Wolves in Armour nc-1

by Iain Campbell

  Back at the ‘Fox and Goose’ Anne was delighted to find an invitation from Edward’s widow Queen Edith, who had been confirmed in her lands and dower by William after his victory, to attend at a soiree that evening.

  Alan, Osmund and Leof walked to the lavish apartments of Bishop William of London, part of the complex of St Paul’s Cathedral near Ludgate, arriving a little before the appointed meeting time. They were shown into a small antechamber and kept waiting… and waiting…and waiting. Alan heard the cathedral bells ringing Sext at noon before they were finally invited into Bishop William’s luxurious office. Another man, of average size, middle age and apparently of saturnine temperament sat in the corner of the room.

  “Nice of you to see us! I was under the impression that you saw our meeting as of some urgency, but apparently not,” said Alan with his apparently detached voice hiding his annoyance. Osmund and Leof were used to waiting all day for their master’s pleasure, and until recently so had Alan. Now, with his improved station, he expected better manners from anybody except the king.

  Neither of the men in the room, both dressed in clerical garb, rose to greet him, or introduce themselves. Without invitation Alan sat at a chair opposite the more richly dressed man and waved Osmund and Leof to a bench set against the wall, the only other seating in the room. “I presume that you are William, Bishop of London?” asked Alan in Norman French to the stoutly built man opposite him. “And who are you?” he asked the man dressed in a simple black cassock.

  “Engelric,” was the brief reply.

  “Well, it’s good to meet two of the defalcators of the king’s money at the same time. It saves time in the long run. You sent a message saying you wanted to see me, Bishop, I presume it is to discuss your theft? I regret that we have caused both of you to miss the Sext service at noon, but if you had been on time perhaps we could have completed our business in time for us all to attend the service,” said Alan in a calm but deliberately offensive manner, choosing not to use the usual honorifics for the Bishop of London.

  Bishop William was clearly disconcerted by this direct approach and replied, “I had thought that it may be of benefit to discuss your allegations, perhaps without your servants…?”

  “I have nothing to hide,” replied Alan brusquely. “They stay, or I go! You are quite welcome to have witnesses of your own.” Engelric waved a hand in negation.

  “We seem to have started off on the wrong foot, which is unfortunate,” said Engelric in his high-pitched voice. “Would you care for a cup of wine?” After he had poured cups for Alan, the bishop and himself from a jug on a table in the corner of the room and handed them around, Engelric continued suavely, “I understand that you have been making allegations against myself, the good bishop here and Earl Ralph regarding our conduct of our duties in East Anglia, and we would like to overcome any misunderstanding.”

  “I have made no allegations,” corrected Alan quietly. “What has happened is that over forty thegns and freemen of Essex and Suffolk have made written complaints addressed to the king and the Curia Regis, which I have agreed to pass along. Those involving allegations of obvious criminal activity, including those against yourself, the bishop and Earl Ralph, I have referred to the sheriffs for their investigation. Some involved threats and extortion that could not be delayed until the king returned. All of them I have also placed in the hands of the King’s Chancellor, who may investigate them in the king’s absence or await his return as he thinks fit. In conjunction with the King’s Regents, the Chancellor is of course the highest official in the land whilst the king is away from the kingdom.”

  Alan noted the wince and pained expression on Bishop William’s face when he mentioned the handing of the documents to the Chancellor. Engelric kept a calm face and demeanour. “So what are these allegations against us?”

  Alan said to Osmund, also in Norman French to show that the clerk understood what had been said, “Osmund, can you please give a precis of the allegations I have handed to the Chancellor?”

  Osmund unrolled a scroll and then spent nearly fifty minutes outlining the cases. Alan then said, “These are the few cases that we have received in a short period of time and have been asked to present to the king,” said Alan. “I’m sure that an examination of your own records, which no doubt the king and Curia will require, will reveal many more cases of abuse, extortion and overcharging, including my own for Wivenhoe. I suggest that you gentlemen, and Earl Ralph- and any other Relief Officers- may wish to review your records to correct any errors that your retainers may have made, but which of course reflect on you. How you will deal with the matters that involve you directly is another matter and for you to decide.”

