[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (19 page)

On arrival at Thorrington Alan called a meeting of his officers to be held the next day at noon. Messengers spurred their horses as they
departed
, to try to reach their destinations and deliver the
ir
message before dark.
Alan
ate an early meal, hurriedly prepared by Otha the cook from whatever was on hand. Given they were hungry from their journey there was no complaint at the simple fare.

Alan spent most of the evening in discussion with the Welshman. “Owain,
I don’t want to insult you, but some of us will be marching to fight on the Welsh border in a few days. I don’t want to put you in a position where you have any personal conflict between your duties and your loyalties, and I propose to have you here in Thorrington continuing to train bowmen, although many of those in my employ will be in the west. I trust that this is acceptable to you?”

Owain looked uncomfortable and fidgeted a little on his seat at the small table
in Alan’s office just off the H
all. “I understand you’ll be going to Chester and fighting against Bleddyn in Gwynedd? I’m from Cardiff in the south, a hundred miles from where you’ll be campaigning. Indeed the men of the north are as foreign to my people as those of Herefordshire, or more so. Bleddyn is from Gwynedd and means little to me. I’d have no difficulty in going with you to Rhos i
n the north and being your man.

“To give a brief history of Wales, our land is divided into parcels of a hundred households, or
a
tref
. Several of these together form
commotes
and in turn two or three
of these
form a
cantref
. There are four traditional kingdoms
- Gwynned, Powys, Deheubarth and
the south-east, the latter now the princedoms of Morgannwg, Brycheiniog and Gwent
. Position is determined by what a lord actually
holds
, not his birth or position. What he holds depends on his military and political strength. The lords of the
cantrefi
have no obligation to support any man as ‘king’ or ‘prince’. Occasionally a man arises who’s able to control enough
cantrefi
himself and have enough lords support him that he becomes High King. This happens
perhaps
for a few years once every generation, possibly less. Bleddyn is such a man. He is ‘King’ of Wales, but if he turns his back for a moment, somebody will put a knife in it and Wales will return to its usual situation of independent states, the leade
r of each doing what they want.

“
In times of a strong king there
i
s less raiding along the border
- b
ut when the king decides to cross the border the warriors number in the thousands, not dozens. Welshmen are nearly all warriors, although not with the formal training that you give your men. They move fast in attack and are deadly in ambush. Because of their disposition and lack of training as a unit they don’t fare well in battles where the opponents are face to face. They know that
,
and avoid such confrontations.

“
F
itzOsbern will go into Wales wanting to force a battle. That won’t happen. There
’ll be ambushes and night raids, and a
man with a bow behind every bush. Villages will be abandoned ahead of his troops, with no people present and the livestock that constitutes wealth in
Wales driven away and hidden. F
itzOsbern will burn the villages, but a wattle and daub thatched cott
age takes only days to rebuild.

“
The Welsh made a different choice to the English
, after the Saxons pushed us out of the lush lands of what is now Herefordshire
. We chose to inhabit the bare and windswept hills, raising cattle and sheep, rather than living on the lowlands and tilling the land. The south and north coasts have arable land and there are a number of river valleys that would support
more
agriculture, but our rulers have chosen to live in the uplands. The valleys and coastal lands are inhabited and used by those who are seen as inferior. The swamps
in the main
remain undrained and the vegetation uncleared. Most of the arable land is still oak forest or swamp, or covered in briar and gorse. Moving over the hills and the mountains is difficult, but no more so than moving through the tangled undergrowth in the valleys. There are only two significant towns, Cardiff and Caernafon, both with about
2,000
souls. In the main, my people live in the hills in small villages, hamlets and isolated farms.

“This makes it difficult to subjugate the land, or more particularly the people. It also ensures its perpetual poverty. The English took from us what is now Hereford and Cheshire, lands of rolling hills suitable for agriculture. They didn’t want to take the hill-lands,
not
seeing the benefit
as
being worth the cost. So now the English borderlands bleed month after month to Welsh raids
- u
sually not much blood, but a cons
tant drain.

“
The English made many deep expeditions into our lands. The
ir
armies were met with ambush by warriors who disappeared into the trees
,
and raids on their camps. Many more English
were
killed than Welsh, again a constant day by day bleeding with ten or twenty bodies a day being sent back to England for burial. The fighting has always been savage, even when it was against the English. The English fear and hate the Welsh because they’re
afraid of us. Afraid of the death-dealing arrows that come from ambush. Afraid of our raiding parties.
W
hat a man fears, so he
also
hates.
There has been a
trocity after
atrocity, on both sides of the b
order. Men, women and children massacred, often horribly. Houses burnt and crops despoiled. It’s gone on for so long and both sides are equally at fault.

“Your expedition against Brycheiniog was perfect. Fast and with clear objectives achieved on the first day. Your men were well-disciplined and caused no physical harm to the villagers- which is unusual in any
punitive
expedition. Anybody can understand the… clout
…
given by many swords and spears. The
swords
speak very loudly. Frankly, if the
Normans and
English campaign in Gwynedd, even if they take Caernafon, I wouldn’t give a shit. My people hate the people of Gwynedd more than they hate the people of Herefordshire, as the English raid us less often
!
”

After this lecture on Welsh politics Alan was thoughtful and retired to consider the information he had received.

