by Griff Hosker
He waved a hand at the lords who were gathered around him, “Leave us and put a sentry upon the door.” When the doors banged shut, he waved me to a seat by the fire. I was chilled to the bone for the cold and damp day made my bones and old wounds ache. “So, what have you heard?”
I told him the news from Westmoreland. He nodded, “It may be that Percy plans to hammer the Scots once more and if he does then I shall not worry overmuch but your news about a possible liaison between him and Glendower may not be groundless. Since you spoke I, too, have heard disquieting rumours of messages sent from Wales to lords in England.” He leaned forward, “You know that there are rumours about King Richard and me?”
I could not deny it and I nodded, “Aye, King Henry, but they are groundless.”
He stood and struck his right fist into his left palm, “Of course they are!” Then he smiled at me, “You, of all people, know that. My cousin was a troubled man! Know that the Archbishop of York, Richard le Scrope, plots against me and spreads the rumour that Richard is still alive! And there are others who say I had him killed. Are they all fools?”
“It is not my place, lord, but why not have the Archbishop questioned?”
“Do not think I have not thought of that already but he is related to the Percys through his brother who married the widow of a Percy and he has powerful friends in the north. It may well be that this is a plot to make me the tyrant poor Richard became at the end. I will not fall into that trap, Strongstaff! I will not release my grip on the crown so easily.”
I now saw the dilemma in which the King found himself. King Richard had lost the crown because he saw plots everywhere and had men arrested. King Henry could not do that.
“I think that I may have to offer Percy some sweetmeat to keep him on my side.” The King was a clever man and far more complicated than his son. He stared at the fire and then stood. “Is there more news?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
“Then let the others back in lest they think we plot!”
This was a strange world in which the King lived.
When they all entered, along with Harry, the King said, “You did well in Scotland. The Earl of March has asked for you to return in the spring.” I gave him a surprised look. The King smiled, “The Earl visited with me and told me of your valour. I approve and it may well increase your war chest. Hire more men! I need the steel of Strongstaff behind me and my son. In an uncertain world, you are a constant.”
When we returned home it was with twenty pounds in silver to hire more men. I would need more men, for now I had another possible enemy, the Archbishop of York. I had not known of his involvement with the Percys and I had been open in my visits to York. Now I would have to take care for all knew that I was the King’s man.
Lady Day came around remarkably quickly. Riders rode up and down the road to Middleham on a weekly basis. How my wife managed to organise the wedding as well as running the farms of four manors I have no idea. She was, indeed, a wonder. I sent some of my men to help Thomas build his hall. His labours impressed me. I paid for my wife’s mason to offer advice to him once the wing was finished. The result was a hall with two floors rather than the simple one-storied building Thomas had planned. By the time we reached the start of March, he had a roof and the exterior was finished. He knew he would have to make do with improvised furniture but he had a hall for his bride and they had a bed.
When the guests arrived for the wedding it felt as though my hall would crumble beneath the weight of people. I feared for my daughter, Alice, who was within a month or so of giving birth. The mood was, however, joyous. The day was seen as propitious and everyone in the manor saw it as a sign that we would all prosper. Such superstitions were a throwback to the time of the Vikings and Saxons. I did not believe it would hurt.
Once the wedding was over and the guests had left my life could settle into a more comfortable routine. Mary and her sons and other daughter stayed for a week. She and my wife got on well. After they departed, I prepared to ride to Dunbarre again. When Easter had been and gone, I would take my men and any knights who chose to come with me and we would ride to Dunbarre. All four of them chose to do so. My son’s wife, Mary, was a practical woman. Thomas had hired good servants and she planned on making the hall a home. The crudely fashioned furniture would not do for Mary and Thomas had an even greater need for coin. I used the money given to me by the King to hire more archers and men at arms. My name was enough to attract men from all across the county. This was the King’s land; he had been Earl of Northampton and every soldier knew that I was not only skilled, I was lucky and soldiers knew the importance of luck.
