Getting the money will be easy, Alexios assured the crusaders, because the people love his father and were very upset when his uncle replaced him in a palace coup. The presence of a strong crusader army outside the city walls, he convinces Boniface, will quickly result in a reverse coup that puts his father back on the throne and in control of the great hoard of gold and coins in the treasury.
"It's a huge treasure and you'll get it all," Alexios promises them. He even signs a contract guaranteeing that the crusaders will get it as soon as his father is back on the throne.
The Crusaders are naive and believe the people will welcome the unfairly deposed old emperor back. Besides that, they assure each other privately, Constantinople is rich and Jerusalem is poor. It's a better place to make our fortunes.
The Pope hears of the plan and once again decides to send the crusaders a message not to do it. This time, of course, the message will have to be carried to Zara instead of Venice - because the crusaders are still camped there after sacking the city.
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Another thing that happens early in the spring of 1203 is that William, the captain of the archers, returns to Cornwall from his annual six months visit to inspect his ships and men at their stations in Cyprus and various other Middle Eastern ports. He’ll spend the next six months or so in Cornwall with his priestly brother Thomas, his son George and George's two little sisters, and with Helen and her sister Ann.
While William's in Cornwall and away from Cyprus two of his lieutenants, Yoram the scribe from Damascus and Harold the ship captain and former galley slave from Lewes, will be in charge. In the autumn William will once again return to Cyprus and the Holy Land to spend the winter.
William makes the trip every autumn to take the archer company's latest crop of newly trained Marine archers out to the Holy Land from the archers' permanent quarters and training camp in Cornwall. He then returns months later in the Spring to bring home to Cornwall the chests of coins the English archers and their galleys have collected carrying passengers and parchment money orders and such to and from the Holy Land and other ports.
This spring, at Helen and Ann’s request, he also bought their sister and brought her to Cornwall with him - after spending the winter getting to know her while she learned how to please him.
As usual while William is back in England for the summer to look after his son George and the sisters who have become George's stepmothers, his priestly brother will make his annual trip to Rome.
Thomas goes to Rome early every summer to buy another year of the Pope’s protection for William and his ever-growing company of Marine archers and prize galleys. He does this by directly delivering into the Pope’s own hand a pouch containing some of the offerings of coins and jewels the pilgrims and other passengers on the archers' galleys have made for the Pope’s special prayers for their safety.
Actually, of course, Thomas only delivers some of the donated ‘prayer coins’ to the Pope – as few as he and William think they can get away with handing to the Pope and still keep him soothed and supportive. They keep the rest.
As one might imagine, the prayer offerings of the travelers are a splendid source of revenues for both the English archers and the Pope - the passengers in the archers’ galleys don’t complain if they reach their destinations safely and, of course, they aren’t around to complain if they die or are taken by the Moors as slaves.
The important thing, however, one that is well known to merchants and pilgrims throughout the Holy Land, is that the galley captains and Marine archers of William's Company of English Archers really do try to carry their passengers and cargos safely to their destinations - even if it means serious fighting to get them there, which it often does.
Their willingness to fight for their passengers makes the English archers very different from the other ship owners serving the Mediterranean and Holy Land ports - who are just as likely to rob and kill their passengers or sell them to the Moors as slaves.
The archers' integrity and willingness to fight to defend their cargos is a valuable asset - it lets them charge their passengers very high prices for their services. It explains the chests of coins and bars of gold and silver that are accumulating in ever greater amounts in Cornwall at Restormel Castle - to help pay for William and Thomas's plans for young George’s future.
William and Thomas have come a long way for former serfs and they're determined that William's son will go even further.
Chapter Two
“I know you’ll be back before the babies come but will George and the boys be safe if you take them overland to London?”
That’s the question an anxious and once again pregnant Helen asks me about my son and my brother Thomas’s students when I announce my decision at the dinner on a chilly evening early in May. Helen's equally pregnant sister Anne and their newly arrived sister Tori listen intently as the logs in the great fireplace pop and snap in the background.
George’s stepmothers are genuinely concerned so I pretend to think carefully and look inquiringly across the table at my priestly brother Thomas and my other lieutenants, Peter, and Henry before I answer. They nod their agreement with knowing smiles and I smile back.
It's little wonder that I smile back - Helen's question is the very same question I’d asked each of my lieutenants earlier in the day and had been thinking about myself for more than a week.
“Oh I should think so, my love. It’s time for George and the older boys in Thomas's school to start seeing England for themselves - and we’ll be taking two full ships’ companies of Marines and Raymond’s entire company of Horse Marines.”
“Will you be taking Tori to care for you? She really wants to go with you, you know.”
“I know and I’ll miss her and you and Ann too, I truly will. But we’ll be practicing war fighting and such every day both coming and going so there won’t be much time to enjoy her company. Besides you and Ann will need her here in case the babies come early.”
And between the three of you you’re wearing me out even if I love you all so dearly. How do the Moors do it?
