Castling The King

by Martin Archer

  If Phillip does put his troops ashore in Sussex or someplace similar, we’ll delay reporting when the king summons us to join his army and continue to delay until the French and barons approach Cornwall. We’ll claim most of our men are still away in the distant east, and those few who are in England only know how to fight at sea, that sort of thing. But we will send our galleys to take prizes from the French fleet and do all we can to prevent Phillip and his army and its supplies from reaching England in the first place.

  “Unfortunately for us and also for the French king, although he probably doesn’t yet know it, if he comes there is an excellent chance he’ll land his army at Exeter or Plymouth, because the Earl of Devon will not oppose the landing. Sussex would be easier for the French to reach, but they probably won’t land there because the Duke of Sussex and his men will almost certainly be with King John and fight for him.” The duke is a relative of the king’s and well known as a diehard Norman royalist in addition to being famous at John’s court for giving drinks to drunkards on the Sabbath.

  “Landing in Devon would be quite unfortunate for Phillip’s pursuit of the English crown,” I told my men.” It would mean his army would have to fight our archers and pike men instead of King John’s army. It would also be unfortunate for us, because even the best of fighting men such as ours inevitably take casualties in a war no matter how superior their training and weapons.

  “In any event, we are going to assemble our men and weapons and be prepared to fight both the French and Devon and his fellow barons in the spring. What we hope most of all is that the French will mobilize a fleet from which we can take many fine prizes, and the French and the barons will fight King John’s army far away from Cornwall so we can avoid being involved. It would give us a good excuse to seize the Earl of Devon’s lands and Rougemont Castle with the king’s blessing.

  According to the merchant’s daughter who overheard the barons’ plans, it is the earl’s idea to merge Cornwall and Devon under one earl and the other barons agreed. My lieutenants and senior sergeants and I agree combining Cornwall and Devon is a good idea, and we’re just the men to do it.

  ******

  My lieutenants and senior sergeants continued to discuss the coming war at length during our stay at Oakhampton. What we decided to do is concentrate our men in Cornwall and act independently of King John without informing him or William Marshal or anyone else of our plan to attack and seize the French fleet. If the French are still able to reach England, we’ll fight them and the rebel English barons on land, but only if they are in Devon or Cornwall and only on ground of our choosing.

  The decision to concentrate our forces and prepare for an all-out war on both land and sea is important. It means our men will soon be spending all their time training and getting ready to fight; they’ll have no time to work on improving our castles’ walls or our roads and bridges.

  One thing is certain: we are not going to inform King John and his supporters as to how or where we intend to fight. It would be disastrous to launch an attack on the French shipping and discover the French are waiting for us, because a spy or one of the king’s friends or women lets them know we are coming.

  Similarly, we are never going to fight alongside the king and his supporters on land, at least not if we can help it. One reason we won’t is because we don’t want to take meaningless casualties as a result of serving with incompetent leaders. Another is because we don’t want the king and his nobles to know how good we have become at killing knights and winning battles. Someday we may have to fight King John and his supporters. When we do, we’ll want them to seriously underestimate us and not be prepared.

  What we are also not going to do is speed up the work on our castles’ defences by hauling trees out of the forest using the brood mares we have so carefully collected or the horses ridden by the Horse Archers. And we are definitely not going to risk any of the fast Arabians we took off the Algerians. We’ve got plans for our horses when we have enough of them. And no effort will be made to further strengthen Restormel and Bossiney, since they will be virtually impossible to hold if the French or the barons surprise us by having enough strength to get past Okehampton and Launceston in force.

  If the French or the rebel barons do somehow get past Launceston and over the River Tamar, we’ll likely have to take our galleys and survivors and our hoard of coins and gold and such and run for it; probably to Cyprus, I would think.

  Temporarily assigning more of the men and women who come in for famine food to strengthen our key fortifications is the best we can do whilst we prepare for the French. In fact, as we get closer to attacking the French fleet, there will be no one except women working in the forests and on the walls—because we will be using every available able-bodied man who isn’t an archer or sailor as a rower on our galleys. That will free up our archers and pike men to fight on the galley decks when we attack the French fleet.

  Henry says if Yoram gets our messages in time we’ll have about twenty-six hundred archers in Cornwall by early spring plus about six hundred apprentice archers and pike men. Harold said he thinks we’ll have about fifty galleys and enough extra sailors on each galley for three prize crews. If Henry and Harold are right, and I think they are, it means we’ll have fifty to sixty archers on every galley’s deck when we hit the French fleet.

  Hmm. I wonder if some of the village women are strong enough to row? If they are, we might be able to attack the French fleet with more galleys.

  ******

  I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned and thought about everything and worried all night. The next morning, I set my fears aside, and scribed a long parchment describing the situation and what we planned to do about it. I sent it to Yoram in Cyprus on our fastest available galley with two non-archer rowers on every oar.

  We used non-archers for the galley’s rowers because we did not want to chance losing any of our valuable archers if a storm or bad piloting or pirates took the ship.

