The Archer: Historical Fiction: exciting novel about Marines and Naval Warfare of medieval England set in feudal times with knights,Templars, and crusaders during Richard the lionhearted's reign

by Martin Archer

  There are many ships of all types and sizes tied to the harbor docks that run along the side of the great Acre Fortress of the Crusaders. It’s truly impressive with its many banners all flying the insignia of the Order of the Knights of Saint John. The knights are the religious military order the Pope recently charged with the care and defense of the Holy Land. This is their headquarters. Richard sold the fortress to them after he took it and murdered its defenders when they surrendered.

  “Some people,” explained William, “are now calling the Knights of Saint John the Hospitaller Knights because they provide hospices to shelter the pilgrims and guards for the pilgrim caravans.”

  Acre is quite impressive. Indeed, there are so many ships at the dock that we have to wait in the harbor for hours until the wind changes and a cog can be pulled away from the dock to provide space for one of our galleys.

  We solve the problem of docking both galleys by tying our galley to the dock in the cog’s place and having our companion galley dock next to us by lashing itself to us. It all takes some time to accomplish and I can see William getting more and more anxious as we wait.

  I don’t think he was anxious for any particular reason; he just wanted to get on with it.

  As you might imagine, because it is the principal port for Jerusalem even though Jerusalem is now in Saracen hands, the dock is quite busy with pilgrims coming and going and laborers and slaves trudging up and down the dock loading and unloading ships.

  A Hospitaller Knight of Saint Johns wearing the order’s black surcoat with a white cross stands silently watching us while we tie up and the second galley slowly comes alongside to be lashed to ours. Only when we finished lashing the galleys together and mooring ours to the dock does the knight step forward and rather arrogantly demand to know who we are and our purpose and intentions.

  Lord William responds most respectfully and explains our purpose.

  “Good morning Sir Knight, I am William, Admiral of the English fleet and these are two of my galleys. We were bound from Cyprus to Latika to rescue stranded Christians and others fleeing the Saracens. We have undertaken that task now that the Bekka Valley has fallen and the road to Beirut is open to the Saracens.”

  “Unfortunately, we rowed too far to the south last night so I decided to put in here for a few hours to obtain water and to see if we might be of service to the local pilgrims and merchants, with the permission of your order, of course. And while we’re here we’d like to see if there are any fighting men who would join our company as sailors or men at arms serving at sea to help fight the Saracen pirates.”

  “We heard you might be coming, Lord William. We received word of the death of Lord Edmund and the loss of his fief from refugees coming down the coastal track. More have been arriving every day, more than we can possibly feed and shelter. It is most fortunate that you are here to lift some of them to safety.”

  He heard William has been nobled and that we might be coming here? How does he know these things? Who are these knights?

  @@@@@

  William and I walk into the city to meet the merchants of Acre and recruit passengers and sailors and fighting men to join our company. William says we’ll go straight back to Cyprus if we fill both galleys here. Only if we don’t fill them will we start rowing up the coast to Latika and look in at the little ports along the way.

  Word travels swiftly and within minutes of reaching the market we are besieged with refugees wanting to buy passage to Cyprus. We also accept some coins from merchants who want them carried to Cyprus to pay for shipments oil and grain. I myself write and sign a parchment contract saying that we will immediately upon his demand pay a lumber merchant named Aristede of Larnaca or the bearer of the parchment, eighty eight gold bezant coins, or its equivalent in silver or copper, in Limassol in exchange for our now receiving one hundred gold coins in Acre.

  I think I understand what William is doing – we get all the coins and can spend them here or take them to Cyprus. Either way we’ll make twelve coins because we’ll only have to pay eighty eight coins whenever someone shows up with the parchment and demands them.

  It’s a smart thing for the Acre merchants to do – it means they can get eighty eight gold bezant coins to Cyprus and spend them there for oil and such without ever having to actually carry them to Cyprus themselves and risk being robbed by pirates on the way; for us it means we earn twelve coins in exchange for risking the loss of eighty eight coins of ours. Is that a good contract for us? I am not sure.

