by Smith, Skye
She knew that eventually Henry would be drawn over to Normandy. Even if there is peace there, he must still visit occasionally. The folk of the Cherbourg Peninsular still considered him their lord, despite the honors having been given to the Duke by the Treaty of Alton. Besides, once in Normandy, Henry would be obliged to visit the surrounding counties, like Boulogne, and also Paris.
Last year he had promised her that once she bore him a male heir, he would make her the Regent whenever he was not in the kingdom. Soon, if not already, he would be in Wales. This was good practice, not just for her being regent, but for the nobility in accepting her as regent.
The few ladies still in attendance, mostly her ladies, clapped loudly in their approval of a woman sealing Royal proclamations. This had not happened in England for decades.
Now Edith walked over and up to the throne, and took her crown from the table beside it and placed it on her own head. It was her least ornate crown, just a gold band with no jewels. Then she straightened to her full height and spoke out Raynar's words, but in French, with a confident voice, though inside she felt weak as if she were about to faint. She must trust in Ray.
"My next proclamation is due to the number of hungry folk, my folk, who are coming to Winchester from the country in search of food. I am not pleased by this, as there is more food to be had by them in the country than here in this city. I proclaim that my treasury agents will undertake to find out which villages these folk are from and to provide temporary food and transport for them to return to their villages.
Moreover, I will consider it a sign of a lord's incompetence that he cannot feed his own folk and his own villages, as shown by their fleeing his villages over the winter months. I hereby order my sheriffs and my treasury agents to make note of such incompetence, to be used in reference the next time that I review the distribution of honors."
The mostly male audience listened to her words and then an unruly uproar began. There were many men yelling out, and the clerks were banging their small hammers on the recording table to regain order. Only once did the clerk yell out, "Are there any comments about this proclamation?” before four lords stood forward, some pushed forward by those beside them.
One spoke for all, "You have no authority to make such a proclamation on behalf of the King's sheriffs, and the King's treasury, about honors that are the King's to give.” It was a logical and legal argument, at least from the point of view of Norman law.
"Guards,” Edith yelled out, "Disarm this man. By questioning my authority he has threatened my person."
In these troubled times where a Norman civil war had been threatened three times in three years, the palace guards were all tall, strong, blonde, and English, some armed with bows and some with pikes. The pike men now leaped forward from the shadows caused by the huge tapestries hung on the wall, and while some formed a protective line in front of their queen, some others dragged the lord to the ground and held him there with a pole axe blade across the back of his neck.
Women screamed. Some of the lords moved forward to rescue their spokesman, but stopped in their tracks as bowmen stepped into the light with nocked arrows, with their deadly points aimed at their chests. Everyone froze in place.
"Perhaps there was some misunderstanding,” Edith spoke out, and everyone hushed to hear her words in hopes that they would bring peace again to the room. "There is a treasury agent in the court,” she pointed to Raynar. "You, come forward and answer me. Do I have the right to make this proclamation, and will the King's sheriffs and treasury obey my order as if the words were from the King's mouth?"
Raynar stepped forward. The pikemen holding the lord down gave him a wink. With his warning they had been waiting to leap forward, all eager to thump some trumped up lord, and better still with the queen's permission.
"Your Highness,” he said showing unaccustomed deference to nobility. "For all we know, the King is in Wales and not in this kingdom at this moment. Your orders, therefore, are those of his Regent and will stand until they be retracted by he or thee. As Regent, all of the King's men and agents are yours to command. All of the Crown's honours are yours to command. There is no question of this."
Edith thanked him and walked between her pikemen to reach the ones who were holding the axe to the man's neck. "Let him rise, let him speak,” she said in a calm voice, though her heart was pumping so hard that she thought that every one must surely see it pumping beneath her robe. "Sir Nigel. Were your words said to refute my authority, or to clarify it to the others?"
As the man was pulled off his knees, an odour of latrine rose with him. The man had shit himself. "Your highness. My words were poorly chosen and I seek your forgiveness for them. I sought only a clarification."
"Do I have the authority to make this proclamation?” she asked him, trying not to blink as she stared him down.
"Yes, your Highness,” he said in a weak voice, very aware that the entire room could smell his fear at this moment.
"Then shall I sign and seal it?” she asked. Nigel looked as white as a ghost. The lads must have pummeled him a bit as they took him down.
"Yes, your Highness."
She waved to the clerks and twice more they asked "Are there any comments about the proclamations?” Meanwhile she walked over to the clerks desk and signed and sealed it. The guards slowly walked backwards to their places in the shadows of the walls.
The only other words that Edith officially spoke were to adjourn the court, but then of course, she had to exchange pleasantries for a half hour. She specifically made no mention that when court next came to order, it would be in Westminster. She and Raynar had both agreed that any advance notice of the move may work against them, as well as make the journey more perilous.
She looked for Ray as she walked out of the hall. He was sitting with the clerks, but his eyes were closed. One of the clerks saw her look his way and made a sign for sleeping. He was day dreaming again.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows by Skye Smith
Chapter 19 - Gateshead on Tyne, Northumbria in March 1080
The only trip that Raynar had made away from Judith in the winter of '80 was a month spent traveling to Winchester and back to visit with John and Marion. His arrival made Marion decided to marry John, so that he could stand for them. Their baby was a very large boy. Marion swore he was the image of John, but Raynar could not see it. The baby could easily have been his.
