by Smith, Skye
"Perhaps you should talk to Henry about that," Gregos said softly. "From what his councilor told me, Henry was a fourth son. He was not trained as a warrior, or as a general, or as a ruler, as were his older brothers. He was sent to the church to turn him into a bishop.
He does not know how to fight battles. He does not know how to lay siege to castles. What he knows are the skills of bishops. How to outwit important men, how to gain the respect of the crowd, how to juggle many mistresses, and how to create wealth through peace, not war."
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THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith
Chapter 22 - The Longbow comes to Sherwood, Nottinghamshire in May 1067
They were woken by one of the archers from the contest. It was already midmorning and most of the fete stalls were already down and being packed into carts and onto horses. "Why are you still sleeping. You must get the girl out of Southwell." He pointed across the common. "Take the Sutone road. You have friends along the way."
They did not tarry. John had taken his displays down yesterday. They were out of Southwell within a half hour. The cartway led westward away from the River Trent. After five miles of steady trot they crossed another cartway, a larger cartway that ran north and south. On the other side of the crossroads they entered the first shade of Sherwood Forest. It was there that first heard horsemen behind them.
"It is a Norman knight and three, no four men at arms. Riding fast. Do you think they are after us?" asked John.
"Well I can't understand why, considering we threatened to burn one of their priests." Raynar wanted to hurry Abby the mare, but she was already tired and the cartway was rutted between roots. He gave the reins to Gwyn and reached under the seat for his Byzantine bow. John reached in the back for one of the smaller longbows. Well before the Normans were within arrowshot, there were two heavy arrows ready to loose and a dozen more close at hand.
They needn't have bothered. Behind them a rope sprung up out of a rut in the road and was raised to waist height and was held taught. The Norman's lead horse tripped and fell heavily across it. The two horses behind it crashed into the lead horse and went down sideways on either side. The two remaining horses pulled up hard. The knight on the lead horse had slid and rolled along the cartway and was slowly turning onto his side. An arrow flew from the shadows and drove deeply into the dirt beside his shoulder.
"You are not welcome here, Norman. Leave Sherwood and don't return," came a call from the shadows.
Raynar and John had leapt down from the cart and pulled Gwyn after them. They put the cart between them and the unknown bowman in the shadows, and peered at the knight cautiously. The two men that were still mounted had their hands held out away from their sides and open. One said "Peace, let us help our injured and we will leave quietly."
The three downed men were all having problems rising. The knight 's warhorse had a broken leg, and the knight finished it with a dagger to the eye. The other two horses had gotten up by themselves, but were favouring their legs. The Normans retreated with the three injured men on three horses, the worst of the horse unloaded, and the two uninjured Normans on foot leading them.
The knight turned to the men in the shadows and yelled, "You will pay for this," but his own men gave him a chorus of, "Shut up you fool."
Once the Normans had retreated beyond the crossroad, five archers walked out from the shadows towards them. The lead man said, "Well you lot had better get clear of Nottingham right quick. Them wus the new Norman Shirereeve's men. If they know your names you will be posted as outlaws by nightfall. "
He walked to the back of the cart and lifted the sacking and looked at what remained of the store of longbows and staves. "Of course, no one will ever recognize you by the description they will give. A giant, a beautiful fairie, and Raynar of the Peaks what killed the Ogre of Stamford Bridge, riding a pony cart filled with Welsh bows." He shouldered his Byzantine bow and held his arms out and Raynar rushed towards him. It was Rodor, the skirmisher commander from the ridge where they had killed Harald of Norway.
They pulled the cart off the road and into the deep shadows at the next path that was wide enough. The other archers covered the tracks and hid the path with branches. They took the mare, and followed Rodor until they came to a small clearing beside a stream where other men were waiting for them, including three of the archers from the standoff with the priest. From the look of them, they would all have been skirmishers who had ridden with Rodor in battle, and by now would be hoodsmen.
"In everything we do against the Normans," Rodor told them, "we appear, do the task, and disappear so that no one knows who did the doing. If you are recognized, then you will be outlawed. If you are outlawed, then your family suffers and you starve.
You broke our first rule, Raynar. You'll be outlawed. You need a plan to get far away from Nottingham, and you need a plan of what you will do when you get there. For sure, that cart goes no further. It keeps you to the cartways, and it will be watched for."
"Wait" said Raynar "What is so special about Nottingham?" The other men closed in the circle to hear.
