Great Scot! Agnes of Dunbar Holds Down the Fort

call off the truck. No, I mean if there's a truck on the way. Okay, Well, at least we've each found each other who cares an equal amount about Valentine's Day, which, like, it's nice. It's like like we said hello this morning, you know, gave it a little like good morning, good to see you again. Oh what a special day. Hands hands, It's very formal. Nice, it's nice. It's nice to know the magic's not totally fizzled out. No, we clebrated over

the weekend. We went and saw wild woods a glow at Fernbank, just like a natural History Museum and they had this whole like a really cool exhibit about color and light. It was really cool. It's like this after hours thing, adults only like seven to eleven, and they're like, we got this outdoor light show you can go see and you can buy drinks in the lobby under the big dinosaur skeletons, and there's like a band that played for a minute, and then the museum is yours to explore.

And I think we both learned that maybe PM with a drink in your hand isn't when you particularly want to be walking around a museum and reading a lot of things on tiny cards. But it was still cool to be in there. I definitely was like, I like a natural history museum, but I'm just not interested in learning right now. Shells and I was like whatever, Yeah, you were done around the show. I was done around. I was like a collection, don't care. Because there was

also a lot of drunk people. Weirdly like people got there and went hard early, or they were just like walking by everything really fast. I know. It's yeah, that's this whole sound bath and they're like mushroom Garden. You're supposed to just like get lost in these these humming tones that are playing while these mushrooms light up, and it was beautiful. And then we're like what Jenny say? Oh yeah, well what Steve say? And I was like, dude, we're in the sound bath. I don't want to be

based in your bro talk. Shut up, which I was kind of laughing because I'm normally I'm a person who's like, well, whatever, they're enjoying themselves, Like fine, it's kind of fun sometimes to let snatches of other people's conversation come to your ear and you're like, what, like fill in the blank, like whatever you like. It's like speculation station out in

the wild. Yeah, but but yeah, for some reason, I was I was just I was like, I feel annoyed because I'm annoyed today it was an outdoor meditative exhibit about sound. It was like, this is the worst place for that. I mean, like the shells, I would love to catch snippets of your absolutely insane conversation to the shells. Did you listen? Did you hear that? In the shells room?

Was that girl yelling? She was talking to her friend about like another friend of theirs, and like clearly they were disagreeing about Palestine and like it was something very serious and I was like, oh my god, why are you talking about this right now? In the Shells Exhibit's like I just can't hang out with him. After what he said about Palestine. I was like, what did he say? I was I was like, so in their conversation, right, how did it get to this here? It was very

serious and incredible. I feel like you should say that another time. But the highlight of the weekend, I think was when we got to go see Mark Evan Jackson at the Plaza Theater and Improv show, The Improv show. Who I You know, if you don't know who he is, he Kevin Cosner on Brooklyn nine nine and he's Shawn the Demon in Good Place. He's really funny, so dry. If you don't know who he is, you probably do just look back like, oh yeah that guy very true

and uh yeah. It was really fun and we is like some hometown improv heroes on stage with him, and it was really funny and but it was cool to like see someone how he's not a goofy person, right, but like he was so funny, just so dry, and his delivery is so ry and stuff that like he he just gets you. He'll say one thing and it's just the delivery fucking tickles you. Ye, like the most mundane line that he'll deliver in a way that just has everybody rolling. That's just the real talent that some

people have. It is, that's like truly funny. But enough about us and our ridiculous romance. Y'all didn't tune in for that. You turned in to hear this incredible story. I love this one because today we want to tell

you about Agnes of Dunbar. She was married to Patrick, the Earl of March, but Patrick was away from home fighting for Scottish independence when British troops pulled up on Agnes and tried to besiege her castle, but she held onto it in a fight so legendary that the story has been passed down for centuries as a model example of Scottish bravery and defiance. So let's hear about sticky Scottish politics, four different edwards, and how Agnes made herself

the star the story. Yes, let's go, Hey, their French come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips, It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract cons a don a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the second plant ridiculous role lance production of I Heart Radio, all right, well, before we get into Agnes of Dunbar, we do need a little

bit of background. That's true, and that means it's time to throw caution to the winds, follow our hearts and have ourselves a quickling with history. I will tell anyone, I promise. So Scotland was ruled by King Alexander the Third until he died unexpectedly after being thrown from his horse in twelve d things. I feel like that probably happened to a lot of hopes. Yeah what we we don't.

