Uhtred the Bold

by H A CULLEY

  ‘In that case,’ Edmund said with a smile, ‘we had better explore the taverns of the city tonight so that we can get to know one another. Bring Aldred along too.’

  Edmund was in his early twenties and I had a feeling that his idea of a good time would involve a visit to a brothel or two. I wasn’t averse to the idea but I didn’t want my son along for the ride. Besides we would make an odd trio as I was old enough to be Edmund’s father.

  ‘Perhaps that’s not such a good idea,’ the king interposed. ‘It might embarrass the earl for his son to see him enjoying the delights of the city.’

  Judging by the looks on the faces of Emma and her daughter he wasn’t the only one opposed to Edmund’s proposal, but I suspected that they didn’t want me to go along either. Perhaps Edmund had a reputation as something of a rake. I had heard little about him so I didn’t know.

  ‘Don’t worry, father. I’ll behave myself. In fact why doesn’t Edwy come along as well? He must be about the same age as Aldred.’

  Edwy was the eldest of Edmund’s surviving brothers and the last to be born to Æthelred’s first wife.

  ‘You might as well take my brother Edward along too,’ Ælfgifu said with a giggle.

  Edmund emitted a laugh, immediately stifled when his father glared at him.

  ‘Don’t be infantile, Ælfgifu,’ her father said with some asperity. ‘Well, I don’t think we need to detain you any longer, Uhtred. I’m sure there are things you should be doing.’

  I bowed and took my leave. I learned later that the twelve year old Edward was a scholarly boy renowned for his piety. I could see then why the idea of him frequenting taverns was amusing.

  ~~~

  For a day in late July my wedding day proved unseasonable. It was raining and cold enough to make me shiver when I got out of bed. I had planned on wearing a new linen over tunic but changed my mind and pulled on a dark green woollen one embroidered with silver leaves instead. I wore light green trousers, tied below the knee with yellow ribbons, and brown leather shoes. The belt and the sheath holding my dagger were both studded in gold and my scarlet cloak was fastened in place with a gold broach with a large ruby in the centre. I hoped that I didn’t look too much like a popinjay but I needed to look the part if I was to marry into the royal house of Wessex.

  The evening in London with Edmund had not proved the ordeal I’d feared. Had I been twenty years younger and not accompanied by my son I would have relished all that the city had to offer but perhaps I had grown staid over the decades. Thankfully Edmund had used good judgement in picking our watering holes and, I suspect to my son’s disappointment, a visit to a brothel wasn’t suggested.

  Aldred and Edwy had got on well together and were soon whispering to one another like conspirators; I could only guess what they were discussing but it seemed to cause them great hilarity at times. I found Edmund good company and he had a fund of amusing stories. I only hoped that I would get on just as well with his sister.

  I splashed through the puddles to the church where Edmund and my sons were waiting. I was pleased to see that Edwy was also there. Although Edwy wasn’t likely to become king you never knew these days and having friends in the right places could be helpful to Aldred later on.

  Ælfgifu looked even prettier than I’d remembered from our one brief meeting a couple of days ago. I could tell that Aldred was smitten too; that wasn’t a something I’d thought about. I still thought of him as a child but, of course he was a couple of years older than his new step-mother. I hoped that it wasn’t going to develop into a problem.

  The ceremony and Wulfstan’s homily were both mercifully brief; the feast afterwards less so. I thought that the king was never going to leave so that Ælfgifu and I could be alone.

  At last he got up and, wishing us an enjoyable night with a sly grin in his face, he left. Her maids took my new wife away to a guest cell, which was all the monastery could offer for our nuptials, and I remained trying to curb my impatience whilst I talked to Edmund and some of the other guests. After a decent interval, which was probably no more than ten minutes, I left and ran across the courtyard to the guesthouse, feeling like a boy who’d never made love before.

  The cell was tiny and the bed was narrow and hard but it didn’t matter. Ælfgifu seemed as keen to bed me as I was her. She was actually a little disappointed when I said that I was tired out. I slept soundly for some time but, if I imagined that I could sleep until dawn, I was mistaken. By the time we had to get up to attend mass I was exhausted. Exhausted but deliriously happy. I am certain that our first child was conceived that night.

