Kingdom (70 page)

In reality, when it was discovered, in either late 1311 or early 1312, that Piers Gaveston had returned in secrecy from exile, into which he had been forced by the ordinances of the reformist Lords Ordainers, he and Edward fled to York. One chronicle states that Thomas of Lancaster, Aymer de Valence, Humphrey de Bohun, Guy de Beauchamp and the Earl of Arundel now formulated a secret plan to capture Gaveston. Lancaster was said to have openly demanded the Gascon be sent back into exile. The barons then moved north against the king and his favourite and besieged Scarborough Castle, which Piers was in command of. Piers eventually surrendered to Aymer de Valence, on the basis he would not be harmed. Valence took him to Oxfordshire, but it seems he was duped by his fellow conspirators, among them Lancaster, Warwick and Hereford, for Gaveston was wrested from him and taken to Blacklow Hill in Warwickshire, where he was executed.

The finger of blame for this act – which was actually performed by two Welsh foot soldiers – has been pointed variously at Thomas of Lancaster, Guy de Beauchamp and Aymer de Valence. After Piers’s death, England came close to civil war. It took a year before a tentative peace was made between the king and the barons involved, although, as portrayed in the novel, many of them refused to fight for him at Bannockburn, which proved Edward’s undoing. Piers Gaveston was laid to rest in King’s Langley in 1315.

Bannockburn

As mentioned, I’ve gone with the Dryfield site for the main battle. Another point worth noting is that some historians now think the schiltrom under the command of James Douglas and Walter Stewart was invented by John Barbour in order to bolster Douglas’s reputation. Also, some believe the so-called ‘challenge of Stirling’ Edward Bruce offered to Philip Moubray was made only a matter of months before the battle itself, not a full year. Moubray was apparently offered safe passage to ride out to Edward II and inform him of the situation in Stirling and the position of the Scots in the New Park.

After the battle, Humphrey de Bohun wasn’t taken from the field, but from Bothwell Castle, where he fled with Ingram de Umfraville.

Robert’s death

After securing Scotland’s independence from England in 1328, Robert died in Cardross the following year, aged fifty-five. He was believed to have been suffering with a disease for several years prior to his death, which some chroniclers said was leprosy, although this has never been proven.

He asked for his heart to be taken to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, a crusade undertaken by James Douglas, who carried it as far as Spain, where he died in battle against the Moors. James’s body was brought back to Scotland and Robert’s heart was buried at Melrose Abbey. It is believed it lies there still.

Robyn Young

Brighton

March 2014

CHARACTER LIST

(* Indicates fictitious characters, relationships or groups)

*ADAM: Gascon commander in a crossbow regiment of Edward I

*AFFRAIG: wise woman from Turnberry

*AGNES: laundress to Marjorie, Countess of Carrick

*ALAN: squire of Gilbert de la Hay

*ALAN: scout in Robert’s army

ALEXANDER III: King of Scotland (1249–86), brother-in-law of Edward I by his first marriage, died in 1286

ALEXANDER BRUCE: brother of Robert and Dean of Glasgow

ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL: father of John MacDougall, Lord of Argyll and Lorn

ALEXANDER SETON: lord from East Lothian and *cousin of Christopher Seton

ANGUS OG MACDONALD: Lord of Islay

ANTHONY BEK: Bishop of Durham

AYMER DE VALENCE: Earl of Pembroke, cousin of Edward I and brother-in-law of John Comyn III

BLACK COMYN (THE): Earl of Buchan and head of the Black Comyns

*BRICE: one of Neil Campbell’s men

*BRIGID: niece of Affraig

CHARLES DE VALOIS: French noble, uncle of Isabella

CHRISTIAN BRUCE: sister of Robert

CHRISTIANA MACRUARIE: Lady of Garmoran

CHRISTOPHER SETON: son of an English knight from Yorkshire and *cousin of Alexander Seton, married to Christian Bruce

