Insurrection: Renegade [02] (67 page)

The relics and the prophecy

The Staff of Malachy (also known as the Staff of Jesus) was revered by the Irish because it was believed to be connected with St Patrick. Malachy was forced to pay for possession of it when Niall Mac Edan relinquished control of Armagh’s diocese, but after this point my plot diverges from the staff’s actual history, as in reality it was moved to Dublin in the late twelfth century. Here it remained until the sixteenth century, when it was burned as a superstitious relic.

King Edward did remove the Stone of Destiny from Scotland during the invasion of 1296, but Robert’s part in the theft is fiction, although he was in the service of the king at the time. The stone was conveyed to Westminster Abbey and set in the Coronation Chair. In 1950 it was stolen and returned to Scotland, then found and brought back, before being officially presented to Edinburgh Castle in 1996. The Crown of Arthur was taken during Edward’s conquest of Wales in 1282–84 and presented at the shrine of St Edward the Confessor. In
Insurrection
I have it taken later, during the uprising of 1294. The Sword of Mercy was used in English coronations.

The
History of the Kings of Britain
and the
Prophecies of Merlin
were written in the twelfth century by Oxford scholar Geoffrey of Monmouth, who claimed to be translating the prophecies from an earlier source. His works include some of the first portrayals of King Arthur and Merlin, which gave birth to generations of Arthurian romances. They were hugely popular and Edward is known to have had copies. The
Last Prophecy
is my invention, but Monmouth suggested there were others that hadn’t been translated. In a passage in Monmouth’s
History
an angelic voice foretells that the Britons will not rule their kingdom any more until a certain time when the relics of the saints are gathered. I’ve connected this with Edward’s confiscation of royal and sacred objects during his conquests.

Edward was clearly interested in Arthurian legend. He and Queen Eleanor reburied the bones of Arthur and Guinevere at Glastonbury. He organised Round Table tournaments and had his own Round Table made, which you can see in Winchester Castle. The Knights of the Dragon are fictitious, although the members are real. The dragon banner is authentic – Edward commanded Aymer de Valence to ‘raise dragon’ when he sent him north against Robert in 1306, a signal that there was to be no mercy.

The death of Alexander III and the Scottish succession

I’ve spoken of Alexander’s demise in my author’s note for
Insurrection
, but to summarise: chroniclers of the time and modern historians regard his death on the road to Kinghorn as an accident. The murder is pure fiction. That said, we can never truly know what happened that night since the king was separated from his escort and his body wasn’t found until the next morning. The fact that Alexander was thought to have mooted the possibility of a union between his granddaughter and heir and Edward’s son and heir in 1284, but that when he married his second wife any offspring they produced would have rendered this proposition meaningless, led me down the
what if
route. Similarly, there is no evidence that the Maid of Norway’s death was anything other than a tragedy, the princess thought to have died eating rotten food on the voyage to Scotland, not through any design of the Comyns.

While Robert’s grandfather had a claim to the throne of Scotland by blood, he was also said to have been named heir presumptive by Alexander II; however I’ve made more of this than was made at the time. Robert acquired the earldom of Carrick in 1292 shortly after John Balliol was appointed king by Edward, but it was his father who inherited the family’s claim to the throne. However, Robert was accused of aiming at the crown as early as 1297 and so I chose to have the legacy passed directly from his grandfather to him.

Robert in Ireland

In
Insurrection
Robert resigns as guardian of Scotland immediately after the clash with John Comyn at the council of Peebles in 1299, before heading to Ireland in search of the staff. In reality he resigned early in 1300 and retired to Carrick. We hear nothing of him until late summer 1301, when Prince Edward attacked Turnberry Castle, but some historians believe it is possible Robert visited his estates in Ireland during this time, where he may have met the daughter of the Earl of Ulster, Elizabeth de Burgh.

All of what happens to Robert in Ireland is fiction, since we know nothing of him during this period. His foster family is fictitious, but he had possessions in Antrim that would have been in the care of a vassal and there are hints in the records that both Robert and Edward Bruce were fostered to a Gaelic magnate in youth. Lord Donough is an amalgamation of these men and Cormac is the foster-brother we later see in sources fighting alongside Robert in Scotland.

In St Bernard of Clairvaux’s
Life of St Malachy of Armagh
, the monastery of Ibracense is mentioned as being founded by Malachy before he became Archbishop of Armagh, but its location is unspecified. Some archaeologists believe the ruins on Church Island, Lough Currane (old name: Lough Luioch) are those of the monastery, but this is disputed.

Robert’s surrender to King Edward

John Balliol’s transfer into papal custody was part of the treaty brokered between England and France through the arbitration of Pope Boniface VIII, and his subsequent release was orchestrated by Philippe IV. William Wallace spent a year at the French court trying to persuade Philippe to support the Scottish cause and the king recommended him to the pope. We don’t know if Wallace visited the papal curia, but it is possible.

In 1302, Robert surrendered to Edward, almost certainly because Balliol seemed set to return to the throne with the aid of Philippe: a disastrous prospect for Robert. He didn’t travel to Westminster with Ulster as I have it, but gave himself up to the English warden of Annandale and Galloway. Edward accepted Robert into his peace and the marriage with Elizabeth de Burgh was agreed. The Earl of Ulster was an ally of the Bruce family prior to the war and Edward’s chief magnate in Ireland, but the secret pact between Robert and his new father-in-law is fiction. Still, Ulster wasn’t the most subservient of vassals and Edward was forced to pardon the earl’s considerable debts in order to acquire his service in the 1303 campaign.