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Four mornings later we wave our farewells to our wives, form into our ranks as Captain William and his lieutenants watch closely, and start marching for London. It looks to be a slow march because the word from the Captain and Lieutenant Henry is that, as usual, we’ll be marching as if we really are in a war. That means we’ll be constantly practicing just as if we are on a real campaign and confronting real enemies.
The men in my special company of Horse Marines and I are very excited. Most of us came straight to the archers from our villages. We’ve never seen much of England and, except for one or two of us, we’ve never been to London. Those who have say it’s quite large and the women easy to know if you have enough coins in your purse.
We form up on the field next to the castle in the early dawn. A surprisingly large number of people are on hand to see us off when we leave including my own dear wife. The signal horn sounds and the two drummers, one for each of two ships' companies of walking Marines, begin their beat just after the sun comes up on a morning that is still cool and crisp with dew on the grass and weeds.
It's a normal day here in Cornwall - there are great huge clouds in the sky and it looks as though it might soon rain and blow such that, as usual, we'll get wet through and through even if we put on our rain skins.
We’ll be moving in a column that most knights and soldiers wouldn’t recognize. We don’t straggle and William and Henry, Henry being one of William's five lieutenants and the one in charge of training us to fight on land, don’t allow no friends and servants and women to march with us. No merchant wagons and no whores neither. And, of course, the walking Marines march in step to the beat of their drum carrying their longbows and a quiver of arrows.
I know how disorganized knights and their men are when they’s moving about or fighting. Didn’t my own eyes see Cornell’s men and all them gentry of his and their baggage and such come
down the road when I was over the river with Peter Sergeant, him what is a lieutenant now? All mixed up together they was when we started killing them.
I’m not marching – I’m riding because I’m the five stripe senior sergeant in charge of what William and everyone else is now calling our “Horse Marines.” It’s the special company of seventy or so Marine archers who have been learned to ride horses. We're each so heavily armed with the very latest weapons that each of us needs a second horse to carry them and our supplies.
We can, of course, mount our riding and carrying horses if we have to get some place faster than we can run; but mostly we don’t - we lead them and trot alongside in order to keep them as fresh as possible.
Actually leading his own carrying horse is what each of my Horse Marines does except me and my outriders. Since I’m the senior sergeant I ride light and have my own carrying horse for my weapons and gear and a Horse Marine to lead him in addition to his own carrying horse. That’s so I can go up and down the column and out to our outriders who are sometimes miles ahead of our main force.
I got my command because years ago I was one of the few archers who knew how to ride a horse - I was an ostler’s apprentice and the second best archer in the parish with a short bow before I ran away when old Harry in number four company came to my village recruiting.
That was right after the squire whipped me and Ole, my father, just stood there and let it happen because he was only a humble serf and knew his place. I was berthed and lived on Silverleaf farm all my life till then. I’m told it’s in a land called Sussex. Have you ever heard of it?
All of my men are riding geldings because our mares are mostly used for breeding and our stallions are too much like my men and the other Marines - they want to jump on every female they come across.
What our geldings carry is very much the same as what the walking Marines carry on their backs and the sea Marines have by their rowing bench – a long bow, the two parts of a very long Swiss pike with a blade and hook, a short stabbing sword, a shield, and a rain skin.
Where we differ from our brother Marines is that we carry many more arrows, a smaller shield, and our own food and water. We’uns don’t have wagons and carts to carry our tents and extra arrows like the companies of walking Marines do; we each have our own second horse, a supply horse carrying our pikes and extra arrows and gear.
Each of us having two horses is important - it means we can get off the roads and move really fast if we have to do.
We’uns may be mounted on horses like Cornell’s knights and the light cavalry of the Arabs I saw in the Holy Land, but we don’t usually fight like them and that's a fact. We fight dismounted as heavy infantry with one man in five told off to hold the horses in case we have to run.
Each of the horse holders also leads a second supply horse - either a horse carrying a tent into which me and eight to ten of my Horse Marines can squeeze or the supply carrying horse of one of the ten or so special men who are my outriders.
The very best of our riders are our outriders, the men who range out around our main column on our fastest horses to be our guides and far sentries. They have our best riding horses and don’t carry much so they can move fast if they have to follow an enemy force or gallop in to sound an alarm - only their long bows and a few arrows so they can shoot and scoot.
Today, of course, we have some additional riders – about a dozen of Thomas’s older schoolboys what are learning to scribe and sum so they can read messages and write contracts and such when they grows up and takes over the archers.
The boys are likely lads who are being learned to be scribes and priests and such. Each of them is on a riding horse with a short bow and a small quiver so he can pretend to be a real archer. They’re being led by Bishop Thomas himself. He’s the one what puts the learning on them.
The boys don’t know it, of course, but three of my most reliable Horse Marines have also been chosen by Bishop Thomas to stay close to them at all times to keep them safe and out of trouble.
Bishop Thomas is one of Captain William's lieutenants and a fighting Marine too, that he is; killed many a man is what everyone says. And I know it’s true for sure – I've been with him in the company ever since he was our company's priest and we was archers together under Lord Edmund, him what the heathen Moors killed years ago just before William became our captain.
