group of horsemen was approaching from the north.
Alan told Hugh to gather their men, but keep them in the background at the moment. Alan quickly swapped the training sword he had been using for his usual sword Blue Fire, called Baldwin to stand with him and for Kendrick to gather a couple of stable hands. He then waited the few minutes until the visitors rode up. As the riders rode through the gate Alan was standing in his padded practice gambeson jacket, hot and sweaty. He recognised Aelfhare and Bertholf and several others from Ramsey, as well as Frewin and Alward, thegns from Tendring who had each brought one man.
Following protocol Alan first greeted his equals Frewin and Alward. Alward commented that Aelfhare and Bertholf had been riding through Tendring and from the comments they had made when he had offered them a sup of ale in his Hall as refreshment, he and Frewin had felt that they should accompany them to ensure that nothing untoward happened.
Alan did not invite the visitors into the Hall and after they dismounted they stood in the forecourt in the thin sunlight of the chill January day. “What can I do for you Aelfhare and Bertholf? We spoke on Saturday and I gave you until tomorrow to vacate the manors you are illegally holding. By the way you owe me the?4 2/ you removed from the strongbox at Great Oakley. Is it that you have come to pay that?”
Bertholf snarled, “You wish! No, we have come to dispute your right to take the manors from us.”
Alan gestured to Kendrick, who handed the rolled parchment Charter from King William to Alan, who in turn handed it to Alward. “Please read it aloud Alward, it is written in both Latin and English with the king’s Great Seal at the foot.”
Alward read aloud the flowery language that granted the honour to Alan, concluding, “Signed and sealed this 27th day of December 1066. William, king of England. I’m sorry Aelfhare and Bertholf, but as one of the Hundred thegns I accept that this is valid and must act to uphold it.”
“I offered you employment fit for your station and the possibility of advancement when we last spoke,” said Alan. “Those offers are now revoked. Make sure you are out of the Hundred by mid-night tomorrow. Alward and Frewin, may I invite you inside for refreshments while these geburs take themselves off? By the way Aelfhare and Bertholf, the horses you ride belong to me. Make sure you leave them behind when you depart.”
With a snarl Bertholf launched himself forward, moving to draw his sword from its scabbard. The sword was less than half out when an arrow thumped into his chest, stopping Bertholf two paces away from Alan. With a surprised expression on his face he began to collapse. Alan glanced back over his shoulder and saw Roger reaching for a new arrow from his quiver.
Aelfhare shouted, “No!” and drew his own sword as he raced towards Alan. Initially Alan didn’t move, although he rose onto the balls of his feet ready to dodge as required. Three paces before he reached Alan, and just as Alan began to move his feet and right hand, four arrows thumped into Aelfhare’s chest, dropping him like a hare. Glancing back over his shoulder again Alan saw that four of his English archers were notching new arrows in their bows.
Alan looked at the four Englishmen from Ramsey and asked, “Anybody else? You all saw me attacked without provocation outside my own Hall by armed guests.” Turning to the practical he asked Alward, “Do they have any kin surviving?”
“I think perhaps a sister over Meldon way,” Alward replied.
“I’ll arrange their burial in the churchyard there and have their bodies taken to the church now. Brother Godwine is around somewhere and can say Last Rights. Alward, can you send a message to this sister and tell them of the death of her brothers and the fact that they died attacking their liege lord without provocation? I’ll arrange men to go to Great Oakley, Ramsey and Bradfield today. Can you arrange your men here to accompany mine and act as witnesses to what has occurred? I would prefer to avoid further conflict when my men take possession of those manors. Roger, you can give your men the rest of the day off, take them down to the tavern and buy them a few quarts of ale. I think that they’ve deserved it.”
As Alan escorted the thegns and their men into the Hall, he heard one of his archers named Barclay rather loudly proclaiming, “He may be a
After giving Frewin and Alward a rather abbreviated mid-day meal, accompanied by wine and ale, Alan expressed a wish to leave early to take possession of the estates of Great Oakley, Ramsey and Bradfield, preferring to ride with Frewin and Alward as far as Tendring, but offering his guests further hospitality if they wished to stay. Both declared themselves ready to leave at once. Using an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to avoid potential problems, Alan decided to take Ainulf, Edric, Alfward and Ledmer and four archers to Ramsey, where any problems were likely to occur. Warren was to take three archers and two horsemen to Great Oakley, and Baldwin three archers and two horsemen to Bradfield. Frewin and Alward agreed to send one man as an independent witness to each village. This left Hugh and Roger at Thorrington to conduct training, but had removed all the current recruits, making them temporarily superfluous.
They rode out in the early afternoon, allowing ample time to return the two thegns home and proceed on to their destinations.
Alan, with Edric ‘The Axe’, Ledmer and Alfward, together with archers Barclay, Abracan, Aethelbald and Oswy and Frewin’s man Irwin arrived at Ramsey as darkness was setting in. Of the archers Barclay was officially a hunter, although Alan suspected that both he and Aethelbald had in fact been poachers.
Aelfhare’s and Bertholf’s companions had arrived an hour or so before, and the Hall was in uproar at the news of the death of their lords.
Alan called for the steward Durand to maintain calm and asked for the four village elders, including head- cheorl Putman, to attend at the Hall immediately. A few minutes later, standing at the end of the Hall with his men at his back, Alan explained to the elders and the retainers in the Hall the details of the deaths of Aelfhare and Bertholf. He stated that both had come uninvited to his Hall and attempted to kill him. Frewin’s man Irwin, as independent witness, confirmed this.
Alan advised all that he and his men would be taking possession of the three manors and that he expected, nay demanded, the whole-hearted co-operation of all the people in each manor. No argument from either those who lived at the Hall or in the village would be tolerated. The manors would be ruled with an iron fist in an iron glove. Those retainers who proved their worth and reliability would be rewarded. Those who did not would be released to find alternative service forthwith.
That night Alan slept in the bedchamber together with most of his men, with two men on guard outside the door.
The next day, Tuesday, Alan visited the horse stud property that the Kemps had developed just outside the village. He arranged with stud-master Roweson that the eighteen horses that had reached three years of age would be sent to Thorrington at once. He also promised additional breeding stock, including chargers, rather than just rounceys, and in the springtime the use of his own destrier stallion for breeding duties with suitably chosen mares.
Over the next week the situation settled down. Alan arranged with Toli of Dovercourt to borrow a huscarle who would administer Bradfield. Baldwin would base himself at Ramsey and train a squadron of ten horsemen, and Warren would supervise Great Oakley and train a squad of archers there.
Alan and most of the cavalry and archers returned home to Thorrington on Saturday 27th January. There he found to his pleasant surprise that Toland had used this normally quiet time of the year for the peasants to get busy with the construction of the new saltpans, which were nearly complete.
Construction had not been difficult as the land selected had a clay base, was very flat and below the level the sea reached each month on the flood-tide- although the sea would be held back from flooding the saltpans by levees. Toland had arranged for Aethelhard the blacksmith to make a metal cutting edge on a strong wooden board ten feet wide, which was pulled by a team of six oxen, up and down, across and diagonally on the salt pan. This deepened the pan and levelled its floor and also provided the clay soil with which to build the levees three feet high around each pan.
Using the ox-pulled board method Toland had the villagers make a single large expanse of pan, which was then in the process of being divided into smaller pans by inserting intervening levees. Sliding wooden sluice gates were inserted in the levees next to the estuary or tidal creek. Alan suggested building in a fall in level across the pan and intervening sluices, so that water of increasingly high salinity resulting from solar evaporation could be
