The Fallen Crown (25 page)

An early Great Helm.  Basically it was a conical helmet with metal instead of an aventail and a fixed mask.  Later on they became more elaborate.

In the high middle ages there was a hierarchy of hawks.  At this time there was not.  A baron was supposed to have a bustard which is not even a hawk.  Some think it was a corruption of buzzard or was a generic name for a hawk of indeterminate type. Aiden finds hawks' eggs and raises them.  The 'cadge' was the square frame on which the hawks were carried and it was normally carried by a man called a codger.  Hence the English slang for old codger; a retainer who was too old for anything else. It might also be the derivation of cadge (ask for) a lift- more English slang.

Gospatric was a real character.  His father had been Earl of Northumberland but was replaced by William the Conqueror.  He was granted lands in Scotland, around Dunbar. Once the Conqueror was dead he managed to gain lands in England around the borders.  He was killed at the Battle of the Standard fighting for the Scots. I have used this as the basis for his treachery. He was succeeded by his son, Gospatric, but the family confirmed their Scottish loyalties. His other sons are, as far as I know my own invention although I daresay if he was anything like the other lords and knights he would have been spreading his largess around to all and sundry!

Hartburn is a small village just outside Stockton.  My American readers may be interested to know that the Washington family of your first President lived there and were lords of the manor from the thirteenth century onwards.  It was called Herrteburne in those days. In the sixteenth century the family had it taken from them and it was replaced by the manor of Wessington, which became Washington.  Had they not moved then your president might live in Hartburn DC!

The King of Gwynedd, Gruffudd ap Cynan, recaptured Anglesey from the Normans and his son, Owain who later became known as Owain the Great began to encroach upon the Norman lands around Cheshire.  Robert of Gloucester might have subdued South Wales but North Wales was a different matter. Eventually the men of Gwynedd would defeat the Normans and it was not until the time of Henry II that they began to suffer heavy defeats.  The Welsh were aided by Vikings from Dublin as well as Irish mercenaries.  Owain had been brought up in Ireland and his mother had family there.  It gave the Welsh an advantage for the Vikings brought heavy armoured infantry to aid them. The Vikings continued to raid England until the fifteenth century but at this time they were no longer the fearsome warriors who conquered so much of the world in what we now term, the dark ages.

Ranulf de Gernan was Earl of Chester and was married to another Matilda/Maud- the daughter of the Earl of Gloucester. They seemed to have used a limited number of names at this time! I have tried to use real names where ever possible.  I apologise for any confusion.

The plague and pestilence were two terms used for contagious diseases which usually killed.  The Black Death was a specific plague which could be attributed to one cause. Influenza, smallpox, chicken pox even measles could wipe out vast numbers.  The survivors normally had anti-bodies within their blood stream.  Medicine was of little use.

The Lords of Coucy were robber barons who plagued Louis the Fat and the lands of Blois.  They were as cruel as I suggest and I have made nothing up.  Henry’s daughter and her husband, Eustace, did rebel and Henry took away their Norman lands. King Henry had to spend a great deal of his time in Normandy and the lands in England were left to Robert of Gloucester and his small coterie of friends like Sir Richard Redvers, Roger of Mandeville, Richard d’Avranches and Robert Fitzharmon. My fictional hero also fits into this category.

The ram and the stone thrower were siege engines used at this time.  Later weapons such as the trebuchet would render the stone thrower redundant. This was the time before skilled engineers such as those used by the Romans but the Crusades and warriors who had fought in the east brought back knowledge and skills in this area.

Alfraed could not have slept with the Empress Matilda- he is fictional. The Empress did become pregnant in1132 and gave birth to Henry II in March 1133. I use real events whenever I can but I write about the grey areas. Geoffrey was much younger than his wife and they did not get on.  It seemed to me possible that she would take a lover.  Ironically her son Henry II also married a much older woman- Eleanor of Aquitaine who, like Matilda, had formerly been married to a ruler.  In her case it was the King of France. My fiction is no stranger than the truth. Her difficult time giving birth to Geoffrey is true and she was near to death.