We don't lose rulers like that anymore, like if George W. Bush had choked on that pretzel, just like WHOA a weird accident and suddenly we need a new ruler of our country. Unusual. So some Scots lords thirteen to be exact, started vying for this throne, but the two most credible claimants were John Balliol and Robert Bruce. They were both descended from David the First, who was the King of Scotland in there, so they had like blood lines were

right and all that stuff. Very Stannis and renly once again, yes class yeah. So obviously a civil war was to be avoided. Nobody wanted that. So the nobility of Scotland approached the English King, Edward the First, and they asked him to arbitrate the dispute. Basically picked the king that he wanted, and Edward the First was happy to do it, but only if everyone agreed that Scotland was under the authority of England, so king of Theirs was still just

a subject of his. So Edward the First basically like, oh, yes, I'll pick your king. It's me basically, I mean, may as well just that. But Robert Bruce and John Balliol both agreed that they would bend the knee to the King of England whoever he picked, and eventually Edward the First picked John Balliol to be King of Scotland in twelve ninety two. That was that, Well, that wasn't that, because Edward the First just kept pushing it. You know. First,

you know, you give a mouse a cookie. First, It's like, okay, well you'll, I'll let you be king, but you gotta listen to me, and then he starts undermining Scotland and their new king. At every turn. He forced them to pay homage to England, and once he even required King John Balliol to show up in court and face charges like some commoner, some petty ship something that that that is literally just like a power move to make you

look weak. Absolutely, and that that's exactly how they took it. Now, John was willing to compromise with England, and that really soured his Scottish subject on him pretty quickly. The straw that broke the camel's back, though, was when Edward the First demanded that the Scots supply him with soldiers to fight England's war with France. Scottish nobility is like, hell, now we don't, don't you every dame regards so you can fight the French. We don't care about the French.

We like a croissant. So the Scots convened a council and they negotiated treaty with France behind in lives back right where I'm not sending you ship. We're actually friends with them. Didn't you know we're not at war with France? So why don't you eat dirt? Right, Well the Royally Piste off Royal Edward the First and he besieged Scotland at Dunbar and he won, taking over the Castle of Dunbar, which is one of Scotland's strongest and most strategically important fortresses.

King John Balliol was forced to abdicate and the arms of Scotland were ripped off his coat, leading to his enduring nickname of tombab meaning empty coats, and this also refers to him being like an ineffective ruler, which I love. I love them acting like they're like, oh, a coat's here, there's no guy in the you know, they're just like tabs here. Well, Edward the First had pushed Scotland too far. This time it basically kicked off William Wallace's uprising and

the Scottish Wars for independence. Robert Bruce died, but his son, Robert the Bruce felt like his family still had a claim to the throne of Scotland and now he helped William Wallace fight the British. And then he realized, you know, they're never going to restore John Balliols to the throne

of Scotland, so I think I should have it. So he killed his main rival John Coleman in six went into hiding and waged pretty much the most effective guerrilla war in history against Clan Coleman and King Edward the Second this time, who was crowned in thirteen oh seven. So we're on to our second Edward. This is that movie with Chris Pine, right, that's right, the Outlaw, Yes, and Jodie Comer I believe plays his wife. Oh yeah, that's right. That it was good, right, And I love

Chris Pine. So I was just like, you love Chris Pine. Now I really do. Your Valentine, my Valentine, chris Pine. Valentine, my valent Pine. So yeah, Robert the Bruce is fighting this war for years, and the turning point was the Battle of Baneford in thirteen fourteen, when Robert the Bruce delivered a stunning defeat to the English. This is when we meet Pat Trick Dunbar, one of our subjects today. He was the Earl of March and his dad was

one of the thirteen claimants to King Alexander's crown. If you remember, there was thirteen Scots who came in and said, well we should make king. After that guy fell off the horse, etcetera, etcetera. Well, his dad, after King Edward the first pick to king for Scotland, his dad was like, okay, all side with the English here, that sounds good, and Patrick Dunbar followed in his father's footsteps. He received payments from the English crown to help sort of keep the

