The Arrow: A Highland Guard Novel (The Highland Guard) (51 page)

I’m often asked why I haven’t written about Bruce himself, and the existence of Christian and her siblings is the reason. To my mind, Bruce is a great hero and would make a wonderfully complex historical
fiction
subject, but the presence of the natural children (some conceived when married to Elizabeth de Burgh) made it hard for me to envision him as a historical
romance
hero.

My descriptions of the attempted taking of Berwick Castle on the night of December 6, 1312, and the taking of Perth Castle the following month in January 1313, borrow heavily from the historical accounts, including the supposed first use of the inventive ladders and the barking dog at Berwick, and the broken ladder and the French knight who was in shock to see Bruce take the lead at Perth.

Ronald McNair Scott, in his book
Robert the Bruce
(Barnes & Noble, 1982, p. 134), quotes the French knight
as saying, “What shall we say of our nobles in France who think only to stuff their bellies when so renowned a knight will risk his life for a miserable hamlet?”

I pushed back the siege of Perth by a week or two, to give Gregor and Cate a Christmas together. The siege of Perth was said to have lasted several weeks (one source said as long as six), before Bruce broke camp and appears to have retreated, returning on the night of January 8 to take the town.

As is probably obvious from the story, I have a great deal of sympathy for men like Sir William Oliphant. By all accounts, honorable Scots found themselves through various understandable reasons on the side opposite Bruce. If you’ve read
The Recruit
, Sir Adam Gordon is a similar figure. These are men who were on the “right” side early in the war, fighting along Wallace for the patriot cause, but then for reasons of family alliances, honor, or circumstance found themselves on the “wrong” side against Bruce.

If Sir William was a little gun-shy to switch sides, I can understand why. Imprisoned in England for a year after Dunbar, he was released, rebelled again, heroically held Stirling Castle with a very small force against Edward I (and Robert the Bruce), and then, when he surrendered under what he thought were favorable terms, he was publicly humiliated before being tossed in the Tower of London for four years. When he was finally released under
mainprise
(kind of a medieval bail), it was with the promise that he would fight for Edward II against Bruce.

Although the tide had definitely changed for Bruce at this point, his ultimate victory was by no means assured. Bruce’s successes against the English in the period from 1306 to 1313 were mostly in minor skirmishes and through trickery. He had yet to test his army against the English in the pitched battle that would put a decisive end to the question. Were I Sir William, I think I’d be cautious about jumping ship, too.

There is some confusion about what happened to Sir William after the fall of Perth. Some sources say he was banished to the Isles, where he eventually died, and others have him as the William Oliphant who was given a barony by Bruce, signed his name to the declaration of Arbroath, and had a son (Walter) who would marry Bruce’s daughter Princess Elizabeth.

ClanOliphant.com
had a good explanation, suggesting that there were actually two Sir William Oliphants at the time, who were cousins and both fought at Stirling. The “gallant knight” Sir William who was in command and later held Perth was sent to the Isles, where he died, and it was the cousin who went on to lead the clan at Bannockburn, and later be warmly taken into the Bruce fold.

As I mentioned in the story, a high percentage of the garrison at Perth were Scots. What happened to those Scots after the surrender to Bruce is uncertain. Some sources say they were put to the sword while the English were allowed to go free, in a rare instance of Bruce executing those who stood against him. Others suggest that only a few of the leaders were killed.

When thinking of a fitting inscription for Gregor’s sword, I couldn’t resist the clan motto
S Rioghal mo dhream
—Royal is my race—given the identity of my heroine. One of the traditional origins of Clan MacGregor is that they were descended from Gregor, who was a son of Alpin and brother to King Kenneth MacAlpin (King of the Picts and first King of Scots). Another royal origin claim is that the clan descends from the kings of Alba. DNA data is supposedly consistent with the first Alpinian contention rather than the second.

Medieval sermons could apparently get quite graphic in order to frighten the listeners into compliance. The nun who gouges her eyes out and sends them to King Richard
when he is lusting after her, which I refer to in chapter six, is one of them.

And finally, the term Hogmanay to describe the Scottish New Year’s celebration was first recorded in the sixteenth century, but as one of the speculated origins is Norse, it conceivably could have been used much earlier.