After their voyage, the Scots rested and while they relaxed, foreign knights paid their respects, including a handful of English nobles

Having known the animals since they were fillies and colts, watched them mature and initiated them into battle in many a Border skirmish, these warriors would ride on no other. But the animals suffered badly. Cats do well on board; dogs and horses do not. Hoofs are made for dry land, not tilting floors and creaking timbers.

The slate and pewter grey skies of Biscay were accompanied by plunging rain. Along with his equines, Douglas brought his fool, an irreverent, witty midget. Today he is your alter ego but yesterday, your conscience.

To those knights he was an elevated Sancho Panza to their purposeful Don Quixote. To possess a fool was a royal prerogative.

This one belonged to Bruce and when he died, Douglas took him on. Holding his rosary, the fool inspected each bead: “slate grey, pewter grey, primrose yellow, buttercup yellow, ruby red, blood red,” chanted the midget, as he sat cross-legged in the ante-room close to the deck.

Confused

He never suffered from sea sickness. The sailors retched, Douglas’s skin turned the colour of mould on a Stilton, while Loccard shut himself up in his cabin, but the fool fingered his rosary, each bead a different shade until he had counted them all on their string.

Then he confused his adjectives: “brown earth, red earth, red heart, black heart, white deed, black deed.” It was a black deed that drove them here in the direction of – who knew where? Spain? Malta? Jerusalem? “A black deed,” he repeated as he thrust a bead forward to meet its companions.

“As black as King Henry when...” The fool mumbled, realising his words were treasonous, although Henry had not been his king but he was a king nonetheless. “A very black act but it’s turning white with a red heart.”

There it was, his late master’s heart in his present master’s casket, and Sir Symon held the key to the heart of Scotland, its existence, identity and soul. The fool continued reciting his array of colours, “red heart, black heart, but the black, if we travel long and hard enough, becomes white. Our deeds are many colours but few are white.”

Leaving Biscay their ship ploughed southward passing Santiago de Compostela, on the north-west tip of the Iberian peninsula, and hugged the coast until it reached the south.

In late June they arrived at the mouth of the Guadalquivir river and proceeded upstream, disembarking at Seville.

Douglas presented his credentials to Alfonso XI who offered him horses, armour and money. But the Scottish noble refused. He and his knights were humble pilgrims who sought ‘absolution for their sins’ and only wished to fight for him.

After their voyage, the Scots rested and while they relaxed, foreign knights paid their respects, including a handful of English nobles who had previously fought them in battle.

Alfonso’s task was to lay siege and capture the fortress of Teba, which stood on a high hill.

To breach its walls was hard but unlike the Portuguese, who acted like mercenaries, Douglas’s party was fuelled with a passionate righteousness. Wearing white and carrying white shields with blue borders, studded with white stars, the Scottish knights called upon St Andrew to come to their aid.

Weakness

Unlike the Moors, their helmets had no visors while Douglas and the Islamic leader, clad in chain mail and heavy armour, were mounted on hooded horses wrapped in thick cladding.

The Castilian king appointed Douglas to lead his army’s foreign contingent. However, drinking water was scarce and troops had to march two miles south of the castle to fetch it.

The Moslem leader, Uthman bi Abi-l-Ula, a Berber noble, discovered the Castilian’s weakness and sent raiding parties to intercept them, but Alfonso responded by setting up defensive patrols.

Some contemporary reports claim that Douglas was killed in one of these forays. The Gran Cronica de Alfonso XI refers to ‘the death of a foreign count through his own error.’ Realising that he was unable to defeat the Christians in an open battle, Uthman tried to force Alfonso to abandon the siege by setting up a diversion.

Under cover of darkness, while the Islamic cavalry introduced a diversionary attack across the river at Teba, another section attacked Alfonso’s west flank.

Having received advanced warning, Alfonso kept the bulk of his army in his camp and sent troops to check on the river assault (it is argued that Douglas was part of this reinforcement).

The story goes that as Douglas rode well in front of his followers, he turned back to rejoin them, but the Islamic cavalry made a counter-attack. On seeing the enemy surround William St Clair, his leader charged to the rescue but Douglas, St Clair, his brother Robert, and Sir Walter Logan were all killed. Where was Sir Symon Loccard?

Perhaps he was taken ill and was unable to join the fray or Douglas urged him not to accompany him as he galloped to St Clair’s rescue. Whatever the reason, Loccard survived while most of the party perished.

It’s possible that he replaced Douglas as leader of the foreign knights in Alfonso’s army, thus gaining access to the Moslem prisoners. One was an emir, and when his mother arrived with money to plead for his release, a curious triangular coin dropped from her purse.

Noticing the speed with which she recovered it, Sir Symon guessed it was valuable and insisted he have it.

Protection

As the woman gave it up she told Loccard that the coin was more valuable than gold or silver. Blood red in colour, it was an amulet with magical powers and was kept as protection against the evil eye.

Not confined to coinage, Islamic amulets were often woven into oriental carpets such as kilims, to offer protection for their owners. The coin had properties that cured fevers, staunched bleeding, healed the bites of rabid dogs, and quelled sickness in horses and cattle.

Sir Symon tested its medicinal properties in Spain, and back in Scotland its healing powers became well known. This amulet was called The Lee Penny after the family seat, Lee Castle, and its story and how Sir Symon came to own it formed the basis of Sir Walter Scott’s 1825 novel, The Talisman.

The Lee Penny is mounted on a silver coin that hangs from a silver chain and is still in my family’s possession.

(More tomorrow.)