The Renegade(58)
“Ongoing, yes, I’ll grant that. But magnificent? I wish I still possessed your youthful optimism. To an old cynic like me it appears as though Edward’s entire legal efforts since the beginning of his reign have been to win back the freedoms lost to him when his grandsire John Lackland ceded power to the barons in Magna Carta. And it’s a losing fight, no matter how heroic his struggle. The barons will not support his wars across the sea and they will never relinquish the powers they gained in the Great Charter.”
He held up a placating hand, seeing the confusion in his grandson’s face. “Differing points of view, Robert. No more than that. Life is all about discerning such things and adjusting to them, whatever it may take. I am but offering my opinions versus yours, in the spirit of debate and temperance. Personally, I like the Plantagenet as a man. As a king, though, I find he has many characteristics that I wish were different. Did you know that he annexed the Isle of Man three months ago?”
The words meant nothing to Rob. “The Isle of Man?” he said.
“Aye. It’s ours, part of this realm, has been so since sixty-six, when Alexander made treaty with Haakon of Norway after we drove his minions out of the Isles, after the sea fight at Largs … ”
“But—” Rob sought for something profound to say, to express his grasp of those events, but gave up. “I don’t understand what you are saying, Grandfather.”
“You will if you think about it. The Isle of Man is an important place, with a significance beyond its size to anyone who thinks in terms of kingdoms. And you, Robert Bruce, must now start to think that way, as I do. Man was Norwegian for centuries, but then it fell to us. Consider that now from England’s point of view: a large island, strategically placed thirty miles from England’s coast, fifty miles from Wales, and set square across the sailing routes from England to Ireland. It could offer a very real threat to England’s trade and commerce, should any conflict ever develop between our two realms. Edward did not like that development. But there was little he could do about it without offending Alexander, his friend and kinsman.”
“While Alexander was alive, you mean.”
“Aye, that is exactly what I mean.” The old man paused, as though to allow that thought to settle. “But Alexander died without an heir, his realm to be governed by a female child dependent upon others who might be less well disposed to England than King Alexander was. Do you understand me now?”
“I think so. The Isle of Man became a threat, if only in theory. But what happened in truth? You said King Edward occupied Man three months ago. How could he do that without starting a war? It would be theft, would it not? Invasion?”
“Trickery is how. Subtle, as such trickery usually is. It seems the people of the isle—Manxmen, they call themselves, though they’re Norwegian almost to a man—petitioned Edward for his protection. They were unhappy with the lack of guidance and government from Scotland, they said, and afraid that Norway might return to claim the isle again, now that Alexander is dead and his granddaughter named to Scotland’s throne. And so, considering themselves to be no more Scots than Edward is himself, they besought his intervention for their common good. In writing. A formal request to the monarch whom they believed to be the natural and most appropriate man to lead them.”
Rob’s eyes had grown wider as he listened. “And no one here complained or sought to intervene?”
His grandfather shrugged. “The thing was done before anyone in Scotland heard a word of it. And I include myself, along with the council of Guardians. What could we do, faced with an accomplished deed, particularly with the Birgham Treaty in the balance? That pact had already been more than a year in the making, and we were faced with the undoing of it all. We could hardly declare war in outrage when all the Manxmen had decided to rebel against us if we did. And to have done so would have thrown all of Scotland into chaos.”
“And so it was … accepted, just like that?”
“Aye, it was. An acceptance under duress, and after the fact.”
Rob suddenly felt much older than he had been a short time earlier. “So the council debated and accepted this turn of events after the fact, as you say. Then why would you feel the need to speak of it now to me?”
“Because you are a Bruce and heir to my lordship of Annandale someday. You are my grandson, blood of my blood. And you are yet very young … Apt, I jalouse, but unskilled, as yet, in seeing faults in others. I brought this up now because I need to free your eyes of the veil that clouds them.”