[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (11 page)

Alan noted the very different nature of the countryside. On the Welsh side of the border the land was very hilly and in places mountainous. The hills were bare and barren with poor soil, but supported large herds of cattle and to a lesser extent flocks of sheep, now
all
on their way east. The river valleys were fertile, cut deep and wide, but farmed only half-heartedly. The Welsh preferred a semi-nomadic life in the hills and looked
with contempt at
those who farmed the valleys. The nature of the land and their preferred lifestyle condemned the Welsh to a relatively poor existence.

When Robert rode in to advise that the last of the carts and animals from Builth Wells were nearing the border, Alan withdrew his men and they cautiously marched north-east towards England. The valley ahead was well-scouted and men had been placed to guard all likely areas of ambush.

Once back over the border and in England Alan, Robert and the thegns rode ahead to Staunton. They passed herds of cattle, sheep and pigs being driven along the road, riding around each to avoid dispersing them and causing unnecessary work for the herders.

When they arrived Staunton had the air of a giant livestock market. The villagers of Norton Canon, Mannington and Byford
,
which together with Staunton had been devastated by the Welsh invasion of the previous summer, were collecting the livestock allocated to their villages. Some of the livestock were probably being taken back home after being stolen
by the Welsh the previous year.

Most important were the oxen and seedstock. It was getting late in the season, but the villagers would now be able to plough and sow their crops, which
most villages
had not
yet
been able to do as the Welsh had the previous summer taken
or destroyed
their oxen and seed. Alan was also providing some relief for nearby Bobury, Yarsop, Yazor, Bishopstone and Bridge Sollers, even though they were not his villages, and had suggested that the oxen
and ploughs from his villages be loaned to those villages when their initial work was done at home.

After a rest of two days Alan began to dispatch his men back to Essex in groups of twenty or so, again with the heavy equipment and armour being transported by wagon to make the march easier. The fyrdmen and thegns should be back attending to their spring farming duties and
Alan
knew it is never good to have a large number of armed men sitting idle. Each group was led by a suitable sergeant who carried funds to cover food and accommodation on the more leisurely march east. The men were told they were expected to be home within five days.

Alan spent several more days with Robert, sorting out details and checking progress with his villages, before intending to ride east with Osmund and the thirty Wolves. Unfortunately, before he left he received a
n instruction
from William fitzOsbern, the former co-Regent, that
Alan
attend on him at Hereford as soon as possible. Alan swore long and loud, while recognising his temper was getting worse. He had hoped to slip into Herefordshire and back out without being noticed. Had fitzOsbern been at the northern end of his fiefdom at Leominster
,
twelve miles north of Hereford
,
he may well have achieved it
- b
ut not when
the earl was at
Hereford
, which
lay right in
Alan’s
path.

Alan left his men and horses at an inn near the castle and walked the remaining short distance
together
with Osmund
and four huscarles
. He was dressed well, but
not
ostentatiously and was shown immediately into the castle Hall, where fitzOsbern was sitting at a table near the fire and doing business with a well-dressed Englishman, seemingly a merchant, with an elderly man in a monk’s habit sitting nearby and scribing onto pieces of parchment with a small quill pen. Immediately
Earl William
had dealt with the matter before him his steward had a word in his ear and came to usher Alan before the Lord of the Western Marches. Osmund followed and stood by Alan’s shoulder.

Alan was surprised
that
fitzOsbern, the king’s cousin, r
o
se to clasp his hand in greeting and say
,
“Welcome, Sir Alan! Please sit and take a cup of wine. How fare your manors in Staple Hundred?”

“Much better now, thank you Lord William. We’ve overcome many of the problems caused by last year’s invasion and the
geburs
are sowing this year’s harvest as we speak. They had ploughed some land by hand, but now have oxen.”

FitzOsbern raised his eyebrows in surprise. “
It was a
bad thing
when the Welsh k
ing Bleddyn
and his half-brother Rhiwallon
led his men across the border in force. Not so much an invasion
,
as there was no attempt to hold onto any land they occupied, but a massive raid.
They d
evastated near
ly
every damn village and manor from the border to the River Lugg. It
wa
s so bad that King William has granted a relief from taxes for three years, reduced the He
riot Redemption f
ee for the English to a quarter of the usual rate
and
deferred even that for three years- and William doesn’t give away a single penny unless he has to. The English have had the same problem for hundreds of years and we’re no closer to an answer. Now I hear that you have brought an army to Herefordshire. May I ask what you intend to do with it?” fitzOsbern asked.

“Hardly an army,” replied Alan. “And
it
’
s
no longer in Herefordshire. My manor of Norton Canon was raided and burnt a few weeks back and I brought some of my men to deliver… chastisement. I invited the freemen of my Hundred to come along and join in if they had nothing better to do. Most of them will be half way back to Essex by now.”

FitzOsbern frowned
.
“So quickly? What changed your mind? Did you decide it was too difficult?”

Alan laughed. “Not at all,” he replied. “They’d done their job. It’s never a good idea to have armed men sitting idle as they get into trouble, so I sent them home. Staunton now just has its usual garrison of twenty men.”

Even more confused, fitzOsbern gestured for Alan to continue.

