A grieving Lady Hester, now with five small children at her side, bid her beloved husband farewell at the grave site. The gentle woman was now Baroness Hester van Weir, the new matriarch of the van Weir family. It was her responsibility to continue the reign until her eldest son grew to manhood. This delicate and cultured twenty-five year old of relatively minor noble birth had to find within herself the inner strength to keep the Droger Land independent. She knew she needed help to maintain the Duchy’s autonomy. Such assistance could only come from the common born men of her realm. Lady Hester surmised the major threat would come from the new Regent and his greediest nobles at the Royal Court in Brussels. Gathering a force capable of resisting would be difficult particularly since Lady Hester didn’t trust commoners. She felt low born men had caused her own father’s death and the same class of men had killed her husband. It was a character flaw she would carry for the rest of her life, but for the moment she knew her inner feelings had to be cast aside. She was taking command of the van Weir’s family’s domain knowing the existing political, military, and religious institutions in Holland, including the new Regent, were examining how to use her husband’s death to enrich themselves at the family’s misfortune. Such was the way of those times and their affect on even the most noble and righteous men.
After a week of grieving, Lady Hester summoned the one person whom both Lords Derick and Jacobus had trusted above all other men in the realm, the former magistrate Frances Roulfs. He had ascended from the ranks of ordinary soldiers to command all the defenses of the realm. At seventy-three, he had faithfully served four different Lords of the Droger Land in countless important capacities. As a young soldier he had taught himself to read and write in Dutch, French and Latin. When first appointed magistrate, he collected scrolls and manuscripts on law from as far away as Italy and, unlike previous judges, based his decisions on these writings rather than the bible. His accomplishments were even more remarkable considering he was the fourth son of an illiterate tenant farmer. Yet he could trace his family tree directly to a Germanic cavalryman who carried the first Lord’s Roman standard into Holland. His body had grown old and feeble in service to the family and Frances Roulfs had recently retired, but the urgent situation demanded his recall. Lady Hester knew she could count on good counsel from this wise man who had lived double the life expectancy of the era. She found his physical strength ebbing but his memory and leadership skills remained sharp. His lifetime of experiences would help prepare Lady Hester for the forthcoming intrigues she expected from the Regent’s Court. For three days, the new matriarch and the old veteran pondered the realm’s future and the fate of the ruling van Weir family. They both agreed that the most urgent need was to keep outside conspirators from entering the Droger Land. They decided that steps must be taken to politically and militarily prepare the realm for any eventuality and such measures must be carried out in secret. Francis Roulfs assured the widow that the ancient gods of the Droger Land would help her as they had helped other van Weir matriarchs.
So, the Baroness issued a proclamation of a year long period of mourning for her husband and announced she would retire in seclusion as the Duchy mourned his loss. The mourning period allowed strangers to be barred entrance to the realm. No one entered or left without permission from Frances Roulfs, her newly appointed Counselor. Soldiers were sent to establish a fortified checkpoint where the marsh’s waters met the dyke, blocking both the road and the canal that led to the coast. To the point of losing their lives, they had orders to bar entrance to anyone trying to enter. The proclamation made it impossible for spies from the Royal Court and other outsiders to detect the preparations being made. Isolation from the rest of Holland had at times been the salvation of the Droger Land’s independence in the past. Lady Hester and Frances Roulfs hoped it would be a good friend in the present situation, at least for a time.
During the first few months, the largest group of unwanted visitors to be turned away was the noble suitors. These men of noble birth were looking to improve their own fortunes by marrying the now rich widow by claiming her land and fortune for themselves. These unmarried knights from noble families came asking to pay their respects to the noble Lady van Weir, and always were refused entrance. When stopped, these men of noble birth were allowed to send a note to Hester requesting a visit, and all received the same prompt reply: “Not at this moment of mourning.” The Catholic Church sent two different delegations of clergy, one from the Bishop and one from the Franciscan Patriarch; both were refused entrance while the widow mourned in the best tradition of the true faith. The soldiers followed strict orders and denied any correspondence from churchmen. The most significant arrival at the roadblock was a representative of Count William VI, the son of the late Regent Albert, and somewhat erratic new Sovereign of Holland. The Regent’s official was carrying an official communiqué that was quickly delivered to the Baroness. It contained an offer by the Regent William IV to appoint “a well bred noble man of courage and virtue” who would manage and protect the “Domain of the Droger Land” until a son was old enough to govern. She promptly sent a warm reply, thanking the regent for his offer, but telling him her domain had hundreds of men of courage and virtue who would see to it that her children received their proper inheritance, even if it meant sacrificing their own lives. With the roadblock buying time, Lady Hester and Francis Roulfs turned all their attention to rebuilding the realm’s defenses, which had been somewhat neglected while the problems in agriculture were being resolved.
Robert Roulfs, the present magistrate and Francis’s oldest son seemed to be the logical choice to lead the military, but his father had a different idea. Jan Roulfs, his younger son, a merchant, was his choice to revitalize and command the armed forces. While both sons had helped Lord Jacobus form his cavalry unit and had distinguished themselves in battle, Jan had demonstrated the unique leadership skills needed in these uncertain times. Frances thought that his younger son was more decisive than his older brother. As a merchant, he had a grasp of the cost of weapons and would purchase them more prudently. Lady Hester appointed Jan Military Commander of the Droger Land.
