Bannok Burn: Chronicles of Robert de Brus, King of Scots

The rebellion continues... By 1314, Robert the Brus has waged a guerilla-style war for eight long years to regain Scotland's independence from England. During that time he recaptured Scottish castles, one by one, to make the land inhospitable to the English invaders. His brother agreed to a treaty that will remove Stirling Castle from English control with neither siege nor battle...unless the English king relieves the fortress by June 24th. Robert's hand is dealt. He must meet the English king, Edward II, and his tremendous might on a battlefield south of the citadel, and he knows the winner will take all of Scotland, not just Castle Stirling. In mid-June, King Edward starts the trek north. He has culled knights from among Europe's finest and hired them to fight for him with the promises of Scottish lands and titles and great wealth...once the battle is won. Included in his twenty-mile-long train are 22,500 trained men and untold tonnage of supplies and arms. Robert, King of Scots, and his ragtag army of fewer than 6,000 men are the only obstacle in the way of the English king's overwhelming force and sheer determination to enslave the Scots. Meeting on a field of unripe wheat beside a stream called Bannok Burn, the two kings and their armies decide the fates of the generations then standing and their children yet unborn.

Southern West Virginia native Charles Randolph Bruce was born and raised there in the highlands in which his Scottish ancestors settled in the late 1700s. His interest in telling the heroic story of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots 1306 -1329, was sparked by his family's tradition that they descended from the great medieval warrior king. Carolyn Hale Bruce was born in the Roanoke Valley, Virginia, where her 18th century ancestors include those with the Scottish surnames Agnew, Fraser, Thompson, and Davidson, among others. She wrote and had published two pictorial histories of her hometown.Now, having spent the last decade in researching, writing, illustrating, and promoting the Rebel King series of novels, Charles and Carolyn have traveled tens of thousands of miles to attend scores of games in dozens of states from Florida to Maine, Texas to Colorado, to promote their works and talk with other Scots about their hard-fought history. They have appeared on local television and radio shows in diverse markets, and have been written up in many newspapers and magazines. Every year new venues are added to their nearly nationwide wanderings.Presently writing on the fourth book in the epic saga of The Bruce, his ôragtagö army, and their attempts to free and maintain their homeland from enslavement by English king Edward I (a.k.a. ôLongshanksö and ôHammer of the Scotsö) and his son Edward II, the Bruces are also working at furthering their desires to put the novels on the big screen, and to create a documentary for airing on suitable cable television channels in the near future. Ideally, their plans include several feature-length theatrical films based on their books, the last of which would be released on June 24th 2014, the 700th anniversary of the Scots' victory over the far-greater army of Edward II at Bannok Burn.Also in the offing is the fifth planned volume of the series, which will carry the story through the end of Robert's life in 1329.