[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (22 page)

Alan went to visit Prior Gryffyd to request that Mass be said for the army. After all they were soldiers and it would be at least a week since they last attended Confession and took the sacrament, and there would be few soldiers who hadn’t incurred significant sin in that time. Unfortunately, Prior Gryffyd was less than accommodating. Apart from the village being sacked, and presumably in due course to be put to the torch, Earl William had made it clear that every scrap of precious metal from the monastery, from the few silver coins in its coffers to the gold furniture on the altar, was to be handed over to him if the monastery was not to suffer the same fate. Only the reliquary, which was decorated only with thin gold leaf,
and its contents
w
ere
to be excluded. Alan thought this ungenerous and counter-productive but was unable to do anything
to sway the earl from his intent
.

Sunset was
after
eight and a nearly full moon rose at a little before ten. Sunrise would be
shortly prior to
four. Alan had advised fitzOsbern to have the whole army in position at Rhuddlan before first light. FitzOsbern, unused to such tactics, was alarmed at the novel approach, but in the end agreed when Alan advised he’d used the same tactic against the Welsh on the southern border. The army marched as the moon rose, crossing the River Clwyd at the bridge just east of St Asaph and taking the less
frequently
used path down the east side of the river. The western path was more easily traversed, but
later
crossed the river at the bridge at Rhuddlan itself. While Alan was confident in his planning, he wasn’t arrogant enough to assume that they could seize what would be a well-defended bridge and bring across an army in the face of strong opposition, nor that Bleddyn would be foolish enough to allow them to do so.

The scouts were out, clearing away first the Welsh scouts that had been sent to observe the Anglo-Norman camp, and then the lookouts stationed along both banks of the river
-
as a lookout on one side of the river would almost certainly see or hear the progress of an army on the other bank just a few dozen paces away. A small rear-guard remained at St Asaph until dawn, keeping the monks inside the monastery and to fulfill the task of firing the village as they
departed
. Alan saw that as a waste of time, as the only asset of value in the entire village other than the monastery was the water-mill, which had been thoroughly demolished on Earl William’s order early in the first day, but it
was
the traditional way of making a point clear out here on the border.

The Vale was flat, with virtually no rise in land anywhere. The oak forest was dense but the bridle-path was easily enough traversed, although with only one or two men able to ride
or march abreast the column of troops was quite long. To the south of the village a number of fields had been won from the
forest
, and after the Welsh look-outs had been removed, the Anglo-Normans formed up and prepared themselves on one of these
fields
. Alan, Earl William and several of
the
other officers rode to the
tree line
to observe the village. It appeared that there w
ere
a substantial number of warriors in the village, more than it could accommodate as there were dozens of camp fires smoldering in the open, each surrounded by a group of men.

“There lies the enemy, Lord William, if you’d wish to give the order to form up and attack? I’d suggest that you fall on them quickly, taking them by surprise, as it appears we may be outnumbered,” suggested Alan.

“At last I’ve caught a Welsh army in the field!” exclaimed fitzOsbern with delight. “Bring the men up. Infantry here and here,” he said pointing. “Archers there and there… and there. Cavalry in the centre and both flanks. One squadron to loop around to the enemy’s rear to cover them if they fall back. Sir Alan! If they retreat, where would they go?”

“Across the bridge to the west and try to hold us off
-
or possibly east. I’d expect they’d try to move west and use the river for defence, as that would also put them on the same side of the river as their fall-back towards Abergele and Caernarfon. I’d suggest several cavalry squadrons to go direct to the bridge and secure it. That would bottle them up and give them nowhere to go,” replied Alan.

Earl William nodded. “Do it, Basset
!
” he instructed the young Norman lord by his side. Presented with an enemy and a tactical situation Earl William was in his element, giving instructions and in total control.

In less than half an hour, and still by the light of the moon, the Anglo-Normans hit the Welsh camp like a fist. Unexpected and unforgiving they smashed through the camp in minutes, slaughtering
the
dazed and unprepared men who staggered from their beds. By the time they reached the village itself the warriors billeted there had heard the shouts and were alerted, pouring from the cottages brandishing sword and shield. But the
Welsh
were fighting as a mob, surprised and disorganized
,
whilst the Anglo-Normans were fighting like a well-oiled machine. The Welsh fell back towards the
Cantref
Hall and the horse-lines at the north of the village. A large contingent decamped from the Hall, presumably Bleddyn and his professional warriors. As dawn was breaking the Welsh were rallying and moving west towards the bridge.

Osmond Basset had taken his squadron of fifty or so horse, de Grandmesnil’s men, directly to the bridge. Unfortunately for them the bridge had a strong guard, who were now well alerted to the danger and who were armed with long spears. Equally unfortunately
for the Norman troops,
the approach to the bridge was narrow. This combination meant that the Welshmen, now fighting fiercely, were able to hold off Basset’s attack. Further, within minutes as the Welsh rallied to the north of the village and took to their horses,
200
or more very angry Welshmen on ponies were engaging the rear of Basset’s force. Basset’s men now had their back to the bridge and were being peppered with arrows from that direction, the large arrows p
unching clear through the chain-
mail armour on the backs on the Normans, while at the same time they tried to cope with the attacks of the mounted Welshmen. The
small group of
Normans
near the bridge
w
as
like a piece of metal being hit repeatedly on an anvil, and with nowhere to go they broke and tried to escape to the south. FitzOsbern sent some men to provide cover to the remains of Basset’s force, now numbering about twenty.

