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Hugh Fitzcairn was an Immortal and the best friend of Duncan MacLeod.
History[]
Born in 1190 in Sussex, England, Fitz's first death in 1224 illustrated his habit of getting himself into sticky situations over women: he was skewered by a jealous husband. He was first taught in the ways of the Immortal by Henry Fitzmartin.
Fitzmartin either shared Hugh's exuberant ladies' man nature or spent his time exasperated by the young man. Fitz was an attractive, carefree man, well loved by his friends, among them Duncan MacLeod, he was the life of every party and could charm any lady in the room.
Meeting MacLeod[]
Fitz and Mac first meet 1637
Fitz first met MacLeod in Verona, Italy, 1637. MacLeod worked for the prince, protecting his beautiful and supposedly virtuous daughter, Arianna.
It seemed, however, that MacLeod's martial skills were no match for Fitz's amorous ones. The prince demanded Fitzcairn's head, but MacLeod demanded his right to retribution and "killed" Fitz by running him through, thus saving his life. The two became friends for life.
Over the Centuries[]
In 1696, MacLeod and Fitz vied for the hand of the beautiful Immortal Angelina. To test her suitors, she enlisted their help in recovering stolen gold from the chateau of Baron Robert de Valicourt. Instead of recovering the gold, however, Gina lost her heart to the daring Baron and they married. Every century, the couple renewed their vows before friends and fellow Immortals.
Fitz was also a friend of Connor MacLeod, and Darius. He flirted with a Montague woman named Selene, who was involved with Connor at the time, and called Connor a "renegade who would break her heart". Connor was so angry at Fitz, he refused to attend Robert and Angelina de Valicourt's wedding a decade later.
In London of 1720, MacLeod was trying to steal the legendary Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey for the Scots, at the same time that Fitz was trying to blow up the Abbey and King George. Fitz and MacLeod debated who had the more valid case, and finally decided to fight a duel on the field of honor; a golf course, to see whose plan they would attempt together. Unknown to MacLeod, Fitz cheated.
Around 1883, Fitzcairn visited a club, where he was saved him from a beating Danny O'Donal, a bouncer. The action resulted in Danny losing his job and lodgings, but Fitz took him as a pupil. Five years later, they met Duncan and Amanda at the Queen of Spades club. Fitz had heard of gold being discovered in Alaska and convinced Duncan to accompany him and Danny on a quest there. Danny dreamed of owning a large house with colored glass windows and a stable.
The three Immortals travelled first to Seattle, where Danny was saved from a mugging by "Slim" Jim Foster. He convinced them to go to a place called Skagway for supplies but they quickly learned Foster was working for Jefferson Randolph Smith, the gangster who ran the town, and had set them up to be robbed. While there, Danny began a relationship with nightclub singer Minnie Dale, who had been stranded there when her husband was killed prospecting, and planned to send her back to Seattle and Claire Benėt, a woman Duncan had befriended there. However, when he went to tell her, he learned an old friend of her husband's, Fergus Cooley, had returned having struck gold and proposed to her, and she had accepted. Danny unsuccessfully went looking for Fergus, and afterwards feared what he'd have done to him if he'd found him.
Duncan secured two native guides, Siwash Sam and his brother, and the party journeyed on to Alaska. There, they found a large amount of gold and set off back to Fort McPherson to stake their claim. However, they suffered a number of mishaps on the way back. Sam's brother was killed by a bear, which Duncan, Fitz and Danny only managed to defeat because of their Immortality. The ice gave way under one of their sleds, leaving Sam with a badly injured leg which became infected. Danny insisted on searching out Fitz when he was swept away under the ice. He rescued him but Fitz's sword was lost.
Eventually, the four of them had to take refuge for days from the snow storms in a cabin, where Sam died of his wounds. Duncan and Fitz wanted to leave the bags of gold there and just take a few nuggets to stake their claim but Danny was reluctant to give up any gold. Fitz eventually offered a compromise where Danny could take one of the three bags. Their progress was again halted by the weather and they were forced to take refuge in a cave. At that time, Danny was showing signs of insanity from the pressure, hearing voices talking to him.
As they moved onwards again, Danny became convinced that Fitz had died in the cabin and his companion was a demon using his form, while also believing he could get the strength to complete the journey by killing his two companions and taking their Quickenings. He attacked the unarmed Fitzcairn, only failing to kill him thanks to the intervention of one of their old sledge dogs, Vixen. Duncan then arrived and challenged O'Donal. Duncan managed to run Danny through and intended to spare him because he knew he wasn't in his right mind, but Danny stabbed him in the side and Duncan instinctively beheaded him.
Duncan and Fitzcairn later retrieved Danny'a body and had him buried at Fort McPherson.
