by Robert Low
CAMPBELL, Sir Neil
Known as Niall mac Cailein (Neil, Colin’s son), he was a firm adherent of Edward I, having sworn fealty to him on the Ragman Roll of 1296. A decade later, however, with Edward handing Campbell lands to English knights, Neil Campbell was ripe for rebellion and finally joined Robert the Bruce in 1306. He was one of the few men who stuck with the ill-fated King Robert following defeats at Methven and Dalrigh. Eventually, as a reward, Neil Campbell received Bruce’s sister, Mary, as a wife and the lands confiscated from the turncoat David Strathbogie, Earl of Atholl (see below). His son, Iain, eventually became earl.
CLARE, Sir Gilbert de
Earl of Gloucester, whose mother was Joan of Acre, Edward I’s sister. Being so closely related to Edward II, he was yet another of those favourites who replaced Gaveston. Aged only twenty-three, he was given command of the army over the head of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford (see above), who was Constable of England. In fact, Edward fudged the issue by declaring them joint commanders, which was a recipe for disaster since they disliked one another. Unhorsed and barely rescued on the first day of Bannockburn, Gloucester was killed the next day, though the actual circumstances remain unclear.
CLIFFORD, Sir Robert
One of Edward I’s trusted commanders and a member of the original gilded youth of the Feast of the Swans in 1306 – but, eight years on, the youth and gilt are wearing thin on all that band. Clifford and Sir Henry Percy were given the task of subduing the initial Scottish revolt and negotiated Bruce and other rebel Scots nobles back into the ‘King’s Peace’ in 1297, but could not overcome Wallace. Clifford also brought a retinue to fight at Falkirk which included knights from Cumbria and Scotland, one of the latter being a certain Sir Roger Kirkpatrick of Auchen Castle, Annandale, and the ‘real’ Kirkpatrick who murdered the Red Comyn. Clifford was at the Siege of Caerlavrock Castle in 1300, according to the Caerlavrock Roll – the list of knights present – and at Bannockburn in 1314, where he was killed.
CRAW, Sim
A semi-fictional character. Sim of Leadhouse is mentioned only once in history, as the inventor of the cunning scaling ladders with which James Douglas took Roxburgh by stealth in 1314. Here, he is Hal of Herdmanston’s right-hand man, older than Hal – who is himself old – powerfully built and favouring a big arbalest, a steel-constructed crossbow spanned (cocked) using a winding mechanism and usually used in sieges.
DALTOUN, Thomas
Technically, a real character. A Thomas was Abbot of Inchaffray in 1296 and I have found references to Thomas Daltoun as Bruce’s chaplain. Since the Bruce chaplain in 1314 was supposedly Maurice, the abbot who came after Thomas, I fancy there has been a confusion somewhere and that Thomas, resigning as abbot in favour of Maurice, then became the Bruce chaplain. Consequently, I have arbitrarily decided that it was he who famously blessed the army at Bannockburn with the arm of St Fillan.
DOG BOY
Fictional character, the lowest of the low, a houndsman in Douglas and of age with the young James Douglas. By 1314, the skinny youth has grown into a formidable warrior and the very image of the equally fierce Sir James. It is clear to most folk that they are sprung from the same sire. However, while the long years of brutal warfare have simply honed the hate of Sir James, the Black Douglas, they are beginning to tell on Dog Boy.
DOUGLAS, Sir James
Lord of Douglas Castle in south-west Scotland, son of Sir William the Hardy, he was known both as the Black Douglas (if you were his enemy and demonizing him with foul deeds) and the Good Sir James (if you were a Scot lauding the Kingdom’s darling hero). In the years between his return to Scotland – just as Bruce became king – and 1314 he has become a byword for vicious cruelty. Particularly memorable is the Douglas Larder, where he famously slaughtered the garrison and collaborators of his own castle, then held by the Cliffords, put them in the storehouse and burned the place. His implacable hatred of the English is matched only by his daring and, save for one slight hiccup, his loyalty. Following Bannockburn, Sir James Douglas made the Border area uniquely his own, and the form of warfare – fast raiders on light horses – a lasting legacy for that region. In 1327, he surprised and destroyed an army led by yet a third Edward, almost capturing the young King. In 1329, following the death of Bruce, he famously took the royal heart on Crusade, to Spain to fight the Saracens. At Teba in Granada the following year, he took part in a battle where the Scots pursuit of the broken enemy led them too far and some were surrounded. Attempting a rescue, Douglas himself was surrounded and, taking the casket with Bruce’s heart, flung it forward into the enemy, yelling that, as always, he would follow Bruce. He and all the men with him were killed. Ironically, the knight Douglas originally went to rescue was a certain Sir William Sientcler of Roslin.
