Pistoleer: Edgehill

by Smith, Skye

  When the king declared that the highest law court would convene in York, it was refused permission by parliament, and yet the Great Seal was still sent to York. The king then declared that all loyal lords and court officers must attend him in his court in York. Any who refused to attend, such as his latest Lord Chamberlain, the Earl of Essex, were swiftly impeached by him. Parliament responded by impeaching all the king's favourites.

  In the cities and towns there were so many pamphlets being printed and distributed to explain all this political news that folk were beginning to paper their walls with them. Despite the rhetoric, or perhaps because of it, England and Scotland stayed peaceful. Not so Ireland, where pitch battles were being fought for the control of the castles and entire towns.

  Eventually Warwick could stay away from London no longer, and so the Swift raced back to Bristol, where Warwick took a coach to London and left Blake and the crew to take the Swift the long way around the coast. Warwick's great chest of silver shillings was empty but it had been well spent. At the end of May, when Admiral Robert Rich ordered the navy to move the Hull arsenal to the Tower of London, they sent a convoy and did so immediately.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Pistoleer - Edgehill by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

  Chapter 6 - With the Summer Fleet off Deal, July 1642

  Typical. All winter long Daniel's clan had huddled for warmth and lived inside and swore that this was the last winter they would spend in Wellenhay, and then spring would come and with it the joy of rebirth, and suddenly the plan of moving somewhere warmer seemed less important. Everyone was suddenly living outside, the women busy in the fields, the men busy in the ships, and everyone with the sun on their faces and feeling good. Every time he mentioned that the need to plan the move, there would always be something more urgent to do ... the lambing, the sprouting beans, the returning birds, one more run to Rotterdam for pistols or genever.

  "Besides,” Venka told him in bed one morning as she listened yet again to his complaints, "how can we do any planning when our main ship and a third of our men are still in London at the beck and call of Robert Rich.

  "That is exactly why we must be prepared to leave. The only reason Robert still has our ship in London is because this kingdom is like a powder keg ready to ignite. We want to be long gone, not just before the first storm of winter, but before the first storm of kings."

  She shrugged. It was maddening when she shrugged. Venka had already told him that she could not leave England, not unless both her daughters went too. What were the chances of convincing Britta to give up the life of silk and satin for a coconut beach in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Venka was resigned to stay and continue running the village, and this was not a bad thing. It made sense that the clan should leave folk behind to keep hold of this village until the move to the tropics was a proven success.

  "Fine! I will go to London and bring back the Swift and the men," he said as he sat up a bit against the bed pillows. "And I will bring back Britta."

  "Then you had best take Teesa with you, though good luck finding her. She's off in her fowling blinds in the middle of who knows where in the fens."

  "No, she came back last night to drop off her catch and fetch more arrows,” Sarah told them from the other side of Daniel from Venka as she gave up on catching any more sleep. "She spent the night at my old house. House, she has turned it into a hanging locker. You'd better run and tell her before she disappears into the fens again."

  * * * * *

  "Impeccable timing, Danny,” Warwick said as he rushed down the main staircase of Warwick House to greet them. "Teesa, your skin has its glow back again,” he told her with a wink. "Is it an all over glow?" He gave her a kiss on the cheek but then turned to Daniel. "Don't bother bringing your kit inside. I'm on my way to the Swift."

  "But we just got off the post coach,” Daniel complained. "We are tired and hot, dusty and thirsty."

  "The king has just impeached Northumberland as the Lord High Admiral and appointed Admiral Penington in his place. I carry a writ from Parliament making me Northumberland's replacement. I must get to the fleet with it before Penington gets there with his."

  "Which squadron?" Daniel asked pushing Teesa towards the staircase while he picked his own pack back up. Teesa wouldn't budge, even though she had been brought along specifically to talk Britta into coming home.

  "The Downs of course. That is where Penington's flagship the Unicorn is. I must stop the captain, any captain, from taking him aboard. To do that I must get there before him. Come on man. We can talk on the ship."

