The Complete Kingdom Trilogy (45 page)

‘The Auld Templar's secret place,' Hal said, then glanced at Henry's open-mouthed stare. ‘I hazard there are deeds and titles and Roslin secrets you will want from there, Henry -but first you will have to lift a heavy cover.'

‘The Stone,' Bruce declared and gave a sharp bark of delight.

‘Not easily moved by two men – but done all the same,' Kirkpatrick added and there was a pause as they saw how the Auld Templar and Roslin's Steward, John Fenton, had struggled the Stone into the undercroft and hidden it.

‘Yon Gozelo was a clever man,' Sim offered and glanced into the scowl of Kirkpatrick. ‘Just not very fast on his feet when it came to the bit.'

‘Aye, well,' Bruce said and straightened. ‘Once you have taken what you need, Sir Henry, cover it up anew.'

He glanced round at the faces, all blood-dyed in the light, their breath like honeyed smoke.

‘Here we all are, then, party to the future of the Kingdom,' he said. ‘In the absence of Bishop Wishart, I call upon us all to kneel and pray for the strength to hold to our resolve, to keep this secret until the time is right.'

This piety took even Kirkpatrick by surprise, but he dutifully sank to his knees. Bruce and Hal were the last to descend to the chill stones and looked at each other for a moment over the heads of the penitents. When the time is right, Hal echoed silently. The time for Bruce to make his move.

‘Welcome to your Kingdom,' Hal said to him, savage and morose. ‘A bloodier place these days, my lord earl.'

The sun of Bruce's smile was a bright uncaring knife that cut through Hal's bitter grief and the Kingdom's turmoil of pain.

‘Hectora quis nosset, si felix Troia fuisset?
he answered, leonine with new dreams, and then added, in perfect English:

‘Who would know Hector if Troy had been happy?'

In light of the collective nouns used in this book, I should add another which is particularly apt – a roguery of historians.

Unlike the earlier Dark Ages, there is no paucity of sources for the Scottish Wars of Independence, or the lives of Wallace and Bruce – what there is instead is a contradiction of times, dates, places and people, sometimes accidental, more often deliberate, from those being paid to enhance the reputation of their subjects.

That, coupled with the general attempts to revise history in favour of the various protagonists, has polished the personae of Edward I, Wallace and Bruce almost beyond recognition, while creating the impression that the war which culminated in the battle of Bannockburn was one of the freedom-loving Scots against the tyranny of England.

Ask any Scot in a pub and they will tell you chapter and verse on Bruce and on Wallace – they may even pour scorn on Mel Gibson and
Braveheart,
while admitting that they thoroughly enjoyed the movie, even the pseudo-kilts, face-painting (now almost
de rigueur
at any Scottish event) and waggling of bare arses at opponents.

The truth is harsher and more misted.
Braveheart
is a dubious interpretation of already dubious history, while relative sizes and composition and exact location of the armies at Stirling Brig and Falkirk is supposition and best-guess, depending on whom you read.

There is no doubt that the major protagonists were genuine heroic figures to a large body of opinion, in their own lifetimes and since. Equally, they were regarded as the blackest of terrorists to much of the rest of the population of both Scotland and England.

The legend had made Bruce into the hero king, liberator of Scotland, and any grey areas of his life have been airbrushed. Wallace, of course, is painted in easy black and white, as the giant with an anachronistic two-handed claymore, fighting to the very end and never giving in.

The truth – or what can be seen of it now – is different, but open to interpretation. This period was Scotland's civil war more than anything, with the powerful Comyn, Buchans and Balliols against the determined Bruces for the possession of the Kingdom of Scots. Edward, the opportunist, tried to muscle in and soon realised his expensive mistake, for both sides used him unashamedly to further their own ends.

Nor is he the out-and-out villain, the ‘proud Edward sent hame to think again' about trying his tyranny on the Scots; to the English he was one of the best kings they ever had and they feared – rightly – his passing, knowing the son was not the father.

I have tried to give Bruce and Wallace and Edward I back their original lives, after a fashion, to show them against the backdrop of the times while also unveiling some of the people, great and small, fictional and historical, who struggled to live in that emerging Scotland.

There are those I have maligned, or used for my own ends. Isabel MacDuff, Countess of Buchan, for one. All that is known, for certain, is that she existed, was married to the Earl of Buchan and, at one crucial moment in history, deserted marriage and party to side with her husband's enemies, by becoming the hereditary MacDuff, Crowner of Scottish kings, and helping to legitimise Bruce.

She suffered for it, being subsequently captured and imprisoned in a cage on the walls of Berwick. Her later life is debatable, the best theory being that she was huckled off to a nunnery, her husband, the earl, having died.

