by Smith, Skye
Perhaps it was just the youthful rebellion against their autocratic fathers, but it seemed to be fashionable for the young Anglo-Normans to look like their kin on their mothers' side. The hair, the beards, even some of the clothing was of the English style. The one thing that all of them had that was not English, however, was their love of expensive finery.
Eventually the captains of the guard sent for more guards men, and most of the new men who came to their call, were bowmen. Raynar walked towards three captains that were having a heated discussion while looking out over the growing crowd of Londoners.
"Can I be of help?" he asked.
Two of the captains recognized him as being a man to be polite to. The third took note of their deference. "We are worried about the size of the crowd. The coronation is still hours away, and the crowd is already well beyond what we expected."
Raynar looked across the sea of heads. "Those on the abbey grounds are lords and ladies, some waiting to enter the abbey. Those beyond are Londoners. Task your Norman guards to keep the peace on the grounds. Task your English bowmen to become a human fence with their bows used as fence rails, to keep the Londoners from pressing forward onto the grounds."
The captains looked at each other, each hoping for leadership from the other.
"Listen to me," Raynar said in his most official sounding voice, "the lords will refuse to be herded or blocked by peasant bowmen, whereas the Londoners will do as the English bowmen ask. Even from the view of language, you have no other option. It will take most of your men to create the human fence. Your bowmen are now, what, perhaps three quarters of your force. The bowmen can create a fence without showing a blade, so there will be no blades drawn against them if there is pushing and shoving."
"He speaks good sense," muttered one of the captains. "He is the Queen's man, and has the say of the King. Good enough for me. Do it!” He was the one who had questioned Raynar after the crossbow assassination attempt. The captains left him going in different directions shouting orders as they marched. Raynar was pleased that his plan was accepted, and hoped that the Londoners would indeed respect the bowmen's fence.
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Raynar had a seat beside Mary at the coronation. Edith's maid was also there in case Edith had need of her quickly. The maid was bubbling with excitement. Not for the coronation, but because a queen would need many maids, and she was likely to be the head of all of them.
The abbey echoed the noise of the packed crowd inside it. The din was tremendous. But you could have herd a pin drop when Henry finally led Edith in a slow and graceful walk to the bishop to be crowned.
She was stunning in yards and yards of yellow silk. She wore a kingdom's worth of rubies around her neck. Her hair was strangely coifed, but the maid whispered that it was necessary so that the crown would sit comfortably. From his front bench, Raynar could see back across the sea of faces. The mouths of the women were all agape. The men’s eyes were all focused on this stunning beauty.
Raynar sent a prayer to Margaret, wishing she could see her daughter now. Margaret had eventually become the mother of the Romanized church in Scotland. He could think of no better place to pray to her than in this Romanized abbey.
The bishop was supposed to crown her Queen Mathilde, but perhaps because of the length of his sermon, or the fear of yet another eternity of aching knees while praying, or more likely because of his love for his bride, Henry reached for the crown to do it himself. The Bishop had more sense than to lose any part of the church's power, and stepped forward quickly to place his hands on the crown as it settled over Edith's hair.
Whatever sermons or prayers the bishop had planned for closing the ceremony were lost in the tremendous cheer that erupted first in the abbey and then from outside. Henry, knowing how long his people had already waited for this moment, ignored the motioning of the bishop to kneel, and instead swung his queen around and lifted her hand to the ceiling and presented her to her subjects.
The church bells and the cheering were non-stop as Henry and Edith led the procession of barons and earls and counts and ambassadors out of the abbey and into the fore grounds. The Norman guards had created a human fence with their spears to keep the crush of lesser lords outside from blocking the doors and square of the abbey.
Henry stopped her in the doorway, and then raised her hand again, and took a small step backwards, which almost crushed Raynar's poor toes. Thus he presented his queen to his kingdom. The crowds that could see her went wild with cheering. The bells of the city were peeling non-stop, and they would soon be echoed by the bells of the home counties, and then further, and further, until every bell in the kingdom would be clanging.
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The Hoodsman - Saving Princesses by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13
Chapter 15 - Befriending Prince Canute in Dunfermline, Scotland in May 1069
The English lords did not think to search out Raynar's company for his advice on their latest plans. The Earls were taking full credit for Raynar's plan that had destroyed Comyn's army at Dun Holm. That slaughter had been the largest success against William since the battle of Hastings road in '66, but even the nobles who had been there, and were bragging about it, had no idea why the plan had been so successful.
Certainly they did not want to share the glory with the porter who could explain it to all of them. Raynar was continuously shunned by Edgar in favour of the company of exiled English nobles. The very men who had run away from the Normans, and run away from their duty to protect the English folk.
It was Prince Canute who eventually sought him out. Edgar had told Canute about the rescue of his big cog by the Fen Frisian's and had mentioned that Raynar had been on the ship that had rescued them. Unlike Scottish dining halls, on Danish ships, warriors were measured by their feats, not by their bloodline.
Canute had learned something of the young porter's battle history from Edgar, but Edgar was a poor source for such stories because he always made himself the main character in the telling. Raynar was invited to share a meal with Canute and his crew. The Danes loved a good story, and would listen intently to anyone who was given the floor to weave words into visions of battles and hunts and catastrophes.