That evening Alan gave orders that two troops of horse, two squads of infantry and one of archers would march on the 29
th
May. One troop of horse would accompany him to Chester and the remainder of the men would go to Staunton. Anne woul
d take over responsibility for his
manors in Tendring
Hundred
, although she wouldn
’
t have to sit on the Hundred
Court
.
Osmund and Brand
would assist her
at Thorrington, Hugh at Great Oakley and Roger at Bradfield. Twenty mounted men-at-arms, ten huscarles, thirty infantry and forty militia archers would remain to protect his estates, where no immediate danger was envisaged. Two wagons and seven oxen were to be bought at Colchester for what was expected to be a one-way journey to Staunton carrying the armour of the cavalry and infantry, tents and other equipment. There they could either be sold at a profit or used for transport between Staunton and Gloucester.

* 
* 
* 
*

They rode out of the village to waves and shouts of encouragement. Alan, with the lad Leof as his personal servant, Owain, Edric and nine other green-clad Wolves rode to Chester via Northampton, Tamworth and Stoke, a journey taking four days through weather that had turned overcast with occasional showers. The men’s wolf-skin capes help
ed to keep them dry. The rolled-
up armour, wrapped in oilskin cloth to keep it from rusting, tents, pots and other baggage w
ere
carried on
p
ack horses.

They approached Chester from the east in the late afternoon. They had not pressed hard
- t
he ride could have
been accomplished in three days
but there was no need to unnecessarily fatigue either man or beast with there being no immediate hurry. Chester was surprisingly quiet and after riding through the East Gate and presenting themselves at the castle they discovered fitzOsbern and his men, including forces belonging to Hugh de Grandmesnil and Roger de Montgomerie, both of whom held lands within a day’s ride, had marched into Flintshire two days
previously
. When Alan asked where they were bound he was told abruptly
,
“West
.
Just follow the smoke.” Alan insisted on having a note of hand to confirm the attendance of himself and his men, and also insisted on the provision of quarters in the castle for the night. The steward was reluctant to provide quarters, but
finally agreed
when Alan pointed out that space must be availab
le as the castle was near empty
. Alan saw no need to pay for bed and board for his men unnecessarily when they were on the service of the king.

The next morning, after breaking their fast on porridge and fresh fruit and obtaining provisions for a week from the commissary, they rode out over the wooden bridge over the River Dee and into Flintshire. The men were in full harness, wearing coats of mail and with helmets on heads and shields on shoulder
s
, looking about themselves attentively. Even Owain and Leof had
each
been provided with a mail byrnie, helmet, shield and sword. Although Flintshire was not hostile territory, the path of the army was indeed clear to see. Perhaps there were no burnt farms or villages
as
yet, but the passage of a large number of men was obvious
to the eye. The village of Buckley hadn’t been burnt, but a quick inspection of the tavern revealed that all food and drink had been requisitioned.

The land on the Welsh side of the border was sparsely populated
,
with few villages or farms. The fertile land in the river valley was heavily wooded with large stands of oak trees and tangled undergrowth. As they approached the hills to the west of Buckley they firstly met a number of horses carrying wounded men east, and then wagons carrying
the
more seriously injured. Close to the north could be seen a pall of smoke. Alan assumed this was, or had been, the village of Caerwys.

They came upon the army shortly afterwards in the first range of hills some ten miles west
of
Buckley and a little less than five miles from the village of Denbigh. The road proceeded down a narrow valley between the hills of the north
ern
part of the Moel Famu, which acted as something of a watershed with streams running away both north and south down gullies cut
by the ages
through the hills. Both the valley and gullies were thick with vegetation, trees and bushes including gorse and bramble, with just a narrow defined track. In a small relatively clear area
of valley
were nearly a thousand men, mainly milling around with no apparent purpose or direction. A few small fires had been lit,
around which men were sitting
, some cooking food.

Alan stopped and asked one of the sentries for details of what had happened. Apparently
,
several hours before three groups of Welsh warriors had dashed out of the na
rrow side-valleys on their hill-
ponies and attacked the middle of the
Anglo-Norman
column as it had moved ponderously forward, while at the same time men had appeared at close range from behind bushes, loosed half a dozen arrows each into the surprised
invaders
and then taken to their heels. The Welsh had come and gone in less than five minutes, leaving about
70
Norman
s
dead or wounded. Alan looked at the sky and mused that unless the leaders got things moving soon the army would be stuck in the hills for the night, in a position that invited further attack
as
the dense vegetation and hilly terrain permitt
ed
stealthy approach at any time.

Alan instructed his men to dismount and eat, and rode towards the knot of men who were clearly the leadership group, although no banners flew. As he
moved
closer Alan could hear fitzOsbern sh
outing at a hapless underling. F
itzOsbern glanced up to see who was approaching
and
gave up berating the poor man, who promptly took the opportunity to disappear. Still with a sour expression on his face, as Alan was dismounting fitzOsbern said
,
“Ho, Sir Alan! Well met! Hopefully now we’ll have somebody who knows what’s going on!”