  Two valets rushed by loaded down with Warwick’s things. Teesa picked up her pack and followed them. Daniel called after her, "Not you Teesa." She ignored him.

  "And does ordering women about always work so well for you?" Warwick said with a smirk, and then he too rushed outside and towards the waiting carriage.

  Daniel caught up with him on the driveway and asked "Is Blake already at the ship?"

  "Blake is on his way to Chatham to make sure they know that I am now the Lord High Admiral?"

  "So if I hadn't happened along," Daniel asked as he climbed into the carriage and sat across from Warwick and Teesa, "who would have commanded the Swift?" He felt the carriage rock as four of Warwick's lifeguard leaped onto the running boards.

  "Me, of course. I lived on her the best part of two months. If that didn't please the crew then they could elect one of their own. I trust them implicitly."

  'Implicitly' Daniel rolled the new word silently across his tongue. Ah, back to London and parliamentarians and big fancy words. The carriage lurched forward and through the gates, and then set a breakneck pace towards the Providence quay. Breakneck, that is, for anyone who dared get in the way. He came out of his musings to answer a question. "Ugh, you should wake up in the Downs tomorrow morning."

  * * * * *

  Warwick did wake up at Deal quay in the morning, so at first light he went on deck to see which ships were in port. A smile came to his face when he saw the Unicorn, Penington's 46 gun flagship. He stretched and looked up, way up, at the fortress above him on the cliff. One of the navy's fortresses, so that meant yet more introductions, but such was the life of a Lord High Admiral.

  The quayside was waking up and folk were beginning to move around and set up market stalls and benches. Teesa came and stood beside him. She was shivering so he stepped behind her and wrapped her in his blanket. Daniel was the last of the crew to rise, for he had barely slept on the overnight journey down the Thames, the Thames Estuary, and around Foreness Point.

  "I have mixed memories of this place,” Daniel said while breathing into his hands to warm them. "Good and bad, but mostly bad. The battle held here between so many ships was my idea of Hell on Earth. I just wanted to lie on the deck so that no errant ball would cut me in two." He watched as a family of locals were setting up tables and benches. "She is one of the few good memories,” he said as he pointed to the old mother of the family. "She makes the fluffiest omelets in the kingdom."

  "Good plan. We'll eat omelets ashore so I don't have to eat navy swill while visiting the fleet." Warwick's words raised a chuckle from everyone on deck. "But first I must put on my brand new uniform. You must all promise that you won't laugh when you see it."

  Teesa went into the command cabin with him to help him dress and when he emerged it was difficult not to laugh for he looked very much a king's courtier. Daniel didn't speak his thought that the refilled chest of silver they had brought with them 'just-in-case' would do more for his standing with the captains of this fleet than a French cut uniform.

  Daniel went off to order sixteen omelets while Warwick went back into the cabin to hang up his costly jacket and wake up his four lifeguards. The omelets were as good as he remembered, better even, because Warwick was paying. It was then that a well heeled gentleman with a seafarer's gait came up and asked the mother if she knew where he could hire a tender to ferry him out to the Unic
orn.

  Daniel shot her a look and shook his head, so she said no, and that he should try at the next quay along. Once the gentleman was off on a wild goose chase, she asked Daniel why.

  "I recognize the man from somewhere, and it was not a good memory,” he told her. That was good enough for her, but not for Warwick, who prodded him to remember. "Of course. He was at Dover quay saying goodbye to Admiral Penington when he left with the queen."

  Warwick stood so quickly that he almost knocked Teesa off the bench. "Eat up men,” he told everyone. "Let's get back aboard. I'm suddenly in a great hurry to be on the Unicorn." In mere minutes they were running out the Swift's oars to take him to the flagship.

  As the new High Admiral, Robert Rich was saluted endlessly as he stepped aboard the Unicorn. Daniel went with him as one of his lifeguards and they were all welcomed aboard by Captain Trenchfield. Warwick immediately asked that all the captains of the fleet be summoned aboard. While that was being done, Trenchfield gave him a tour of the ship. Daniel noticed that the heavy purse of silver was gone from Warwick's belt when he finally returned from the tour to greet the other captains as they came aboard.

