by Griff Hosker
By the time we reached the exit of the tower, men were already pulling on the ropes to drag the tower back to safety. There were no bolts coming our way for a pall of smoke was blowing from the pyre that was the Polish tower and the fighting platform. We could hear orders being shouted as men who should have been fighting us were fighting the fire. The Earl did not pull on a rope but I did. I had been raised by Old Tom to work and not to shirk. The Earl had grown up as a pampered prince. The Swedish tower reached our lines first. I saw the Swedish commander kick the rollers. It had not been a lack of courage which had prevented the Swedes from attacking it was faulty war machines. My choice had been vindicated.
In the time it took us to return to our lines the fire on the fighting platform had been doused. The walls would need some repairs and I suspected that they would have to renew the fighting platform but it made no matter. With just two towers remaining to us we could not assault the weakened wall. By the time we had rebuilt a tower then the wall would have been repaired. The attack was a failure. The priests hurried forward to tend to our wounded. Edward had a gashed leg. He had been luckier than the Teutons who had died on the wall. Even as we looked back to the walls, we saw their heads displayed from pikes.
I had John and Ralph take my armour from me and I stripped off my mail. I smelled of fire and blood as well as sweat. I turned to Roger, “Well done, Roger. That was bravely done.”
He laughed, “No braver than you, lord. A man will follow a knight into hell so long as the knight leads.” I saw the Earl and Sir Robert turn. They were listening.
My archers returned and I thanked them for their efforts. They had saved us losses. The burning Polish tower had taken half of the men within it to their deaths. The rest would be broken men. Some would be burned and others would have had the horror of seeing comrades ignited like candles.
My men and I were a tight band of brothers and we set to organizing food. We had worked hard. We had lost none and we were hungry. The Earl and his knights, none of whom had fought, sought solace in a jug of wine. They had been shaken by what they had seen. They had lost a knight and they saw their own mortality. I was glad that I had forewarned them.
Sir Bengt came to join us. He shook his head, “That was a bloody business. Do towers ever work? As far as I can see the advantage remains with the defenders.”
“They do work, Sir Bengt, but they need to be coordinated with attacks up ladders and there should be at least ten of them to spread out the defenders. The army needs more archers. I am guessing that we lost fewer men than the others because we had archers supporting us.”
“Perhaps. And now I must report to the Hochmeister. This was not the result he expected.” He left us, followed by his squire. His squire’s cloak had been blackened by the smoke from the burning walls. He had been lucky. We had all been lucky. Had the cauldron fallen the other way then we would now be burned, as would our tower.
Ralph brought me a bowl of food and sat next to John as we ate. “Is every battle like that, lord?”
“Thankfully not. When we ride horses to war there is more control. We can use our skills. On the walls of a town or castle, there is little room and skill does not count. It is the desire to live and to kill which is the difference. Do not worry, Ralph, you will not be risked on the walls. Your father wants you to learn how to be a warrior. He does not want me to return him a corpse!”
Sir Bengt did not come back to us that night. We set our guards and retired. The Earl had been in a reflective mood. Even his remaining minstrels could not rouse him from his stupor. I had said nothing to him for there was nothing to say. We had nought to feel good about. Each of us would look inwards. This would either make or mar the man who would be king.
When I woke, the next morning, I wondered if we would be ordered to attack again. I had told the Earl’s knights that it was unlikely but I did not know our new masters. After I had eaten and while we waited for the Earl to rise, I went, with Ralph and John, to the horses. They had now fully recovered from the voyage and the three-hundred-mile ride here. If we were not needed, I decided that we would take my men and ride forth.
Ralph had groomed both Jack and Blaze the day before. He knew horses, “These are good mounts, lord, and you have schooled them well.”
“I take that as a compliment coming from the son of one whose father is now a horse master. I learned my craft in Spain where I looked after the horses of your father’s company. The land there is not like England. It consumes horses. If you did not look after your mounts you went afoot and few afoot would survive.
Geoffrey, the Earl’s youngest squire came running towards us. “My lord, you are needed. The Grand Master approaches.”
My heart sank as we hurried back. This did not bode well. Where we to be berated for our failure or were we required to attack again? I saw that the Hauskomtur and his lieutenants were approaching our camp as well as representatives of the Swedes and the Poles. It looked like a delegation. “Ralph, keep out of the way. This is the high and mighty we meet.”
The Earl had been warned of the arrival and he had donned a fresh surcoat. With Edward wounded it was Geoffrey and Henry who tended to his needs. They waited in close attendance. The Hochmeister spoke English but I suspected the others did not and so Sir Bengt translated. He directed all of his comments at Henry Bolingbroke.
“Earl Henry, the Hochmeister is here to thank you personally for the valiant way you prosecuted the attack yesterday. The fact that we nearly ended the siege of Vilnius is down to you and the Teutonic Knights who followed you.”
The Earl beamed. He loved compliments. The fact that he had not actually led mattered not, he had achieved that for which he came to Lithuania. He had made a name. He was seen as successful.
“Thank the Hochmeister. We all serve God and I am just sorry that we did not succeed. I pray you tell the Polish representatives that I am sorry that they lost so many knights.”