The rest is my intepretation and invention – even her age is a confusion of accounts; her marital status is based on the evidence of her turning her back on her husband in favour of the Bruce faction. That and her lack of children told me much about her personal relationship with Buchan. Her supposed love affair with Bruce is mentioned as a rumour in some sources, probably scurriously anti-Bruce propaganda; her love affair with Hal of Herdmanston is pure invention.

Kirkpatrick is another invention and, though I have based him on the real Sir Roger Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, I have deliberately made him a fictional figure, since the real one crops up, irritatingly, on the English side far too often to be the firm Bruce henchman I needed for the story. Until, that is, he appeared on the scene to complete the murder of the Red Comyn in Greyfriars Church. That killing persuaded me of his darkly murderous character, though he is invention, as is his counterpart, the vicious Malise Bellejambe. Another villain, Malenfaunt, is a legitimate family name, but the saturnine and dubious Sir Robert does not exist.

Hal of Herdmanston, of course, is also fiction – though the Sientclers (or St Clairs, St Clares, Sinclairs or any other variant spelling you care to dream up) are not. They and Roslin became renowned, not least for Rosslyn Chapel – but Herdmanston, though it existed, is now no more than a rickle of unmarked stones in a field in Lothian. The other Sientclers are real enough, save for the Auld Templar, who rode into my head at the start of this tale and was just too magnificent to wave on.

Why the Sientclers at all? Because I needed a powerful Lothian family who could be opposed to the dominant force in the area, Patrick of Dunbar, who, with his son, was a committed supporter of the English right up until the aftermath of Bannockburn. Why Lothian? Because that was the battleground of the Wars of Independence, more so than any other part of Scotland.

There are other lights, lesser or greater, who may or may not be fictional – I hope I have written this well enough to leave the reader guessing most of the time.

Lastly – Edward I was never known as Hammer of the Scots in his lifetime. That name was given to him in the sixteenth century when it was carved on the unsubtle square slab of his tomb. Yet I prefer to believe that it did not spring, full-formed at the time, but came from all the whispers that had gone before.

The start of this is purportedly written by an unknown monk in February of 1329, three months before Robert the Bruce is finally acknowledged as king of Scots by the Pope – and four months before his death.

Think of this as stumbling across a cache of such hidden monkish scribblings which, when read by a flickering tallow candle, reveal fragments of lives lost both in time and legend.

If any interpretations or omissions jar – blow out the light and accept my apologies.

ADDAF the Welshman

Typical soldier of the period, raised from the lands only recently conquered by Edward I. The Welsh prowess with the bow and spear was already noted, but the true power of the former, the Crecy and Agincourt massed ranks, was a strategy still forming during the early Scottish Wars. Like all of the Welsh, Addaf's loyalty to the English is tenuous.

BADENOCH, Lord of

Any one of two, father and son. Both called Sir John and both members of a powerful branch of the Comyn, they were favoured because, after John Balliol, they had a legitimate right to claim Scotland's throne as good if not better than the Bruce one. The Badenochs were known as Red Comyn, because they adopted the same wheatsheaf heraldy as the Buchan Comyns, but on a red shield instead of blue. Sir John, second Lord of Badenoch, was also referred to as the Black Comyn because of his grim demeanour – a former Guardian of Scotland, he died in 1302, leaving the title to his son who was known as the Red Comyn. Despite being married to Joan de Valence, sister to Aymer De Valence, Earl of Pembroke, John the Red Comyn was a driving force in early resistance to Edward I – and truer to the Scots cause than Bruce at the time. He was murdered by Bruce and his men in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries in February 1306.

BALLIOL, King John

A member of one of the more powerful families of Scotland and backed by an equally powerful one, the Comyn, John Balliol was elected to the vacant throne of Scotland by a conclave of Scotland's nobility and prelates, a conclave chaired by King Edward I of England. By the time the Scots discovered they had been duped by Edward, it was too late and subsequent attempts to exert their independence resulted in invasion, defeat and the stripping of the regalia of the kingdom – the Stone of Scone, the Black Rood and the Seal – and also the public humiliation of King John Balliol. His royal coat of arms was torn from his tunic, leaving him with the name that still resonates down through history – Toom Tabard, or Empty Coat. The Balliol and Comyn were arch-rivals of the Bruces.

