Hoodsman: Revolt of the Earls

by Smith, Skye

  "No," she grasped at his shirt, "you must not see him. If we are together in front of him he is sure to guess that we are lovers."

  "Then we shall see him separately," he said soothing her again. "but I must see him for he will want to pass verbal instructions through me to his men at home."

  "Surely he will trust such messages to his kin, and not to you."

  "You are likely the only kin here, and does he trust you? His cousins will fear to visit him. Traitors, once caught, become the loneliest of men." He held her a little while longer, but the guards were making sounds like they wanted to close the gates for the night so Judith disappeared into the deep shadows of the palace courtyard, and Raynar could do nothing but watch her go. He felt so wretched and helpless.

  The newly bought stable began paying for itself that night, as Raynar led their two horses into the little house and bedded down with them for the night. He heard man noises during the night, and the horses were uneasy, but the house had been fixed enough to be secure, and the bolted door was stout enough.

  * * * * *

  Just after sunrise he was woken by a knock at the door and Much's voice asking who was in the house. The entire party had arrived, including Judith's children and the Frisian maids that Judith had brought along to care for them. They were there to work, and the carpenter's voice could soon be heard reeling off a list of tasks.

  Raynar did not join in the work. He washed in the river and dressed in his finest clothes and ate in the market that was conveniently halfway between the stable and the palace. The palace looked a happier place in the clear morning light and he sat on the same bench and watched people while waiting for Judith. The people-watching was as fascinating in Winchester as the people-watching in Brugge, and likely for the same reason. The promise of wealth and favour brought many folk of many interests to both capitals.

  * * * * *

  "Thank you for bringing her," the tall gaunt man said as his welcome and he grasped Raynar's arm in a warrior's grasp. Waltheof had aged a dozen years in but one, but he was neat and clean, and he was still a handsome man though his great height was now stooped. "Judith has told me that your ships now carry our trade goods directly from Huntingdon to Flanders. She has also told me that you and your crews are no longer outlawed since you served the king well in both my fyrd and the bishop's fyrd."

  "It was my hope," Raynar replied, "that if your fyrd rode well for the king, that the king would stay the charges of treason against you. I was wrong."

  "The charges were made by William's appointed regents and so must be heard in an English court. The good news is that William still believes he needs an English Earl to legitimize his succession. The bad news is that I am no longer his favourite, since now he has Prince Edgar as his lapdog."

  Raynar made to defend his friend Edgar, but Waltheof raised his voice above him. "Edgar is of ancient Saxon royal blood from Alfred and before. I am just a Danelaw Jarl. Once he is rid of me, all those years of Danish rule will be erased from the memory of this kingdom. Already at court, those who are not Norman are called Saxons, not Danes. It is as if a half of the English folk were, over night, no longer of Danish blood. As if English Danes no longer existed."

  "He has cause the death or the fleeing of so many, that your half is now perhaps less than a quarter," replied Raynar, "and those Daneglish that remain are all scratching a poor life and pretending to be Angles or Saxons."

  "So I am finished," said Waltheof, "for even if the king spares my life, he will hold me prisoner so that by law, he can be guardian to my wife and to my heir, and hold my lands in trust. Tell them that at home. Tell them to be attentive to the sheriffs, for they are their future."

  "That future is not yet written," said Raynar, "you must walk tall like an Earl, even now in this cell."

  "Hah, that I raised the fyrd and that your wolfpacks held the Severn have ensured my future," said Waltheof woefully. "The Normans have a professional army so they have no such tradition as the fyrd. They do not understand it and after the Severn they now fear its power. DeLacy is here and he is telling stories of the battle for the Severn that are chilling the nobles to the bone. If an English Earl can snap his fingers and wield such a force, then that Earl must be destroyed."

  The man's tone was turning morose, so Raynar changed the subject. "Judith has been learning to be another Beatrice. She wishes to run your lands and be guardian until your son is of age."

  "Then she must gain the king's support in that. If William leaves for Normandy before she gains it, then Odo will have other plans for her, as he does for me. She must win that pledge from the king, and then take my son home to the shires where men like you can keep him safe from Odo. Her presence here can only hurt me. Oh why did you bring her."

  "She was summoned by her uncle, the king," said Raynar. "She can plead to him directly and privately. She can send her pleas to the queen. Pleas to save her loving husband."

  "She would be lying, and they would know it," Waltheof replied. "Everyone here knows that our marriage was not a good one, despite the three children. Over the years Judith has made it plain that she is unhappy as my wife, and that it is all my fault." He moved closer to Raynar and began to whisper. "I have messages for my kin. Will you carry them for me?"

  Raynar spent the next hour memorizing names of men and villages, and the messages to them. Nothing could be written down. The door clanged heavily as he left the room. The guard locked it from the outside. It was a comfortable room but a cell never the less. Rescue was impossible unless he was moved away from Winchester. He went back to the bench at the gate and waited for Judith.

