Past Master

 This is the third in Nigel Tranter's Master of Gray Trilogy. Patrick, Master of Gray (1559–1612), was a Scottish nobleman and politician who played a notable, though often controversial, role during the reign of James VI of Scotland.

The story moves on to the later stages of James VI's rule in Scotland before he gained the English throne. Patrick, you may recall, had yet again been banished, but he devises a new way of getting back into James' good books by uncovering a Catholic plot to unseat him. Tranter goes for the line that Patrick inspired the rebellion, only to undermine it. 

The best part of the book is the fighting on the western seaboard and Ireland when the McDonalds went off to support Irish rebels. Tranter always describes this part of Scotland very well.

There was one last apparent internal attempt to kill James in August 1600, when he was apparently assaulted by Alexander Ruthven at Gowrie House, the seat of the Ruthvens. Ruthven was run through by James's page, John Ramsay, and the Earl of Gowrie was killed in the ensuing fracas; there were few surviving witnesses. Given James's history with the Ruthvens and the fact that he owed them a great deal of money, his account of the circumstances was not universally believed.

The book ends with Elizabeth's death when she finally names James as her successor. Sadly for Patrick, James decides he has yet again had enough of him and that there would be suitable rogues in London to replace him. This must have been a blow as succession was Patrick's main policy aim. We know that Patrick became the 6th Lord Gray on his father's death in 1609, three years before he died in 1612.

While this is not the most exciting period of Scottish history, the story is excellent, with plenty of plots and turns to keep the reader engaged.

I picked up some 28mm figures suitable for the period, perhaps a little earlier, at the bring and buy at Hammerhead. They will undoubtedly work for games of Border Wars.