  “What do you want?” asked Bishop William abruptly. Engelric winced and looked away in embarrassment. “How much?” repeated Bishop William.

  It took Alan several seconds for him to realise he was being offered a bribe in such a blatant manner. Before he could assemble his thoughts and reply, Engelric smoothly intervened. “What His Grace the Lord Bishop means is that you have of course incurred expense in pursuing the investigation of these false cases that have been brought against us- although if your clerk can provide us with details we will of course examine each instance to ensure that fairness and proper procedures have been followed. I’m sure that, like all of us, you would like some friends in influential places to assist you from time to time with the things you want to achieve. We’ve heard that you are in some financial difficulty yourself and have had to deal with the Jews and we thought that perhaps?100 would be adequate recompense for the time that you have spent on this issue.”

  Alan waited a considerable period before he replied, causing Osmund to cast a raised eye in his direction. The delay was to collect his thoughts and regain control of his temper, before he replied, “I thank yourself and Bishop William for your concerns regarding my financial position. Perhaps that may be eased when Bishop William has a chance to examine the Relief amount levied on Wivenhoe, not as a favour to me but to remove the anomaly of the Relief charge being four times the value of the property. That’s just one of many instances of excessive Reliefs being set.

  “The remainder of my land is of course not subject to Relief. My clerk will give your clerk a written precis of the inconsistencies and complaints that have come to my attention. I’m certain that on examination you will agree that many, if not all, of these complaints are justified, and equally certain that gentlemen such as yourselves will agree that the use of threats and extortion against poor thegns and freemen is not to be tolerated. Hopefully, this will cause you to carefully examine your records of all your activities in East Anglia, so that any other mistakes or abuses by your officers can be unearthed. I’m sure that the few that I have received are only a small portion of those that need review.

  “As for my financial position, I can only say that my honour is not for sale at any price, whether it be?100 or?1,000, or more. I think that we now have an understanding of each other, which you may wish to share with Earl Ralph as he seems to think I should ride to Norfolk to meet with him- which I have no intention of doing. Now I thank you for your time and regret that you missed the noon-day service because of our meeting. I’m sure that your brothers will be expecting you in the refectory shortly for the mid-day meal.” Engelric and Bishop William would of course dine much more luxuriously than the provender at the table of the abbey refectory, but Alan felt there was no need to be unnecessarily rude- he was only rude where necessary- and he stood to take his leave with a promise for Osmund to have a summary of the depositions delivered next morning.

  After a circuitous walk and the engagement of some men of the rougher sort outside a tavern to delay the men the bishop had sent to follow them, they arrived back at the ‘Fox and Goose’. Osmund, who had carefully been taking in the conversation verbatim, went to his room with a jug of ale and plate of food to record the conversation that had occurred whilst it was still fresh in his mind. Alan gave a summary to Anne, w
ho expressed her thrills and outrages at the various twists and turns of the conversation as they were related to her.

  In honour of Queen Edith’s soiree Anne decided that Alan should attend at a professional barbershop for a proper shave and haircut, instructing him not to have his hair shaved at the back in the Norman fashion and over-riding Alan’s objection that this was done as a matter of practicality as the chain mail coif of the hauberk caught the hair that was not protected by the padded cap worn under the helmet. “You’re unlikely to do any fighting for some time and you aren’t such a baby that a few pulled hairs should make any difference to you,” she scoffed. “To have the back of your head shaved in the Norman fashion makes it obvious to all that you are a Frank. I think you’d look dashing with longer hair and a beard, in the Saxon style!”

