So, by the time of the murder in Greyfriars, when Bruce slays Red John Comyn, Hal cannot be convinced that the soul-searching agony of Bruce is entirely real – and that view has persisted. Did Bruce plan the murder of Red John, removing yet another impediment to the throne? Or was it a moment of madness, which resulted in a premature rebellion? Some 700 years later, I still cannot make my own mind up and neither can most scholars.
The end result, planned or not, was a disaster for Bruce – the small support he garnered was smashed apart by the rout at Methven, so that only his own loyal retainers stayed with him. Yet, just as all seemed lost, the Cause recovered and, falteringly, began the long return to strength.
As ever, treat this as an uncovered cache of monkish scribblings which, when read by a flickering tallow candle, reveal fragments of lives lost both in time and legend.
If any mistakes or omissions jar – blow out the light and accept my apologies.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
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 massed ranks of Crecy and Agincourt – was a strategy still forming during the early Scottish Wars. Like all the Welsh, Addaf’s loyalty to the English is tenuous, especially since, in the years since his involvement in the craft of war, he has become a contract captain – a mercenary.
BADENOCH, Lord of
The Badenochs were of the Comyn family and known as Red Comyn, because they adopted the same wheatsheaf heraldry as the Buchan Comyns, but on a red shield instead of blue. Sir John, second Lord of Badenoch, died in 1302 – of what had happened to him while a prisoner in the Tower, it is alleged – leaving the title to his son. 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. Despite the fact that the Earl of Buchan was, in the hierarchy of the time, ranked higher in stature than the Lord of Badenoch, it was the Red Comyn who held the bloodline claim of the Comyn to the throne. His murder by Bruce and his men in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries in February 1306 spurred the Bruce lunge for the throne – and all that followed.
BANGTAIL HOB
Fictional character. One of Hal of Herdmanston’s retainers, a typical Scots retinue fighter of the period – Chirnside Rowan, Sore Davey, Ill-Made are names of others, the common men of Lothian and the Border regions, the March, who formed the bulk and backbone of the armies on both sides.
BELLEJAMBE, Malise
Fictional character, the Earl of Buchan’s sinister henchman and arch-rival of Kirkpatrick.
BEVERLEY, Gilbert of
A real character, though I have maligned him here. Mentioned in the 15th century epic poem on William Wallace by Blind Harry – which is one of the main ‘source’ documents for this period – Gilbert is probably Gilbert de Grimsby, whom Wallace’s men rechristened Jop. Described as a man ‘of great stature’ and already ‘some part grey’, he was a Riccarton man by birth and had travelled far in Edward’s service as ‘a pursuivant in war’ – though Harry says he consistently refused to bear arms. No doubt he was the ‘Gilbert de Grimmesby’ who carried the sacred banner of St John of Beverley in Edward’s progress through Scotland after Dunbar, a distinguished service for which Edward directed Warenne to find him a living worth about twenty marks or pounds a year. Whether he was a Wallace relation is unknown, though I have intimated that because of his stature, the fact that he came from Riccarton, a Wallace stronghold, and that he quit the army shortly after his twenty marks had been confirmed (on October 13 1296) and supposedly joined the rebels.
BISSOT, Rossal De
Fictional character, though I have made him a descendant of the family who helped found the Templar order. Aware of the secret machinations to undermine and destroy the Order, he is attempting to prevent this.
BRUCE, Edward
Eldest of the Bruce siblings and the most reckless, with ambitions of his own. Impatient and impulsive, he was the strongest and most loyal right hand Robert Bruce had, though his ambition was eventually his undoing. His other brothers – second oldest Niall and the youngest, scholarly Alexander – did not survive the struggle to put brother Robert on the throne and, of Bruce’s sisters, only Mary and Christina make an appearance here. Edward Bruce was eventually given the task of invading Ireland in the year after Bannockburn, a task he succeeded in, becoming High King of Ireland. However, in true rash style, he overreached himself once too often and died in the Battle of Faughart, 1318.
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 swear 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.