Chapter 11
It was May when we headed north. I had bought a new breastplate from Martin who would use the metal from the old one to make a breastplate for Gilles. This time I led a much greater force of men and we required more rooms and stables for my retinue. I had a Royal Warrant from King Henry which he had given to me when I had seen him in Windsor. It meant we could stay in royal castles such as Lincoln. It was not just the financial benefits which I enjoyed, there was greater security. I was now wary of such places as York! We did visit with Mary. She was delighted for she got to see her son again and I was able to speak with Sir William Neville who was acting as constable for his uncle.
When he heard that I was travelling north he nodded approvingly, “That is good, my lord, for we have heard of Scottish lords gathering armies. They feel that Percy and Lord Dunbarre impugned their honour with their raids last year. We have men watching for Scottish raiders.”
“Will they risk the Tyne and the Tees?”
“I fear so. We live on the hospitable part of the Pennines. There are trails through the forests and less accessible areas which the Scots can use. If they can avoid the men of Barnard Castle and Raby then they can ravage the Tyne, the Wear and the Tees with impunity. There is just the castle at Stockton to bar their way and the river can be crossed in many places.”
“I had hoped just for a month of campaigning and then to return home.”
“You may be required for longer, my lord.”
The Earl of March was more than delighted to see me and the increased number of men I had brought. I gave him the news I had from Neville although I did not quote the source. The Earl nodded and said, “Percy is not in the north. The King has made him Royal Lieutenant of North Wales and he is there now inspecting the castles.” The King had, indeed, offered Percy a sweetmeat! I wondered at the wisdom of such a move; the King was playing a dangerous game. “The absence of Hotspur may well encourage the Scots and from what you told me there is good reason for the muster of the men of the borders.”
Over the next days, I rode with my knights and the Earl to inspect his borders. His lords now had a tight grip on this part of Scotland and the borders. It was when we rode to Jedburgh and the Tweed that I saw the issue. Norham and Berwick barred the river but to the south and west were thick forests which could easily be negotiated by what amounted to warbands. The Scots had been doing this since before the time of the Romans. The routes and passages were passed from father to son almost as family heirlooms. England was their larder! “I fear that the first we will hear of a raid is when messengers come from the south! Still, it cannot be helped. King Henry must have good reasons to take Percy away from the north although for the life of me I cannot see what they are.” I knew he was playing a game of chess but the pieces were real ones. He had sacrificed a castle to win the game!
I felt like a fraud for we had little to do for a week or so except to ride to the borders of the Earl’s land. He treated us well with good food and fine grazing for our animals. I began to wonder if the rumour was just that, a rumour, when messengers arrived a few days before the summer solstice to tell us that a force of over twelve thousand Scots were raiding Cumberland and Northumberland. Carlisle and the west were too far away from us to allow us to intervene there and the Earl of Westmoreland would have to deal with them, but Northumberland
was a different matter.
Sir George rubbed his hands, “Now we have them. When they head north, they will avoid Norham and Berwick. That limits the number of places they can cross the Tweed and their route there will be predictable. They will use the Jedburgh crossing and we can catch them north of there. We do not have to travel far; we can let them come to us!”
I was dubious about the timing, “You can be certain?” He nodded confidently and I believed him. He was the poacher turned gamekeeper. “And the numbers, my lord? If there are twelve thousand Scotsmen on the rampage then we will be seriously outnumbered.”
“I can see how you think that way but I have raided in England and I know how the raiders’ minds work. There will be knights who keep their men in good order but there will be chiefs and other lesser leaders for whom the raid is just an opportunity to get rich quick. In addition, the twelve thousand will be spread across the north. I fear that Westmoreland will have more raiders for Bowness and Craven are both fertile places and worth raiding. We will catch them!”
