Douglas had a casket made of silver and enamel and in it he placed the heart of Robert Bruce and carried it always on a chain about his neck.1
Early in the spring of 1330, he set sail from Berwick in a ship fitted out in royal state so that all might know he was the bearer of the heart of Robert, King of Scotland, and on his way to lay it in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. He had on board six knights, linked in friendship, neighbouring landowners from the Stewart domains: Sir William Sinclair of Roslyn, Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan, Sir William Keith, Sir Alan Cathcart and Sir Seymour Loccard of Lee, and one other knight unnamed. Twenty-six squires and gentlemen were there to serve them.2
Their first port of call was Sluys in Flanders. Here Douglas remained twelve days, entertaining liberally on gold and silver plate and letting it be known that any who wished to fight in the Holy Land were welcome to join his company. He then sailed in rough seas around the coast of Spain and up the Guadalquiver River to drop anchor in the city of Seville.
When Alfonso XI, King of Castile and Leon, heard that he had arrived he came to greet him and offer him hospitality, and many foreign and especially English knights who had flocked to Spain to war against the Moors called at his lodgings to give him welcome, for his military prowess was acknowledged above all others throughout the camps of Europe.3
Douglas and his company rested for a while at Seville after the hardships of their stormy voyage, but in March the Moorish King of Granada advanced against the city and the King of Castile and Leon marshalled his forces to meet him. He asked Douglas to lead the vanguard and placed under his command all the foreign knights.4 On 25 March, at Zebas de Ardales, the armies came face to face.
Douglas gave the order to charge and both sides became locked in battle. But the Saracens employed a ruse with which Douglas was not acquainted. Suddenly they turned their horses and fled, pursued by the Christians. Douglas and ten of his followers had drawn far ahead of the vanguard when the Saracens sharply checked and swung round to encircle them. Douglas turned too and might have escaped through the gap, but saw that Sir William Sinclair had been overtaken. With the two knights who were beside him – Sir Robert and Sir Walter Logan – Douglas turned yet again to rescue his comrade. In a moment they were surrounded by a multitude of Moors and, fighting desperately, were all cut down.5
The rest of the vanguard were now approaching, and the Saracens once more wheeled round their horses and galloped from the field, leaving the four knights dead upon the ground. The heart of Robert Bruce within its casket was found still chained about the neck of Douglas and, according to the tradition of the Cathcart family, was taken up by Sir Alan Cathcart.
The body of Douglas was brought to his cousin, Sir William Keith, who had been prevented from taking part in the battle by a broken arm.6 After having the body boiled so that the flesh parted from the bones, the flesh was buried in holy ground and the bones placed on shipboard.7 Then Sir William Keith, in command of the remaining Scotsmen, sailed for home, and when they had made landfall, the heart of Bruce was carried to the Abbey of Melrose and interred with great reverence, and the bones of Douglas were buried in the Kirk of Douglas.8
Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray, the last of the great captains, had taken over the government of Scotland on the death of Bruce, as regent for the young King, David II. Three years later he, too, was dead.
Within two years of Randolph’s death Edward III disavowed the Treaty of Edinburgh on the grounds that he had been under age when he signed it. Warfare between England and Scotland began again and continued intermittently for the next four hundred years. The Scots suffered many defeats since their bravery was seldom equalled by their generalship. But never again was there the possibility of their becoming a subject race. Robert Bruce had forged a nation and his victory at Bannockburn had given to his people a self-confidence which never deserted them however serious their reverses.
Scots wha hae with Wallace bled
Scots wham Bruce has aften led
Welcome to your gory bed
Or to victorie.9