Viking Hostage

by Warr, Tracey;

  + 983 In this year there was famine in the Limousin and many died. A comet streaked across the skies. Viscount Gerard and his wife, Rothilde, went on pilgrimage to Compostela and left their son, Guy, to oversee the affairs of the city.

  + 984 In this year Blanche of Anjou abandoned her husband, Louis Associate King of the Franks, and she was sheltered in the Abbey of Saint Martial in Limoges. The Duke of Aquitaine took Louis hostage in Poitiers. King Lothaire came with a vast army and Louis was surrendered to him. Lothaire’s army besieged Lady Blanche at Limoges but in time the King raised the siege and rode to deal with pressing matters in the north. Guillaume of Provence married Lady Blanche. Otto II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire died and his Empress, Theophanu, stood Regent for her young son. A bright star was observed shining in daylight at noon.

  + 985 In this year King Lothaire charged Archbishop Adalbero with treason but Duke Hugh Capet marched with a vast army and rescued the Archbishop.

  + 986 In this year King Lothaire died and Louis became king. He imprisoned his mother and charged Archbishop Adalbero again. In Denmark the king Harald Bluetooth died and was succeeded by his son, Svein Forkbeard. Merchants thronging the port of Limoges say that Norse sailors have discovered a new land far to the northwest that they name Vinland.

  + 987 In this year the marriage of Guy of Limoges to the heiress, Aina of Ségur, suffers delays caused by the ecclesiastical deliberations of Bishop Hildegaire. Duke Guillaume of Aquitaine made war and then peace with Geoffrey of Anjou. Geoffrey of Anjou fell dangerously ill. King Louis of the Franks, the last of the line of Charlemagne, died in a fall from his horse (like the previous King Louis before him) while hunting near Senlis. Hugh Capet was proclaimed the new king by the nobles of the court. Norse raiders made grievous attacks on many coasts again. Duke Guillaume of Aquitaine refused to recognise Hugh Capet as king. Hugh Capet came with a vast army as far as the walls of Poitiers but it was late in the year for warring, the grass was thin for his horses and he was driven back beyond the Loire. Geoffrey Greymantle, Count of Anjou died and his son, Fulk, a young boy, is made Count. The Anglo-Saxon monk Bede calculates that the End of Time will come in the year 1003. Then will be the Second Coming of Christ and Judgement Day for the living and the dead. Many see the end of Charlemagne’s line and the turbulent and uncertain times we are in now as portents of this imminent End.

  Guy put the quill down, read it through again and frowned. The times were certainly turbulent. In the southern counties and cities, much depended on the strength of the Duke of Aquitaine, and he was not strong. His strength came only from his wife, Emma of Blois, who held the kingdom together through her alliances and the support of her brother. There was no knowing what might happen now that the carrion that had been collecting around the corpse of the Carolingian royal dynasty for a long, long time, were finally starting to feast.

  Audebert and Fulk were amongst the last to arrive for the Assembly at Angers after a long ride north from Bellac along the old poplar shaded Roman roads, through the mountains of the Auvergne and along the ridges and limestone plateaux of the Central Massif. From the high roads they could see blue distances and the causses ridging the land like reefs running out to sea. In the mountains they looked down on the forest belt, its greens and browns turning to orange and red. The river wound gleaming like polished metal, swinging from side to side seeking the lowest point. Audebert’s horse picked its way carefully, descending into the meandering valley, squelching through boggy lands threaded with small streams, until finally they were crossing the swampy flood plain of the Loire with the imposing walls of Angers before them.

  Fulk would need Audebert now as Geoffrey claimed Audebert’s debt to him from the grave. The lords to the north, Eudes of Blois and the new King Hugh Capet, and the Duke of Aquitaine to the south would try to take advantage of Fulk’s youth and carve out parts of his lands for their own. Audebert must give Fulk counsel and if needs be, his swordarm.

  Audebert had finished practising in the bailey with his men. He threw some water over his head from the bucket at the well, washing the sweat from his face and the back of his neck and the grime from his hands. His stomach rumbled and reluctantly he dipped his head under the arched doorway and stepped into the gloom of the hall to find a crust of bread to assuage his hunger until the meal in a few hours time. He could get back out into the bailey as soon as he found something to eat. The hall buzzed with discussion and activity. Men sat in small groups talking over the news. It was a time of great changes and therefore of great anxieties. The last descendent of Charlemagne was dead and now they all stood on the brink of a new era that in its uncertainty felt to some like standing on the edge of an abyss but others saw opportunities they might grasp.

