Hoodsman: Blackstone Edge

by Smith, Skye

  Chapter 25 - The surrender of the bailey at Huntingdon in May 1070

  The last to leave the bailey were seven knights and their knight commander. They left their armour and weapons in the bailey, either because they were too numerous and heavy to carry, or more likely to save themselves the embarrassment of handing them to churls and peasants. Each was wearing their most costly clothes and cloak and their grandest bejeweled weapons.

  Raynar and about thirty bowmen were standing at ease with bows knocked watching the procession and looking threateningly for anyone who may be likely to cause trouble. The knights walked past the remaining axemen who still had no armour.

  Suddenly two of the axemen leaped forward at the commander's throat. If the men beside them had been slower in hauling them down, they would have torn the commanders throat out. A warning arrow sprouted near the dagger hand of one of the axemen. He stood up without his dagger and ran towards Hereward with his hands out and showing that he carried no weapons.

  "I claim this man. He is mine. That rich fucker with long mustache," said the axeman. There was a sudden stillness in the ranks so that they could hear what was going on.

  "He was the fucker that gave the order to destroy my village. They burned the village. The whole village. My village. The houses, the barns, the church, everything. Me 'n me brother and some other of the men here, knew we would be killed so we fled ahead of them and were watching from the woods. Everything burned." The man began to wail as if he were reliving a nightmare.

  Hereward held the man by the elbow to steady him. "Come now. Under Knut's law you cannot kill this man for burning your house, or your village. You can try to make him pay you coin for the loss, but he will claim he was under orders from the king."

  The other axeman ran towards Hereward with his hands held away from his weapons belt. "My brother missed part of the story. You don't understand because he was too upset to tell it proper." He grabbed his brother' other arm and then looked around at the other Englishmen. "It was winter. All our animals were in the barns. All our kin were in the longhouse. They burned the barns and the longhouse but first they barred the doors. They wus all burned alive. The children, the women, the ealders, the cattle, the horses. All burned alive."

  The axemen standing closely started to rage at each other, and as the word of the deed spread through the crowd the noise became a hum and then a roar. Everyone in this square had lost someone to the harrowings. Some had lost all, like the brothers now pleading with Hereward.

  Hereward had to do something. He was about to loose control of the axemen and then there would be slaughter. He asked John, politely, if he would ask his bowmen to form a defensive ring around the knights.

  "Hold!" Hereward suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs and held his arms high so everyone could see who was talking, "these brothers have a legal claim to these knights from before my treaty with them. Their claim must be heard by a court. Step forwards all men who have served on a folkmoot before." He pointed to the first dozen men and motioned them to enter the circle within the bowmen.

  "Raynar, we will need you as translator to French. You two brothers, the moot must hear your oath that you will speak only the full truth to them. If there are any others from your village present, we would hear them too."

  Everyone on the field began to surge forward to be close enough to hear the moot.

  "Hold!" said Hereward, "if you wish to hear the moot, then you must come close and then sit, and you must not stand until the moot is finished." He pointed to the three squads of men in the abbot's armour who were guarding the bulk of the prisoners. "Take those men to the safety of the ships. I can no longer assure their safety here." The armoured men looked towards Raynar and Raynar nodded to confirm the order.

  The prisoners were anxious to be away from the anger of the axemen, though they did not know what had made them so angry so quickly. None of them spoke any of the English dialects other than the words for food and for whores. They trotted away between the ranks of the armoured axemen and out the burgh's gate.

  "Raynar, put down your weapons. You just became a lawyer. You must explain to these knights their rights under Knut's in-common laws. You must also swear to translate everything that the moot says, the witnesses say, and the knights say to the best of your ability without embellishing or shortening or changing the meanings. Do you so swear."

  "I so swear." Raynar dropped his weapons and walked to the knights and started speaking quickly with them in French. Each time he was interrupted he put up his hand to stop them until he was finished. He kept telling them to save their questions until his explanation was finished. He told them fully and honestly the claims they could make that may save them in this court.

