The Dutch

by Richard E. Schultz

  After this battle, there were no daylight attacks on the Romans and their advance gained speed. Instead the enemy tried more insidious means to turn the advancing army around. The Ingvaones often set fire to the dry grass of the marshlands or placed sharpened oak stakes below the waterline in finished sections of the canal. While a few Roman soldiers suffered burns and two supply barges were sunk when impaled, the Romans continued to advance at a relentless pace and the struggle continued. The enemy tactic that the ordinary legionaries feared was the nightly raids when small groups of painted tribesmen would carry off an unfortunate sentry. Each loss of a friend enraged comrades who only pushed harder to reach the objective and hopefully free them. Thoughts of revenge drove the Roman soldiers and sailors to an almost super human effort and by the end of the fifth month of the campaign the Droger Land could be seen in the distance.

  That same night, an old heavily bearded and unkempt man, accompanied by his pretty teenage granddaughter approached the Roman position in a canoe. He asked for a parley with the commander. The old man’s name was Flocenwal, a Shaman from the original tribe that claimed to have settled the Droger Land at the time of creation. His tribe was in constant warfare over the past few decades, first fighting the traditional Frisian enemies, then the Roman invaders, and more recently decimated by their fellow Ingvaones. These “brothers” had come to the Droger Land as refuges of the earlier Roman conquest seeking asylum. They soon became brigands, eventually turning on their hosts and killing the tribe’s few remaining young men.

  The Shaman claimed it had been his gods who sent the great wave earlier in the campaign. Flocenwal prophesied to the general that the Spirits of the Droger Land would allow his conquest and grant him and his heirs the power to rule the land for eternity, if the general granted mercy to the surviving members of the Flocenwal clan, and more importantly, if the general pledged wise stewardship over the blessed place. With a bit less spirituality, Flocenwal promptly informed the general that his army was nearing two secret pathways beneath the water, worn hard over the centuries by the feet of his clan and their pack animals as they gathered salt from small deposits in the marsh. Each narrow path would bear the weight of a man or a horse and would lead to the mainland’s dry ground near, but out of sight of, where the tribesmen planned to oppose the causeway’s final connection to the Droger Land. Claudius Abraham Weir committed only to sparing the lives of Flocenwal’s clan in exchange for the information.

  It had taken nearly six months for the waterlogged, weary and mean-spirited Roman army to finally draw within arrow range of the enemy occupied Droger Land. A relatively short distance away, on the shoreline, stood a marauding, painted mob of brigands. There were thousands of them brandishing weapons and screaming obscenities across the last strip of marshlands that separated the two armies. The Ingvaones and their allies clearly outnumbered the Romans. The general knew, by the huge numbers and the variety of colors used to paint their bodies, that the brigands were reinforced by other tribesmen who felt some grievance toward Rome. On a hilly dune directly behind the rabble a giant blazing bonfire was set where it could be seen by the Romans. One by one, a dozen helpless and bound Roman comrades, captured during the night-time raids, were flung into the blazing fire and burned to death to the delight of the frenzied mob. Claudius Abraham Weir and his army could only watch helplessly. He ordered the prisoners who dredged the canal brought to the end of the causeway and had each one decapitated. A hundred severed heads were catapulted into the howling mob, while the general gave his commanders their final instructions for the next morning’s assault.

  Immediately after sundown, the Romans laid narrow strips of weighted planks under the water, connecting the causeway to the paths that Flocenwal had disclosed. The general’s Germanic cavalry of two hundred, armed with bows and their trademark swords, were the first to reach dry ground and make their way undiscovered to the top of the sandy hill behind the tribesmen. One veteran cohort of infantry from the Tenth Legion used the other path to secure another foothold, also undetected and out of sight of the assembled brigands. Just before dawn the Roman engineers finished work on a pontoon bridge made from the captured canoes. They had almost made the final connection to the mainland when they were forced to fall back under a hail of missiles from the Ingvaones.

