CHAPTER ONE A LEGEND OF THE UNICORN T he king of Friesland loved his daughter Isabel very much One day he gave her a unicorn as a gift The unicorn was pure white It had a long flowing mane A single horn twisted out of its forehead It was a beautiful creature Isabel loved her unicorn She rode it all over the kingdom Soon people in the kingdom began calling her the Lady of the Unicorn A young man named Unicorn legends can be found in cultures around the world Some tales date back thousands of years 5
Bartholomew was in love with Isabel Bartholomew was no ordinary young man He rode a lion He was known as the Knight of the Lion Isabel soon fell in love with him too Kidnapped One day a messenger came to Isabel and lied to her He told her Bartholomew was dead Isabel was heartbroken Then the messenger kidnapped her and took her to a castle far away A dragon guarded the castle The Knight of the Lion soon learned Isabel The Lion and the Unicorn In the Middle Ages symbols were used to identify different European groups These symbols appeared on shields known as coats of arms A coat of arms could represent a family an army or even an entire nation In the 1500s England and Scotland were ruled separately England’s coat of arms had two lions Scotland’s coat of arms had two unicorns In 1603 King James VI of Scotland inherited the English throne He changed his name to King James I He combined the two countries coats of arms This represented the unification of England and Scotland 6
A stone unicorn stands guard outside a Scottish castle had been captured He knew he had to save her Bartholomew rode to the castle on his lion When he got there the dragon looked big and scary 7
