Hoodsman: Ely Wakes

by Smith, Skye

  The bed linen was slowly slipping down her chest and revealing her breasts. The tease was not wasted on the two men. "The numbers of men and women are almost equal since the Danes left, though it looks like more women because the men are often away for weeks at a time."

  Hereward's interruption had spoiled the mood so made a show of getting out of bed, and as she reached for her robe she said, "I will spread the word. We will arrange a welcome home gift to any man with a stiff one. The women will all tell me the same thing, though. They will want the men before the alehouses get them."

  She gave Raynar a very sexual kiss, and then as an afterthought, gave Hereward one as well, and then she treated them to the vision of her getting dressed into every day clothes, "I will be back within the hour Raynar. You are to be here when I return. I need only go so far as Inka's hut to make this welcome happen."

  As soon as she was gone, Raynar asked Hereward "Has she been living here with you?"

  "It was a long winter for both of us. We shared many smiles together once I had finished this longhouse, but she never did actually move in with me. She has been waiting for you, her husband."

  "Did seeing me in bed with her make you angry?" asked Raynar.

  "Lusty, not angry. We have both lived on her island. We both know their ways. She is more than enough woman to keep us both satisfied." Hereward had other things to speak of that were more urgent, but he continued about Roas, "She is very like her sister. Both of them should have been born male. She craves adventure and scolds me when I refuse to let her travel with me. I ducked the issue by telling her that she has to be the equal of her sister with a bow before she can travel."

  Raynar laughed aloud, "Let me guess. She is practicing every day. Anske did the same. And how are her courtly manners and her French coming along. That was the learning task I set for her."

  "She picked up the manners easily enough from me and from Countess Beatrice. The French sticks in her throat. As for the bow, she is practicing with John twice a day. For a time I was suspicious that she was doing John as well as me. But no. John has too many widows following him around to have time for her." Now Hereward was laughing too.

  "Open my saddle bags," Raynar invited, "go on, open them".

  Hereward looked inside and reached for one of the purses. It was heavy with silver. He lifted the bags and grinned. He took a small chest from the second one and unlatched it so he could open the lid. When he looked inside, it was all he could do to not drop the thing. He whistled and said, "Did you offer to buy Flanders?"

  "It is the wedding gifts meant for Rachilde and FitzOsbern. I decided to keep it. I will hide it at Surfleet with the rest," Raynar replied.

  "I visited the hoard last month. Our silver ran low so I retrieved some gold purses and Thorold swapped them with the Lincoln guild for silver," mumbled Hereward almost with embarrassment. The hoard did not actually belong to them.

  "Is business that bad. When I left there was more silver coming in than going out."

  "The truce, remember, the peace between Sweyn and William so they could both take an interest in Flanders. Many of the men went back to rebuild their villages. Can't blame them. If they didn't rebuild them then some Norman lord could claim the land after a year.

  I made the same mistake as you did with your wolfpacks. I distributed silver to each man so that any of them could go and build roofs fit for the winter. I wonder now if they will return." By his smile, Hereward didn't think it a mistake at all. He had encouraged the men to rebuild their villages.

  "Before Roas returns, I have some news for your ears only," Raynar dropped his voice and told him of his word battle with Philip of France across the break in the street to Cassel.

  "So you are telling me that you sent King Philip away thinking that you were defying him on William's orders?" Hereward was having trouble keeping his voice low in his mirth and enjoyment of the story.

  "There is more to the story because of Gerbod," and he told the story of the murder of Arnulf. Hereward’s laughter stopped abruptly. "Rachilde and I both believe he strangled the boy, but we have no witness and no proof."

  "I can't believe that you didn't just kill the bastard," replied Hereward. "Especially after the harrowing he did in Cheshire and Shropshire."

  "I tried, twice. On the first try, the arrows missed him. On the second, my men hauled me off him because I had ordered the wolfpacks to respect the prisoners. Besides, Robert hated the man anyway, and now has him locked away so that Flanders runs Saint Omer in trust. He has promised Rachilde and I that Gerbod will never ever be free."