  Suddenly, the rear ranks of the Ingvaones began to wither and fall from a barrage of arrows from the top of the hill. Hundreds died before the multitude could turn one hundred and eighty degrees and begin using their shields for protection. Even then, the cavalry’s arrows continued to inflict causalities among the bunched tribesman. In a rage, most of the multitude charged up the hill, but the cavalry withdrew and the tribesmen who arrived at the top of the hill became spectators in the battle with no one to fight. From the hordes new position on the top of the hill, they could no longer offer any resistance to the engineer’s second and successful attempt to complete the pontoon bridge.

  The reduced enemy force on the beach, in front of the now connected causeway, faced an unexpected attack on their flank by the veteran Roman cohort that had secretly arrived using Flocenwal’s second path. The first flight of the Roman’s javelins took a tremendous toll on the surprised tribesmen. In the confusion, the advance column of main body of legionnaires advanced over the completed bridge and assaulted the center of a thinning line of defenders, who were now being attacked for a second time by the Germanic cavalry who had reappeared on the opposite flank. The carnage caused by the ferocious mounted Germans, now wielding their swords spread fear and confusion among the Ingvaones and sent many fleeing up the hill and panicking those already standing idle at its top. All retreated toward the town. The flight quickly became a rout as more and more Romans crossed over the bridge and arrived on the beach. The tired but highly motivated and well conditioned Roman veterans had little trouble overtaking and killing many of the tribesmen who were attempting to flee. They pursued the majority of the brigands to the town’s gate which when closed provided their enemies only temporary salvation.

  The small town was quickly surrounded and Roman engineers began building fortifications that protected the Romans, and closed any possible avenues of escape. The tribesmen were now trapped within the wooden walls of the town. The sheer number of Ingvaones packed inside such a small town, which held few provisions this late in the growing season, made a long siege seem unnecessary and was a situation tailored for a fiery revenge. The General had already decided to annihilate the town. For two days newly captured prisoners gathered combustible materials and placed them against the town’s walls. On the third day, Roman catapults and batistes’ shot an assortment of flaming missiles onto the thatched roofs of houses inside while the gathered flammable debris against the wooden walls was set afire. Within a short time, the entire town was a continuous sheet of flames and by nightfall little existed but ash. The Ingvaones forced to flee the flames were either killed or captured by the Romans.

  The victors systematically searched the rest of the island for Ingvaones, killing or capturing nearly everyone they encountered. The general kept his word and spared the survivors of Flocenwal’s clan though some were unintentionally killed. The victorious Roman troops were allowed to rape and plunder the length of the Droger Land, keeping any valuables they found. They felt the most valuable items were the pretty young women. Those young women, some with small children, were allowed to roam freely once the raping had subsided, but the other prisoners were bound and quickly shipped to the coast to be sold as slaves. After a week of rampage, the soldiers were put to work harvesting the captured fields of wheat and barley. Once the food had been collected and properly stored, the real work of Romanizing the Droger Land was begun.

  On a high hill near the center of the inland island, the Roman engineers constructed a huge stone building that eventually stood four stories above the land. It was surrounded by a ten foot high stone wall which was nearly as thick as it was high and provided protec
tion for what became General Weir’s residence. At each end of the Droger Land, the engineers built strong stone watchtowers which could be defended by a few determined men able to alert the others to danger by lighting a signal fire. Two new roads linked the main fortification and the watch-towers. Within the walls of the residence, the conquerors erected an assortment of Roman style buildings, including a bath house, grist mill, furnace and barracks. After a year of peaceful occupation, the Tenth Legion’s Commander demanded that General Weir return the five cohorts used in the campaign.

