The Bastard's Son

by H A CULLEY

  King William pushed everyone out of the way and climbed up to the top of the tower to see for himself. There was only room for two or three people up there so Richmond sensibly stopped anyone else from ascending. The rest had to watch from the cliff tops. Simon and Edwin rushed to get a good vantage point to watch the imminent battle but they were thrust to the back by the men jostling to see what was happening. One or two got too close to the cliff edge in their eagerness and were pushed over by those behind them.

  Simon and Edgar ran further along the cliff top and soon found a good spot to observe the fight where there we far fewer men. Soon they were joined by other squires and the boy servants from the camp. However they didn’t try and take their vantage point as the men had done.

  Duke Robert had borrowed ships from Phillippe of France and hired every merchantman he could find to use as troop transports. His army was nowhere near the seven or eight thousand that his father had brought over to defeat King Harold at Senlac Hill near Hastings, but it was still sizeable. Later reports given to King William said that it contained nearly four thousand men and a thousand horses. Had they managed to land they would have outnumbered William’s army, even without Odo’s men inside Pevensey Castle.

  Hugo knew little about naval tactics but he could see what the English fleet was trying to do. Like the forces on land, they were outnumbered by their enemies and therefore they proceeded to cut the odds in half. There was strong onshore wind so the English ships headed for the middle of the Normandy fleet, dividing it into two. The ships now inshore of them had to turn and try to beat directly into the wind to reach the English fleet. Meanwhile the rest of the enemy ships were driven downwind into the English fleet and they grappled their opponents’ warships and the boarding parties stormed aboard them.

  By dividing the enemy fleet the English now had superiority of numbers. They sensibly ignored the transports packed full of armed troops and concentrated on the warships. Before the van of the enemy fleet could tack back and enter the fight the English had sunk or captured all the enemy warships in that part of the fleet.

  Simon, Edwin and the rest of the onlookers shouted themselves hoarse and got even more excited when the English sailors set a few of the captured vessels alight and let them drift down towards the half of the fleet tacking back from the north.

  The fire ships were fairly easily avoided but they caused confusion and several of the French ships crashed into each other in their eagerness to get out of the way. Panic is contagious and several warships gave up trying to get to grips with the English navy and turned to flee west with the wind on their beam.

  That convinced Duke Robert that it was time to abandon his attempt to land and the remainder of his ships joined the retreat, pursued by the victorious English fleet.

  Simon, Edwin and the other boys jumped up and down in excitement, yelling with glee, as soon as they realised that the threat of invasion was over. The men were more restrained and headed back to camp determined to celebrate the victory by getting as drunk as possible. Had Odo sallied forth from Pevensey Castle with his men that night he could have defeated William’s army on his own as most of them were comatose.

  It was two more weeks before Odo came out under a flag of truce to negotiate with the king.

  ‘Why have you betrayed me, uncle?’

  It was evident that William was playing the injured party who didn’t understand what he had done to lose the trust of Odo. Immediately the wily bishop sensed that William was looking for an excuse to pardon him. They were both well aware that, if Odo made peace with him, the rebellion would collapse.

  ‘I believed that your elder brother had been denied his chance to be elected to throne of England by the Great Council. You acted prematurely in declaring yourself king, nephew.’

  ‘Nevertheless I am the anointed king and you are in rebellion against me. Mind I also remind you that was it was my father’s dying wish that I become King of England. You are not only in rebellion against me but you have betrayed him. Please explain to me why you shouldn’t be tried as a traitor.’

  Although that didn’t sound encouraging, Odo knew that, in reality, he was being offered a chance to atone for his mistake.

  ‘How can I make amends, sire?’

  ‘You can surrender Pevensey to me and then travel to Rochester and order them to surrender as well. If you do this you will, of course, lose your earldom and your lands in England, but you will be allowed to go into exile in Normandy.’

  ‘I see. May I hope to be restored to your affection in due course?’

  ‘There is always hope, uncle.’