BANGTAIL HOB

Fictional character. One of Hal of Herdmanston's retainers, a typical Scots retinue fighter of the period. Mounted on garrons – small, shaggy ponies – they are armed with Jeddart staffs, a combination spear, pike and hook, and are not cavalry, but mounted infantry. The English counterparts are called ‘hobilars' because they are mounted on small ponies known as ‘hobbies' (hence the term hobby-horse). Bangtail and the likes of Tod's Wattie, Ill Made Jock, Will Elliott and others are the common men of Lothian and the Border regions – the March – who formed the bulk and backbone of the armies on both sides.

BEK, Anthony, Bishop of Durham

Commander of one of the four knightly ‘hosts' at Falkirk, he led some 400-plus heavy horse.

BELLEJAMBE, Malise

Fictional character, the Earl of Buchan's sinister henchman and arch-rival of Kirkpatrick.

BISSET, Bartholomew

Fictional character. Notary clerk to Ormsby, Edward's appointed justiciar of Scotland. His information leads Hal and others on the trail of the mysterious murderers of a master mason found near Douglas.

BRUCE, Robert

Any one of three. Robert, Earl of Carrick, later became King Robert I and is now known as Robert the Bruce. His father, also Robert, was Earl of Annandale (he renounced the titles of Carrick to his son when they fell to him because, under a technicality, he would have had to have sworn fealty to the Comyn for them and would not do that). Finally, there is Bruce's grandfather, Robert, known as The Competitor from the way he assiduously pursued the Bruce rights to the throne of Scotland, passing the torch on to his grandson.

BUCHAN, Countess of

Isabel MacDuff, one 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.

BUCHAN, Earl of

A powerful Comyn magnate, (the Red Comyn Lord of Badenoch was his cousin) he was the bitterest opponent of the Bruces. Robert Bruce finally overcame the Comyn, following the death of Edward I and a slackening of English pressure, in a campaign that viciously scorched the lands of Buchan and Badenoch in a virtual Scottish ethnic cleansing of Bruce's rivals. Defeated and demoralised, the earl fled south and died in 1308.

CLIFFORD, Sir Robert

One of Edward I's trusted commanders, he 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.

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, powerfully built and favouring a big latchbow, a crossbow usually spanned (cocked) using a hook attached to a belt. He is strong enough to do it without the hook.

CRESSINGHAM, Sir Hugh

Appointed by Edward I as Lord Treasurer of Scotland, he was disliked by his English colleagues as an upstart and universally detested by the Scots, whom he taxed. His attempts to curtail the expense of the campaign of 1297 fatally compromised the English army at Stirling Bridge, where Cressingham himself was killed leading the Van. Famously, legend has it that he was flayed and strips of his skin were sent all over Scotland, one being made into a baldric for Wallace.

DE FAUCIGNY, Manon

Fictional character, a stone-carver from Savoy brought into a conspiracy from which he has subsequently fled. Now all factions are hunting him out for what they believe he knows.

DE JAY, Sir Brian

Master of the English Templars, he brought a force to Falkirk in the service of Edward I, thus pitting the Templar knights against fellow-Christians, to general odium. With Brother John de Sawtrey, commander of the Scottish Templars, he pursued Wallace into a thicket, where both Templar commanders were killed – the only ‘notable deaths' in the entire affair according to the chroniclers.

DE WARENNE, Sir John, Earl of Surrey

Long-time friend and supporter of King Edward, De Warenne was already in his sixties when Edward appointed him ‘warden of the land of Scots' and had served in the Welsh campaigns of 1277, 1282 and 1283. He hated Scotland, complaining that the climate did not suit him, and attempted to run the place from his estates in England. Finally forced to do something about the rebels, he brought an army to Stirling Bridge and was famously defeated. Fought again at Falkirk, commanding one of the four ‘hosts' of heavy horse. He died, peacefully, in 1304.

DOG BOY

Fictional character, the lowest of the low, a houndsman in Douglas and of ages with the young James Douglas. Given to Hal as a gift by Eleanor Douglas to spite her stepson, the Dog Boy finds that service at a Herdmanston at war brings him to rub shoulders with the great and the good and invests him with a new stature he would not otherwise have enjoyed.

DOUGLAS, James

Son of The Hardy by his first wife, a Stewart, whom he simply sent off to a convent in order to marry his second, Eleanor de Lovaigne. After the death of ‘Le Hardi', Eleanor and her two sons, James's stepbrothers, were packed off south to a convent and the Douglas lands given to Clifford. James went to Paris under the auspices of Lamberton, Bishop of St Andrews. He returned as a young man just as Bruce became king and joined him, rising to become one of Robert the Bruce's most trusted commanders.