EDWARD II
King of England. At the time of this novel he has spent seven years being frustrated in his attempts to secure Scotland – each campaign he has led there has resulted only in an increase of Robert the Bruce’s power. Finally, facing the constrictions of the Ordainers, his own rebellious barons, he seizes the chance to finally bring the Scots to a decisive battle in 1314. The result was, arguably, the worst defeat for the English since Hastings in 1066. It plunged Edward into a vicious struggle with the Ordainer barons and, eventually, with his own queen (see below) and her lover, Roger Mortimer. Deposed and imprisoned, he was subsequently murdered, according to some accounts, by having a red-hot poker shoved into his anus. Historian Ian Mortimer argues a decent case for Edward II actually having survived, the death being faked by Mortimer and Isabella – but other historians disagree with his methodology.
GRAFTON, Sir William de
Real character whose life I have stolen and fictionalized. He is listed as one of the Preceptors of Templar commanderies in Yorkshire, arrested in 1308 and then released to the care of Henry, Baron Percy of Alnwick, in 1313, who was at odds with Edward II over the murder of Piers Gaveston. Here I have shamelessly used de Grafton as a recusant Templar sent to spy on Bruce’s Spanish adventure by Henry Percy – who then does not inform his king of the vital findings. De Grafton, of course, then decides to make his own profit on the affair with ruthless murder and villainy. I chose Henry Percy as the baron betraying the English at Bannockburn with his omissions simply because he died at age forty-one of unknown cause – and rumoured poison – in October 1314 …
GRAY, Sir Thomas
Real character, whose quarrel with Henry de Beaumont led him to a rash charge at Bannockburn and his unhorsing and imprisonment. Ransomed and freed, he returned to the family lands at Heaton, where he died circa 1344. Ironically, his son, also called Sir Thomas, was captured by the Scots in 1355 and also held for ransom, whiling away the hours in Edinburgh Castle by writing the Scalacronica, a history of Britain from the Creation. The portion concerning Edward I and onwards is based on what he learned from his father and so is an interesting and near-contemporary record – allowing for a son’s bias regarding his father’s exploits, of course.
ISABELLA, Queen of England
Seen here briefly on an actual and vital mission to her father on behalf of her husband, one of the many she undertook. Still a teenager, her son – the future Edward III – is already two years old. I almost certainly malign the woman with the ‘She Wolf’ image she was handed by history. Despite her later betrayal of her husband and her desposing him to rule with her lover, Mortimer, I don’t actually think she was as vicious or calculatingly clever as that makes her appear.
KILWINNING, Bernard of
Bruce’s Chancellor in 1314, former Abbot of Kilwinning and later Abbot of Arbroath from 1310 to 1328, he served as Chancellor until 1328 and died two years after his king, in 1331. More importantly, he is generally considered to be one of the chief authors of the Declaration of Arbroath, the stirring document asserting independence in general and Scotland’s in particular, which includes the famous and much-quoted lines:
… for, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any
conditions be brought under English rule. 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.
KIRKPATRICK, Roger
Fictional character, but based on the real Sir Roger Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, whom I have as kin to the fictional one. This is because my Kirkpatrick is a staunch Bruce supporter from the outset and the real Sir Roger was not – he even fought for Clifford in the English retinue at Falkirk. My Kirkpatrick assumes the mantle of Bruce’s henchman, prepared for any dirty work on behalf of his master’s advancement, including murder. By 1314, Kirkpatrick has been elevated to Closeburn’s barony and knighted, but he owes Hal of Herdmanston a great debt and feels bound to repay it. The Greyfriars murder both elevated and haunted the Kirkpatricks: in 1357, another Sir Roger Kirkpatrick of Closeburn was murdered by Sir James Lindsay in ‘a private quarrel’. Sir James was the son of the man I have with Kirkpatrick and Hal and Dog Boy in Greyfriars the day Red Comyn was murdered.