  When he finished speaking there were few questions. The knight commander chose one of the other knights to be their spokesman. That knight explained that he had sat many times on the sheriffs court in York and was familiar with most of Knut's laws and penalties.

  All of the Englishmen, save the ring of bowmen, were now sat cross-legged on the grass. Hereward told the bowmen to also sit, but to face the crowd not the court. There were now five men from the same village inside the circle with Hereward, Raynar, the twelve of the moot, and the eight knights.

  Hereward spoke, "Everyone within the circle must introduce themselves to the court," Raynar translated. All twenty five did so. The knight commander was the second son of a Norman Baron. All the other knights were sworn to him.

  Hereward asked the first brother to state the name of the village, the date it was burned, and how many men, how many women, and how many children were thus murdered. They did so, though it took Raynar's help for the farmers to do the counts.

  "Are all of you freemen and therefore eligible to speak at a moot?" They all were. "I need each of you one at a time, to look carefully at these knights and swear to me which ones were at your village that day. While each of you does this I need the other four to turn their backs and place their hands over their ears.

  Each man picked out the same five knights and swore they were in charge of the men burning the village. The three that were not chosen were dismissed and were allowed to sit with the bowmen.

  Hereward now directed his questions to the five remaining knights. "Were you in that village on that day and did you burn that village?"

  The spokesman replied, "We burned a hundred villages that month. We have no special recollection of that specific village. We may have burned it, but we cannot swear to it, nor to the date."

  Hereward tried another tack. "It would have been a special village in your memories. These men swear that you burned the villagers and the animals alive in the buildings. Does that help you to remember?"

  The spokesman listened to Raynar’s translation and then looked at the other four knights. He turned back to Hereward and said, "When we first started clearing Yorkshire, our orders were to kill any strong Danelaw men, to drive everyone else out of the village and to burn anything they left.

  At that time we were clearing the villages where Danish ships could land for supplies. Later, when we were asked to clear all of Yorkshire, the number of villages became huge. We had not the time to wait for the villagers to pack and to clear. We just fired every roof as we rode through the village. There may have been folk trapped in those buildings. We did not tarry to find out."

  There was an angry murmur building in the crowd. Hereward picked up a shield and banged a battle axe against it. "Quiet down. We need to hear the witnesses, not the audience." The quiet came in a wave as the murmur had.

  "Do any of you deny burning these men's village?" asked Hereward.

  Again the knights discussed it with each other and Raynar translated, "We cannot deny it. We burned many villages. Many peasants were killed. We do not remember this village but we cannot swear to a denial."

  "Does anyone have anything else to add?" There was silence.

  The twelve men of the moot discussed the case for perhaps a half an ho
ur, and called on Raynar to help with the counts. Finally they chose a speaker and he said, "We find all five knights responsible for the death of the number of folk attested by the witnesses. The Wergild has been set and payment can be made in silver shillings or if you prefer in sheep, though with the price of sheep today, you would be far better paying in silver.

  For all the children you owe 250 shillings. For the wives and other women you owe 1,200 shillings. For the ealders and other men you owe 1,800 shillings. For the buildings and the stock you owe nothing, as you were ordered by your king to clear those. That means that you owe these men 3,250 shillings."

  Raynar translated. Even to a wealthy knight this was a sizeable sum. The knight commander started a speech that he should never have started and Raynar was oath bound to translate it, though he feared that it would seal these men’s fates. "You expect me to pay good silver because I killed some peasants. I am a noble knight. They are serfs. So much manure under my boots. If I must pay silver for killing peasants I will pay it to their lord, not to some stinking churl. Bring forward their lord so that I may discuss payment."

  Raynar told the bowmen to stand and nock arrows before he translated the commander's words. He was not altogether sure that the bowmen would not skewer these knights in their own anger. The effect of the words was like the start of a war and Hereward banged on the shield continuously until the crowd quieted and sat down again.

