Kingmaker (The Anarchy Book 12)

by Griff Hosker

  "Henry I have been training you for some years. Have I ever given you poor advice?"

  "Never Earl."

  "Then trust me now. It was an error of judgement to try what you tried. You were lucky to escape with your life. You listened to someone you should not have. Ranulf Earl of Chester is a fool at best and a plotter at worst. I have time for neither and nor should you."

  "It would have been well but for those traitors who deserted me!"

  "Had you spent longer training them then you would have known their true worth. Perhaps this was meant to be for now you understand why I surround myself with men I trust completely." The Earl of Chester had just entered and I looked at him, "There are others that you can never trust."

  Henry said nothing but his eyes followed my gaze. Ranulf strode up to me, "You spoke alone with my wife last night!"

  "I did."

  "Have you no honour sir? That was my wife!"

  "And your wife has more courage in her little finger than you have in your whole body."

  "You insult me in my own castle?"

  "Each time you open your mouth, Ranulf, you insult yourself. Be quiet or leave! I have little patience left. You put Henry in jeopardy and almost undid all the work we have done to gain him the throne."

  "At least I did something."

  I stood and roared, "You did nothing! This was ill conceived and badly planned! You tried to make a name for yourself at Henry's expense. The moment you sent word then Stephen knew what you were about. You tried to take on a mighty army with a half-trained rabble! You put in jeopardy all that we had worked for. Men had died to get to this point and you, for your own purposes put the prince’s life in danger. I could slay you here and now and no one would question my actions!" I desperately wanted him to draw a weapon so that I could fight with him.

  "It is a little early for such loud voices, my lord." We both looked around. Maud had entered. "I have sent for food and some watered wine. Perhaps that will calm tempers." I nodded. "And you, my husband, should know that I can meet alone with the Earl of Cleveland because he is a friend and the most trustworthy knight in Christendom. I am more than capable of defending my own honour!"

  I sat and said, "I am sorry, Countess, for my outburst. Put it down to tiredness. I fear we will have to impose upon you for a few more days. Henry needs to heal as do many of our men."

  "Of course."

  Henry asked, "Where do we go? Do we head for the south and those lands which are still loyal to my mother?"

  "No, we go to see King David of Scotland. I have made peace with him and he will support your claim to the throne. When we have met with him then we will be a step closer to the crown. I will make you king yet."

  Epilogue

  Richard's dubbing would have to wait. Our journey north to visit with King David was far more important. We spent a week deciding which men at arms and knights Henry would retain and then, taking the Earl of Chester and his wife with us, we headed north towards Carlisle. I had wondered if I should tell Ranulf of our plans but I knew that I would have to. If I did not then he might have used that as another excuse to change sides.

  Aiden had returned to give me the news that Stephen had kept his word. I was relieved. I had no desire to have my land ravaged by a vengeful William of Ypres. I had no doubt that he might still wish to seek revenge but with my castles on the border manned once more then I was confident that he would not succeed. Aiden and his scouts returned to the valley where their vigilance would give my castles warning of any danger.

  We rode north through balmy blue skies and the sight of crops burgeoning in the fields. It was a sign of hope. The land was fruitful. For many years, during the anarchy, the fields had been filled with weeds. It was as though the land was cleansing itself. We had almost had a disaster but it had been averted. Perhaps God was on our side.

  I rode next to Henry and continued my teaching as we headed north. I noticed that he listened more. He had thought himself ready to be king and allowed poisonous words to turn his head. Now he knew that the advice I gave was sage.

  "Can we beat Stephen on the field of battle, Earl?"

  "Aye we can. You proved that at Rushton Spencer. You held off a greater force and did so with great courage."

  "But men deserted me."

  "Some men deserted you but reflect on this; more men stayed. We need to build an army and we need to build alliances. The one with Scotland is the second. Hainaut may not have many men to send to us but their timely warning saved your kingdom. We will make more alliances and isolate Stephen. All is not well with his son."

