O' Flower of Scotland-A Scotland The Old Gods AAR

mike the knight said:

Such a misery thie result Let us hope new challenges arise close to home as rumours say

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Good to see you back Mike the Knight. The next post is a mega one in terms of what happens and length...watch this space :rofl:

Omg. Really? Revan86 you are like one of my AAR heroes. I always read yours and think to myself 'now that's writing! How can I improve my own haha

I really do appreciate your kind words. I will strive to make it even better.

Hey guys or anyone who's reading this. Sorry it's been awhile re updates. At the moment I am halfway through writing a particularly big one. I may split it down to make it more manageable though. However my partner's on hols as he works in the education system so am doing more couple stuff and haven't really had time to attend to this

I will get back to it though-promise

Award winning treatise on Ewan I of Scotland (1117-1192)

By Professor George A MacAilpin

Written 1977

Ewan the Great?


When I came to study this most long lived of Scots Kings, who died in his sleep aged a venerable (by the standards of the day) 75, it is necessary to divide his reign post Crusade (1163-1192) into a number of distinctive chronological elements:

1. Post Crusade Standing in the world (1163-5)
2. Heretical movements (Cathar, Waldensian and Fraticelli)
3. Expansion into England (1171-2)
4. Earl of Buchan’s uprising (1172-3)
5. Search for a successor (1174)
6. The Argyll question (1175-1177)
7. Destruction of the Kingdom of Wales (1178)
8. The Financial Growth of the Kingdom of Scotland (1170-90)

The marvellous thing about researching this particular king is that not only are there many contemporary surviving accounts of his reign but Ewan himself was a man of letters and many of them have been preserved for posterity. Where possible, therefore, I will colour the historical narrative below with the words of the man himself.

1. Post Crusade standing and epithet ‘The Great’

There is no doubt that Ewan’s place in the world was greatly enhanced by his contribution to Pope Agapetus’s great crusade against the heathen Slavs of Poland in 1162. There is also no doubt that the Scots King was highly disillusioned by its highly unsatisfactory conclusion-at least for him. Chroniclers have indicated that Ewan was coming under increasing pressure to make good his security at home with expansion abroad and the fact that he contributed the full measure of Scottish, Irish and Welsh levies to the enterprise spoke volumes. There was even one of the many religious uprisings in Moray whilst the crusade was underway but, being financially solvent at the time Ewan merely raised a force of mercenaries to crush it.

Of the gloomy aftermath St Ives de Forcell tells us:

The King was much wroth with the lord and with the Holy Father in so much as he had seen his great plans thwarted. Upon his return to his realms he shut himself away with his wife and with his brother for many days such that their sweet words could salve the pain of the imagined wounds to his pride and lofty ambitions…

When Pope Agapetus proclaimed, in 1165, that he was, from thenceforth, to be known as ‘The Great’ Ewan must have laughed bitterly. Certainly there is no known record of him ever using such an epithet or indeed of any royal records ascribing that moniker to him. Maybe the greatest irony of all and one that would no doubt have amused the King hugely is that, actually by the time of his passing he had done much to actually earn this title as will be evidenced in the rest of this treatise.


2. Heretical Movements (Cathar, Waldensian and Fraticelli)

Throughout Ewan’s long reign there were numerous religious uprisings. It is true that Ewan had inherited his father’s zeal for catholic orthodoxy but, in himself, there is also evidence that had these incipient movements been practised in private this most temperate and forgiving of Kings may well have let them be. Let us not forget that Ewan himself dabbled in certain elements of mysticism so his own faith was flexible to say the least. Nonetheless the frequent and persistently violent uprisings seemed to stir a passionate zealousness in him and he tasked his Lords Spiritual with the stamping out of heresy throughout the realms.

Wales was the crucible of Waldensian beliefs and at one point it was so pervasive that even his older brother Robert, was briefly converted (as were Robert’s two elder sons, Kenneth and Lachlan).

The Cathar heresy centred on Northeast England but from there also spread to Lothian. The main tenet of this saw Satan taking his place as an equal to God in a dualist world-clearly anathema to mainstream catholic thinking in the 12th century.

The Fraticelli were extreme proponents of the rule of St Francis of Assisi and like the Waldensians believed that the extreme wealth of the church was a scandal. The roots of this particular heresy were in Northern Ireland.

Ewan’s bishops and especially his Royal Chaplains spent the entirety of his reign working extremely hard to convert bishops, lords and the people back to the one true faith. It is maybe a measure of his temperate nature that Ewan resisted throughout his life pressure from the Holy See to let loose the inquisitors and force people to convert


Here is an excerpt from a letter by the King in January 1175 to his Chaplain Bishop Magnus of Rosemarkie urging him to redouble his efforts in Wales:

To my Lord Bishop Magnus-word reaches me of your wanderings in South Wales. There are many there methinks who may try and inveigle you as my older brother was once inveigled. I would that you may bend all your strength to that great task to which you have been assigned by God and by your King so that all may once again drink from the loving cup of Jesus Christ our saviour.

