The King charged that, after his death, Sir James should take his embalmed heart and bear it with him on crusade, thus fulfilling the pledge that Bruce had been unable to honour in his lifetime.

In the spring of 1330, armed with a safe conduct from Edward III of England and a letter of recommendation to King Alfonso XI of Castile, Douglas set off from Berwick[1] and sailed first to Sluys in Flanders.

There appears to be no historical basis for claims that these men were connected with the Order of the Knights Templar, dissolved by Pope Clement V in 1312, eighteen years previously.

Le Bel relates that the Scots party remained at Sluys for twelve days, with Douglas holding court on board ship as if the late king were present.

[4] Sir James' main purpose, according to Le Bel, was to publicise his mission and find out if other knights were interested in joining the Scots expedition to the Holy Land.

It may be Douglas was awaiting news of the planned crusade against Granada and on learning that, despite the withdrawal of his allies, King Alfonso still intended to go to war, he finally set sail for Spain.

Sir James declined these gifts, declaring that he and his men were prepared to offer their arms in the service of the king as humble pilgrims, seeking absolution for their sins.

While the Scots rested after their long voyage and waited for the expedition to depart, many foreign knights who had come to seek service with Alfonso of Castile paid their respects to Douglas, including a number of Englishmen who were particularly keen to meet the man who until recently had been their nemesis.

This was under the command of Uthman ibn Abi al-Ula, a Berber noble fighting in the service of the sultans of Granada, who set off with six thousand cavalry and an unknown number of infantry to the relief of Teba.

[9] The Christian army was hampered by limited access to water and it was necessary daily to drive their livestock out of camp and down to Río Guadalteba [es], the river flowing two miles south of the castle.

The 'Gran Cronica de Alfonso XI' refers to a confrontation on the river that resulted in the death of "a foreign count... through his own error", although some commentators prefer to think Douglas died in a more decisive encounter some days later.

Alfonso, however, having been warned by his scouts of the enemy's movements, kept the main force of his army in camp while he sent Don Pedro Fernández de Castro with troops to check the assault developing on the river.

With battle joined, Uthman believed that his ruse was working and, emerging from the valley where he and his men had been concealed, rode up to attack the Christian camp from the west.

While Teba remained secure in Castilian hands, the Guadalteba and Turon valleys continued to be debatable land for the next hundred and fifty years.

However, in response to Alfonso XI's victories of 1327–1330, the Marinid sultan of Morocco Abu Hasan sent forces in support of Muhammad IV to re-establish control of the Straits.