  Anne also wanted to wear the matching gold coloured clothing, but the freshly-shaved and barbered Alan felt it impolitic to appear too ostentatious on their first journey to the city, like country black-birds pretending to be peacocks. He felt they should stay in the background until they had developed good relations with the Norman barons, many of whom were in Normandy with King William. Even though Queen Edith was seen as a strong supporter of the new king and had assisted him in gaining the submission of the West Saxon lands immediately after Hastings, it may not be wise to have better relations with the English nobility than that of the Normans.

  Logic won out and Anne wore a tight-fitting dress of mid-green velvet, low but not immodestly cut at the front, and a similar coloured and highly-embroidered shawl completed the obligatory covering of the hair- a fashion that Alan always found disappointing as it prevented Anne showing off her long and lustrous auburn hair. Alan wore a tunic of black linen embroidered with silver, a tooled black leather belt with silver buckle, plain black hose and boots, with his head uncovered, revealing his red hair flowed almost to his collar. As it was a social occasion he was unarmed other than the small knife at his belt that he would use for eating- indeed Anne with the larger seax knife that denoted her position as a freewoman was better armed than he was. Like all the guests they brought two armed retainers, who left their swords at the door and were shown into a separate Hall to await the pleasure of their betters.

  Queen Edith’s townhouse on the Strand was very large. They arrived just after the appointed starting time of an hour before Compline and entered the house forecourt as the sun was setting behind Westminster Abbey. The house backed onto the Thames and being upstream of the city the water flowing past was clean and unpolluted. Ducks and swans swam close to the riverbank and children were splashing and playing at the water’s edge.

  The Hall that the doorman showed them into was quite large without being overly so. It was thirty paces by forty, well lit with lamps attached to sconces and with fresh rushes on the floor. Several tables had been placed against one wall and chairs and benches lined the other walls. When they arrived there were about a dozen other guests present and Queen Edith was just entering through another door with an arm linked with Eadnoth, the Steward of her late husband, who was a tall and elderly man. The queen was of medium height, 38 years of age and still showed the beauty of her youth. She was soberly dressed in dark red, heavily embroidered with gold. Alan was glad that Anne had not worn her gold dress as it would not have done for a simple country girl to have outshone her noble host.

  Alan noticed Chancellor Regenbald standing with a somewhat flashily-dressed dark-haired woman of about 40 on his arm, and a boldly-dressed man of about the same age with long blond hair and a flowing moustache. Presuming on his acquaintance with Regenbald, Alan walked across the Hall towards him with Anne at his side, hand on his arm, and he introduced her to Regenbald. The Chancellor in turned introduced the other woman as Aethelu, his current wife, and the man as Cynebeald, his son by his first marriage. He pointed out his daughter Swanhild, who was talking animatedly in an adjoining group and then took Alan and Anne to that group, made introductions and asked Swanhild to take care of them for the evening as they were new to the city and had few friends.

  Swanhild, a tall blond and shapely woman of about thirty-five, took the duty in good cheer and she and Anne were soon chatting together like old friends as she introduced the couple around and made a point to introduce Anne to a number of young women of around Anne’s own age.

  Alan noted something peculiar about the group. There were women of all ages from 16 to 60 and many men over 40. Other than two or three young clerics in their distinctive monk’s garb and tonsures, there were barely a handful of men of fighting age. As he chatted with them he found that most of these few had been wounded at Stamford Bridge, or had otherwise been fortunate enough to miss the battle of Hastings by being overseas or on the western border fighting the Welsh. There were probably two women for every man present.

  The side-tables had been filled with plates of finger-food. Eggs stuffed with fish roe; smoked salmon on toast; pickled herring on rye-bread; mini-mushroom pastries; quiche; pork pies; chicken pasties; small sausage rolls; small meat pies; sage and parsley tarts; mushrooms stuffed with cheese; Lorenz pies with minced meat, pine nuts, currents and cottage cheese gilded with gold leaf. This was the first time that either Alan or Anne had eaten gold. Available sauces in separate jugs were melted spiced cheese sauce, carmeline sauce, garlic with walnuts and onions, jaunce, mustard and several types of chutney.