  He nodded eagerly, "I know. I heard that he has terrorised Bury St. Edmunds."

  I shook my head, "Henry do not take pleasure in the suffering of your people. If anything happened to Stephen then Eustace might be crowned King. His mother is ruthless. There is a bridge we have yet to cross. But one thing is sure. I will not now let you from my sight until you are crowned in Westminster Abbey. I will make a king of you yet."

  He grinned, "Amen to that Earl!"

  The End

  Glossary

  Al-Andalus- Spain

  Aldeneby - Alston (Cumbria)

  Angevin- the people of Anjou, mainly the ruling family

  Arthuret -Longtown in Cumbria (This is the Brythionic name)

  Battle- a formation in war (a modern battalion)

  Booth Castle – Bewcastle north of Hadrian’s Wall

  Butts- targets for archers

  Cadge- the frame upon which hunting birds are carried (by a codger- hence the phrase old codger being the old man who carries the frame)

  Cadwaladr ap Gruffudd- Son of Gruffudd ap Cynan

  Captain- a leader of archers

  Chausses - mail leggings. (They were separate- imagine lady's stockings!)

  Conroi- A group of knights fighting together. The smallest unit of the period

  Demesne- estate

  Destrier- war horse

  Doxy- prostitute

  Fess- a horizontal line in heraldry

  Fissebourne- Fishburn County Durham

  Galloglass- Irish mercenaries

  Gambeson- a padded tunic worn underneath mail. When worn by an archer they came to the waist. It was more of a quilted jacket but I have used the term freely

  Gonfanon- A standard used in Medieval times (Also known as a Gonfalon in Italy)

  Gruffudd ap Cynan- King of Gwynedd until 1137

  Hartness- the manor which became Hartlepool

  Hautwesel- Haltwhistle

  Liedeberge- Ledbury

  Lusitania- Portugal

  Mansio- staging houses along Roman Roads

  Maredudd ap Bleddyn- King of Powys

  Martinmas- 11th November

  Mêlée- a medieval fight between knights

  Moravians- the men of Moray

  Mormaer- A Scottish lord and leader

  Mummer- an actor from a medieval tableau

  Musselmen- Muslims

  Nithing- A man without honour (Saxon)

  Nomismata- a gold coin equivalent to an aureus

  Outremer- the kingdoms of the Holy Land

  Owain ap Gruffudd- Son of Gruffudd ap Cynan and King of Gwynedd from 1137

  Palfrey- a riding horse

  Poitevin- the language of Aquitaine

  Pyx- a box containing a holy relic (Shakespeare’s Pax from Henry V)

  Refuge- a safe area for squires and captives (tournaments)

  Sauve qui peut – Every man for himself (French)

  Sergeant-a leader of a company of men at arms

  Serengford- Shellingford Oxfordshire

  Surcoat- a tunic worn over mail or armour

  Sumpter- pack horse

  Ventail – a piece of mail which covered the neck and the lower face.

  Wulfestun- Wolviston (Durham)

  Maps and Illustrations

  Map courtesy of Wikipedia

  Stockton Castle c 1147

  Historical note

  This is a work o
f fiction. I have used real events as the backdrop for a story about a fictional character. I have tried to be as accurate as I can but I have made minor changes to dates and amalgamated the actions of some characters into one. I make no apologies for this. I am a storyteller.

  The book is set during one of the most turbulent and complicated times in British history. Henry I of England and Normandy’s eldest son William died. The king named his daughter, the Empress Matilda as his heir. When her husband, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, died she remarried. Her new husband was Geoffrey of Anjou and she had children by him. (The future Henry II of England and Normandy- The Lion in Winter!)