MACDUFF, Isabel
She is a real character whose life I have shamelessly stolen, investing her with a love affair with Bruce, which was almost certainly scurrilous propaganda of the time, and another with the fictional Hal of Herdmanston, which forms the cornerstone of this and the other books of the series. Their love affair, hagged by the vengeful husband, the Earl of Buchan, is also dogged by war and great events. A member of the powerful, though fragmented, ruling house of Fife, she acted as the official ‘crowner’ of Robert Bruce in 1306, a role always undertaken by a MacDuff of Fife – but the only other one was her younger brother, held captive in England. In performing this, she not only defied her husband but the entire Comyn and Balliol families. Captured later, she was imprisoned, with the agreement of her husband, in a cage hung on the walls of Berwick Castle. Her husband died in 1308, harried and broken by Bruce’s ethnic cleansing of the Buchan lands and the Buchan title passed to another, which means that, in between, the Earl had divorced his wife, or she had died. In my version, Isabel has hung in a cage from the Hog Tower of Berwick Castle, under the watchful eye of Malise Bellejambe, for seven years, waiting for the day of rescue …
PIMENTAL, Doña Beatriz Ruiz de Castor y
Fictional character, sister of a Knight of Alcántara, the Order which took over Templar commanderies in Castile and Leon and which was, at this time, commanded by the shrewd Ruy Vaz. Treacherous and beautiful, she is based – with absolutely no foundation other than the splendid name – on Doña Leonor Ruiz de Castro y Pimental, wife of Prince Felipe, who was the younger brother of King Alfonso the Wise of Castile and Leon – and a Knight Templar (clearly celibacy was not part of the Spanish Knights’ tradition).
RANDOLPH, Sir Thomas
A Bruce supporter, he was captured at Methven and changed sides. Captured by the Scots later, he promptly changed sides again and, in 1314, he has just been raised to Earl of Moray. He is always described as a ‘nephew’ of Robert the Bruce, though the exact relationship is uncertain. By this point, he and Sir James Douglas are great rivals, a fact Bruce promoted to his great advantage: no sooner has Douglas taken Roxburgh Castle by daring and stealth than Randolph takes Edinburgh Castle by subterfuge. He commanded one of the great spear blocks – Battles – at Bannockburn and, on the death of Bruce, became Regent for his young son, David II. He died three years later, ostensibly of poisoning, though this is now thought unlikely.
SETON, Sir Alexander
In 1306 there was a mutual indenture – one of those frequent chivalric oaths – made between Sir Gilbert Hay of Erroll, Sir Neil Campbell of Lochawe and Sir Alexander Seton of Seton at the Abbey of Lindores, to ‘defend King Robert Bruce and his crown to the last of their blood and fortune’. Alexander was the brother of Christopher Seton, who had not only helped save Bruce at the Battle of Methven, but paid the price for supporting the King when he was captured defending Loch Doon Castle, a Carrick stronghold, and hanged, drawn and quartered. Another kinsman, John de Seton, was captured while defending Tibbers Castle and was also hanged, drawn and quartered. It may have been that which drove Alexander to ignore his oath and join the ranks of the Disinherited, the lords with vested interest in an English victory. But, the night before the Battle of Bannockburn, Alexander Seton had had enough of the English. He defected and brought news to Bruce of the disarray in the English ranks, helping to persuade Bruce to stay and fight.
SIENTCLER of Herdmanston, Sir Henry
Known as Hal, he is the son and heir to Herdmanston, a lowly tower owing fealty to kin, the Sientclers of Roslin. He is typical of the many poor nobles of Lothian who became embroiled in the wars on both sides of the divide – except Hal has fallen in love with Isabel MacDuff (see above) and their ill-fated affair is shredded by war and her husband’s hatred, culminating in the capture of them both. Isabel is condemned to life in a cage hung from the walls of Berwick; Hal is condemned to die – but Edward I’s death in 1307 leaves him imprisoned and forgotten in Roxburgh Castle. In 1314, seven years later, he is freed when the castle falls to James Douglas. Despite age – he is around forty-seven in an era when fifty is the average for a man and thirty-five the life expectancy of a woman – and weakness, he is determined to free Isabel and, at last, find a measure of happiness, even if he has to fight his way through all the English at Bannockburn. The Sientclers of Herdmanston are a little-known branch of the Sientcler family, in actuality appearing prominently only for one brief moment in fifteenth-century history. Herdmanston is now an anonymous pile of stones in a corner of a ploughed field and any descriptions of it are pure conjecture on my part.