Scots in line. Now he had to deal with both sides all the time, as Deborah McGillivray writes in her article A Tale of Two Women and One Castle, because Patrick Dunbar's lands were always kind of caught in the middle English Scottish English Scottish. Both Robert the Bruce and his younger brother Edward Bruce loved to raid dunbar lands for supplies while the English garrisons were also waging war there, and that just put everyone in danger. And he's kind

of being impoverished by both sides. Patrick had to play a pretty daring diplomatic game to keep himself and his people and his property safe. However, as much as his dad had ridden with Edward the First, his mother had taken a stand for the Scots, and she defended Castle Dunbar from the English when Patrick was only eleven years old, So he had this really contradictory life. It seems right, moms, Scottish dad's with the English. I'm totally torn in between them.

And in thirteen fourteen, at the Battle of bannock Burn, Patrick gave quarter to King Edward the Second in Dunbar Castle and helped him to escape by boat back to England. So that seemed like he pretty firmly took a side there, like I've got the English king right here, I'm going to sneak him out. But almost as soon as Edward the Second was out of Scotland, Patrick turned around and made peace with his cousin Robert the Bruce and decided

to fight for Scottish independence. So he was sort of feeling flip floppy at this time if he wasn't really sure what was the best bet. So Patrick Dunbar is listed as being present at Robert the Bruce's first Parliament in thirteen fifteen, and he took part in the Scottish siege at Berwick, which is an important border town, and he was one of Robert the Bruce's commanders. It was like a very trusted part of the Scottish fight for independence.

And in thirteen eighteen Patrick married Agnes Randolph Oh from the title of the episode is now Agnes was Robert the Bruce's nephews daughter. We don't know for sure if they loved each other. There's no like fun love letters to read you from Patrick's Agnes or vice versa. But Deborah McGillivray points out that they did have to go through quite a bit to make their marriage legal, so

they must have really wanted it. Agnes and Patrick were second cousins, so they had to get a papal dispensation to wed classic that Pope was like, you're not quite related enough cousins, please send them, okay, And then they had to get a second dispensation in order to make any children. They may have their legal heirs because Agnes's sister had married Patrick's brother, so there's just too any

like crossing of the streams. The siblings would be like, if my sister married your brother, which is the most insane thing, I can would never work any either of your sisters, either my sisters and your brother. Not absolutely laugh laughable what it is. So it's possible that there was some feelings on either side, but also this was actually a very advantageous marriage, you know, one of those possibly a business proposition. You're telling me nobility in Europe

in century was marrying strategically. I am loving you that shocking, can't handle it. Shocking, but true. No, this was a very advantageous marriage because Agnes was the eldest dad of Thomas Randolph, so she had a huge inheritance that would just add a lot to Patrick's already vast land holdings

and personal wealth. Robert the Bruce would get the Dunbar clans helped to subdue Clan Coman, his enemies at home, and Patrick would get Roberts Generals, which included his new father in law Thomas Randolph, to stop raiding his lands all the time because they would actually care because it was their families lands now. So it was truly a win win for everybody. Oh and here's a little just

a historic note. Agnes is often called black Agnes, which historians take to mean that she had dark hair or like a swarthy complexion, but Deborah McGillivray points out that in Scottish clans they referred to the black branch of the family tree, meaning the eldest, and the red branch meaning the youngest, so Black Agnes could just be a reference to her being the eldest child rather than have anything to do with her physical appearance. Well, meanwhile, Scotland

is bumping along through this fight. You've got Bruce's fight comens, You've got Ireland get involved. Everyone's fighting the English and then some real drama hit. In thirteen twenty seven, Edward the Second was deposed by his own queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, and he was forced to abdicate to his own son, Edward the Third, even though that

kid was only fourteen years old at the time. So bonus classic romance here in this episode of a of a queen and her lover overtaking her husband the king, putting their kid on the thrones, that they could really be in charge. She hated Edward the Second him because