It was the right thing to say and it met with the approval of all.
The Grand Master spoke at length. Sir Bengt nodded and began, “We are going to have four more towers built. This will take time. Before winter descends, we would have all of our knights ride forth and chastise the heathens. They will either be converted or they will be taken as slaves. The men will be slaughtered and the women sent to Königsberg to be shown the error of their beliefs. Earl Henry, the Grand Master asks you to ride north and ravage the lands around Ukmergė. It was thought that the town had converted to Christianity but priests were found murdered and the Hochmeister and King Jogaila wish you to be the instrument of their punishment.”
“I am pleased that we can serve both the King and the Order.”
Wine was brought and the great and the good celebrated as though we had won a victory. I was cynical enough to see why. The previous day had been a disaster. They were now turning it into a kind of victory. With winter coming I did not think that the towers would be built in time and they could not be used before the spring. We were being used to punish Ukmergė so that neither the Teutonic Order nor the Poles were tainted with its destruction. The other knights stayed with the Earl enjoying the wine. I left, with John, to tell my men of our next task. They were gathered around a fire. The archers had recovered some arrows and were fletching them. The sergeants had also recovered weapons from the field and were repairing them. One dagger and an extra short sword were useful additions to any warrior’s armoury but my men liked as many weapons as they could get. John Bowland had a double scabbard over his back and had two swords he could use. The extra weight was minimal and, as he said, his back had extra protection.
I told them the news. “We raid.” They nodded and waited. “It is to the north and we are going to destroy a town. It was thought they had converted but, apparently, it was merely a trick. We are to take the women and children captive for conversion and kill the men.”
My men did not mind fighting men but women and children were something different. Roger of Chester looked
at the other men and archers, “Hurting women and children does not sit well with us, my lord.”
I nodded, “I know and we will not. We came here to convert the heathens. These have had one chance to do so in their own land. We will take them and others will transport them to a town where they will be schooled and taught to love God.”
That seemed to satisfy my men. Alan of the Wood asked, “How far away is this town, my lord?”
“I confess that I do not know. I know that it is north of here and I got the impression that it is not far away.”
“I only ask for we will need to forage. The Earl’s men are hardy enough fighters but none have campaigned abroad. They seem to expect for food to fall like manna from heaven.”
“There will be food in Ukmergė. We are supposed to destroy it but I would want to be in a town when winter comes. From what I have learned winter is harsh here. We are ill prepared to be out of doors when it begins to bite. I know not when we leave but I trust you all to be ready to do so.”
They nodded and Harold Four Fingers grinned and said, cheerfully, “By my reckoning, lord, we have served more than a month and a half already. That means just over four months until we set sail again and return to England! Hopefully, we will all bring booty and treasure back from this town I cannot pronounce!”
I laughed, “And I think that the Earl will share your sentiments. He has achieved that which he wished. Ukmergė may be just the gesture we need to have served our purpose and for us to leave here with honour.”
Roger asked, “Honour, lord?”
I smiled, “Not ours, the Earl’s!”
Chapter 7
By the time I returned the delegation had left and Sir Bengt and the Earl were talking. The Earl frowned, “Where did you go, William? The Hochmeister wished to speak to the knight who began the fire. I told him it was you.”
“The victory was yours, lord. I went to speak with my men. They need to prepare for this raid.”
He waved a hand, “There is no need. We have a whole seven days to prepare.”
“Is that not seven days for the people of Ukmergė to prepare their defences, lord? They must know they will be punished for slaughtering priests.”
“Perhaps, but there are no city walls. The town merely has an old hill fort as a refuge. What can they do?”
A week later as we approached the town of Ukmergė, in the late afternoon, we saw what they could do. They had built a palisade around their town. They had dug a ditch. They were prepared. They had been warned of our advance. Although Alan and his archers killed four scouts, as we moved towards the town, there were others that they had not seen. They knew we were coming. My men had done their best but this was not their land. As we neared it, we saw that they had men behind the palisade. The hill fort had been manned and they had built a tower and a gatehouse. None of the defences were daunting but we would still have to take them. This time I was determined not to offer suggestions to the Earl. He would never become his own man if he relied upon me and my ideas. His delay in starting out had already cost us.
He turned to me, “Well, William, what do you think?”
“I think that we have delayed too long and now we will have to assault prepared defences. We will lose men.”
His eyes narrowed. He pointed to the wooden palisade, “That is not a stone wall. It is a series of small trees driven into the ground.”
“And that, my lord, can still stop us. We have to clamber over it. They can use spears, axes, stones, swords, daggers and all manner of objects to strike us while we clamber over.” I gestured with my right hand towards the wall. “Every part of the wall is manned. They may not have mail but they are willing to fight and I am guessing that there will be two men waiting to take the place of each one which falls.”
He turned to look again at the town. When he looked back at us, I saw that he had seen the truth of the matter. “Then let us make camp here before their gates and hold a council of war. I am certain that we can devise a plan which will take it.”
He was learning, albeit slowly.