Our Holy Father has once more entreated me to use all means to stamp out these heresies-his meaning is clear-through burning and inquisition. I have written that we shall use Scots methods to root out Scots heresies but the Pope is nothing if not tenacious.

If you love me my Lord Bishop then write soon and bring me more joyous tidings such that my soul may be more at repose for the spiritual weal of all my subjects.

Ewanus R*

3. Expansion into England (1171-2)

Chroniclers write of the King’s intentions towards England at the turn of the decade that:

The King of Scots gathered his martial valour and looked towards unquiet England…(Marianus Scotus)

Throughout the latter part of the 1160s Ewan had bided his time waiting for an opportunity to strike at their old foe. He had a De Jure claim to Devon already but in 1171 it was not at Devon that Scots armies struck but rather the English County of Chester through the private levies of the Duke of Gwynedd. At that time the young Duke was a mere boy so there is little doubt that, though Ewan denied any direct responsibility, he was behind this brazen land grab. The fact that the English King, Byrhtnoth II was engaged in a damaging war with one of his most powerful barons, the Duke of York, clearly also had much to do with it.

When later in the year the Duke of Lothian’s levies struck at Cumberland there could be no doubt of the Scots King’s plans.

It will have come as no surprise to Byrhtnoth when, in the autumn of 1171, Ewan himself declared war for Devon-England, as a united Kingdom, could out muster the Scots by almost 2:1 but a war on four fronts Byrhtnoth could not win…by the end of the following year all three English counties were in Scots hands.

The Duke of Cornwall-Tydy who had been one of the stalwarts of Queen Myfanwy of Wales’s ill-fated reign and who had never held much love for a King who he saw as a usurper and foreigner but who had, over the years, through leading Ewan’s armies on crusade and then being appointed to his Council, been slowly won over-was forever indebted to his Liege Lord for restoring his full demesne. Tydy was to serve his King loyally from hence until his death eighteen years later.


4. Earl of Buchan’s Uprising (1172-3)

Having successfully led a crusade, crushed several revolts soon after accession and expanded his territories into England one might think that Ewan would rest easy amongst his own nobility. It was not to be-though warned by his spymaster, Duke Tydy, of a major faction led by Buchan (who was also Earl of Tyrconnel) that had encompassed the Countess of Galloway and also his nephew’s daughter, Duchess Euna of Albany, Ewan was slow to respond. Indeed he was drawing up plans for a great feast when news reached him of the revolt.


The war was ostensibly to force Ewan to lower his crown authority-he had responded to what must have been an ultimatum from the plotters with a celebrated letter, some of which I append below:

To my Lord of Buchan
You have sent sundry proclamations that set out where my authority has restricted yours with a peremptory demand that I agree to a charter lowering my own rights in favour of yours.

I see that my gracious and generous rule feels more like the yoke of a tyrant to you-very well, My Lord, I will see to it that from heretofore you and yours and your fellow conspirators-traitors I call them-will indeed feel the heel of my boot.

It is not for Barons, sir, to make demands of their King. Only the Lord God commands me and it is only to him that I submit. I am, however, a kind and temperate master and will accept you freely back into the bosom of the realm if you should recant of these foolish demands.

Your King

Ewanus R*

On the 8th Day of January in the year of our Lord 1172

One week later Ewan had his answer when all of the central belt of Scotland rose in rebellion. In total five Scots counties, Buchan, Atholl, Strathearn, Clydesdale and Galloway along with Tyrconnel in Ireland answered the rebel lords summons.


The rebels had not properly thought through the timing of their revolt as at the very time they raised their banners there was a large Scots Army in the field led by the King’s half Brother Prince Macbeth. It had originally been formed to take Devon for the Duke of Cornwall but, having achieved that aim it had tracked northwards as it harried several smaller English armies and now found itself in the ideal position to stymie the uprising.

Macbeth was never a leader who lacked for initiative and taking advantage of the slowness of the rebel armies to converge he took them on piecemeal, winning decisively a number of engagements in the summer of 1172. By the autumn Macbeth had broken the back of the revolt and his army had settled in to a long siege of Buchan’s principle stronghold at Ellon Castle. Within a year the exhausted and starving garrison were surrendering thus ending what was possibly the most significant threat to Ewan’s reign.

The King was not predisposed to being magnanimous and in keeping with how he had always dealt with traitors during his reign he immediately stripped Matthew Mac Giric of his principle earldom of Buchan. Countess Cecilia of Galloway likewise lost her title and Duchess Euna of Albany became plain old Euna Mac Ailpin. All were also imprisoned at Scone Castle. There were some Prelates who argued for some clemency for Euna at least-she was his nephew’s daughter after all but the King hardened his heart. Through his long reign there was always a constant: the King could forgive all trespasses except rebellion. Clement St Clement, a notable contemporary chronicler noted his response to his own Chaplain’s entreaties to release his grand niece:

‘Let her rot!’

Euna died in Ewan’s dungeons in 1179 one year after her co-conspirator and great lady, Cecilia of Galloway.