  Again it was after dark before she came and sat beside him. "I have seen the king, not in court, but in private. He has granted me leave to go and I am to steward Walt's lands on behalf of my husband and my son. I am still a countess, and will be so long as the earls' honors remain vacant, whatever the outcome for Waltheof. So that is my future. Until he reassigns the honors, or until he betroths me to someone else, or until our children are of age, I am to remain the countess. Sheriffs will be appointed to administer the shires on the king's behalf."

  "It is as your husband wished. It is far more than the wives of the other accused were left with. Come, we must leave Winchester quickly before Odo is told. If you sleep at the stable then we can be gone at first light."

  She held him back with a hand on his arm and came closer and whispered, "I bedded him. I thought you should know that I bedded him."

  "You are his wife," he whispered back, "such is his due, and your duty."

  "For the first time I offered myself freely to him, and for the first time, he was gentle," she began to weep. "I think has resigned himself to a death sentence." He stood and pulled her to standing and then walked her arm in arm to where he had left their horses.

  Before they slept he announced to the bowmen that he needed volunteers to stay behind in Winchester to rebuild and to work the stable, but that they should sleep on their decisions until the morning. In the morning seven men waved goodbye to them as they left. He was thankful that one was Much, for the miller's son knew sums and could be trusted with the fat purse he was given to run the stable until it was paying its own way.

  The two carpenters he also expected to stay, for there was plenty of well paying work for carpenters in Winchester. Even their first efforts at fixing the small house had attracted other building masters looking for hands. The others were a mix of stable lads who knew horses, and curious lads who had never been to a city before, and did not want to miss this opportunity.

  Raynar gave Much a bit of general guidance. Fix the place up. Get it earning as a stable. Make it defensible. Any living quarters were to be built a floor up, both for security and to leave as much room in the smallish yard as possible for animals and carts. Make friends with the town watch. Stay out of trouble.

  "I would have rather had a house in Winchester than a stable," reflected Judith as they passed through the city gate.

&
nbsp; "Houses are expensive in Winchester because every wealthy Norman wants a house near to the palace. The stable was cheap for there is a shortage of men to work it. Be content. Much will make sure there is always a comfortable room for you to stay in."

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Revolt of the Earls by Skye Smith

  Chapter 24 - The monk’s message at Bridgnorth, Shropshire in August 1102

  Since it may be days before Castle Bridgnorth actually surrendered, Raynar made his bed in King Henry's cavernous tent. He brought a squad of Royal Archers with him to create a secure a perimeter in a circle around the great tent. This surprised Henry and though he did not mind the presence of the bowmen, he did want to know the why of it.

  "Today, Henry, I had you walk through ten thousand English peasants and told you that it was custom. It is an ancient custom, but more important, it was to take you to a place where you would be safe. A place where your own barons dare not follow you. You touched a thousand peasants today, and were safer than if you were in your own palace. If you had instead walked through your barons, I fear your back would have collected daggers."

  "Hmm," replied the king, "I noticed that they were not pleased." He reached for a knife to cut some flesh from the joint on the table.

  "Sire, you have your own spies. Have you no word about your barons from them?" Henry shook his head. "Well then," continued Raynar, "are you interested to hear what the lad who cleans your pots heard yesterday? He quoted it word for word to me while it was still fresh in his mind. Quite a feat since his French is weak." Henry continued to munch meat and waved the knife towards him to signal to continue.

  "If Henry succeeds in bringing the mightiest of us to his knees by force and then is allowed to disinherit him, then from that moment on he will bend us over benches as if we were helpless servant-girls. We need a solution, legal or otherwise, that keeps Henry from becoming that powerful. Perhaps if we can reconcile him with Belleme, then we can put both in our debt."

  There was a sudden thud and as Henry stabbed the table with the knife and he said in a quiet voice with an edge as sharp as the knife. "What do you advise then, hoodsman?"

  This was the first time that Henry had ever called him a hoodsman. Raynar pretended he had not heard the reference. "You mean for now, or for the rest of this year?"

  "Both," said Henry.

  "For now keep to your plan. Strip the Montgomery family of land, titles, and power and banish them from England. That will turn them into you brother Robert's problem. For the future, expand the powers of the shire reeves. Choose the castellan's of all major castles from your most able local sheriffs. Chester is a fine example. The sheriff there is doing a much better job than any Norman earl ever did, and he is rooted to you as he has no other honors on either side of the Manche."

  They were interrupted by a commotion getting louder outside the marquee. Raynar drew his sword and told Henry to get behind the table, though he felt slightly foolish as he never had been much good with a sword while Henry was a practiced swordsman. The door flap opened and a chamberlain hurried through. "Sire, there is a monk come with dispatches from Chester and he says there is urgency."

  Henry took a seat behind the table and motioned the chamberlain to bring the monk in. He looked at the young monk and asked, "Since when does my sheriff use monks to carry my dispatches?"

  "Sire," the monk went down on his knees but Raynar lifted him back to his feet with one hand. "Two of your messengers were ambushed by Belleme's arbalesters. The sheriff has sent me with some ragged bowmen to be more assured of these dispatches reaching you."

  "Open your pipe and read them to me," ordered Henry, "for it is fitting that you know the importance of what you carried."