  Claudius Abraham Weir, though a more successful and better known general following the conquest, was thirty-five years old and looking for a more peaceful and plentiful life. The wonders of the Dry Land, along with the strong natural defenses of the surrounding wetlands captivated him. He knew the blemishes to his family name would always hinder his advancement in the military despite his successes. Yet the conquest of the Droger Land had given him the unique opportunity to create his own special place for himself and his future generations. He decided to keep this wondrous domain he had won by right of conquest; he would accept Flocenwal’s pact with the spirits and become the land’s good and noble steward. Claudius Abraham Weir decided to become the first great “Lord of the Droger Land” and felt confident his future descendants would rule this land forever as the ancient gods had ordained. Shortly after reaching his decision, he married Flocenwal’s sixteen year old granddaughter, knowing the pretty and healthy young girl would provide him with many children. He hoped the marriage would appease the local gods forever linking him closer to the original creators of the land. His decision was easily made because the girl was beautiful, intelligent and had a bloodline which descended from chieftains. Because of his protection, the girl was one of the few maidens not violated by his rampaging army.

  At the general’s invitation, some soldiers recovering from wounds, decided to remain with him. Many chose one of the captive women as a wife. Some of his surviving Germanic troopers, such as his standard-bearer, pledged fidelity to him as lord and stayed, but most rode away, returning to their own families on the frontier. The Germans who stayed used their plunder to purchase wives from the closest ethnic Germanic tribes in the east. All received generous plots of the fertile land and were required to build Roman style farm houses across the landscape. Five years later, when the Tenth Legion’s twenty year term of enlistment expired, some released veterans returned to settle the land they helped conquer and they too pledge fidelity to their new lord and former commander. All were part of a departing army which performed, without orders, one essential task for their general. It was a farewell present to a commander they had grown to respect. As they left to re-unite with the tenth legion, those five Roman cohorts took it upon themselves to dismantle part of the causeway and refill several sections of the canal. No Frisian or even Roman army on the coast would easily invade the general’s new domain. It was a departing gift of security given to a commander they admired. The future Lords of the Droger Land would inspire similar loyalty from the men they would lead into battle.

  The early Lords of the Droger Land benefited from the cultural diversity of their kingdom in the first few hundred years of their reign. The Romans, Germans, Saxons, Frisians and Ingvaones intermarried and created a robust founding population and the ruling family made a crucial decision, early on, to forbid slavery within their realm. Blessed with an abundant food supply, the residents of the Duchy became physically stronger and healthier than the Sand Frisians on the coast or their Saxon neighbors in the hinterland who had a much more difficult time feeding their populations. From these varied ancestries, the residents inherited an assortment of weapons and military strategies that helped them survive brutal encounters with the coastal Frisians and less frequent attacks, thanks to the Great Swamp, from the Saxon tribes in the interior. They first defended their land wearing traditional Roman plated armor and metal helmets. Their Germanic style bows could fire arrows further and faster than any similar weapon used by adversaries. In their furnaces, they could replicate the Saxon long knives and Ingvaones throwing axes that gave them terrible weapons in close-quarter combat. When defending the homeland, they also could rely on mounted warriors who descended from the original cavalrymen who remained forever loyal to their commander’s descendents. The few times when enemies bridged the wetlands and reached the firm terrain of the Droger Land (they arrived on foot because of the challenges of transporting horses through the barriers of marshes and swamps), they were met by a well armed and well organized resistance, which relied on a substantial number of these fierce mounted warriors. In the quieter time between brutal conflicts, the inhabitants persistently improved their weaponry and fortifications.

