Heart's Thief (Highland Bodyguards, Book 2) (24 page)
Read Heart's Thief (Highland Bodyguards, Book 2) Online
Authors: Emma Prince
As a writer of historical romance, it is my great privilege to weave together fact and fiction. In this book, I had the opportunity to set the love between the fictitious Colin and Sabine in the very fascinating and factual historical events of the summer of 1315.
In late June, 1315, Robert the Bruce attempted to siege Carlisle Castle. The castle sat just across the border in northwestern England, but the Bruce had grown bold after retaking much of the Scottish Lowlands from the English after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 (see my note at the end of
The Lady’s Protector
(Highland Bodyguards, Book 1) for more on Bannockburn and England’s ineffectual King, Edward II).
The Bruce’s streak of victories finally ended with Carlisle. Though he marched ten thousand men from Lochmaben, they were unable to take the castle. More than that, nearly everything went wrong. Though it was no doubt an astounding failure, it is my invention that foul play or spying was involved.
The Bruce had left his siege machines (trebuchets, siege towers, and such) in Lochmaben, perhaps because he wanted to move with speed and assumed his huge force of men would be enough to overtake Carlisle, which was only defended by a few hundred men. However, when they tried to scale the walls, their ladders sank into the mud, and they were met with an onslaught of arrows and thrown rocks from those defending the castle. So great was the volley of arrows and rocks that one account from the time period notes that it was almost as if the castle defenders’ stones bred and multiplied inside the walls.
After five days of attempting to scale the walls, the Bruce ordered a trebuchet and a siege tower (a structure as tall as the castle’s walls that could be pushed next to the castle so that men could walk right over the walls) to be hastily constructed. They rained blows on the castle with the trebuchet for three days, but barely made a dent. And the summer had been so cursed with rain that the ground was boggy and muddy. The trebuchet, ladders, and siege tower all got stuck in the mud, rendering them immobile and useless.
The Scots then attempted to use a tactic that had helped them take Edinburgh castle a year before. On the ninth day of the siege, they focused their energies attacking the east side of the castle. Meanwhile, James “Black” Douglas, one of Robert the Bruce’s right hand men, snuck around to the west side with a small group of men and attempted to scale the walls. But perhaps the English had heard of the tactic, for they fired arrows at Douglas and his men relentlessly until they were forced to retreat.
On the eleventh day, the Bruce decided to cut his losses and abandon the siege on Carlisle. He and his men returned to Lochmaben frustrated, defeated, and likely muddy.
Although the weather seems like just plain bad luck, at least some of the credit for the Bruce’s defeat should be given to Andrew Harclay, who is very much a real historical figure. Harclay was the constable of Carlisle Castle, and clearly ensured that it was well prepared and stocked for the Bruce’s siege, despite having a much smaller force of men at his disposal.
Historians are divided on whether Harclay was simply lucky in defeating the Bruce at Carlisle, or if he was actually an intelligent, honorable man. Later in 1315, he was indeed kidnapped and held for ransom by Robert the Bruce, who extracted two thousand marks in payment for Harclay’s safe return. One can only imagine what the two men discussed as the negotiations for ransom payment were made.
Without giving anything away (Harclay, Lancaster, and the Bruce’s dealings with each other will continue to provide the backdrop for future Highland Bodyguards series books!), I will add that Harclay was knighted by the Earl of Lancaster, but eventually turned against Lancaster for making a secret alliance with the Bruce (again, you can learn more in my note for
The Lady’s Protector
), thus committing treason against England’s King Edward II. However, in a strange twist of fate, Harclay would later find himself in a similar situation, caught between the Bruce and Edward II. You can’t make this stuff up, people!
On to the war in Ireland. After the Scots’ success at Bannockburn, the Bruce sought to chase his remaining enemies even further away, and divide England’s troops, resources, and energies by bringing the battle to Ireland. Though there were other, complex reasons to take the fight to Irish soil, the one that fascinates me most is that the Bruce believed that all people of Celtic descent could be united against the English. He felt that the Irish (and the Welsh) had been subjugated in similar ways that the Scots had been by the English. Due to their shared ancestry, Celts across national borders could and should be united.
The Scottish invasion of Ireland proved difficult and problematic, however. Robert the Bruce sent his younger brother, Edward Bruce, to fight against the English, and those among the Irish who were allied with them, in May 1315.
I based the Bruce’s missive and the strategic relocation of Edward Bruce’s forces away from Louth and to the north on an actual event. One of the Scots’ English-allied Irish enemies laid a trap for Edward, hoping to lure him into an ambush. Although the missive from Robert the Bruce was fictitious, somehow Edward Bruce avoided the trap and instead moved north, which had been left wide open. He claimed several towns and villages for his cause as a result of that fortuitous move.