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“Where did all the women and children come from?”
That’s the question I ask my priestly brother Thomas as we sit on our horses on the hillside pasture watching our Marines and boys assemble for our trip to London.
“We’ve got a lot of healthy men here and many of them have good teeth with prospects to improve their fortunes. Most Englishmen cannot improve their lot so the Marines are like honey and the women are like the flies it attracts.”
Then my priestly older brother smiles and adds more to his explanation.
“So far your very good rule about our women seems to be working - the one I thought up for you and announced a couple of years ago when you were off sailing around the Mediterranean somewhere – that every man or woman who wasn’t born in Cornwall has to be on the rolls of one of our companies or camps and every one of them has to work except pregnant women and mothers being milked by their babies.”
“It’s the first time I’ve heard of my very good rule about women; is my very good rule really working?” I ask my priestly brother the question with a big smile and a heavy emphasis on the word ‘my.’
“Oh I should think so. We’ve always got many more men than women here and a lot of womanly things that need doing. So we can always find something for a woman to do if she gets here and wants to stay - and if she isn’t willing to marry one of the men and work we put her on a ship and send her to London.
Not many have made the trip – just a thief and a couple of whores with the French pox. Any women who comes this far usually wants to find a man and stay. We probably should have topped the thief so she'd stay here forever, but we didn't and there you are.”
“Well it sounds like it might be a good rule and I'm glad you told me it's my doing. Mmm yes." ... "Well brother, it looks like the sergeants have gotten their men ready; it’s time for us to head off for Hathersage and London.”
That’s what I tell my brother as I kick my brown mare in the ribs and she begins trotting forward. As she jumps ahead and begins to move I pump my arm up and down with a closed fist to signal my horn blower and our marching drums to begin. Most of our riding horses are geldings but this mare is special so I gave myself permission to ride her; rank has its privileges don't you know.
Raymond, the head of our Horse Marines and outriders, sees my arm pumping signal even before the drum starts and gives his own to the mounted Marines around him.
I can’t hear Raymond from over here, of course, but I can see his gestures in response to mine – and within seconds he and his outriders begin fanning out further and further ahead and to the sides of our column at a fast trot. We’re on our way.
Raymond may not be able to scribe and sum but he’s sharp as a Damascus blade and always on top of things. A good and steady man he is and every archer knows Raymond who is Ole’s son. He’s the one what brought his woman from some strange place across the water where no one’s ever been.
Chapter III
It takes us four full days to cross this part of Cornwall and reach Launceston Castle. We could have made it in a day of hard walking or half a day of riding but we don't. Our progress is quite slow because of all the make believe fighting and marching Henry and I have the Marine archers doing along the way.
Henry, of course, is my lieutenant in charge of training our archers to fight on land. In any event, after four days of pretending to fight we get to Launceston and are well received when we do.
Randolph the archer commanding Launceston's garrison knows we are coming and has more than enough new ale and food for everyone when we arrive.
As you mig
ht imagine, the entire village turns out and the castle’s keep and its kitchen and courtyards are full and bustling by the time our last wagon clatters in across the first of the Launceston’s two draw bridges and into the outer courtyard where the visiting Marines will be camping.
While the men are settling down to eat and drink and shite and take care of their horses, Thomas and I and all our lieutenants walk around with Randolph to inspect the castle’s on-going construction work.
There is quite a bit to see because we’re beginning to add another curtain wall, Launceston’s third, with a gate tower and eight flanking towers to cover it and another moat to surround it.
Of course we're strengthening Launceston. It sits astride the only road into Cornwall and to our training grounds and stronghold at Restormel Castle in the middle of the shire.
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Immediately upon arriving at Launceston, as every lieutenant and I always do on every visit, we all go down to inspect the security of the dungeons under the keep where the food reserves are kept and the shafts of the old tin mine provide their secret entrances. There is no sense going to the expense and trouble of strengthening the castle walls if attackers can get in through the old mine tunnels.
It’s well known to everyone that we should pay particular attention to the old mine tunnels under the castle - they’re the ones we used ourselves a few years ago to empty the castle’s storeroom and force FitzCount’s French knights to come out and fight - and then fouled the river by throwing FitzCount and his child-killing knight bastards into it.
I never come here without thinking of that day and the French knights' desperate screams and pleas for mercy with great deal of satisfaction. My only regret is that FitzCount and some of the dishonorable bastards were already dead of fighting with us before we threw them in the river to avenge Lord Edmund’s wife and children.
“Well Peter, what do you think? Brings back memories doesn’t it? It was right over there where you took charge and you and your archers saved our arses when the bastards sortied.” And Thomas and I embarrassed ourselves by being in the village trying to get warm and got late to the fight. Well, we got our revenge and I got a damn good lieutenant out of it and that’s for sure.
The Archer's Gold: Medieval Military fiction: A Novel about Wars, Knights, Pirates, and Crusaders in The Years of the Feudal Middle Ages of William Marshall ... (The Company of English Archers Book 7) Page 2