"'Hobilar' back numbers (Lance & Longbow)" Topic

Greetings.
I was wondering if any TMP folk might be members of the Lance and Longbow Society and have access to early back numbers of their journal 'The Hobilar,' viz. No 3 and an article by David Evans "The Heart of Bruce and the Death of a Douglas"

For a minute there I thought you meant this:

Great now I have "I ain't no Hobilar Back Gurrll" stuck in my head.

I've got their CD's, Flanker. What info are you after?

Dal G. Thanks. As posted- the article in No 3 (must be early 1990s), on Sir James Douglas with the heart of Robert Bruce in Spain (Shades of 'Cluedo'). I am collecting versions of the tale as re-told.

Is that the sort of thing on the CDs?

I have number 3, are you still seeking?

Barry

Yes, mate, it does. The article was written by David Patrick Evans. He also recommends Robert the Bruce King of the Scots by Ronald McNair Scott. It's fairly short, just a page and a half- six paragraphs, starting on page 11. The only graphics I could find weren't related to the article.

The basics are that Alfonso XI asked Douglas to lead his vanguard against the Moors that were advancing towards Seville. The armies clash at Zebas de Aedales on 25 March 1330. Douglas leads a charge in, carrying the silver casket with the Bruce's heart. The Moors stage a feigned flight and Douglas and a dozen other knights pursue. When Douglas sees the flight is a ruse, he still has time to retire but instead goes to assistance of three comrades. The four of them are overwhelmed and killed.

Sir Alan Cathcart recovers the casket and passes it to Douglas' cousin, Sir William Keith. Sir William returns to Scotland with Douglas' bones, the flesh having been flensed and buried in consecrated ground, and the Bruce's heart. The heart is buried in Melrose Abbey and Douglas' bones "in his own kirk"- it doesn't say which kirk that was. Evans states that from that time the Douglas' descendants carried a red heart on their shield and that in 1819 workmen in Dumferline Abbey discovered a male skeleton with part of the sternum cut away "possibly to allow access to the heart!".

The .pdf on the CD is a scanned image, so I can't copy and paste the article here (plus there may be copyright issues). But if you want the full article PM me and I'll see if I can email it to you, or Barry may be able to help, mate.

PS There's also a roll of arms for Homildon Hill, showing the arms of the Archi. Douglas, 4th Earl of Douglas; Wlm Douglas, 2nd Earl of Angus; and two others with the Douglas arms quartered on their arms.

Thank you both Dal and Barry.

Fascinating. It appears to be an especially rich mash up of the sort I have been surveying. Between Douglas' meeting Alfonso XI and his bones being taken home, he's managed to cram in virtually every factoid that we find in circulation since the 1780s though, to be fair, it seems McNair Scott's 1982 life of Robert Bruce has to answer for most of the dodgy details.
On that basis, I think the excellent summary will suffice for now, and I will leave it there. Most grateful for your kind responses. JF

'flensed'- nice.

Glad to be of help, mate.