Hammer of the Scots hatched evil plot to trap King Robert the Bruce, says book

ENGLISH king Edward I hatched a secret plot to lure Robert the Bruce to his death eight years before the Battle of Bannockburn by using the women he loved most as bait, according to a new book

Edward Longshanks, the infamous "Hammer of the Scots", hoped to trap and kill King Robert after the capture of the Scot's Queen, two of his sisters, his aunt and his young daughter.

The women were held - some in cages on castle walls - close to the Scottish Border in locations that might have tempted the Bruce to stage a hopeless rescue.

Had the plot succeeded, it would have changed the course of history, with no Bannockburn or Declaration of Arbroath.

The plot has been suggested after almost 700 years by historian David R Ross, who came across evidence while researching his last book, Women of Scotland, which is to be launched today.

Mr Ross, who was convener of The Society of William Wallace, died in January from a heart attack, aged 51, and his book has only now been published with help from, among others, his friend and fellow historian Dr Fiona Watson.

Mr Ross claimed the trap was set in the months after Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scots on 25 March, 1306.

King Edward was so furious at the "rebellious" act, that he launched a campaign of terror on Scotland.

Bruce, chased by the English, had the women closest to him escorted away for their own safety, but they were seized as they sought refuge in the Chapel of St Duthac's in Tain, in Ross-shire, and sent south as prisoners to King Edward.

The ladies, who might have hoped to be treated with courtly conduct, were, he said, used as bait to lure Robert south.

King Robert's second wife, Queen Elizabeth, was kept in a manor house at Burstwick in Holderness on the River Humber, and his sister Christian confined in the Gilbertine Nunnery at Sixhills in Lincolnshire.

However, King Robert's other sister, Mary, was confined in a latticed iron cage hung over the walls of Roxburgh Castle and his aunt Isobel, Countess of Buchan, who had committed the crime of crowning Robert, was encased in a similar cage at Berwick Castle.

In his book the late Mr Ross wrote: "I thought about the locations where they were held. Roxburgh and Berwick Castles were both in Scotland, but very close to the Border with England. Both were stocked with large English garrisons. It seemed obvious to me that Mary at Roxburgh and Isobel at Berwick were deliberately put there to taunt the Scots and perhaps to get King Robert, in his weakened situation, to make some vain rescue attempt.

"This was part of the English plan to bring the Scots and their king to their knees.The painful sense of responsibility for so much suffering caused to loved ones would have proved overwhelming to most men."

Dr Watson said: "It's a good theory. It's entirely plausible this was in Edward's mind."

• Women of Scotland is published by Luath Press, priced 9.99.