The Raven's Heart
Page 46
Black running water, water with no history, water that does not know its name. I turn my face away from Scotland and into the wind.
Postscript
The identity of the King’s murderer has never been solved, though many were accused, including the Queen herself and some of Scotland’s leading nobles.
On 27 June 1567, Captain William Blackadder was tried by the Lords of the Secret Council. Although he insisted he was innocent, he was found guilty of being art and part of Darnley’s murder. He was hanged, drawn, and quartered at the Mercat Cross in Edinburgh. John Blackadder was also executed.
The same month, the Queen was imprisoned by her lords in Loch Leven Castle on an island in Loch Leven. In such harsh conditions, she miscarried Bothwell’s twin babies. Taking advantage of her weakened condition, the lords forced her to abdicate in favor of her infant son, who became King James VI of Scotland. She was forced to name her half-brother, Lord James Stewart the Earl of Moray, as regent.
Mary was held captive for a year until she disguised herself as a servant and escaped. She raised an army to regain her throne but was overpowered and fled across the border into England, throwing herself on the mercy of her cousin Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth ordered that Mary be kept under house arrest at a series of castles in northern England. Her confinement lasted some twenty years, until she was found guilty of plotting against Elizabeth and sentenced to death. She was beheaded on the third blow of the ax on 8 February 1587.
Mary Seton stayed with the Queen until 1583, when ill health forced her to move to a convent in France. She never married.
Bothwell fled to the isles of Orkney and Shetland, where he tried to raise more men to return to Scotland to fight for the Queen. He was pursued by his enemies and narrowly escaped to Norway, where he was imprisoned in harsh conditions for years. He died in 1578, insane from his confinement.
In January 1570, three years after he became regent, Lord James was assassinated by a member of the Hamilton family after many of the nobles had become disaffected with his rule and believed he was plotting to seize the throne for himself.
Lord Hume became a supporter of Mary’s after she fled to England. With Maitland and Kircaldy of Grange, he held Edinburgh Castle in the hope of her eventual return. In May 1575 the English army brought siege guns and after thirteen days of bombardment that almost reduced the castle to ruins, it fell to James Douglas, the Earl of Morton. Hume and Maitland both died in prison later that year.
On Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603, Mary’s son became King James I of England.
Tulliallan Castle was lost to the Blackadder family by John Blackadder’s grandson less than one hundred years later, when he impoverished his estate and retired to America.
Blackadder Castle was never again held by the Blackadder family. Its ruins still stand on the banks of Blackadder Water in Berwickshire.
Author’s note
Brought to fame (or infamy) through the Blackadder television series written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and starring Rowan Atkinson, the name “Blackadder” originally comes from the Cambro-British word awedur, meaning a running stream. Blackadder Water rises in the Lammermuir Hills, flows down through the village of Allanton in Berwickshire on the Scottish-English border, and joins the Whiteadder Water before flowing to the sea. The Blackadder family took its name from the river and built Blackadder Castle on the riverbank sometime in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. The estate was broken up and sold in the 1920s, but many of its buildings and farms still carry the Blackadder name.
I am indebted to the following books for my research:
Bingham, Madeleine. Scotland Under Mary Stuart: An Account of Everyday Life. New York: St. Martins Press, 1971.
Dunn, Jane. Elizabeth & Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens. London: Harper Perennial, 2003.
Fraser, Antonia. Mary Queen of Scots. 1969. Reprint. Great Britain: Phoenix Press, 2003.
Guy, John. My Heart Is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots. London: Harper Perennial, 2004.
Weir, Alison. Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley. London: Pimlico, 2004.
Acknowledgments
In Scotland, thanks to Blair and Patricia Harrower of Blackadder Mount, who invited me in for tea, shared their information about the history of Blackadder Castle and allowed me to visit the ruins of Blackadder House on their property. I’m grateful to John Russell, caretaker of Old Tulliallan Castle, for taking a descendant of the dastardly Blackadders on a tour of Tulliallan and its grounds. VisitScotland arranged personal tours of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Stirling Castle, which were most useful. Christa Wynn-Williams made me welcome at her home in Edinburgh while I was researching the book. Astrid Turner and Rob McConnell put me up in Saint Andrews for weeks on end and helped point me in the direction of Blackadder Castle in the first place.
In Alaska, thanks to Carolyn Servid and Dorik Mechau of the Island Institute for a much needed one-month writer’s residency in a house facing the ocean and surrounded by forest. The residents of the picturesque town of Sitka on Baranof Island made me very welcome, particularly Richard Nelson (Nels), Liz McKenzie and the good people of the Back Door Café.
In Australia, Varuna, the Writers’ House awarded me a Litlink residency to work on this novel. The Raven’s Heart was later selected for the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award, which involved a ten-day residency at Varuna. Thanks to Varuna’s staff, creative director Peter Bishop and award judge Katherine Howell for their enthusiastic support and to the other winners that year who were great company during the residency—Jessie Cole, Damean Posner, Brad McCann and Maryanne Khan.
Linda Funnell from HarperCollins gave me detailed and wise editorial suggestions as part of the award and was very generous with her time. Thanks also to Jo Butler, Kate O’Donnell, Kate Burnitt and other editorial staff at HarperCollins for their advice in murdering my darlings and bringing the manuscript down to a manageable size.
The Northern Rivers Writers’ Centre in Byron Bay has been an ongoing support since I moved to Byron Shire more than a decade ago and I thank previous directors Jill Eddington and Jeni Caffin, and the centre’s staff, particularly Susie Warwick.
Many friends and family members, including Helena Bernard, Roe Ritchie, Jude Berg, Suzy Manigian, Sue Fick, Niki Georgallis, Dee Verrall and others, gave help of different kinds. Thanks to all of you.
I’m grateful to the many people interested in the history of the Blackadders who generously continue to share their research, including those who contribute to “Blackadder: The Real Damn Dynasty” family history website and email list.
My writing group went well beyond the call of duty in reading several drafts. Heartfelt thanks to Hayley Katzen, Sarah Armstrong and Emma Hardman for their stamina, constructive critique, humor and title ideas.
And thanks to my partner, Andi Davey, who never wavered and kept me fuelled with love, kisses and the world’s best coffee while I wrote The Raven’s Heart.
Jesse Blackadder
Passionate about words, Jesse Blackadder is an Australian novelist and award-winning freelance journalist.
Jesse has won several writing awards, most recently the Guy Morrison Prize for Literary Journalism, the Varuna HarperCollins Manuscript Development Award, and the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Short Story Award. She was awarded the 2011-12 Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship by the Australian Antarctic Division and traveled to Antarctica to research the first woman to reach the frozen continent.
Jesse has also been a writer in residence in Sitka Alaska, in the outback of Australia, Byron Bay, and at Varuna, the Writers’ House in the Blue Mountains.
She lives in Byron Bay, Australia.
For more information about Jesse Blackadder
and her writing please visit her website:
www.jesseblackadder.com
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Copyright © 2011 by Jesse Blackadder
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing from the publisher.
Bywater Books First Edition: September 2012
The Raven’s Heart was first published in Australia in 2011
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
Cover designer: Bonnie Liss (Phoenix Graphics)
Bywater Books
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Ann Arbor MI 48106-3671
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EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-61294-028-1