[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (47 page)

Remembering one of the maxims written by the Roman Vegetius in the 4
th
century
allow your enemy to retreat
,
Alan had instructed Sven that he wanted to leave six or seven ships in Danish hands, enough for them to use to flee if the battle went in favour of the English, but with their str
ength significantly diminished.

Alan knew that, like the wolves they were, the Danish raiders would move on and look for easier prey if they could. He also knew that, also like wolves, if trapped they would fight to the death. Even now there were still more Danes than Englishmen
and
to totally defeat them would cost many English lives for what Alan saw as no benefit. There seemed an inexhaustible supply of Danes and longships and he wanted as few Englishwomen as possible being made widows
today, and as many men as possible ready to respond when the Danes next raided
. So Sven and Lars had their crews row close to the Danish longships, carefully tossing flasks of Wildfire into four
snekke
. The pint or so of incendiary material splashed across the decks setting fire first to the tar-drenched caulking, then the wood hulls and the tarred ropes. One burning ship drifted into another, setting it ablaze in moments, as the Danish crewmen threw themselves in the water and swam away.

The undermanned ships crewed by the English,
Havørn
and
Alekrage
together with
the new prizes, rowed away slowly towards the Colne estuary and then headed north, using their flax-coloured
woollen
sails to take advantage of a favourable breeze and give the tired rowers a rest.

Despite the pyres burning behind them the Danes on the shore still seemed unaware of the dual nature of their predicament. They had fallen back approximately half a mile to a point halfway between the initial point of contact and the village of Brigh
t
lingsea. Here the land was much more open and footing more firm and they were seeking to rally.
With s
till with over
500
men
the
y stood, and as the second cavalry charge had exhausted itself and fallen back the Danes had formed a shield
-
wall of two, sometimes three, ranks and with a group of men on each flank to both act as reserves and provide protec
tion for the vulnerable flanks.

The English followed slowly,
the
infantry
leading
, moving carefully through the pattern of defensive pits. The cavalry followed, positioning themselves to the east
,
on the English left flank. There
,
away from the lower-lying ground
,
the footing was firmer. Finally, the archers came trotting through, delayed by their obtain
ing
fresh supplies of arrows from the village lads pulling hand-carts
laden with sheaves of arrows
. Alan was not happy
with
the new position. The infantry had the defensive pits to their rear. The cavalry, while on open ground and with firm footing, had the stand of trees to their rear. Both the pits and the trees would make any retreat, should it prove necessary, difficult- just as it had for the Danes a few minutes before.

In the pause as
the English set up their shield-
wall two things happened. Alan had water-carts with barrels of fresh water move through his lines, allowing the men to drink and wash the enemy’s blood from their faces, arms and weapons, and the cavalry to water their horses
using the leather collapsible bucket
s
that each horseman carried. The other was that the Danish leader had finally realised that something was amiss to his rear. The more seriously Danish wounded were assisted to the ships, mainly by those with lesser injuries but also with some fit men to secure the remaining ships.

For perhaps half an hour, the Dane and English stood looking at each other, the shield
-
walls separated by about
150
paces. Light rain began to fall, making the men uncomfortable as it soaked through the leather on which the
chain-mail
or scale
-
armour was sewn and into the padded garments below. Alan was on the English left flank sitting on his destrier Odin next to the cavalry and gladly accepted
a
towel his servant Leof handed to him, wiping the moisture, part rain and part sweat, from his face. Odin was fidgeting, moving his weight from foot to foot, keen to get to work as all he had done so far that day was stand and watch.

The leaders
wh
o
Alan had appointed for his forces were Brand
,
in overall charge of the infantry, with Leofstan, Leofson of Moze and
Alwin of Little Bromley as his deputies. The cavalry was led by Alan’s men Hugh, Ainulf, Edric (still with his axe in hand) and Alfward, together with
Gerard de Cholet from Elmstead. The archers, all Alan’s men, were led by Owain, Roger, Barclay, Abracan and Aethelbald
. Ranulf the Huscarle, Brand’s deputy,
commanded
back at the village.

The preponderance of his own men in charge of the cavalry and archers showed Alan’s basic battle philosophy- kill as many as possible at long range and smash what was left with repeated charges of heavy cavalry from the flanks.
This was a
philosophy intended to maximise results and minimise casualties.

The English were
now
positioned with a main shield-
wall of about
2
00
men facing the Danes, in three ranks. Two groups of each of fifty
men
stood slightly behind in reserve. The archers were deployed in five squads each of ten
men
, two squads on each wing and one in the centre. Alan instructed Hugh to take a ten-man squad of cavalry to the right wing to provide protection for the archers on that
flank
, leaving forty mounted men on the left wing. The archers on the other
flank
were standing ankle-deep in water
on the tidal-flat
and were in effect protected from attack by the soft nature of the ground. The Danish leader in response sent more men to his right wing to counter the strength of the English on that side.

Preparations
complete
, Alan ordered his men forward fifty paces and for the archers to
again
begin to loose at the Danes.
Further s
upplies of arrows were already being brought forward even before the barrage began. In response, the Danes crouched, the large round shields of the front rank facing the English providing cover to the front and those of the second rank, standing close behind, providing
cover overhead.