Each man was expected to share a tale, and the tale that Raynar shared was the tale of the confusion of the left wing of the English shieldwall at the battle for Hastings road in '66. He tried to make the tale short as other tellers had done, but it was not to be. Most of these men had never met Norman cavalry in battle, so what started as a simple tale of how victory can so quickly turn into defeat, eventually turned into many evenings spent telling detailed explanations of weapons, and strategies, and traps.
As a force, the Danes were mainly axemen. Their shields were too small and too round to be used in a shieldwall. They were raiders in more than just the sense of making surprise landings in boats, taking valuables and slaves, and then departing. They fought armies with the same tactics. They would attack a shieldwall with quick concentrated strikes. If the wall broke then more men would pour in behind them. If it did not break then they quickly withdrew and try to find a weak spot elsewhere.
Their strategy depended on finding weak spots, and on keeping the path of retreat open. The weapon of choice was the battle axe, but most had a thrusting spear as well. They had few bows and no men whose assigned duty was to loose arrows. When Raynar asked how they fought ship to ship without archers, they replied that it was getting more and more difficult.
The large trading Cogs now being built by the Frisians around the North Sea were making the Danish Knarrs, Karvis, and Dragon ships redundant. The large fat Cogs had upper decks called castles that sat high above the waterline and allowed slingers and archers to fire down on men in the low sleek longships.
"My father has contracted the Frisian villages near Jutland to replace our Knarrs and Karvis with Cogs," Canute told him. "But that is many ships and it will take many years. The old men, those over thirty, will stick to
the Knarrs, but the younger men want the Cogs, and want them now. That ship you stepped off when you came here, the smaller of the two Cogs. That is what we want, but they are expensive and our old ships still have many leagues of use left in them."
An older man swore. "In the old days, you would fight man to man, axe to shield along the gunnels until one ship won. Now you must hide behind the shield and hope you don't get an arrow in the eye before you are even close to the other ship."
"Then it is time for you all to add bowmen to your crew," suggested Raynar.
"Bah," said the older man.
"The horses that the Norman cavalry ride are like the castle decks on the Cogs," Raynar told them. "They are high and powerful beasts and the riders are above the heads of the ground battle. Their horses are trained to trample you. Their size and speed frighten men into running, and running from them is death."
"We have always used our axes against mounted men. They make short work of horses' legs," replied the older man.
"The Normans have long lances and long swords so that they can reach down to the infantry. Their long weapons will reach you before you can reach them. You will need weapons with a long reach to survive, like heavy arrows or bolts, or long pole axes, or long pikes. And you have none of these weapons."
"What do you suggest?" asked Canute.
"Don't get caught in open ground. Stay to ground that is bad for horses."
"And they will attack us there?" asked Canute.
"Not any more. They have learned to stay away from ambush ground, but at least you are safe there from attack."
"But how do we attack them if they will not go on rough ground, and we will not go on open ground," wondered Canute.
"You have just proven yourself wiser than all the English warlords at the palace," laughed Raynar and his words were spread around the hall and a mighty cheer rose and the ale flowed.
* * * * *
In the sober light of day, Canute sent for Raynar. He arrived to a table already full of ships' captains. "Tell us," spoke Canute, "please tell us some simple rules that men can remember to stay alive while fighting against Normans."
The men pushed along the bench to make room for him, and then quieted so that he could speak, "Keep to your raider's ways, the ways you know. Hit and run until you find a weakness." Fists stomped on the tables in agreement.
"Always post pickets and scouts. Always. William has surprised armies time and again by the speed of his approach. Never forget that his army is mounted and can move quickly." This obvious point raised calls of disappointment, but others nodded knowing it as sound advice.
"Keep your retreat open." Men were about to fist the tables again but Raynar stopped them by holding up his hands. "That means that you must also have horses, a lot of horses before you meet the Normans. Not for fighting on, but for retreating on, and so that you can re-form and re-positioning quickly. Without horses, William will surround you, cut you off, surprise you, and out maneuver you, because he always has horses. Lots and lots of horses.” There were now many side discussions, and Raynar waited until there was another hush.
"Fight the Norman horses first, and then the riders. The best way to fight the horses is with traps and ambushes." There was quiet. "Ditches, potholes, stakes, caltrops, trip lines, arrows, flames. Why be hit by a charging horse, when a trap can cripple the horse before he gets to you? When a big horse falls, the rider is injured. Almost always injured. And even if not injured, he is now on foot with too much heavy armour and the wrong weapons for fighting on foot." Again there were many side discussions, and this time they were slower to hush.
Raynar ran out of patience waiting for the hush, so he yelled, "The Normans do not fear your battle axes." Now there was a hush. "They respect them. They parry them. They have shields for them. But they do not fear them."
Raynar stood and walked to the end of the hall with his bow and a heavy arrow. "They fear bodkin arrows and crossbow bolts more than any other weapon." Every eye was on him as he drew his bow. At the other end of the hall was a suit of mail hung to dry above a brazier. The shot went through the mail and split the wooden plank behind it. Men leaped up to check the mail. The arrow had not just punctured the mail, it had punctured two layers of mail. The front and the back.
