Sword of Justice

by Christian Cameron

  Dedication

  For my father-in-law, Gavin Watt;

  re-enactor, leader and historian without peer

  Title Page

  CHRISTIAN CAMERON

  Contents

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Glossary

  Map: Sir William’s Travels

  Prologue

  PART ONE – Outremer

  PART TWO – Italy

  PART THREE – Milan

  Historical Note

  Author’s Note

  Extract from Killer of Men

  Also by Christian Cameron

  Copyright

  Glossary

  Arming sword – A single-handed sword, thirty inches or so long, with a simple cross guard and a heavy pommel, usually double-edged and pointed.

  Arming coat – A doublet either stuffed, padded, or cut from multiple layers of linen or canvas to be worn under armour.

  Alderman – One of the officers or magistrates of a town or commune.

  Aventail – The cape of maille, or in some cases textile, that was suspended from a basinet or great helm to protect against rising blows to the neck. Attached by means of vervelles and laced on.

  Bailli – A French royal officer much like an English sheriff; or the commander of a ‘langue’ in the Knights of Saint John.

  Baselard – A dagger with a hilt like a capital I, with a broad cross both under and over the hand. Possibly the predecessor of the rondel dagger, it was a sort of symbol of chivalric status in the late fourteenth century. Some of them look so much like Etruscan weapons of the bronze and early iron age that I wonder about influences . . .

  Basinet – A form of helmet that evolved during the late middle ages, the basinet was a helmet that came down to the nape of the neck everywhere but over the face, which was left unprotected. It was almost always worn with an aventail made of maille, which fell from the helmet like a short cloak over the shoulders. By 1350, the basinet had begun to develop a moveable visor, although it was some time before the technology was perfected and made able to lock.

  Brigands – A period term for foot soldiers that has made it into our lexicon as a form of bandit.

  Burgher – A member of the town council, or sometimes, just a prosperous townsman.

  Commune – In the period, powerful towns and cities were called communes and had the power of a great feudal lord over their own people, and over trade.

  Coat of plates – In the period, the plate armour breast and back plate were just beginning to appear on European battlefields by the time of Poitiers – mostly due to advances in metallurgy which allowed larger chunks of steel to be produced in furnaces. Because large pieces of steel were comparatively rare at the beginning of William Gold’s career, most soldiers wore a coat of small plates – varying from a breastplate made of six or seven carefully formed plates, to a jacket made up of hundreds of very small plates riveted to a leather or linen canvas backing. The protection offered was superb, but the garment is heavy and the junctions of the plates were not resistant to a strong thrust, which had a major impact on the sword styles of the day.

  Corazina – A coat of plates, often covered in cloth, especially velvet. The difference between a common soldier’s coat of plates and a corazina is that the plates in the corazina are more carefully formed in three dimensions to provide a much better fit and better protection. The corazina is better in many ways to solid plate: it moves with the wearer. However, it is only as durable as its weakest part, the cloth covering, which wears quickly.

  Cote – In the novel, I use the period term cote to describe what might then have been called a gown – a man’s overgarment worn atop shirt and doublet or pourpoint or jupon, sometimes furred, fitting tightly across the shoulders and then dropping away like a large bell. They could go all the way to the floor with buttons all the way, or only to the middle of the thigh. They were sometimes worn with fur, and were warm and practical.

  Demesne – The central holdings of a lord – his actual lands, as opposed to lands to which he may have political rights but not taxation rights or where he does not control the peasantry.

  Donjon – The word from which we get dungeon.

  Doublet – A small garment worn over the shirt, very much like a modern vest, that held up the hose and to which armour was sometimes attached. Almost every man would have one. Name comes from the requirement of the Paris Tailor’s Guild that the doublet be made – at the very least – of a piece of linen doubled – thus, heavy enough to hold the grommets and thus to hold the strain of the laced-on hose.

  Gauntlets – Covering for the hands was essential for combat. Men wore maille or scale gauntlets or even very heavy leather gloves, but by William Gold’s time, the richest men wore articulated steel gauntlets with fingers.