  "Sire, I know already. The sheriff of Chester is four miles north of Shrewsbury with at least six thousand men. Of those, only a thousand are fit to fight and the most useful are the outlaw bands that plagued the border last winter. The lords allied to Belleme are all with him in Shrewsbury, but they are scouting for ways to escape that place.

  The sheriff has blocked two parties from breaking north and has pushed them back to Shrewsbury, but others have broken south and he does not know if the Welsh princes have blocked them, captured them, or let them through for a price. He thinks those making a break for the south included Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall."

  "That bastard," interrupted Raynar, and Henry was thinking the same. It had been only months since William Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall, had abducted the queens sister Mary to bait a trap to capture or kill Henry. It had been the Hood who had found and rescued Mary. It was Raynar who had raised the Hood, and that was probably what set Henry to thinking about the fyrd as a weapon that was independent of his barons.

  "The sheriff asks for your will," continued the monk. "Do you want him to surround Shrewsbury or do you trust the Welsh to guard to the south and west? That is all."

  "Take the good monk and find him food and ale and a bed," Henry said to the chamberlain, "I will have an answer for the sheriff by first light."

  Raynar held the door flap open wide for the two men to leave. He was about to drop it when there was a new commotion from outside. Henry came and stood beside Raynar to better see what was happening. Henry's royal guard were pushing at some ragged bowmen who were trying to get to the tent, while the monk was reaching to stay a pole axe that was being swung by a guardsman.

  Raynar’s own bowmen were nocking arrows, and even Raynar did no know whether they would side with the ragged brethren or the richly dressed guardsmen.

  "Hold," Henry boomed, "who dares to break the peace."

  One of the ragged men was on the ground and he rolled towards the voice and saw the thin golden coronet, but then he saw the man standing beside the king and called out, "Raynar, we are Brunt's men from Offa's Dyke. We brought the monk. We must have our say to the king."

  The captain of the guard tried to justify his bullying. "Sire, they are outlaws. I could not let them approach."

  Henry looked at the ragged men and at Raynar’s bowmen and at the hundreds of eyes now watching what was happening on this rise. He kept his voice booming "Captain, there are no outlaws in my army. Just loyal Englishmen that deserve your thanks and not your scorn. Let them through and bring ale for them, for they have just brought me dispatches of importance through terrain still held by Belleme."

  Raynar chuckled. Henry was learning well how to be the King of the English rather than king of the manor born. The words he had just spoken would be on every lip and in every ear of this vast army within the hour.

  There were eight ragged bowmen, and the monk came back into the tent with them. They stank of sweat and horse and fear. Henry expected them to be in wonder of the fine drapery and rich adornments, but their eyes were on the food on the table. "Eat first men. We can talk once the wrinkles are pushed out of your bellies." They were not polite enough to say no to the first invitation and devoured the table.

  "If it is all right with you sire," the spokesman for the men said, "can I do the telling to Raynar?" Henry nodded his consent and settled down on a bench between two of the men to listen. "Ere, Raynar, d'ya know Wenlock Edge. That's the ridge of limestone between 'ere and Shrewsbury."

  "I know it. The last time I left here to deliver couriers to Shrewsbury we traversed it," replied Raynar. "It has a good bridle path along the spine, but getting down the other side is a bit treacherous."

  "That's the one," said the outlaw, "at the Edge's north end the main highway from here to Shrewsbury goes through it from east to west through a gorge called Hovel Hegen, the evil hedgerow. It's a narrow winding way with steep slopes and heavy woods and thick bush. It's been an outlaw poaching ground since time began. We used it to bring the monk here, and you will be using it to get this army to Shrewsbury."

  "And?" Raynar encouraged the man.

  "There was men in the woods in the gorge, wasn't there?" the outlaw said and his men agreed despite their
over full mouths. "Not that it is unusual for there to be outlaws in those woods. You can set an ambush every fifty paces. We knew they wus there and kept our bows nocked and rode fast through, but they had no interest in ragged men."

  "So there are outlaws in the wood. What of it?" asked Henry.

  "Outlaws don't carry crossbows, sire," replied the outlaw. "They should a' had self bows."

  "An' they wasn't ragged neither. They was well fed and wore some mail," interrupted another.

  "What do you suggest?" asked Raynar.

  "Bout bloody time that highway was sorted," said the oldest of the men. "Before I was outlawed for carrying venison in my cart, I was a carter. We carters charged extra for running the Hovel Hegen, cause if you didn't loose the load, cart and all, there was always a toll to pay to some heathen or other."

  "And by sorted," asked Henry, "you mean?"

  "Look 'ere your sireship. Y'use got twenty thousand o' da' fyrd pickin' their noses in the valley down there that's got nowt but shovels and forest axes for weapons. Put 'em to work. Flatten the road, take out the twists, and clear the wood and the bush. Make it safe for the next twenty years. It'd take this lot a day at most."

  "Got ta clear the woods o’ arbalesters first," said the original speaker, "cause there's no way o' knowin' if they's there to block the army or to kill the leaders."

  Henry waved his chamberlain close, "Send for my aides and the captain of the guard."

  While Henry was giving orders to his aides, Raynar finally got a chance to talk to the men. "How is the manor at Hesleie? Did it get swamped by the fyrd?"