The Baroness and Frances Roulfs met with Jan’s older brother Robert and informed him he was to relinquish the titular command of the armed forces he held as magistrate. At first they just told him that another was given the overall military command, but, he would in the event of war; command the forces defending the town. He was ordered to reinforce the physical defense of the realm by building a fortification where the check point stood and told it must be capable of slowing an enemy’s advance until the population could be protected inside walls. This new fortification or Keep must be built using only the limited number of skilled masons, laborers and materials already within the Duchy. He was then told Jan was picked to command. Though they feared how he might react when finding his younger brother had been appointed military commander, Robert only seemed relieved. He had thought Lady Hester might seek an outsider of noble birth to fill that position.
While Robert’s impending construction task was difficult, Jan’s assignment would be almost impossible. He needed to organize and train local men into skilled military units that could repel the forces sent by the regent or an opportunistic neighbor. He must meld the entire population’s resolve to withstand any invasion. Jan Roulfs began his assignment with but a few dozen men-at-arms and only fifty surviving archers. The loss of so many archers in Flanders was devastating, because it took nearly a lifetime to train a bowman to develop even the muscles need to draw the bow and the hand and eye coordination to hit a target at long range. Fewer young men were learning these skills as many second and third sons of farmers had left the Duchy after Derick had limited inheritance. Some of the Duchy’s most adventurous young men had become sailors or taken jobs in the shipbuilding industry on the coast. With these young men not available for service, Jan would be forced to raise an adequate force from the existing man-power, mainly farmers and craf
tsmen.
The cavalry unit became more ceremonial than functional and it too needed revitalization. Though some members were still skilled bowmen, most of the gunnes, which had proved so devastating against the Frisian horsemen were long ago discarded, lost or were in disrepair. Their inaccurate fire had made them less useful in skirmishes with local marauders. The unit needed more modern weaponry. The town’s militia also needed to be rearmed and retrained if they had any hope of repelling a full scale siege. Jan knew these changes would be costly and Hester promised whatever funds were necessary. She saved the gemstones from her wedding that were carefully stored away in the castle’s treasure room. She now placed the entire dowry at Jan’s disposal while indicating that other assets would undoubtedly be spent to keep the realm secure.
Brother Clover, who had developed contacts on the coast with his trade in dyes, was brought in to assist Jan with purchasing. The former Monk suggested that they purchase wheat grown in Holland to prepare for a future blockade. This wheat was more expensive but it could be stored longer than Baltic grain. He also suggested that they could secretly buy a small quantity of new match lock weapons and powder in local cities without attracting too much attention and other small purchases might be smuggled from England without detection. He thought staffs for spears and shafts for arrows could be acquired quietly in Frisia. Both Jan and the ex-monk felt that Germany would be the only place to acquire large amounts of more modern arms. After a number of discussions, Hester dispatched Jan to the armories of Bremen and Brother Clover was given permission to quietly purchase whatever wheat and weapons were available locally.
Lady Hester also surprised herself by gathering every document within the castle that concerned the defense of the realm. Most were written in Latin or an older Dutch language she had difficulty reading, but the Baroness was able to comprehend enough to understand what the family had done in times of crisis in the past. The gentle woman spent hours in the library reading military accounts of the past or listening to Frances Roulfs describe campaigns in which he had served previous Lords. Trusted men in the castle’s guard were told to recruit bowmen and to begin training new men-at-arms. Jan appointed a cousin to raise new volunteers for the mounted force and oversee the cavalry training in his absence. Lady Hester helped all the recruiting efforts by paying a generous stipend to all who entered the Duchy’s service.
Privately, she summoned to the castle the retired surveyor, Hans Kryk, who was teaching mathematics at the secondary school and living on a generous pension from the ruling family. Lady Hester gave him a special assignment. By that time, the once great ten-mile wide barrier of marshlands, which had always protected the Duchy from coastal invasions, had shrunk to three miles as the Duchy and its neighbor’s reclaimed land from the marsh. The old Roman canal was widened and the causeway rebuilt so many times that the accumulation of fifteen centuries of debris actually made it a solid road in some sections, but fortunately much of the three mile span was still standing above the salty marsh water. Lady Hester sent Kryk to gather information about the causeway and the area around it. The Baroness wanted to know the height of the piles and the depth of the water along the entire remaining land bridge. She also wanted to know if there were areas of firm footing in the marsh itself within arrow range of the most elevated sections. She gave the surveyor a bag of coins to pay those who regularly hunted and fished the wetlands to help gather the information. Lady Hester candidly reminded the surveyor to think about an invasion. She wanted to know, if it became necessary, where they could destroy the causeway making it most difficult to rebuild by an invading army which found itself under fire.
