| On a cold day that had seen flurries of snow, in March of 1286, King
Alexander III of Scotland met with his lords in council at Edinburgh Castle.
There was a problem regarding a Scottish earl who was being held in prison
by the English and the talk that day concerned how his release might be
effected. After the discussions were over the king and his men dined on
fresh lampreys, a tasty fish, and no doubt washed them down with copious
draughts of wine and ale. Alexander had a new, young wife and it seems he
was keen to be with her that night, so he set off into a deepening gale
for the ferry across the River Forth. When he reached the river the ferryman
at first refused to attempt the crossing for the Forth is wide there and
the wind and the waves were rising. Chided for his lack of spleen the ferryman
consented to take the royal party across. Safely on the other side the
king was offered safe and warm lodgings for the night and strongly urged
to go no further. He could not be dissuaded. Perhaps the warmth of the
fish and wine in his belly made him reckless, more likely the thought of
the warmth of the Queen's bedchamber drove him on. Riding ahead of his
men in his eagerness, somewhere in the darkness on the cliffs near Kinghorn,
his horse stumbled and he was thrown down a precipice to his death.
He had been a good king and Scotland has had too few of them to see one squandered in such a way. Both his sons were already dead and his only daughter, married to the King of Norway, had died in childbirth. The little baby girl that she had borne the day of her death was now heir to the throne of Scotland. Poor thing , never knowing her mother , she died on the voyage back to her mother's land. Scotland was now without a clear heir to the crown and as the claimants looked to their position and cast eyes dark and fey at their rivals, King Edward I of England turned his head north and sniffed an opportunity. Alexanders premature death led to more than a quarter century of pain , death and mayhem for Scotland. When finally she passed through the ordeal she would be a nation with a valorous king to match her own native courage. It would be a road long and hard but it would lead to a patch of land on the upper reaches of the River Forth, in the shadow of Stirling castle and the name of this place would become the sweetest word Scotsmen can ever say in the earshot of their southern neighbours. Its name was, and is... |
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