  I have used the modern spelling of many words in the book. That is because they are well known and I do not wish more confusion than my editor claims I cause normally! Stockton, for example was Stocc tun while Hartburn was Herrteburne. I apologise to purists. I have used the word Saxon many times both for the language and the people. The invasion of the Normans had only taken place some fifty or sixty years before this book was set. Both the language and the people would change and evolve. The Normans tried to impose their language upon the Saxons who already lived there. It did not work and Anglo-Saxon or English as it became known prevailed. Part of this was due to the fact that the Norman ladies used Saxon/English nannies to look after their babies and children. As they spoke to them in their native tongue the young Normans grew up speaking English. Of course many Norman words became part of English- honour, chivalry, ham, lake but it took another century, until after the time of Richard 1st, for one language to be used throughout the land. In my next book I will change the word Saxon for English. By the time of Henry 1st's death the ordinary folk thought of themselves as English.

  A cog was a small trading ship which developed from the Viking knarr. It had high sides and a flat bottom. There was one sail and steering oar on the starboard (steer board) side. By this time some had had small wooden castles built at the bow and stern and these were used to house archers. These ships would be built bigger as the centuries wore on. They had no deck save at the stern where the ship was conned. The holds were covered with canvas when they had goods to transport.

  I have introduced Eleanor of Aquitaine in my books and she is an important figure. She was about 8 in 1129 and her father was Duke William. As she eventually marries Matilda's son I thought I would keep her in my books. The Empress Matilda did leave her husband in 1130. It was not a happy marriage.

  The Emperor John Komnenos fought against the Hungarians under King later Saint Stephen. He lost and had to sue for peace. The incident with our hero is purely fictional.

  There was never an Earl of Cleveland although the area known as Cleveland did exist and was south of the river. At this time the only northern earls were those of Northumberland. The incumbent was Gospatric who rebelled against England when King Henry died.

  The Scots were taking advantage of a power vacuum on their borders. They did, according to chroniclers of the time behave particularly badly.

  "an execrable army, more atrocious than the pagans, neither fearing God nor regarding man, spread desolation over the whole province and slaughtered everywhere people of either sex, of every age and rank, destroying, pillaging and burning towns, churches and houses"

  "Then (horrible to relate) they carried off, like so much booty, the noble matrons and chaste virgins, together with other women. These naked, fettered, herded together; by whips and thongs they drove before them, goading them with their spears and other weapons. This took place in other wars, but in this to a far greater extent."

  "For the sick on their couches, women pregnant and in childbed, infants in the womb, innocents at the breast, or on the mother's knee, with the mothers themselves, decrepit old men and worn-out old women, and persons debilitated from whatever cause, wherever they met with them, they put to the edge of the sword, and transfixed with their spears; and by how much more horrible a death they could dispatch them, so much the more did they rejoice."

  Robert of Hexham

  Following the birth of the second of Matilda and Geoffrey's two children relations between Matilda and her father became strained. Many Normans disliked the idea of handing power to Anjou. There were many minor incursions and rebellions, many of them supported by the French. It was following Stephen of Blois' sudden coronation that kingdom and dukedom were divided. Stephen controlled England and Matilda fought to claim Normandy. Matilda’s half brother, Robert of Gloucester (one of Henry’s bastards) declared for Matilda and a civil war ensued. The war went on until Stephen died and was called the anarchy because everyone was looking out for themselves. There were no sides as such. Allies could become enemies overnight. Murder, ambush and assassination became the order of the day. The only warriors who could be relied upon were the household knights of a lord- his oathsworn. The feudal system, which had been an ordered pyramid, was thrown into confusion by the civil war. Lords created their own conroi, or groups of knights and men at arms. Successful lords would ensure that they had a mixture of knights, archers and foot soldiers. The idea of knights at this time always fighting on horseback is not necessarily true. There were many examples of knights dismounting to fight on foot and, frequently, this proved to be successful.

  The word Fitz shows that the owner of the name is an illegitimate son of a knight or is used, with the lower case, to show the mother as in Henry fitz Empress. As such they would not necessarily inherit when their father died. There were many such knights. William himself was illegitimate. Robert of Gloucester was also known as Robert of Caen and Robert Fitzroy.