  “Is that a good contract for us, Lord William?”

  “Oh I should think so, Yoram. War galleys like ours are rarely attacked by pirates - so we’re not likely to lose the hundred coins if we carry them to Cyprus and we can spend them here if we have a mind to not take them with us.”

  In any event, so many experienced fighting men are willing to contract to join us, and so many refugees are willing to pay for passage, that it soon becomes apparent that we will be sailing straight back to Cyprus - and be significantly stronger and richer when we do. At least that’s what seems to be in the offing as we finish a long day of buying weapons, interviewing sailors and fighting men who want to serve with us, and selling passages to Limassol to rich refugees.

  @@@@@

  The sun is going down and William and I are peacefully walking with Aaron and several of the local merchants and their men back to our galleys. It’s been a good day and we are contentedly munching on bread and cheese and carrying a heavy sack full of coins. That’s when several knights wearing the black surcoats of the Order of Saint John march up and inform us that William and I must accompany them to their fortress immediately. Uh oh. What do they want?

  “Is there a problem Sir Knight?” William asks. “If so, perhaps I can fix it.” Can I bribe you?

  “I have no idea, Lord Admiral. I am only a messenger sent to fetch you.” Lord?

  How is it that the Hospitallers already know about William being nobled by King Guy? The knights must have spies in King Guy’s court.

  While William and the knights are talking I quickly swallowed my mouthful of cheese and hand the sack of coins to Aaron.

  “Please go to the harbor and wait for us on board the galley,” I say quietly.

  I don’t like the looks of this. But at least they didn’t try to restrain us or take the coins. I wonder what’s up.

  William had seen me hand the sack to Aaron. He gives me a silent nod of approval as Aaron quickly walks away.

  @@@@@

  Yoram and I follow the knights into Acre’s great fortress. It is even more imposing and forbidding once you walk into its twisting entrance tunnel and see the succession of tunnel gates and the many murder holes in the tunnel’s ceiling and walls. Its defenders may be starved into surrendering if a siege lasts long enough, which is what we helped King Richard do to the Saracens before they surrendered and he murdered them, but it’s hard to believe its defenders could ever be thrown out by an attacking army.

  “Can you tell me, Sir Knight, who it is that we are to meet?” I ask.

  “Why the Grand Master of our order, of course, My Lord Geoffroy de Donjon.”

  “We are honored Sir Knight. Uh, Sir Knight, your Grand Master is obviously a most important man and worthy of the greatest respect; how is it appropriate for me to greet him?”

  “Why with a respectful bow and an acknowledgement of his title of Grand Master, of course.”

  And that is what I do after Yoram and I walk through the great yard and up the stone stairs to a great meeting hall. Half a dozen or so knights are standing in a group near a man sitting on a chair as if he were a king on a throne.

  “I am William, Admiral of the English Fleet, Grand Master,” I say as I bow deeply and speak the words in Latin as my brother long ago taught me. “How may I be of service to you?”

  Somehow I get the sense that my speaking in Latin pleases the Grand Master who apparently is some kind of priest in addition to being a knight.

  “I sent
for you, Lord Admiral, because I heard you are buying weapons and recruiting men to fight the heathen. My brother knights and I are glad to know of your efforts - even though the Third Crusade is coming to an inglorious end as we lose more and more of the Christian fiefs and castles.

  My brother knights and I, as you may know, are sworn to slow the rot and hold Acre until another crusade can be organized and we finally recapture Our Lord’s city. It is God’s will.” It also explains why the local merchants report that the Hospitallers are buying great supplies of olive oil and grain and are not sharing any of it with the refugees. They obviously hope to avoid the fate of the fortress’s previous defenders.