We had horses and we did not need to surround the town. Our horsemen could stop any who tried to leave. We were not going to besiege it. Our purpose was to destroy it and its men. However, as a precaution against us being surprised, I had my men dig a ditch and line it with sharpened stakes. It would not stop an attack but it would deter one. I called Alan of the Wood over. “Alan, could our arrows harm the men on the palisade?”
“Aye, lord. It would be expensive in terms of arrows but we could clear it.”
“Good. Hopefully, we will find another way to attack for I hate waste but better we waste arrows than lives.”
“Amen to that, lord.”
“Have fire arrows prepared. Did we bring any?”
“We have twenty cage type arrows and we could make bag and resin ones.”
“When time allows, make some.”
We lit fires closer to the enemy walls so that any foray into our camp would be spotted. I joined the knights with the Earl. He had not yet learned to include his captains of archers and sergeants at arms.
Of all of his knights, Sir Robert had changed the most. He and Sir Walter had been close. His friend had died and it had been a warning. Sir Robert had been the one to listen to my words. It was he who spoke. “It would be reckless, my lord, to risk our horses.”
“That goes without saying, Robert.” There was a hint of impatience in the Earl’s words. He would have to learn to curb it or his men would not make suggestions.
“My point is, my lord, that means attacking on foot and, as Sir William has pointed out, they have the walls manned all around.”
“And?”
“And that means that our best opportunity would be to advance and attack on foot and do so at night. They are used to fighting knights who wear white tunics and cloaks. We do not. We will be harder to see. They will have crossbows but sending a bolt at a shadow in the dark may not yield results.” He pointed to me. “Sir William showed us that in conditions of poor light we have an advantage when fighting crossbows. We use our shields to cover us when we advance. We hack a hole in the palisade and pour our men through.”
I liked the plan for it was well thought out. I saw the Earl mulling over the idea. “We cannot attack tonight.”
I smiled, “And when we do not, they will think that we intend to siege. If we have men cut down a couple of trees tomorrow it will add to the illusion that we are going to build war engines.”
“What do the rest of you think?”
Sir Richard smiled. He was the youngest of the knights. “We are all fighting a war for which we are ill-equipped, lord. We have been trained to fight from horses against knights. Any idea which is suggested will be better than the empty void in my head. I think Robert’s plan might well succeed and it is worth a try.”
And so it was decided. We made a camp which gave the illusion of a siege but, during the day, while men cut down trees, we rested ready for the assault. I advised against attacking the gate. It was where they would expect an attack. Instead, we chose a place four hundred paces to the east of the gate. The Earl decided to use half of the archers to send fire into the town while the other half covered us. We all knew that fire arrows were erratic but they caused fear when they were falling on homes. I had had the foresight to have Alan ready arrows. The Earl did not think about logistics. If he thought it then it would happen! The attack on the wall by the men with axes would be noisy and so the flaming arrows would, we hoped, draw men to the opposite side. Alan of the Wood was confident that, in the dark, they could outrange the hunting bows, slings and crude crossbows of the town. The caged arrows were good but Alan was able to use resin from the pine trees to make bag fire arrows which were slightly more reliable.
My men and I slung our shields across our backs. Ralph had wanted to attack with us but I asked him to join the archers covering our attack. He seemed happy about that. Edward, the Earl’s squire, took charge of the fifteen
men who would guard the camp. It included priests, pages, minstrels and the warriors who had been wounded in the attack on Vilnius. As darkness fell, we gathered. We were in three groups. I led my men, Sir Bengt, his squire and his two sergeants. The Earl led the knights and half of the men at arms. Geoffrey led the remaining men at arms. With less than seventy men it was not a huge number to attack a town with over four hundred men inside. However, they were townsfolk and we were warriors. If we could not defeat untrained farmers then we ought to have stayed in England. Behind us came three groups of archers: eight in each group. They would hit any who moved on the walls.
Alan led the fire archers. He would be on the far side, well away from us. I trusted his judgement. We crept to within a hundred paces of the walls. Sir Bengt had borrowed Edward’s cloak and surcoat. His squires and sergeants had also borrowed darker clothes. We would be invisible. When I could not see the Earl, who was fifty paces from me, I led my men forward. The ditch had been dug and seeded with lillia, sharpened stakes. Had we been rushing then there might have been a danger of injury. Going as slowly and carefully as we did, we were able to see and avoid them. Suddenly the sky to the west of us flared with light as the fire arrows were launched. A bell sounded and men began to move. I heard the twang of arrows as the archers who were with us hit the men on the walls. We made our way through the sharpened stakes and clambered up to the wooden wall. Geoffrey of Gisburn and John Bowland took their axes and began to hack at the timbers which held the palisade together. The Lithuanians had failed to seal the gaps for they had erected it in haste, and the axes began to gouge holes in the wood. A body crashed to the ground just a couple of paces from me. He had an arrow in his chest. I swung my shield around for it would not be long until the timber defence was breached. The fire arrows had sown confusion. Those inside knew not whence the real attack would come. When the two pieces of wood on either side of the wooden timber we had hacked were broken Edgar and Wilfred pulled at the wood and wrenched it free. There was a gap and I stepped through. John and Natty followed me. We had a foothold.