AUTHOR’S NOTE

Although the “wild” epitaph is my addition, Fynlay Lamont was the head of the Ardlamont branch of the Lamonts during this period. His exact date of death is not known, but it was sometime before 1315. He did indeed have a son named Ewen. Very little is known about the Ardlamont branch of the clan, including from whom they were descended, but it is said that they were vassals of Stewart and “may have fought in Bruce’s bodyguard at Bannockburn” (see ). It’s references like this that make me start to believe my own fiction!

The Chief of Lamont at the time, Sir John, supported the MacDougalls against Bruce. As a result the Lamonts, who had been the dominant clan in Cowal in the thirteenth century, saw their fortunes decline, with much of their land going to—surprise!—the Campbells. The resulting feud between the Lamonts and Campbells would last for hundreds of years; as readers of Highland Warrior might recall.

Wild Fynlay’s abduction of his chief’s bride is my fictional explanation for the apparent ill will between the two branches of the clan. Ewen is said to have been killed years later by his relatives and the MacDougalls for his loyalty to Bruce.

Serendipitously, in my research I came across an undated charter from between 1309 and 1325 by John de Menteith (the betrayer of Wallace who later supported his kinsman Bruce) to Ewen for some land in return for the “service of one bowman in the common army of the King of Scotland” that was witnessed by none other than Arthur Campbell (The Ranger). (See “An Inventory of Lamont Papers” at .) I love when things like that happen.

The name of Ewen’s wife has not been recorded, but he had a son named James, which, as it doesn’t seem to be a popular Lamont name at the time, could conceivably be in honor of the Ardlamont’s vassal lord, Sir James Stewart.

As I mentioned in the Author’s Note of The Recruit, Mary of Mar was alternatively referred to as Mary, Marjory, and Margaret, and as there seem to be some inconsistencies in some of her references, it gave me the idea of having Mary be two people. Thus “Janet,” her twin sister, was born.

I knew from the outset of writing the Highland Guard series that I wanted one of the books to emphasize the importance of the church to Bruce’s ultimately successful bid for the crown. When I came across a reference in the Calendar of Documents (basically a compilation of primary source documents from the period) to an alleged foiled plot to capture Bruce at a peace negotiation, I knew this was a perfect mission for my “nun” heroine and what I dubbed the couriers of the cloth.

There were actually two peace negotiations held over the winter of 1310–1311. The first was at Selkirk on December 17 (my birthday!), with Sir Robert Clifford and Sir Robert fitz Pain. The second was to be in Melrose in January, with the earls of Cornwall and Gloucester, but Bruce supposedly was warned of treachery and failed to show up. In the interest of my story timeline, I decided to combine the two parleys into one.

This is how one innocuous reference in a letter can inspire a story. From the Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, Volume III, 1307–1357, page 39, an anonymous letter to the king dated February 19:

Note also how Bruce is referred to as simply “Robert de Brus,” not Sir Robert or the Earl of Carrick (titles he enjoyed before the “usurping” of the crown) and certainly not “King Robert.”

I must admit, as a former lawyer, the character who can talk her way out of anything is particularly close to my heart. When I found out the name Lamont derived from the Norse for “lawman,” I knew exactly what Janet was going to have to do with her skills. Alas, I had to make her a legal “advisor,” as I wasn’t able to find any evidence of female lawyers in this period. Even an advisor is anachronistic, but I like to think Janet would have made it work. The letter she alludes to in the epilogue is a precursor to one of the most famous documents in Scottish history, the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, the letter to the pope that confirms Scotland as an independent nation.

The family of Mar was one of the most important in Scotland and, as we’ve seen before, was very well connected. Mar was one of the original eight “Mormaers” of Scotland, which later became known as the Earldom of Mar. “Janet’s” father, Domhnall (Donald), was the 6th Earl of Mar; her brother Gartnait, the 7th; and her nephew—another Donald—who was also the son of Bruce’s sister, was the 8th. This is the young Donald who appears in The Viper and is being raised in Edward II’s household along with his cousin the young Earl of Atholl in The Recruit. In addition to Isabella, who was Robert the Bruce’s first wife, and Duncan, who may have been married to Christina MacRuairi (the Lady of the Isles), there was possibly another brother, Alexander.

Walter Stewart did indeed marry Princess Marjory Bruce, Robert and Isabella of Mar’s daughter, after she was released from her eight-year captivity in 1314. Walter’s date of birth ranges anywhere from 1292 to 1296. I went with the earlier date, as it fit my plot better. In any event, he was old enough to marry Alice Erskine before he married Marjory in 1315.

Tragically, Marjory died from a riding accident less than two years after her release while heavily pregnant. The child survived and, after the death of Bruce’s only son, King David II, would eventually be crowned Robert II, founding the dynasty of Stewart kings who would reign Scotland and later—tons of irony here—England! Readers of Highlander Untamed might remember this “Union of the Crowns,” which takes place in 1603 at the end of that novel.

Edward II’s invasion of Scotland over the summer of 1310, featured in both The Recruit and in The Hunter, was anticlimactic to say the least. You almost have to feel sorry for poor Edward. Not only did he have the “Hammer of the Scots” legend of his father Edward I to live up to, and the constant problems with his barons, but he put together an army for presumably his triumphant defeat of the Scots and marched into Scotland only to find no one to battle. There were some skirmishes, but for the most part, Bruce engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse and refused to meet him in a pitched battle. As I was writing, I kept picturing Edward looking around yelling, “Come out, come out wherever you are!” Edward II is also the king who was defeated by his wife, imprisoned, forced to abdicate, and possibly killed by having—as legend has it—a hot poker stuck up his bum. Yikes! Sometimes—as Mel Brooks fans may appreciate—it is not good to be the king.

