Wolves in Armour nc-1

by Iain Campbell

  After he recovered William still didn’t proceed directly to London, although he sent 500 horsemen to test its defences and the attitude of its people. With the people of London opposing them at Southwark William decided to bide his time and, rather than to force a passage over London Bridge, he instructed his forces to take a round-about route using fords upriver, and to create fear in the hearts of the Londoners while restricting supplies of food reaching the city by harrying the land to the north.

  While the main force of the Norman army waited at Nutfield, William proceeded to Winchester where he received the first important submission- that of Queen Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold. With reinforcements landed at Portsmouth, and with Edith’s agreement, William took control of Portsmouth without opposition. From there he proceeded to Oxford where he received the submission of the first of Edgar the Aetheling’s party, Stigand the Archbishop of Canterbury.

  Next William moved on to Hertford, twenty miles due north of London. During this time his army left a trail of devastation and destruction twenty miles wide, frightening the English and showing his ruthlessness. Finally the English made up their minds and a deputation was received by William near Hertford, when the uncrowned king Edgar, Earl Waltheof, Ealdred Archbishop of York, most of the other bishops, many of the land’s few remaining nobles and the principal residents of London came to swear oath and give hostages to William.

  During this peregrination of nearly six weeks Alan remained at Hastings recovering from his own illness. By then most of the injured men had been discharged, either recovered sufficiently well to return to their homes on the continent or, in many cases, dead. To Alan’s delight and surprise, the surgery on Hugh de Berniers had been successful and he had retained his leg, although he would never ride a horse to battle again and had returned to Normandy.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  LONDON DECEMBER 1066

  On the afternoon of Christmas Day 1066 Alan was standing with Robert de Aumale near the rear wall of Westminster Abbey watching the coronation service of King William I of England. The church was packed with every pew taken and every inch of space crammed with people, almost all men. It was freezing cold and the stone walls seemed to suck out what little heat the packed bodies could generate. The breath of each person caused a momentary cloud before their faces. The unwashed packed humanity gave off a sour smell that not even the clouds of incense arising from the altar could cover. With an overcast and chill day outside, the light was dim in the abbey despite the hundreds of candles lit near the altar.

  Alan pulled his cloak closer about him and rubbed his gloved hands together. After months of hard travel his cloak and even his ‘best’ clothes were showing signs of wear.

  William was dressed magnificently in red velvet. Attended by Archbishop Ealdred of York he swore to uphold the laws of England and rule the people justly. As William had taken the Crown by conquest, the congregation which included the great nobles of Normandy and England and the lesser nobles, King’s Thegns and Officers of England were asked firstly by Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances in French and then by Archbishop Ealdred in English whether they accepted William as king.

  The first roar of approval was loud. With the second, in their enthusiasm to show their loyalty, the English shout was nearly enough to bring down the walls. A few minutes later, as the Archbishop proceeded with the ceremony, walking to a table to take up the small bottle of chrism, there was shouting outside and the smell of smoke drifted into the abbey.

  Alan looked at Robert and raised his eyebrows before giving a shrug and leading the way towards the door, just as a dozen or so armed Norman infantry ran in.

  Once outside they could see soldiers on one side of the forecourt holding burning torches and apparently setting fire to buildings. Several houses were already well alight. There was a large group of local people gathered for the ceremony, and a number were sprawled on the ground injured or dead. Whatever the mood of the crowd may have been minutes earlier, now it was sullen and angry. As he ran the fifty or so paces towards the group of soldiers, who numbered about twenty, Alan roared at them “What in the name of Christ do you think you’re doing?”

  One, who appeared to be a sergeant, turned from his task with a burning torch still in his hand and shouted back “The English are attacking the king in the Hall! They’re rioting here! We’re creating a distraction to save him!”

  By then Alan and Robert had reached the group of men, who were now standing watching the exchange. “Fool!” shouted Robert “We’ve just come from the Hall. There is no attack. The shouting was part of the ceremony.”

  “You men, put out those torches and organise a bucket brigade to put out those fires!” ordered Alan. By now a considerable number of Englishmen had gathered. Most were watching the Normans with ill-concealed animosity- not surprising given that they had just started to burn down houses. A few of those who were quicker of wit were already running up with buckets of water and dashing them against the flames of those houses that were alight.

  “I don’t speak the language of these animals and anyway I don’t take orders from fancy-dressed bastards like you!” snarled the sergeant in reply.

  In a blur of movement Alan’s sword rasped out of its scabbard and he struck in one continuous motion. The head of the Sergeant bounced against a whitewashed wall in a spray of blood. There was a murmur of approval from the crowd. “Does anybody else want to challenge my authority?” demanded Alan. “No? Then move your arses and get those fires put out now!” Alan shouted instructions to the crowd and soon a chain of eighty or so men were passing buckets between a nearby well and the fires. After about half an hour the fires were under control and nearly out. Alan and Robert went to return back to the Coronation ceremony, but were just in time to see the prelates and newly-crowned king filing out of the abbey.