  A separate table carried platters of small cakes, various sweet fruit tarts, custard tarts, fried almond pastries with honey and half a dozen different fried or baked pastries coated with sugar. There were platters of a dozen types of cheeses from soft Brie, Neufchatel, Roquefort, Gorgonzola and Emmenthal to the harder cheeses including Cheddar, Cheshire, Parmigiano and Romano.

  The guests helped themselves, placing the morsels of food on small wooden plates and eating with their fingers as they chatted. Most of the ladies were drinking mead or fruit juices, either alcoholic or non- alcoholic, or sweet white wine. The men drank either pints of ale or cups of fine red wines from the Loire or Bordeaux. Harp and lute players were quietly playing music in the background.

  Eventually Regenbald collected Alan and Anne and took them to the small group where Queen Edith was sitting with half a dozen others and introduced them.

  “Anne, my dear, so nice to meet you!” said the Queen. “We so rarely see new faces these days. Such a beautiful and, if I hear correctly, literate young lady. And Sir Alan, I do believe you are the first Norman to attend one of my soirees. It’s so hard to find a Norman noble who is literate and not totally consumed by making war!”

  “It’s a hard life to train to be a knight, Your Grace,” replied Alan. “Training as a warrior begins at eight years of age and leaves little time for learning social graces or book learning. I had a more diverse childhood and adolescence before I became a soldier, and I’m glad finally to have the time to read almost as much as I would like. I must say that I prefer the iambic meter of Greek poetry to the alliterative of English poetry. In some of the English poetry I have read, which is not a great deal, I have found the story hard to follow. The Dream of the Rood for example, where I found the second part, where the Cross tells its own story, was difficult to plod through. Andreas is a good, enjoyable story and well-told. I’ve only recently started to study English poetry of course.”

  “You read English? That must be unique amongst your nobles,” said Edith with a tilt of her head.

  “And he writes it, as well of course Latin and French, and also Attic Greek,” added Anne. “Alan has his own library and has been giving me books as presents.”

  “I would love the opportunity to learn Arabic and read some of their great works, particularly on medical sciences, but that would take years and require me to travel to the distant lands of the Moors. Now with the responsibilities of wife and land that is no longer possible,” said Alan wistfully.

  “And your marriage. Presumably arranged by your lord?” asked the Queen.

  Alan took Anne’s small han
d in his and replied, “No, it is a love match. I found an injured creature in my forest and took her home to cure. I fell in love immediately, but it took some time and effort for her to make her choice. She’s not the most biddable of women,” he concluded with a quick look at her out of the corner of his eye.

  “Ah, yes, the Battle of Wivenhoe. My thegn at Wix, Adamnan, has told me about that, although he was not present of course. From what I hear 400 untrained fyrdmen under your leadership defeated 800 trained Danish warriors with minimal casualties to themselves, and you invoked God to rain fire from the skies to destroy your enemies. And then you let the thegns of the Hundred receive the head-money from the sale of the slaves, while at the same time rescuing hundreds of English captives from a life of slavery. The sort of thing that poems and sagas are written about!” said the Queen.

  “It wasn’t quite like that, Your Grace. Numbers were nearly even. I had been training the fyrdmen from my own estates and they were quite useful by then. And we had the advantage of surprise and ambush.”

  “And fire?” asked Eadnoth.

  “And fire,” confirmed Anne. Neither she nor Alan elaborated. That was an advantage that they wanted to keep to themselves in case of future need.

  “And now he has become the champion of the poor oppressed English thegn and freeman, opposing the tyranny of corrupt officials including the earl of East Anglia!” interjected Regenbald, who then went on to explain the reason for Alan’s current journey to London.

  “That will hardly make you popular with the Normans,” commented the Queen.