What do you think?
Rate this book
The Black Douglas Trilogy
The year is 1300. James Douglas is a Scottish youth sent to France by his noble father to escape being taken hostage by the English. When word comes that his father has died in the Tower of London, he is hurled into the war between Scotland and England. Catapulted into an intrigue of rival factions and clashing armies that threatens Scotland, his own lands, and his life, he joins the newly crowned Robert the Bruce in a desperate, seemingly hopeless struggle.
Thus begins a story of bravery and determination that has echoed through the ages.
This bundle includes the entire Black Douglas Trilogy:
A KINGDOM'S COST
COUNTENANCE OF WAR
NOT FOR GLORY
Thus begins a story of bravery and determination that has echoed through the ages.
This bundle includes the entire Black Douglas Trilogy:
A KINGDOM'S COST
COUNTENANCE OF WAR
NOT FOR GLORY
- GenresHistorical Fiction
624 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 8, 2014
61 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
J.R. Tomlin
38 books215 followersJ. R. Tomlin is the author of nineteen historical novels.
She has close ties with Scotland since her father was a native Scot, and she spent substantial time in Edinburgh whilst growing up. Her historical novels are set for the most part in Scotland. Her love of that nation is traced from the stories of the Bruce and Sir James her grandmother read to her when she was small, to hillwalking through the Cairngorms where the granite hills have a gorgeous red glow under the setting sun. Later, her writing was influenced by the work of authors such as Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.
When JR isn't writing, she enjoys hiking, playing with her Westie, and killing monsters in computer games. In addition to spending time in Scotland, she has traveled in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim. She now lives in Oregon.
She has close ties with Scotland since her father was a native Scot, and she spent substantial time in Edinburgh whilst growing up. Her historical novels are set for the most part in Scotland. Her love of that nation is traced from the stories of the Bruce and Sir James her grandmother read to her when she was small, to hillwalking through the Cairngorms where the granite hills have a gorgeous red glow under the setting sun. Later, her writing was influenced by the work of authors such as Alexander Dumas and Victor Hugo.
When JR isn't writing, she enjoys hiking, playing with her Westie, and killing monsters in computer games. In addition to spending time in Scotland, she has traveled in the US, Europe and the Pacific Rim. She now lives in Oregon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 9, 2023
The Black Douglas Trilogy is a collection of three historical novels about the life of James Douglas, a noble of Scotland during the time Robert the Bruce was fighting for its independence from England.
The book is based as closely as possible on historical records of the time. The style is a bit on the dry side, as befits a serious book about a serious period of history. But it is not stodgy or stilted.
The conflict between England and Scotland seems, as far as I can tell, to have started during a period when the reigning King of Scotland died leaving no obvious successor. The English King – I believe this would have been Edward I – decided that, under the circumstances, he was the natural successor to the King of Scotland, and set out to take over the entire country, no matter what anybody else thought. This idea became an indelible part of the makeup of English kings from then on until the English reached a time when they had no obvious successor at the death of Queen Elizabeth I, when King James VI of Scotland, who was also related to the English royal family somehow – a result of occasional intermarriages during the intervening years when negotiators would try to arrange peace between the two countries – became also King James I of England.
The story starts in 1300 when James Douglas was a schoolboy in France where his father had sent him to avoid having him taken as a hostage by the English King to ensure his good behavior and secure his lands. In return, the King declared Douglas’ father a traitor and had him first imprisoned and then executed. After his death, James Douglas had to leave school and France as he had no one to pay for his education. When he returned to Scotland, he entered the service of his father’s friend, Bishop Lamberton as a page. Naturally, Douglas hated the English for the rest of his life. It was Lamberton who introduced him to Robert the Bruce.
Most of the narrative is about battles or preparations for battles. Sometimes Douglas fought with the Bruce. Sometimes he was off fighting for his own lands, which the English King, one of the Edwards, had taken over and given to one of his supporters. Douglas burned his own castle something like three times. If he ever got to live there as a grown man, it can’t have been for long. The story covers almost thirty years. They were fighting almost all of that time. Part of the fight also consisted of the Scots burning and otherwise destroying their own crops and lands to discourage the English from attacking their country. It was not possible for armies the size the English wielded to bring everything with them they would need for a prolonged campaign, so they hoped to drive them back by leaving nothing for them to forage on. This also went the other way as well – when they raided across the border into England, they destroyed whatever crops and things they could. But it was the policy of the Scots not to destroy places that offered them no resistance.