Matthew Mac Giric, still titled the Earl of Tyrconnel, was, however, one of life’s great escape artists and was released in the final year of Ewan’s reign and appointed to the King’s Council tasked with maintaining the realm’s burgeoning spy network. All his lands were also returned to him-providence indeed!

5. The Search for a Successor (1174)

Many have noted the extreme closeness of the King and his brother, the ever-dependable and doughty Marshall, Prince Thomas, Duke of Munster. Throughout his reign there were many gifts and favours bestowed on the Prince and his family-one of the most notable being the bequeathing of great titles and lands in the form of the Duchy of Galloway and Earldom of Caithness to Thomas’s sons where Ewan’s own sons received nothing but good marriage contracts. Some have said that this is a puzzling aspect of Ewan’s reign but his behaviour is not so odd if taken in the context of the Elective Monarchy that existed in Scotland, which dictated the King promote the most able member of his dynasty in order to persuade his Dukes to fall in behind his choice. The failure of King Laurence I to get his vassals to support his daughter Bethoc, Queen of England, is an object lesson in how careful the monarch had to be. As far as apportioning lands and titles, when the King gave them out in the early 1160s he was in a position to do so, his eldest was then part of the Court of Lower Lorraine through marriage and unable to accept demesnes in Scotland-his other sons were either not yet born or too young.


As it turns out Ewan’s second son, Kenneth, did not turn out to be what he might have hoped despite being personally tutored by the King himself. His hunchback did not help either and though not necessarily an impediment in the real sense of the word such a defect would not have endeared him to his vassals or indeed the common people who valued a wholesome form and beauty very highly in their royalty.

And so it was that the King’s brother remained his heir until his own death in September 1174. The great lord had been overseeing the recruitment of more troops to the Royal Levies in Moray when he had been struck down ‘as if by lightning’ according to a contemporary report.

When news was brought to the King it is said that his grief was truly heart-breaking to witness. The king shut himself away in his private chambers for several days-only exiting to attend the funeral rites and invest his brother’s son as Duke of Ulster.

A poem the King wrote about his loss survives and gives some measure of the strength of his grief:

Full sadly this song I sing of myself,
of my own experience. I can assert
what trials I bore, since I grew up,
or new or old, were never more than now.
Ever I suffer the pain of my exile.

First my brother from his folk hence
over the wild waves went. Dawn-cares I had
as to where in the land my lord might be.
When I set out a retinue to seek,
a friendless exile, for my woeful plight,
that man's people began to plot,
through secret schemes, to sunder us,
so that most widely in this world apart
we should dwell wretched; I was ill at ease.

My Tom bade me here my dwelling to hold;
loved and loyal friends in this land I
owned few; for this my soul is sad.

It seems that Ewan and his brother had already determined who would next be the King’s successor, given that none of their own many sons showed the right mettle they had approached their own Half-Brother Macbeth Mac Ailpin whose Spanish mother, Aliénor Di San Lucido, was the second wife of their mutual father. Having been raised as a Royal Prince on equal terms with his older half-siblings it was the logical step to nominate Macbeth as King-elect. The Lords of Scotland, Ireland and Wales quickly swung behind this vote. We must also remember that Macbeth had already proved himself leading Royal Armies both in capturing English territory and protecting the realm from rebellion-no this was not a leader that there would be any doubt could succeed the old King when he should finally pass.

In October 1174 Ewan let it be known that his electoral vote would go to his younger half brother. By the end of the year all his Dukes had made it clear that they too would support Macbeth for the throne as and when the time came.

6. The Argyll Question (1175-1177)

Keeping Scottish territorial integrity was of extreme importance to Ewan. He had come to the throne determined to wrest back the counties of Thomond, Dyfed and Devon-all held by foreign kingdoms. He not only prosecuted these little wars to win them back but he did so with extreme vigour. To that end it will have come as a huge shock to him when the Scots territory of Argyll suddenly passed out of Scottish rule to the powerful Byzantine Empire. It is said that the King flew into one of the famous Mac Ailpin rages when his Chancellor told him what had happened. Here is an excerpt from Shakespeare’s ‘King Ewan I’:

Radulf Dunbar: My Lord King suffer my soul to impart these dread tidings but Argyll, that fertile land that you have loved, is lost to the Greek.

Ewan: Friend-what’s that thou sayest? Lost? This is some jest encompassed in the bawdy house-speak again man-what of Argyll? Speak again.

Radulf: I spoke true my Lord-‘tis lost to the Greek…

Ewan: Villain! Get thee gone from my sight [beats Radulf with his sceptre]-I lay on you as I will lay on the invading gorbellied giglet Greeks. Begone Sir and return ye not ‘til they are driven from this realm!

But how had this happened? It would seem that unbeknownst to the King’s extensive spy networks the Swedish Earl Kâre of Argyll, had died childless on November 1169 thus bequeathing his lands to his brother’s son Doux Porphyrios of Bosnia by dint of the fact that his brother had married into the lesser nobility of the Byzantine Empire-and matrilineally at that.