We left to intercept them immediately. We had fewer than two hundred men all told and I thought it would be doomed to failure. I grew more confident when, after receiving a summons from Sir George, ten knights and their retinue arrived from Berwick. We now had thirty knights and all of us were well armed. With the archers from Berwick and those I had brought, we had fifty archers. It was not as many as I would have liked but Sir George seemed convinced that they would prove to be decisive. We headed for Duns which lay just north of Blackadder Water. One of Sir George’s lords, Sir John Swinton, had a manor there, Kimmerghame House. It meant that we had kitchens to cook our food and some of the lords had a roof over their head. I shared the outdoors with my men. The nights were so short that there was not even a chill in the air. Sir John Swinton had scouts out and it was they who reported warbands heading north. It appeared that Sir George was correct. Some of the knights had kept their men together. There was one such group with over four hundred men. There were other bands of thirty or forty. They were driving cattle, captives and booty and all of them were moving slowly.
I knew how to fight but Sir George was the master of border wars. He knew just how and where to array our men. He had the archers and some dismounted men at arms form a long double line to the north of the beck. He knew their line of march for he had used it himself when he had raided Northumberland. He had the knights and the mounted men at arms form up in two wings. He commanded one and I the other. Mine was the smaller wing and consisted of just my own household knights and men at arms. Our banners would tell the enemy that we had fewer knights and I knew that it would encourage them to attack us. I did not mind. Sir George commanded and he seemed to know his business.
We rose at dawn with the expectation of a battle later in the morning. The animals they had captured must have slowed the raiders down more than they had expected and the bulk of the raiders did not reach us until the middle of the afternoon. That does not mean to say that we were not kept busy. Smaller groups of men, as Sir George had predicted, made their way north towards the Blackadder Water. I saw why they chose this route. The river was no wider than fifteen paces anywhere and could be forded by all but the shortest of men. By the same token that was why Sir George had chosen it. The Scots would have to cross the Water to reach us. We captured or killed almost forty men before the main raiding party returned. My men at arms and I had little to do. It was the archers who did the bulk of the work. I have no doubt that the raiders had been warned of our presence by those we failed to see as they headed north. Our numbers would have been reported so that when the banners of their knights appeared, they were advancing in battle formation. They had organised themselves into a larger warband to force the crossing and their knights led. We recognised some of their banners; they were led by Lord Hepburn, with de Lawedre, Sir John Cockburn and the Haliburton brothers. There were other knights but we did not recognise their banners. We would be outnumbered on the field but we had more knights than they did.
As they formed up, I turned to my sons. Thomas would be riding at the fore and Harry would not merely be watching our horses, he would be fighting. “Thomas, when you strike then strike to kill. Forget ransom.”
“Aye, my lord!”
“And Harry, you are a squire and not a knight; just survive eh?”
“Yes, my lord,” he sounded cheerful about such a potentially deadly encounter.
“Gilles, the advice to you is to watch Sir Thomas’ back! No heroics!”
“No, my lord.”
We had had little to do thus far. It had been the dismounted men at arms and archers who had both slain and captured the riders. We had yet to cross the Blackadder Water. It meant that the ground between us and the enemy was not churned up. The archers and dismounted men at arms now had the advantage of slippery and muddy ground before them and it would slow down the enemy before they entered the water. I saw the Scottish knights with banners holding a counsel of war. They were looking for a trick. They outnumbered us and, in theory, would easily win. When they turned their horses and began to shout orders, I knew that they had made their decision to attack. Their crossbows and archers formed up and began to move in a long thin line towards our men. The men at arms had shields as well as plate armour. The Scots had parity of numbers with our archers but I knew who I would back. Alan of the Woods was the senior archer and it was he who gave the command to release. He gave the order when the crossbowmen knelt. Once again, I saw the futility of using crossbows in the open. It was obvious when they would release their bolts. Their archers, using an inferior weapon, sent a ragged shower of arrows back across the beck. After four flights they were broken and they retired. Then the Scots sent forward their dismounted men who carried shields. There were well over one hundred and forty of them. Behind them came another hundred and odd men without shields. Their knights formed up across the Water from us.