  As he speaks the Grand Master looks at Lord William very intently, as if to judge William’s response to what he is hearing.

  “That is very good news, Grand Master, for it is indeed God’s Will that you succeed. Rest assured that my men and I will certainly do all we can to assist you and the members of your esteemed order.” If you pay us enough and don’t betray us as you did the Saracens who surrendered this fortress to you.

  “They say you are an honest man and that you are carrying Christians and Jews to Cyprus without stealing from them or selling them as slaves, Lord Admiral. Can it be true?”

  “I would pray that everyone believes that - because it is true, Grand Master. My men and I try to live by the good book and the words of the church.” Well some of that is true; we do carry everybody who pays.

  “In that case, my dear Lord Admiral, I have a proposal for you regarding the Saracen weapons we took from infidels when we captured this Fortress.”

  @@@@@

  In the morning William and I admit to each other that we’d spent most of the night thinking about the Grand Master’s proposal and worrying about our safety, and not just because of the four Hospitaller Knights we are to carry to Cyprus.

  I spent a lot of time worrying about Lena also. I can’t put my finger on it and neither can William, but there is something about these knights we just don’t trust. In any event, the offer the Grand Master made to William is too good for him to refuse. And besides, they might have killed or tortured us if William hadn’t accepted.

  We do our thinking silently as our men and some of the Hospitallers worked by candlelight in the bowels of the fortress to remove the huge hoard of metal arrowheads and other weapons and armor that Richard and the Hospitallers took from the Saracens when they surrendered.

  In the end we don’t come close to taking everything on this trip. What we do take is everything that Harold and his sailors say we might be able to carry without overloading the galleys - any more, Harold warns, and our galleys may well founder if we encounter heavy seas.

  One thing is certain if the look of pleased determination on William’s face means anything - we’ll come back and keep coming back until we get it all.

  Apparently the weapons and armor were gathered up when the Saracens surrendered and have been rusting and rotting in the damp bowls of the Acre Fortress ever since. Many of the Saracen bows and arrow shafts look to be warped and unusable but perhaps we can at least scrape enough of the rust from the arrow heads and swords to use them to arm our men or trade them for something we need. What we’ll do with all the rest I do not know.

  To my great surprise, Harold says the Saracen weapons and metal will make something he calls “good ballast” to replace the stones holding down the bottoms of our galleys’ hulls.

  I didn’t even know our galleys have stones under the rower’s seats in the lower bank of oars or that they are used to hold the galleys down and steady in the water so they don’t turn over. In fact, I didn’t really believe it until I saw the sailors rip off the rowers’ footboards and pull the stones out of the foul water at the bottom of the galley hulls to make room for the weapons and metal.

  Oh well, a few more days of rusting and rotting won’t make them much worse than they already are.

  In exchange for the huge hoard of old weapons, William agrees to pay the Grand Master a small sum of bezants and to establish a yearly voyage with a heavily armed galley to carry Hospitallers and pilgrims between Cyprus and Acre during the sailing season - and to always make our galleys available to carry the Grand Master’s coins and his messages and messengers to and from wherever we sail, including Britain and France, at the end of each season.

  What William doesn’t tell the Grand Master before he agrees to his proposal is something that I know - that the coins we’ve been collecting from the refugees and merchants are so plentiful that William had already decided to return next year and make Acre a regular port of call for our galleys - and perhaps even establish another headquarters here until the Saracens come.

  Chapter Eleven

  “THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN”

  “Ahoy, Lord William, welcome home.” That’s the smiling dockworker’s cry to me as he catches the rope thrown by one of our sailors and a mob of people begins to assemble.

  It’s good to be home even if isn’t really home and it’s even better to be a lord with a title fully bought and paid for. Who would have thought it? And Thomas a bishop. My mother would be speechless if she knew. I wonder if she does. I’ll have to ask Thomas.