  Hereward looked hard at the knight and asked, "Do you have the 3,250 shillings or goods of the same value?"

  "Our armour, our horses, they are worth far more than a village of muck and churls," replied the commander.

  "Your armour and horses are mine. Do you have anything else to pay these men with? Raynar, explain to them what happens if they cannot pay," asked Hereward.

  The knights pulled out heavy purses that were secreted in their clothes. Raynar looked on at the collection of gold and silver coin. "They do not have enough," he said in both French and Daneglish.

  The knights clamored for attention. "But we are worth that amount a hundred fold from our lands and our treasures in Normandy and in Wessex. We can pay, but not here, not now."

  The moot spokesman stepped toward the knights and said, "They cannot pay, not here, not now. Are any willing to loan them the coin?" There was not a sound in reply. "Then you are hereby deemed the bond slaves of these five men," Raynar translated. The knights shrugged, not quite understanding that they who had enslaved so many, were now slaves themselves.

  Hereward walked towards the lad, Anske, grabbed him by the hand and pulled him away from the circle towards the bridge to the bailey's gate. Each time she tried to look back, he pulled her to face frontwards. Raynar and John followed, as did the four Hoodsmen from Sherwood who had become Anske's self proclaimed bodyguard. Everyone else stayed to watch.

  The screams of pain increased in volume even though they were further and further away. They walked through the gate and towards the tall motte and towards the tower on its peak and it's outbuildings. As they climbed higher than the wall they could hear the agony of the knights more clearly. Puffing, they reached the base of the tower and closed the door to try to muffle the howls of absolute agony that were shattering the sounds of the wind.

  There were noises from the floor above and the men drew their short swords and called out up the staircase. The answer was from a woman, "There are only women up here".

  Anske put a hand to Hereward’s mouth and said in her female voice, "Come down. The Normans are gone. We will not hurt you."

  A young and pretty face peered down at them. "Open the door and stand in the light," she ordered.

  Hereward shook his head in wonderment. What would she do if he refused.

  Anske opened the door, took off her hat and loosened the clothing away from her throat so that the woman could see her cleavage. Twenty women came down the stairs. Most were clutching kitchen knives of one sort or another. A few had short swords. It was quite obvious which were bed women and which were kitchen women.

  "Go about your business but stay away from the men. Their blood is still thumping hard so your virtue is not safe with them," Anske said and then followed them out into the sunshine. Her bodyguard stayed on her heels. Replacing them in the doorway were Hereward’s own bodyguards.

  Hereward led the men up multiple staircases to the highest floor of the tower. The view from here was stunning. It was certainly the highest place within miles in any direction. After looking long in each direction he told the others, "We must hold this tower. From here we can see the traffic on a dozen roads and three rivers. You can just barely make out another tower in the haze. That must mark Cambridge. It must have a tower like this too. Do you realize the advantage this tower gives us in this endlessly flat Fenland. Look, there are more ships coming from Ely. "

  He reached out and held the arms of two of his bodyguards. "Go to the docks and tell the captains of those ships that all those prisoners are to be taken to Sweyn's fleet to be used as oar bondsmen. Sweyn and I will set the price next time we meet."

  Raynar looked down towards the burgh and the bridge. He tried not to look at the group of men gathered around the bloody bodies of the knights. "Those knights thought the wergild a ruse to force them to show us where they hid this fortress's treasure." He had the other men's attention. "They had not enough to pay it from their purses, and the young knight, the one who was most frightened, kept urging them back to the tower to get more."

  He changed the subject, "John, that heavy log bridge blocks the river from ship travel, yet look how much further the river is wide." He looked at his giant friend, "Is there a way we could change the bridge so that ships could get through. That would extend Sweyn's reach inland."

