by M J Porter
“Well, Godwine could have been sent a message, or a messenger might have been to him, from the king.” Ælfgifu had spoken defiantly, as though only now was she beginning to think about Godwine’s motivation.
“Why would the king specifically send a messenger or a message to Godwine telling you not to continue with your attempts to find allies for your sons. Why not send one directly to you? How would Cnut even know that you were doing as he asked? Why would he ask you to stop doing something that he’d asked you to do in the first place?” Leofric had tried to be compelling as he’d spoken. He’d not wanted to make Ælfgifu feel foolish but he’d also needed to ensure that she understood that Earl Godwine didn’t speak with the king’s voice. How could he? He’d not seen Cnut for just as long as everyone else in England. Only those few, such as Leofric, who’d been to Denmark, had seen the king recently.
“Um,” at last, Ælfgifu had seemed to be at a loss for words and Leofric had hoped that she’d seen the truth of his words, and accept what he was saying, that Cnut would like her to just tone down her actions a little. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be either.
“So Godwine lies to me, does he?” she’d said, rage and fury on her face. “His family have always been little more than sniveling turds and I’ll ensure he’s paid back for his efforts to undermine me.” That hadn’t been what Leofric had been hoping to hear, and neither were her next words, uttered with her eyes half-closed, no doubt as she considered how she could repay Godwine for his lies.
“I’ll ask my men in Northumbria to seek him out and ensure he pays for his interference.”
“I don’t think the king would appreciate that,” Leofric had uttered, worry colouring his voice, but again rage had filled Ælfgifu’s eyes.
“When the god-damn king is here, he can do whatever he bloody well wants, but until then he can damn well take what he’s given. And I have no intention of playing it safe with my allies. I’ve given them assurances and promises and they’ll want to see my own in motion. I must let them know that even Sheriff Leofric, the son of the great ealdorman Leofwine, has been appraised of the king’s plans.”
“My lady, I’d prefer it if you kept my involvement a secret, as would Cnut,” he’d added hopefully, already seeing all his careful plans in disarray. If word got back to the queen and to Earl Godwine that he’d been to visit with Ælfgifu, had even spoken of her with the king, he couldn’t see how he’d ever make any progress with Emma in the future and that hadn’t been part of his plan, and he hoped not of the king’s as well.
“As I said, Sheriff Leofric, when the king is back within his kingdom, he can do what he wants, but until then, I must do all I can for my sons to ensure that none forget who they are. They’ve lived in obscurity for long enough.”
Leofric hadn’t thought that they’d ever lived in obscurity but found that he had no more energy to argue with Ælfgifu. Instead he’d spoken, slowly and solemnly.
“The king asked me to seek you out and offer you my support, as well as my apology, that I’ve done and yet you’re still displeased with me. The king also didn’t give me permission to link my name with that of your son’s fortunes, but also tasked me with meeting Emma. If I’m to fulfill all of his requests, I need an assurance that you’ll not speak about this matter and link my name to it. Otherwise you’ll curb my ability to be effective for the king, and also for yourself. I’d ask you to consider that before you decide on your next course of action, and I’d also remind you that the king has every intention of both over-wintering in England, and of having Harthacnut return to Denmark. Both of those probable events should make you reconsider your own plans.” His words had been curt, his eyes hard and angry, just as the Ælfgifu’s had been, but he’d felt better for having said the words plainly instead of trying to add a sheen to them that he’d not been feeling.
Ælfgifu had never been to the king’s court, she didn’t know the damage that a mistimed word could have. He’d needed to try and make her appreciate how precarious her position, and his own, and indeed the king’s, truly were, but he’d doubted she’d listened to him. She probably needed the king before she’d consider anything, and once more Leofric had deliberated on the king’s words. He’d assured him that she’d be the sensible one to speak to, or rather, that she’d be the most reasonable.