"Well," replied Rodor, "You know what is happening in the south, the way the Normans are taking over manors and widows." Everyone nodded. "Well they couldn't do that here because word reached the manors before the Normans. The Normans were furious and blamed the church in Nottingham for spreading the word. It made them realize that they don't have enough men in the north to take whatever they want, so they are working to a different plan.
They are using the men they have to control the crossroads and the couriers. In Nottingham, the church had proven how quickly they could spread warnings, so they have replaced all the church officers and priests with Normans. One duty of the Shirereeve is to spread official messages of the courts and of the taxman throughout the manors, so they have replaced the Shirereeve and his top bailiffs with Normans. Of course they can't speak our tongue properly, so they now call him the Sheriff."
Raynar interrupted "Save for my bow, the best weapon I have found against the Normans has been learning their language, but not letting on that you know it. They speak it in front of you like it is in a secret code and say things that you should not be hearing. All you men would be wise to learn some French."
"Replacing the priests and the reeve is bad news. What are the English lords doing about it?" asked John.
"Those wastes of meat. They do nothing. They are protecting their own, and trying not to be noticed by Normans."
"But the Normans will come, eventually they will come and take the manors," said John.
"But not yet. The Normans have been losing too many knights and squires in three's and four's. You know, the ones who were sent to knock on widow's doors. They seem to be just, umm, disappearing, right boys." There were snickers around the circle and Raynar remembered how he, himself, had buried a knight and his squire in a bog. "Our lords are hoping that 'not yet' means a long time. They have too much to lose, so they are fearful of being noticed, and that has turned them into useless tits."
"And you?" asked John.
"So long as we are not recognized, we have nothing to lose. That is the advantage of the bow over the sword. You don't have to be face to face with them to kill them, so if you miss they do not know your face."
"And this camp?" asked John.
"It is our meeting place, nothing more," Rodor told him. "We all still live with our families and have work. We call this place the hanging oak, because that oak over there has been undercut by the stream and someday will fall. It is a fast walk to the crossroads, where we often keep watch."
"So you say we should go and get quickly out of the Shirereeve, I mean the Sheriff's reach. We had set out to stage archery matches all summer to spread the knowledge of these Ywen bows. " said Raynar.
"That is how we first heard of you," Rodor told them. "If we heard, then by now the Sheriff has heard, or even that rat bastard priest. It is worse than you think here. Ou
r old priest told us that the regent, Earl Odo sold the positions of Sheriff and Bishop to the highest bidders. Them that bought the seats will be hungry for silver to pay the fee.
They will be using force of arms to squeeze silver from everyone. It means there will be Normans at every fete. That archery match plan of yours was a good one, but it is no longer safe to work it around Nottingham."
John looked thoughtful and finally said, "Raynar, your cart poses a real problem. We could safely walk east to the peaks and back south through the highlands and never see a Norman, but not with that cart, and not with it's load, and maybe not even with the horse."
Raynar explained again how the real purpose of the archery matches was to spread the knowledge of the longbows, and to get the folk crafting them and using them. Not one bow for every man in one village, but one bow for one man in every village. One bow per village would become three and then thirty. Villages would no longer be at the mercy of mounted Normans. "Does anyone else want to continue the work?" he asked. There were no volunteers.
Rodor explained, "They would become a known face. It would end badly, as did yours. You were lucky to get out of Southwell. For now, well, there is a hide here, a cave behind the oak. The bows and staves could stay in the hide and we could spread them through the villages a few at a time to men who we trust."
Raynar immediately said, "Agreed. You are all welcome to find homes for these bows, but try to get them to the bowyers first." Everyone nodded. "Does anyone have a use for the cart, not the horse, just the cart." A man across from him waved. He could make a living from it. "It is yours. I have a bill of sale for it and I will assign it to you."
He turned to John. "John, will you see Gwyn safely back to the glade?"
"You know I will Raynar."
"You may have to stoop to look smaller, and she may have to dress like a child or a boy, at least until you are away from Nottinghamshire."
"We can work it out," replied Gwyn, "I take it you aren't coming with us."
"It is too dangerous to stay together. I have Abby and I have a saddle. I am off to find Hereward in Burna."
Rodor saw the frustration on Raynar's face. "So your idea for spreading bows was short lived. So what. You did not fail," said Rodor kindly, "You have brought knight-killer bows to Sherwood Forest, and the Norman's will hate you forever for your gifts to the men of Sherwood on this day."
THE END of Hunting Kings
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The Hoodsman - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13 Revision 4
Be sure to watch for the next in the series: The Hoodsman - Frisians of the Fens