I place Robert at his father’s home in Writtle after the surrender, but it’s likely he would have been in Scotland for some of this time, especially after Edward made him Sheriff of Lanark and Ayr. Robert fought for Edward during the campaign of 1303; sent with Aymer de Valence to counter the rebels under John Comyn and on the mounted raid into Selkirk Forest, although this latter force was led by Robert Clifford and John Segrave, not Humphrey and Aymer. The warning to the rebels is fiction, but Wallace did manage to evade his enemies.

After the Battle of Courtrai, which heralded the end of John Balliol’s hopes of returning to the throne, it seems Robert once again had his eye on the crown. An intriguing document survives from 1304, at the siege of Stirling, in which Robert and William Lamberton make some secret contract. The text is vague, but historians interpret it as evidence that Lamberton and Robert were establishing the connection that would lead to Robert’s coronation.

The guardians

When Robert resigned as guardian, Lamberton and Comyn remained in the position, with Ingram de Umfraville soon joining them. In 1301 a man named John de Soules was appointed sole guardian, but the next year he was part of the Scottish delegation that went to Paris to persuade Philippe to continue to support their cause and John Comyn once again took up the role. To simplify the various permutations, I’ve removed Soules, who remained in Paris. James Stewart was also part of this delegation, so his appearances in Scotland at this point in the narrative are fictional, although his lands were attacked by Ulster’s forces.

The capture of William Wallace

William Wallace had returned to Scotland by 1303, when he was once again active in the rebellion. Robert’s plan to join forces with Wallace is fictitious. Edward is reported as being ill in 1304, after the fall of Stirling, and Robert was probably just waiting for his death before moving on the throne, well aware of the weaknesses of the king’s son and heir.

Edward ordered the Scottish magnates who surrendered in 1304 to hunt down Wallace and he was eventually captured outside Glasgow by John of Menteith. According to later chroniclers, documents found on Wallace at the time of his capture implicated Robert in a conspiracy against Edward. There is, however, no contemporary evidence for this.

The plot masterminded by the Comyns to reveal Robert’s treachery is fiction. Neither is there any evidence that John Comyn himself aimed at the throne, although he had a claim to it, passed down from his father whose claim was recognised by Edward at the time of the trial to find Alexander’s successor. Wallace’s execution is based, unfortunately, on fact.

Robert’s betrayal of Edward

The historian G.W.S. Barrow says: ‘Without more evidence than we possess at present, it is impossible to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to Comyn’s murder and from there to Bruce’s coronation’ (
Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland
, p141). Such uncertainty inevitably makes this point difficult to reconstruct in a narrative, but I’ve mostly gone with the sequence put forward in John Barbour’s epic poem
The Bruce
, written forty-five years after Robert’s death, since it worked well with the fictional elements of the novel. The poem has some great, albeit probably fabricated touches, such as Ralph de Monthermer warning Robert, through the pair of spurs, that he was about to be arrested and should run.

Barbour and other chroniclers say that Robert Bruce and John Comyn, unhappy with Scotland’s plight, entered into a pact that if Comyn helped Robert become king, Robert would give Comyn his lands. Comyn then betrays Robert’s intentions to Edward, which leads to the retaliation at Greyfriars. There are similar versions, most dismissed by historians as fiction, but there seem to be elements of truth here, for more reliable chroniclers speak of Robert’s attempt to ally himself with Comyn in order to win the crown, an attempt Comyn spurned which led to the showdown at Greyfriars.

What appears in the novel is an amalgamation of these various accounts, with the chronology altered. In none of the accounts does Edward move to arrest Robert immediately after Wallace’s execution, although he does seem to have grown suspicious of him around this point. Robert’s escape from Westminster is fiction, as is his taking the Staff of Malachy and the fictitious prophecy box. As an interesting aside, however, the crown jewels were stolen from Westminster Abbey in 1303.

The murder of John Comyn

Accounts once again differ, according to the bias of the chronicler, when it comes to the murder of John Comyn. In reality Robert and Comyn arranged to meet at the church of the Greyfriars in Dumfries to talk, possibly about Robert’s plan to take the throne, whereas in the novel Robert’s appearance is a surprise to Comyn. We don’t know exactly what happened next, but it seems there was an argument and Robert attacked Comyn with his dagger. There followed a skirmish, involving several of Robert’s companions, including Christopher Seton, and Comyn was mortally wounded. According to some sources he was killed in two stages. After the deed was done, Robert seized Dumfries’s castle and began his march to the throne. He was inaugurated six weeks later.

Chronological changes

I’ve moved Edward’s siege of Caerlaverock from 1300 to 1301 in order to merge the campaigns of those two years, but much of what occurs, including Winchelsea’s appearance with the papal order and Prince Edward’s raid in Carrick, is based on fact.

The Scots attacked Lochmaben in 1301, but my account is heavily fictionalised. Likewise, Edward did make his son Prince of Wales that year, but at the Lincoln parliament rather than on campaign.

Edward’s daughter, Elizabeth (Bess) died in childbirth, but much later, in 1316, and although Joan of Acre’s affair with Ralph de Monthermer and their subsequent marriage is based on fact, it occurred several years earlier than portrayed.

Other chronological changes include the treaty between France and England that excluded Scotland being made in the autumn of 1303, when in reality it was made in the summer. Edward appointed Robert Sheriff of Lanark and Ayr a few months earlier than portrayed and Robert’s brothers were granted their new positions the following year. The massacre at Bruges occurs slightly earlier in the novel and Robert’s father died in April 1304, several months later than I have it. Although he surrendered to Edward with the other magnates in 1304, James Stewart didn’t receive his lands back until late in 1305, after Wallace’s death. Prince Edward was knighted by his father at Westminster in 1306 in the run-up to the reprisal against Robert, but slightly later than depicted, and Christopher Seton and Christian Bruce were already married by the time of Robert’s coronation.