Jan quickly made his way to the coast and sailed for Germany. He chartered a sturdy Friesian Boyer with a captain that cared little about political turmoil in Holland. The ship had ample cargo space and a small crew he could bribe to keep his mission a secret. With good winds, the Boyer arrived swiftly at Bremen, but Jan found the available arms were less plentiful than in the past. The shortage made discrete purchases difficult and expensive. All the German Principalities were re-arming against each other and the emperor. At the same time, the German armament industry was receiving massive orders for weapons from the Kings of Sweden and Poland. Prices had skyrocketed and inventories had dwindled since his first trip with Lord Derick. On the return trip to Holland, the cargo hold of the Boyer was barely half full. He was able to purchase only twenty long barrel matchlock Harquebus’s for the infantry and less than ten of the new wheel-lock pistols for the cavalry. Worse yet, only one large cannon and two smaller ones could be purchased at any price. While helmets, shields and armor were available, he was forced to haggle for the simplest items such as spear points and arrow heads. Only at the last minute did he obtain enough kegs of black powder to complete his ship’s meager inventory. He hoped Brother Clover was having better luck locally.
Brother Clover found the purchase of grain easier than obtaining arms, yet each barge of wheat also carried something that would be helpful in the realm’s defense. A brace of wheel lock pistols or a few harquebuses, the primitive musket of that time, were always hidden beneath the grain. Brother Clover was selling Lady Linda’s gemstones a few at a time, building good rapport with a number of Jewish merchants. The Jews were more trustworthy than their competitors and some volunteered to help with purchasing arms. After a few months, Bother Clover received word that Jan’s ship had returned and the monk’s grain boats were needed to move the precious cargo. It took a month to move everything without arousing suspicion. Much of the delay was caused by the one large cannon which had a tendency to swamp the small grain barges.
As the end of Lady Hester period of mourning approached, Robert Roulfs had replaced the check-point with a strong stone Keep. From its walls, which were four feet thick, soldiers and bowman had an excellent view of the last mile of the causeway and the canal. The Keep had many narrow rectangular openings in the walls called curtains and these allowed unseen defenders to launch arrows and shot upon intruders. The fortification also provided good covering fire for the men defending a rolling oak rampart which was built to physically block the road and hide the three newly purchased cannons. The Keep was a strong position but would be vulnerable to an invader’s siege guns.
Even with new weapons, the realm could gather only about 400 volunteers to use them. Eighty skilled archers, thirty men armed with a harquebus, fifty professional men-at-arms armed with spears, swords and shields were the core of their force. These warriors were supported by another two hundred farmers and townsmen, armed with long spears and other pike-like weapons including a few hunters who owned their own firearms. The only reserve force was the cavalry unit of now sixty men still armed with their Germanic swords, some bows and an assortment of wheel lock pistols. These forces paled in comparison to what a powerful sovereign could send against them. However, the newly acquired cannons and the small arms could make a defensive battle more balanced if wet weather did not make them inoperable.
The day following Lady Hester’s year-long mourning, a large delegation of Franciscan clergy, including the Primate, arrived with a list of demands for the new Baroness. They came to insist on finally meeting Lady Hester van Weir, but the only people they met were their own priests and nuns returning on foot to Holland. It seemed the Baroness had expelled the Franciscan order that morning. Hester had decided it was time to demonstrate her resolve and she knew the unhappy Primate would carry that message to the Royal Court. Yet, not all the Franciscans left, many voluntarily renounced their membership in the order to continue teaching the children of the Droger Land and some volunteered to help defend its borders.
A few days later the Regent sent his own special envoy with an urgent message demanding the Baroness make the long trip to his court in Brussels so they could discuss his choice for protector. The note said he had a noble in mind who “He personally admired and knew was a great and noble knight who would have only her best interest
, the interest of her children, and the interest of her people in his heart” as their new Lord Protector. While the envoy waited patiently for a reply, Lady Linda wrote to nearly every noble family in the Netherlands explaining her position and asking for their support and understanding. After a host of scribes made copies, she dispatched riders to deliver her message throughout the Low Countries, and when she knew the riders were safely away, she met with the Regent’s special envoy. She asked him to first pray with her in her chapel. After praying for as long as was possible, she gave him a copy of the letter she had sent to her fellow nobles telling him it was the regent’s copy. It was not a reply the new regent expected. It read:
My Lords and ladies of Noble Birth:
As you may know my husband Jacobus van Weir, Lord of the Droger Land, and son of the Great Lord Builder Derick, was recently killed in Flanders heroically defending another noble family. The new Regent Count William VI demands that I accept a “Protector” to rule in my husband’s place.
The van Weir Family has consistently protected its right to this land for fourteen hundred years and there were many times in our family’s legendary history when the wife of a fallen Lord, like me, was forced to rule until a son came of age.
Our family and my growing children need no such protector and I fear the Regent’s next command will be to take this “Lord Protector” whoever he be, into my bed chamber, though I have vowed before God to never remarry.
Despite our military losses in Flanders, our family has hundreds of brave, trained and loyal men-at-arms willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the Droger Land and my children’s inheritance. We do not covet the land of others and will defend our beloved Droger Land till our last breath.
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