  Gown – An overgarment worn in Northern Europe (at least) over the kirtle, it might have dagged or magnificently pointed sleeves and a very high collar and could be worn belted, or open to daringly reveal the kirtle, or simply, to be warm. Sometimes lined in fur, often made of wool.

  Haubergeon – Derived from hauberk, the haubergeon is a small, comparatively light maille shirt. It does not go down past the thighs, nor does it usually have long sleeves, and may sometimes have had leather reinforcement at the hems.

  Helm or haum – The great helm had become smaller and slimmer since the thirteenth century, but continued to be very popular, especially in Italy, where a full helm that covered the face and head was part of most harnesses until the armet took over in the early fifteenth century. Edward III and the Black Prince both seem to have worn helms. Late in the period, helms began to have moveable visors like basinets.

  Hobilar – A non-knightly man-at-arms in England.

  Horses – Horses were a mainstay of medieval society, and they were expensive, even the worst of them. A good horse cost many days’ wages for a poor man; a warhorse cost almost a year’s income for a knight, and the loss of a warhorse was so serious that most mercenary companies specified in their contracts (or condottas) that the employer would replace the horse. A second level of horse was the lady’s palfrey – often smaller and finer, but the medieval warhorse was not a giant farm horse, but a solid beast like a modern Hanoverian. Also, ronceys which are generally inferior smaller horses ridden by archers.

  Hours – The medieval day was divided – at least in most parts of Europe – by the canonical periods observed in churches and religious houses. Within these divisions, time was relative to sunrise and sunset, so exact times varied with the seasons. The day started with Prime very early, around 6 a.m., ran through Terce at mid-morning to Sext in the middle of the day, and came around Nones at mid-afternoon to Vespers towards evening. This is a vast simplification, but I have tried to keep to the flavour of medieval time by avoiding minutes and seconds. They basically weren’t even thought of until the late sixteenth century.

  Jupon – A close-fitting garment, in this period often laced, and sometimes used to support other garments. As far as I can tell, the term is almost interchangeable with doublet and with pourpoint. As fashion moved from loose garments based on simply cut squares and rectangles to the skintight, fitted clothes of the mid-to-late fourteenth century, it became necessary for men to lace their hose (stockings) to their upper garment – to hold them up! The simplest doublet (the term comes from the guild requirement that they be made of two thicknesses of linen or more, thus ‘doubled’) was a skintight vest worn over a shirt, with lacing holes for ‘points’ that tied up the hose. The pourpoint (literally, For Points) started as the same garment. The pourpoint became quite elaborate, as you can
see by looking at the original that belonged to Charles of Blois online. A jupon could also be worn as a padded garment to support armour (still with lacing holes, to which armour attaches) or even over armour, as a tight-fitting garment over the breastplate or coat of plates, sometimes bearing the owner’s arms.

  Kirtle – A women’s equivalent of the doublet or pourpoint. In Italy, young women might wear one daringly as an outer garment. It is skin tight from neck to hips, and then falls into a skirt. Fancy ones were buttoned or laced from the navel. Moralists decried them.

  Langue – One of the sub-organisations of the Order of the Knights of Saint John, commonly called the Hospitallers. The langues did not always make sense, as they crossed the growing national bounds of Europe, so that, for example, Scots knights were in the English Langue, Catalans in the Spanish Langue. But it allowed men to eat and drink with others who spoke the same tongue, or nearer to it. To the best of my understanding, however, every man, however lowly, and every serving man and woman, had to know Latin, which seems to have been the Order’s lingua franca. That’s more a guess than something I know.

  Leman – A lover.

  Longsword – One of the period’s most important military innovations, a double-edged sword almost forty-five inches long, with a sharp, armour-piercing point and a simple cross guard and heavy pommel. The cross guard and pommel could be swung like an axe, holding the blade – some men only sharpened the last foot or so for cutting. But the main use was the point of the weapon, which, with skill, could puncture maille or even coats-of-plates.