  Our return to Cyprus with our two galleys full of newly recruited fighting men and paying passengers creates quite a stir when we come into the Limassol harbor a couple of hours after sunup - particularly when we begin unloading the warped and rusty Saracen weapons and it becomes known that one or more of our galleys will be immediately going back for another load and more refugees.

  Thomas must have seen us enter the harbor - for he’s there with George when I climb down to the dock. So the first thing I do is give George great big hugs and swing him round and round while he shrieks with glee. Then I hold him tight while Thomas brings me up to date on what’s been happening while I was gone.

  What follows is a familiar scene: Our refugee passengers with coins hurry into the city to find food and lodging; our new recruits and the rest of our passengers, those who bought their way to safety and don’t have a clue as to what to do next, follow us around the city walls to our compound; the four Hospitallers we are carrying quickly disappear; and Aaron hurries into the city to report on the success of our trip and tell the merchants to forget the arrow heads and swords and concentrate on providing us with arrow shafts and bows, particularly long bows.

  Aaron is very pleased when I inform him we will keep our word and buy all the swords and arrow heads the merchants have already accumulated for us at our previously agreed price. Although I have no idea what we will do with them now that we have so much old metal off the Saracens. Sell them?

  @@@@@

  Our return from Acre results in a frenzy of activity. The biggest immediate task is to get one of our galleys back to Acre as quickly as possible to pick up another load of refugees and the rest of the rusty and deteriorating Saracen weapons. We can always use more coins and the Saracen weapons are just too important to leave behind.

  It means one of our galleys needs to immediately sail for Acre and then come straight back so it can help convoy the cogs to Alexandria. And that, of course, requires decisions from me as to who is to go to Acre and which galley is to be used. I don’t know who will end up going to Acre but it isn’t going to be me.

  Thomas and I spend that evening and the next morning catching up on events and talking things over while George periodically naps and my brother works with him on his numbers and his archery lessons. Yes, archery lessons – he is learning on a small bow Thomas found for him in the Limassol market. George is a right smart little boy and remembers everything according to Thomas.

  Thomas and I quickly agree that the galley that should go to Acre is the one that remained behind to guard the cogs. It can leave immediately while the others are still being unloaded and replenished. But who should be in its crew and who should be the voyage’s commander?

  Those are not small questions. Thomas wants to stay so he can begin speaking
Latin to George and teaching him his letters; and I want to stay because George needs to know his father loves him and I’ve been away from him too often as it is. That means we need to send someone else to captain the return to Acre. But who?

  The more we talk about our men the more it becomes apparent that we have several hundred men in our company and not a one of them except Thomas and I are capable of making all the decisions that might have to be made - leading the men in battle if one occurs, sailing the galley and deciding what should be done if something unexpected happens, and doing the negotiating and the required scrivening and summing and all the other activities necessary to sell passages, recruit sailors and fighting men, and retrieve the Saracen weapons.

  Thomas and I aren’t going so that means we’ll have to send a team of men. But who then is to be the leader and who should go with him as his sergeants and soldiers?

  It takes a while but we finally decide who should go. The galley we took off the Algerians, the one that we left to guard the cogs, will return to Acre on tonight’s tide with Yoram as the voyage’s captain, Raymond as the sergeant in charge of the galley’s fighting men, and Harold as its pilot and the sergeant of its sailors.

  The men who are going are our best men and that’s the best we can do - since Yoram knows absolutely nothing about sailing a ship or leading men in battle and neither Raymond nor Harold can read or do sums or, so far as we know, have heads for negotiating agreements. And Thomas and I both agree that it’s a damn good thing we don’t need to send a second galley to someplace else at the same time. We are woefully short of proper men.

  @@@@@

  Now that the decision has been made about the commanders, our next chore is to properly assign our men so that we send the best mix of sailors and fighting men with Yoram and his two sergeants. So we summon the three men to give them their new assignments and explain their chain of command and how we want them to relate to each other. Then we ask them who they want to take with them.