Welsh War

by Griff Hosker

  Then we rested. It would be the Welsh who would be exhausted after a long march from Pembroke. We had many of the knights and men at arms rest within the walls of the castle. Our horses gazed beyond the castle in a loop of the river. When the Welsh came they would see the fyrd in their camp and a couple of hundred men. I wanted them to attack. One positive was there were no civilians close by. There were just warriors. If there was a killer hunting my men they would be easily seen.

  Gruffyd rode in during the late afternoon. “They are five miles down the road, lord, and they are coming here.” He patted his knife. “I found one of their scouts and he confirmed it. I saw more men heading from the north west. I think they were coming from Aberteifi. I saw at least ten banners.”

  “Then that means more knights. You have done well. David of Wales and your brother are in the castle.” He hurried to join them. I turned to the other leaders and the King. “Now we wait. The Welsh have taken the bait. Let us see if they will swallow it. Sir Reginald if you would send a rider to Pembroke then we can let the Earl know where we are. I am certain he would like to join us and besides his men marching north can only serve us.”

  We kept a good watch that night. The people who had fled the town had left supplies and we ate reasonably well. We had taken animals on our slow march north west too. The fyrd would stand so long as they were fed and safe. The river before them could be forded but as there were knights and men at arms before them they were in no danger. If the Welsh used their archers then there was plenty of room to move them out of range. I rarely used the fyrd. I used them now to give the illusion of numbers. Many of them wore the helmets of the men we had killed at Carmarthen. From a distance they might appear to be better armed than they actually were.

  Awake before dawn I walked along the stakes with Alfred, William and Edward. Sir Fótr, Sir William and Sir Peter roused the camp and then checked on the archers. I wanted no horns. If the enemy was clever then it would move close to us in the dark and then attack at dawn. It is what I would do for the Welsh now knew about our archers. We stepped beyond the stakes. The ground appeared to have dried but Sir Edward, who was the largest of us, sank to his spurs in the mud. A horse would struggle. He nodded, “I will get the lads to come and use it as a latrine when they rise. Every little helps.”

  We headed back to the camp and cold food. With luck we would dine on cooked horsemeat in the evening. The King surprised me by greeting us before the other lords had been roused. He had woken of his own volition. Sir Robert and James of Corfe were with him. Already they worked well together. King Henry said, “I wish James and my men at arms to fight alongside your men today, Earl.”

  “It will be an honour.”

  “I am being selfish. I want them to see how your men do. I have watched them and they conduct themselves not like men low born but warriors who know their trade. I believe my men can fight but today will be the test.” He took some of the stale bread which William offered him. It had runny cheese and ham upon it. A few months ago, he would have turned his nose up at such fare but now he ate it for he knew it would fill a hole, as Edward was fond of saying. “You think we can win? I heard that Gruffyd saw more knights coming from the north west. I am still unhappy about fighting on foot.”

  “If this field suited horses then I would have employed them, my liege. The castle has been left here and we shall use it. If you stand on the gatehouse then you will have the best view.”

  He shook his head, “I shall sit on my horse in the gateway with Sir Robert holding my standard. The open gate will suffice for I will see the battle and they will see me. I do not want them to think I am afraid of them.”

  I admired the King’s courage. “This will be the first time you have seen knights battling on foot. You will see that sometimes it is an advantage.”

  Soon we could hear the camp coming awake. Men went to make water. Others joked with their shield brothers. Each had their own rituals they followed. Warriors were superstitious. You could be the best warrior in the world and favoured by God but a slip at the wrong time could result in a wound or worse. Men liked the familiarity of routine and of preparations which had worked in the past. Mine relied on them less than most but I knew that they would still use them. Ridley would touch the wooden cross he had made and then kiss it before tucking it beneath his kyrtle. David of Wales would choose the first five arrows he would use. All his arrows were straight and true but he would use the ones with the best fletch and which felt right in his hand. Before he strung his bow, he would kiss the yew. All of my archers wore helmets. However, they still kept their spare strings beneath them as they had when they had worn a hat. A dry bowstring meant their arrows could fly a greater distance. Even the squires were not immune. William would always feed Bella a treat before each battle. It mattered not that I might not ride. He would often delay his own food so that he could secure a treat: a carrot, an apple, dandelions, anything so long as it was something Bella liked. It was a bizarre ritual for it could only benefit me and not William but it made him comfortable and a comfortable warrior fought better and we would be fighting that day.