  Ridley, the father of my hero, was in three earlier books. There were two regiments of Varangians: one was English in character and one Scandinavian. They both fought in the same way and were armed I much the same way as the Housecarls of Harold and the Vikings of Hadrada had at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. As the bodyguards of the Emperor they were able to reap rich rewards for their service.

  The Normans were formidable fighters. The conquest of England happened after a single battle. They conquered southern Italy and Sicily with a handful of knights. Strongbow, a Norman mercenary, took a small mercenary force and dominated Ireland so much that as soon as a force of Normans, led by the king land, all defence on the island crumbled. In one of Strongbow's battles a force of 100 knights defeated 4000 Irish warriors!

  The combination of heavy horse and archers working together became uniquely English. The 12th century saw its genesis and it culminated in the army of Henry V which defeated a much larger army. To work properly the two arms had to work together. When the Scottish light horse managed to get at the English archers at Bannockburn the English lost the battle. Even Henry V's brother the Duke of Clarence made mistakes. When he left the safety of his archers he and his knights were easily defeated. The archers relied upon the huge number of arrows they could release. Even when fighting at Agincourt where the plate armour could deflect most of the arrows the sheer number they used still managed to find cracks in the armour. They often used a flat trajectory to try to penetrate the tiny gaps in the helmet through which the men at arms peered. Most importantly the English archer was unique in that he was a master light infantryman. He could use a sword and a buckler and he knew how to kill.

  Ranulf Flambard was the controversial Bishop of Durham who was imprisoned in the tower by Henry for supporting his brother. Although reinstated the Bishop was viewed with suspicion by the king and did not enjoy as much power as either his predecessors or his successors. He had been something of a womaniser in his younger days and he tried to make up for that by giving to the poor when he was older. He was responsible for much of the defensive works of Durham Castle and was truly a Bishop Prince. He died around 1128. The incident with the Bishop being held captive is pure fiction. However he died in 1128 and there was a great deal of unrest while King Henry was away in Normandy. The Gospatric family did show their true colours when the Scottish king tried to take advantage of the internal strife b
etween Stephen and Matilda and invade England. A leopard does not change his spots. The land between the Tees and the Scottish lowlands was always fiercely contested by Scotland, England and those who lived there.

  Geoffrey Rufus became Bishop of Durham and he had a clerk called William Cumin (Comyn). Comyn became Bishop of Durham. Geoffrey Rufus fell out of favour when he failed to support his castles. Norham was left isolated and fell to the Scots giving them control over that corner of the Anglo-Scottish border.

  Hartness (Hartlepool) was given to the De Brus family by Henry and the family played a power game siding with Henry and David depending upon what they had to gain. They were also given land around Guisborough in North Yorkshire.

  Squires were not always the sons of nobles. Often they were lowly born and would never aspire to knighthood. It was not only the king who could make knights. Lords had that power too. Normally a man would become a knight at the age of 21. Young landless knights would often leave home to find a master to serve in the hope of treasure or loot. The idea of chivalry was some way away. The Norman knight wanted land, riches and power. Knights would have a palfrey or ordinary riding horse and a destrier or war horse. Squires would ride either a palfrey, if they had a thoughtful knight or a rouncy (pack horse). The squires carried all of the knight’s war gear on the pack horses. Sometimes a knight would have a number of squires serving him. One of the squire’s tasks was to have a spare horse in case the knight’s destrier fell in battle. Another way for a knight to make money was to capture an enemy and ransom him. This even happened to Richard 1st of England who was captured in Austria and held to ransom.

  At this time a penny was a valuable coin and often payment would be taken by ‘nicking’ pieces off it. Totally round copper and silver coins were not the norm in 12th Century Europe. Each local ruler would make his own small coins. The whole country was run like a pyramid with the king at the top. He took from those below him in the form of taxes and service and it cascaded down. There was a great deal of corruption as well as anarchy. The idea of a central army did not exist. King Henry had his household knights and would call upon his nobles to supply knights and men at arms when he needed to go to war. The expense for that army would be borne by the noble.