| These days most of us are familiar with
organ donor programs, by which parts of our bodies can gain an extension
on mortality, living on in others. It was a bit different back in the
middle centuries of the second millennium. Medical transplants were
unknown, of course. But body parts and organs often did have a life of
their own, after you died. If you were lucky, it was after you died. Last
year around Halloween time we discussed the after-life career of Johannes
Brahms's head. This time we'll move down to a different part of the body.
History is strewn with warrior kings, born
into times of upheaval, unrest and rebellion, their entire lives spent in
battle mode. Robert the Bruce was one of these. A rich mixture of Celtic,
Norman and royal Scottish blood flowed through his veins. It was the
latter component that came to the fore when Scotland's king John Balliol
abdicated in 1296, in favor of Edward I of England. Enraged by Edward's
bloody sacking of Berwick, Robert joined forces with William Wallace (yes,
Braveheart). His battle record is murky at best, but after submitting for
a brief period to Edward in 1302, he once again took up arms, inspired no
doubt by Wallace's gory execution in 1304 (Wallace was not one of the
lucky ones I referred to before). Two years later he was crowned king at
Scone. Robert was stubborn and an early defeat was followed by eventual
victory over Edward II, at Bannockburn. It was necessary to defeat
England's third Edward before Robert was finally accepted as king, in
1328, gaining Scotland's independence. A year later he died, supposedly of
leprosy, more likely of a virulent form of psoriasis.
By this time Robert apparently had gotten
so used to a life of battle that he just couldn't let go. He had left
instructions that his heart be removed from his body, embalmed, and sent
on crusade to the Holy Land. It fell to lot of Sir James Douglas,
known as the Black Douglas because of the terror his name aroused in the
English, to carry the Bruce heart, encased in a small casket made of
silver or gold, to Palestine. On his way there in 1330, he arrived in
Spain just as Alfonso XI of Castile was preparing to do battle against
Osmyn, the Moorish governor of Grenada. On March 25th, at Tebas de Ardales
the forces of Islam and Christianity clashed. The Scots found themselves
surrounded by Moorish cavalry and attempted to break through. Sensing
impending defeat, Douglas led a last desperate charge, in the heat of the
moment taking the casket from a chain around his neck, cocking his arm
back and, in the best action hero style, letting the cardio-missile fly,
then charging after it.
The following day, when the main Spanish
forces reached the site, the bodies of the Scottish crusaders were
discovered on the battlefield. When the corpse of the Black Douglas was
turned face up, the casket was found beneath his body, the heart still
inside. Robert the Bruce had lead his final charge. His heart would return
to Scotland, in the Lowlands, for burial in Melrose Abbey.
This story kindly donated by
David Minor. See his web
site here! |