  I walked back with my sons and knights. We stood by the stakes and peered south and west. We had seen the fires of the Welsh in the distance. Now we could hear them as they woke. Our horses were quiet for they were grazing and still resting. The Welsh horses were noisy. We heard the sound of mail. My fears were laid to rest. There would be no sudden dawn attack. We would have coped but a night battle was always unpredictable. We would now fight as I had envisaged. So long as they attacked then we all knew what to do. They would use horses and arrows to break us down. Inevitably it would come to their knights against ours. If they did not attack then we would wait. I doubted that they would be as well supplied as we were for they had been surrounding Pembroke for some time. They had fled from Carmarthen and Caerphilly. An army which flees cannot carry as much as an army which advanced.

  As the sun came up behind us it shone on the helmets, spears and mail of the Welsh. My own helmet had been burnished until it looked like silver. William held it and his own. My coif was around my shoulders and I wore just my arming cap. William, and possibly Alfred, would relish every moment they spent in mail. It made them feel like a warrior. It had been twenty years since I had felt that way.

  When the horns sounded in the enemy camp I turned to William, “Sound to!”

  Our men were awake and in position but the Welsh would expect it. They would be looking for us to mount and advance towards them. They would assume we would fight another battle as we had at Caerphilly. Their Prince would be wary of a trap. I wondered what he would make of our dispositions. The Welsh were moving. I could not see individuals but I saw the metal snake as it crawled from the dark of the west. When the rising sun picked out a helmet it seemed to flash and twinkle. As the light became better I saw banners. Smaller shadows, horsemen on ponies, detached themselves from the column and rode towards us. We had twenty of the fyrd, mainly boys, with us. They were armed with slings. I would not risk them in battle but they had been honoured to be chosen by the Earl of Cleveland. They were in the staked area.

  “Alfred go and tell the boys that they are free to annoy the horsemen.”

  “Aye, lord.”

  The ten riders galloped close to us. They had no helmets but each had a throwing spear and a small round shield. They would be wary of archers. They stopped just twenty paces from the boggy ground. Had they advanced but a little then they would have discovered the treacherous nature of the footing. As it was they halted and began counting our banners. Just then the eldest of the boys whirled his slingshot and sent a stone to smack into the head of one of the scouts. He fell from his saddle, dead. The other stones were just a heartbeat later. Three men and four horses were struck. One of the men who was struck rose unsteadily to his feet before he was felled by a hailstorm of stones. Two of the horses threw their riders. The survivors fled. More were hit before they were beyond stone range. Our knight
s and men at arms cheered the boys.

  “Now get them behind the knights. The Welsh will be wary and the boys have done their job. The scouts will not have had time to count the banners. They will make up a figure.”

  As the boys trooped past, with their heads held high, I nodded and said, “Well done! These are warriors I see before me and not boys!” There would only be twenty of them but their stones, sent over our heads at the mounted knights who would charge us could be an irritation which might cause casualties. The cost was a few river stones.

  The sun was now up and I saw the Prince and his lords. They were in a huddle half a mile from us. The survivors of the scouting expedition reported to them. After a short debate the Prince gave his orders and waved his arms. He did not do as I had expected. He formed his men at arms and archers up before his horsemen. The stakes had been a warning. His men on foot would remove the stakes and then he would charge. Each of my knights had three spears at their feet. If the stakes were destroyed then we would plant spears in the ground. The Prince obviously did not trust his peasants. I could see them mobbed behind the knights and squires. Priests came before the host which knelt. This would be a chance to go to war with God’s grace. Drums and horns sounded and the Welsh moved towards us. They were singing. The words I could not understand but the sound was musical. Perhaps it helped them to march in time.