When he asked if she knew the father by the size of the baby, she told him that it was because of the eyes. Who was he to argue with the mother. All of them were better off with her married to John, and John was beyond the moon with joy at his new wife and son.
Winchester had been very quiet. Regent Odo preferred London or Canterbury. The Conqueror and most of his nobility were still in Normandy. John and he had ridden long and wide through the forest land that formed a horseshoe around Winchester. They had taken every opportunity to warn the folk they met that William's Forest Edict my be just the beginning of him claiming the forest land for himself. Most of the folk had simply shrugged their shoulders as if to say "what were they to do about it".
In that same month Beatrice signed a contract with Ivo Taillebois, the Sheriff of Lincolnshire. She had lost her nerve after a rough Norman knight had visited her manor and expected a bit more of her than simple hospitality. The knight had suffered a nasty riding accident the very next day, but it was forewarning enough for Beatrice to agree to Ivo's offer of betrothal for Lucy, and protection for Beatrice.
The cog Anske shuddered under him and brought his mind back to the tiller. There were still some winter swells in these northern waters. He locked the tiller into a course notch so he could take a good long look at the ships following him. There were four. Two cogs like his, and two karvis that were fit only for carrying animals, which were filled with sheep about to lamb. The cogs carried no livestock, just barrels of seed corn, and stacks of farm tools and cooking pots and
barrels of French wine.
The two countesses had shamed and cajoled him into sailing north early in the season with the all the supplies that Judith's Northumbrian tenants would need for planting season. Judith's arguement was that he was still her steward and it was his duty to get the farms producing again. Beatrice's arguement was that this is what Thorold would have wanted him to do.
His plan was to sail up the River Tyne to Gateshead where the old bridge would block his ships, and then send for Ligulf who could help him quickly organize the delivery the supplies before the lambs dropped. He would have Ligulf send messengers into the hills to find the reiver Gregor Nesbit with an offer to trade barrels of French wine for dairy cattle, and a promise not to thieve from his tenants.
* * * * *
Someone’s mounted scouts had been following their ships on both banks of the Tyne for some miles now. Those on the south bank were probably bishop-prince Walcher's men, and hopefully not Sir Gilbert. Those on the north bank looked Scottish, and he wondered if there were still Scottish forces camped at Gateshead. Luckily they had a following wind, so that the oarsmen were not needed on their oars and could stand ready with their bows instead.
There was a loud noise coming from all the sheep on the karvis as all the sheilas could smell fresh grass after so many days at sea. He pitied the poor oarsmen that manned those old ships because he could smell the sheep from here.
There was a camp on the north side of the bridge at Gateshead and Raynar had men hail the men ashore to fetch someone of authority. The man that eventually rode along the bank to talk with them spoke English, so that was a good sign. It turned out that it was a Scottish camp, but a Scottish camp of exiles that Malcolm had left behind to keep sir Gilbert south of the Tyne. The man called back that he would send a message to bring Ligulf.
Against his better judgment, Raynar was forced to land on the north bank, because the sheilas were close to the sheep equivalent of a riot. With bowmen on all the high point on the bank to defend them, the crew all worked like mad to build a pen out of bush and willow boughs so they could bring the sheep ashore.
With the sheep ashore they were forced to send out pickets on land, rather than sleeping safely on their ships. The winter had been hard here in the north, and the people were hungry enough to eat seed corn or unborn lambs. The sheep were unaware of all this and grazed greedily on the early spring grasses.
Raynar was greatly relieved by Ligulf's arrival early the next morning. His crew had been awake all night staring into the blackness and expecting a raid. Ligulf had been forewarned about the ships and the sheep and the plucky landlord had brought fifty men with him to help guard the ships while arrangements were being made to bring carts to the ships.
Ligulf had a few houses, but this winter he had moved his family from their largest near Dun Holm, into the smallest, and roughest one just north of the bridge at Gateshead. "It's that fucker Gilbert,” he told Raynar, "I feared for my family's safety because I had been speaking out against him to both Walcher and Malcolm. We were cramped and a bit damp, but at least we were safe because Gilbert would never be allowed to cross the bridge."
* * * * *
Within the week scouts were long gone into the hills searching for Gregor, and farms were, one by one, being supplied with seed, tools and ewes. Once Gregor arrived they would also have dairy cattle to pull the new ploughs. The farmwives were all elated by having a cooking pot again. During the great harrowing, all metal had been confiscated by the Normans, including cooking pots. Metal pots were costly and had not been replaced, which was a mark of how poor life on the farms had been for a decade.
Ligulf was joyous to be helping do such good work. On his advice they had decided to supply Judith's lands north of the Tyne first, for they were suspicious that Sir Gilbert may stop the carts from moving south of the Tyne. This despite Raynar's assurances that his seventy bowmen were more than a match for any Norman knight.