  Maille – I use the somewhat period term maille to avoid confusion. I mean what most people call chain mail or ring mail. The manufacturing process was very labour-intensive, as real mail has to have each link either welded closed or riveted. A fully armoured man-at-arms would have a haubergeon and aventail of maille. Riveted maille was almost proof against the cutting power of most weapons – although concussive damage could still occur! And even the most strongly made maille is ineffective against powerful archery, spears, or well-thrust swords in the period.

  Malle – Easy to confuse with maille, malle is a word found in Chaucer and other sources for a leather bag worn across the back of a horse’s saddle – possibly like a round-ended portmanteau, as we see these for hundreds of years in English art. Any person travelling, be he or she pilgrim or soldier or monk, needed a way to carry clothing and other necessities. Like a piece of luggage, for horse travel.

  Partisan – A spear or light glaive, for thrusting but with the ability to cut. My favourite, and Fiore’s, was one with heavy side-lugs like spikes, called in Italian a ghiavarina. There’s quite a pretty video on YouTube of me demonstrating this weapon . . .

  Paternoster (sometimes Pater Noster) – A set of beads, often with a tassel at one end and a cross at the other – much like a modern rosary, but usually straight rather than in a circle. The use of prayer beads was introduced to Christianity in the twelfth or thirteenth centuries, from Islam and further east.

  Pauldron or Spaulder – Shoulder armour.

  Pourpoint – a somewhat generic word in the time of William Gold. In the fourteenth century, the garment’s name refers to the piercing of the fabric during the quilting process. Raw cotton was most frequently used as the ‘filler.’ Pourpoint does not, in fact, refer to the act of pointing one’s chausses or leg armour to the garment. According to Le Pelerinage de la Humaine (1331), ‘Because the gambeson is made with many prickings (stitches), that is why it is also called a pourpoint. It is understood that a gambeson with many prickings is worth a lot, and one without these prickings is worth nothing.’ (With thanks to Tasha Dandelion Kelly at cottesimple.com)

  Prickers – Outriders and scouts.

  Rondel Dagger – A dagger designed with flat round plates of iron or brass (rondels) as the guard and the pommel, so that, when used by a man wearing a gauntlet, the rondels close the space around the fingers and make the hand invulnerable. By the late fourteenth century, it was not just a murderous weapon for prying a knight out of plate armour, it was a status symbol – perhaps because it is such a very useless knife for anything like cutting string or eating . . .

  Sabatons – The ‘steel shoes’ worn by a man-at-arms in full harness, or full armour. They were articulated, something like a lobster tail, and allow a full range of foot movement. They are also very light, as no fighter would expect a heavy, aimed blow at his feet. They also helped a knight avoid foot injury in a close press of mounted mêlée – merely from other horses and other mounted men crushing against him.

  Sele – Happiness or fortune. The sele of the day is the saint’s blessing.

  Stradiote – A Greek or Albanian cavalryman. By the late fourteenth century, Greek cavalry probably resembled Turkish cavalry; certainly by the mid-fifteenth century they were expert scouts and were practicing horse-archery. In maille or scale armour, if contemporary saint’s icons can be used as evidence.

  Shift – A woman’s innermost layer, like a tight-fitting linen shirt at least down to the knees, worn under the kirtle. Women had support garments, like bras, as well.

  Tow – The second stage of turning flax into linen, tow is a fibrous, dry mass that can be used in most of the ways we now use paper towels, rags – and toilet paper. Biodegradable, as well.

  Villein – A serf or unfree agricultural worker.

  Vedette – A cavalry scout or guard on watch.

  Yeoman – A prosperous countryman. Yeoman families had the wealth to make their sons knights or squires in some cases, but most yeoman’s sons served as archers, and their prosperity and leisure time to practise gave rise to the dreaded English archery. Only a modestly well-to-do family could afford a six-foot yew bow, forty or so cloth yard shafts with steel heads, as well as a haubergeon, a sword, and helmet and perhaps even a couple of horses – all required for military service.