The story of Douglas’ love life is a little more creative. Since much of the narrative is based on historical records, there is not much left to go on. The author notes that it was long thought that the Black Douglas had never married, but there do seem to be some hints in the records that he had both a legitimate son and an illegitimate son. The story the author weaves out of this of his rather sad marriage and mostly even sadder earlier love interests that were blighted because of the war are intriguing and mostly very believable.
The book is based as closely as possible on historical records of the time. The style is a bit on the dry side, as befits a serious book about a serious period of history. But it is not stodgy or stilted.
The conflict between England and Scotland seems, as far as I can tell, to have started during a period when the reigning King of Scotland died leaving no obvious successor. The English King – I believe this would have been Edward I – decided that, under the circumstances, he was the natural successor to the King of Scotland, and set out to take over the entire country, no matter what anybody else thought. This idea became an indelible part of the makeup of English kings from then on until the English reached a time when they had no obvious successor at the death of Queen Elizabeth I, when King James VI of Scotland, who was also related to the English royal family somehow – a result of occasional intermarriages during the intervening years when negotiators would try to arrange peace between the two countries – became also King James I of England.
The story starts in 1300 when James Douglas was a schoolboy in France where his father had sent him to avoid having him taken as a hostage by the English King to ensure his good behavior and secure his lands. In return, the King declared Douglas’ father a traitor and had him first imprisoned and then executed. After his death, James Douglas had to leave school and France as he had no one to pay for his education. When he returned to Scotland, he entered the service of his father’s friend, Bishop Lamberton as a page. Naturally, Douglas hated the English for the rest of his life. It was Lamberton who introduced him to Robert the Bruce.
Most of the narrative is about battles or preparations for battles. Sometimes Douglas fought with the Bruce. Sometimes he was off fighting for his own lands, which the English King, one of the Edwards, had taken over and given to one of his supporters. Douglas burned his own castle something like three times. If he ever got to live there as a grown man, it can’t have been for long. The story covers almost thirty years. They were fighting almost all of that time. Part of the fight also consisted of the Scots burning and otherwise destroying their own crops and lands to discourage the English from attacking their country. It was not possible for armies the size the English wielded to bring everything with them they would need for a prolonged campaign, so they hoped to drive them back by leaving nothing for them to forage on. This also went the other way as well – when they raided across the border into England, they destroyed whatever crops and things they could. But it was the policy of the Scots not to destroy places that offered them no resistance.
The story of Douglas’ love life is a little more creative. Since much of the narrative is based on historical records, there is not much left to go on. The author notes that it was long thought that the Black Douglas had never married, but there do seem to be some hints in the records that he had both a legitimate son and an illegitimate son. The story the author weaves out of this of his rather sad marriage and mostly even sadder earlier love interests that were blighted because of the war are intriguing and mostly very believable.
August 23, 2020
For anyone who appreciates historic fiction, and plenty of battles during the 1300s, this series is worth considering.
The author has done a lot of research so the facts are correct, but of course, she develops the characters and their relationships well beyond historic facts. Robert the Bruce and Jamie Douglas are particularly well-developed characters and both are likable.
I suppose the battle scenes might be too realistic for some readers; many people are killed. Otherwise, there is enough action and suspense to keep most readers satisfied. Especially the first and second books are excellent; I had a hard time putting them down at midnight.
The author has done a lot of research so the facts are correct, but of course, she develops the characters and their relationships well beyond historic facts. Robert the Bruce and Jamie Douglas are particularly well-developed characters and both are likable.
I suppose the battle scenes might be too realistic for some readers; many people are killed. Otherwise, there is enough action and suspense to keep most readers satisfied. Especially the first and second books are excellent; I had a hard time putting them down at midnight.
