Dún Kaimes Gathering of the Clans
(- threads, 712 posts)
 True Stories And Tall Tales
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Welcome! My Friends Welcome!
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I'm Jacques Elliott Cruithni your local Ceannmor. I hail from the Middle Of The Marches along the border near Liddesdale. My great-great etc. grandfather some 440 years ago was a Border Reiver from the Clan Elliot. He has been recorded in history as being the fellow that nearly killed the Forth Earl of Bothwell James Hepburn. It's a long story if told from begining to end, but the short version is that Jacques (also called Little John) was being pursued by Bothwell and his men back in 1566 as a lowlands outlaw. It's best to say at this point that the border clans rustled cattle from across the Scotch and English border for a living. When the English armies would cross over the borders during the wars between Scotland and England, they would steal the cattle and burned the Scottish crops and farms along their path. As a Scotsman of the time you would have to rustle cattle to stay alive and provide for your clan. So Bothwell was the official "New Sheriff In Town" sent to stop the rustling and that's where my relative Jacques and Bothwell collided. It's said Bothwell got a shot off first and wounded Jacques in the hip. As they rode farther into the country side Bothwell got ahead of his men and approaching a ridge his horse strubble under him and fell to the ground. Jacques seeing Bothwell's misfortune turned and headed back. They then fought hand to hand and Jacques with his trusty durk was able to carve up the Earl in a most serious manner. Jacques re-mounded his horse and managed to get away before Bothwell's men caught up with the two combatants. Poor Bothwell was carried back to Hermitage Castle where his army had taken pocession of the battlements from the Campbells a short time previously. This is the same event that prompted Mary Queen of Scots to ride some forty miles to Hermitage Castle to see how the Earl was fairing. This then brought about a highten speculation from the royal courts and the common people concerning the alleged ongoing tryst between the Queen and the Earl himself. So to make this story a little more streamlined Jacques persevered over the Earl and his men and live to tell the tale another day. So is there anyone else besides myself who has a story about a distant relative of such infamous history? |
