A NATION MOURNS – DETAILS EMERGE OF THE KING’S LAST
HOURS
PERTH FAMILY’S DENIAL OF INVOLVEMENT
‘THEY’RE GOOD BOYS’ SAYS MOTHER
SHOCKED CROWDS GATHER OUTSIDE PERTH FRIARY
‘I TRIED TO WARN HIM’ CLAIMS HIGHLAND SPEYWIFE
CARDINAL KISSES KING’S CORPSE, SAYS ‘HE DIED A MARTYR’
QUEEN VOWS BLOODY REVENGE ON ALL OF THE KILLERS.
QUESTIONS ASKED OF EARL WALTER.
Professor Richard Oram.
A stunned silence has gripped Perth today as the full horror of what passed in the King’s House in the early hours of 21/22 February becomes known. A spokesman for Queen Joan read a statement to a crowd of hushed townsfolk at the west door of the friary church, setting out in detail how after she and the king had passed the evening in the privacy of their chambers, in the company of the king’s uncle, Earl Walter, and his grandson, Robert Stewart, Master of Atholl, and sundry other lords, playing chess, listening to music, singing and relaxing, a gang of armed assailants had burst into their suite, injuring several of her maids and wounding the queen herself. Our lord king had hidden in a space beneath the floorboards, but was detected by the traitors and, though he fought manfully and injured some of them, was overwhelmed by numbers and slain.
Our reporter has learned that the investigating officers found that the drawbar of the queen’s chamber door had been removed and the locks broken, facts which point to a well-planned conspiracy that had accomplices inside the royal household. That a king who said in parliament that he would make men rest secure in their homes without fear and that the Key Alone Will Keep the Lock should die in such circumstances is a cruel irony. The sheriff’s men refused to confirm or deny that Sir Robert Stewart was being held in custody on suspicion of involvement, commenting only that ‘a man was helping us with our enquiries’. A spokesman for his grandfather, Earl Walter, would neither confirm nor deny that Stewart had been arrested.
In a separate development, a spey-wife from the Glen Tilt area of Atholl claimed that she had foreseen the king’s murder and come to Perth to warn him of his danger. She had managed to join the supplicants at the door of the royal apartment, only to be denied entry by a man whose description matches that of Robert Stewart. ‘He told me that I was an interfering witch, I think,’ she told our reporter, ‘but I know the Gaelic tongue better than your Scots, so it may have been another word.’ When asked for details, officers of the sheriff intervened and took her away for questioning.
Later, a select group of our kingdom’s leading men were allowed to enter the friary church to see the body of the king. Our reporter mingled with them and saw the king’s body on a bier in the middle of the nave, washed and laid out so that his wounds could be seen. He counted sixteen in the chest and stomach alone, and the king’s hands and forearms were much cut about from his efforts to defend himself. One of the observers, a visiting cardinal from Italy, here as the Pope’s observer in the Church Council to be held in Perth this week, knelt by the king’s body and kissed his wounds, proclaiming that he had died a martyr at the hands of enemies of peace and justice. In a later statement, the queen’s chamberlain confirmed that the lieges of Perth would be allowed in tomorrow to view the body and see for themselves what he had suffered for them.
An angry mob, meanwhile, was gathering in the High Street, crying for revenge on those who had been complicit in this foul and treasonable act. Earlier rumours of the involvement of members of the Chambers family, prominent Perth burgesses, saw angry denials on behalf of the family by their lawyer. Dame Chambers, when challenged about the whereabouts of her sons Christopher and Thomas, cried ‘They’re good boys; loyal boys. They wouldn’t harm a hair on a body’s head’. An ugly scene followed in which stones and filth were flung at the goodwife. Guards have been set at the doors and back gate of the Chambers’ house for the protection of the family.
We understand that Queen Joan has sworn on the evangels that she will hunt down her husband’s killers and unleash on them the full force of royal justice. She has taken personal charge of the efforts to track the killers and has sent men from the king’s guard into Atholl to round them up. Word from Atholl is reporting that some of the conspirators have already been apprehended and are being brought in chains back to Perth. The whereabouts of Robert and Thomas Graham, however, remains unknown.
In a final development late this afternoon, Earl Walter released a statement from his castle at Methven, denying that he had knowledge of or part in the conspiracy against his nephew. When challenged about Robert Stewart’s role, the spokesman simply said, ‘no comment’. Tonight, what role Atholl and his grandson might have had in the plot is the talk of Perth. We only have to recall the removal of the drawbar and the broken locks to understand their suspicions.
We urge Earl Walter to come forward and swear on oath to his innocence.