Hoodsman: Revolt of the Earls

by Smith, Skye

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  The days rolled by, and with each day there was less confusion in the castle though there was busy-ness in all rooms of the castle for all hours of daylight. The burg was slowly emptying of the country folk who had sought safety within the walls. The market was livelier with each passing day, and those coming to market told of seeing fewer and fewer fyrdmen roaming about the countryside.

  The noble women were making their decisions about their futures. Those joining the procession for Normandy were packing, and trading things they would not need for things they would. Each family was being provided a horse cart for the journey. Each family was being warned to surrender any treasure to the castle, as taking it with them would be treated as looting, as any such treasure was now the property of the crown.

  Raynar’s life was an endless sequence of tasks and decisions punctuated by times of great sexual frustration. The courtesans would tease and tempt him to the point of him wanting nothing more than to drag them to a bed, and each night Gysel would join him in his bed for sleep, and nothing more.

  Mid week, Jeanne happened into the room while the courtesans were physically teasing him, and came afterwards to sit beside him. "If you wish," she said stroking his leg, "you may mount me. I do not mind. I mean to say, you have had me before."

  Raynar hugged her and thanked her for her offer, but denied her, despite wanting nothing more on earth at that moment than to carry her to his bed. He knew that Brunt was smitten with her, and in his mind she was now his wife, and he would not trespass against him.

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  The Hoodsman - Revolt of the Earls by Skye Smith

  Chapter 33 - A new castellan for Shrewsbury Castle in September 1102

  King Henry's right hand man, Roger Meulan, had now arrived to take over the running of Shrewsbury Castle, the town, and the shire. His brother Henry, the Earl of Warwick had relieved him of his duties at Bridgnorth so he was able to come to Shrewsbury earlier than expected.

  Roger served kings as a steward rather than as a baron, first to the Conqueror, and then to Rufus, and now to Henry. Raynar welcomed him truly, more for his administration experience, than as a commander of men. They spent the next two days in each others constant company while Roger came to understand all that Raynar had done in Shrewsbury, and more important, why.

  Raynar was prepared to have the lords chambers vacated so that Roger could move in, but it was not necessary. As soon as Roger met the two courtesans, he decided to move into their room with them. The tour of the treasury was equally amenable. He scanned his eyes quickly down the long list of the treasures and at the end he whistled at the values he was summing in his head.

  "This treasury is worth over two thousand pounds," he laughed aloud. "How could Belleme walk away from such a sum. It is enough to buy a shire."

  Raynar pointed to the list of contents. "Most of the chests contained costly gear he had brought back from his visits to Paris. Gear not easily transported, or converted to coin. One chest had been empty save for a particularly poisonous dust. Two thousand sounds like a lot, but from my own inspection of his accounts I expected more. I suspect he spirited the rest away once he decided Shrewsbury was a lost cause."

  "Or the building of the castles at Bridgnorth, Arundel, and Tickhill, and all at the same time put his treasury into the hands of the masons," Roger suggested.

  "From the accounts we have found," replied Raynar, "most of the two thousand was owed in back taxes to the crown. It would have been financially wiser for Belleme to eagerly support Henry and his charter, because it would have forgiven him those back taxes."

  Raynar knew Roger to be of quit wit and widely knowledgeable, so he shared his own guess. "I think that Belleme does not support Duke Robert any more than he supports King Henry. I believe his plan was to get the two brothers to slaughter each other, so that he could seize the crown. Apparently he has great wealth in France and in Normandy. So long as he survived this siege, the loss of Shropshire was nothing more than an expensive financial setback. If the two royal brothers did not slaughter each other on English soil, then I suspect that he will connive to have it happen in Normandy."

  "Well, you are so close to the truth," agreed Roger, "that I may as well tell you the whole of it. You were there at Alton when civil war was averted by your bowmen. Did you not notice the split in the support for each royal brother." He saw the other man shrug. "Henry's support was mainly from Rufus's stewards and sheriffs, while Roberts support was mainly from the land barons. It was crown administrators versus the great manorial land lords."

  "I do not know the nobility so well as to have noticed," answered Raynar.

  "Well, it was so. By right of might, Henry should have lost the crown at Alton. It was the unexpected appearance made by your bowmen that won the day for him. The battle was over before it began because the Norman nobility on both sides realized that the risks had suddenly become deadly, to them. The outcome was most likely to be a slaughter, rather than the competitive jousting match that they were expecting."

  "From the view of the English peasants starving amongst plenty, there is naught to choose between either side," Raynar pointed out. "I support Henry because of his wife, not because I believe he is any better than Robert."

  "Ahh, not so," said Roger, "The barons want to impose the manorial system throughout England much as it is in Normandy. Each baron would then be a law unto himself and rule like a prince, as did Belleme here in Shropshire. The crown administrators stewarded land that was not yet manorial. It was organized more in the English way with tenants and leaseholders.

  The manorial barons are more interested in building private armies than in farming. There is little incentive for his serfs to work hard, other than the lash. There is constant feuding between barons, and little peace. The lack of peace keeps the crop yields low. This has always been a problem in Normandy.