Silence had greeted his words and he’d used it to catch his breath and truly watch her. She was a woman who’d been thwarted time and time again. In many ways she was the female equivalent of his father, only his father had been allowed to regain his position, to at least learn the frustration of serving his kings. Ælfgifu had never been given those opportunities. She’d thought she had once. She’d thought she’d been given the power and the position to both play a part in the death, or downfall of her father’s killer, but her husband had proved unequal to the task, and indeed, Cnut had abandoned her and England, leaving her alone and pregnant with the child of a man who thought he had a better claim to the English throne than her own king and his sons did.
He’d contemplated all this and tried to understand her anger and her frustration, and even her attempts to frustrate his offer of help. It’d made no little sense to him and yet he’d been able to feel some sympathy for her. She was so used to being stopped in her endeavors that hearing someone else say the words was just what she’d been expecting all along. Her determination made a lot more sense when he thought of it that way.
Her situation very much mirrored his own. They were both merely threads in other peoples lives and it seemed that they were both often forgotten about and discarded when they proved unsuitable for the forging pattern.
Still, she’d not spoken and he’d made a final effort to appeal to her.
“Your situation is much the same as my own,” he’d offered, his voice laden with the realization and also the acceptance that the words he spoke were true. “We have little part to play unless someone else allows us to have a part, and both of us are waiting for something we’ve already been promised to come to fruition. It’s frustration that guides you now.”
Ælfgifu’s eyes had been furious as she’d glared at him and he’d already been thinking that he’d failed utterly when the fury dimmed and a wry smile touched her lips.
“Look at us,” she’d exclaimed. “We both try to do what our king wants and yet most of the time he doesn’t actually know what he wants anyway and little likes to share his schemes and his plans. We’re both unwanted and yet needed all at the same time. I’m sure he’d rather he’d never married me, and yet he wants his sons to rule after him. Cnut wants everything but gives nothing in return.” In those words Leofric had heard his own anger and resentments echoed and he’d nodded in agreement. There’d been no need to speak further.
“I’ll do as you requested,” she’d simply offered, “and now I’d like to be alone and you, I believe, have a queen to mollify,” her mouth had turned down at those words and yet she’d said them with only a trace of annoyance. “You have my sympathy,” and she’d left him alone in her garden once more. He’d lingered for a moment more, watching her swaying back as it retreated inside her hall, her finery clinging to her as though the wisps of a long forgotten dream.
She was a clever woman, a discarded woman and yet, and for all her angry words, he’d found in that moment that he’d respected her, perhaps more than the queen. Whatever the king might think, Ælfgifu had treated him far more fairly than he’d ever treated her and all for promises that even now Leofric wasn’t convinced he was going to be able to keep.
He’d allowed his own mouth to turn down at the thought of facing Emma. She’d been ecstatic when he’d returned Harthacnut to her, unhappy with Gunnhilda’s removal from her care, and now he needed to tell her that Harthacnut’s days in England were also numbered, although, she did stand far more chance of seeing her son again and reasonably soon. There was a world of difference between Harthacnut ruling in his father’s name and Gunnhilda who’d be the wife of the Emperor’s son
in good time. Harthacnut would always have more freedom of movement than Gunnhilda.
He’d thought wistfully of home, of Godgifu and his son, Ælfgar, of his nephews and his brothers and he’d wished he could go to them now, forget the problems of the king and the court, but before he could do anything else, he’d needed to go the queen, face Godwine and see just what Godwine had been plotting in the king’s absence.
His final thought as he’d mounted his horse and begun the long ride to the south was that he hoped the king would soon return. Surely it was his responsibility to handle the delicate matters at the heart of his family life.
Chapter 20
AD1028
Windsor
Unsure where the queen would be spending the summer months, he sent a number of messengers on ahead of him, and was rewarded late in the evening by the return of one of them to tell him that the queen was at Windsor.
