He still seemed fit, but his hair was turning grey and his girth much expanded. As for his temper, it was much the same – simmering some of the time and frequently volcanic in his outbursts.
Robert held the title Count of Normandy and I was fortunate to travel with him throughout the domain he ruled in his father’s absence. He was the perfect teacher of Norman ways. Although he was much calmer and more considerate than his father, he was forthright and disciplined; he expected obedience from his subjects and dealt firmly with miscreants. I learned quickly.
The months passed and I became more contented than I had ever been in my life. We hunted well and I ate and drank like a Norman lord – in large quantities, with only a modest regard for quality. Their appetite for women was similarly less than discerning, the priority being the frequency of the conquests rather than their worth.
But I did not complain too much. His father denied Robert the chance to take a wife, fearing that an alliance with another royal house would make his son too powerful, so I chose to stay single also; consequently, we could debauch ourselves as much as we liked.
William still styled himself as ‘Duke’ when in Normandy, and when he returned from England – which was usually two or three times a year – his relationship with Robert worsened. Only the intervention of Robert’s mother, the formidable Matilda, kept the peace.
To Robert’s great dismay, his father seemed to favour his thirdborn, William Rufus, especially after his second son, Richard, died in a hunting accident in 1074. His name was the clue to William’s preference. Rufus ‘the Red’ was tall and fair – like his father and their Viking ancestors – whereas Robert took after his mother, whose stature was so meagre it became the subject of common jests.
Robert and I were both in our mid-twenties, Rufus nineteen. Understandably, he wanted to join us on our drinking and whoring excursions, but Robert would not hear of it and Rufus became more and more annoyed at the rejections. I tried to reason with Robert.
‘He’s your brother and good company, let him come.’
‘No, I’ll not have him running to my father or, more importantly, my mother with exaggerated stories of our adventures. He’s a prick, that’s all that needs to be said.’
Robert’s increasing distance from his father threatened to explode into violence in 1077. It was also the year when a boy called Sweyn appeared at Robert’s court in Rouen – a boy who later, as a man, would be as influential in my life as Hereward of Bourne. By coincidence, he was also a son of Bourne.
I had not met him before but I recognized the knight who brought him to court. They rode into Rouen’s keep together, the knight carrying the colours of Toulouse. The boy, although far too young, was dressed as a sergeant-at-arms. I strode over to greet them.
‘You must be Edwin of Glastonbury; you stood with Hereward during the revolt.’
‘I am, my Lord Prince. It is good to see you again; a few years have passed.’
‘Indeed. And who is the young man?’
‘Let me introduce Sweyn of Bourne. Sweyn, it is your privilege to meet Prince Edgar, the rightful heir to the English throne.’
Sweyn looked confident, spoke clearly and bowed deferentially to Edgar.
‘My Lord Prince, it is an honour to meet you at long last. Our paths almost crossed in England, but I was only a boy then and you would not have remembered me.’
I smiled to myself. Sweyn, so obviously still a boy, clearly thought of himself as a grown man. He was of average height and not particularly broad, but was lean and had a determined look about him. His clothes were plain but good quality, as were his weapons. He was dark-haired and tanned, and could well have passed for a man from Aquitaine rather than an Englishman.
‘Stewards, take the horses of our noble guests. Edwin, Sweyn, come into the hall and rest. Count Robert is out hunting. He will be delighted to meet you later.’
I ushered them both to the fire, eager to hear their news.
‘So, you are in training to be a knight?’
‘I am trying, sire. But I am not of high birth, so I must train as a soldier first and then hope I can win the right to carry a knight’s pennon.’
‘You are not related to Hereward?’
‘No, my Lord. My father was a humble villein, bonded to Hereward’s father, Thegn Leofric. He was killed when Ogier the Breton and his thugs came to our village. I was the only one who got away. My mother hid me in the hayloft where I waited until nightfall, when I crept away. Three girls survived as well; they were taken as playthings by Ogier and his men and defiled until Hereward came and saved us.’
‘He had a habit of doing that. He saved my life too.’
‘Sire, I try to be like him every day.’
‘That is a very noble ambition. Edwin, I have so many questions for you about Ely… But first, why are you here?’
‘I am Sweyn’s guardian, and his care and future matter to me more than anything. I had heard that you were at Count Robert’s court, so now that Sweyn is old enough, I hope to be able to place myself at your service as a knight and begin Sweyn’s training and education.’
‘You are both welcome. The Count will be pleased to have two sturdy Englishmen in his retinue, especially ones who stood with Hereward of Bourne. But tell me how you got away from Ely.’
Sweyn, with a self-confident air beyond his years, answered in Edwin’s stead.
‘The King spared us in circumstances we still don’t understand. We were all captured as we tried to escape. We know that Martin, Einar and Alphonso died in the siege and that Hereward was almost the last man standing when he was overpowered. He was bound and flogged to the point of death and then taken into the Chapel of St Etheldreda by the King, who summoned Hereward’s daughters, Gunnhild and Estrith. What happened after that is a mystery. We never saw them again.’
‘William must have had them killed.’
Edwin resumed the account.
‘We assume so, but, as you can imagine, there are many stories, some more plausible than others.’
‘They are not dead.’ Sweyn spoke with firmness, verging on ferocity, a fire burning in his eyes.
‘Sweyn, you are addressing a prince,’ Edwin reminded him.
‘I am sorry, sire, but I am sure they live. I will find Hereward and his daughters. Perhaps then I can repay the debt I owe them.’
‘My Prince, of Sweyn’s many passions that is his most ardent, closely followed by his loathing of Normans.’
‘Well, both are not without reason, but you have brought him to the court of the Count of Normandy, who is, pro tempore, Duke of all Normans.’
‘That, sire, will be part of his education. He will learn that there is good and bad in all men – and good and bad men in all places.’
Sweyn looked at Edwin sullenly, clearly not convinced.
‘So, Edwin, where is your home?’
‘We are from a place called St Cirq Lapopie on the Lot, close to Cahors, in the realm of Geoffrey, Count of Toulouse. Hereward’s family settled there after Senlac Ridge. I first met them when King Harold’s widow, Edith Swan-Neck, sent me there to ask Hereward to come back to England to lead the English revolt. Sadly, when the revolt failed and King William released us after the stand of the Brotherhood at Ely, we returned there. The King was surprisingly magnanimous and let us keep all our silver and possessions. Our land had been well managed while we were away, so we wanted for nothing – except of course those we loved, who we left behind in England. Since then, we’ve prospered.’
‘I’m glad you found some comfort after all your trials in England.’
Sweyn spoke up again.
‘When we returned from England, the first few months were awful. The girls had lost mothers and fathers and the women had lost their husbands. Alphonso’s wife, Cristina, couldn’t get over his death and soon returned to her home in Oviedo. After a while, the anguish subsided a little and life became more settled. Martin and Einar’s daughters, Gwyneth and Wulfhild, married local men a
nd both have children of their own now, as have Emma and Edgiva, two of the three girls from Bourne.
‘Now that Edwin and I have left, there are just three members of the family still there: Martin’s wife, Ingigerd, and Einar’s wife, Maria – who run the estate between them – and Adela, the third girl from Bourne.’
‘She has not found a husband?’
‘No, sire. There are not many men worthy enough. She is full of passions and causes. She fights like a housecarl and doesn’t suffer fools. It was a mighty struggle to persuade her to stay in the Lot. She begged Edwin to be allowed to come with us, but he forbade it.’
‘Interesting; there must be something in the soil of Bourne. Three fearsome warriors from one village.’ I decided that one day I would travel there to see what had become of Hereward’s village. ‘Let us eat, you must be famished. It doesn’t look like the Count will be back tonight.’
After dinner, when Sweyn had gone to his bed, Edwin and I talked.
‘I’m glad you are here. It is good to have an English knight among all these Normans.’
‘What are they like?’
‘Good soldiers, strong-willed; some can be ruthless, even vicious. But that’s true of all people. I like your young protégé; he seems to be a fine young man.’
‘He’s a very special boy. But I am desperate for him to make the step to manhood and to become a warrior in the right place with the right people. He wouldn’t be happy with Count Geoffrey in Toulouse. He’s a good man, but his men are ill-disciplined and lazy.’
‘Training with the English housecarls is no longer possible, but the Normans are the next best thing. And, most importantly, you’re here. He wants to finish what Hereward started and put you on the throne of England.’
‘The boy needs a lesson in harsh reality. Sometimes caution can be more effective than haste.’
‘I know, but he’s young. I am trying hard with him, but he is so determined. I hope you will help me.’
‘Of course.’ I reassured Edwin. ‘But harsh reality may be here sooner than you think. Robert has gone hunting to calm down. He and the King have been at loggerheads for years, and it’s getting worse. Robert now thinks his father favours his younger brother, William Rufus, who he dislikes intensely…’
I paused before voicing for the first time the conclusion to which I was inevitably drawn.
‘I think Robert will rebel and bring us civil war.’
I was right. Events moved quickly in the next few weeks. William had already been annoyed by a revolt by several of his Breton earls in his kingdom in England. Even the Danes had stirred again. The old King, Svein Estrithson, who had abandoned Hereward to his fate at Ely, had died, but his son, Cnut, had sailed with a fleet of 200 warships and plundered York and the east coast. William’s dukedom in Normandy was also under threat, surrounded by increasingly powerful and fractious neighbours. None of this did much good for William’s temper, an ire that usually found a victim in Count Robert.
In the autumn of 1076, William had suffered his first military setback in twenty years when he was forced to retreat from an attack on Dol on Normandy’s western frontier. He had been besieging two of his enemies, Geoffrey Granon, Count of Brittany, and Ralph de Gael, the rebel Earl of Norfolk, in their castle at Dol, the same fortress that he had taken so memorably with Harold Godwinson at his side in 1064.
This time, the defenders were more resolute and the castle held.
Significantly, it was young Philip, King of France, who came to the aid of the Bretons. William tried to stand his ground, but Philip’s military prowess was becoming more and more pronounced, and he deployed his large army to good effect.
William, the mighty warrior, victor of many battles, had been complacent. He had left a significant part of his elite cavalry behind and had not roused his men quite as vigorously as usual. Philip, on the other hand, was young and dynamic and had something to prove.
When Philip’s force appeared to the Normans’ rear, instead of turning his entire force to meet the threat, William split his corps of archers in two, leaving half to carry on the assault on the city, while the other half tried to halt the French attack. But Philip’s cavalry were too numerous and disciplined to be blunted by a small force of archers. William delayed committing his cavalry, thinking that their role would be to cut into the French horsemen after his archers had inflicted heavy losses on them. As a consequence, his infantry was overrun and his cavalry had no time to form up properly for a counter-attack.
From the Norman perspective, it was a shambles. William had made the sort of mistake one might expect from a novice on the battlefield.
When I heard the details, I could not stop myself from thinking how different history would have been had William made the same errors of judgement at Senlac Ridge.
William lost many of his finest men and suffered a massive dent to his pride. It was a crucial turning point for him; his aura of invincibility had been shattered. Normandy suddenly looked vulnerable. Its powerful neighbours began to grow in confidence and act in concert: in the west, Geoffrey Granon, Count of Brittany; in the south-west, Fulk le Rechin, Count of Anjou; in the south-east, Philip, King of France; and in the east, Robert, Count of Flanders.
Not surprisingly, these developments were also followed with great interest by the Danish King, Cnut, sniffing the chance of more Danegeld, and by my former protector in Scotland, Malcolm Canmore.
However, the next challenge came not from William’s circle of enemies or his neighbours, but from his own son.
It was February 1078 and winter still held its grip on Normandy. However, William, as usual, had little regard for the hardships of the season and had billeted us in L’Aigle on Normandy’s southern border to begin the strengthening of the defences of the dukedom against the many threats it faced.
For the first time in a long while, William and his three sons were together. Young Henry, still only ten, was precocious and clever and relentlessly pestered his father to be allowed to travel with him. As usual, Rufus was loud and obnoxious and constantly aimed insults at Robert.
I had appointed Edwin to my hearthtroop as a knight and made young Sweyn my page. Robert liked them both, but on this expedition he was not particularly pleasant to anyone.
‘I am going to see my father. Enough is enough; I am going to demand that he grants me the dukedom in my own right. He’s got his own bloody kingdom in England, which should be enough for the old bastard!’
‘Don’t you think you should request rather than demand?’
‘No, I don’t! I’m tired of his bullying. I’m going to stand up to him. When I’m Duke, I’ll send that arsehole Rufus off to England, and his insufferable little brother will go with him. And if I hear of anyone calling me “Shortboots”, I’ll have his tongue out at its root.’
No amount of persuasion could stop him, and he duly confronted the King. It did not go well. It was unwise and ill-timed, with several courtiers within earshot.
William looked at his son impassively at first, and answered calmly.
‘I suppose you would want me to include Maine as well? It would be of no use to me in England.’
‘Of course.’
William’s volcanic temper began to growl.
‘And how do you propose to deal with our Breton friends and the Angevins? And that French upstart, Philip?’
‘Better than you did at Dol.’
That caused the volcano to erupt.
‘Do you know how long it took me to quell our troublesome neighbours? How many campaigns I had to fight? And now you want me to give it all to you so that you can call it yours! You snivelling little bastard!’
‘You’re the bastard, remember. Your mother was the whore, Herleve. My mother is a queen, a descendant of Charlemagne and Alfred the Great!’
William flew at his diminutive son, grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and, while aiming several hefty kicks at his arse, threw him out of his tent.
Robert landed in a he
ap in full view of the King’s men and his two brothers, who roared with laughter – a signal for everyone else to do the same.
When we heard the commotion, I and Robert’s entire retinue rushed to his aid. A mass brawl ensued, with all three sons at the heart of it, until the King brought it to halt in that unmistakable voice of his.
‘Enough! Enough! I will not have brawling in my camp! If there is another example, an insult spoken or even an aside uttered, I’ll have the culprit flogged. And that includes the three of you.
‘The sons of the King of England and Duke of Normandy do not fight with their fists like peasants. Get out of my sight!’
Robert took his father at his word and we were many miles from L’Aigle by midday the next day. It took Robert until the middle of the afternoon to calm down and to tell me his intentions.
‘We are going to seize Rouen, from where I will declare myself Duke.’
‘Robert, that’s insane, it’s your father’s ducal citadel.’
‘Not any more.’
He kicked on with his horse.
‘I have sent for Ives and Aubrey of Grandmesnil, Ralph of Mortemer and Hugh of Percy. In a couple of days we’ll have five hundred men.’
It was obvious to me that Robert’s temper had got the better of him and I rode hard to catch up with him. As soon as I had, I grabbed his horse’s bridle and forced him to pull up.
‘Robert, use your head, act calmly and with a clear plan; what you’re doing now is driven by your injured pride. Think about the consequences!’
Robert did not respond. But the look on his face made me realize that my advice was falling on deaf ears, and so I let him go.
Despite my pleadings, four days later Robert had assembled his men at the gates of Rouen, but he faced a dilemma he had not envisaged. His father had heard of his plan and had sent word to Roger of Ivry, who was the guardian of the city in his absence, to call out the garrison and bar the city gates. Robert had sent Hugh Percy into the city to warn the Count that if he did not lift the bars, the city would be attacked.
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