  The Bishop of Gloucester stepped through the ranks and one of his priests raised the cross. His voice carried above the advancing Welsh, “We fight this day with God on our side against the wild men of Wales. Know that your King watches you and as such you are assured a place in heaven should you fall.” As he headed back to the King I looked at Edward who shrugged. I was not sure of the truthfulness of the priest’s words but it did no harm for men to believe that they would go to heaven.

  David of Wales would not need a command from me. He and his men would have chosen the correct arrows. Most of those who advanced were without mail. A few had short hauberks but the majority, if they had armour at all, wore leather. It would be barbed arrows and not knight killers that they would use. He would choose his moment perfectly. I had the utmost faith in him. He and Henry Youngblood had been with me since the Holy Land. We had all the same experiences. I trusted my captain of archers.

  When the marching Welshmen were almost at the boggy ground I pulled up my coif and fastened my ventail. William handed me my helmet and my world shrank to the two eye holes. I could see that the advancing men were wary of the boys with slings. Their cautious approach stopped them from slipping and sliding in the mud. It just sucked at their feet. They reached the stakes and were just thirty paces from us. They wondered why we did not advance to fight them. Confusion helped us. I heard Henry Youngblood give a command and the twenty slingers who were before him began to hurl their stones blindly. It did not matter that they could not see their target so long as they cleared our knights and they did. Four men fell and others were hit before the Welsh reacted and pulled their shields up. Their leader, a huge man with a thick black beard, no helmet and a two-handed Danish axe, urged them on. He swung his axe at a stake and the blow was so hard that it not only split the stake it plucked it from the ground. Other men hacked and pulled at the stakes. To do so properly they had to lower their shields and that was when David of Wales sent the one hundred and twenty arrows to plunge into the Welshmen. The huge leader took one arrow in his shoulder but he appeared to brush it off. Others fell.

  The Welsh were brave. They must have had persuasive priests for they came on. I, like the knights around me, had my spear held in two hands. When the Welsh sent their own arrows at us some knights fell for they were slow to raise their shields. I was lucky. An arrow clanked off my helmet. I had my shield above my head and I saw that David’s arrows were now being sent at the archers. It was an unfair duel for the Welsh could not see my archers who were hidden behind the castle’s battlements. Soon the Welsh arrows would have to stop for fear of hitting their own men. Already half of the stakes had gone. I had to judge this aright. When the Welsh were just ten paces from us I lowered my shield and, holding my spear in two hands, shouted, “Charge!” Apart from the ten warriors with axes the rest were largely weaponless. I ran at the giant. He swung his axe in a figure of eight. To a novice it was intimidating. I had seen it before. It did not worry me and I rammed my spear through his middle. I did not intend to but his charge and swinging axe drew the spear into and through him. I dropped the spear and the haft stuck in the ground. The spear head stood proud of his body which was folded over the spear. I drew my sword and hacked through the neck of the next Welshman. They fled. When I looked along the stakes I could see why. The one hundred knights of ours who had advanced had each speared a man. Along with the ones the Welsh had lost to arrows and stones they had lost more than one hundred and eighty men. They ran.

  “Back!” We had lost most of our stakes but when I stood and looked at the ground I saw that they had been replaced by the dead. There were also dead archers further back. My archers had easily won the duel. I picked up one of the two spears which remained and, after laying down my shield, rammed it into the ground at an angle. The head was just four feet from the ground. A horse would impale itself. I picked up my last spear and looked down the line. We had lost knights. Most were wounded and were being helped back to the castle. Replacements stepped up to take their place. We now had a few stakes but they were backed by a line of one hundred spears. We had time to prepare for the next attack as the men on foot hurried back to the horsemen. The last ones limped and crawled. I saw then that the Prince had formed his knights and horses into five lines of fifty men in each line. His first line was made up of knights wielding lances. I saw two smaller groups of spear wielding light horsemen. They would, I had no doubt, ride in first and try to disrupt us. His fifty knights could not ride toe to toe because of the stakes. Their job would be to punch holes in our lines which could then be exploited by successive charges.