  Despite the festive season Alan was able to find a tailor and a cordwainer, both on Cordwainer Street, to make him a new tunic and hose and a new pair of boots. His clothing and boots had been poor enough quality previously and had been worn out by heavy service over the last few months. With London packed for the coronation Alan and Robert were sharing a room in a shabby inn on Threadneedle Street at Alan’s expense, using the money that he had recently obtained. Gillard slept in the hayloft above where the three horses and the mule were stabled at the rear of the inn.

  With Hugh de Berniers gone and the remains of his squadron split up to make up losses in the other cavalry squadrons of Geoffrey de Mandeville, no fighting was on immediate offer. With little booty as yet handed out to the Barons, de Mandeville’s victualler the Frenchman Michel de Boulogne had, if anything, become even more mean and irregular in his payment of wages.

  Alan had also used the time spent on London to have the gold jewellery he had looted melted down into four-ounce ingots by a goldsmith in Wood Street and sold the rings and jewels to a pawnbroker in a side street just east of the Chepe Market.

  While the newly-crowned king’s castle was being raised on the south-eastern edge of the city next to the River Thames, with a large number of houses and other buildings demolished to make space, William was residing outside the city at nearby Barking, in a manor now vacant as the thegn who had previously held it had died in one or another of Harold’s battles.

  Two other fortified places were being raised by barons in the south-west corner of the city close to the river, Baynards’s castle and Montfitchet Tower. William recognised the importance of the city and its large and traditionally bellicose population. He was determined to keep it under control. Unfortunately, the forced demolition of many houses and other buildings to create the three fortifications did little to improve the mood of the city’s people.

  William often held court at the abbey and Old Palace complex at Westminster. It was there on the 29th December that Alan, resplendent in new clothes of fine burgundy-coloured wool, presented himself to Corbett, William’s steward to remind him of William’s promise. Corbett told
him to return the following evening, after Vespers, when it was likely that William would be able to see him, depending on how events of the day had proceeded.

  Evidently the day had proceeded well. William and a party of nobles had hunted with success in the forest to the north-west, near Kensington and Hanwell. Alan was ushered into a room of medium size where William lounged in a relaxed fashion in a chair, with two monks acting as scriveners sitting at small tables with pen, ink and parchment. By their appearance one was English and one French. After giving Alan a long look up and down, he waved at a chair nearby. “It appears that you have used well some of the money I gave you,” he said. Alan gave a respectful inclination of the head in reply. “I hear that a tall knight, dressed as you used to dress and with red hair, stopped the foot-soldiers of Eustace of Boulogne from burning down Westminster on Christmas Day.”

  “It seemed like a good idea at the time,” replied Alan. “The fools seemed to think that there was a riot going on in the abbey and that setting fire to the forecourt was a suitable response. I had to chastise the sergeant in charge.”

  “Yes, Eustace wasn’t happy about that, but I told him I wasn’t happy about the actions of his men either. It appears that here in England you are my good-luck charm popping up wherever and whenever needed. Now to business! I promised you a suitable reward when I was in a position to do so, as I now am. I have a busy few weeks ahead. I’m due to meet with Edwin and the thegns of Mercia, Morcar and at least some of his Northumbrians, and the thegns of Shropshire in a week, so I’d best get my other obligations out of the way.

  “Aethelbald has been checking which thegns were killed at Hastings, Fulford and Stamford- and therefore whose land is vacant. At the moment he’s covered Middlesex, Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire- and Essex. There was a King’s Thegn called Wulfwin who owned much land in Essex. I’m not feeling generous enough to give you all that land. That would make you a baron- which is an honour you have not yet earned. But he held three manors in Tendring Hundred. Another thegn, Alfred Kemp, held three and one called Estan another. They’ll make a reasonable and compact demesne. Aethelbald, how many hides of land? Thirty-six and a half? I’m introducing a standard quota of six hides per mounted man-at-arms, so your quota will be six.

  “I understand that all the manors are what the English call ‘bokland’, or ‘landboc’, although two have been let out to other thegns under some system I find both unpronounceable and unintelligible. You’ll own the land on the same terms as the previous owners, and as tenant-in-chief from me. That will make you a barones regis, which I hope is an honour you will appreciate. I also grant you the right to hold the Hundred court and the one-third entitlement to the fines apparently known as ‘the third penny’. I appreciate your fresh thoughts and I think I would benefit from hearing points of view other than those of my barons and earls, so I also intend to make you a member of my Council, the Curia Regis, which will meet irregularly as I decide, but several times a year.

  “As to the rest of England, and this includes Essex, I’m appointing earls to the various holdings of the English earls, particularly those formerly held by the Godwin family. The English will continue to hold their land, subject to paying me a ‘Redemption Relief’ for failing to support me in my taking the Crown, either as bokland or laenland, provided that they maintain their historical obligations, which I understand varies in virtually every case but has always included military service. Effectively they are paying what we Normans refer to as Relief, and the English refer to as a Heriot. It’s interesting how little practical difference there is in land holdings between the two systems. The earls will hold their lands as fiefs or honours at my pleasure and with a Relief payable on succession, not as alods. I expect most will grant at least some of their demesne land and some of the land which now, or in the future, has no holder, as fiefs for military service. You’ll hold your land in landboc and not able to be taken from you without proper cause.