CLEMENT V: pope

*COL: serving boy at Aberdeen Castle

*CONSTANCE: maid to Elizabeth at Pleshey Castle

*CORMAC: son of Lord Donough and foster-brother of Robert

DAVID OF ATHOLL: son of John of Atholl

DONALD OF MAR: son of Christian Bruce and Gartnait of Mar, Robert’s nephew

*DONOUGH: Robert’s foster-father and lord of the Bruce estates in Antrim

DUNGAL MACDOUALL: former captain of the army of Galloway

EDMUND: son of Edward I and Marguerite of France

EDWARD I: King of England (1272–1307)

EDWARD BRUCE: brother of Robert

EDWARD OF CAERNARFON: son and heir of Edward I, King of England (1307–1327)

*EDWIN: steward of Robert’s father in Writtle

ELEANOR OF CASTILE: first wife of Edward I, mother of Edward II

*ELENA: daughter of Brigid

ELIZABETH (BESS): daughter of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Humphrey de Bohun

ELIZABETH BRUCE: daughter of the Earl of Ulster, Robert’s second wife and Queen of Scotland

*EWEN: knight of Alexander Seton

*FERGUS: soldier in Robert’s army

GARTNAIT OF MAR: Earl of Mar, first husband of Christian Bruce, father of Donald

*GEOFFREY: royal knight

*GIL: prisoner at Berwick Castle

GILBERT DE CLARE: Earl of Gloucester

GILBERT DE LA HAY: Lord of Erroll

GILES D’ARGENTAN: English knight

*GILLEPATRICK: one of Angus MacDonald’s men on Islay

GUY DE BEAUCHAMP: Earl of Warwick

HENRY III: King of England (1216–72), Edward I’s father

HENRY BEAUMONT: knight in the court of Edward II

HENRY DE BOHUN: Humphrey’s nephew

HENRY PERCY: Lord of Alnwick

*HUGH: squire of Humphrey de Bohun

HUMPHREY DE BOHUN: Earl of Hereford and Essex, and Constable of England

INGRAM DE UMFRAVILLE: former guardian of Scotland

ISABEL OF ATHOLL: daughter of John of Atholl and his wife, the countess

ISABEL BRUCE: sister of Robert, marries Eric II and becomes Queen of Norway

ISABEL COMYN: Countess of Buchan, wife of the Black Comyn

ISABELLA OF FRANCE: daughter of King Philippe IV, wife of Edward II and Queen of England

ISOBEL OF MAR: a daughter of the Earl of Mar, Robert’s first wife and mother of Marjorie Bruce

JAMES DOUGLAS: son and heir of William Douglas, nephew and godson of James Stewart

JAMES STEWART: High Steward of Scotland

JOAN OF ACRE: daughter of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile, wife of Ralph de Monthermer

JOAN DE VALENCE: sister of Aymer de Valence and wife of John Comyn III

JOHN OF ATHOLL: Earl of Atholl and Sheriff of Aberdeen, married to a daughter of the Earl of Mar, making him Robert’s brother-in-law

JOHN BALLIOL II: Lord of Galloway and King of Scotland (1292–96), deposed by Edward I in 1296

JOHN COMYN III: Lord of Badenoch, head of the Red Comyns, married to Joan de Valence, killed by Robert in 1306

JOHN COMYN IV: son of the man killed by Robert

JOHN MACDOUGALL: Lord of Argyll and Lorn, cousin of John Comyn

JOHN OF MENTEITH: son of the Earl of Menteith

*JUDITH: maid to Marjorie Bruce

*KERALD: one of Christiana’s men on Barra

LACHLAN MACRUARIE: captain of the galloglass, half-brother of Christiana

LLYWELYN AP GRUFFUDD: Prince of Wales, killed during the 1282–84 conquest

*LORA: maid to Elizabeth Bruce

LOUIS D’EVREUX: French noble, uncle of Isabella

*LUCY: maid to Elizabeth in Burstwick Manor

*LUKE: infantryman in the army of Edward II

MALACHY (ST): Archbishop of Armagh (1132–37), canonised in 1199

MALCOLM: Earl of Lennox

MALCOLM III (CANMORE): King of Scotland (1058–93)

MARGARET: half-sister of Robert from his mother’s first marriage, mother of Thomas Randolph

MARGARET (THE MAID OF NORWAY): granddaughter and heir of Alexander III, named Queen of Scotland after his death, but died on the voyage from Norway