since Edward the Third was so young. Of course, Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer, conducted negotiations with the Scots in his name, and they signed the Treaty of Northumberland in eight which recognized Robert the Bruce as the King of Scotland. Bing bang bong Scott's independent pipes. Everybody's happy, but everybody wasn't happy. Particularly the English not at all. This made Roger and Isabella really unpopular, and that went along with a lot of moves they made really unpopular

with the people. And so in thirteen thirty, when he was just seventeen years old, their son Edward the Third, whom they had conspired but on the throne, let a coup against them, and he executed Roger Mortimer and exiled his own mother Isabella. Now that Edward the Third was really in charge, he turned his eyes back towards Scotland once more. Robert the Bruce, who had been made king by Isabella and Mortimer, had died, and his toddler son,

the five year old David the Second was king. Now Edward the Third was like, well, I was a fourteen year old king. I know how week a five year old king would be. And he decided to take advantage of the situation because he didn't really like the decision that his mother made, much like the rest of England. And he's like, uh, independent Scotland never heard of it. And he said that John Balliol remember him, the tomb tabour guy. He was the last real king of Scotland,

which means David the Second, Robert the Bruce's son. This little five year old was just a pretender to the throne. He had no real claim. The real king of Scotland would be John Balliol's son, Edward Balliol, our fourth Edward. So yeah, it was time to fight a Balliol again, and Patrick Dunbar was ready. But it would be at as his battle that would go down in history, and we will find out more about that right after this. We'll come back. Give it a buddy. I do love

your Scottish accent. Thank you so good. It's so fun to do. I hope it's not too offensive and terrible. Really is fun. I'll have to hear from some of our Scottish listeners. Are you offended by something? Tells me our Scottish friends won't be shy about expressing theirs. I'm not getting the impression from this episode or any other any others. Not a timid people, not so much, all right.

So we're dealing with Edward the third Right, who has decided Scotland ain't independent, it's a vassal of England, and I want to be the guy who crushes it once and for all. So in thirteen thirty two, Patrick was appointed a Guardian of Scotland and the regents. So he was acting for the infant David the Second. Okay, okay, wait, so our boy Patrick Patrick Dunbar is now acting as the regent for this five year old who had been

making after Robert the Bruce died. That's right, that's not a bad gig, no, And it shows you how trusted of a person he must have been for Robert the Bruce. You can see chris Pine on his deathbed with that mullet. Patrick's are it's gotta be you man? How did he sound like? That's a chris Pine sense. That's true, hippie man. Teach him not to be toxic masculine. Get some linen pants, go to the bookstore by fifty books of the bookstore. Make sure the paparazzie sees you. Book talk will be thirsty.

So Patrick Dunbar met Edward Balliol, who was Edward the Third kind of puppet king I want to be king. He met him on the battlefield several times, crushed it as usual. Again we're talking about a really good soldier. Yeah, and Edward Balliol was eventually forced to ask Edward the

Third for help. He's like, I can't take over Scotland by myself and had some English soldiers and the King answered the call and together they besieged Berwick, that important border town we talked about earlier, and they won the

Battle of Halidon Hill. Patrick Dunbar was forced to surrender, and in order to avoid prison he bent the knee to both Edwards Edward Balliol as King of scott Land and Edward the third as King of England, and as part of their agreement to not arrest or kill Patrick, Edward the third ordered him to destroy the fortifications of Castle Dunbar so the Scots could not use it as a base of operations to wage war against the British. Again,

this is the strongest fortress in Scotland. It's one of it's very strategically important place and the Scots were definitely using it in their girla war. So He's like, let's deny them this base of operations. Destroy your house. So Patrick and Agnes had to deliberately make their historic home in Scotland's greatest fortress weaker for their enemy, but even

more frustrating. As soon as they were done dismantling stuff, Edward the third changed his mind and he told Patrick to make this place battle ready once again at Patrick's own expense. So he's straight up it's like, what did you do with all the fortifications? We need this? Like you just told me to break him up. You never say something ridiculous. Wow. I know no one's ever said this before, but the King of England is kind of a dick. Wow. Brand new take by the King of England.