  In the third century, as the power of Rome began to decline, the threat came not from invading armies but from small groups of raiders who crossed the marshlands in larger versions of the flat bottom canoe. The original Roman fortifications became important places of sanctuary. The Lord’s residence was expanded by the addition of a gate house and an outer curtain containing stone towers. The fortifications were only temporary havens; eventually the men of the Droger Land fought one-on-one, hand-to-hand battles to evict trespassers. In those times, warfare was a small group of men from the Droger Land, some mounted, fighting other small groups of men on foot. The best fed, equipped and trained warriors usually won these encounters and each of the early lords made sure the men of the Droger Land were well prepared. Every farmer or craftsman was trained in weaponry and the head of every family was expected to pass along his particular talent with weapons to his sons. During the winter months, men perfected their individual fighting skills and learned to coordinate those skills in battle. The bow evolved early on as the most important weapon. To become a skilled archer meant lifelong training. This training was supervised by the Lord and by the most skilled warriors, known as the Lord’s men, many who bore the Roulf’s surname and were descendants of the Germanic standard-bearer who remained with the first Lord. A few full time soldiers secured the doors to the keep and the two watchtowers that guarded the front and back door of the domain that enemies usually favored when attempting to gain a foothold.

  To survive these dangerous times, the early Lords of the Droger Land had to be more than just brave military leaders. Each early patriarch had to be a wise person with good survivor skills that excelled in making the best choices under the worse conditions. They treated their subjects fairly and kept them loyal and satisfied. Every freeman within the reign had the right to petition the Lord for regress on even trivial matters and they often did. Each Lord carefully rewarded meritorious service and his family shared the burden when the population was asked to sacrifice during difficult times. Those early lords of the Droger Land understood their strengths and vulnerabilities, and nurtured a good relationship with less prosperous but more powerful neighbors. The Droger Land’s isolation, military strength, and the availability of surplus food production for barter, allowed the rulers to manipulate their fate. Those early Lords were intelligent and congenial leaders who could keep friends or reach accords with enemies. They understood that there were times when family pride had to be swept aside and tributes paid or marriages arranged with the more powerful entities in the region. The ultimate goals of each patriarch were the survival of an independent Droger Land and the Weir family, and not necessarily in that order. The early lords maintained the wetlands as boundaries that became well recognized by neighbors.

  The wives of the early rulers were just as driven as their husbands in this quest for longevity. Toritla, the young girl who became the wife of the first lord, develop into a role model for future matriarchs. She entered her marriage as a somewhat frivolous and flirtatious young girl of sixteen who openly bragged she slept each night with her hand cupped around her husband’s private parts. It was said, when the marriage was being arranged, she had promised through intermediaries to please the Lord’s physical needs in many uniq
ue ways. She sometimes kept that pledge, in full view of the many retainers, who shared the main hall of the keep where everyone slept at night. At the time, privacy was an unnecessary luxury when weighted against security and limited space. At her husband’s request she began to bathe frequently. At first, it meant strolling naked to the bath house as her tribal ancestors would have done. Eventually her husband suggested more modest attire and provided thin and expensive stolas to cover her nakedness; soon he adorned her body with gold and silver jewelry and she began styling her hair in the Roman fashion to her husband’s delight. She truly loved him and at times treated him as if he were a deity. Toritla bore him five children who reached adulthood and she held her husband’s sole fancy until his death. He died, not on the battlefield, but in her arms after suffering a heart attack during a midday meal. Toritla became her husband’s closest confidant and a power unto herself. She became fluent in all the languages spoken within the realm and because of this fluency of language it was Toritla who usually negotiated the disputes that arose among the different ethnic elements. One well known and notable decision regarded untidier farm animals. While ethnic Roman farmers kept their livestock penned, the Germans allowed their domestic animals to run free, sometimes damaging their neighbor’s crops. She settled the disputes by allowing only horses to roam free, because they were important to the defense of the realm, while requiring all other domesticated animals, such as cattle, goats, sheep and pigs to be fenced or penned for the tranquility of the realm. Toritla had her husband declare the Winter Solstice a time of religious celebration, where the population would gather and give homage to Verthus the Earth Mother. Verthus was a Saxon deity that was common to most ethnic groups. The annual event became a celebratory feast which lasted many days. Those common festivities brought unity to the diverse residents. It was Toritla who introduced the first official May Day celebration to thank Verthus for the return of spring and the end of winter.