AUTHOR’S NOTE
 

The character of Gregor MacGregor is fictional. I wanted to base him on a real person, but I was ultimately defeated by the lack of primary source material, and the inconsistencies and gaps in the genealogical charts and clan histories of the time.

The first accepted Chief of Clan Gregor is “Gregor of the Golden Bridles,” who appears on the scene sometime in the mid-fourteenth century. However, there do appear to be “MacGregors” (possibly referred to as MacAlpin at that time) in the traditional three “MacGregor Glens” of Gelnstrae, Glenorchy, and Glenlochy in the thirteenth century, and there is a reference to a John of Glenurchy (Glenorchy), who fought on the patriot side with Wallace and the Lord of Lorn at Dunbar in 1296. John of Glenurchy was taken prisoner after the disastrous Scot defeat, ordered to fight for King Edward in France, and died there, leaving only a young heiress, Margaret (Mariota).

This is where the record becomes very confusing. Margaret, who would have had to be born before 1296/7, was supposedly given in wardship to Neil Campbell (one of Bruce’s staunchest supporters and the brother of Arthur “The Ranger”) and was eventually (again supposedly) married to Neil’s son with Mary Bruce (the king’s sister), Iain/John Campbell, who gained with the marriage the lands of Glenorchy and possibly the barony of Loch Awe—in other words, the MacGregor lands. (Other sources suggest that the barony was given to Sir Neil and then passed to his first son [by a Crawford wife], Sir Colin.) This will be the first claim by the Campbells to MacGregor lands, which in later centuries will spawn a vicious feud and serve as the subject of my Campbell Trilogy.

Neil Campbell and Mary Bruce weren’t married until after her release from imprisonment (she was one of the women hung in the cages by King Edward), which means John couldn’t have been born until c. 1314. This John Campbell was named the Earl of Atholl by the king after the defection of David Strathbogie (Mary’s son in The Recruit), and most records have him married to Joan Menteith (with no reference to Margaret). If John was married to Margaret before Joan when he was very young, she must have died before he married Joan. John Campbell died at the Battle of Halidon in 1333, without issue from either wife, and it seems at this point the lands returned to the MacGregors. In 1390, another John MacGregor of Glenorchy was back on record as the owner of the property at his death.

So what were the MacGregors doing between the death of John of Glenurchy c. 1297 and the appearance of Gregor of the Golden Bridles in the mid-fourteenth century?

The short answer is that it’s hard to say. Clan histories, historical sources, and genealogical sources are all over the place.

A couple of the sources suggest that the MacGregors were not happy about the Campbell claim to their lands through the heiress Margaret and elected a nephew of John of Glenurchy’s named Gregor as chief. At this point, the MacGregors held the glens by “right of sword,” but they were eventually pushed off their land until they were mostly limited to the area of Glenstrae.

Still other sources, including the great historical fiction novelist Nigel Tranter, assert that there was a chief named Malcolm at the time of Bruce who came to the king’s rescue on his white steed when fleeing the kingdom in 1306, fought at Bannockburn carrying the relics of St. Fillan, and was gravely injured in 1318 at the battle in Ireland when Edward Bruce died. He was possibly the father of Gregor of the Golden Bridles. This Malcolm “the lame lord” is said to have died at an advanced age in 1364.

There are a couple of big problems with this. Aside from clan histories, the evidence of these MacGregors is a mention of Malcolm and Patrick of Glendochart in Ragman Rolls of 1296 (“Malcolum de Glendeghrad” is how the name actually appears). An early nineteenth-century Scottish historian, Donald Gregory, believed they were MacGregors—and apparently many later historians jumped on this—but my go-to historian for the period, Barrows, suggests they were MacNabs.

There are two questions I can’t answer. Even assuming that this hero Malcolm was a MacGregor, how was he related to John of Glenurchy (the chief who was taken prisoner at Dunbar and later died in France)? Was the Glendochart family a different branch, or was Malcolm the son or brother of John of Glenurchy, as some suggest? A son seems very unlikely, given Margaret as the heiress, so a brother makes more sense.

The more difficult question, and why it doesn’t make sense to me that “Malcolm MacGregor” could have been tied so closely to Bruce, is that if he had been, why weren’t the MacGregors rewarded for his support and loyalty like everyone else? It’s clear that the MacGregors (like the Lords of Lorn and MacNabs, with whom they were associated) lost their lands and standing after the Wars of Independence, with Glenorchy going to to the Campbells, at least for a while, and Glendochart going to the Menzies. The really frustrating thing is that many historians write about Malcolm MacGregor as a loyal Bruce adherent, and then in practically the same sentence talk about how the clan’s fortunes changed after Bannockburn without explanation.

Ultimately, I decided to steer clear of the whole thing by making my Gregor the chieftain of a cadet branch of the family—Malcolm’s nephew—and leaving out references to Chief Malcolm’s alleged heroics. I did, however, get a little inspiration from a possible grandson of Gregor of the Golden Bridles named (surprise!) Gregor—his sobriquet was Gregor Aulin, meaning “perfectly handsome.” How about that! Gregor Aulin was the progenitor of the MacGregors of Roro (“Ruath Shruth,” meaning red stream) in Glenlyon, so that’s where I put my Gregor.

The Dunlyon tower house in the story is fictional, as I couldn’t find any references to early MacGregor strongholds in the area.

The character of Cate is loosely based on Christian of Carrick, one of Robert the Bruce’s six (at least) natural children by various mistresses. Little other than her name is known—making her perfect for my purposes—except that she was receiving a pension in 1329.

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.

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.