The Bishop of Durham, the Archbishop of Canterbury and William Cumin were all real people. I have filled in the back stories of all of them for the purposes of plot but the events could have happened as I describe them.

Anjou was known as Angieus in 1127 and later in the century became Angiers this became Angers. I have used the modern spelling as the twelfth century was a time of great change.

The language we now call English evolved over a long period.  For those interested in it then the book The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg is a superb read. The Ancient Celtic language was changed through the addition of not only Latin words but many from the languages of the auxiliaries who served on the frontier. The Jutes invaded, bringing their words with them and then the Angles and the Saxons. Although I call the language the natives of England speak as Saxon its name is now accepted as Old English.  Most of the functional words in English are still Old English.  When Sir Winston Churchill wrote his 'fight them on the beaches' speech the majority of the words he uses are Old English in origin. The Normans added many words to the English language and Old English became Middle English. If we had the ability to travel back in time then the Middle English of Chaucer would have appeared as a foreign language to us.  It took until Shakespeare's time for it to become closer to the language we use today.

King Stephen did indeed come to the north before Easter 1136 where he negotiated a peace treaty with King David.  The Scots gave up all that they had captured save Carlisle and in return King David's son, Prince Henry, was allowed to keep his lands in Huntingdon. Alfraed's successful campaign is fiction.

Brough Castle, like many castles in the north, were built in the early part of the Norman conquest.  Brough was built by William Rufus and was made of stone. Bowes castle was only raised by Henry II.  Until then there was just the remains of a Roman fort and a farm there.

King David invaded England on the pretext of supporting his niece.  There is little evidence to support the idea that he would have given any land back to her.  His defeat was at the hands of an army led by Archbishop Thurstan and was an alliance of friends and foes who had one thing in common, a fear of a Scottish dominated England.

Sieges at this time relied on starving to death the occupants. Wooden castles, the early motte and bailey, could be fired but a stone one with a good ditch could defeat most enemies.  The ditches they used were copied from the Roman ones. Once an enemy was in a ditch it was almost impossible to retreat.  The trebuchet was in its early stages of development and the mangonels and onagers had to be used close enough for them to be subject to archers. Rams were useful but they were not particularly robust and could be set on fire. They also needed a smooth surface.  That was not common in the twelfth century.

The Battle of the Standard happened largely the way I wrote it.  The speech is attributed to a number of people but the words were of the period.  I put them in for that reason. The Scots began the battle with 16,000 men.  They lost 12,000. The English lost but one knight. The Galwegians were described as, "men agile, unclothed, remarkable for much baldness ; arming their left side with knives formidable to any armed men, having a hand most skilful at throwing spears and directing them from a distance; raising their long lance as a standard when they advance into battle". Fifty knights were captured and Prince Henry arrived back in Carlisle with one knight only.  Only seventeen of the survivors had their hauberks as the rest had abandoned them.  King David barely made it to Roxburgh.  Prince Henry was the only one to emerge from the battle with any honour.  He and his knights charged the rear of the English lines and drove off many of the horses before fleeing. The Earl Gospatric was slain by an arrow.

The Earl of Chester changed sides on numerous occasions and might be seen as the human embodiment of 'anarchy'. He was put out that Prince Henry had been given his lands and tried to capture him.  However Stephen's wife, Matildhe of Boulogne got wind of the plot and had her husband escort the Prince home. The capture of Lincoln Castle occurred almost exactly as described in the book.  Maud, wife of the Earl of Chester and her sister in law gained entry to the castle on the pretext of visiting the constable's wife.  The Earl and three knights with covered livery arrived to bring them home.  Once inside they overpowered the guards, captured the weapons and the castle. A case where fact is stranger than fiction. The capture of the castle led to the Battle of Lincoln in 1141 and that was a pivotal moment in the Civil War. 