  ~~~

  ‘How was it, father?’ Aldred whispered to me during mass.

  ‘That’s an improper question for a son to ask his father,’ I replied primly, earning a reproachful look from the abbot, who was the celebrant that morning. ‘But let’s say I have rarely been as happy, or as shattered.’

  Aldred looked at me in astonishment. Evidently it wasn’t the answer he was expecting.

  ‘I didn’t mean that,’ he whispered fiercely. ‘I meant will you get on well together?’

  ‘No idea, we didn’t…’ I stopped speaking; not because the abbot looked pointedly at me again for whispering during the service, but because I was about to say that we didn’t get to talk much.

  ‘Yes, I think we’ll get along just fine.’

  ‘Good,’ my son said with a finality that meant he wished he had never asked.

  Chapter Eighteen – Cnut’s Invasion

  1015

  It took some time for us to reach York. Travelling with a covered cart for my new wife and her maids slowed us down to a walking pace, but at least it meant that I didn’t have to worry about seven year old Eadulf having to ride all that way, not that he liked having to ride with the women.

  It took me a little while to deal with the usual problems that came with governing the earldom but, as soon as I was free, we travelled on to Bebbanburg. Ælfgifu loved the rugged coastline and the stronghold on its vast lump of basalt rock so I decided to stay there for a while. It was whilst we were there that she told me that she was pregnant.

  I suggested that she remain there whilst I conducted my annual, if rather belated, tour of the shires that made up Bernicia, but she would have none of it. She also insisted that Eadulf came with us which earned her the boy’s undying affection. I realised that I wouldn’t have time to tour Deira as well that year and so I sent Aldred on his own.

  He thanked me for the opportunity to demonstrate that he was worthy of the trust I placed in him and I decided that I could use him more and more as my deputy, making life easier for myself as I grew older.

  We were staying at the monastery at Melrose in early September when the message from Edmund reached me. I read it with disbelief, my cosy little world being shattered once more. I gave her brother’s letter to Ælfgifu for her to read.

  To Earl Uhtred greetings,

  I need your help. Earl Eadric of Mercia has put to death Siferth and Morcar, two wealthy thanes in Cheshire, for treason. They were in secret communication with Cnut it appears. I have been sent with a small escort to arrest Siferth’s widow, who abetted them in this, and to seize their lands.

  However, upon arriving in Chester I found the Danes of Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire in revolt, accusing my father of fabricating the charges against the two thanes.

  I am trapped in Chester, fearing for my life if I leave here. I have no idea where Eadric is; he certainly hasn’t come to my aid. I need you to raise the army of Northumbria and come to Chester so that together we can put down this revolt.

  Your brother in Christ,

  Edmund Ætheling

  ‘You must go to him,’ she said as soon as she had finished reading the brief missive.

  ‘Of course, but I’ll need to send you and Eadulf back to Bebbanburg and send out messengers to summon the men of Bernicia to my side and I don’t have enough mounted warriors with us for both.’

  ‘Then
we’ll stay here until an escort can come to take us to Bebbanburg. Don’t worry about us. Send out your riders.’

  She suddenly stopped what she was saying and frowned.

  ‘Why just the men of Bernicia? Surely Deira is much closer to Chester?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s the Danes of northern Mercia who are in revolt. The two thanes who were executed were Angles, judging from their names. I think that this is all a pretext to distract us whilst Cnut invades; if so, I don’t think I can rely on the Danes of Deira.’

  ‘Oh, I see. What about Aldred? Will he be safe?’

  ‘I hope so, but I’ll send a messenger to warn him as well.’

  Five days later I set off from Hexham with a force of a thousand men. It took us over a week to reach Chester, another old Roman walled town, where we found several hundred Danes camped before the walls.