STRATHBOGIE, Sir David
The Earl of Atholl, son of the man hanged, drawn and quartered for supporting the Scots rebellion in 1306, he had been held by the English as a boy. Restored to the earldom by the English, he initially supported Bruce and then deserted him in 1307, only to return shortly before Bannockburn. Famously, on the very eve of Bannockburn, he turned coat again, almost certainly because of Edward Bruce’s careless dalliance with his sister, Isabel. At the time he had been appointed Constable by Bruce, to keep him sweet, but it was clearly a title devoid of command, because the only thing Strathbogie controlled were the siege stores – which he sacked on the way out. This fatal decision eventually cost him his lands and title, appointed to the firmly loyal Neil Campbell.
THWENG, Sir Marmaduke
Lord of Kilton in Yorkshire, a noted knight and married to a Lucia de Brus, distant kin to Bruce himself, Sir Marmaduke is the chivalric, sensible face of English knighthood. A noted thief-taker – bounty hunter – in his own realm, he was also part of the tourney circuit with the young Robert Bruce. He fought at Stirling Bridge and was one of few to battle his way back to Stirling Castle, where he was eventually taken prisoner. He took part in subsequent campaigns against the Scots, including Bannockburn, where, in his sixties, he fought until he could surrender personally to Bruce and was subsequently released without ransom.
VALENCE, Sir Aymer de
Appointed the King’s Lieutenant in Scotland and, in 1314, Earl of Pembroke, he was one of the leading supporters of Edward II against the Earl of Lancaster, mainly because of Piers Gaveston. Originally one of the Ordainers, de Valence had assisted in the capture and arrest of Gaveston but considered his dignity and honour outraged when Lancaster high-handedly seized Gaveston from de Valence’s prison and summarily executed him. At Bannockburn, de Valence was one of the voices of reason and, when that failed, helped get the King to safety from the debacle of defeat. Subsequently, he supported Edward II against the rebel barons and, when Lancaster was eventually captured and put on trial following the Battle of Boroughbridge, de Valence had his revenge and assisted in the conviction and execution. In 1324, on an embassy to France, he collapsed and died in Picardy and was returned to be buried in Westminster Abbey. In the eighteenth century, looking for a place to install the hero of the moment, General Wolfe of Quebec fame, the Dean of Westminster wanted the
de Valence monument removed; he mistakenly thought Aymer was one of the Knights Templars, whom he considered to be ‘a very wicked set of people’. When he found out that Aymer was not one of these he allowed the tomb to remain. The tomb was restored in the early nineteenth century.
VILLERS, Gerald de
Actually named after Gerard de Villiers, a named Templar Knight in the Crusades. One of the last of the dying Order.
VON ESBECK, Widikind
Fictional character, though a real von Esbeck was a Master of the Templars in Germany. With de Bissot, de Villers and de Grafton, Widikind is one of the last Templar Knights in Scotland.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As ever, the list of people who made this book possible is enough to form both sides at Bannockburn – but special mention must be made to:
Katie Espiner, who edited me to within an inch of my life.
Jim Gill, my agent, who spotted the potential and to whom I raise yet another glass.
My wife, Kate, who handles all the stuff I bodyswerve in order to selfishly write.
And the folk at the Bannockburn Heritage Centre. I am glad they are pulling it down – in order to build a spiffy new one in time for the 700th anniversary in 2014.
Hard on the heels of these has to come Nigel Tranter, whose books on Scotland’s history, particularly the trilogy on Bruce, are hard acts to follow. I hope he is not birling in his grave too much.
I am also continually indebted to the members of The HWA (http://www.thehwa.co.uk), Glasgow Vikings (www.glasgowvikings.co.uk) and the rest of the Vikings, national and international (www.vikingsonline.org.uk) who have all contributed to shaping this trilogy one way and another.
The process of writing this has been encouraged by a firm band of fans, who have followed the Oathsworn and now want to carry on reading – so thanks to all the honest reviewers from all over the world with whom I have exchanged views.
Slainte mhath!