  Guy of Limoges was amongst those summoned to this assembly and Audebert, recognising the back of his brown head, swung around the edge of the trestle, gesturing that he would like to take the seat opposite. Despite his antipathy for Viscount Gerard, his erstwhile jailor, Audebert liked Guy for his sister’s sake and his own. Contact with Guy felt almost like contact with her.

  Guy greeted him warmly and they settled to discuss the drastic developments at the northern court of the Franks. ‘Are we in the End Time?’ said Audebert.

  Guy inclined his head, his mouth temporarily full, chewing on hard bread. He glanced up to assess if Audebert was in earnest and saw a sarcastic expression on his face which he mirrored. ‘So the monks say. You heard that Lady Blanche sought refuge with us in Limoges when she abandoned her marriage to Louis? It was said they never shared a bed and did not live under the same roof.’

  Audebert knew this since Adalmode had told him, but he feigned surprise.

  Guy nodded. ‘Yes. She accused the Prince of a violent temper and a dissolute life style. She was in control of her own great wealth from her previous marriages. Louis quickly dissipated the resources King Lothaire left for him, and Blanche had no intention of having her wealth and that of her sons sucked upon.’

  ‘No doubt Geoffrey of Anjou dangled his sister’s wealth as bait for the marriage, but the lady had other ideas,’ said Audebert. ‘This marriage to Lady Blanche, merely rendered Prince Louis miserable and ridiculous.’

  ‘Or perhaps he did that to himself.’ Guy raised his eyebrows and Audebert nodded. He cared nothing for any of them and gave no allegiance to anyone except Fulk, but still it was important to know what was going on and how it might touch them. Guy continued: ‘Lothaire besieged us in Limoges wanting vengeance against Blanche and we who harboured her, but then other matters prevailed to call him north. Did you hear that Lady Blanche has recently married her fourth husband, Guillaume of Provence?’

  Audebert raised his eyebrows and clashed his drinking horn against Guy’s. ‘A beautiful lady is best wed it seems,’ said Audebert. They were both silent, each knowing that it was Adalmode in their thoughts, rather than Blanche. ‘Is your sister, well?’ Audebert burst out, irritated with himself, since he had planned not to speak of her to Guy.

  ‘She is well.’ There was no need for Guy to question which of his sisters Audebert referred to. Audebert looked down at the tabletop, wondering whether or not he should open the question of his marriage to her brother. Her elderly father was set against him hard as adamantine, but it was Guy in effect who ruled Limoges.

  ‘You were at the royal court,’ asked Guy, evidently aiming to distract him from the topic of Adalmode, ‘when these events of the succession occurred weren’t you?’

  ‘Yes. Count Geoffrey called me to him with his son and we were witness to what happened.’ Audebert paused to reflect on it. ‘The court was a hotbed of intrigue.’ Audebert screwed his mouth into an expression of disgust.

  Guy nodded and raised his hand to a passing serving boy who poured more wine into their beakers. They paused their conversation until the boy was out of earshot. A shaggy dog that Audebert knew to be one of Fulk’s, came in, recognised Audebert and settled itself down on his boot with a happy grunt and a quick
glance upwards to see if there might be any chance of food. Audebert threw a hard chunk of bread to the dog who wolfed it down noisily.

  ‘Louis lacked authority and Capet manipulated the situation,’ Audebert said.

  Guy was eager to hear the story from a first-hand observer. Everyone had heard some version or another of the end of the royal line of Charlemagne, passed through many mouths and diluted, but Audebert had actually been there.

  ‘We are well out of it here in the south.’

  They were both silent for a moment and Audebert caught a whiff of the broth being prepared at the hearth and his stomach rumbled again. He looked over to where the fire burned high, tended by the household servants, and the cooks were busy chopping vegetables and dicing meat.

  ‘What was Geoffrey of Anjou’s role?’ asked Guy.