  “I’m also changing the administration of the shires. The sheriffs will have greater authority and duties. Officials such as those of the king’s household, the Stallers and the like, will be phased out. The new sheriff of Essex will be Robert fitzWymarc, a half-Breton who came to England in Edward’s time, in place of Leofstan the Reeve who was killed at Hastings. He’s raising a royal castle at Colchester, under my charter- at his expense.”

  “Can I raise a castle?” asked Alan.

  “If the situation warrants it and you can bear the cost of building one yourself,” William replied, waving his hand at the French clerk to include that in the document before him, before he continued his discussion of his Great Design. “The geld tax on land will be reintroduced, at the same rate as King Edward levied it prior to 1015. Two shillings per hide. Aethelbald, how much would Alan have to pay?”

  “With ninety-six and a half hides, that is?9 12s a year, payable quarterly in arrears on the Feast of the Annunciation, Christmas, Midsummer Day and Michaelmas,” replied Aethelbald.

  Alan was quick enough of wit to pick up the change. “So, unlike in Normandy, we are to provide both military service and taxes, which I understand were previously used to bribe the Danes to stay away, so military service was not needed. That’ll be a heavy impost. Men-at-arms are expensive to maintain. You mentioned that the English will have to pay a Redemption Relief. I presume that doesn’t apply to us Normans who came with you? How much would that be?” asked Alan.

  “No it doesn’t apply to those who came with me, or after we landed- but it does include those Normans and any other foreigners who held land during Edward’s time, as well as the English. The general rate will be set by Commissioners I appoint, probably around?5 per manor, payable within a year of my Coronation, That will be by Christmas Day next year. If they don’t pay their lands will be forfeit.”

  “Many of those who have to pay the Redemption Relief, as well as the taxes, will struggle to do so, particularly at those rates and in that time. Many will be forced to forfeit their land. Have you thought of a lesser tax rate or lesser Relief rate?” asked Alan.

  “No,” replied William simply. “England is mine to do with as I wish and it’s a rich land. If some men forfeit their land for non-payment that simply means more land is available to myself or the Earls to give away as fiefs or to sell. I don’t see any difficulty caused to the English landholders as being a matter for concern to me. It’s their fault for supporting Harold instead of myself after Edward died a year ago. We Normans are all going to have to stand together and keep a wary eye on the English, or they’ll have us all out of the country in a trice. Anything that reduces the English nobility’s ability to raise and pay for an army is a good thing for us,” said William revealingly.

  Seeing that the king’s mind was firmly decided and that any further argument would be useless, Alan desisted. William was used to the exercise of autocratic rule and, whilst he would always listen to advice, he would frequently reject it.

  “So, do you accept?” asked William abruptly.

  Alan blinked in surprise at the question, realizing after a few moments that it related to the offer of land to him. “Of course, the offer, and particularly the honour of the attached rights of tenant-in-chief, jurisdiction and member of your Council, is most generous,” he replied.

  “Done!” said William, who gestured to the French scrivener, who completed a few more details on a parchment and poured heated red wax at the bottom, to which William affixed his seal and then opened his hands in a gesture indicating Alan should approach him.

  Alan knelt before William. William asked, “Did you do homage to de Mandeville when you joined his forces?”

  Alan smiled and replied, “No, he was too busy to see me, then or after.” William nodded and, led by Aethelbald, Alan recited the oath of homage and fealty. A man could swear homage to only one man, but could swear fealty to several for different fiefs, although that had the potential to cause difficulties.

  “In the name of the Lord, I, Alan de Gauvil
le do acknowledge to William, king of England, the fealty and homage for the manors of Thorrington, Bradfield, Ramsey, Dovercourt, Beaumont, Great Oakley and Great Bromley. I have made to my liege lord William, king of England, acknowledgment and homage as I ought to do. Therefore, let all present and to come know that I, the said Alan de Gauville, acknowledge verily to thee my lord William, by the grace of God king of England, and to thy successors, that I hold and ought to hold as a fief the said manors and I swear upon these four gospels of God that I will always be a faithful vassal to thee and to thy successors in all things in which a vassal is required to be faithful to his lord. I will defend thee, my lord, and all thy successors against all malefactors and invaders, at my request and that of my successors at my own cost. And if I or my sons or their successors do not observe to thee or to thy successors each and all the things declared above, and should come against these things, we wish that all the aforesaid fiefs should by that very fact be handed over to thee and to thy successors. I, therefore, I the aforesaid lord Alan declare that I will be good and faithful lord concerning all those things described above.”

  Alan, kneeling before William placed his hands forward in a praying position, and William took his hands between his own, accepting the oath, before buffeting him on the shoulder.

  “I acknowledge you as my man and shall care for your interests as I care for my own,” replied William, sealing the bargain.

  The scribe Aethelbald held the Charter out to Alan for him to stand and collect. “That will be one gold mark,” said Aethelbald.

  “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” replied Alan with a smile.

  With a chuckle William waved a hand at Aethelbald and said, “Don’t bother! You can forgo your own fee in this instance!”

  CHAPTER SIX

  THORRINGTON, ESSEX. JANUARY 1067