  "Aye," replied John, "I have seen bridges where a section swings up. They are a Frisian design. Before I go to all that work, though, double check your map to make sure it would be worthwhile. There are other rivers and this one may have been blocked because other rivers serve better."

  Anske was waving to them from an outbuilding at the foot of the tower. It must be the kitchen judging from the low stone chimney. Raynar waved back, but that was not good enough. Anske wanted him down at the kitchen. He stepped lightly down the steps and passed a bed woman who was neatening the beds on the first floor. She gave him a comely look but he told her he had his woman with him. She pantomimed being crestfallen. He was the nicest formed of the men now in the tower, and he had the warmest smile.

  Outside Anske grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the kitchen building. It was large so it must have been used to feed more men than just the knights from the tower. At the back was a large stone hearth and an oven and both were close to the stone chimney that he had seen from the tower.

  "Show him" Anske told the large woman standing by the hearth.

  "Well, someone has mucked up my hearth," the cook said. "I noticed it when I went to put a soup pot on the fire. See here. That stone has been moved. This pot does not sit level any more."

  Raynar looked at Anske and she at him. "Put out the fire. Use water. I want it cold as soon as possible." He turned to the bowmen. "Find spades and picks. There should be some close by. Try the other outbuildings first. He walked towards the tower and yelled up to John.

  John's big face stared down at him. "Go and round up your bowmen and set a watch on the burgh gate and the bailey gate and then bring what is left up here to guard these buildings." John did not move. He just looked at him with a grin. "Please!"

  He heard Johns boots moving down the staircase. The clumping stopped at the first floor. There was silence for a few moments. "The girl," he thought and smiled. Then the clumping started again and John swung out into the sunshine and made his way down the washboard road down the steep slope.

  The bowmen returned with spades and a strong staff. Working together in the mud of ashes at the hearth, they loosened the stones and then rolled them out of the way and began to dig. The soil was easy to dig, but then the top o
f this mound was only recently created by piling earth. Within three feet they struck two large leather bags.

  They heaved them out and peeked inside at the silver coins. They continued to dig but this time struck something hard. They widened the hole, which meant getting quite filthy and then deepened it around the blockage. It was a chest. Using the spades and the staff as leavers, they pried it up until it was loose and then they pulled it from the hole.

  They slung it out of the way, and then they filled in the hole and finished by rebuilding the stone hearth, this time correctly under the supervision of the cook. The chest was heavy and needed two men to carry it to the tower and then they lifted it one step at a time to the first floor. Hereward was there waiting for them with the bed woman sitting close. "See," he told her, "they didn't need my help." Raynar and Anske came up last, each with a leather bag of coins.

  The Hood were all outlaws. It took one of them about a minute with a bent nail to pick the lock of the chest. They opened it expecting to see more silver. Silver coins were the axle grease of an army. Silver coins allowed for many small payments for whatever you needed, wherever you were. Instead there was the glint of gold. Not gold coins, but gold Christian ornaments.

  "This is Peterburgh treasure," said Hereward as he lifted out a gold crucifix embedded with precious stones. "That bastard abbot has already begun to feed the treasure to the king."

  John called up from the doorway. "Oy, You've visitors. I brought a pack of the lads to talk about the watch."

  Hereward asked Anske to watch the treasure and the girl, and then he led the men down the stairs and out into the sunshine. There were a dozen axemen with John, each wearing the neck scarf of a squad leader or a second.

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  The Hoodsman - Blackstone Edge by Skye Smith

  Chapter 26 - Choosing a castellan for Huntingdon in May 1070

  Raynar moved close to Hereward’s ear and whispered to him to remain silent until he was needed to confirm a decision. Everyone was motioned sit and they all sat cross legged in a horseshoe facing out towards the bridge. He could see that John had done his task quickly and well. There were bowmen on the wall on either side of each gate and a small squad of bowmen were relaxing beside the kitchen and keeping the kitchen women from their duties with their flirting.