  In my parchment I explained the situation to Yoram and ordered him to reroute all of our galleys and all available archers, sailors, and weapons—especially the arrow bales and bladed pikes in our Cyprus stores—to Cornwall and to greatly increase his shipments of corn and other famine supplies. We particularly need, I scribed, to increase the number of immediately available archers and sailors on the Fowey and our reserves of corn and dried fish and oil so we can feed them.

  Fortunately, we should have enough time to gather in what needs to be gathered and do what needs to be done to get ready. It will undoubtedly take months for Phillip to muster the French army and gather enough transports and mercenaries together so his army can sail for England.

  In four days, I’ll send a second and similarly crewed galley to Cyprus with the same message, on the off chance the first parchment doesn’t reach its destination.

  We think we have several advantages. For one, Phillip of France and the barons don’t know we’re coming or how we intend to hit them. Another advantage we have, hopefully, is Phillip’s spies will not be too concerned about us, because we are not knights. They know little about us, because we don’t fight in the tournaments they consider so important in weighing an enemy’s fighting skills and honing their own.

  In essence, we believe the French and the barons will be watching the preparations of King John and his military commander, Sir William Marshal, and ignoring us. If so, they won’t find out about our involvement and abilities until we begin killing them and taking their transports and the armour and ransoms of the French knights and nobles—and, most importantly, in the matter of the Earl of Devon, his castle and lands.

  ******

  Part of our plan to deal with the French and the barons is to get information as to their abilities and intentions and keep them from learning anything about ours. Our need for secrecy means only Thomas and my lieutenants can know why we are moving our galleys and men and weapons about and how we intend to use them. Everyone else, including the king, William Marsha
l, and our own men, must be kept in the dark so we can surprise the French.

  It also means we need to find out as much as possible about what the French and the rebel barons are capable of doing and intend to do. We need spies and we need to get them into place quickly so their information will be useful. We should have done this years ago.

  “We need more than just spies,” Thomas reminded us last night.” We need their information in time for us to reach the French transports when they are still assembling. Getting the word to us in time means we’ll need to have dependable couriers as well.”

  “Look at the map,” Harold had demanded last night as he unrolled one of our parchment maps.” Phillip and his army and transports are almost certainly going to assemble near the mouth of the Seine, probably at or near the port of Honfleur. We’ve got to get someone who speaks French into one of the waterfront taverns, with at least one fishing boat, and preferably two, standing by to carry messages. It’s the only way we’ll ever be able to know where and when to strike.”

  “Yes,” Henry said, “and we also need someone permanently in Exeter until it’s ours and someone on the road further to the east of Oakhampton. We do, thank God, have someone in London who can keep an eye on the local barons and their shipping—if he’s up to it and stays sober.”

  ******

  Our basic plan for Exeter, Honfleur, and the road east of Okehampton is actually quite simple—spend whatever amount of coins it takes to buy an alehouse or tavern or stable and send someone who can understand the local dialect to run it. This is likely to be easier said than done, particularly since we must do it rather quickly.

  My initial thought was to send Jeanette, who spied for us in Constantinople, to Exeter to be our local spy. Henry looked startled and nearly fell off his bench when I mentioned it. Things must be further along between the widow and Henry than I realised, and good on them for finding each other.

  We compromised—we’ll send Jeanette to Exeter for a week or so with one of the older archer sergeants, Robert from Rougham, and his new wife. We’ll also send a fishing boat with a two dependable sailors who were once fisherman and want to be promoted to chosen men. Jeanette will return to Cornwall as soon as she gets Robert and his wife settled and instructed about what to listen for and how to behave.

  We’ll also send a rider with a horse cart who can keep his horse in an Exeter stable and work at the tavern and carrying goods around the city—and to us when a message needs to be carried. We’ll do something similar a day’s journey or two past Okehampton on the old Roman road and at Honfleur using a fishing boat.

  Honfleur, at the entrance to the Seine, is so important and the winds in the channel so sudden and treacherous, we’ll need at least two fishing boats available to carry every message in case one gets lost or blown out to sea. This means buying the boats and finding archers or sailors who can pretend to be repairing them to explain why they are not out fishing. Perhaps they can claim to have put into shore due to a leak in need of repairing or a fortune teller’s warning.

  ******

  Thomas himself will immediately go to wherever King John and his court are located carrying a parchment contract for the king to sign as if we are mercenaries—but not to tell him our plans, only to get his permission to fight the French and any rebel barons wherever we find them. Its key provision is that we get to permanently keep Rougemont and Exeter as freeholds if Devon joins the barons. Hopefully the king will agree; he should, because our replacing the Earl of Devon will serve to weaken the barons opposed to the king.

  That was our plan until one of Raymond’s outriders galloped into Oakhampton to report a party of a dozen or more hard-riding horsemen coming in from the east on the old Roman road. They sound like fighting men for sure, and there is no telling who might be coming in behind them. They could be the advance party of an invading army.