So it took years to renovate the castle back to its original or better strength, but by thirty seven it was fortified once more. And even though Patrick had sworn allegiance to England, he was still helping the Scots out on the side, and that's because he was firmly tied the Scots because of his wife, Agnes. Patrick took up arms in several battles against the English, fighting alongside Agnes's younger brother, John Randolph, the Earl of Moray, and Sir

Alexander Ramsey to defeat the English count Namer. After Namer was beaten, John Randolph escorted the count to safety, but he was ambushed and taking prisoner by the English. Damn Patrick, Dunbar and Alexander Ramsey early escaped with their lives. According to Zeborah, McGillivray. But this brings us to our main story today, which is the siege of Dunbar Castle. In January eight, Patrick Dunbar was off fighting, probably either a battle or preparing to fight one, and acts of Dunbar.

His wife was at home at Dunbar Castle, which had been of course all fortified and was super strong. Right now, sparkland brand, spank, intification, wet paint, don't touch. It was pretty common in medieval times for the woman of the house to defend her home in her lands when her husband wasn't around, and Agnes took that job very seriously. But the British Earl of Salisbury, William Montague, thought that he would take advantage of the brave and daring Patrick's absence.

He figures, this castle is really important and right now there's just some lady and her servants, like a couple of guards taken care of it, so this to be an easy victory. This sounds to me like Joe Peshi and home alone. Yes, let's knock off this. It's just some kids, just some kids, let's go rob this place. Oh my, this is actually very much like a thirty eight Scottish home alone are really well, if I could please to play Agnes, Oh my god, absolutely hilarious. Surely

there's a Scottish woman. No, there is a Scottish woman out there who would be a better choice. So he's like, oh, easy, peasy whatever. He shows up. Salsbury shows up at Castle Dunbar with twenty thousand men, and he told Agnes surrender in the name of the King of England. But to his surprise, hadn't us responded with a resounding and no, bitch, She apparently told him quote of Scotland's king. I had my house, I pay him eat and feet, and I will keep my good old house while my house will

keep me as. Salisbury's like, okay, this bitch is crazy. It's the middle of winter. She's got no supplies, no man, and she's rhyming at me, like, what come on, boys, Let's get to siege and we should be done at like fifteen minutes. He's so confident. Well, so Salisbury's army dragged out the manganels or these siege engines that could kind of triped shape catapult things, and they start hurling giant boulders at the ramparts of Castle Dunbars. All day.

For two weeks they would rain these big gas boulders onto the castle, but brand spanking new, shiny and fortified as it was, these stones didn't really do as much damage as Salisbury would have liked. And then, to add insult to injury, when the English stopped for the day, Agnes would come out with her ladies in waiting and just sort of casually dust off the ramparts with their handkerch its, like, oh, why are you boys on the way so messy? Basically I can like they haven't done much,

but spread some dirt arounds to clean up this mess again. Uh, buys down there, when you're playing with your toys tomorrow, can you try and keep things a little more tid? Can you clean up after yourselves? Next? Tame and yeah, he must be like, oh, like, oh my god. But the Salsbury's like, alright, alright, alright, let's bring out the

big guns. Let's show this lady who's buss And he built a sow, which is this big movable siege engine that allowed men to use a battering ram on the castle doors while being protected from arrows or boiling oil or whatever from above. Well, Agnes is like, uh, yeah, that'll be using that sow because I'm about to catch me a bunch of quote let's all anglish Peggy's. So Salsbury's gets worked up again. He does not like how

she is just mocking him face very much. Sorry. It's very much like the French night in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, like real taunting and insulting and just belittling this man. He's like, hilarious, and she's like your mother smells, except she's probably like your mother smells a dog shite. I'm true. That's so she would not even bother. She'd just be like, actually, you also smell like dogs,

so I guess it runs in the family. So anyway, he Salsbury immediately deploys the sal It gets close to the castle walls and they start battering. But Agnes and a few men that she had at her disposal had been collecting those boulders that the English had been thrown at them, so they simply tossed one over the castle walls and completely crushed the south and Salburry' is like, oh ship, and Agnes waves at him and she's like, oh, thank you so much for the ammunition. Appreciate it would