The Welsh had secured the east side of the bridge with about
400
men either on horse or on foot starting to organise themselves
,
and began to cross to the west side of the river in good order. Meanwhile many of the Anglo-Norman troops, particularly the foot-soldiers, were engaged in looting the village- to Earl William’s great anger. When the last of the Welsh crossed the river the bridge was then damaged by them sufficiently to make it at least
temporarily impassible without totally destroying it, as after all the Welsh knew that they would have to rebuild it in a
few days
. As the last of the Welsh fell back across the bridge the first Norman
troops
were being stru
ng up by the neck on the trees o
n the village green in punishment for their dereliction of duty.

FitzOsbern didn’t want to reduce the strength of his force too much and so restricted himself to hanging ten of the most blatant looters. The point was made very strongly. Looting is permitted only
after
the battle is won, not during the battle. Discipline would be maintained at all costs.

After the hour or so that it took fitzOsbern to get his men back in hand, Alan, fitzOsbern and the other
officers
stood
on the east bank of the river, carefully out of arrow-shot of the Welsh on the other bank. “
An i
nteresting situation,” commented Alan. “Bleddyn can either stand and oppose our movement to the other side of the river, or he can
moved west and
fall back to the other side of the River Conwy. That would abandon Abergele and Betws yn Rhos to us, along with several fishing villages along the coast
-
Llandrillo-yn-Rhos
and
Llanwst. Whether it is worth hi
s
while to defend them, or worth our while to atta
ck them, are both questionable.

“
We won’t be able to cross the River Conwyn and threaten Caernafon or Bangor, both of which
would
be worth taking, and we don’t have a large enough force to go south to where we could cross the Conwy. Y
ou’re in your element here, my l
ord!” said Alan to Earl William. “You’re trained to force an opposed river crossing, and no doubt have done so in the past. The co
-
relation of forces is also interesting. If we force a crossing, will we have enough men left to move forward? The Welsh receive reinforcements every day and we do not. A difficult decision, Lord William.”

Bernard de Neufmarche added his
own
c
omment. “The men are tired, my l
ord. They marched all night and have fought hard this morning. They need food and rest and will not be able to move until mid-afternoon.”

FitzOsbern scowled. While an extremely intelligent man and not illiterate, nor was he well-lettered or used to a debating chamber. He wasn’t used to having military considerations presented so quickly and thoroughly
,
nor with such erudition. It took him a minute or so to work out what Alan had said. Having finally, after over a year of effort primarily in South Wales, brought the Welsh king’s army into the field to oppose his forces, he couldn’t engage them. “How do we get to them?” he demanded simply.

“I don’t know, Lord William,” replied Alan with a blank expression. “Conjuring a way to get
800
men across a river
70
yards wide and too deep to ford, in the face superior numbers of enemy troops who will be shooting arrows is something beyond my experience. I
did
manage to find Bleddyn and his men, though.”

“Neufmarche, keep
100
men near the river. The remainder can rest and eat. We’ll see what Bleddyn does over the next few hours,” ordered fitzOsbern.

“And then, my
l
ord?” queried Neufmarche.

“
I’m b
uggered if I know
at the moment
! Thorrington is right. We’d lose
200
men just to get across the river, probably more, given their damn archers. We’ll think about it
and rest the men
. The
Welsh
aren’t going anywhere at the moment.”

Six hours later, with no change to the situation, fitzOsbern called his command group back together. “Ideas?” he demanded.

“Well, we could send a force of men back upriver to seize and hold a fording point,” suggested Guy de Craon.

“If we had a dozen longboats, we could hold their force here while we slipped
500
men behind them, to either attack Bleddyn or sack the villages behind him,” commented Alan.

“Wishful thinking won’t help!” barked fitzOsbern
angrily
.

“Well, I’ve been trying to get the king to have that sort of a
naval
force and it would allow plenty of options for attack. Perhaps you might like to talk to him about it also?
That would give you more options in the future,
” replied Alan.

“Is that the best you can come up with?”

“Well, th
is is
why you receive such large grants of land and command of an army, because you have to make the hard decisions!” said Alan with a sar
donic
laugh. “Seriously, de Craon’s given you the only viable option if you want to bring them to battle. We can’t force an opposed crossing here. There are several points we could cross just upstream. One is about a mile away. The river channel there is narrow, about twenty paces, but deep, and with mud banks on both sides. We have now, what…
400
horses, including
about
200 p
onies we’ve captured over the last few days? The horses can swim across and the men can hold onto their saddle pommels for assistance,” said Alan.

“No mud flats!” interjected Bernard de Neufmarche. “The horses will get mired in the mud and make a lot of noise. I’ve been in that situation before. Spearmen slaughtered us while our horses were stuck in a swamp. There are places where the river is not much wider, but with both banks firm. If we must force a crossing, better at that sort of place.”

Alan nodded agreement and said
,
“We can leave
50
men on this side of the river, build camp fires which they keep banked up and they move about making noise and movement.
We can leave t
hose who are lightly wounded or can’t swim. We’
ll
have to move damn fast and at night. The Welsh aren’t stupid and will have their scouts out and
be
fully awake tonight. We’re not going to get any more cheap and easy wins
!
I can see t
wo problems. One is if we get caught with half our men over, they
’
ll
get wiped out. The second is if we are successful in making a crossing, we’re on the opposite side of the river from safety, with no easy way to get back
.
The bridge is broken. We
would
have
to win.”