He quickly turned his horse that way, sparing only a moment to wonder why the queen had chosen the place when he’d expected her to be at one of the royal palaces close to the coast, and hoped that he’d reach her soon and would then be allowed on his way home.
He felt as though he’d been lax in his duties of late, and although his brother, Godwine, was capable of acting on his behalf in his absence, he would much rather be there in person. He also spared a thought for his wife, and for his missing friend, Orkning. He hoped that Cnut would find him soon and send him home. He’d missed him and could certainly have benefited from his advice during the last few years.
He tried to enjoy the ride through the countryside, but found he was too distracted by thoughts of Godwine’s words to Ælfgifu. He was disturbed by the realization that Godwine might have been all too aware of events in the northern lands when he’d sent Leofric to Cnut and that he’d done so on purpose so that he could approach Ælfgifu himself.
Leofric was unsure whether he would have done so of his own volition or whether he was working with the queen in this regard. It wouldn’t surprise him either way. The queen, if she’d heard of Ælfgifu’s less than gentle footsteps on the political scene, would be angry beyond words and probably would have felt some betrayal, just as Ælfgifu did. In such a state she might have welcomed the support of Godwine, even if she didn’t trust him. Anyone who watched Godwine could see that he had a magnificent future planned, believing he was now the equal of kings. Leofric wondered if his vision of the future included him as a king, somehow, or whether he simply wanted to ensure his family had the ruling family firmly at their beck and call. Leofric wondered if he plotted a royal marriage for his baby daughter such as the king had just orchestrated for his own daughter.
It seemed that everyone he knew had ambitions far above their current status, and while it was a common occurrence for men and women to buy their freedom, for coerls to become thegns, and thegns to become kings-thegns, it wasn’t quite that common where the royal family was concerned.
Æthelred II’s first wife had been the daughter of an ealdorman of Northumbria, and of course, Cnut had married Ælfgifu, the daughter of the dead successor to Æthelred’s father-in-law, it seemed that it was perhaps easier when the king married outside the noble families of England. Although, he reconsidered, as both Æthelred and Cnut had then married the same woman, perhaps his reasoning was a little flawed.
He wasn’t surprised that news of his arrival went ahead of him, but he was surprised when Earl Godwine himself came to greet him on the final stretch of the journey.
It had been a long day in the saddle, and he was looking forward to actually getting to the queen and passing on his messages from Cnut, when Godwine, accompanied by only a handful of his household troop rode to meet him as he was almost within sight of the settlement at Windsor, and about to cross the sturdy wooden bridge that crested the Thames there, held up on great lumps of stone that dotted their way through the river.
As his horse’s hooves made contact with the wood, sending loud echoes into the still day, his forward scout shouted a warning that there were others on the road. Leofric scowled into the distance, hoping it wasn’t going to be someone who’d arrest his journey and cursed loudly when he realized it was Godwine.
He really wanted to speak to the queen first and Godwine much, much later.
“My lord,” he called when he and his men were over the bridge, hoping to just shout a greeting and pretend that Godwine was about on other business, but he was not to have his way as Godwine reined his horse up right in front of Leofric’s own. He tried to keep a cheerful expression on his face but the moment he saw Godwine all he could think of was his treachery to the king, his efforts to upset the king’s first wife, and also his refusal to assist his king in his wars in his growing empire, even when expressively commanded to do so.
“Sheriff Leofric,” Godwine called back in his commanding voice. “Are you in a rush?” he asked, his eyes seeing how Leofric had tried to spur his horse to greater speed.
“Of course my lord, I come on the king’s business and would be pleased to see the queen as soon as I can.”
“Too rushed to speak with me?” he asked, his voice hardening, and Leofric tried to dismiss his frustration at the delay but was sure he failed utterly.
“May we not speak after I’ve seen the queen?” he tried once more, but Godwine had somehow surrounded his own small collection of mounted men and had effectively made it impossible for Leofric to continue without leaving someone behind.