DOUGLAS, Sir William

Lord of Douglas Castle in south-west Scotland, father of young James Douglas, later to be known both as The Black Douglas (if you were his enemy and demonising him with foul deeds) and The Good Sir James (if you were a Scot lauding the Kingdom's darling hero). It is clear nicknames ran in the family – William was known as The Hardy (which simply means Bold) and was a typical warlord noble of Scotland. Sent to defend Berwick against Edward I in the campaign that brought John Balliol to his knees, William Douglas was finally forced to surrender and watch as Edward ravaged the town in a slaughter which became a watchword for the Scots and their later revenge. Douglas agreed to serve Edward I in his French wars, but absconded as soon as possible and joined Wallace's rebellion. Taken into custody – in chains – after the convention of Irvine, he was imprisoned in the Tower and died of ‘mistreatment' there not long after.

DUNBAR, Earl Patrick

The most powerful Baron of the Lothians, Dunbar was a staunch supporter of the Plantagenets right up until 1314, when it was clear he had to submit to Bruce or suffer. He is, technically, the lord to whom the Sientclers owe their fealty – and the one they continually defy by joining with the cause of the Scots. Together with Gilbert D'Umfraville, another lord with extensive holdings in Scotland, he brought the news of Wallace's Falkirk location to Edward just when it seemed that the English would have to give up and retreat.

EDWARD I

King of England. At the time of this novel he has only recently conquered the Welsh and has a vision to become ruler of a united Britain before returning to his first love, a Crusade to free the Holy Land. He sees his chance to take over Scotland when the nobles come to him, as a respected monarch of Christendom, to adjudicate in their attempts to elect a new king of Scots from the many factions in the realm. His subsequent attempts to impose what he sees as his rights inveigle both realms in a long, vicious, expensive and bloody war that lasts for decades. Much maligned by Scots, for obvious reasons, he was beloved by the English, who were mournful about what would happen to their realm under his son, Edward II – and with good reason.

GAVESTON, Piers

Seen here briefly as a young squire at Falkirk, Gaveston was actually picked by Edward I as a suitable companion for his son, in an attempt to give the Prince some sort of benchmark for how to conduct himself with the dignity and honour of his station. This fatal error resulted in an unhealthy relationship between the two men which eventually brought both Edward II and his kingdom to ruin.

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.

LAMPRECHT

Fictional character, a pardoner and seller of relics from Cologne, a sometime spy and agent of those who pay most, he becomes involved in the Buchan plot against Hal of Herdmanston.

MALENFAUNT, Sir Robert

Real family, fictional character – a knight of dubious renown who captures Isabel at Stirling Bridge and is then duped into handing her over to what he believes is her husband, the Earl of Buchan, by Bruce and Hal.

MORAY, Sir Andrew

He raised the standard of rebellion in the north of Scotland in 1297, then joined forces with Wallace and, arguably, provided an acceptable commander for the nobility to rally to rather than the ‘brigand' Wallace. Arguably, too, he provided the military skill of handling an army – but was badly wounded at Stirling Bridge and later died, leaving Wallace to organise subsequent events with disastrous results.

SIENTCLER, Sir Henry of Herdmanston

Known as Hal, he is the son and heir to Herdmanston, a lowly tower owing fealty to their 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 – but Hal has fallen in love with Isabel, Countess of Buchan, and their ill-fated affair is shredded by war and her husband's hatred. Hal himself is torn by doubts as to whom he can trust, even between Wallace and Bruce, in a kingdom riven by family rivalries and betrayals. The Sientclers of Herdmanston are a little-known branch of that family, appearing prominently 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.

SIENTCLER, Sir Henry of Roslin

In reality, held as a hostage for ransom by the English, with his father, William, also held in the Tower. Here he is grandson of the Auld Templar and eventually ransomed by Hal and Bruce. In reality, he was also ransomed and later fought in the Battle of Roslin Glen alongside Red John Comyn and Sir Simon Fraser and against the English of Segrave and others, a famous victory for the Scots in 1303, when victories were scarce.

SIENTCLER, Sir John of Herdmanston

Fictional character, father of Hal, the Auld Sire of Herdmanston is captured by Sir Marmaduke Thweng fighting at Stirling Bridge and dies before he can be ransomed.

SIENTCLER, Sir William of Roslin (the Auld Templar)

Fictional character – the ‘Auld Templar of Roslin' has been allowed back to Roslin by his commanderie because both his son and grandson are prisoners of the English. The real Sir William Sientcler (here described as the Auld Templar's son) is already in the Tower by the opening of this story and destined to die there.

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 accepted, 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. Fought at Stirling Bridge and was one of few to battle their way back to Stirling Castle, where he was eventually taken prisoner. 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.