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.