Sir Roger chuckled, “Very obliging of them, my lord. We do not have to seek our treasure, it will gallop towards us.”
My men all laughed. I saw the reasoning behind the Scottish decision. Our deadly archers would have to send their arrows at the men on foot. In addition, the Scottish knights outnumbered my battle. They believed that they would defeat me and then sweep around to take the archers in the rear.
Harry asked, “What will Sir George do, my lord?”
“Simple, he will cross the river and attack the flank of their men on foot. The decision of the Scottish leader has cost him the battle but he hopes to defeat us and cut his losses.” I stood in my stirrups, “Spears and lances at the ready. We hit them when they rise from the water!”
The arrows of our archers smacked into shields and rattled off helmets. They also drove through mail and into flesh. I saw an arrow, obviously a heavy war bodkin, drive through a helmet and kill a man at arms instantly. The men with shields began to fall. They were not being reaped but they were being hurt. The twenty knights and their attendant men at arms and squires closed with the Blackadder Water. I raised my lance. We would not get to gallop. We would get as fast as ‘Poignez, spur on’ and trot. That would ensure that our front line of five knights and my best five men at arms would hit together while the Scottish horsemen were trying to clamber from the stream. I heard a horn from my left and knew that Sir George was beginning his attack.
I concentrated on the banner of Robert de Lawedre of Edrington. From their angle of approach, I saw that it was he I would face. The Scottish line was more ragged than ours for they had been travelling all day. There were gaps. Sir John’s boot touched my right leg and Thomas, my son’s, my left. Timing was all and I slowed down Hawk, my warhorse who was keen for battle. This would be his first battle and he snorted in his eagerness to get to grips with the enemy. He would fight as hard as any knight. He would bite and kick. He would use his head and hooves as weapons. The first knight out of the water was Sir Patrick Hepburn the Younger of Hailes. He had the misfortune to face Sir Roger. Sir Roger c
ared not a jot for ransom. I suspect he thought to settle for the fine courser the knight rode. Whatever was going through his mind his action was clear. As Sir Patrick urged his horse from the water, Sir Roger pulled back his arm and smashed the knight in the chest with his lance. Sir Patrick was held in place by his cantle but he dropped his own spear. Sir Roger pulled back his spear and rammed it towards the leg of the knight. The tip broke off as it skewered the leg and Sir Roger threw away the stump as the Scot’s horse finally found purchase on the bank and scrambled up. The knight was badly wounded but brave. He drew his war axe and swung it at Sir Roger. A knight with lesser skill might have been caught by the blow but Sir Roger merely rolled back from the arc of the head and used his left hand to grab the haft. A knight without a wounded leg and one who had not been hit by a spear might have torn the axe from Sir Roger’s grip. Sir Roger raised his sword and shouted, “Yield, my lord! You are wounded!”
“Damn you, English mercenary! I fight on!”
Sir Roger swung his sword and the Scot raised his left arm to fend off the blow. He merely slowed it and the blade tore through the coif and into his neck.
Even as the knight was falling to his death, I had to concentrate on my foe for the others had used the distraction of Sir Patrick’s fight to solidify their line and five of them rode at us. The knight who fought me, Robert de Lawedre, had the disadvantage of striking upwards towards me. My spear was aimed down and both lances struck at the same time. I was able to use my hand to deflect the tip a little while mine hit him hard in the right shoulder. I hurled the broken haft at him as he reeled and then drew my sword. The knight wasted valuable time trying to pull back his arm for another strike but his horse was flailing in the mud as it tried to clamber up the bank. It was not helped by Hawk’s snapping jaws. I swung my sword at the Scot’s left shoulder. He too had a war hammer hanging from his cantle. Used two-handed it could cause terrible wounds even to knights protected by plate. His hand dropped his lance as my sword hit him. I pulled back on Hawk’s reins and his mighty hooves flailed in the air. One struck the knight in the chest. Even plate could not endure such damage and the knight slid into the beck.