At times of stress Alan’s language tended to become colourful, even if his mind remained ice-clear. This was one of those times. A string of the vilest oaths and imprecations he could think of both in English and French burst forth. There was a polite cough from
Gerard de Cholet next to him, and Alan turned and saw that Anne was sitting on her white palfrey Misty just behind him. “Holy Mary, Mother of God
!
Just what I need right now!” Alan complained loudly. He didn’t ask her how matters were progressing in the village. He knew that if things weren’t in hand she wouldn’t be here. Ignoring her he went on
,
“I knew I should have brought up those damn onagers. Just throwing fucking big rocks at
them would break up that shield-
wall! Bad planning!”

While Alan debated with himself whether to call for the onagers, which would take two hours to break-down, move and re-assemble
. T
he longbowmen were killing and injuring Danes at a slow but steady pace. In the end Alan decided to send the archers further forward, to be level or behind the Danish shield wall, and deployed his cavalr
y to equally cover both flanks.

This forced the Danes to pull back both their flanks and commit their reserves, resulting in a near
round
-shaped formation
- t
he Danes had learned the
ir
lesson earlier in the day. In the
face of the accuracy and sheer power of the longbow, together with the threat of further smashing cavalry charges, they were not prepared to commit suicide by attacking. Similarly, Alan did not want to throw either cavalry or inf
antry against the Danish shield-
wall. The Danes were no longer encumbered by being crammed together and without doubt many would wield the two-handed battle-axe in a way to cause many English casualties. Alan was bearing in mind that his objective was not to kill the Danes, but remove them as a threat at the least possible cost to the local fyrdmen and troops
,
and
he
tempe
red his impatience accordingly.

He moved a force of thirty horsemen past the right flank of the Danes
to
threaten the
remaining Danish
ships, and then had them hold. The Danes responded to the threat
to their only avenue of escape in the manner which Alan
had expected, by withdrawing towards the remaining ships in an orderly fashion, one or two ship-loads of
50
men at a time, forming a new line
100
paces back, and then resuming their withdrawal. Alan was content to let them go. The alternative was to force a battle by sallying his men
- b
ut he did not want to end up owning a battlefield strewn with Danish and English corpses. The former he was not concerned about, but the latter w
ere
important. He knew he could only achieve one at the cost of the other.

Gerard de Cholet rode up to Alan, pulling up his charger only about arm’s length away, shouting and gesticulating that the enemy were escaping, spittle flying from his mouth in his ag
itation as he demanded action. D
e Cholet had neither been knighted nor made the owner of the lands he held from fitzWymarc,
and
as such his social position was so far below that of Alan
that his opinion was worthless.

With some difficulty Alan stayed his hand from his sword to take retribution for the aspersions cast on his m
anliness and courage
. After a brief pause while Alan considered he could not refer to de Cholet as ‘Sir Gerard’ or ‘Mesire’, he simply and bluntly replied
,
“I know that damn well, de Cholet! I intend for them to escape, rather than fight like trapped wolves. I don’t know if you feel a need to prove something, but I do not! To annihilate them will cost the lives of
200
of our men, to no useful benefit. I want our men alive to bring in the harvest in the next few weeks. If you and your five men want to mount an attack and prove you have balls, by all means feel free! We’ll give you a big cheer as a Danish axe-man chops you in twain! Learn to fight with your head, not your balls!”

D
e Cholet threw his lance away in disgust and wrenched his mount to one side so abruptly as to cause almost certain damage
from the bit
to its sensitive mouth, and used his spurs on the abused beast to canter several dozen paces away.

As the Danes boarded their ships Alan sent fifty men to secure the village of Brigh
t
lingsea and instructed Swein and his men from Great Bentley that they could return home to see what damage had been wreaked by the enemy. Riders were sent to St Osyth and Frowick Hall to
determine the damage suffered
by those villages
.

Shortly afterwards Thegn Edward, who held about one third of the land at St Osyth, the balance belonging to the Bishop of London and placed in the care of the
Fleming Albyn of Bruges, rode in. Edward reported that Albyn and most of his foreign troops had been killed, as was the case with Roger de Montivilliers at Great Clacton. Geoffrey of Rouen and his men at Little Clacton had survived. The corrupt priest Engelric’s manor at Frowick Hall had been burnt to the ground but almost all the
gebur
s had fled to safety. Given past differences Alan found no difficulty in controlling his grief about Albyn of Bruges or his men
,
Arnaud and
Josselin, Roger de Montivilliers or Engelric
’s manor.

Indeed, with his past disputes with Edsel the King’s Reeve of Brigh
t
lingsea and Edsel’s refusal to work with the thegns with a claim of special privileges resulting from the village belonging directly to the king, Alan
also
shed no tears about the partial devastation of the village before him. People not prepared to work together have to stand alone
,
and the cheorls
of the village should have understood that as well as any. Alan mused that those who were still alive would certainly
remember
that in the future.