  ‘Geoffrey was devoted to King Lothaire and upheld the rights of his son Louis, despite the debacle of his sister Blanche’s unhappy marriage to him. Conveniently, in June, Geoffrey too fell ill whilst on campaign with Hugh Capet and was rendered incapable.’ Audebert lowered his voice and leant forward. ‘Perhaps poisoned.’ He sat back again and resumed in his usual voice, ‘As soon as he fell ill, Geoffrey asked me to return to Bellac with Fulk to safeguard him. I thought the worst, but Fulk didn’t realise he was looking on his father for the last time. Then as you know news came in July that Duke Hugh was elected King and Geoffrey was dead, the only man who might have stood in Capet’s way, spoken against the election. It was always rumoured that Lothaire was only king in name, and the Capets held the real power.’

  Audebert bit into the chunk of bread which he had been soaking in wine. It tasted disgusting and he threw the rest to the dog who was not so particular. ‘So now the legacies of Charlemagne are shattered. Northmen overrun the counties above the Seine because these weakened northerners could not defend the land against them, and these Northmen are set up as Dukes and Counts in Normandy. A king, not of Charlemagne’s blood, sits on the throne.’

  Guy tapped his ring against the rim of his metal beaker. ‘Hugh Capet plans to crown his son Robert as Associate King this Christmas. The Capets are claiming rights to Aquitaine and Duke Guillaume is refusing to recognize their royal succession.’

  ‘Where do you stand?’ Audebert asked abruptly. Adalmode’s father was an old man and this brother seated opposite him would be Viscount before too long. Adalmode had told Audebert that this brother Guy in particular was close and dear to her.

  Guy was silent some time considering Audebert’s question. ‘My family lost Limoges once before taking the wrong side in a dispute over the sovereignty of Aquitaine,’ he said eventually. ‘I will stand where I see the best interest of my family honours and my citizens.’

  Audebert raised his drinking horn again to Guy. ‘Aye. Every man for himself when there is no leader worth following.’

  Guy changed the topic swiftly to talk of the hunt planned for later that day. Audebert was vassal to no one and it was well known that he was readying for war, whilst Gerard and Guy were vassals to the Duke of Aquitaine and Audebert’s words were tantamount to treason.

  The following day Fulk was confirmed as the successor to his father in the County of Anjou. Fulk inherited a well-developed military household and had an entourage of loyal young men from neighbouring families. Audebert advised him in taking command of these followers, making the appropriate show of strength and ostentation for the occasion. Fulk had immense organisational acumen already and Audebert was pleased to see that his assistance was more in the nature of listening, concurring, reassuring, rather than telling Fulk what he needed to do. The boy exuded a ferocious energy and asserted a confident grip on matters. He confirmed the betrothal of his sister, Gerberga, to the son of the Count of Angoulême. He wed the woman his father had betrothed him to in an astute piece of political alignment, though he did it with a sour expression on his face, for Elisabeth of Vendôme was twenty-nine to Fulk’s fifteen. ‘She’s already looking past child-bearing,’ he said to Audebert at the wedding feast.

  ‘Give her a chance, lad!’ Audebert laughed. ‘She might surprise you.’ And Fulk had looked cheerful enough the following day, after the marriage had been consummated and the prospect of an heir might be on the horizon.

  Fulk’s uncle, the influential Bishop Guy of Le Puy, had not yet arrived in Angers to support his nephew in the transfer of power. The first challenge to Fulk’s position came that morning and it was ecclesiastical. Fulk sat on his throne looking only slightly too small for it and listened with an increasingly furious expression as Renaud, Bishop of Angers, and Guntarius, Abbot of Saint Aubin, sought to recover, at Fulk’s expense, lands they claimed his father had wrongfully taken from them. Audebert watched with concern as he saw the signs of Fulk’s rage developing. A nerve beneath Fulk’s left eye began to twitch. His knee jerked impatiently up and down and he gripped the arms of his throne so hard that his knuckles were showing white. It would not do for Fulk to lose his temper in dealing with this. He would look like a child throwing a tantrum. ‘Have you finished?’ he snapped at the two priests. ‘Your request is denied. The lands are rightfully mine and will stay that way.’

  ‘But my lord Count,’ said the Bishop, ‘we do not find this answer satisfactory and if we must look to the Count of Blois for justice we will do so.’