It seemed that after his initial rage and upset with both his Chancellor and Spymaster, Ewan had bided his time, reckoning that the mighty Byzantine Empire would hardly be troubled to send armies to wrest back a solitary territory on the other side of the known world.

In October 1175, with the Empress, Basilissa Hypatia, embroiled in putting down several revolts and prosecuting yet another major war with the Turks in Anatolia, Ewan adjudged the time was right to strike. Amassing the largest army ever seen on Scots soil, numbering, contemporary sources say, fully up to 27,000 and under the command, once again, of Prince Macbeth, he struck at Argyll, quickly overcoming all Byzantine resistance and nominally returning the County to Scots rule.

After two years had passed Ewan might have been forgiven for thinking that he had got away with it. A massive fleet of transports, cogs and barracks swiftly put paid to such complacency. 25,000 Byzantine troops embarked unopposed off Oban whilst Macbeth force marched his own host to meet the threat from Inveraray, where the Royal Army had been billeted for the last twelve months.

The two armies met outside the hamlet of Dunollie, five miles from Oban between the Lochs Feochan and Nell. It was the largest battle ever fought on Scottish soil. The Scots under Macbeth, marginally outnumbered the foreign army led by Doux Phokas ‘The Quarreller’ but it was in the compositions of the army that a clue to the outcome of the battle was to be found. Whereas the Scots were vastly superior in heavy infantry (10,000 to the Byzantine’s 4,000), the Easterners fielded fully 5,000 heavy Cataphractai cavalry and well over 3,000 horse archers. The troop type that would best be able to counter this huge armoured threat were the excellent Scottish Schiltrom units but Macbeth only possessed 1500 of these…it was not nearly enough and with the Scottish Prince surprised by the concentration of all the Byzantine heavy cavalry and horse archers on one flank only-that of the Lord Marshall-when the Cataphracts crashed upon the Scots left aided by a withering hail of arrows from their supporting horse archers, the game was up. Even as the Scots centre and right advanced in good order putting the Byzantines under considerable pressure the Scots left flank was crumbling…


It is a measure of the generalship of Macbeth that not only was the Byzantine commander, Phokas The Quarreller, slain in battle but the Scots were able to extract around a third of their number in reasonable order and evade the furious pursuit that then ensued. On hearing the dread news a day later Ewan immediately sent envoys suing for peace-it was a war that he knew that he could not win…not yet at any rate. He was not about to bankrupt the realm for the sake of his wounded pride and the coffers were not far from being empty. It must, therefore, have been a massive relief that word reached him soon after that his offer of peace had been accepted. There would be no further attempts to win back the county in his lifetime. It is said that he forced his successor, Macbeth, to swear that he would bend his will to win back the territory, reminding him that it was he who had lost that terrible battle between the Lochs.


Much has been written of the effect that this crushing loss had on the King’s state of mind with one contemporary report describing Ewan as entering into a ‘strange malady of spirit’. The Abbott of Scone-himself a famous chronicler reported:

The King didst endure for a whole year and more an ague of the mind and was not of sound spirit-didst wander the palace grounds in merely a night shift in the full glare of the day crying ‘Macbeth! Macbeth! Give me back my Schiltroms!’


7. The Destruction of the Kingdom of Wales

Though there were to be no more major military adventures in the great king’s lifetime, Ewan had one more significant political task to do. For many years he had let it be known that he did not consider the Kingdom of Wales to be on a par with those of Ireland and Scotland. It was no secret either that from a dynastic perspective it was far harder to hold onto three kingdoms than to two. And so it was that in the summer of 1178, not long after finally snapping out of the deep depression (some say madness) that he had fallen into post Dunollie, that he summonsed his Welsh Dukes, Deheubarth, Gwynedd and Cornwall, to inform them that from henceforth their little kingdom would become part of Scotland.

Gwynedd was a cousin of Ewan’s and high in his favour-Tydy of Cornwall was forever indebted to his liege after Royal Armies had reclaimed Devon for him. From these two great lords there was not so much of a whisper of discontent. Deheubarth departed the royal palace with a stipend of almost 100 Gold Crowns-a tidy sum of money in those days-something in the region of £1,000,000 in todays money.

If the great lords of Wales were bought off so easily there is no doubt that throughout the valleys of Powys and the lowering mountains of Gwynedd the common folk lamented the loss of their ancient kingdom:

Do you not see the path of the wind and the rain?
Do you not see the oak trees in turmoil?
Cold my heart in a fearful breast
For the kingdom, the oaken door of Aberffraw

(Lament for Wales c12th Century. Author unknown)


8. The Financial Growth of the Kingdom of Scotland (1170-90)

Finally no account of Ewan’s reign would be complete without a mention of the healthy financial state that he left the realm in when he passed in the autumn of 1192. He actually bequeathed to King Macbeth a sum of 1708 Gold Crowns (around £17m). It should be remembered, however, that such was the rude health of Scotland’s exchequer that Ewan had commissioned the building of a new town in the province of Gowrie. The town was to be called Clunie. The cost of building the new town was reckoned to be around 800 Crowns so this gives some idea of how much the treasury was producing. It should also be noted that, at this time, there was a Scots standing army of 3000 and that Ewan was still putting down periodic religious revolts-the most recent being a Fraticelli uprising in Tyrconnel in 1189.

