Henry did not have an easy time, for Robert was back from his Crusade now, and wanted England as well as Normandy. He bought the allegiance of several of Henry’s greatest Barons with promises of lands in Normandy; and on 20 July 1101 landed at Portsmouth. On this occasion the two brothers came to terms without a battle. Henry was to keep England but pay Robert £2000 a year, and Robert was to keep all Normandy save for Henry’s own castle of Domfront. Afterwards, Henry dealt with the Barons who had turned against him; and by spring 1102 it was Robert de Bellême’s turn, and the King drove him out of one after another of his English castles, and finally overseas.
Meanwhile, the people of Normandy who had been so glad to see Duke Robert back from his Crusade, were becoming sickened by his weakness and his cruelty; and they appealed to Henry to come and take the Duchy. In April 1105 Henry invaded in force, and though he had to draw off in August, in June of 1106 he invaded again, and in September the great battle of Tinchebrai was fought, which ended all Norman resistance to the English for a long while to come.
So much for the events. For the people – most of them are real too, the greater folk anyway; de Braose and de Bellême and Hugh Goch; but not Herluin the Minstrel nor de Coucy nor Bevis nor Randal. D’Aguillon is not a real person but he comes of a real family; several d’Aguillons followed Duke William from Normandy, and by the time the Domesday Survey was made they were settled here and there throughout Sussex.
You may wonder how the Saxons and Normans in the story talk to each other so easily; but I believe that very soon after the Conquest, certainly as soon as the first Norman children born in England had begun to talk at all, they would have used one tongue as easily as the other, speaking Norman French to their fathers and their fathers’ friends, and Saxon with their nurse and the grooms and dogboys, and sometimes – for there were many marriages – with their mothers too.
The Old Faith was the faith of all Europe, long before Christ. It lasted on, side by side with Christianity, right through the Middles Ages, though by then most people had forgotten what it was, and called it witchcraft. The people who held to it believed that a God-King had to die every so often, and be born again in a new God-King, just as the year dies in the winter and is born again in the spring, and that only so could life go on. William Rufus belonged to the Old Faith, and many people still believe that he was chosen to be the ‘Dying God’ for that particular time. If so, he may have been on the whole a bad man, but he was certainly a very brave one.
Glossary
Accolade The blow on the neck that makes a knight
Alaunt A kind of hound.
Achape (of sword) The metal guard on the end of the sheath.
Coif A close-fitting hood.
Fealty Allegiance.
Fief A knight’s holding of land.
Furnish one’s helm A colloquialism: to provide one’s own horse and armour and keep up the way of life fitting to a knight.
Fyrd Militia.
Gambeson The padded tunic worn under the hauberk.
Garboil Unseemly noise and turmoil.
Guige The strap of a shield that goes round one’s neck.
Hauberk A chain-mail or scale-mail shirt.
Honour A Baron’s holding.
Jack A leather tunic.
Kirtle A shirt or tunic.
Kist A chest.
Nasal The nose-guard of a helmet.
Pricket A kind of candlestick with a little spike on which to stick the candle.
Seisin A piece of turf or a small object given in token of ownership of land etc.
Seneschal Steward and manager.
Talbot A hound.
Tithe The tenth part of the harvest etc. paid as tax to the Church.
Wolf’s head Outlaw.
About the Author
Rosemary Sutcliff was born in 1920 in West Clanden, Surrey. With over 40 books to her credit, Rosemary Sutcliff is now universally considered one of the finest writers of historical novels for children. Her first novel, The Queen Elizabeth Story was published in 1950. In 1972 her book Tristan and Iseult was runner-up for the Carnegie Medal. In 1974 she was highly commended for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and in 1978 her book, Song for a Dark Queen was commended for the Other Award. Rosemary lived for a long time in Arundel, Sussex with her dogs and in 1975, she was awarded the OBE for services to Children’s Literature.
KNIGHT’S FEE
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 17312 9
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Copyright © Rosemary Sutcliff, 1960
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