have been screwed without all these boulders. Incredible. So as the survivors running back to the English line, she called out, quote the whole the letter of English pigs scurrying. Salisbury's dignity has taken a real hit because even the guards got into it. One of Agnes's archers deliberately drew down on Salisbury like he met his eye and he's like, I'm about to kill you, then deliberately hit the guy next to him and yelled out quote, Agnes has love

shafts go straight to the heart. Wow. Well, clearly Salisbury was not very good at his job, and he had to think of a new strategy. Patrick had fortified the absolute shit out of the castle at Edward the Third's commands, and Agnes was not scared enough to give in. So Salisbury went up to the Scottish soldier who was guarding the pork palis and he bribed him to leave the gate unsecured, so so man, my men could storm the

castle and get inside. He's a shilling for your time, and the guards like, oh shore bet got you up, and he took Salisbury's money, and sure enough, a short while later, the Portcullis creek open backstabbers trader Well, Salisbury and his men went charging up, and one guy sort of managed to get ahead of salisbury real eager soldier, and he entered the gate first victory. We're inside, except not because as soon as this eager little soldier got inside the bailey or the outer wall of the castle,

the portcullis slammed shut, trapping him inside. The Scottish guard had apparently happily taken Salisbury's money as a bride, but then he went straight to Agnes with the story, and she cooked up a little scheme to take Salisbury prisoner. They were gonna try and trap him him inside the bailey, leading Lady Dunbar, what do you believe this englishman thinks that he can give me a shilling? Just do whatever he says. We've got to come up with something funny.

It's like, oh, no, we're going to use this, Oh we're going to use this incredible Well, this eager little soldier ruined it because they caught him instead. But even though it didn't work, you know, our girl got the last word. Of course, she called down to him. Quote Farewell Montague, I intended that you should have slept with us and assist us in defending the castle against the English. She stood up, had a plate lad after you and everything coming in. I thought you were coming in to

help out. Well, all right, I guess see you next time. So Agnes is killing it. I mean she is not only holding her for it, he is pissing him off so hard, and she has not fired a single shot herself. Salthburies get angry by the day. Months had gone by. He could not get one castle out of the hands of a twenty six year old woman. So he's pasting around his little war tent or whatever, and he's like, what does this horrible woman love? What will make a

give in? And he realized that the English actually did have something very precious to Agnes. Her brother John Randolph, the Earl of Moray. Remember, he had been taken prisoner a while back, and he and Agnes corresponded frequently while he was I mean he was away. He was like imprisoned for years. He went to like many different locations. She always wrote to him, and he always wrote back, so that he's like, oh, she must be really fond

of him. I know exactly what to do. So Southbury's like, get John out here, and he brings John up to the gate, throws a noose around his neck, and it calls out to Agnes, surrender or I will execute your beloved baby brother right in front of you. Well, what do you think happened? Agnes gave in and the story is over. No, just kidding. Agnes just laughed in his face, and she told him to go for it. She said,

you'll be doing me a favor. Actually, I'm John's air, so if he dies, I will be the Countess of Moray, which was a title that she already felt belonged to her because she was the eldest child, thank you very much, who cares about gender? So she's like all his land and property would come to me. So I'll watch happily go ahead. And Salisbury was left looking really stupid because

he never planned to kill John. He couldn't. John was a really important hostit so Agnes totally called his bluff and he just had to like take the rope off with John's neck and be like, okay, well back back to prison with you, I guess, oh my god, embarrassing him like getting so angry, he got tarred and feathered.