"You do not know this man, Raynar,” said Ligulf after looking over his shoulder to see who else could hear his words. "Gilbert is brutal. A murderer. A rapist. He acts without pity or mercy or remorse. He has been known to kill a peasant just because he got in the way of his horse."
"Do not worry about him. The exiles tell me that Malcolm's price is still on his head. He will come to a bad end and soon. If not by the exiles, then by my bowmen, and if not by them, then by the clan Nesbit."
* * * * *
The weeks passed and the sheep were almost all delivered, and just in time, for they were now dropping their lambs. Gregor had sent word back with a messenger to hold aside a ship full of wine barrels because of the size and quality of the dairy herd he was bringing. Raynar couldn't help but wonder about who east of them along the border was now missing their cattle.
Ligulf was still resisting the delivery of supplies south of the Tyne. So resistant, in fact, that he had sent for Eadulf, his clan's competitor, to see what he suggested. The last of the supplies were therefore also delivered to farms north of the Tyne, but this time to farms that used to pay rent to Cospatrick.
"It makes sense,” said Ligulf, defending his temporary truce with Eadulf, "for it will stop neighbours from stealing from one another."
With the deliveries almost done, and some farms already planting, and most lambs on their own feet, there was not much left for the ships to do, and there was no cargo here to load for the trip back south, so Raynar redistributed the crews and sent all the ships but the Anske back to the Wash.
The ship's captains had been pushing for this decision for a week now, because the trading season would be heating up in the south and they wanted those earnings in their purses. Raynar's reluctance was not because of loosing the ships, but because of loosing their oarsmen-bowmen. However, as the captains constantly pointed out, the exiles had proven their loyalty, and every farm that now had sustenance would provide fyrdmen if they were needed.
His decision coincided with the arrival of Gregor. He had forgotten how wild his clan was. Raynar had led wolfpacks for years in the south, but none of his men ever wore wolf skins. This clan prided themselves on wearing those skins. This seemed all upside down to Raynar, for the scent of a wolf skin could scare game and horses, yet this Nesbit clan were renown horse thieves.
With Gregor's clan on the banks of the Tyne, his last reason for holding the extra oarsmen here had disappeared and so in early May he allowed the ships to leave for the south. The herd of dairy cattle were left at Ligulf's house under the guard of Ligulf and his family.
Ligulf and Eadulf had everything under control, so when Gregor offered to trade some farm horses for some of the cooking pots, Raynar agreed and he went with Gregor and a few of his clan into the hills to choose the horses.
When they returned, and were coming down the last slope and onto the coastal plain, they knew there was trouble by the smoke. After leaving the farm horses with four men, the rest raced with Raynar and Gregor towards the smoke. As they came close they saw that it was Ligulf's house. The fire was almost out when they reached there, thanks to the crew from the Anske and the guard from the bridge at Gateshead.
Ligulf, his wife, his mother, his children, his men and their wives and children had all be slaughtered by sword and spear. The cattle had been scattered. Eadulf was with the bridge guard and was so angry he was raising the local fyrd to give chase to the fiends that had done this.
"We were first here,” reported Raynar's second from the Anske, "but not until we saw the smoke. The folk were long dead by then."
The captain of the bridge guard added. "We figure that they lit the roofs to draw us away from the bridge so that they could escape south."
"They?” asked Raynar.
"Gilbert of course."
"Where are the rest of our crew?” Raynar asked his second.
"The tillerman used the ship to ferry them across to Gateshead. They were going to try to cut the raiders off , but of course, we from the ship are all on foot, so they probably got a
way."
"Gregor,” Raynar yelled out. "Have your men loan their horses to my bowmen, quickly now. You men must guard our ship until we return."
Gregor began yelling orders immediately, and there was a mad scramble for horses. There were fewer bowmen than highlanders so a half a dozen Nesbits, including Gregor, were still mounted and rode with Raynar along the bank towards the bridge, then across and towards Gateshead.
They knew they were getting close to the action by the increasing number of dead horses and dying riders, the result of heavy arrows taking down galloping horses. The tillerman’s bowmen must have caught the Normans just before the square in front of the church for that was where there was the largest number of dying and dead horses.
There was a call "Over here” and the mounted men swung quickly towards the church. The tillerman was waiting there behind a low wall. "We don't think they have bows, but no one wants to find out the hard way,” said the tillerman. "There are about twenty of them inside the church. We have them surrounded, but there were only enough of us to put three bows on each side, so send the rest of the bowmen to join them."
Gregor looked around at the slaughter of horses and their riders, "By Caillech, your bows did this? I'll trade some wine back for some of those bows."
The last horsemen to reach them was Eadulf and some of his men. "Eadulf,” called Raynar, "We have them trapped in the church. Go now and fetch Walcher. We need Walcher to pass a death sentence before we kill these bastards, else the Normans will hold us accountable."
"The earliest we could get back is tomorrow,” replied Eadulf.
"They aren't going anywhere, but try to get the message to Walcher today."
* * * * *
Walcher arrived with a hundred armed men early in the afternoon the next day, May 14. His armed men immediately surrounded the church. Walcher and Eadulf dismounted near to Raynar and Gregor. He shook Raynar by the arm, but ignored the reiver.