“I was merely curious to know if you found your friend, Orkning, in Hedeby?” Leofric doubted that was the end of Godwine’s curiosity but answered all the same.
“Unfortunately, no. It’s understood that a man fitting his description has been seen heading to Norway to fight for the king. The king tells me that he’ll try and find him for me when he returns there this year.”
Godwine’s eyes narrowed as he spoke, and Leofric wished he’d offered less information.
“You’ve actually seen the king then?” Godwine asked, his eagerness impossible to mask although he tried to look as though he wasn’t interest in the answer, his eyes looking away from Leofric’s face.
“Yes my lord, I spoke with the king and the king’s sister both when I delivered Gunnhilda to their care. The king’s sister aided me in my search for Orkning.”
“And the king? He spoke to you of great matters?” Godwine almost whispered. Perhaps Godwine was wishing he’d gone to Hedeby instead of sending Leofric.
“He spoke to me of some matters, yes, not great ones, and he sent me with a message for the queen, which I would like to present to her as soon as possible.” Leofric tried to move his horse aside, but Godwine refused to move.
“Tell me the nature of the message?” he demanded, all attempts at nonchalance gone as he barked the question angrily.
“It was a personal message, for the queen, from her husband alone, not from the king,” Leofric countered, annoyance and anger at Godwine warring with his own impatience to be off his horse. He’d been at sea, and then on the back of a horse for much of the last three weeks. In that moment, he simply wanted to be home with his wife and son.
“He didn’t speak to you of his plans for Norway then?” Godwine pushed, and Leofric shook his head angrily.
“My lord Godwine, if you and your men move aside, I can reach the queen, deliver my message and then you can be appraised of everything the king and I spoke of, but as you insist on holding me up, the information must be withheld from you.”
Leofric could tell that anger hemmed his words and yet he still thought that Godwine was going to ignore him and hold him a hostage until he spoke of the king more. He waited for a five heartbeats, each time his breath coming a little more ragged, a little more irate, and then eventually Godwine moved aside, signaling his men to do the same.
“I would have preferred to know your wishes before I continued with my duties for the queen, but as you refuse to share them, and I must travel to the northern lands, I’ll simply have to wait until my
return to know how my king fares and what his ambitions are for the future.”
Leofric bite back an angry retort. Godwine wasn’t dressed for a long journey and neither of his horses held provisions on their back. Leofric knew he was bluffing, just as Godwine must have known he was doing so, and Leofric merely nodded.
“As you will my lord Godwine. I wish you a good journey and I hope to see you when you return.” With that Leofric nudged his horse forward and broke into a gallop. He didn’t look back to see what Godwine did because he knew the man would follow him home soon, perhaps with a plaintive query as to why he’d refused to indulge him with answers, but Leofric knew he’d done the right thing in denying him, and not just because the Lord Godwine infuriated him.
The king had spoken of the enemies that surrounded him in Denmark and Norway but he had no idea of the one who sat at the middle of his court in England and Leofric, on the advice of Estrid, had not spoken of Godwine. It would be for the king to decide on his relationship with the earl when he returned to England. In the meantime, Leofric would do all he could to frustrate Godwine and whatever political games he was playing. It was the least he could do.
Yet he’d not gone much further, when another group of riders was sighted. He heaved a sigh of frustration that he quickly contained when he recognised the queen herself at the front of the group of riders.
She wore light summer clothes, but a riding cape was over her shoulders as she too stopped her horse in front of Leofric.
“Sheriff Leofric,” she called in delight at seeing him and Leofric found a smile to spread across his face. He would have preferred to speak to her within her own quarters, but it seemed he wasn’t to get any of his wishes today, especially when he noticed that she had many people behind her, laden with goods and that even as he watched, a canvas tent was being erected for them to sit beneath. It seemed he’d come across the queen in a good mood. He only hoped that she continued to be as cheerful when he’d finished speaking with her.