finds himself heading a deputation from York to Fountains Abbey, to win support for Wykeham from the powerful Cistercian abbots. Ignoring advice, he places his old comrade Ned Townley in charge of the fellow company to Rievaulx, hoping to dispel rumours of Ned’s involvement in a mysterious death.
But just days out of York trouble erupts: a friar and Ned both vanish, following news of murder at Windsor. Owen asks John Thoresby, at Court in his role as Lord Chancellor, for help, little knowing it will involve him with the King’s mistress, Alice Perrers, ever a dangerous enemy …
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