  When we appeared in battle formation they hastily formed up to oppose us, but they must have realised that their cause was lost, even before the gates opened and Edmund rode out at the head of fifty mounted housecarls and the town watch.

  Three men rode out from their ranks and waited whilst Edmund cantered around their flank and came to join me. We greeted each other briefly and then we rode forward with my ealdormen to meet the rebel leaders.

  ‘Why have you risen in revolt,’ Edmund asked angrily as soon as we halted fifty yards away from them.

  ‘Because your father acted unjustly, as ever, in killing two of our nobles and confiscating their land. You must pay wergeld to Edith, Siferth’s widow as she is the only surviving member of the family.’

  ‘I agree,’ Edmund said with a broad smile.

  I didn’t understand why he had capitulated when we now outnumbered them.

  ‘What? Why? You are meant to arrest her, not pay her compensation,’ I said, looking at him in amazement.

  ‘Because Siferth’s widow is now my wife and so I would be paying wergeld to myself.’

  The Danish leaders were as dumbfounded as I was and everyone began talking at once. Edmund held up his hand for silence, grinning like a loon.

  ‘It’s quite simple. We fell in love as soon as we met and were married a week ago.’

  It all sounded very unlikely to me, but why would he lie I asked myself. It had to be true.

  ‘You will all pay a fine for rebellion against your king and disperse,’ he said, his face hardening. ‘Whatever your grievance taking up arms against me was not the way to resolve matters.’

  However, the Danes sat there, not moving.

  ‘You haven’t heard then?’ the one in the centre asked with a grim smile. ‘Cnut landed two weeks ago and is now laying waste the south coast. I hear that your father, instead of meeting him in battle, has scuttled off to London to hide behind its walls whilst Wessex burns. Æthelred isn’t likely to be our king for much longer.’

  Edmund’s face grew puce with rage but he managed to control himself.

  ‘This changes nothing. You will be escorted back to your homes where you will pay the fines I impose. Do as I say or you will all be killed where you stand. Do you understand?’

  Reluctantly the three Danes agreed and rode back to their men.

  ‘I need you to stay here and see that they do as I ordered, Uhtred. I also want you to seek out Eadric and find out why he didn’t come to my aid. If necessary you have my authority to arrest him. I must return to London and organise the defence against Cnut as it doesn’t sound as if my father is doing so.’

