4.
477–491
The Founding of Sussex – My Father
Meets with Misfortune
It was late in July by the time we were ready to sail, with the ships well provisioned, and all our plans settled at last. We filled three large warships, which I suppose meant that we were rather more than a hundred and fifty men all told, but I never could induce Aella to make an accurate count. The Germans hold that the gods would regard such a proceeding as in the nature of boasting of one’s invincible power, and that they would at once take steps to see that the numbers were diminished; it is the same belief that makes gamblers reluctant to count their winnings while they are at play, but it does not make the task of the commander any easier.
We could have taken more men, for Aella was popular, but he only had the three ships, and he could not afford to buy more; as it was, he had been compelled to make a gift of his hereditary lands in Germany to a boat-builder. He was a rich man, for he had done well in earlier raids, but the maddening German system of present-giving caused him to waste a great deal of his wealth; as a famous leader he had to set an example of generosity. Even his comrades, including myself, had parted with many of their armlets; we would have to make a success of this expedition, or remain poor for the rest of our lives.
The weather was fair, with a northeasterly breeze. We relied on our sails, and coasted without incident past the mouths of the Rhine; it is a notorious spawning ground of pirates, and we saw a number of their vessels, but they would not molest three warships filled with fighting men. There were three Woden-born warriors in the fleet, besides Aella and myself, and each had been given the direction of a ship, under the supreme command of our leader; he, of course, travelled on the biggest, and I went with him as guide and spare officer. It may seem odd, but it is the fact, that I felt no compunction about leading this attack on my native land. Constans had tried to take my fairly-earned plunder, and I had been compelled to stab him; I had finished with Rome, and Christianity, and all the ways of civilized men; I was a Woden-born noble of the family of Aellinga, and a wolf to every peaceful sheep of Britain.
We reached the Saxon settlement in Gaul without using oars. All the pirate ships of the Channel water there, and we filled our pots without asking leave, or giving presents to anyone; the Saxon settlers round about were a poor lot, faint-hearted spearmen who had found raiding too dangerous, and they watched our well-armed swordbearers from a distance. As fifth-in-command I was too grand to take part in manual labour, and I kept a general eye on things in a dignified manner; thank Heaven for that, since taking in water for a fleet is about the most back-breaking task that seamen ever do.
Then we hung about off the Gallic coast for three days, waiting for a calm, and a wisp of fog with it if we were lucky; I knew exactly where I wanted to land in Britain, but if you depend on sails the best pilot can overshoot the mark, especially in those fast-running Channel tides.
Of course our chief problem was one of numbers. We had three ships, say between a hundred and fifty and a hundred and eighty men; with this army we intended to conquer a Kingdom that supported a permanent comitatus of five hundred men, and could also put into the field, in an emergency, about four thousand able-bodied peasants. The solution I had proposed was that we should land in the far west of the Kingdom, and strike inland at once for the shelter of the Forest; there we would lie quiet for a few days, allowing the Regnians to think we had gone north to the raiding grounds of the midlands. Meanwhile we would send messengers to the Kent-folk, where Aella was remembered as a popular leader; many of the comrades would probably desert the unwarlike Oisc to enlist in our band. So we had to land exactly at the right spot, where there would be few armed inhabitants to dispute the landing, an easy passage up the cliffs, and a good track leading to the Forest.
The third night was perfect. There was not a breath of wind, and the mist made it impossible to see for more than half a mile in any direction. We rowed gently during the short darkness of July, and landed at dawn at a little beach below a chine in the cliffs. We took a solemn oath to conquer or die, without ever returning to Germany, and left the ships drawn up on the shore. The Saxons frequently take this oath, which has a special formula well known to all of them, but I cannot say that it has a great deal of influence on their conduct; a beaten Saxon army is just as anxious to escape as a Roman one.