  There were twenty captains in all, and they crowded into the Unicorn's command cabin with Warwick and his lifeguards. Warwick’s speech was short and to the point. "The king no longer has the means to pay the fleet, and so from now on Parliament is your paymaster. Since I am Parliament's choice of High Admiral, you therefore work for me. If any officer from the king brings you orders, or asks you for the control of your ship, you will ignore them and not let them aboard even if the officer is an admiral. Are there any questions?"

  There were no questions, but more than a few looks of skepticism so Warwick continued. "I expect nothing more from you than to do your duties as is usual except that you must seek my approval before obeying any order issued by the king. Those of you who agree to this can shake my hand in confirmation as you leave to return to your ships. Those of you who have questions or reservations may stay behind and state them and I will try to answer them."

  All of the captains present shook his hand and made a resolution to him, and then left to return to their ships. Captain Trenchfield then mentioned that five captains were missing from the meeting ... the Rear Admiral Sir John Mennes, plus Captains Richard Fogge, John Burley, Robert Slingsby, and Baldwin Wake. While Warwick was thinking about this, a subaltern knocked at the door and told Captain Trenchfield that a Vice Admiral Henry Palmer had come to claim the flag ship on behalf of the king's Lord High Admiral Penington.

  Warwick looked a Trenchfield and said, "Well, it seems that your loyalty is to be tested first." He then gave a nod to one of his lifeguard to follow the Captain and to report back. Once they were gone to speak with Sir Henry Palmer, Warwick spoke quietly to Daniel, "So what do I do with these five captains who have ignored my summons?"

  "You have the bulk of the fleet at your disposal. Act now before Palmer finds out who the five are and on which ships,” Daniel replied in a whisper. There was a knock on the door and the lifeguard returned from following Captain Trenchfield.

  His report was short. "The captain sent Sir Henry packing. Wouldn't even let him on the ship. Told him to tell Pennington that he would receive the same treatment by every ship in the fleet."

  When Trenchfield returned, Warwick told him, "Since Rear Admiral Mennes has refused my invitation, then I ask that you serve in his place."

  "I would be honored to,” Trenchfield beamed. First a fat purse and now a promotion and this was just the first day of Warwick's rule of the fleet.

  "Then your first command is to take the ships away from the five missing captains. No bloodshed if you can help it, but I do not want any of those ships to leave the Downs under the command of captains who are not willing to follow my orders."

  * * * * *

  Almost as soon as the signals were sent to the other ships in the fleet, Captain Barley regretted his snub of Warwick and came to speak with him. Once the five ships were surrounded by the rest of the fleet, Rear Admiral Mennes and Captain Fogge also came to visit him. That left only Slingsby and Wake. Trenchfield made a show of having the fleet load for a broadside, and signaled them that they had one turn of the glass to see reason. This signal punctuated by a single warning shot.

  When Slingsby and Wake ignored the warning, the most amazing thing happened. Their own unarmed sailors mutinied against them. Well perhaps not so amazing since the alternative was to be blown out of the water. When it was all over, Warwick took the five captains with him to his own choice of flagship, the James, the most heavily armed ship in the fleet, and until then under the command of one of the errant captains. He questioned each of the five before a tribunal made up of him, Captain Trenchfield, and David Murray who had been the captain who had done the most to capture these men. Daniel was present at the tribunal as part of the Earl's lifeguard.

  Each of the five had produced similar letters to be entered in the logs. The letters simply begged the Earl's pardon in a circumstance where a ship's captain had been asked to serve two masters and each master was calling it treason when their own orders were not followed. Captain Fogge was the last to be interviewed, and by this time it was dark and the fleet was bedding down for the night.

  "Of all the captains of my fleet,” Warwick told him after reading his letter, "I did not expect this rebellion from you Richard. It was I who entrusted you with the command of the James. Did that not tell you anything of my admiration of you? You were well on your way to replacing Mennes as my Rear Admiral."