20th Century[]
Fitz in 1929
In England during October of 1929, MacLeod arrived at Fitzcairn Manor, North Tidworth, to attend Fitz's funeral. As he stood with the mourners, he realized that the dearly departed was hiding in the greenhouse, watching his own funeral. Fitz told Mac that he "died" of a heart attack, not something Immortals are prone to. Fitz had been murdered, and it was not a good time to be dead. For the first time in his life, he was rich, and Fitz had sunk everything he owned into American stocks for his return-from-the-dead-fund, however, he was behind on his paperwork. Meaning there was no new name to inherit the money; and he was, therefore, broke. He asked MacLeod to find his killer and protect his grieving widow, Juliette. The plot thickened... there were more murders. It was finally discovered that Fitz's widow was the killer. Unfortunately for Fitz, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 caused him to be bankrupted once again.
In 1950's London, MacLeod finally discovered Fitz's golf trickery. Amanda believed the Stone to be a priceless gem and wanted to steal it, fence it, and pay off her gambling debts. Fitzcairn wanted to make up for his past deceit to MacLeod, and MacLeod wanted the Stone returned to the Scots. The three of them broke into the Abbey on Christmas. Amanda was dismayed to discover they stole a hunk of granite. She was arrested by Scotland Yard for treason and made a deal, turning over Fitz, who was arrested. MacLeod managed to get a pardon from Sir Winston Churchill and returned the Stone to the Abbey. In the end, all three of them return to the golf course.
In 1987, he helped Duncan, Brenda Wyatt and Rachel Ellenstein with Connor's recovery from a Dark Quickening. He even had a boat acquired that once belonged to Papal Navy, pride of the Vatican and blessed on every square inch. Because of that, the boat was Holy Ground, making any Immortal safe.
When Gordon Byrne arrived for Connor, Fitz proudly revealed that no fight would happen. Rachel than shoved Byrne onto the small speedboat to allow Duncan to fight him, but Connor appeared and faced Byrne himself. Afterward, a police inspector named Victoria arrived, with Fitz greeting her kindly. It is implied that Fitz knew she was a Watcher.
Fitz spoke fondly of "Brother Darius", and remarked to Duncan, that he was one of the best Immortals.
Discovering the Watchers[]
Fitz in 1993
Around 1993, Hugh went to see Duncan at his barge on the Seine and told him about the disappearance of three Immortals, among them, Damian Thackery. Upon meeting Tessa, he complimented her on her loveliness. The two went to see Darius but were met with a shocking discovery, Darius had been beheaded inside his church. When Duncan tried to take sole responsibility for dealing with the murderers; Fitz corrected him sternly saying that they would work together in finding the killers. Later, while returning to his hotel, he and Duncan were attacked by unknown men who kidnapped Fitz. Later, it was revealed that the men who kidnapped him were led by James Horton who had killed Darius, and that the men were known as the Hunters.
When Fritz revived, he watched as Horton and his men "study him like an insect". Horton told Fitzcairn, "You are an abomination before nature and in the eyes of man. There is no glory but ours. No destiny that is not of our making." Horton was about to behead Fritz using a guillotine, but he was saved by MacLeod.
Death[]
Fitz with Naomi
Fitzcairn settled in Paris where he was writing a cookbook and teaching at the prestigious cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu. He had found Naomi, his latest true love, but they had problems with her former boyfriend, Patrick, who was jealous of their relationship. Antonius Kalas, on his mission to destroy everyone MacLeod held dear, killed Patrick and set Fitz up for the blame, destroying Fitz's current life.
Fitz defiant in death.
Fitz and Kalas faced off in the tunnels beneath Notre Dame, the two old Immortals battled before MacLeod, who watched helplessly as his friend was bested and fell to Kalas.
Ultimately, Fitz would be avenged when Duncan killed Kalas on top of the Eiffel Tower.
Fitz would be remembered for his carefree, romantic style. MacLeod's epitaph for his friend, offered with a wry smile, summed up their relationship; "Fitz was a real pain in the ass. I'm going to miss him."
Alternate History[]
A meeting that never was.
In the series two part finale, To Be and Not to Be, Fitzcairn appeared to a temporarily dead MacLeod as a guide to show him what the world might have been like had the Highlander never been born. In the alternate timeline, he told MacLeod; "Here I've been pushing up daisies for 280 years. Some business about blowing up King George went horribly wrong, and there was no lummoxy Scotsman there to save my ass, so I had to keep an appointment with the headsman's axe. I don't know about you, MacLeod, but that 280 years was rather important to me."
Fitz in Duncan's vision.
Weapon[]
According to Charles Anthony, the Watcher's Bladed Weapons Curator, "Fitzcain was a man of impeccable taste with an exaggerated sense of style. It stands to reason that he would adopt the most fashionable sword of the period...by 1696...Fitzcairn had adopted... the cup-hilt rapier...his weapon of preference for more than a century."
Unfortunately, Fitz lost the rapier during his adventure in Alaska.
By the time of his death, Fitz had changed to a courtier sword, a two-handed weapon.
Appearances[]
The Hunters (1993)
Star-Crossed (1995)
Till Death (1996)
The Stone of Scone (1997)
Unusual Suspects (1997)
To Be (1998)
Not to Be (1998)