After three years of hard-fought battles, however, the Scottish cause in Ireland failed. They were unable to hold areas they’d conquered, and worse, they had sustained themselves by pillaging, which slowly turned the local people against them. Though the Bruce may have had both strategic and noble intentions for invading Ireland, ultimately the Irish people paid a steep price. Again, no spoilers (though you can always just Google it, I suppose!), but the war in Ireland also cost Edward Bruce dearly—that bit of history will come back for a later book in the Highland Bodyguards series!
A few smaller notes on the historical elements I included. When Sabine spun her first lie to Osborn and Colin, she said she was going to Lincluden Abbey. This is a real place that served as a nunnery in the medieval era, though it is only about a mile from Dumfries. I stretched the distance a bit to give my characters more time and space to roam.
The bridge I mentioned over the River Nith in Dumfries is also real. Devorgilla’s Bridge was named after Lady Devorgilla de Balliol, the mother of King John Balliol, the short-term King of Scotland and Robert the Bruce’s one-time rival for the throne. She had a wooden bridge built across the river in the middle of the 1200s, which was later replaced with stone.
In the Medieval era, as today, information was power. The transmitting, stealing, buying, and selling of information was no doubt on the minds of thieves, spies, and Kings alike. As far as I have researched, my portrayal of how a sealed message could be opened is accurate, though I never encountered anything on the “counter-intelligence” technique of using sap or tar on the flaps, as I mention at the end of this story. For more on the history of parchment, please see my note at the end of
Highlander’s Return
(Sinclair Brothers Trilogy, Book 2.5).
Thank you for journeying back in time with me, and I hope you enjoyed reading my story as much as I did researching and writing it!
Thank you for taking the time to read
Heart’s Thief
(Highland Bodyguards, Book 2)!
And thank you in advance for sharing your enjoyment of this book (or my other books) with fellow readers by leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Long or short, detailed or to the point, I read all reviews and greatly appreciate you for writing one!
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Highland Bodyguards Series:
Book 3 (Finn’s Story) coming December 2016!
The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy:
Highlander’s Redemption
(Book 2)
Highlander’s Return
(Bonus Novella, Book 2.5)
Highlander’s Reckoning
(Book 3)
Viking Lore Series:
Enthralled
(Viking Lore, Book 1)
Shieldmaiden’s Revenge
(Viking Lore, Book 2)
The Bride Prize
(Viking Lore, Book 2.5)
Desire’s Hostage
(Viking Lore, Book 3)
Thor’s Wolf
(Viking Lore, Book 3.5)—a Kindle Worlds novella
Other Books:
Highland Bodyguards Series:
The Lady’s Protector
, the thrilling start to the Highland Bodyguards series, is available now on Amazon!
The Battle of Bannockburn may be over, but the war is far from won.
Her Protector…
Ansel Sutherland is charged with a mission from King Robert the Bruce to protect the illegitimate son of a powerful English Earl. Though Ansel bristles at aiding an Englishman, the nature of the war for Scottish independence is changing, and he is honor-bound to serve as a bodyguard. He arrives in England to fulfill his assignment, only to meet the beautiful but secretive Lady Isolda, who refuses to tell him where his ward is. When a mysterious attacker threatens Isolda’s life, Ansel realizes he is the only thing standing between her and deadly peril.
His Lady…
Lady Isolda harbors dark secrets—secrets she refuses to reveal to the rugged Highland rogue who arrives at her castle demanding answers. But Ansel’s dark eyes cut through all her defenses, threatening to undo her resolve. To protect her past, she cannot submit to the white-hot desire that burns between them. As the threat to her life spirals out of control, she has no choice but to trust Ansel to whisk her to safety deep in the heart of the Highlands…
The Sinclair Brothers Trilogy:
Go back to where it all began—with Robert and Alwin’s story in
HIGHLANDER’S RANSOM
, Book One of the Sinclair Brothers Trilogy. Available now on Amazon!
He was out for revenge…
Laird Robert Sinclair would stop at nothing to exact revenge on Lord Raef Warren, the English scoundrel who had brought war to his doorstep and razed his lands and people. Leaving his clan in the Highlands to conduct covert attacks in the Borderlands, Robert lives to be a thorn in Warren’s side. So when he finds a beautiful English lass on her way to marry Warren, he whisks her away to the Highlands with a plan to ransom her back to her dastardly fiancé.
She would not be controlled…
Lady Alwin Hewett had no idea when she left her father’s manor to marry a man she’d never met that she would instead be kidnapped by a Highland rogue out for vengeance. But she refuses to be a pawn in any man’s game. So when she learns that Robert has had them secretly wed, she will stop at nothing to regain her freedom. But her heart may have other plans…