  With the English way, peace is enforced by the sheriffs, and yields are higher because the leaseholders are farmers, not warriors."

  "Hah," interrupted Raynar, "that is not the English way. Though you may have freeman tenants, you are missing freeman land owners. More important, you have destroyed the village cultures where productive land was held in common. I have friends in the treasury that would describe your stewardship system as a form of banking. Land banking.

  Instead of loaning money for usury which is against the wishes of Rome, you are loaning land for rent. What a splendid choice the peasants have between them. With the barons they are serfs attached to land which does not belong to them. With the stewards they are peons to their land loans. Serf, peon, they are just other words for slave."

  "Well said, Raynar, but admit that you would prefer the stewardship. If serfdom is a blackness, then peonage is halfway to the light. Admit it. If Duke Robert and his barons ever defeat Henry then this kingdom will descend into a worse state than it was under Rufus."

  "Forgive my skepticism, Roger, but I have lived too long under the Norman yoke of greed and corruption. I see peonage as just a slower footpath to serfdom or slavery. Do you tell me that you and the other stewards do not covet Belleme's lands."

  "For sure we will gain some estates," replied Roger, somewhat affronted, "but not the titles. Henry will not create new barons to plague him after he has had such trouble ridding himself of the current ones. He will keep most of the land in the crowns name, and the towns will become royal burghs. I have suggested that Bridgnorth be the first so chartered."

  He looked at the Raynar's face and saw the distrust. "I have known Henry since he was a child. His brothers were all warriors, but Henry was different. He had skill with arms and loved to hunt, and yet battle has never interested him. In his fathers final years, he was attached to the treasury, and ever since he has played steward for his father and for his brothers.

  When the Conqueror died, Rufus got the estates of England, Robert the estates of Normandy, but Henry was given no land, just money. A lot
of money. He views the world through a bankers eyes because he has been the banker of the family for over a dozen years. Can it be any surprise that the stewards and the sheriffs would choose Henry over Robert."

  "Thank you, that explains much," said Raynar reluctantly. "My friends at the treasury have always told me that he was a fast study in matters of finance. He accepted the system of tally sticks as quickly as if they were his own idea."

  "When Rufus was murdered in Yten forest, I rode with Henry to claim the treasury at Winchester, but we could not stop there. We had to secure Henry's own treasury in London. It was much richer than the royal one. Not one of the other nobles can match Henry's understanding of finance and banking. Their heads are filled with visions of grandeur of court and battle. Henry's is filled with the interests he has in the many ventures that he has funded."

  Raynar remained silent so Roger changed the topic. "They will never stop trying," Roger said, "to kill Henry, the barons I mean. The barons of Normandy all have nightmares that the rabble will rise against them and slay them while they sleep. Henry has just shown them that he can raise the rabble. No baron will dare to openly oppose him now, so that means that they must be rid of him by other means. I wonder how they will do it?"

  "They have tried ambushes twice that I know of," replied Raynar. "Both were the work of that pig William Mortain. It is no longer enough to kill just Henry. His rule is established. They need to kill the royal family, which now includes his wife and daughter, as well as the chief stewards such as yourself. They could try what I suggested to Henry for ridding the world of Belleme."

  "And what was that?" asked Roger.

  "Load them all on a ship to Normandy, and then make sure it never arrives. I have experienced the sinking of ships. Unless there is help within minutes, everyone dies. My own ships always sail in twos and threes for that very reason."

  Roger stopped to wonder at this educated peasant, dressed as a Treasury officer, who now was telling him that he owned ships. Not ship, but ships. "Henry now has no estates in Normandy save one, so perhaps we can keep him off ships, at least for a while. At least we can ensure that important members of his court never travel all together on one."

  "Speaking of that treacherous pig, Mortain," said Raynar, "do we now march to Cornwall to put him on a ship to Normandy, or better yet, swing him from a ship's mast?"

  "Not this year," replied Roger, "The armies have been in the field for almost four months. With Belleme gone, it is time to rest and let the new peace restore the shires that have been ravaged. This will be a hard enough winter in the five shires that have had armies cross them. Henry does not want even more shires trodden down."

  Raynar nodded at the wisdom in the mans words. Perhaps instead of shying from this man's company, he should have sought it out. They were both of an age and an experience. Both of them had been at the battle of Hastings road back in '66. Both had been in Yten forest two years ago. Their political discussion ended at that point however, with the arrival of the two courtesans dressed in gowns designed to silence a room. They were leading servants bearing food and wine.

  The attention that these women had given to Raynar over the last week paled in comparison to the attention they now lavished onto Roger. Now that he was watching rather than receiving, he could fully appreciate the skills of these women. They were accomplished hostesses. They chatted, they served, they listened, they smiled, they made the two men feel like they were the chosen of the gods, and throughout it all they kept pressing their sexuality.

  Gysel and Jeanne, both attractive young women, broke from their duties to sit with them for the meal. They felt very much like the country cousins compared to the brilliance of the courtesans, and ate quickly and silently and left immediately once they had downed their ale.