  Map: Sir William’s Travels

  Prologue

  Calais, June 1381

  William Gold, knight and Captain of Venice, came down the stairs early in a plain brown cote-hardie that looked to be twenty years out of date. He paused at the common room barre and took an apple from the pewter dish that sat there, and rubbed it on his cote-hardie like an apprentice. The pot-boy, busy polishing the counter with walnut oil, nonetheless managed a full bow, as if Sir William was the King of England.

  ‘What’s your name, lad?’ Gold asked after two bites of his apple.

  ‘Which it is, William, my lord.’ The boy flushed a very unbecoming bright red that showed all the pimples on his acne-scarred young face as almost white.

  Gold smiled. ‘I’m not much of a lord, young William.’ He ate the rest of the apple in six bites, and then he ate the core as well. ‘How d’ye come to be a pot-boy, then? You look hale.’

  ‘He is a distant cousin’s second son,’ the keeper said, emerging from behind his writing table, rubbing his eyes and wondering if Sir William had been sent to encourage early rising. ‘It is a long story.’

  Gold smiled at William. ‘Can you pull a bow?’ he asked.

  The innkeeper frowned. ‘Now, see here, good sir knight. My cousin will think I have done him no favour—’

  ‘I’m naw the best,’ the boy said, cutting across the publican, ‘but I can pull me da’s bow to the mouth.’

  ‘How many times in a minute?’ Gold asked.

  ‘My lord, I can show you,’ the boy said. He had a broad back and long arms. He turned and dashed for the family stairs in the yard.

  ‘Sir William,’ the innkeeper pressed, as soon as the lad was gone.

  The red-haired knight turned and met the innkeeper’s gaze. His face wore what the innkeeper’s wife would have called a ‘man-of-business’ look. ‘What do ye pay him?’ Gold asked.

  ‘Sir knight, there is no question of payment. I have taken him to raise him to—’

  ‘No wage? Just keep?’
Gold said. His voice was light. ‘Listen, messire. If I take him, he’ll either make his fortune or be dead. It’s his choice. Saint Augustine and Aquinas are in agreement about free will, eh?’

  ‘I take it unkindly—’ The innkeeper tried to protest.

  ‘That’s too bad,’ Gold interrupted. ‘I never seek to anger any man. But that boy is wasted here, and I challenge ye: you know it yourself.’

  Young William reappeared with a bow. It was long – almost as long as Sir William. It showed evidence of both green and white paint, and its belly was as thick as a lady’s wrist.

  ‘You are from Cheshire, then?’ Gold asked.

  The boy flushed. ‘Which me da’ was,’ he said.

  ‘Your da’ served the king. Crécy?’ Gold asked, with an eye to the paint.

  ‘Aye, my lord.’ The boy strung the war bow with difficulty.

  Gold took it from him. ‘This bow was once a mighty warrior,’ he said. ‘But, like me, it has some marks of age, and I misdoubt it has anything like the pull of youth.’ He pointed it at the floor and then raised it, swiftly, like a hawk rising to a lure, and Aemilie, the keeper’s daughter, just emerging from the family stairs, stood transfixed as the bow centred on her …

  Sir William let the tension off the bow gradually. ‘Not so bad, after all. A master made this, sure enough, but it cannot go to war again. Still, show me your draw. And, demoiselle, pardon me for affrighting you.’

  ‘Sir knight, it would take more than an empty bow to affright me,’ she said.

  The innkeeper winced to hear her tone. In the eyes of a father, there was no man in God’s creation more unsuitable for his daughter’s adolescent affection than the red-haired knight.

  But she smiled warmly at young William. ‘Let’s see you pull it,’ she said. ‘Go and show Sir William, now, Bill. I know ye can.’

  Out in the yard, the boy carefully positioned his feet. Sir William had a second apple, but after a bite, he grinned. ‘There’s nothing to put strength in a man like the smile of a beautiful woman,’ he said.