MARGARET DE CLARE: sister of Gilbert, niece of Edward II, wife of Piers Gaveston

MARGUERITE OF FRANCE: sister of Philippe IV, second wife of Edward I and Queen of England

MARJORIE BRUCE: daughter of Robert and Isobel of Mar

MARJORIE OF CARRICK: Countess of Carrick, Robert’s mother, died in 1292

MARMADUKE TWENG: English knight

MARY BRUCE: sister of Robert

MATILDA BRUCE: sister of Robert

*MATTHEW: knight of Aymer de Valence

*MAUD: maid to Elizabeth in Burstwick Manor

MAURICE: Abbot of Inchaffray

NEIL CAMPBELL: a knight from Argyll

*NES: former squire to Robert, made a knight

NIALL BRUCE: brother of Robert

NICHOLAS TINGEWICK: royal physician to Edward I

*NICOLAS: guard at Pleshey Castle

*NIGEL: infantryman in the army of Edward II

*OSBERT: guard at Roxburgh Castle

OSBOURNE: blacksmith at Kildrummy Castle

*PATRICK: one of Angus MacDonald’s men

*PATRICK: Robert’s servant

PHILIP MOUBRAY: commander of Stirling Castle

PHILIPPE IV: King of France (1286–1314), father of Isabella, cousin of Edward I

PIERS GAVESTON: a Gascon knight in Prince Edward’s household, made Earl of Cornwall

RALPH DE MONTHERMER: royal knight in the court of Edward I, married to the king’s daughter Joan, stepfather of Gilbert de Clare

*RANULF: steward of Humphrey de Bohun at Pleshey Castle

RICHARD DE BURGH: Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connacht, father of Elizabeth

ROBERT BRUCE V: grandfather of Robert, competed for the throne of Scotland, died in 1295

ROBERT BRUCE VI: father of Robert, former Earl of Carrick

ROBERT BRUCE VII: Earl of Carrick, Lord of Annandale on his father’s death and King of Scotland (1306–29)

ROBERT CLIFFORD: royal knight

ROBERT KEITH: royal marshal in Robert’s court

ROBERT WINCHELSEA: Archbishop of Canterbury

ROBERT WISHART: Bishop of Glasgow

*ROLAND: soldier at Kildrummy Castle

RUARIE MACRUARIE: half-brother of Christiana

*SIM: guard at Roxburgh Castle

*SIMON: doorward of Edward I

SIMON FRASER: Scottish nobleman and rebel

SIMON DE MONTFORT: Earl of Leicester, led a rebellion against Henry III, died in battle with Edward, his godson, in 1265

THOMAS OF BROTHERTON: son of Edward I and Marguerite of France

THOMAS BRUCE: brother of Robert

THOMAS OF LANCASTER: Earl of Lancaster and nephew of Edward I, cousin of Edward II

THOMAS RANDOLPH: son of Margaret Bruce, Robert’s half-nephew

*TOM: squire of Alexander Seton

WALTER STEWART: son of James Stewart

*WILL: knight of Alexander Seton

WILLIAM LAMBERTON: Bishop of St Andrews

WILLIAM OF ROSS: Earl of Ross

WILLIAM WALLACE: leader of the Scottish rebellion against Edward I in 1297, executed in 1305

YOLANDE OF DREUX: second wife of Alexander III and Queen of Scotland

GLOSSARY

BASINET
: a close-fitting helmet, sometimes worn with a visor.

BRAIES
: undergarments worn by men.

COAT-OF-PLATES
: a cloth or leather garment with metal plates riveted to it, worn under the surcoat.

COIF
: a tight-fitting cloth cap worn by men and women, it could also be made of mail and worn by soldiers under or instead of a helm.

CROWN OF ARTHUR
: a coronet worn by the princes of Gwynedd, most notably Llywelyn ap Gruffudd who styled himself Prince of Wales. Edward I seized the crown along with other important Welsh relics during the 1282–84 invasion and sent it to Westminster Abbey.

CURTANA
: also known as the Sword of Mercy because of its symbolically broken tip, it was thought to have belonged to St Edward the Confessor and became part of the English regalia used in coronations.

DESTRIER
: a warhorse.