The landing-place lay about six miles from Noviomagus, on the open coast to the southeast. We took our gear out of the ships, and were heavy laden as we struggled up the rough path to the top of the cliff; but there was nobody in that neighbourhood except a few families of coloni, who had the good sense to flee at once. An hour after the ships had touched the ground we were ready to set off; I led the way inland, over steep grassy slopes that were exhausting to climb, but open and dry.
It might have been a nuisance if the garrison of Noviomagus had come out to fight a battle while we were laden with our baggage and still stiff from the voyage; but I calculated that the fugitives would be in too much of a hurry to count our numbers, and that the commander of the town would think first of closing the gates and manning his wall. All the Romans were well used to giving safe passage to German raiders, so long as the enemy did not linger to plunder; he would be glad to hear from his scouts that we were marching swiftly inland.
Before it was completely dark we reached the outskirts of the Forest. It had been a very tiring day, endless slogging uphill over slippery, grassy slopes, and no food since the breakfast we had eaten before dawn. But in my experience nine-tenths of raiding is very hard work, and one could earn a living with less toil by growing corn peacefully at home.
We had brought enough bread to last three days, and every man was furnished with a short bow and hunting-arrows; the Forest is full of wild deer, and they are at their fattest in the late summer. The only trouble was that we had not dared to bring hounds, for they would certainly have given away our hiding-place, and these Germans, who dwell in swamps and open heaths, are not very clever at finding game in dense woodland. We would be hungry while we waited for the reinforcements from Kent; well, that was one of the charms of a raiding life, and we would just have to grin and bear it. We slept in the open, without fires, and in the morning I led half a dozen men to a little farm, where I remembered that my father’s horses were put out to grass. We caught the whole family working near the homestead and killed them, so that no one got away to raise the alarm. I forbade the men to set fire to the huts, and they obeyed; for they were youngsters on their first campaign, and still rather awed that it was so easy to kill human beings. One peasant recognized me, and cried shame on me for a traitor before we cut him down; but my men understood not a word of Celtic, and thought he was only shouting defiance.
This episode worried me a little, for I did not want Aella to know that I was waging war on my father; no German would understand the excellent reason I had for such a drastic step. It would be wiser if in the future I kept in the background when men were being slain in cold blood, or it would seem curious that the victims always insulted me in particular; in battle anything a Regnian shouted would be taken for no more than a war-cry.
We found three fat grass-fed ponies on the farm, which was what we were looking for; three messengers were despatched at once to the comitatus of the Kent-folk, to say that all who were tired of the peaceful Oisc would find good plunder waiting for them in the band of their old leader, Aella. Then we settled down to exist on very scanty meals until they arrived.
For about three weeks we lived somehow in the Forest, ekeing out our bread and then falling back on deer and berries. It was a miserable opening to a campaign, and it made us weak for the battle we soon must face, but nobody actually died of hunger; I have always associated Forest-life with an empty stomach, ever since I led that ghastly retreat after the defeat of Count Ambrosius. But the volunteers arrived, two hundred strong, on the evening of the twenty-first day since we had landed, and they had the forethought to
bring food with them.
Now we could abandon all concealment, and the sooner the comitatus of the Regni found us the sooner we would conquer their land. Three hundred and fifty Saxons should be more than a match for the force they could bring against us, for they had to leave garrisons in the two cities of the Kingdom, and probably a few detachments on the coast as well. On a fine August morning in the year 477 we marched southeastward to the open country, aiming at a point midway between the two cities. We set fire to everything that would burn as we swept across the countryside. It was important that we should fight while we had a good meal inside us, for no one had any idea where the next one was coming from.