He goes up to grab the door knob and the blowtoard hits him on that at yes, exactly, And I like to think that John knew that Agnes was just I hope he was standing like He's probably like a bold strategy that a sister way to call his bluff, and she's like, yeah, call his bluff. That's what I was doing. Well, So Agnes is still firmly in control of Castle Dunbar and Salisbury is red as hell in the face. But he did come up with a new strategy,

and that was just to starve her out. We will find out how successful he was right after this break. Welcome back Millard's and ladies. So to catch us up, Salisbury had shown up at Dunbar in January. His boulders had been returned to him, his bribe were unsuccessful, and his attempt to murder her family was just laughed at. Well, now it was summertime and Salisbury knew the Agnes and her people were already rationing their food and water, so he decided to set up a blockade and starve her

out of the castle. With his twenty thousand men, he cut off all the roads and he paid Genoise galleys to block the ports so no support could come in from the sea, and then he cut off all communication with the outside world. Damn, so she can call for help. He cut the phone lines, blocked out the satellites. It really looked like Agnes's goose was truly cooked this time. But fortunately for her, Patrick's old friend, Sir Alexander Ramsey learned about agnes Is entrapment and he never wasted an

opportunity to scur around with these British eddiotts. So he left Edinburgh and approached the castle under the cover of night with forty of his best guys who were ready for a fight. And he also snuck in food for the people of Dunbar. So the next day Salisbury was twice surprised. First when Agnes sent him a freshly baked loaf of bread to show him she had provisions to last all summer. She had to trolling that she is doing all sandwitches. He loved a bit pickish out here.

I love like she would do killer on Twitter if she'd be roasting constantly such a poster and say, I mean seriously. So Salesbury's like, oh, he like rips up the bread and he decides to strike quickly before Agnes and her people get to you know, fed up and

strong again. So he launched a fresh assault on the castle, and that's when he was surprised for the second time as Ramsey and his hardened Scott's veterans came running out of the castle and easily pushed this giant army all the way back to their w This is like a artist situation where they had like three hundred dudes. They had even less than that, and they still were like, ah, we gotta get out of it. So Agnes had held the castle on her own for five months and Salisbury

was a laughing stock. His seed had cost the English crown six thousand pounds and had gotten them nowhere. They had gotten nothing. They got a worse reputation. I mean basically, I feel like how how many Scots were like super emboldened by the story, you know, like, Okay, all you gotta do is play with their dignity defeat themselves. So Salisbury was forced to admit defeat. He lifted the seed

and left for England on June tenth. Now, eventually, thanks to his hundred years War with France and the Black Plague hitting England pretty hard, Edward the Third had to negotiate a truce with Scotland had too much other ship going on, so the Treaty of Berwick was signed in seven. So partly in thanks to this badass very literally holding down the fort, the Scots got their independence and Agnes became a legend. There was even a ballad written about

her from silly Salisbury's point of view. So let's go down or three corner and here as she makes a stir and tower and trench, that brawling, boisterous Scottish wench came, I Arlie came, I late. I found Agnes at the gate. Amazing. He's like I showed up early in the morning. You know at night that bitch was standing there. When the bards write songs about you, this isn't what you want from Salisbury, I know, okay, Well they wrote songs about me,

talking about what loser I was. Well. Patrick Dunbar would continue to fight the British until that treaty in thirteen fifty seven, and he fought alongside John Randolph until he was killed in the Battle of Neville's Cross, and that meant that his title reverted to the crown. Because he had no children, but Agnes didn't agree. She just started using the title Countess of Moray and no one dared to question her about it. That's right, Like she's she

already thought it was her. Even her husband Patrick Dunbar started using it and he's like, I'm the Count of more thanks to my wife. Now. Eventually the title went to her nephew. When the Treaty of Berwick was being discussed and the war in thirteen fifty seven, Patrick was one of the lords who went along to discuss the release of King David the Second from the English prison he was in. Remember that was the toddler who was crowned king and Patrick was the regent for him, that's right.

And then as he was growing up, he spent a lot of time in exile in France, and he joined the war and then he captured you know, it's like a whole thing with King David the Second and Patrick ended up being a hostage that England kept us collateral until King David the Seconds ransom was paid, but Patrick wasn't kept under lock and key, so after the first payment was made, he just went on his merry way, which turns out to be maybe a bad idea because