Afterword: the ‘Cares of a Great King’

The twilight years of Ewan were spent mourning the loss of great friends and family. His stalwart Chancellor, Radulf Dunbar of Leinster passed away in October 1178 and despite appointing that great man’s son, Walter, to the post there was a sense in court of an era passing. Leinster had been Ewan’s chancellor for as long as he had reigned. Duke Tydy of Cornwall-his mainstay in the South-West-his Crusader and finally his Spymaster, had followed Radulf to the grave in January of 1179. The King himself had written:

And nowst can I encompass the evils of this long life-to see those pillars of my world being one by one removed…

Worse was to come: his beloved daughter Bethan, who had married the King of Galicia died in April 1190 aged only 28. The king was said to have been beside himself with grief. She was followed by Ewan’s 29 year old son Kenneth in May 1192, upon whom he had laid so much hope when he was a child but who had, in the end turned out to be something of a disappointment. Ewan had never stopped doting on him nonetheless.


It is said that this was the bereavement, above all, that broke the old King’s spirit-Marianus Scotus describes him being ‘bowed by the cares of a great king’. He retired from public view from this time and was never to return to it. Ewan I-a monarch equal to his great forebears Kenneth I and Bethoc I, died peacefully in his bed on the 26th September 1192. The mourning bells of Scotland rang for fully fourteen days to commemorate his passing.

I will sign off this essay with an excerpt from Nigel Tranter’s award winning ‘Ewan The Great’ trilogy-it gives a flavour for the character and spirit of a truly great man, King, warrior and father:

Morien turned to his friend and was surprised to see tears glistening on his cheeks. The frailty and vulnerability that were suddenly etched in stark relief on Ewan’s face were heart-breaking for that stalwart to see. ‘My friend what ails you so?’ He asked solicitously.

Ewan reached out to grasp the Baron by the hand ‘so many have passed Morien-my son, my daughter, wives, my brothers, friends. It has been my curse to outlive so many.’

‘I am here my King-as I have always been’ Morien gripped his liege’s hand as if they were walking into the very gates of hades.

‘Tell me true My Lord Baron-was I-was I a good King?’ The King sobbed-as if after all his achievements, now at the final winter of his reign he suddenly doubted himself.

‘Oh my Liege you have not been a good king-you have been a great king-one whose name and deeds will echo down throughout the centuries-you mark my words!’

‘I know you would not lie-you have made an old man-an old King content.’

And they hugged each other close-Morien only releasing Ewan when he could be sure, at last, that the older man finally slept. He would never hear his friend utter another word for he was to finally pass to a place that some would say was a better one in the warm and fragrant evening of that sorrowful day.

RiotPipe said:

Fantastic AAR! Just finished reading it.

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Awww that's really kind of you RiotPipe. Good to have a new fan on board

Idhrendur said:

You're right, that was a long update. Well worth waiting for, though.

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Hopefully not too long for you mate? It was a long reign and I just thought best to properly capture it's glory in a semi-historical piece

Will hopefully post the next one this weekend. Thanks for the support

mike the knight said:

Wow! Such an update really I loved too the battle but I can not understand our dear old King really ,he hated his life ven before his children fell dead

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Quirks of the game Mike-he actually fell into a depression post Battle of Dunollie and didn't in fact come out of it until the year before he died...I can understand in the context of the crushing defeat on home soil + the gradual erosion/deaths of all his nearest and dearest. That's what I tried to write into the essay

Hope you enjoyed it?

mike the knight said:

At least he has his Kingdom yet I totally enjoyed it offtopic note.Have you seen my new AAR?

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Ooh good stuff! No I haven't-checking it out now mate!

FlyingDutchie said:

Great AAR I must say. Especially like the occasional switch in style. Subscribed!

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Hey thanks FlyingDutchie: good to have you on board. Am enjoying your Castille AAR too

30th January 1198

Guest Apartments of the Royal Palace at Scone, Gowrie

Nerys Hamilton-Morcar was, as always, the first up in the Duchess’s entourage. As the Senior Lady in Waiting for Her Grace, Helen Mac Ailpin, Duchess of Meath it was her job to ensure the others were up and bright-eyed, tasks assigned, ready for tending to their mistresses needs. On this frigid January morning Nerys only had to awake two of her companions as the Duchess and her husband, Prince Macbeth, had travelled light, being guests of their royal master, the King himself. She clucked and tutted as she roused first Morgilla MacVeigh, lesser daughter of one of the minor baronial houses in Meath, then the rather silly and immature Rachel Brown, who was really not much better than a scullion. Still she had her uses Nerys mused-as long as they were far from her she didn’t much right mind what she did-anything to escape that heinous whinnying laugh and terrible manners.


