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Katherine Kurtz - Knights Templar 01 - Temple and the Stone

KATHERINE KURTZ AND DEBORAH TURNER HARRIS

Copyright 1998

For Richard Bruce McMillan, "Mr. History," whose name recalls one of Scotland's most illustrious kings.
Without doubt, teaching our young about their past is one of the most noble of human occupations.

PROLOGUE

ON A STORMY, SNOW-DRIVEN NIGHT IN MARCH OF 1286, fulfilling a prophecy of Thomas
the Rhymer, Alexander III of Scotland met his death untimely when his horse plunged over a cliff near
Kinghorn, across the firth from Edinburgh, as he hurried to rejoin his young bride of less than a year. No
children had come of this union, and all three children of his previous marriage had predeceased him,
both sons dying without issue. His daughter, married to King Eric Magnusson of Norway, had died giving
birth to her only child: a princess called Margaret like herself, to be known as the Maid of Norway.
Upon this solitary grandchild of Alexander III now devolved all the hopes of the noble house of
Canmore, whose royal line had ruled Scotland for more than two centuries.

But de jure succession to the Scottish throne and de facto accession to it might be entirely different
propositions, for the new Queen of Scots was a child of less than three years, and King Edward of
England had been casting acquisitive eyes at northern neighbor for nearly two decades. Knowing that
Edward must be appeased, Margaret's father and selected representatives of the Scottish nobility
declared a regency in her name and began immediately to explore ways and means by which the child
might take up her birthright. Four years of careful negotiation concluded in an agreement whereby
Margaret would be wed to Edward's eldest son, Edward of Caernarvon, their issue eventually to rule
Scotland and England under one crown, thereby achieving by diplomacy what the English king had
feared he must win by force-though that specter remained a veiled threat that was never far from the
minds of the Scots nobility.

So confident was Edward in his aspirations that, even before the marriage treaty was drawn up at
Birgham in July of 1290, he had dispatched an English ship to fetch his son's child-bride home, its hold
laden with gingerbread, sugar loaves, and toys for the little Maid.

But Margaret's father returned it empty and without her, preferring to entrust his daughter to a ship of his
own choosing.

Part I

Chapter One

IN MID-SEPTEMBER OF 1290, UNDER CLEAR SKIES AND WITH a brisk following breeze, a
stout Norse-built cog set sail from the Norwegian port of Bergen, carrying to her wedding with England
the seven-year-old Margaret Queen of Scots, known as the Maid of Norway.