Ironhand

by Hilary Green

  He had poured out his heart to the confessor and received absolution, and at last he was reconciled to the holy church from which he had been estranged for so long. Perhaps now he was free of the burden he had carried all his life. But what of the decision he had to make before the night was out? When he was hardly more than a child he had sworn an oath that one day he would avenge himself on the men who had slaughtered his family and stolen the lands that should have been his. As the years passed that vow had lost its urgency but he had never quite forgotten it. Yet now he was considering offering his services to one of that hated race. He found himself drawn to Duke Roger and sensed that at heart he was a good man, but was that enough? Was this indeed the path God had set out for him? Or was the devil tempting him, as he had tempted Christ in the wilderness?

  His knees hurt from kneeling on the hard stone and his legs were beginning to cramp. In spite of the heat he shivered with exhaustion, but he continued to pray, murmuring the Latin psalms and prayers he had learned so long ago in the monastery. And as the sky paled towards the dawn the words of the priest who had confessed him came back to him.

  'God has set out a path before you. Do not question where it leads, but follow it in all humility and faith. One day the goal will be revealed to you.'

  That morning a great ceremonial Mass was celebrated in the courtyard of the palace. A great crowd of Greek Christians, who had been living under Moslem rule, thronged into the courtyard and broke spontaneously into the Kyrie Eleison. At the end of the service the qadi, who had administered the island for the Emir until Roger's arrival, came forward to swear allegiance on behalf of his people to their new lord. When all had done so, Ranulph knelt at his feet and placed his hands between the Count's and swore the oath of fealty, promising to become his liegeman of life and limb.

  25.

  The Kingdom of Jerusalem 1119.

  The sky above the fortress of Hab was paling with the dawn. Sir Marc d'Ambray flexed his shoulders and yawned.

  'Enough. It is time we both got some sleep.'

  Opposite him on the far side of the bed the boy looked up and blinked, as if waking from a dream. He leaned over the still form of the wounded knight.

  'He has not stirred. He is not …?

  Marc placed his finger tips on Ranulph's throat. 'His heart beats still – and I fancy it is a little stronger than it was.'

  A brother infirmarian approached, carrying a bowl and a ewer of water. 'He has not woken?'

  'No.'

  'Have you watched over him all night?'

  'Yes.'

  'Go to your rest now. You must sorely need it, after yesterday's battle. I will stay with him.'

  Marc rose and stretched, but the boy remained seated. 'I will stay too.'

  'No.' Marc moved round the bed and laid his hand on the boy's shoulder. 'You need to sleep as much as I do. Come away. Brother Robert will do all that we could do.'

  Reluctantly the boy allowed himself to be gently propelled towards the door. Then he turned back. 'Will he ever regain consciousness?'

  The infirmarian lifted his shoulders. 'That is in God's hands. But rest assured, nothing will be left undone that might assist His purpose.'

  The boy looked up at the old knight. 'I listened to your story all night like one enthralled. But there is more I want to know. How did it happen that Sir Ranulph left his position as Count Roger's steward and took the Cross? What brought him to Antioch and to Jerusalem and finally to this place?'

  Marc smiled at him. 'There is much to tell. At the time when Ranulph made his oath to Count Roger great changes were about to be made all through Christendom. In Constantinople Emperor Alexius Comnenus was contemplating the growing threat of the Turks to the south and considering looking for allies in the west. In Italy Pope Urban ll was listening to the stories of pilgrims attacked and abused when they tried to reach Jerusalem. He observed the constant armed conflicts between the petty princes of Europe, and wondered if there might be a way of uniting them in the cause of Christ.' He yawned again. 'But all that will have to wait. When we have rested I will finish the story – or perhaps,' he looked back at the silent figure on the bed, 'perhaps, God willing, Ranulph will be able to tell you himself.'

  Historical Note

  The principal events in this book really took place. I have merely inserted my fictional characters among them. William the Conqueror's 'Harrowing of the North' in response to a rebellion by northern thanes is well documented; as is the war between the Emperor Henry IV of Germany and Pope Gregory VII. Robert d'Hauteville, the Guiscard, was a Norman lord who conquered large parts of southern Italy and Sicily, which was then given into the rule of his brother Roger. Roger proved an enlightened ruler who encouraged the arts and intellectual enquiries of the his new Muslim subjects. Nevertheless, he spent much of his time putting down rebellions in his other Italian domains, as did the Guiscard himself. All Europe was troubled by warfare among minor lords and it was this in part that encouraged Pope Urban II to call for a Holy War against the infidel, thereby diverting many of these restless warriors away from their petty squabbles.

  This was also the time when trade between Europe and the Levant was beginning to flourish, bringing silks and spices to the markets of Italy and Flanders and exporting in exchange the woollen fabrics produced on the looms of Bruges from the wool of English sheep..

  More information can be found in the following books:

  The First Crusade, the Call from the East – by Peter Francopan, published by Bodley Head -2012.

  God's War – by Christopher Tyerman, published by Penguin in 2007.

  Seafarers, Merchants and Pirates in the Middle Ages – by Dirk Meier, published by Woodbridge, Boydell 2006.