‘Up girls! The Duchess will want the bed a-warming this cold day! Morgilla down to the kitchens to warm some irons for the clothes. Rachel off with you to light the fires-we do not want our lady freezing to death ‘ere she arises-quick! Snap to it!’

As usual there was much groaning and moaning. The cock had not yet crowed and light was not yet showing beyond the palace’s eastern windows. Nerys had arisen, as usual, to the church bells striking Lauds. The bells were, of necessity, as regular as sunrise and sunset and so was she. She had a strange affinity with the early morning times, such that she arose without the need for waking by a guard well before that particular bell chimed.

Clutching her sable coat around her to ward off the cold she went to rouse her lady. She had been her faithful servant for more than ten years, had been with her through good times and bad. The bad times had encompassed a thirteen-year marriage to a bitter, careworn husband who though he professed to cherish her and had provided her with four offspring on whom to dote, had also assailed her with his biting tongue and, on occasion, a fist. Of course it was at first seen as a great match: she was marrying the King’s firstborn son after all-this would be prize for any highborn lady in any of the three Celtic Kingdoms-one that would be whispered about, giggled at and imagined in every girls fantasy. Except Macbeth had turned out to be a bit of a dud when compared to his dashing younger brother, Uhtred, Duke of Munster. He was the one that always bested Macbeth in martial games just as soon as he was strong enough, out-thought him in his studies, out-schemed him in myriad childish plotting and it was to him that their father quickly turned to succeed him, once he had come of age, leaving the eldest son a simmering cauldron of resentment and rage. So yes she had paid him the marital debt when called upon, more out of a sense of duty than anything else and she had three lively boys and a spirited daughter to call her own: John a haughty twelve year old, his younger brother Waldeve, ten-much more even-spirited. The irrepressible seven year old Marthoc-she who was convinced that she would be a great heiress and then little Duncan who was only four and just beginning to see the world in a more independent light. No it was not her children who were the problem in her life Helen had oft confessed to Nerys…

Gathering up her brushes so that she could sit and attend Helen of Meath’s dark tresses-such beautiful hair she had never known-she approached the Duchess’s bedchamber with a little lurch of anticipation. No she would surely know if he was there. And yet…and yet when she had first discovered her mistresses little secret, just over a year ago, it became apparent that she had not known all of Helen’s affairs least of all that she was having an illicit affair with the King himself-her own father by law…

If Nerys disapproved of this behaviour she did not let it show-never mind what the Church’s teachings say about such liaisons. Nerys shuddered at what they might have said about a woman giving herself to the father of her spouse, King or not. She remembered unhappily the time that she had plucked up the courage to allude obliquely to it to her Confessor-he had not been impressed, urging her to influence her mistress (if it was indeed ‘her mistress’ he had added slyly) to repent of her sins lest the fires of eternal purgatory awaited.

She knocked gently, ‘My Lady-are you awake?’

‘Come’ Came the gentle if sleepy response. Nerys entered the darkened room, glad for the taper that she used to quickly light the lamps that banished some of the gloom.

‘My lady-good morrow to you. I have the girls preparing warm clothes and stoking the fire in your ante-room. Shall I brush your hair out?’ This was a daily ritual-the answer was always the same:

‘Of course Nerys-will we be attending Prime this morning?’

‘If my Lady wills it.’

Helen of Meath was a beautiful woman by the standards of the time-she sat up in the bed revealing a fine figure and ample bosom. Her long raven coloured hair framed a pretty oval face . Her eyes, though, reflected a certain world-weariness. Here at least she could be herself with her favourite Lady in waiting: they had no secrets. With her husband, however, she was the very model of deception-the fool had appreciated some of this quality and had even asked her to advise his own Ducal Spymaster-sad that he had not the wit to realise that he was being cuckolded by his own father.

‘Have you come to pray for my imperilled soul Nerys?’ She asked wryly, ‘You don’t think I miss the downward turn of your mouth and that scowl when he visits me?’

‘My Lady’s happiness is my own’ Nerys answered simply ‘it is not for me to judge.’

‘You have your views for certes Nerys-have told me of them many times. He is kind to me is all I will say-a moment spent with him is worth a lifetime with his son I assure you.’

Fussing now over her brushing Nerys confined herself to a terse nod-she did not-could not approve of this sinful tryst, nor of her mistress effectively turning herself into the King’s harlot but if it made her happy then she could not gainsay her.

‘Let us talk of other matters My Lady.’

Helen was relieved to consent-this was difficult ground for them and without doubt had put a strain on their friendship.

‘How does my little one?’

‘Duncan is fine mistress-Nurse Agnes is full of praise for the little bairn.’

‘Good good-three sons to that man-who would have thought it. You do realise that Waldeve was conceived by force?’

Nerys caught her breath, ‘I-I did not know that Mistress’

Helen was regarding her friend with a wryly amused expression ‘yes he has forced me on a few occasions-that was how he used to get me to pay my marital debt to him-it was quickly apparent that of desire between us there was none but he actually repulses me Nerys…’

‘I am so sorry.’