  "So you expected it of Mennes, did you?" Fogge replied. "I stand by my letter. When a kingdom has two governments, each so quick to use the word treason, a captain must make hard choices. Mennes is Admiral Penington's man, and I owe them both my rank. If you were given three orders, one from York, one from Westminster, and one from your Rear Admiral on the next ship, which would you choose to follow."

  "And what orders did he give you?"

  There was no answer from Fogge but Murray spoke up. "Richard was in charge of the convoy that took the arsenal from Hull to the Tower of London. He took the James to guard the three ships carrying the ordnance."

  "I may wish to speak to the captains of those three ships,” Warwick told him.

  "That is no problem with two of them," Murray replied, "but Captain Swanley on the Providence was sent back to Hull."

  "On whose orders?" Warwick asked calmly, though his stomach had suddenly given a churn. He knew the answer before it was said. Mennes. He phrased his next question carefully. "Did the Providence offload the Hull ordnance at the Tower before it was sent back to Hull?" He stared at all the captains. They all had blank stares. When pressed they all gave the same answer ... I assume so.

  Warwick dismissed of all the captains, Murray and Trenchfield back to their own ships, and Fogge back to the brig. Only when they were gone did his temper snap and he threw an empty rum pot across the cabin. "My own ship. The Providence was leased from the Providence company. They used my own ship against me. The devils." He stared at Daniel and his four lifeguards who had obviously been dozing through the last of the questioning.

  "Don't you see. They took three cargo ships to transfer the arsenal from Hull to the Tower, but only two of them were unloaded at the Tower. The third, the Providence, was sent back to Hull. This trickery was planned and plotted, and where you find trickery, you find more trickery. Daniel, go back to the Swift and get some sleep. Two captains, trusted men from the Company, should arrive by tomorrow to help me with this fleet. Once they arrive, the Swift will be bound for Hull, and I will be on it. I can't believe they used my own ship. My gracious Providence."

  Daniel groaned but he could not fault Warwick's decision, for in the time it would take this man-o'-war to sail to London, the Swift could sail all the way to Hull.

  In the morning another piece of the trickery puzzle fell into place with the arrival of Captains Pye and Green from London. They carried dispatches from Joh
n Hampden. There was indeed trouble in Hull, for the king had moved his court to Beverly, eight miles north of Hull, and with it an army of some four thousand men. Since the king's army was made up of the second and third sons of his loyal nobles, its main force would be cavalry.

  Warwick's orders to Robert Pye and Richard Green were short, for he was in a hurry to be away on the Swift. "Robert, you remain here on the James as vice-admiral on my behalf. Richard, you go aboard the Constant Reformation and ask Captain Murray to take two ships north towards Hull and search for the missing ship, the Providence. It must not be allowed to reach the king's army in Holderness."

  * * * * *

  The voyage up the east coast to Hull was swift, very Swift, and as soon as the town was within sight, Warwick again dressed in his Admiral costume, with a bit of help from Teesa.. Once to the entrance of the harbour they could see two large ships along the navy quay , including the flagship of the Hull squadron, and so that is where the Swift tied up.

  While Warwick went to glad hand the ships' captains and then order them to sea to search for the Providence, Daniel went to find out the most current news about the king and his army. One of the guards at the quay was eager to show off to the captain of the admiral's yacht, and his advice was, "Walk to the North tower, the tall one beside the river bridge and take a good look up the river Hull. In the distance there is a tall steeple that marked the town of Beverly. That is where the king and his court and his army are."

  Daniel trotted to the tower and had one of the watchers on the wall point out the steeple at Beverly. "It's not seven miles north by road or by river,” the watcher told him.

  "The pastures are dry!" Daniel exclaimed after looking all about from the height of the tower. The land all around the town was bone dry.

  "Aye, they tis,” the watcher said quizzically, and stared at him like he was the town fool, "what do you expect in summer?"

  "You don't understand. If you allowed the Humber to flood the pastures and turn it back into marshland, then the king won't be able to move his artillery across it."