[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (39 page)

In the countryside through which they passed the
gebur
s- cheorls, sokemen and cottars- and on the larger estates slaves, were hard at work on their rustic pursuits. No matter what the nobles may do, or what armies march, the people had to sow and reap the year’s harvest
-
or all would starve. The last of the ploughing was being completed, teams of four, six or eight oxen dragging the metal-tipped wooden
mould-
board ploughs through the ground to turn the sod. In other fields the first of the sowing was taking place.
In the meadows and pastures newly-born calves, lambs and foals suckled or gamboled under the watchful eyes of their herders.

Alan
dismounted
near the m
anor stables
and
a groom led Odin away to be rubbed down, watered and fed
.
Faran the s
teward greeted his lord with the news that Anne was still in London. Alan presumed she was still attending to business. Anne,
originally
from
the commercial city of
Ipswich, was still at heart a city girl and found the activity and insularity or a rural holding somewhat boring
-
although she could fulfill those duties admirably after her time as lady of two such households.
However,
she much preferred the stimulation of the ‘cut and thrust’ of merchant activity and the social life that a city could offer.

After performing several knee bends and back stretches to loosen his muscles after four days of ridi
ng Alan entered the luxuriously-
appointed stone-
built
Hall, ordered the water in the large wooden tun barrel in the bathing house to be
heated
and wolfed down a meal of pork stew. An hour later he was soaking in the warm water, bathing properly for the first time in a month and allowing the warm water to loosen his tired muscles.

That evening Alan spent
time
with Faran receiving reports on progress in his several estates in the Hundred and issuing instructions. On the morrow he would ride to Great Bentley in the morning to view the progress of the horse-stud and in the afternoon see Toland the Thorrington headman and his assistant Erian.

Alan was up before the dawn, broke his fast and arrived at Great Bentley not long after dawn after a short ride. As with all horse-training establishments, activity was by that hour already in full swing. Alan discussed progress of the stud with stud-master Brunloc and the Norman horse-trainer William of Amiens
,
and was delighted to hear that the spring foaling was now
complete
with the addition of
74
new foals, both here and at the original establishment at Ramsey. The latter remained under the stern hand of the aged expert stud-ma
s
ter Roweson, who continued to keep a close eye on his former apprentice in the operation of the
new
stud at Great Bentley. These foals would in three years time be available and trained to either replace losses amongst the horses currently used by Alan’s men or to be sold at the horse markets of London, Winchester and
Colchester
. Specially bred and war-trained horses were almost unknown in England and each
horse
would bring a price that itself would more than cover the very high wages that Alan paid William the horse-trainer for his specialist services.

The mid-day meal was eaten
leisurely
in the company of Toland and Erian, who reported social and economic news of the village. Being spring there were a number of marriages to be
celebrated, in some cases as a matter of urgency to ensure the nuptials were finalised before the birth of a child.
There had been s
everal deaths
, and m
ore births.
T
he astarting of the woodlands to increase arable land
had progressed well
.
There had been d
amage to the salt-pans in the winter storms and
Alan was advised the
repair
work
had already been
completed to correct this.

The following day Alan, Leof and a ten-strong party of mounted huscarles
led by Ranulf
, who had
all
been left behind
when the others marched on the n
orthern campaign, rode south for London, covering the nearly
seventy
mile ride in a little over nine hours including meal stops. Alan had spent so much time on horseback over the last few weeks he was beginning to think he had forgotten how to use his legs and that his backside had died
and gone to
h
ell
. The last couple of miles passing through the crowded city streets of London had been frustratingly slow with pedestrians, carts and wagons moving at a snail’s pace and road traffic being forced to trickle through narrow gaps between vendor’s stalls and the crowds of customers they attracted.

Arriving at
Holebourn
Bridge Alan dismounted from the rouncey he had ridden, hand
ed
the animal over to the stableboy Tiw, and then strode into the Hall. Anne was sitting in the Hall with Bjorn, the captain of the merchant cog
Zeelandt
which was owned by Alan and Anne. The huge old man with shaggy hair, beard
,
following moustache and twinkling bright blue eyes, watched as Anne, with an exclamation of delight, rose to kiss and hug her husband. After a long lingering kiss Alan turned towards the old Viking sea-captain, his arm around Anne’s shoulders tucking him in to her side. “God Hael
, Bjorn
! You are still alive I see, you old sea-pirate. How went the voyage?”

Bjorn snorted in feigned disgust at the defamatory, but
formerly
true, appellation of ‘pirate’
. A
fter a sip of ale while Alan and Anne were seating themselves together on a padded bench he replied
,
“Well enough, you young whippersnapper.
I h
ad to use those
big
cross-bows of yours on a pirate out of Guernsey.
He m
ust have been a new man and not heard about us. He never will now
!
I must get the men to practice more, it took over a dozen shots at less than a hundred paces to set him on fire using those fire-arrows of yours.” He was referring to Alan having placed
a
small ballista aboard the ship,
mounted
aft, and the special bolts he had fashioned that each carried a pint of incendiary material akin to Greek Fire, and which he now kept a close secret. Bjorn continued
,
“An
d
then, damn me, on the return off Finistere we get becalmed and the tide nearly takes us onto the Penmark Rocks, just out from Quimper. You could see the crabs on the rocks waving to us by the time the lads used the oars to sweep us clear. I
nearly
shat my pants
!
How
ha
ve you spent your spring?”