‘Don’t be-our bedtime trysts have long since ceased. No there is but one man who can satisfy me now…’

Nerys quickly changed the subject ‘And how did you get your Lord husband to agree to support his brothers claim to the throne at that Parliament of ninety five?’


Helen let out a loud laugh that roused the Alaunt lying at the foot of the great bed, ‘hah! Me? That had nothing to do with me Nerys Hamilton-Morcar-that was the King’s doing and only his. I don’t know what was said-all I do know is that one moment my Lord husband was agitating to stymie his brother at every turn, then he had an audience with his father, then he was all sweetness and compliance. Who knows what was said but I had nothing to do with it of that I do assure you.’

‘There was a lot happening that year what with Scotland annexing Northumberland and the King’s nephew Ælfræd of England suddenly dying leaving only a three year old daughter as Queen-mayhap there was some political inducement my Lady?’


Helen snorted ‘I doubt that Nerys-the biggest political inducement that my husband has received from the King was the Dechy of Meath four years past, as you recall.’


‘True true my Lady-‘tis passing strange.’

Without they could hear the movements of the other two girls-they would come in when bade to by Nerys-not a moment before. The palace was slowly coming alive, rousing itself from its icy sleep and preparing for the new day: cooks, stable hands, guards and stewards all bustled about in service to their various lords, ladies and mistresses.

Nerys could not help asking ‘do you not fear that the Queen will discover what is happening-she is not one to make an enemy of lightly.’

‘I thought you didn’t want to discuss this matter?’

‘I don’t but I cannot help but fret for your safety mistress. Queen Madrun is one to bear grudges-or so I have heard…’

Helen regarded her chief ally: so trusting and yet so naïve. ‘And you think the King won’t protect me if it should come to it? That is it no?’

‘Why would he my lady? Surely if it came to a choice he would choose his Queen to avoid scandal-she is from a powerful Welsh family, the rulers of the Duchy of Deheubarth-it would not pay to anger them surely?’

For once Helen was stuck for words-she had oft considered what might happen were her trysts with King Macbeth I of Scots and Ireland discovered-certes Queen Madrun would not take the news lightly-could make life very difficult for her and her family. Already she never ceased to hear from her harassed lover how Madrun’s half sister, Myfanwy II-the current Duchess of Deheubarth was plotting for the crown itself.

‘The whoresons cannot aim for the crown of Wales since my brother destroyed it!’ Macbeth had grumbled one morning as they both lay together in the post coital glow of their lovemaking. No he had enough to contend with containing Madrun’s Welsh House Wilhelmiden without putting extra arrows into their quiver Helen thought.

‘Let us talk of holy church Nerys-I tire of discussing my affairs’ she said lightly.

Nerys froze-had she somehow learned of her guilt-ridden confession? But how? She knew that her mistress was an accomplished schemer but would a priest have betrayed her?

‘What of Holy Church my lady?’ She said carefully, her heart beating an insistent tattoo in her chest. She did not fear Helen’s anger-her disappointment yes.

But Helen was smiling up at her, ‘I have been thinking of our Holy Father-four years since he was enthroned at Blois and no nearer a return to the Holy See of Rome.’

It was as much as Nerys could do not to let out a huge sigh of relief-this at least was safe ground. All of Europe had watched in righteous horror as, a few years before, the King of Italy expelled Pope Agapetus II, tired, he had said, of the constant meddling in Italian affairs. The Crusader Pope had been forced to throw himself on the kindness of the West Francia and had settled in Blois. In the meantime an Anti Pope had also been installed-it was a confusing and difficult time for all those of the true faith.


‘This new Pope-what is his name? Adeo-something? What says our King about him my Lady?’

Helen chuckled ‘his name is Adeodatus the Third Nerys. He is not a whit of his predecessor but he seems to esteem Macbeth-mayhap because he was the half-brother of my Uncle Ewan-the Crusader.’ Helen’s tone was reverential, as was anyone in the realm who spoke of their dear departed old King, Ewan ‘The Great’ they now called him. ‘The difficulty for Macbeth Nerys is that my Uncle is a very difficult act to follow.’


Nerys pondered this whilst also thinking ‘and yet it is your uncle-or half uncle that you are allowing to swive you woman!’ Yet it was true: the realms had been quiet for the six years that Macbeth had ruled and Scottish territorial gains had continued apace with the annexation of Northumberland-Macbeth had decided, as many of his forebears had, to profit from the fresh unrest in England as the magnates there scrambled to control the child Queen.



‘I am sure that it must be a hard thing to follow a man who ruled for fifty years mistress-did you know him at all? Ewan I mean?’

‘I met him a few times Nerys-I remember a kind man, always interested in us, his brother’s children-mayhap to the exclusion of his own-‘

Suddenly there was a loud rapping on the main doors without. ‘OPEN UP! OPEN UP FOR THE KING!’

