Flowers of Chivalry

Book excerpt: Once again Scotland was fighting for her survival as a free and independent nation. Robert the Bruce's legacy, three years after his death in 1329, is in danger. With a five-year-old heir guarded by an ageing and diminishing band of lieutenants, the English King, Edward III, has seen his opportunity. War is renewed, a puppet king set up. In the years of struggle that follow, two men stand out as leaders of their people: Sir William Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, known as the Flower of Chivalry; and Sir Alexander Ramsay of Dalwolsey. Friends and comrades-in-arms by their gallantry and daring, they do more than any others to save their country. Yet something is to happen between them that will cause one of the most desperate events in Scotland's violent and dramatic history...