  Fulk stood and Audebert saw that his temper, always like a brooding volcano, was about to blow. He stood too and called out: ‘Count Fulk!’ and the boy’s eyes turned to him, burning with fury. Audebert had no idea what he could say but he must bring Fulk somehow to an awareness of a need to calm down and handle these two politically, not violently. Audebert heard a movement and voices behind him and Fulk’s eyes went to the door. Audebert turned to see Bishop Guy entering, wearing a sword and with a great armed entourage at his back. Audebert heaved a sigh of relief and sat down. The Angevin family could sort out their own priests now.

  ‘Bishop Renaud, Abbot Guntarius, can it be true that you so dishonor my nephew and the memory of my revered brother so recently laid in his worthy grave …’

  Fulk sat, anger washing slowly from his face and a smile spreading in its wake, as he listened with the court to his uncle delivering a swingeing chastisement to the two rebel priests. Fulk looked to Audebert and nodded acknowledgement that he had nearly and inappropriately lost his temper. Bishop Guy’s lengthy oration was conclusive. Bishop Renaud retired with the few shreds of dignity he had retained from the tirade and Abbot Guntarius was miserable to find that he must go on pilgrimage in penance for his offence to Count Fulk.

  Later in Fulk’s private chamber Audebert and Bishop Guy sat down together with the new count to consider his position. ‘Your western frontier is insecure,’ said Audebert, ‘and your holdings in Touraine are endangered.’

  ‘These two today were just the testers,’ said the Bishop. ‘Abbot Robert of Saint Florent who supports the Count of Blois, is scheming against you with Viscount Renaud of Angers. You need to neutralize these threats.’

  Audebert nodded. ‘Gelduin of Saumur is another Blois supporter who blocks your access to your lands in the east.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Fulk, ‘that’s noted. First I plan to stabiise my familia for the next few weeks, assessing who I can trust, who I will replace, who I need to mollify and win over. I need to establish confidence with my castellans and fideles. I already have a core of good men: Aimery of Vihiers, Roger the Devil, Lisoius of Amboise and Roger of Loudun. We will undertake small raids to keep my enemies off-balance.’ He grinned at Audebert. ‘But then I have a longer term plan.’

  ‘Of course, you do,’ said Bishop Guy.

  Fulk drew a diamond shape onto the map of Angevin holdings spread on the table before them. It pointed into Aquitaine. He dotted the lines of the diamond here and there. ‘I will build small castles at each of these points. They will form lines of communication and defence for my holdings and protect me against a large invasion. Gradually I will reinforce and push forward my f
rontiers in all directions. In time I will encircle Blois and I will encircle Poitiers. The threatening will become the threatened.’

  Audebert took the charcoal stick from Fulk and drew a thick curving corridor on the map starting at Bellac, moving across Gençay and Poitiers and then on north to Tours. ‘And this is the swathe of my march to join up with your diamond,’ he said.

  11

  Ségur

  June 988

  ‘We’re here!’ Aimery and Adalmode chimed together.

  Guy listened to the sound of their horses clattering across the Ségur drawbridge. He heaved a sigh of relief. Finally his marriage would take place and his position would be secured. It had been a long wait. At thirty-two he was more than ready to take a wife. He had been forced to point out to his father that it was probably a very large bribe that would persuade Hildegaire to give the necessary dispensation for the two cousins to marry, and he had been right.

  ‘The wrong wife could expose you,’ said Adalmode, leaning close to him. ‘I could show Aina how to assist you. I need to hand over my duty as your support to someone totally reliable and committed to you.’

  Guy was amused at his sister’s concept of him as her duty. ‘I will do what I can to make her committed to me,’ he smiled. ‘I’m quite good close up.’ He had not confessed his suspicions to his sister that Lady Aina was not pleased at the prospect of taking him as her husband.

  Adalmode smiled affectionately. ‘No doubt, you will be,’ she said. ‘I will miss you terribly when the time comes for us to part.’

  Guy reflected that Adalmode too was long past the age for a timely marriage since their father had insisted on holding out for an alliance with the Aquitaine heir and had repeatedly rejected the offers that Audebert of La Marche sent each year. Adalmode’s younger sisters were likely to be married before her.