  -X-

  Alan of Richmond escorted Odo to Rochester so that he could order the surrender of both town and castle to the king. Hugo stayed at Pevensey with the king but he heard what had happened shortly afterwards. As Alan and Odo neared the town a sally from the castle by the mounted knights and serjeants took Richmond and his men by surprise and by the time they had recovered the rescue party had withdrawn back into the castle taking Bishop Odo with them.

  To say that William Rufus was furious when he heard was putting it mildly. His normally florid complexion went puce with rage and he berated Earl Alan until the poor man lost his own temper and stormed out of the king’s tent. An hour later, as the earl was preparing to leave the camp, William repented his harsh words and he went to apologise. This didn’t come at all easy to the proud king and, whilst Richmond still seethed with anger, it mollified him enough for him to agree to stay.

  The rest of the king’s supporters breathed a sigh of relief. If Earl Alan had withdrawn his support all the gains that the king has made would have been for naught. As it was, when the rebels heard that Duke Robert had turned back and was making no preparations for another invasion, they lost heart and one by one they made their peace with the king; all except for Odo and Robert de Bellême. When Roger Mortimer, Earl of Shrewsbury, made his peace with the king William knew that all he had to do was capture Rochester for the revolt to be over.

  Robert de Bellême was Earl Roger’s son and had been Hugo’s implacable enemy when he was younger. However, when Hugo’s squire at the time, Ralph, and the young Sweyn had saved de Bellême from dying of exposure during the winter march across the Pennines to Chester in 1070, Robert had made his peace with Hugo. Now he was holed up in Rochester with Odo.

  During the next week or so William’s mangonels destroyed much of the timber castle and the garrison fled into the town.

  ‘I hear that the inhabitants are starving,’ Hugo said to Guillaume as they sat playing shatranj in Guillaume’s tent one evening.

  ‘Yes, apparently Richmond’s men captured a family trying to flee the town. Conditions sound horrendous. There’s nowhere to bury the dead and the place is infested with flies. All the food had gone and they’ve eaten the horses, dogs and cats so they’re reduced to eating rats. Hopefully it won’t be long now.’

  ‘God’s teeth I hope so. This siege is boring me to death and now dysentery has started in our camp it won’t be long before we get it.’

  Two days later Odo sent a herald on foot to ask for surrender terms. The insurrection was over and William Rufus was the undisputed master of England.

  Chapter Four – Into Northumberland

  Spring 1089

  ‘I still think the king was too lenient,’ Roger de Muschamp told Hugo as they rode north together. Two banners flew proudly above their heads as they travelled: Hugo’s white chevron on black and Roger’s horizontal bars of red and gold. As the land was now at peace neither men wore armour, though their escort did – just in case.

  ‘I suspect that he was trying not to alienate too many of his barons. Unlike you and me, many hold fiefdoms in Normandy as well as in England so they have split loyalties between King William and Duke Robert.’

  William had confiscated the English estates of Odo, Robert de Bellême and the Count of Eu and exiled his uncle and the Bishop of Durham to Normandy, but he pardoned the rest and allowe
d them to keep their estates after they had renewed their oaths of loyalty to him.

  The day that Hugo and Roger set out from York, where the two had met up, was fine and warm for early April. In addition to Baldwin, Tomas, Sweyn and Wulfric, Hugo had recruited three new household knights – Clovis, Alain and Flavian. All three had been knighted recently and had been seeking a lord to employ them. They suffered the disadvantage of being untried young men, but quite a lot of older knights who sought a new master were suspect. Normally there was a good reason that they had left their previous lord’s employment.

  He had also recruited another two serjeants and six Flemish crossbowmen. These had come from the garrison of Nottingham Castle. The sheriff, Richard Fitz Götze, had been deprived of his new office for his part in the rebellion and Guillaume had been re-appointed. Fitz Götze had enlarged the garrison during his year in post and Guillaume had now reduced it again. However, he suggested to those who he was dismissing that they offer their services to Hugo and eight of them had done so.