Despite Alan’s homecoming a simple though filling meal was served, there still being two days remaining in Lent and Anne being religiously observant. This comprised a Barnacle Goose pie, not considered to be meat as it was believed to reproduce from barnacles. Alan spent an hour or so describing the northern expedition and his part in it. “So apart from killing a few guards and a few men who were probably spies, my men did very little. The only fighting that happened was slaughtering a few rebels in York, men who had been too drunk or too stupid to run away, and we were asleep miles away at the time,” he concluded.

“So nothing was resolved?” asked Anne.

“Not so you would notice,” replied Alan. “York was retaken, which was ne
cessary
as whoever controls York controls the gateway south to the Midlands. The king wasn’t able to bring the rebels to battle. The leaders fled back to Scotland or overseas. There are virtually no towns in the north to take or hold and the push towards Durham was defeated by the weather
-
or some are saying by divine intervention.”

“I’ve heard that after Eastertide the queen and most of the ladies of the
court
will be
returning to their family and
friends in Normandy and the queen will visit her family in Flanders,” said Anne.

“Hmm,”
replied
Alan
thoughtfully
. “While the king has a strong grip on the duchy, we Normans are always a fractious lot and given to internal brawling. That’s why the king returns to Normandy each summer to sort out th
ose
arguments. Flanders is no longer quite as friendly as
it was
before. Philip of France is just old enough to think he needs to do something to show off his prowess
, a
nd the Angevins have resolved their civil war with Geoffrey
le Barbu
fighting his brother Fulk, and Geoffrey being the loser and being imprisoned last year. Fulk
le Rechin
would be more than happy to try to assume William’s overlordship of Brittany and Maine and try to recover some of the land and influence his duchy lost during Geoffrey’s reign.”

“It’s like a barrel of tar being put on a smoldering fire,” commented Bjorn. “The smoldering fire can be contained and the barrel of tar is in itself harmless. But when the tar boils the barrel will explode and the conflagration will burn down the house. At the moment the tar is heating and starting to bubble.” He took a gulp of ale and continued
.
“Talking about tar, I met a Norwegian merchant when I was in Bordeaux. He told me that last month he tried to buy Stockholm tar
in Denmark
.
None w
as
available for love
or money. The Danes had bought every barrel available.” Bjorn noticed the frown and look of incomprehension on Alan’s face. With a sigh he continued
,
“It’s easy to see you aren’t a sailor, boy. The Danes have suddenly decided to refit their fleet.
All
of the ships at the
same
time. The captains of their longboats are
all
very independent
-minded
men. Why would they
all
decide
to do that at the same time?”

Bjorn indicated to the servant to bring him another quart of ale and wiped the froth from his moustache. “That made my arse itch, so I called in at several French ports on the way back, instead of seeking a quick trip. That’s why I ran into problems off Penmark Rocks, being outward bound from Nantes.
I m
et a ship captain from Haarlem, in
North Holland
, in a tavern. After I’d poured a few drinks into him, he told me that word was out in the Baltic for the ships to avoid the east coast of England this summer. The word is being passed by the Danes to those who are their friends.” By now the light of understanding had dawned in Alan’s eyes. Bjorn nodded
.
“The Danes are coming this summer, and in force. Perhaps as many as a hundred or more ships. I’d suggest you look to your defenses in Essex, boy. And stop having
Birgitta
and
Stormsvale
sailing into Colchester and Ipswich if you don’t want them sunk.”

It was typical of their differing areas of responsibility that Alan and Anne had different immediate concerns at this news. Alan’s thoughts turned to what would need to be done to protect his estates from attack. Anne considered how best to re-arrange the mercantile business to minimise any loss and to perhaps reap some profit. After discussion with Bjorn it was agreed that
Birgitta
, which plied the route from Ipswich to Narvik in Norway, taking copper, tin and cloth north to trade for whale oil, Stockholm tar and herrings
(
the fish being dried, salted, smoked or pickled
)
cease that route immediately. A disruption of the trade across the North Sea would mean higher prices for these goods in both directions, but only if they could be safely transpo
rted.

Bjorn suggested that one ship travel between Narvik and Flanders. Anne suggested Rotterdam or Haarlem, but Bjorn had advised that they were too far north and too close to the route that the Danes would take to raid England. He suggested instead
Oostend, a small port town in n
orthern Flanders. His reasoning was that the Danes were always raiding the East Baltic and if they were
also
to start large-scale raiding on England that they wouldn’t seek conflict with other countries. After all, they had to have
somebody
to trade with. He was sure that trade between Norway and Flanders would be left alone. The goods could then be
carried
across the channel from Oostend to London, a distance of about eighty miles by a second ship.
Stormsvale
was currently undertaking the Haarlem-Colchester-London route and could easily enough ply between Oostend and London, probably undertaking three voyages for
each one that the other ships in the fleet undertook. With a crew composed of Norwegians and Flemings
,
whatever ship undertook the northern route could masquerade as belonging to either
country
, with probably Norway being the favoured choice. But that ship could not be
Birgitta
as she was well-known in the North Sea as being English. After discussion it was agreed that
Zeelandt
would sail under Bjorn between Narvik and Oostend,
Stormsvale
between Oostend and London and
Birgitta
between London and Bordeaux. The ballista would be removed from
Zeelandt
and placed on
Birgitta.
Bjorn would rely on bluff and pretence, rather than force.