  We had enough knights to switch over but we would only be able to do so once. I would have to use men at arms for a third charge. I could rely on my men but I was unsure about the other men at arms.

  A horn sounded and the lines of horsemen began to gallop. As I had expected the light horsemen rode in quickly. David and his archers sent their arrows towards them but the two bands meant he had to divide his arrows and fewer men fell than I would have liked. The throwing spears showered down upon us. The boys with slings brought down a couple of horsemen and that added to the eight hit by my archers but three knights were struck and downed. Four others suffered wounds. Then the knights closed with us. When they struck the mud some of them slipped and slithered. The knights fought to control their horses. It was then that David’s archers began to cause real damage. Our archers managed to hit four or five of them. Although none fell we had hurt them. The knights began to pick their way through the stakes. This time we did not charge. We waited. The lances outranged us but the blows were not struck at speed. The horses had had to slow down. As I had expected I was the main target. William, behind me, held my standard and it drew them like moths to a flame. A lance lunged towards me. The knight had stood in his stirrups. I could have stepped back but had I done so it would have sent the wrong message to the others. I punched with my shield as the lance came towards me. It splintered and shattered. My arm felt numb. I lunged forward with my spear. Held one handed had I struck his mail I would have done him little harm but, by luck, I struck the throat of his horse. It reared and I pushed even harder. I must have struck something vital for it fell backwards taking the knight with it. The falling horse crashed into the next knight along and Sir Peter was able to ram his spear under the helmet and into the head of the knight. I still retained my spear and I was able to turn and thrust it at the horse and knight facing my son. Alfred’s spear had gone between the sword belt and mail. It effectively held the knight there. My spear went into the horse’ shoulder and it reared. The spear head severed the belt and the swo
rd fell. The knight reacted and tried to reach down for the sword. Alfred had quick hands and he thrust the spear into the space between the ventail and the nasal. It broke in the knight’s skull. Even as he fell Alfred reached down for his last spear. Once our last spears broke then we would have to use our swords and the Welsh would have the advantage until we could switch ranks.

  The wall of staked spears and their losses were too much for most of the knights. They wheeled away. I saw bloodied horses and knights with wounds. One of two were determined to have their moment of glory. It was a mistake. While the second rank of knights galloped towards us the boys with slings and my knights finished off the six knights who stayed to fight. War horses were valuable and the six mounts were dragged into our ranks. They were passed back to the castle.

  As we prepared for the next attack I saw that there were some men at arms in our front rank. We had the knights of Hereford as a reserve but I was loath to use them as it would expose the fyrd and they were a threat to the Welsh. The second rank of knights had a harder task. Before Sir Edward, Sir Peter and myself lay the bodies of two horses and three knights. It was a barrier. There were neither spears nor stakes there. I could not see the standard of the Prince in the next rank. I had to assume that he was saving his best knights to charge with him. That way he could ensure not only the victory but the glory which accompanied it. What I did see, however, were the shields and devices of four knights from Gwynedd. I had seen them at Powys. This would be a determined attack.

  “Close ranks and hold them. Make them bleed for every piece of earth!” I added, for the benefit of my knights. “These are knights from Gwynedd. They will try to kill us!” Every knight was trying to kill or capture other knights. If you had the chance then you ransomed them. These knights from King Llewellyn would want rid of me for my insults. The knights from Deheubarth had not known me. These did. I saw, as they approached that they had besmeared their lances with dung. They would be poisonous. It would probably be human dung and a wound infected with it was usually fatal.