Welcome aboard!! :wavey:
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From near Edinburgh ye say, m' lad?
Based on what I've been told (mixed in w' a bit of Scottish legend no doubt!...), there are traces of my family's Scottish heritage back as far as the early 1300's.
As the story goes, Robert the Bruce finally came to his Scottish senses and took up the mantle of fighting for Scotland's independence from those mean old English from the deep south of the isle of Great Britain some time after the execution of Wlliam Wallace ("Braveheart").
But Bruce's claim to the royal throne of Scotland was not uncontested.
In fact, one of his major rivals called for a....shall we say..."meeting of the minds" between him and Robert the Bruce to settle the issue of whose claim to the Scottish throne was the MOST valid.
Well....things got nasty very quickly and, what may have started out as a discussion rapidly turned into a sword fight, with Bruce seriously injuring (but not KILLING) this rival.
Bruce's rival quickly fled to the horns of the altar in Greyfriar's Abbey (located in SW Scotland not too far from Edinburgh; in fact, it's very close to where the infamous Lockerbie plane crash occured back in the 1980's).
Bruce speculated out loud to his principal aide-de-camp (who bore my family's surname) whether or not his rival was truly dead or not.
His aide-de-camp came up with a sure-fire solution to make sure by boldly entering the altar area of Greyfriar's Abbey and, post haste, dispatching Bruce's rival to the realm of the beyond!!
Because of this incident, one will see above the crest of my family's coat of arms an armored hand holding a bloody dagger over which are inscribed my family's motto: "I Mak Sikker!" (translation = "I'll Make Sure!")!!
With that major rival out of the way, Robert the Bruce was then free to devote his time and efforts in rallying the Scots against the English.
In AD 1314, Bruce and the Scots finally defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn; thus (at least for a couple hundred years anyway) the Scots were freed from the shackles of those dastardly Englishmen!! :thumbs:
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How's that for a good Scottish tale of yore?!!? :smilewinkgrin:
