Nigel Tranter 
End of the Line 

As the 15th century dawned, Scotland was plunged into chaos. With the new king ailing and weak, his unscrupulous younger brother, the Earl of Fife, seized his chance to become Regent and Governer of the realm. Sent to London to appease the English king, George the Cospatrick, 10th Earl of Dunbar and March, struck up a lasting friendship with Richard II’s cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, who was to become King Henry IV of England. On Henry’s succession to the thone, Robert III’s wife, Queen Annabella, asked Earl Cospatrick to use his influence with the English king in order to avert civil war. And so it was that Cospatrick found himself seeking help from the Auld Enemy to right affairs in Scotland. In due course, Cospatrick’s son George was destined to pay the price of his father’s links with the Plantagenets and perceived treachery.