October 21, 2017
Decent story, terribly written
The history of Scotland and Douglas was interesting enough to keep me reading, though it was tough sometimes because the writing is so bad. The syntax is terrible, there are punctuation errors everywhere, under-developed characters, characters who die but return, passages where Tomlin edited the writing but forgot to delete the original.... it took me forever to finish it. I just don't get how an author can be so very bad at writing
The history of Scotland and Douglas was interesting enough to keep me reading, though it was tough sometimes because the writing is so bad. The syntax is terrible, there are punctuation errors everywhere, under-developed characters, characters who die but return, passages where Tomlin edited the writing but forgot to delete the original.... it took me forever to finish it. I just don't get how an author can be so very bad at writing
December 21, 2018
Great story
Loved the story. The author kept me interested from the very beginning. Well developed characters that I could really care about. It was a very different story from the one in Braveheart. I loved the historical accuracies in this. The one distraction was word errors. Words that were out of sequence. It happened quite frequently. It is too bad that the book was not proofread. It takes a lot away from a great story
Loved the story. The author kept me interested from the very beginning. Well developed characters that I could really care about. It was a very different story from the one in Braveheart. I loved the historical accuracies in this. The one distraction was word errors. Words that were out of sequence. It happened quite frequently. It is too bad that the book was not proofread. It takes a lot away from a great story
April 9, 2019
Black Douglas Trilogy
I found the first book most enjoyable. My chief complaint is that books 2&3 didn’t have extensive editing done. In a digital age where books can be sent to readers almost immediately, there should still be pause to make sure the product is polished with few to no errors. Please have the books sent to a copy editor! The story is great but the but the errors are distracting.
I found the first book most enjoyable. My chief complaint is that books 2&3 didn’t have extensive editing done. In a digital age where books can be sent to readers almost immediately, there should still be pause to make sure the product is polished with few to no errors. Please have the books sent to a copy editor! The story is great but the but the errors are distracting.
August 11, 2021
I really enjoy Scottish and English historical fiction, but this writer is just bad. How you manage to mess up history this exciting is beyond me. Tomlin's writing style is stilted and awkward, her plots meander off in various directions and are left unresolved, and her characters are about as developed as you'd expect from a primary-school assignment. I couldn't even finish it.
July 18, 2022
Constructive criticism
Liked: interesting and absorbing story which was as factual as possible given the gaps in historical knowledge of the period.
Disliked: The author should have used a proof reader. There are a large number of grammatical errors and 'typos ' which should have been checked.
Liked: interesting and absorbing story which was as factual as possible given the gaps in historical knowledge of the period.
Disliked: The author should have used a proof reader. There are a large number of grammatical errors and 'typos ' which should have been checked.
February 22, 2018
Excellent.
December 22, 2018
Fabulous
How lovely this book was The people were real as History tells us.. I loved them all Thank You for a great read
How lovely this book was The people were real as History tells us.. I loved them all Thank You for a great read
January 2, 2024
Good read. Kept me interested through all three books. Gave 5 stars. These books are good historic fiction. I highly recommend these books.
January 27, 2024
Scotlands fight for independence from England after the death of William Wallace. Well written. I enjoyed learning more about this time in Scotland’s history.
September 10, 2024
Started well but became boring such as I didn't care what happened
August 5, 2016
What an excellent trilogy!! I love reading about my own ancestors, and anything to do with the ancients. Pre-christian preferably though many times, the influence of this new religion is important as to the reasoning for many of the historical events that took place. I throughly enjoyed these books and had the next one qued to read as I would get towards the end of the one in hand. I lost sleep, staying up waay too late, and though I do not recall the exact start or finish date, these books made for non-stop reading. "One more chapter" type reading and, then one more? thats how these books were read. I would guesstimate it too me possibly about ten days to read all three in the trilogy. Excellent writing, held my interest throughout.
August 3, 2016
Douglas was a great character
I stuck with this trilogy because I wanted to see what Douglas would come up with next to trick the English, because I cared about the character, and wanted to know more about Scottish history. In the books Douglas was fair, brave, creative, and loyal. The Bruce would not have become the Bruce without Douglas if this account is even half of what Douglas did in actuality.
I stuck with this trilogy because I wanted to see what Douglas would come up with next to trick the English, because I cared about the character, and wanted to know more about Scottish history. In the books Douglas was fair, brave, creative, and loyal. The Bruce would not have become the Bruce without Douglas if this account is even half of what Douglas did in actuality.
January 13, 2015
This trilogy was at times difficult to read of such a struggle.
Sometimes it was difficult to sleep at night after reading some of the battles that took place. It was expertly woven into a novel.
Thank you
Jane
Sometimes it was difficult to sleep at night after reading some of the battles that took place. It was expertly woven into a novel.
Thank you
Jane
May 12, 2016
Good read but a bit too much on battles. Of course I realize this era of Scottish history was filled with heartache and death.
July 30, 2016
Nicely Done. I've read the trilogy twice. Obviously, not spot on, but very close and well done for historical fiction.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews