by H A CULLEY
A few days later Wulfric left London with King Harold and about six thousand men. More joined them on the way and still more were waiting just behind Caldbec Hill, where they camped on the night of the thirteenth. However, there was no sign of Oswin and the men of Dorset. So only about eight thousand exhausted men lay down to sleep.
The morning of the fourteenth of October 1066 dawned bright and clear with tendrils of mist in the valleys. Wulfric looked across at Telham Hill to the south and saw a party of mounted Normans watching them. As Wulfric watched he saw a large force of Norman archers and foot making towards Senlac Hill, a ridge approximately a thousand yards south east of where he stood on Caldbec Hill. He realised instinctively that possession of the ridge would give the Normans a much more level approach to where the English army stood, over which their cavalry could charge into the English left flank.
A few seconds later the order was given for the housecarls to mount up and they raced the Normans to be the first to occupy Senlac Hill with the foot streaming behind them. As he dismounted Wulfric realised that this position presented steep sided slopes to the enemy with a long slope in front down to a level bottom. To the rear lay the densely wooded Andreasweald forest. Harold gave orders to form the traditional Saxon defensive position – a “shield wall”; a rectangular block of men in close order with their large round shields locked together. The Housecarls formed the first few ranks. Behind them stood the thanes with the fyrd. Harold took position in the centre with his brothers and his bodyguard beneath the Dragon of Wessex and his personal standard, the Fighting Man. Wulfric noted that there weren’t enough housecarls to line the whole ridge. Then he heard Harold shout orders that sent about a third of the fyrd running along the back of the formation to secure the right flank. Wulfric reflected that probably that flank was the most vulnerable point in their defence as, although the land in the valley below the ridge was marshy, there weren’t enough housecarls to stretch that far and so it was only defended by the fyrd.
A boy took Wulfric’s horse to the rear and he stood ready in the front rank of the centre beside Cerdic, about fifty yards to his king’s right. The Normans, seeing that they had lost the race, fired a couple of volleys of arrows at the English line and retreated. Wulfric raised his shield to protect his face and two arrows thudded into it. He used his sword to cut them off at the base and returned to watching the Normans form up for battle. Shortly afterwards stakes were passed forward with points at both ends which the housecarls hammered into the ground about a yard apart. Wulfric stood behind one of the stakes whilst Cenric and the man on his other side had no such protection.
After about half an hour the Normans had formed up with archers and crossbowmen in the front and the foot soldiers behind them. Wulfric could just make out the knights taking station in the rear. As he watched a single Norman knight rode out of their ranks. He appeared to be singing something from the occasional sound wafting towards him on the light breeze and he was throwing his sword in the air then catching it: something which Wulfric couldn’t see the point of.
When he was two hundred yards from the English line he roared out a challenge for Earl Harold, as he called him, to meet Duke William in single combat for the kingdom. When this was translated into English the challenge was greeted with laughter and ribald comments. The knight didn’t understand what was shouted at him but he got the gist. Roaring with anger he charged straight uphill at the startled housecarls and, avoiding the stakes, cut two men down before he was speared, pulled from his horse and hacked to pieces.
A roar of anger from the Normans greeted this foolhardy death and Wulfric watched as the archers and infantry prepared to advance.
~#~
When Hugo reached Hastings again he sought out Roger de Montgomery but was told that the duke had sent him back to Normandy with a large part of the fleet to start to muster the first wave of reinforcements. These would be required to pacify the country once William had taken the throne. FitzOsborn was now in charge at Hastings so Hugo, followed by Tristan and their squires went off in search of his conroi. When he eventually found them putting up their tents, they seemed dumbfounded to see them.
‘Lord Roger told us you had been ambushed and killed by Saxons’ a middle aged knight called Aubrey told them when he had recovered from the shock. ‘How did you escape?’
This reinforced Hugo’s suspicion that it was de Montgomery who had planned their deaths.
‘We were rescued by friends. The funny thing is our attackers were Normans not Saxons. Never mind we are back now.’
Sir Aubrey looked embarrassed. ‘I’m delighted. We’re delighted’ He amended looking round at the other knights for support ‘to see you safe and sound, but…. Well, look here Hugo; the thing is that Lord Roger made me the conroi commander before he left.’ Aubrey wouldn’t meet Hugo’s eye.
‘I see. Who did he leave in overall charge here?’ He barely managed to keep his anger in check.
‘Guy Melville. His tent is just behind our lines.’ Aubrey indicated the large and gaudy canvass structure twenty yards away.
Sir Guy was also more than a little startled to see Hugo and his party looking so hale and hearty after hearing the sad tidings of their deaths. He saw from the furious expression on Hugo’s face that this might be a difficult reunion.
‘Hugo – and Tristan. I am mighty relieved to see you safe after the rumours of your deaths.’ He began.
‘Why did Roger de Montgomery tell you we were dead when the truth is that, although we were ambushed by Normans masquerading at Saxons, we escaped unharmed, as you can see? I can only think of one explanation. Do enlighten me if you can think of another.’ Hugo pushed his face close to the startled marshal’s.
‘You can’t talk to me like that.’ He started to bluster. ‘You are merely one of Lord Roger’s household knights.’ Guy was beginning to regain his confidence.
‘Not any more. I won’t serve a treacherous dog who tries to have his loyal servants killed. I hereby renounce my fealty.’
‘As do I.’ Tristan added loyally but, at the same time, wondering what they would do now.
‘I will write to my lord and let him know.’ Guy replied stiffly. ‘You are making a grave mistake.’
‘How is that? We already know he wants us dead; how much worse can it be?’
‘Not we, just you.’ Replied Guy incautiously.
‘Because I led the conroi that defeated his precious son’s men?’
Guy nodded unhappily. ‘Partly, but more because Lady Mabel wishes it and she can be a trifle vindictive. But I should never have told you that.’
‘We had guessed about the son but thank you for warning us about Mabel de Belleme.’ Hugo and his friends turned on their heels and walked away.
‘It seems that Mabel has forgotten that I saved her cousin’s life.’ Hugo said when they got back to where they had left their horses with Sweyn.
‘In retrospect perhaps you should have left him in the quicksand.’ Said Roland bitterly.
He was not normally depressed but recently he had been fretting about his future. There was no certainty of knighthood for a youth with no parents or influence. Hugo was his only hope but now that his master was without employment or income it was doubtful that he could even afford to keep him as a squire.
Hugo laughed. ‘That’s not like you Roland. Don’t worry there are plenty of knights here who have no master but who are seeking their fortune once William is king.’
‘Yes, a pretty rough bunch they are too.’ Tristan spoke for the first time. ‘Why don’t you go and see if Giullaume can help?’
‘Can help with what?’ They whirled round to see the man in question walking towards them. ‘Sir Guy Melville tells me that you have quit Roger de Montgomery’s service.’
‘My, doesn’t good news travel fast?’ Hugo greeted his former master with a grin.
‘I would inform the duke of Lord Roger’s perfidy, if I was certain that it was him,’ he added cautiously, ‘but, i
n any case, he has more weighty matters on his mind just at present.’ He clapped both Tristan and Hugo on the shoulders. ‘For example he has just finished organising his cavalry into battalions of ten conrois each and I am to be one of the eight battalion commanders. That means I will need a replacement to command my conroi.’
‘Are you offering me the post? But your men don’t know me.’ Then he paused. ‘Oh, and what about Tristan?’ He belatedly thought about his friend and gave him an apologetic look. Perhaps he took his friend too much for granted.
Guillaume smiled. ‘Some of them know you already and those that don’t will soon become acquainted with your ways. You’re not without experience in command. We’d better go and find William FitzOsbern so we can get you signed up.’
The next day Hugo spent familiarising himself with his new conroi and putting them through their paces. Most had accepted him happily but one huge knight called Emery le Gros, who stood a foot taller than most of his fellows, obviously resented him, perhaps thinking that the appointment should have been his. Hugo was aware of his attitude almost right away and decided there was no point in putting off the inevitable so he asked with a grin if he wanted to demonstrate the finer points of swordsmanship with him.
Armed with shields and tourney swords they kicked their horses into a charge at each other whilst the other members of the conroi watched. Emery held his kite shaped shield along his horses flank in the traditional way to protect both the side of his horse and his lower body and held his sword aloft ready to bring it down from overhead as they charged at each other. Suddenly Hugo jinked his horse to the left so that the shield was useless and the sword was heading in the wrong direction. Before Emery could recover Hugo swept his sword round and dealt him a hard blow in the ribs. Had the sword been sharp it would have parted the chain mail links, cut into the padded Gambeson underneath and cut deeply into his body, breaking a few ribs in the process. As it was the Gambeson absorbed most of the impact but the knight was still left with bruised ribs and had difficulty in not falling off his destrier.
‘Well done Sir Hugo.’ He turned in surprise to see that the duke and FitzOsbern were watching together with Guillaume and several nobles he didn’t know.
He trotted over, pleased that the duke had remembered his name – or perhaps Guillaume had reminded him.
‘Thank you my lord duke. Just a little demonstration, but it is a pity that the English fight on foot. We will have to practice on those dummies next. He pointed over to where the conroi’s squires were setting up spare clothing stuffed with straw.
‘Ah,’ smiled the duke. ‘If only our enemies were straw men.’
Followed by his retinue he trotted away to go and watch the building of the second of the wooden castles he had brought with him. Hugo turned back to his men.
‘Right, now we are going to charge against a shield wall.’ He noted Emery nursing his sore ribs. The knight caught his eye and smiled ruefully.
On the first of October Hugo’s conroi was sent out with a troop of sergeants with orders to make for Winchelsea and Rye and burn both towns and lay waste the land around them. Hugo noted that some seem to relish the prospect, especially the sergeants, whilst others obviously found the task distasteful.
Winchelsea was almost deserted and those who were left either set out to sea in small fishing boats of fled into the woods north of the town as the column approached. Several of the sergeants set off in pursuit until Hugo told Roland to give a blast on his horn recalling them. After giving them a lecture about discipline, which merely drew resentful looks, he allowed his men to loot the town and then set it on fire. He, Tristan and the squires stood guard to make sure they weren’t surprised whilst this was going on. Although there had been no reports of English patrols they weren’t that far from Romney where there was a English garrison.
Rye was a different matter. It was a larger town than Winchelsea and was surrounded by a wooden palisade. The gates were firmly shut and the walls were manned by armed townspeople, some of whom had bows. Hugo took his men on a circuit of the town, staying just outside missile range. There was only the one set of gates except for a small postern on the far side. He had no siege equipment so the only solution was to burn the gates down. The knights formed a barricade of shields behind which to advance and to protect the sergeants, many of whom had crossbows. As they approached the archers manning the palisade stood up to fire at them; however, the crossbowmen slowly thinned them out whilst suffering practically no injuries themselves. As they got near the gate the archers on the wall were either all dead or too frightened to risk exposing themselves. Instead rocks and stones rained down on them. These bounced off the shields though one knight was unlucky enough to suffer a broken leg.
Under cover of the shields several sergeants piled brushwood against the gates and Hugo thrust a flaming torch in the middle of it. The brushwood was bone dry and immediately ignited with a whoosh. The Normans beat a hasty retreat and watched the gates burn from a safe distance. Some of his men wanted to go round to the postern gate where they suspected that many of the townspeople were making their escape but Hugo told them to let them go. His orders were to fire the town.
When the gates were no more than a smouldering heap of charcoal Hugo led his men towards the town on foot, leaving the horses with the squires. He just hoped that the women and children had made good their escape because he knew that he couldn’t hold his men in check once they were inside. With several whoops they split up into small groups to loot and pillage. Hugo and Tristan made their way to the main square where they were surprised to find about fifty armed Saxons standing waiting for them. They had to run for their lives calling for support from the marauding bands.
About ten of the knights had rallied to the call by the time that they reached the gates where Hugo yelled for the squires to bring forward their horses. Once mounted he led the handful of knights and the squires in a charge back into the town cutting down everyone in their path. Hugo saw three Saxons who had caught a sergeant raping a young girl of about nine; they held him down whilst one cut his throat. Secretly Hugo sympathised with them but he brought his sword down, cleaving the skull of one man and, turning his horse to prevent another fleeing, he stabbed him in the chest. By then the third man has disappeared, taking the sobbing child, so he led his men on to the town square. The fifty Saxons were still there so the charging horsemen rode into them. Hugo’s destrier reared up smashing his hooves into one man’s chest as he brought his sword down cutting deeply into the shoulder of another. He felt a spear bounce of his shield before the rest broke. The squires pursued them, eager for their first blooding in battle and he saw the fourteen year old Ralph bring a mace that he had got from somewhere down on the head of a fleeing spearman. Ralph reached down and scooped up the spear before riding on to thrust it into the back of another man.
When it was all over Hugo found that his patrol had lost three sergeants and one knight killed during pillaging and one squire had been wounded during the rout of the Saxons in the square; this was in addition to the knight with the broken leg. The plunder was loaded into the two carts they had brought along for the purpose and they rode back to Hastings as the black plume of smoke from the burning town rose into the air.
He was a little fearful of his reception back at the camp. He blamed himself for the casualties but he wasn’t sure how he could have avoided it. However, he needn’t have worried.
‘Everyone is impressed that you managed to take a defended walled town and sack it with so few men and so little loss of life.’ Guillaume told him.
Hugo wasn’t convinced though. He understood the duke’s strategy in provoking Harold into an early battle but he still regretted the slaughter of the townspeople. The only things he took comfort from were the escape of most of the women and children and the fact that Tristan, Roland and Ralph were unscathed.
A few days later he was sent out again but this time it was just a matter of burning two deserted villages and herdin
g back to camp a small herd of cattle they had found hidden in a valley.
On the thirteenth of October his conroi was sent with a troop of sergeants north of the isthmus to watch for any advance scouts from Harold’s army. They took up position on Telham Hill and he sent the sergeants out as a screen to scout for any sign of the enemy. In the late afternoon the sergeants came back to report the sighting of what could be the English advanced guard on the approach to Caldbec Hill. Hugo immediately sent Tristan and Ralph back to report to Duke William.
Just over an hour later Tristan returned with William de Warenne and two further conrois. Once he was satisfied that the English army were occupying Caldbec Hill for the night, de Warenne returned to Hastings leaving the two Conrois he had brought with him behind. Another knight was placed in command so Hugo relaxed and told his men to get some food inside them.
At first light the Duke arrived with the rest of the army trailing behind him, led by the archers and the foot. He watched the activity in the English camp for a while then sent a large party of foot and archers to secure Senlac Hill halfway between the right flank of where he was and Caldbec Hill. He cursed the fact that he had positioned the cavalry in the rear of the line of march then ordered the three conrois that were already there, including Hugo’s, to join the force heading for Senlac Hill. Hugo could see that it was a race they were going to lose. With only eighty knights there was little point in racing ahead of those on foot as he could see that a small army of mounted housecarls were already beating the Normans to the summit of the ridge.
When it was obvious that the English were in possession of Senlac Hill the archers fired a few volleys in frustration and the force withdrew back to Telham Hill. The duke was far from pleased at losing this vital piece of ground and Hugo was very glad that he was not in charge. As the army marched in from Hastings in a somewhat random fashion organisation began to emerge from the chaos. The archers formed the first two ranks with the crossbowmen in the middle. Behind them stood the men at arms ten ranks deep, the most heavily armed to the rear. The two thousand cavalry formed up behind them and the squires with spare weapons and horses waited a hundred yards behind their knights. The left flank was commanded by Alan of Brittany and contained the Breton and Flemish contingents, who William considered his weakest troops, faced the fyrd who guarded Harold’s right flank. The Normans took the centre under William’s personal command and the right, composed of the French and foreign adventurers, was commanded by William FitzOsbern and Count Eustace of Boulogne.