  I felt that I needed to get back to my own earldom and prepare its defence but I had little option but to agree.

  ~~~

  Edmund hadn’t specified how much each of the Danish nobles had to pay. One was an ealdorman and there were a dozen thanes. It seemed that in Mercia they had stopped using the Scandinavian term jarl some time ago but it meant the same thing: a landowner who owned at least one hundred and fifty acres and who led a band of warriors. I therefore decided that each should pay one silver penny for each acre they owned. It wasn’t popular but neither was it excessively punitive. They reluctantly agreed.

  It took time for me to visit each hall to collect the money and my own men were grumbling about being away from home for so long. My solution was to pay them a proportion of the fines; it hadn’t been sanctioned by Edmund, but then he hadn’t told me what the fines were to be so he would never know.

  It was November before we were able to return to Northumbria. I never did find Earl Eadric and I later heard that he had defected to join Cnut. No doubt he felt he had little option. His own nobles were unlikely to forgive him for killing the two thanes and so flight was a sensible choice if he wanted to live.

  I arrived back at Bebbenburg just as the weather broke. The rain turned to hail as we rode the last few miles, stinging our faces and making the horses skittish. It was with some relief that I entered the hall to be greeted by my heavily pregnant wife and both my sons. Aldred’s tour of Deira had gone without a problem and he had returned to Bebbanburg safely before news of Cnut’s invasion became common knowledge.

  We were safe in the fortress but my conscience nagged at me. My place wasn’t here, skulking in Bernicia; it was in York organising the defence of my earldom against the inevitable attack by Cnut. Nevertheless I decided to wait until the baby was safely delivered.

  The winter started mild and wet and it continued like that until after the Christmas celebrations. My daughter, who we christened Ealdgyth, was born on the twenty eighth of December. Surprisingly, considering that Ælfgifu was only just fifteen, the birth had been quite easy, or so I was told. The baby was quite small, which had obviously helped, but cried lustily from the moment she emerged and seemed healthy.

  In early January my wife insisted that she was fit to travel and so we set off for York immediately after the baby’s baptism. This was conducted, not in the small church inside the fortress of Bebbenburg, but in the ruins of the old monastic church on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Many of my predecessors as lords of Bebbanburg had engaged a personal chaplain but I had never seen the need. The local priest from the village below the stronghold officiated and, if he objected to standing freezing to death in the windswept remains of the old stone church which had been destroyed by the Vikings decades ago, he never gave any indication. In fact I think he was pleased to be standing on ground under which Saint Aidan, the very first Bishop of Lindisfarne, and Saint Cuthbert, until his removal to Durham, had been laid to rest.

  Ealdgyth was far too young to join us and she remained at Bebbanburg with her wet nurse. I had thought of sailing down to York, but there seemed to be storms every few days and so I decided we would have to travel by road. These had been turned into quagmires by the incessant rain and sleet, but the day before we were due to set out the weather changed.

  If it had been cold on Lindisfarne for the baptism, made worse by the bitter wind, it was as nothing compared to the conditions when we woke on the morning of our departure. The bitingly cold wind blowing in from the north east now cut through the warmest furs, making us all shiver. The skies were blue without even a hint of a cloud and there had been a severe frost overnight. This was good news in one way as it meant that the deep mud was frozen but it made frostbite a very real possibility.

  As the day wore on it got even colder but at midday the weather changed. White clouds scudded overhead at first but they got darker and darker as the day wore on. It became a little warmer, but that wasn’t saying much. Thankfully the snow, when it came, was light and barely covered the ground.

  We rode as far as Durham in some discomfort but without mishap. Aldhun greeted us politely enough but the atmosphere was as icy as the weather, especially when I introduced Ælfgifu to him. I was glad when we left the next day, despite the heavier snow that was now falling.

  We were all soaked and very cold when we reached the hall of the Ealdorman of Catterick in the late afternoon and morale was at a low ebb. By now we were in Deira and my spirits sank even further when I heard what he
had to tell me.

  ‘The rift between the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons is worse than it has ever been,’ he said as soon as we had changed into dry clothing.

  Ælfgifu and I went and sat with him in front of the fire and gratefully accepted goblets of heated mead from a servant as he continued.

  ‘The Danes support Cnut to a man; the rest of us are still loyal to Æthelred, much as he is disliked, due to the fear that we will be replaced by Cnut’s followers if he wins.’

  ‘I see. It sounds as if I’ve been away from York for too long.’

  My comment earned me a glare from my wife; presumably she thought I was blaming her.

  ‘Not that I could really have returned any earlier,’ I added to placate her.

  ‘With the archbishop still in London it has fallen on Styr’s shoulders to try and hold Deira together.’

  ‘Do you know where Cnut is now?’

  ‘The last I heard he’d abandoned the siege of London and is overwintering in Gloucestershire.’

  Ælfgifu and I went to bed with a heavy hearts that night. I tried to reassure her but I don’t think she believed me when I said that ultimately her father and Edmund would triumph. To be honest, I found it difficult to be positive when the future seemed so bleak.

  Chapter Nineteen – The Conquest of England

  Winter 1015-1016

  Surprisingly Ælfgifu seemed in a much better mood in the morning and we made love for the first time since the birth of Ealdgyth. Afterwards she became morose again and said how worried she was about the fate of her family, meaning her father and siblings. I resisted the temptation to point out to her that her new family was in the just as much peril if Cnut prevailed, perhaps even more so as my wretched brother and Thurbrand, both of whom hated my guts, were amongst his companions. It concerned me more than the fate of Æthelred, whose foolish decisions in the past were to blame for our present danger.