For far too many years I was reluctant to turn my attention to Scots subjects, primarily because I had been exposed to the historical fiction writings of a man called Nigel Tranter at a very early age. Tranter wrote scads of books on Scottish History, and he wrote them very well indeed… Hence my reluctance to dip into that field. But then someone pointed out to me that Tranter had done his finest writing fifty to sixty years ago and suggested that it was high time someone took up the baton on behalf of a newer audience with different sensibilities.

And so I turned to writing about Scots history and found myself contemplating “The Guardians Trilogy” or, as it will be called in Britain, “The Bravehearts Chronicle”… Stories of Scotland’s three greatest medieval heroes, all of whom lived at the same time and were involved in what is now known as the Wars of Scottish Independence, and each of whom can legitimately lay claim to the title, The Brave Heart. The first of those is, of course, The Braveheart, William Wallace, who was gifted with the title—inaccurately—in the 1990s by Randall Wallace the screenwriter of the epic Movie, so that, for better or worse, the name is now immortalized.
The second man, the subject of the second novel of the trilogy, is Robert I, King of Scots, more widely known as Robert the Bruce. His was the original Brave Heart, the name conferred upon him by his friend and champion Sir James Douglas. On the day of their departure, when a crusading Scots army left for Spain to fight the invading Moslem Moors, Douglas held up the silver casket containing the King’s embalmed heart in front of them and reminded them why they were going. The King had sworn an oath to Crusade in Spain and had died before he could fulfill it, but the Scots Nation would honour that oath by following the King’s Heart into battle. “Behold the Brave Heart,” Douglas shouted, “and follow it as you followed him!”
Douglas himself was killed in Spain, defending the King’s heart, and when the depleted but victorious Scots army returned home he was honoured in death by having the emblem of a crowned, bleeding heart added to his coat-of-arms, where it distinguished the House of Douglas to this day. The story of the remarkable James Douglas—The Black Douglas to the English, but The Good Sir James to his countrymen—will complete the trilogy.