It was about six hours after we had started when the left-hand detachment, under a leader called Cymen, sighted the enemy; they had occupied the remains of one of the old hill-forts that are dotted about the country in my native land more frequently than in any other part of Britain. We checked and drew into one body when we saw the position they had taken; Saxons are very easily baffled by any sort of fortification. But we could not march by the enemy and tempt him to come down to us, since from their lofty station they could see exactly what we were doing; and we should give them an opportunity to attack us in detail when we scattered to plunder. By good fortune I happened to know that hill-fort very well, and I was able to tell Aella that it was not so formidable as it appeared; the ramparts were grass-grown, and the decay of centuries had weathered the outer face to a gentle slope; an active man could get up anywhere without using his hands. There was also a broad entrance on the far side, where at least five men could charge in abreast. Aella decided to take the risk of an immediate attack, for the sake of the moral effect on our own men if we were successful. We marched swiftly towards the hill-fort, brandishing our swords.
This meant close hand-to-hand fighting at once, in which our savage and well-armed men would have an advantage over the more civilized enemy. It is always a mistake to expose Germans to skirmishing in open ground; they are bad shots themselves, and sometimes their ridiculous honour makes them reluctant to dodge the darts of the enemy. Aella was naturally going to place the veterans from Kent at the head of the column, since they were his best troops; but I dared to give my advice, though I was only fifth-in-command. I pointed out that this would be a very hazardous attack and that the Kent-folk had been beaten off many times in the past when they tried to storm Roman entrenchments; they would advance knowing the dangers of the enterprise, and warriors who half expect a defeat are well on the way to earning it. Would it not be better, I said, to send first the untried recruits, many of whom had never seen a battle; if we did not exhort them too much they would think the attack must be a simple affair. He took my advice and, since it was my idea, I was expected to lead the forlorn hope.
I have always taken great care to preserve my life in battle; I have been a warrior for nearly sixty years, and I have very few serious wounds to show for it; but there are a few rare occasions when the leader simply has to show courage, if the operation is to have a chance of success. I believe that you are born with a certain limited stock of bravery inside you, and that if you don’t squander it foolishly it will be there when you desperately need it. I set my teeth and led the raw recruits straight at the gap.
We got in all right, but it was one of the most desperate fights I have ever seen. The other borders of the Regni must have been at peace, for all the best warriors of the comitatus stood waiting for me. I don’t think I was recognized, for in close battle a sensible man watches his opponent’s swordarm, not his face, whatever the fencing-masters may say; and the general outline of my appearance was shaggy and barbarian. In a stand-up fight, when there are only a few hundred men on each side, Saxons ought always to beat Romans; they are accustomed to eat more, and are altogether bigger and stronger, man for man; it is only when the armies are large enough for drill and tactics to count that the well-educated Roman leaders have the advantage. The rear of our column put down their heads and pushed, and I had to perform prodigies of valour to keep a space clear in front of me. Finally, after what seemed like hours, Wlenca, the third of our Woden-born captains, led his detachment over the grassy bank to take the enemy in flank. There was no doubt that the Romans were getting the worst of it, and the normal ending to such a simple fight would have been for the weakest of them to slip quietly away, while the heroes closed up their ranks and fought to the last. But old Maximus must have been in command (for I would have noticed if my father had been there), and he was much too wily to fight to the bitter end in a battle that was already lost. Just when it was time for the heroes to win immortal glory, all the Romans began to retreat together. They disengaged so neatly, and formed up in well-ordered ranks so quickly, that we were left panting and exhausted on the hill-top while they withdrew. I knew that their horses would be hidden somewhere near, and that pursuit would be fruitless. Aella agreed, and called on the whole army to reform where it stood; we held the place of slaughter at the end of the fight, which is all the poets ever think about, but our success was a very technical one.
The battle had really settled nothing. We were no nearer a successful siege of one of their towns, where all the valuable plunder would be stored, although we had the run of the open country; we could have recruited more men from Kent, but Aella did not want to swamp his original followers with newcomers who might wish to set up another leader, and King Oisc might come down on our rear if we began to take away all his army.