  He tapped the small chest. "She told me I could keep this chest. It was not hers, as her marriage to FitzOsbern was never completed. She probably regretted that decision within the week, but at the time she was grateful that I had saved her other son. In truth it was Philip who saved him by being a good lad and turning his army around to go home."

  "What do you think of Robert as the new Count of Flanders? He has already doubled the normal trade with us."

  "What can I say. He is full of himself like all nobles. I would not trust him with my life, nor my wife. I suppose I would trust him with my money, but only because he has his father's skill at picking wise investments. Including our wolfpacks."

  Raynar latched the small chest and put it back in the saddle bag. "I would rather have Robert as an ally than Sweyn. Sweyn still thinks too much like a raider. His fleet is all he is. On land he is a fool, so is his brother Osbard, and so is his son Harold. Some days I find myself wishing that their ships would be lost to a storm, so Canute could become king. Then we would see a difference."

  "So from what you have told me, what Sweyn told us last fall was true. This quick and painless win of Flanders by Robert has worked in every way against William. Robert now hates him. Philip now hates him. He has lost critical earls and knights and it has cost him much coin, and all for nothing."

  "It is true. Philip blames English bowmen for the loss of his cavalry, so he has made treaties with Robert and Flanders. This is very bad for William. Still, I would rather Robert had no treaties with any Franks. I will tell you more about the Franks when the audience is larger. Is Thorold in Ely? Do we hold Cambridge yet?"

  "Cambridge is Norman still. The peace you know of. Ending that siege was a main condition. Huntingdon is still ours. Waltheof has been made Earl of Northampton and lives either there or in London and leaves us to run Huntingdon. I sent messengers to Thorold as soon as I spied the ships. That will be a waste of the messenger's time for Thorold's men now run the docks at Lynn. He will have known before I."

  "Cambridge is bad news," mumbled Raynar, "but that both Lynn and Spalding are now run by Thorold is wonderful news."

  "A good many of the hood are in his pay now. When the Klaes's Frisians left for Flanders, he replaced them from the wolfpacks. The merchants of Lynn welcomed them to protect their port because of those heavy arrows." Hereward looked around, "She is back."

  Roas did not knock. She brought the sunlight into the room with her and came to stand between them. "Go," she said to Hereward. "Inka's sisterhood of ealderwomen is organizing a feast, with only enough ale to wash down the food. There will be laughter and sex play under every roof tonight. Now go, for this roof deserves an early start."

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  The Hoodsman - Ely Wakes by Skye Smith

  Chapter 29 - Feasting in Ely, Cambridgeshire in April 1071

  Men from all over the Fens came to the feast. It was early for the May fete but that was what it was most like. Even the alehouses did not complain, for while they had promised not to serve any drunk men, they served many more men than was usual, to get them almost drunk.

  The first evening of the feast was a welcome, the second day was a recovery, and the third was to be a farewell. On the second, Hereward brought Raynar together with the other leaders so that they could trade news. The most important news was that there was little news.

  The winter of
peace had given time for much healing in the Danelaw. The harvest had not been great, but it had been enough, which meant that enough breeding stock and seed corn remained for a fruitful and easy spring. The animals bought, stolen, and taken from dead Normans before the peace had made the difference. This spring there was no shortage of plough teams and many men had spent the winter storms under new and dry roofs crafting saddles for their new horses.

  When the Danes had left for Holland, they willing paid Raynar's price in ships for the wolfpacks to sail with them. They had left behind boats and ships aplenty in the Fens, though it was true they were mostly small or old, and old styled, and required refits before they could be used for trading along the coast or over to Flanders. A winters worth of work had improved them all.

  The Danish captains gave them the message from King Sweyn that it was doubtful that the Danish fleet would return to use Ely as their main base in the south. They now had the use of many friendly ports in Flanders, which were much closer to Calais and Dover and the Thames. Still, the North Sea would remain a Danish sea with few Norman ships.