Raynar banged a jug on the table to get their attention. He held up an arrow. "With this arrow I can down a horse or down an armoured rider at seventy paces. Even if I miss, I still have time to take a second shot or to find cover before he is on me with his lance. They fear and hate bowmen so much, that whenever they capture one of us, they cut off our bowstring fingers." He held up two fingers in a V. There were angry snarls and curses. "In closer combat they fear pole axes and pikes, because those weapons can reach them despite the height of their mounts.
I could go on but that would be too much to remember. So here is the last one." He walked back to Canute and stood by him and waited until there was quiet. "Do not raid your friends.” There was silence. "Do not raid your friends. Listen to me, many of the villages in England have a handful of bowmen who could help you to ambush and slaughter the Normans. If you raid them, they won't help you. But if you offer the village some protection, the bowmen will come with you." There were many talking, but in hushed voices.
Canute stood and thumped a jug for silence. "From now on, these words will be known as Raynar's Rules. My orders are that every man sailing with me will be able to list Raynar’s Rules. The art of war is changing. We must change with it. This is true with the cogs on the sea. This is true with the horses on the battlefield. We must learn new ways of defeating our enemies, as they are learning new ways to defeat us."
Canute sat down and pulled Raynar down with him. A full jug was passed to them. "Sail with me," offered Canute. "I want you at my right shoulder when I meet my first Normans."
Raynar liked Canute, liked him a lot. And he liked his crew. These Danes from Denmark were different from the Danes of England. They were more like the Frisians. Perhaps this was because the Danes of England had become farmers who rarely left their land, whereas the Danes of Denmark were still seafarers.
With the Frisians he had lived with in the Fens, much of the village and the land was communal, and it was the women that ran the village because the men were away so much. The Frisian ships, however, were not communal. The Frisian warlords were the owners of the ships. He wondered if it were the same in Denmark.
Raynar leaned back against the wall and looked across the hall and at the Danish crews. Canute did not press him for an answer. The answer would come in its own time. They both felt it. There was something drawing them together, instinctively drawing them together.
"I will sail with you Canute, but another time. I leave soon to ride south in advance of the Earl's army," Raynar told him. "I must carry messages to Eadric in Chester near Wales, and then must travel east to the Fens near the Wash to carry messages to Hereward."
"I do not know these men, are they Jarls?" asked Canute.
"They are men who have never stopped raiding the Normans even after their cowardly English lords had made peace or had run away to Scotland. They lead outlaws who ambush Norman patrols and force the Norman lords stay hidden in their forts. If we can get them to rebel while William is fighting the Earls for York and fighting your Jarl for Kent, then William will have to split his army yet again."
"Then I will share adventures with you another time," said Canute. "For now I will be content with Edgar's company."
"Edgar, but he is riding with Cospatrick and the army."
"Not anymore. I have guaranteed the safety of his grand Cog. It and he sail with us, and he takes with him a company of exiled lords."
'Bugger,' Raynar thought, 'I would have much rather sailed on the Cog than get saddle sores. Ach, do I dare tempt the fates by changing my plans yet again.'
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The Hoodsman - Saving Princesses by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13
Chapter 16
- Arranging for rebellions in Mathrafal, Powys in June 1069
They had ridden south out of Dunfermline as seven but soon they would be five. The two Scots that Malcolm had sent with young Raynar to guide him through Scotland, were planning to turn back at Hadrian’s Wall near a place they called Caer Luel.
They had been glad of the guides. The mountain lands that they had crossed in order to travel straight south to the border, were filled with wild men with a wild language and a wild temper. With the King's guides deciding the way, there were valleys that they shunned for longer ways, and passes that they would use or not use depending on the folk that lived along them. Sometimes their arrival in a village was cause for a bout of drinking, and sometimes they were met with pitchforks, but the glib tongues of the guides soothed all the worries and the tempers, so that even Englishmen were allowed to pass.
Edgar had sent four of his shieldmen-turned-bowmen with Raynar and they were ordered to keep with him until he chose to dismiss them. They were all riding farm nags and looked like shepherds. It was a leap of faith for the four men to have left their armour and shields behind, but Raynar had bargained with Canute for some seamen's brynjas for them. They did not feel so vulnerable once they were wearing the seaman's leather jerkin with the metal rings sewn outside, and the felted sheepskin sewn inside.
They had paid some clever fishwives to cut off the metal rings that hung down the outside of the brynja and then sew them between the layers of the felted sheepskin so that metal was not visible whether wearing the jerkin felt out or felt in. A few practice swings with a blade proved the design. The wearer would be bruised but not cut by a slashing blade.
The last night with the Scottish guides was spent camped behind Hadrian's Wall. Raynar did not sleep much that night, for he was fascinated by the wall and he spent the night walking, sitting, and laying on the ancient wall under the starlit sky. He now had a purpose beyond the killing of William. Once William was dead he would make a journey to the Roman sea so that he could learn more about the wonders of the ancients.