  Roger joined Raynar for his rounds, and they discussed all that Roger had seen that day. "You have done well here, Raynar. You have enforced a peace for less than a week and yet the town bustles as if it were never the focus of armies. If it were my say, I would leave the castle in your hands and see what you could do to bring peace to Shropshire and the border."

  "From your tone," said Raynar, "I expect a 'but'"

  "But you are not under my command, and Henry has already told me that you have no interest in running estates, never mind towns and shires."

  "He knows me well. I own no land, no house, no honors, and want none."

  "He also gave me a message for you, Raynar. You are not to march to Cornwall. We have had complaints from DeLacy in Ludlow. DeLacy seems to think that you are hunting Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall. He claims that you helped the Welsh in an ambush on Mortain that almost ended his life."

  "There were no Welsh in the ambush." replied Raynar, "Save for that, DeLacy speaks true. It sounds as if DeLacy made the complaint before the fall of Belleme, while he was still trying to straddle the two camps."

  "Could it be that the barons fear that you will raise the fyrd in Cornwall and set that shire alight."

  "I would not need the fyrd. I have wolfpacks enough just here in Shropshire to make quick work of sticking that pig."

  "That is their other fear," warned Roger, "that the Royal Archers will follow you if you ask it."

  "Be clear on this Roger. Not all bowmen in Shropshire have taken the kings salt. All I must do is ride south along the border and I would gather enough English and Welsh warriors to do the job. Mortain would get no warning nor help from the folk that slave for him."

  "Then it will come as no surprise," Roger's voice turned stern, "that Henry wants you to lead the escort for the noble families that must go to Portsmouth, and then to Normandy."

  "Is this an order?"

  "He told me that you would ask that," Roger replied. "He asks it as a favour to the queen, as it would bring you most quickly to her side."

  "The bloody man has certainly learned how to manipulate me," grumbled Raynar, "for he knows that I wish to stay near to Edith during these unsettled times."

  "He also knows that only English bowmen can take these noble families safely through land where the fyrd are still on the march." replied Roger.

  "And that this will leave it too late in the year for me to try for Mortain," Raynar cursed. "By Freyja I wish my arrow had found its mark on Mortain's cowardly back when he killed his own man to gain a horse." He took a deep breath. He could see the surprise on Rogers face from his last words. "So be it. You have the castle. I have the families. And Belleme's courtesans? Do they stay or go?"

  Rogers mind was elsewhere. "Umm, my marriage is rocky enough and my wife is herself from the French court. I don't need the trouble that those two scamps could cause me."

  'Neither does Henry," replied Raynar, "I will take them, then. I will go via Ludlow and hopefully leave them with DeLacy." For a while they were silent while they watched the view from these walls across the burgh. "There is one question that our lovelies will ask again, as will all of the wives that go to Normandy. What of their personal jewelry, and courtly clothes? Are they now part of the crown treasury, or may they take them away?"

  "We allowed the men their weapons, so we must allow the women theirs." replied Roger, "The finery yes, the jewels, no. This is punishment for treason, and the women must share in it."

  "When you convene your court," said Raynar, "you will have many petitions from those that stay behind. Those that claim that they were forced into wedlock."

  "I know it. I have seen your declaration of guidelines, and I have seen the list of petitions already submitted."

  "There is one petition I would have treated fairly. That of Jeanne, the young widow that ate with us." Roger raised and eye and Raynar sighed. "It is not like that. She loves the other woman's brother, Brunt. Brunt is the king's bowman that raised the fyrd from the outlaws along the border, and then held the northern routes along with the Sheriff of Cheshire. It is a long story, and you should ask for it in court.

  She will claim two manors. Her father's and that of her hated husb
and of two months. She is with his child. It could go badly against her if the courts wait to see if the child is a son. The husband's manor is close to the quarry, and the husband led the quarry guard. Brunt is the son of a mason from that quarry. It would serve all best if Brunt were made the constable responsible for the quarry, and that the husband's manor be ceded to him as an honor."

  Roger thought the words through. "Ahh, I see. The court will grant her the father's manor, and she can still have both by joining with the constable. Then he can claim the child, and she is no longer at risk. Very wise. "

  "Wiser than you know, for whomever is chosen as sheriff can name Brunt as deputy, and then relax while Brunt and his bowmen keep the peace in this shire."

  "If only you could stay, then I could use you to judge all the petitions. And the other woman?" asked Roger, "the sister. What of her?"

  "She can take care of herself," replied Raynar and told him the story of her gelding the stable hands. At appropriate times Roger winced and covered his crotch with his hands.

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  The Hoodsman - Revolt of the Earls by Skye Smith

  Chapter 34 - The procession out of Shrewsbury Castle in September 1102

  That night Roger slept, or rather, didn't sleep, in the courtesan's room. From the animal sounds and muffled noises, he had not yet told them that they were bound for Normandy with the other women. Raynar and Gysel lay together in the silk sheets and listened to the animal grunts and howls. It had become a habit over the last week to whisper together for an hour before sleep. She would tell him what had happened in her busy day of running the household and controlling the women that came and went from the meetings in the great hall, and he would occasionally offer his own advice.

  "It sounds like he is being given what you have lusted after all this week," she whispered and wriggled closer to him so that their skins touched.