Programme Name: Rise of the Clans - TX: 03/12/2018 - Episode: The Bruce Supremacy (No. 1/3) - Picture Shows:  Neil Oliver - (C) BBC Studios - Photographer: ***

Discover how Scotland’s past was dripping in blood

The second episode of the real life story behind Scotland’s past is being shown tonight (Monday).

Rise of the Clans will see Neil Oliver travel back in time to reveal the real life Game of Thrones – the story of Scotland’s ancient clans, in the three-part BBC Scotland series..

Rise of the Clans shows it is a blood-soaked saga of battles and feuds, loyalty and betrayal, love and death set against the country’s wild mountains and glens.

In today’s episode, Neil follows the rise of Clan Stewart to become Scotland’s Royal dynasty. It’s the blood-soaked tale of a bitter family feud. In a vicious contest, using clan power to plot, manoeuvre and murder their way to power, the story culminates with the dramatic assassination of King James I below a tennis court in Perth, 1437.

Neil traces this family feud through clan combat, brutal betrayal and royal romances to the brutal torture and execution of the last rival Stewart, Walter Atholl, when the king’s widowed Queen Joan wreaks a terrible revenge for his treachery.

It will be shown on BBC One Scotland from 9-10pm.

Neil Oliver (Photo: BBC Studios)

In this final episode of the series, to be shown next Monday, Neil reveals how the clans plotted against Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots ultimately leading to the beheading of the most charismatic Queen in Scottish history.

Our tale turns on a brother’s plot to overthrow his sister in a ruthless bid for power. James Stewart, Earl of Moray uses clan power to first control and then rid Scotland of his sister Mary. As she battles conspiracies, plots and counter plots, Mary is trapped in the cruel and tumultuous world of clan blood feuds.

After they murder her husband Lord Darnley and Mary flees into the arms of the Earl of Bothwell, the most ruthless of Scotland’s Clan Chiefs, civil war breaks out.  Mary escapes to England, never to return again.

In the first episode, shown last week, Neil followed the clans as they rallied behind Robert the Bruce in his against-all-odds bid to win Scotland’s crown.

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