The Complete Kingdom Trilogy: The Lion Wakes, The Lion at Bay, The Lion Rampant
A NATION WILL FIGHT FOR ITS FREEDOM.Robert Low’s Kingdom Series on the making of Scotland, now available in one complete eBook for the first time and featuring a new and exclusive Author’s Note on the series.THE LION WAKESIt is 1296 and Scotland is in turmoil. The old King, Alexander III, has died and Scotland’s future is in peril. Edward I of England, desperate to keep control of his northern borders, arranges for John Baliol to take leadership of Scotland.But unrest is rife and many are determined to throw off the shackles of England. Among those men is Robert the Bruce, darkly handsome, young, angry and obsessed by his desire to win Scotland's throne. He will fight for the freedom of the Scots until the end.THE LION AT BAYAfter fleeing to France following his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk, William Wallace has returned to Scottish soil to face his fate. But Robert the Bruce now stands between him and the crown. Warring factions, political intrigue and vicious battles threaten at every turn. Both men face uncertain futures, their efforts thwarted by shattered loyalties, superstition and rumour.THE LION RAMPANTIt is 1314. Robert the Bruce has reigned for eight hard years, driving out his English enemies with fire and sword. Lives have been shredded by war – wives, daughters and lovers slain or imprisoned. His men have lost almost everything.But three great fortresses in the Kingdom remain under English rule: Roxburgh, Stirling and Edinburgh. Bruce must capture each stronghold after another to come face-to-face with Edward II, the English King humiliated by defeat and determined to put down his Scottish enemy once and for all. And the last great battle for the Scottish throne will be decided on a bloody field called Bannockburn.
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ROBERT LOW
The Complete Kingdom Series Books 1-3
Table of Contents
ROBERT LOW
The Lion Wakes
To my wife, who is the sun on my shiny water: without her, I don’t sparkle
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Author’s Note
List of Characters
Glossary
Copyright
Being a chronicle of the Kingdom in the Years of Trouble, written at Greyfriars Priory on the octave of Septuagisma, in the year of Our Lord one thousand three hundred and twenty-nine, 23rd year of the reign of King Robert I, God save and keep him.
In the year of Our Lord one thousand two hundred and ninety-six, the Scots decided they had had enough of King Edward lording it over them with his appointed Balliol king and so declared. The English came north with fire and sword and the Law of Deuteronomy at Berwick, so that the slaughter caused the name of that town to be used as a watchword and rallying cry for ever after.
The defeated King John Balliol was brought to Edward’s feet, to be stripped of crown and regalia, the proud heraldry of his rank torn from his surcote, so that he was known as Toom Tabard – Empty Cote – ever after. The coronation regalia of Scotland – the Holy Rood and the Stone of Scone – was seized, while the Great Seal was ceremonially snapped in half.
Then King Edward rode south, giving control of what he now thought of as his own lands to a governor, to keep the Scots in thrall to him.
A man does good work,’ he declared, washing his hands of the place, ‘when he rids himself of such a turd.’
But the Scots would not bow the knee … there was rebellion in the north under Moray, the east under Frazier, in the west under a brigand called Wallace. Scotland’s bishops were defiant. Sir William Douglas, who was called The Hardy for his boldness, and had defended Berwick against King Edward, was captured and then pardoned into the king’s peace on his promise to serve in the English army in France. Not long after, he slipped his bonds of oath and came to join the rebels.
Stung to action by this last, King Edward ordered his loyal subjects in Scotland to oppose these rebels and Robert Bruce the Younger, Earl of Carrick, was sent to Douglas Castle, to slight the fortress and take Sir William’s wife and bairns hostage.
But when the lion wakes, everyone must beware its fangs …
Prologue
Douglas, Lanark
Feast of St Drostan the Hermit, July 11, 1296
The worst part had been the dark. No moon, no stars, just the whispering of lost souls searching the wind for a way home, or a body to slither into for the memories of warm blood and life. There had been owls and he did not like owls, for they shrieked like Cyhiraeth, goddess of woodland streams, who wraiths through the dark screaming at those about to die.
Gozelo knew he should not allow himself to believe in such matters, being a good Christian, but his grandmother, old Frisian that she had been, had stuffed his head with such tales when he’d been younger. It only came out when he was ruffled and fretted and even God would have to admit that this country He had clearly forsaken did ruffle and fret.
Not the country so much as the Cloaked Man. Gozelo shivered and dragged his own cloak tighter round him, moving on into the silvered dawn and happy to see the light. He had been heading for Carnwath, held by the Lord Somerville – English or not, he was at least light and heat and, above all, safety – but the dark had put paid to that and Gozelo was now certain he had missed that place and was headed for Douglas.
He worried that a man limping in on foot would be sent away with a curse and a waved spear. A man on a horse had status while one slithering through the wet summer dawn on ripped shoes, with a cloak and tunic stained with hard travel, was nothing at all, even if he was a Flemish Master Mason from Scone. Not only that, Gozelo knew that Douglas was home to a nest of former rebels, who could not be trusted to keep out the ones he was sure now hunted him.
Something whirred and Gozelo started, looked wildly round and hurried on. He should never have taken the task but that old mastiff-faced Bishop Wishart had cozened him into it with flattery and promises of a fat purse. Not that making the piece had been difficult and Manon had seen to the carvings; Gozelo did not doubt now that the poor stone worker was dead.
Then the Cloaked Man had appeared with a cart and a worn horse for it and the Fleming realised that they were taking the original and leaving the cuckoo in its place. Manon, he had been told, was paid and gone already; that was when the chill, cold as altar stone, had sunk into his very soul.
‘We take this to Roslin,’ the Cloaked Man had said in French. ‘There you will be paid, both for your skill and to keep your mouth closed on this matter.’