  The captain of one of the Danish longships told them some frustrating news. Much of the treasure taken from Peterburgh and other English abbeys as part of William's latest Danegeld, had been lost at sea due to a storm. It was not taken as an omen, but as foolishness by the captain who had overloaded the treasure ship with axemen in case he was attacked.

  Hereward gave Raynar a sly wink, and they both chuckled at their luck. The treasure that they had taken from the Abbey and had hidden as a hoard at Surfleet, would now be assumed sunk with the rest.

  The captain's news became thinner, and less important, so then it was Raynar's turn to tell his. He began with the actual news, which most had already heard from other sources, but then he told what the men were really waiting for. The description of the why's behind the news. When he was finished, the captains drifted away, as did the huscarls. He was left with an audience of just the men that ran the Fens. Thorold, Waltheof, Hereward, and Klaes.

  "While in Holland and Flanders," Raynar told them, "I spent a good deal of time with Prince Canute of Denmark. Since he has older brothers, he has been trained for the church not the throne or the fleet. He is three years younger than me, but he knows things and told me things that made me think. I now know why I fear the rule of the Normans or the Franks.

  Canute told me much about his grand uncle Knut the Great. I always used to think that he was called the Great because of winning so many battles, but it was because he was a king of kings. Many kings served him. Canute said that he built an Empire of the North Sea, and he was the Emperor. His greatest work was to entwine together the folk and the customs of all of those lands. He did this not with stone and steel and keel, but by promoting what all of his folk from all around the Sea had 'in-common'.

  He died thirty five years ago, and now the nobility of the Sea are confusing Knut's 'in-common' with the word 'common'. To the nobles of today, common means low class, poor quality, of the peasants. They look down their noses at anything common. It is a trick of translation that we speak of Common Law instead of 'In-Common' Law. Knut's clerics spent years collecting and compiling all the laws of all his lands and merging them into one set of laws that most folk had in-common, and then enacting rule by that law.

  His clerics took Frisian, the trading language of the Sea, and added Danish grammar to it, and it became 'in-common' English. He copied Emperor Constantine when he chose Christianity as the 'in-common' religion.

  Knut supported and promoted any communities that would hold the well being of folk 'in-common', whether they be villages, clans, tribes or religious orders. If there was hunger, the food was shared. If there was fire, the fire would be fought by all. If there was planting or harvest to do, then all would share in the work and in the benefit. His own quote was 'to the community according to ability, from the community according to need.'

  What came out of Knut's 'In-Common' vision was a different way of viewing privilege and entitlement. Entitlement became something that was earned, and once you earned it, you gained privilege, and this is how he ran his empire and why his empire grew so quickly and why the vision spread so widely beyond his borders.

  Though our nobles are loosing this vision, the Normans and the Franks have never had it. They want to be masters and so they must step on others to lift themselves. Instead of Knut's rule-by-law, they have only rule-by-might and church edicts, which they can buy.

  All this and more did Canute teach me, and he is driven to madness that his family do not continue with Knut's vision. They, worse than any, pretend that Knut the Great was a great warrior and nothing more. Only the Frisians have stayed true to Knut's in-common visions, although the English kept them longer than even the Danes. That is now ending here because of the Normans."

  Thorold spoke up, "This is all true. Knut was a warlord who chose good administrators. Edward, who was my king, was an administrator who chose good warlords, such as Harold Godwinson. This kingdom was peaceful under both, and thus became rich. And because so much of the wealth was 'in-common' everyone was better off, not just the lords.

  I was trained by King Edward as an administrator, so I choose good warlords." He was sitting between his two favourite warlords, Klaes and Hereward. He rocked his shoulders from side to side to bump into each of them to ensure they got that he was speaking of them.

  Raynar continued, "In Flanders I met many folk from many lands, and from slaves to kings, and I talked to all. Those from the lands around the North Sea were very different from those from the lands of the Franks. The North Sea folk all had basic English in common, and lived within the same laws, and by the rule of law. They chose to follow the leaders and warlords who they respected. They would stand tall and talk to their leaders man to man.