  In addition to the knights, their eight squires and the soldiers, Hugo had brought a small army of servants with him, mostly boys and youths but it included his best cook and Herbert FitzGilbert, who would be steward of the new estate in the Cheviot Hills. All together they made an impressive cavalcade and Hugo was surprised to see that it was considerably bigger than de Muschamp’s.

  Roger had the more difficult task because he had no mesnie before he left the Earl of Lincoln’s service to move north. Two of the knights from Lincoln had asked to go with him and he had engaged half a dozen serjeants as well. With squires and servants his entourage numbered no more than twenty.

  ‘I’ll recruit more men once I have secured a base at Wooler,’ he told Hugo with a shrug when the latter asked how he would hold his new lands once he had gained possession of them.

  He was still in his early twenties and Hugo thought that he was being naïve if he thought that he could take and hold six manors with so few men. His own followers numbered nearly fifty and he doubted whether that would be enough. Roger hadn’t even thought to bring a steward with him but he said that he hoped that the new Bishop of Durham would be able to help him to provide a suitable cleric when they got there.

  Ranulph Flambard, the son of a Norman priest who was born in Bayeux, had been appointed by the king and Archbishop Lanfranc to the see, though the appointment hadn’t yet been confirmed by the Pope. He had been one of the commissioners of the Doomsday Book alongside Hugo’s old friend Gilbert. Ranulph had promised to be a lot more effectual than his predecessor and had already travelled north to take up residence in Durham.

  When they approached the town, both Hugo and Roger were impressed by the impregnable position. It stood on top of a hill with the castle and the cathedral on the summit. Baldwin and Tomas were the only survivors of a Norman army seven hundred strong who had been slain in their beds by the Danes and the Angles twenty years before. It was that which had led to the Harrying of the North when William the Bastard had lain waste the land and massacred the population. Parts of Yorkshire and Durham were only just recovered from the Harrying, but Northumberland had been largely spared the Conqueror’s wrath.

  Ranulph Flambard wasn’t what Hugo had been expecting. He was tall, good looking with a prominent jaw and an easy manner. After an evening dining with him he came to conclusion that Flambard was both intelligent and witty. He began to understand how he had managed to climb from being the third son of a poor priest in an obscure parish in the Bayeux Diocese to his present position amongst the most important prelates in England.

  ‘I’m pleased that at long last there will be someone to share my burden as far as the Scots raiders are concerned,’ he said at one point. ‘Yves de Vesci isn’t bothered just so long as they don’t penetrate as far as his manors to the south of Glendale and Roger Mowbray is happy enough to be called the Earl of Northumbria but visiting Alnwick is as far north as he has ever been. Your new estates are full of robbers who are as fond of raiding over the Tweed as the Scots are south of it.’

  ‘I suspect that pacifying our dozen manors will be as difficult now as it was for the king’s father to bring the rest of the country under his rule.’

  ‘Yes, probably more so; not helped by the fact that Cumbria, to the west of your manor of Redesdale, is part of the Scottish realm. How many men do you have?’

  ‘Between us? Forty five, all mounted,’ Roger replied before Hugo could do so.

  ‘I see. The north of the county is under populated but all the men train as warriors from boyhood; in addition you may have the problem of Scots raiders to contend with. Forty five men isn’t a lot. What’ll your strategy be?’

  Hugo looked at Roger who nodded, agreeing that the older man should reply.

  ‘First we need to take the town of Wooler and build a motte and bailey castle there to control access to Glendale. The next priority is to build another at Harbottle on the south side of the Cheviots. Finally I propose to build another at Wark to control the crossing over the Tweed there. We will need to recruit men-at-arms and archers to man these castles with the men we’ve brought with us and we both have silver to do that. Once we have the castles built as secure bases we can impose our rule on the villages.’

  ‘A Castle at Wark is all very well but the wretched Scots can cross at Norham.’

