MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

1128: All's quiet on the home front

Back in the United Kingdoms life was continuing in a relatively peaceful manner. Uncle Alexander’s attempt to provoke the English into open hostility by blockading Caen continued but so far has been unsuccessful.

Alexander was disappointed not just by the failure of his blockade scheme, but even more so by the failure of Pope Strenna to live up to his expectations as a hater of the English.

When Pope Petrus had died in 1125 AD and Pope Strenna had been elected, Alexander thought he had found a kindred spirit with as much hatred of the English as he had. He had assumed that Strenna’s initial edict of 1126 requiring Scotland to blockade the English port of Caen would be the start of a long and hopefully bloody persecution of the English based on this mutual hatred and he was keen to comply with the expected Papal Edicts requesting Scotlands assistance to do so.

But it hadn’t happened instead two years later Strenna seems to have forgotten whatever grudge he had against the English and has reverted to the same habits as his predecessor Pope Petrus in demanding persecution of the French.

Alexander was not happy, he was getting old and there were still too many Englishmen still alive. With growing irritation he sent the Papal Envoys back to their master with ill concealed demands that something be done about the English and their evil existence.

But the English were keeping a low profile and the Pope now had too many other problems.

Winter 1129: Aidan Makmartane is a credit to his father

In the winter of 1129 Aidan Makmartane, the second of Makmartanes brood, finally reached manhood and accepted his spurs. He was little short of a child prodigy and even before seeing battle was considered by most to be the greatest of all Scotlands warrior nobles.

This merely made Alexander even more morose, with five daughters to find husband's for the fact that Makmartane had three sons, at least one of whom showed such promise seemed to be a cruel mockery of fate and he took it out on his female family as often as opportunity allowed.