The Empress along with a hundred and forty of her knights was besieged by Stephen in Arundel Castle.  It was a hard castle to take but Stephen's decision to allow her to leave and join her brother has never been fully explained.  One theory was that it was an act of chivalry another that he knew he could never take the castle.  I have given my own explanation- fictional of course! Brian Fitz Count held Wallingford as the castle closest to London.  It was pivotal in the war for it gave the most forward of bases for the Empress. Sir Miles fitz Walter was a successful leader of knights and he was Sheriff of Gloucester. Unlikely as it is the Sheriff of Hereford, who fought alongside Sir Miles, was indeed called Sir Pain Fitzjohn.  I have not made the name up! Sadly the name has gone out of favour although I do know some who might merit the name!

Robert de Ferrers fought at the Battle of the Standard and was given the title of Earl of Derby as a reward.  He died in 1139 and he held the manor of Stanford. His death at the hands of the warlord is fictional.

Stephen did besiege Wallingford and attack Trowbridge but he was beaten back.  Hereford was captured by Geoffrey Talbot and Sir Miles fitz Walter.  It was the beginning of hatred between the people of Hereford and Gloucester.  The men serving Sir Miles and Geoffrey Talbot were ruthless in their prosecution of the siege.

'everywhere the townsmen were uttering cries of lamentation, either because the earth of their kinfolk's graveyard was being heaped up to form a rampart and they could see, a cruel sight, the bodies of parents and relations, some half-rotten, some quite lately buried, pitilessly dragged from the depths; or because at one time it was visible that catapults were being put up'

Gesta Stephani (This was a history written at the time of the Anarchy)

Geoffrey Rufus died in May 1141. William Cumin was the Bishop of Durham although he was never actually consecrated. His time as Bishop was not a happy one.  A writer at the time noted:
"incessantly making forages; whatever they could lay their hands on they plundered....wherever these men passed it became a wilderness. Their torments were of many and various kinds, difficult to describe and difficult to believe. Men were hung from the walls of their own howses....others...plunged into the bed of the river....everywhere throughout the town there were groanss and various kinds of deaths".

I have delayed Archbishop's Thurstan's death by a few months- I believe that old hero deserved it! Besides I needed  the delay to help my plot.  Osbert and William Cumin were both knights in the service of Prince Henry and died before 1143. The Bishop of Ely did rise up in rebellion but it was quickly snuffed out by Stephen. 

The Earl of Chester changed sides so many times during the Civil War that I find it hard to believe that the Empress and King Stephen were taken in by him.  His wife, in contrast, comes over as a truly brave and resourceful woman.  All that I attribute to her actually happened. While her husband did indeed flee Lincoln after King Stephen took the town she defended the castle until her father could come.  In many ways the Battle of Lincoln is her victory as much as anyone's.

Sir Richard D'Oyly did switch sides in 1141 handing over his father's castle to the Empress. It gave her forces a strong base closer to London and, more importantly, Lincoln. His reasons are lost in the mists of time.  This was his only contribution to history.  He died not long after the Empress left the castle.

The Battle of Lincoln occurred much as I wrote it save that it was William de Keynes who defeated King Stephen in single combat. The Welsh left was dispersed by William of Aumale and many of the power supporters of King Stephen fled early in the battle leaving Earls and knights to fight on.  Stephen dismounted most of his knights due to a shortage of horses. He fought on until his axe was broken and he was forced to surrender.

"Then might you have seen a dreadful aspect of battle, on every quarter around the king's troop fire flashing from the meeting of swords and helmets - a dreadful crash, a terrific clamour - at which the hills re-echoed, the city walls resounded. With horses spurred on, they charged the king's troop, slew some, wounded others, and dragging some away, made them prisoners.

No rest, no breathing time was granted them, except in the quarter where stood that most valiant king, as the foe dreaded the incomparable force of his blows. The earl of Chester, on perceiving this, envying the king his glory, rushed upon him with all the weight of his armed men. Then was seen the might of the king, equal to a thunderbolt, slaying some with his immense battle-axe, and striking others down.