  Chapter Four

  William

  I ordered Raymond and his Horse Archers to leave Okehampton so they’d be outside the walls and available to worry our enemies in the event the approaching riders were the vanguard of a larger force. We raised the drawbridge behind them when they finished clattering out over it, and then we watched as they headed west to avoid being seen by the incoming riders. It was probably an unnecessary precaution but good practice for a rapid movement of our forces; Henry noticed several minor problems and so did an embarrassed Raymond.

  “He hasn’t practiced them enough, has he?” Henry said to me out of the side of his mouth. We were watching an outraged Raymond shout at a two laggards who were having trouble getting their weapons and supplies lashed onto their supply horses.

  Overall, Raymond’s rapid mobilization of his men and their departure went rather well. Less than thirty minutes after the galloper entered the bailey with his message, only a handful of outriders and their horses remained in the castle along with the ship’s company of archers who had accompanied us here.

  Henry and I climbed the stone stairs at the north end of the great hall to join Harold, Peter, and Thomas at the lookouts’ position above the battlements on the slate roof of the keep. Up here is by far the best place to watch for travelers and armies on the road.

  ******

  It was a beautiful late-October day with great white clouds over the distant channel. From the slate roof we watched the tail end of Raymond’s column of horsemen disappearing over the fields towards Launceston at a fast trot. We could also hear the sergeants in the bailey below us shouting and watched the archers of our escort company striking their tents, carrying them into the hastily vacated stables, and moving to take up their hurriedly assigned defensive positions on the wall and in the towers.

  Everywhere the countryside looked normal. In the distance we could see several ox-drawn wains moving slowly towards us on the Exeter road and a horse cart coming towards the castle gate with a huge load of hay.

  “There. There they are. See them?” Harold said as he pointed.

  “Where? Oh, yes. Can you make out how many?”

  “I’m not sure. About a dozen, I’d say.”

  We watched with great and growing interest as the band of horsemen reached the turn-off to Okehampton and headed up the cart path to the castle. Perhaps it was how they rode, but somehow as we watched them approach we knew we were looking at a party of armed and dangerous men. There was no one in sight behind them.

  There are not enough of them to threaten us. It’s time to return things to an appearance of normal until we find out who they are.

  “John!” I bellowed down to the senior sergeant commanding the company of archers.” Lower the drawbridge, tell your men to hide their weapons in the stables, and get everyone back to work on the new wall.”

  Twenty minutes later, my lieutenants and Thomas and I were standing in the bailey as a dozen travel-worn horsemen clattered over the drawbridge and entered. They were led by William Marshal, the commander of the king’s army.

  ******

  Our meeting was warm and friendly—which somehow pleased me and made me wish to make him welcome, probably because he was a famous knight and the commander of the King’s army and wasn’t treating me as a jumped-up former serf who was somehow able to buy a title.

  “Hello, Sir William. Welcome to Okehampton,” I said with a smile on my face as several of the local women working in the castle hurried to the dismounting men with bowls of ale. I held out my hand.

  “It’s good to see you, it is indeed, your lordship,” he said, returning the gesture.” And God must be with us, for you are indeed the man I’ve come to see. I expected we’d have to spend many more days on the road to reach you in Cornwall.”

  Behind him, his men were dismounting and either eagerly grasping the offered bowls of ale or pissing. One of the knights promptly pulled down his breeches and dropped a great turd with a sigh of relief and then dipped his hand in his bowl of ale and used it to wipe his arse.

  I wager Thomas is furious beneath the welcoming smile he has pla
stered on his face. Taking a shite inside a building or bailey is a serious offense for our men. He’d read in one of the monastery’s Roman scrolls it should not be allowed, and we’ve always humoured him by forbidding it.

  “Well then, if you’ve come to speak with me, it may indeed be God’s will we are met so fine,” I replied.” Why don’t you leave your horses for my men to feed and water and come into the hall for some ale and bread whilst you warm yourself in front of the fire. But first let me introduce you to my lieutenants and the Bishop of Cornwall. It’s a most rare thing you’ve done by finding us all together. Usually we’re spread out over half the world tending to our galleys and cogs, and to the men we have stationed in the trading posts we’ve established at various ports far from England.”

  ******

  As we walked into Okehampton’s great hall, I named each of my lieutenants to Sir William with a brief description of his responsibilities. Thomas I named as the Bishop of Cornwall and the man in charge of famine relief, without mentioning he is my brother and a key lieutenant. I explained Thomas had come here with us to visit Lady Isabel Courtenay who is in charge of making sure all of Okehampton’s people receive a proper share of the relief foods we are bringing in on our transports.

  I also didn’t mention Thomas was one of our senior commanders and an experienced fighting man, here primarily to participate in the planning for our upcoming fight with the French and the rebel barons.

  Sir William, in turn, named his companions as knights of his household and their squires. Lady Isabel came down the stone stairs as we entered the hall. I motioned her forward and introduced her to Sir William who bowed and kissed her extended hand. I noticed a flicker of fear when she heard Sir William’s name. She knows, as we all do, that he is close to the king and does his bidding.