“We crossed the border and sacked Hay-on-Wye, Builth Wells and Talgarth. You’ll have little trouble from the Welsh in Brecon for the next year or so. We passed on a very
strong
message to stay at home, killed a lot of warriors,
and
took every horse and animal we could find.
We r
ecovered
a total of
37
English c
aptives taken last summer. The l
ord
s of Brycheiniog now understand
what the outcome will be if they cross the border again. I explained it to Idwallon myself at the same time I advised him we had killed one of his sons,” explained Alan.

“You had Idwallon in your hands and let him go?” asked fitzOsbern incredulously. “How much ransom did he pay?”

“Nothing. I didn’t ask for any
ransom
. Judging by the state of his village he wouldn’t have had two marks to rub together. And we took every animal they had. Every cow, pig and sheep- down to the last chicken. What wealth he and
his
Cantref had was in those animals.”

“How many men did you lose?” queried fitzOsbern.

“
We had
nine
dead
and
seventeen
wounded-
eight
seriously,” answered Alan.

FitzOsbern shook his head in wonder. “Every time my men cross the border we achieve nothing, as was the case with the English before us. The
Wesh
won’t stand and fight, disappear into their hills and kill us from ambush. They have a man with a bow behind every fucking bush. How did you do it?”

Alan had no intention of telling one of the foremost knights in Christendom, who had commanded the Norman right wing at Hastings, how to fight a battle. “Speed, strength, planning and intelligence,” he commented.
“The Good Lord was kind to us in our endeavour.”

FitzOsbern frowned. Alan realised after a moment that the other had misunderstood what he meant. “By
‘intelligence’
I mean
t
information,” he hurriedly explained. “I knew what Welshmen were where. We struck unexpectedly, with stealth and speed like the Welsh do when they attack us. Now, Lord William, I really must be on my way if I’m to be in Gloucester before they close the gates this evening.”

FitzOsbern waved a hand in dismissal. “I presume I’ll be seeing you again in about two weeks,” he said. “The king will be sitting at London on Ascension Day
on the 1st of May,
and
Duchess
Matilda is to be crowned
as
queen on 11
th
May. King William has called a meeting of the Curia for the 5
th
of May
, two days after the Feast of the blessed Apostles St Philip and St James
. You’ll probably find your Summons waiting for you at home.”

“Ah! The king
ha
s
finally
brought
Duchess
Matilda to England? Excellent
!
I’ll look forward to seeing you then, Lord William,” said Alan before taking his leave from the second most powerful man in the land.

Alan and Anne sat at ease in comfortable chairs in the Solar of their London town-house at
Holebourn
Bridge
,
just outside the
city walls at
Newgate. The house had been substantially renovated and extended since their purchase of a bankrupt Englishman’s property
the year before
via Malachi the Jew. With them sat Alan’s English scribe Osmund.
A slightly ferret-faced
tall
,
thin
and
balding Englishman named Gareth was being shown into the room by Alan’s young servant Leof, who had been sent to the disreputable tavern in the Shambles called ‘The Dancing Bear’ to fetch the Londoner. Gareth was extremely unprepossessing, dressed in clean but poor clothing, but Anne had explained to Alan the importance of her relationship with the man who she had engaged as her spy after the failed
assassination
attempt made against Alan in
late November
.

It
was Thursday the 28
th
of April 1068, three days before the Feast of the
Ascension
on 1
st
of May. King William’s wife Matilda was due to be crowned Queen of England on Pentecost, the 11
th
May. Alan and Anne had travelled south from Essex and arrived the day before after a leisurely two day journey from Thorrington in
Tendring
Hundred near Colchester, Anne and two maids travelling on a light cart in the beautiful spring weather.

“Thank you for agreeing to come to see me
,
Gareth,” she said, patting the small rotundity of her five-month pregnant belly.

“Congratulations, m’lady,” said Gareth in a gravelly voice that showed his origins near the wharves of London.

Anne nodded. “Thank you for a job
well
done before Christmas,” she said, referring to the fact that Gareth, unable to determine which of three important officials upset by Alan’s complaints on behalf of the English regarding financial abuses had attempted to
assassinate
him, had provided a warning by stabbing a long dagger into the bed next to the head of each as they slept and placing an arrow
beside
their pillow.

“
I’m s
orry I couldn’t find out which I was. I’m reasonably sure it was Ralph the Staller,” he said, referring to the
e
arl of East Anglia. “One of his men left the hunt abruptly at about the point Sir Alan was shot in the back, but I wasn’t able to obtain confirmation.”

Anne smiled and said
,
“I heard that Bishop William wet himself when he woke and spent two days by the altar at St Paul’s, and Earl Ralph dismissed the captain of his Guard.” Gareth smiled and nodded in reply. “Anything further?” asked Anne.

“Not at this time m’lady. You’ve been out and about in the wilds, so I’ll keep my ear to the ground now that you’ve returned back to civilisation. Obviously m’lord will need to take suitable precautions. Wandering back alone from a tavern in the town late at night while the worst for drink would not be a good idea! We may have frightened them off, or we may have just frightened them a little and made
’
em more cautious. My henchmen have been out and about since you returned yesterday, but
have
no results
as
yet.” He paused while
Aidith the serving-
wench delivered a pint of ale and waited until she had left and the door closed again. He took a pull of the ale, sighed in pleasure and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Anne then spent some considerable time questioning him on the current state of the convoluted politics of both the Norman
royal c
ourt and the English nobles to bring herself up to date, before thanking him for his time and dismissing him.