In the end we decided to stay where we were. There was a good stream of clear water at the foot of the hill on which the fort stood, and we could scarp the ramparts again and reinforce them with a palisade of stakes from the Forest. Then we could begin to take the harvest away from the coloni as fast as they reaped it, while the fighting-men of the Regni manned the walls of their cities. It was a new experiment in tactics; previously the Saxons had either raided destructively over a wide area, and then dashed off home with their plunder, or settled down in a little corner, wiped out the native inhabitants, and ploughed the land. We would make the Romans work for us, without the hard fighting of a formal conquest.
The plan worked very well during that autumn and winter. The comitatus of the Regni made one effort to dislodge us, but it came to nothing; we had captured enough horses to have a good screen of scouts all round the hill-fort, so we had warning of their coming. Some of the young warriors wished to give battle in the fort, arguing that since we had turned the Romans out with approximately equal numbers we ought to be able to hold the ramparts against anything they could do; but I persuaded Aella to take refuge in the Forest. I have always dreaded the outcome of a siege of barbarians by Roman troops; civilized men can usually arrange for a regular food supply, and they keep their camp clean and so avoid disease; while barbarians insist on eating enormous meals whenever they feel hungry (which is all the time), you cannot get them to bury their rubbish, and you lose half your army by dysentery and hunger. As you will learn later in this book, the only serious defeat I ever suffered was after I had allowed myself to be shut up in a hill-fort, although on that occasion it was the only refuge within reach.
We burnt our huts and took our plunder to the Forest; the Regnians were anxious about keeping their forces so far inland when there were pirates hovering off the coast, and soon made up their minds that they had driven us away; they went back to Anderida, and when our scouts told us they had gone we returned to our hill-fort again. After that they left us in peace for the winter.
We gathered plenty of food from that harvest, but Aella’s plan that we should get the coloni to grow corn for us was not a success; it depended on leaving them enough of their own food to keep them alive until next year, and even more on not killing them wantonly for amusement. The young warriors on their first campaign might have been amenable, for cruelty comes with practice; but the veterans from Kent were convinced they knew all about how to settle a conquered land, they had learned to enjoy slaughter, and they soon got the recruits to
follow their example. I quite agree that there is great pleasure to be got out of destroying a village, and on the appropriate occasions I have enjoyed it myself, but a little restraint then would have meant an easier life for all of us in the future. We kept our Yule in a deserted wilderness.
After the feast Aella called a council, to decide on our long-term plans for the next few years. Cymen and Cissa, two of the captains, made the obvious suggestion that we should move on in the spring, find untouched country, and harry that bare until it was exhausted. But we would never found a state by laying waste a different countryside every year, and Aella wanted to die a real King, of a Kingdom with ploughed fields and defined boundaries. Wlenca also wished to settle down; he did not aspire to an independent Kingdom, but hoped for a large estate and the position of a leading nobleman under King Aella and his successors. That made us three to two in favour of staying where we were, and eventually Cymen and Cissa agreed to submit to the majority.
I had thought of a plan, and I persuaded the rest of the council to give it a trial. It was based on the fact that the Kingdom of the Regni rested on the walls of two strong cities more than fifty miles apart; when I was dwelling peacefully in Anderida I had often reflected on the awkward shape of the Kingdom, whose available forces were nearly always concentrated at one extremity of the arable and tax-paying land. With a little encouragement the Regni might decide to give up the less important of the two cities, which was undoubtedly Noviomagus; Anderida was the stronger fortress, and the favourite home of the King. I proposed that we beset Noviomagus closely, without actually committing ourselves to a siege of its Roman walls. If the garrison marched out to offer battle we would retire, and assault the town in their absence; otherwise we would leave them alone, but we would make sure that they usually went short of food, that the warriors got no hunting, and that the Bishop was unable to visit most of the parishes in his diocese. I remembered how the citizens of Calleva had abandoned their city with its walls intact, merely because they could not endure to live in the midst of incessant raids. If we kept up the pressure the citizens of Noviomagus might come to the same conclusion.
Conscience of the King Page 14