The two woman started as though struck, then spent moments that seemed like an age arranging themselves-Nerys particularly was concerned to ensure that her lady was presentable.

‘Go! Go!’ Helen urged her and Nerys fled just remembering to sketch a hasty courtesy to her liege as she departed. She caught a glimpse of the King’s face as she left noting with dismay that his mien was particularly grim.

Outside in the antechamber she gathered up the two younger girls and hustled them outside the guest chambers where they joined the Royal Guards in an icy corridor. Warming their hands and stamping their feet to keep their blood circulating it was all Nerys could do to hush her companions to see if they could hear any voices within. There were, however, two sets of heavy oaken doors between them and whatever was unfolding in Helen’s bedroom: of voices or sounds there was none.

‘Do you think the King is wroth with our lady?’ Rachel bleated in a frightened voice, ‘he looked wroth-‘

‘Be silent girl!’ Nerys snapped. Whatever had happened it was not good but speculating about the cause would profit neither themselves nor their mistress-all they could do was wait.

After what seemed like an interminable time Macbeth I, King of Scots and Ireland exited, he looked haggard, worn and every one of his fifty years-he also looked sad and it was this, more than anything, that had Nerys dashing back inside to her Duchess’s side.

She heard Helen well before she saw her: her wailing was that of someone upon whom has been visited an unspeakable grief. Crying and tearing at her hair her sobs racked her whole body.

‘Gods’ blood-help me!’ Nerys shouted to Rachel, who had appeared in the doorway, ‘Morgilla! Shut the outside door-no one is to enter! Do you hear?’

‘Yes my lady.’ Morgilla rushed to obey whilst Nerys and Rachel physically carried their mistress to her bed, laying her down and trying to calm her down.

‘Rachel-leave us!’ Nerys shouted above the sobs and once the younger woman had reluctantly departed the inner chamber she hugged her Lady close. It was all she could think to do and in this she was ably assisted by the great Alaunt that was never far from her side. The great dog, sensing his mistresses distress thrust his muzzle between Nerys and Helen, adding the occasional wet lick to the proceedings until slowly and finally the racking sobs eased and Nerys could finally hear Helen through her tears,

‘He has left me-he has left me. What will I do?’

‘My lady calm yourself-what has happened?’

Finally when she had spent herself crying, Helen went through the sorry tale: the King had come to end their illicit affair-it was as they had just been discussing: the Queen had indeed got wind of their indiscretions and had ordered the affair to cease. It seemed that faced with the wrath of his paramour and that of her Welsh kin the king had not hesitated to call a stop to his dalliance.


‘He was so cold-it was as if the last year counted for naught Nerys-I feel so used!’ And this set off a further bout of wailing, which Nerys sat out patiently before setting out to her Lady the reasons why it was probably providence: what would happen if her Lord husband found out? She would be disgraced-would lose access to her children-may be banished or worse-the scandal would seriously harm their family. No this was for the best-no doubt.

‘At least think on your little Duncan my lady and what would John or Waldeve say that their Ma was being played as the king’s strumpet?’ This sobered Helen up-angered her even, but in her heart she knew that her friend spoke true. The affair could not continue-she was the niece of Ewan the Great, daughter of his staunchest ally, Thomas of Ulster. It was unseemly, beneath her and was, given the closeness of blood between them, quite frankly, unnatural.

Wiping her tears she murmured ‘as always Nerys you are my rock-you have the right of it. It had to end. Besides the King looks so old-he has all the cares of the world upon him-I must look to my children now. Mayhap Duncan can be brought to keep his mother company?’

She looked so vulnerable and so small at this that Nerys could not help but hug her again, ‘I will see to it all mistress-all will be well again, I am sure of it.’

That is all would be well if a jealous Queen stuck to her side of the bargain and allowed the family machinations and relationships to return to some semblance of normality…of that only time would tell…

Afterword [translation from source Latin]:

King Macbeth’s eldest son, Prince Macbeth of Meath died at only 29 twelve months later-it is said that he died of ‘severe stress’.

He left a thirteen year old son, John, as the new Duke of Meath. It freed his spouse, Helen, from her gilded cage but she was now focused only on one thing: acting as rightful guardian for her children. The Dowager Duchess moved quickly to assume the reigns of power, aided by her erstwhile lover, the King. Mac Ailpins rallied round to support her cause and she was duly installed as Duke John’s Guardian. In return her son John gave his unstinting support for his Uncle Uhtred’s claim to the throne of Ireland-support he could give as one of its Electors.

For his part the old King Macbeth lived out his few remaining months truly content, it was even said that he fell in love with his Queen once more.

He died of natural causes on the 7th day of the Month of May in the year of our Lord 1200. The King had passed 53 summers. It is said that amongst the mourners at his bedside was the Dowager Duchess of Meath, Helen Mac Ailpin…

mike the knight said:

such a pity at the moment he found the true love

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His reign was a bit of a filler in truth lol. You may well see Helwn of Meath, though, in the next instalment. Watch this space