King David never did pay his whole rant. He embezzled a lot of money from the Scottish tech payers in order to do so. It made him very unpopular, but he never actually did finish paying off well. Agnes and Patrick ended up having no children together, but they did have Award, who was probably Agnes's sister's daughter, her niece uh and her name was also Agnes Dunbar. She would become the mistress of King David the second. So they kept it in the family because they like they do

they like they get papal dispensations to do. Agnes died in and Patrick died just a few months later. Now I found this story, I guess probably a couple of weeks ago or something, and I was so into it because I was just like, this lady is such a ship poster, basically, like she's so funny, it's just hilarious. And I was like, I want to do this story. And Eli told me not to do it because he thinks it's not a ridiculous romance because it's just about

like this wife. Sometimes we stretch into I would say, particularly women's history, because these stories are so interesting and typically untold. So during our research. Sometimes we come across one and we're like, we gotta do this episode. How can we wedge it into being a story about a relationship.

But mainly because like, especially in medieval times, they didn't write about women, you know what I mean, Like the most you ever got recorded was if you had a baby or not, and even if when you died, they didn't bother to write it down. You know. It's just like your life and accomplishments and the things you do don't matter to anybody. They don't matter for posterity the way men's actions do or whatever. So I think it is really important when a wife eclipses her husband, I

guess because it's so unusual. If there's not a man in the story, how am I supposed to relate? No, I've come around since we read it and started doing it. But next time I'm going to do a story just about a husband eclipsing his wife. Oh it'll be so hard to find a story about that. Oh my god. And liken us but the unknown George Washington, Yeah, Washington, I don't. I just think about it, guys more famous. I mean, we've done it, George Lucas, you know, like

you've seen it happen. Marcia deserved that episode, damn it well. And I think we even talked about this when we were talking about doing this show at all, because I was like, I think it's really narrow to have to do couples, like to have to do people who were together, because a lot of women only succeeded because they were able to get away from their husbands or not get

married or live you know what I mean. A lot of a lot of the episodes we have done have been very much about, you know, these partnerships between two people, not even always a man and a woman, but where one person who's who's not the sis mail in that partnership doesn't really get the attention that they deserve in history, right, Um, And that's led to some really cool episodes for us. Yeah.

I think that's kind kind of what opened me up or whatever when we started sort of making our giant list of possible subjects and I was like, actually, people have been fucking for a long time, exactly exactly, So, Um, there's so much history that you can cover through the lens of a couple or an affair or whatever, as we have done. But I think this is just one of those. To me, I think it's yeah, I mean, and honestly, after we read through it, that's I mean, yes,

that's what I think too. Yeah. Well, whatever we think or whatever you think, we're really excited to tell this story of Agnes of Dunbar, one of the few women in history who eclipsed her husband by being sassy and defiance and trolling the ship at some English dude. She's incredible and totally like hitting him in the face. The paint can hilarious metaphorical Scottish paint can I'm glad paint, you know, like in the cartoons, and it was already

patterned paint and paint all over our Salsbury. I wonder if it's still standing Castle Dunbar, because I would love to go see it. I feel like it must be right. Who could bring it down? Fortress was a long ast time ago, so who knows. Hey, Scottish friends, you have two things to tell us. One our accents offensive to too. Is Castle Dunbar still round? Um? Well, I hate to tell you, is it not. There's some ruins? Okay, yeah,

I thought so, it's it. That's the long ast time ago. Yeah, the last of the castle was damaged in fifteen sixty seven, apparently deliberately to reduce its value as a military target. So probably very similar to what Edward the Third was trying to do when he was like, don't bring it down so it can't be used against me. Yeah, she had a long run the fifteen sixties. That's longer than that, older than America, I know, but even longer than that

because Patrick's mom defended it, so it was already standing. Yeah, it was built in the seventh century. Oh wow, yeah, well, thank you so much for tuning in today, y'all. Yes, let us know what you think about Agnes of Dunbar and Patrick and this whole story. Um, I hope you loved it as much as we did. You can reach us through emails at ridic Romance at gmail dot com. That's right. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram.

I'm at Oh great, it's Eli. I'm at Danamite Boom and the show is at ridict Romance and you can find us on TikTok at Ridiculous Romance. Thanks so much for tuning in. You can't wait to bring you the next episode. I love you by so long. Friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show, tell your friend's Namebor's uncle Sandez to listen to a show. Ridiculous Romance