  ‘We know that, my lord bishop. It was something we wanted to discuss with you.’

  ‘I’m sure you did,’ he commented dryly. ‘However you will know that the Pope has yet to confirm my appointment and, until that happens – which could take years – I’m unwilling to embark on the major expense of building a castle there. That said, I do intend to build a watchtower and a palisade so that a small force of my men can keep watch on the ford over the Tweed. Their job will be to give early warning of any incursion across the border. However, a castle at Wark would put more pressure on Norham and on my lands along the Tweed.’ He paused. ‘I am prepared to loan you a conroy of my knights and serjeants for two months if you will delay building at Wark for the foreseeable future.’

  Hugo nodded. ‘That’s very helpful of you. Instead of a castle at Wark I suggest I build a watchtower and a hall house surrounded by a palisade. That way I can keep the villagers safe if the Scots raid across the Tweed.’

  ‘Good! I’m glad that we have reached agreement so easily. If only de Vesci and the Earl of Northumbria were so ready to listen to reason.’

  ‘My son is Yves de Vesci’s squire. He tells me that he is now building a castle just outside the village of Alnwick?’

  ‘Yes, a timber castle, but not a simple motte and bailey as I understand it; more like the castles in France and Normandy. Presumably he intends to replace the palisade and the keep in stone later, as and when he can afford it.’

  ‘And Robert de Mowbray?’

  ‘Ha! The earl doesn’t need to build a castle; he already has the one that Robert Curthose built ten years ago on the site of the old Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall north of the River Tyne. Now a town has sprung up around it and they are calling the place New Castle. Not a very original name. He has also seized the old fortress of the Angles at Bamburgh and is busy turning that into a castle. That at least will be useful in protecting the coast; but, again, it is well south of your manors.’

  ‘We will need to know more about the lie of the land and about the population before we try and conquer our new holdings. Can you help us there as well, my lord?’

  ‘Not me personally, no. As you know, I’m new to this part of England too. Speak to the constable of the castle tomorrow. He is the captain of my mesnie as well and was born here. If anyone knows the area around Glendale and the Cheviots it will be him.’

  -X-

  ‘Wooler is a small town on the hillside above a small river; it’s surrounded by a palisade and the jarl, Ebbe, keeps at least two men on the gate and another in the watchtower sited beside the north gate. There is another gate to the east which gives access from th
e road though Glendale.’ The constable paused. ‘I haven’t been there for some time – years I suppose – but at that time Ebbe kept ten housecarls for his own protection and for collecting taxes in the town and from the surrounding villages. They’d never venture too far into the Cheviot Hills but I suspect that he holds sway over Akeld, the northern part of Glendale down as far as Chillingham and Barmoor near the southern boundary of the Prince-Bishop’s enclave.’

  ‘Well, it sounds as if I will need to defeat this Ebbe and then most of my manors shouldn’t be too difficult to take. If he only has ten housecarls I can’t see that being too hard.’

  The constable smiled tolerantly. ‘He may only have a few housecarls but, if he has time to muster all the men he controls, he could probably field an army of something near two hundred. Just like the Saxons, there were few professional soldiers but the fyrd consists of all males between fifteen and thirty five; and, unlike the Saxon fyrd, they won’t be wielding pitchforks, scythes and woodman’s axes but spears, swords and battle-axes.’

  ‘So it sounds as if we need to catch him unawares.’ Hugo mused. ‘I’m not familiar with the Angles or the Danes; how else do they differ from the Saxons?’

  ‘Well, my father told me that originally the Angles came from the district of Angeln, an area on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the north of Germania. The Danes came from the peninsula to the north of them and the Saxons from the coast along the North Sea to the west of the Angles and the south of the Danes; so they all came from the same area; they were just different tribes.’

  ‘So could a Saxon enter Wooler without suspicion?’

  ‘I suppose so. Over the centuries since their original settlement here the Angles and the Saxons united against the Danes and so they’ve intermarried.’