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A Winter of Har'ships, A Summer of
Blood!
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Rebel King - The Har'ships is based closely on
historical fact. This is how the story unfolds...
The powerful Earl of Buchan amasses an army of many
factions in the north of Scotland to stem the success of King Robert as
he moves, castle by castle, northward through the great glen toward the
earl's vast lands.
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Robert the Brus, the newly made King of Scots, has far more than
half of his countrymen actively fighting against him. Even so, he
continues the struggle against all odds, knowing that his determination
to free Scotland is in the right. |
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King
Robert's top lieutenants find themselves faced with overwhelming odds
when the king is suddenly struck down. One among them must pose as the
king to keep his enemies from discerning their fearful secret.
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Christina
of Carrick, the king's kinswoman, is
summoned to his side as nurse when it seems he, and thus the rebellion,
is lost. Two honorable people, they must try and keep their strong
emotional ties from overpowering them and the struggle to free Scotland. |
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Buchan's
amassing of power includes the young Earl of Strathbogie, who blames
Robert for the death of his father; Baron John de Mowbray, commander
of a great English force aimed at eradicating the Brus rebellion; and Sir
Reginald Cheyne, a wiser warrior than Buchan, but constrained to do his bidding, nonetheless. Then there is the Earl of Ross,
who betrayed the Brus' wife, daughter, and sister to Edward I of England
resulting in their imprisonment. Fearful of The Brus' revenge, he
accepts a short term treaty to get King Robert
from his door. Now, he returns.
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The king's sole surviving brother, Edward, suffers from devastating falls into black
spells of despair that threaten the whole of
the rebellion, yet his opposite moods and grandiose actions pose,
perhaps, the greater danger.
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Andrew Stewart, the king's valiant young squire and
faithful standard bearer, is a constant companion to his king and father
figure, even through the times of their greatest peril.
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Edward II, King of England, holds the Sword of Damocles over the entirety
of Scotland, but his own deepest passions are his worst
enemies.
Robert wages his war in the harshness of winter because he knows that,
come spring, Edward will be urged to send against him the mightiest army in their world.
Until then, he has only his small army and his ally, winter, to
determine the fate of Scotland.
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The arranged
marriage of King Edward to Isabella of France, daughter of the French
King, is supposed to strengthen the often strained relationship between the two countries.
Instead, she is publicly ignored and embarrassed
by her royal husband, and swears revenge for her ill treatment from almost the first moment
they meet. |
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King
Edward's great love is his childhood companion, Piers Gaveston. He makes him Earl of Cornwall
and bestows properties upon him over the objections of the powerful
English magnates, who swear a revenge of their own.
Sir Piers regularly bests all of the knights who contest against him in tourney,
and boasts about it loudly to everyone within earshot. He is a man with
many enemies.
Click here to read an excerpt from
Rebel King - The Har'ships
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