  The Frankish folk were so very different. They are accepting of all things from Rome. Their language 'In Common' is Latin, yet so few now speak it that it is becoming a secret written language of clerks and clerics. There is no law 'In Common' save for might is right, gold is right, and the clerics spouting the nine commandments as interpreted by the Archbishop of Rome.

  There is no rule of law, only rule by the entitled, and entitlement is not earned, it is inherited. Privilege is therefore not deserved. The folk cower and grovel to them that are born of the manor and never meet their eyes." Men were nodding at the words, except for Waltheof who was sitting across from Raynar. He looked like a man about to choke.

  "I began my fight against the Normans by accident," Raynar explained. "I was sucked into the battles against my wishes. When we lost against William, I was sucked into the cycle of vengeance. Canute has convinced me that my fight is not against Normans, but against this vision of the serf-masters who are attacking Knut's North Sea Empire and destroying the 'in-common' vision and replacing it with selfish greed."

  Waltheof finally spoke, "Despite these fine thoughts, you are still fighting the Normans out of vengeance."

  Raynar answered, "Yes and no. In Flanders I did meet Normans and Franks that I admired. I needed a better way to distinguish between good men and evil. Now I can spot my enemies no matter their blood, and before they do any evil that gives rise to vengeance. My enemies are the posers."

  "The vengeance for the Great Harrowing will last many lifetimes," said Waltheof. "How many more enemies do you need?"

  "The enemy is not the men so much as how they envision other men. If only the gods would clean the serf-master visions from men's minds so those minds can heal. This would make it so that no one is above the rule of law. Make it so what we have 'in-common' is lauded, rather than demeaned as being common. Make it so leaders have earned their entitlement rather than inherited it. Make it so men no longer falsely pose as the betters of other men. No more posers."

  Waltheof looked at him thoughtfully. "Certainly I hold that there should be one law for all and not even a king should be above it. Because William holds himself above the law, he has been
claiming land and treasure that should not by law be his, and then has been using that wealth to coerce men to do his evil, and afterwards has been using that wealth to coerce the church into forgiving the evil."

  "Enough talk of ideals," said Hereward impatiently. "Raynar, you are sounding more like Prince Canute than Canute himself, and his own brothers make fun of his holiness. Meanwhile we have real problems to discuss. Spring is upon us. What now? Waltheof, what is the news from the palace?"

  "William has returned from Flanders, but cannot stay in England long. Raynar is not the only peasant who has had an epiphany. The mercenaries who once served William, are displeased with him and are causing him problems in Normandy. The peasants of Maine have learned of our rebellion here in the Fens and have started a rebellion of their own. The peace with the Danelaw is finished, but he will not give you fair warning before he breaks it with an attack. I expect a surprise attack on Ely."

  "Why Ely? It would be more logical to take Huntingdon first."

  "William thinks he has already taken Huntingdon by reinstating me as the Earl," answered Waltheof. "You must remember that William and his nobles fear a peasant revolt far more than they fear a revolt by earls. Earls can be swayed by honors, or turned against each other, or removed under threat of worse fates for their families.

  William now has a peasant revolt in Maine as well as this one in the Danelaw. The Archbishop of Rome is fearful that they will spread, and he fears a peasant revolt more than he fears the Mussulmen. He fears that all the peasants of France may rise at once and chop of the heads of the nobility so that there is no blood heir to the titles. He has ordered William to put everything else aside until he has crushed these peasant revolts. You are to be crushed first. He could be on the march to Cambridge as we speak."

  Hereward sighed at the bad news, but thanked his cousin for telling it. "I think, then, that you should excuse yourself from hearing our plans so that you need not ever lie to William. I hear that your new wife Judith is heavy with child and stays with Queen Mathilde, so your own bed is cold. You should go out and enjoy the festival. I have been assured that every man who is clean and not drunk will get laid tonight. You should find yourself a comely woman before they are all taken."