When I decided to make “Sister” Janet speak Italian in The Recruit, I didn’t realize what a can of research worms I was opening for The Hunter. What language people would have spoken at the time turned out to be a surprisingly involved question.

In Scotland, Gaelic was certainly spoken in the Highlands and the West, as well as in Galloway, and possible among the peasants in other parts of the country as well. Northern Middle English (which would become the “Scots” tongue) and Norman French would have been prevalent in the towns. The “Greater Lords” probably would have spoken Norman French or Northern Middle English. Robert Bruce is thought to have spoken Gaelic, Norman French, and Northern Middle English and to be literate in classical Latin, as were most of the nobles of his time.

With all this in Scotland, I assumed Italy would be much easier, but it proved surprisingly complicated given the large number of regional dialects and the emergence of Italian as a distinct language from Vulgar Latin. I made it even harder on myself by making Janet a pseudo-nun, as Latin stayed around longest in the church.

The Italian language developed in the early Middle Ages from what is known as Vulgar Latin. The word vulgar as used in this context means “common,” and Vulgar Latin refers to the Latin that is spoken “of the people.” Classical Latin by this time is mostly written. Vulgar Latin was transforming into the various Romance languages certainly by the eighth century, but as Italian is the closest Romance language to Vulgar Latin, it isn’t as easy to pinpoint when it became distinct.

It was around the late thirteenth century that the distinction was becoming more evident in the writings of people such as Dante Alighieri. Dante is often referred to as the “Father of the Italian Language,” and he wrote the Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1321, so you see the problem. I kept waffling on whether to call it “Italian” or “Vulgar Latin” or “Tuscan,” being unsure how they would have referred to it at the time. I eventually decided just to go with the familiar “Italian.” Believe me, by this time I was wishing I’d made Janet mute!

The meeting at Dundonald Castle between the kinsmen is my invention, but the squabbling among the noblemen is not. It is a precursor to an incident known as the “Capitulation of Irvine.” The capitulation, which took place on July 7, is definitely not a high point for Scottish noblemen in the long Wars of Independence, especially as it relates to William Wallace.

Wallace began his famous uprisings in May of 1297 by allegedly killing the Sheriff of Lanark. Very quickly he was joined by William “the Hardy” Douglas. The two had some early success in further attacks and were joined by some other noblemen, including a young Robert Bruce and James Stewart. Apparently, Bruce had been dispatched by Edward I to attack Douglas’s holdings for his rebellion and decided instead to join the rebels.

Alas, the confederacy was not a long one. When the nobles were ordered by Edward to appear at Irvine to submit, the English and Scots gathered for a battle. As the probably apocryphal story goes, there was so much fighting on the Scots side that the English simply turned and left! The alternative, that the Scots’ squabbling led to their submission, is probably more likely. It is speculated that some of the noblemen had a problem following Wallace, who at the time wasn’t even a knight.

This ignominious capitulation by the noblemen was even worse in that it came only a couple of months before Wallace’s great victory at Stirling Bridge on September 11, 1297. Many of the Scot noblemen who capitulated at Irvine were on the English side of that battle, including James Stewart, who then supposedly went back to the Scot side when he saw Wallace and Andrew Moray were winning the battle. As I have mentioned before, it’s probably easiest just to sum it all by saying that there was a lot of going back and forth by the Scot nobles in the Wallace years (1296–1305).

As I mentioned in the prologue, the families of Stewart, Menteith, Douglas, and Bruce were all descendants of Walter, the 3rd High Steward of Scotland, which probably explains why later both Stewart and Douglas were early supporters of a Bruce kingship. Alan, Earl of Menteith, was as well, but the young earl (his father, Alexander, had died in 1304) was captured at Methven in 1306 and died in prison. His brother and successor, like the young earls of Mar and Atholl, seems to have been held as a hostage in England.

Interestingly, and what influenced the prologue, is that the Lamonts of Ardlamont were Stewart’s men and the main branch of Lamonts were Menteiths. There was certainly discord between the two branches of Lamonts, but whether there was discord between Stewart and Menteith, I don’t know. I’d like to think so, since the “Lambies,” as the Lamonts have been referred to in history, are sometimes held responsible for the death of Wallace’s father. Moreover, John “the False” Menteith, Alexander’s younger brother, will forever be known in history as the man who turned William Wallace over to Edward I in 1305. If you’ve seen the movie Braveheart, you know the result of that.

St. Drostan’s Day was held on December 15 or 16. Drostan was a Celtic monk who lived in Scotland in the sixth century. He was possibly a member of the Irish royal family (or a Welsh prince) and was a disciple of the famous Saint Columba. Drostan founded the monastery of Old Deer in Aberdeenshire. St. Drostan’s fairs were known to have been held at Aberlour in Moray for three days and at Old Deer in Aberdeenshire for eight days. Given the strict penitence that was usually observed during Advent, the timing is unusual, but it must have been one of those times when custom won out—at least in those villages. That there would have been a fair in Roxburgh is my conjecture.

A few quick notes. There was indeed a hospital at Rutherford in this period, founded by King David (1124–1152) and dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, patron saint of the Knights Templar. And the village of Cuingealach, where Janet and Ewen try to buy a horse and run into English soldiers, is today known as Wanlockhead. It is known as Scotland’s highest village, at over 1,500 feet.

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