“Well, you foreigners come here, invade, kill thousands of Englishmen, dispossess us of our lands and want to turn all our people into slaves,” shouted Anne.
Alan sat back, washed his hands in a herb-scented finger-bowl and considered for a moment. “Firstly, I will accompany William fitzOsbern on his journey north in about three weeks. We leave just after the Feast of the Annunciation and we’ll escort the Hundred’s taxes to Colchester on the way. I’ll take five Englishmen with me. I will also return you to your own manor at that time and arrange for the Infirmarer at the priory to come and visit you two weeks later to check your leg and remove the splints. It’s probably safe for you to start walking with the use of two crutches now.
“Secondly, William of Normandy’s parents were not married, so it is true he is a bastard. It is not a description that I would recommend that you use. He has in the past had removed all four limbs of thirty odd people at Alencon who made jest at his birth, It’s not that he does not acknowledge it, but that as a powerful lord he is not prepared to accept insult.
“Thirdly, he is not just my king, he is yours, and that of every other Englishman. He was anointed by Archbishop Ealdred of York, an Englishman, on Christmas Day just past. What right has he to be king? The same right as Cnut fifty years ago- the right of conquest. The Norwegians and Danes have come and conquered this land many times and been accepted as legitimate kings. Harald Hardrada invaded in early September last year. Had he been successful the king’s court would now be speaking Danish instead of Norman French.
He took a sip of wine and continued, “Incidentally, I would recommend that you learn Norman French as soon as possible, as you’ll need to converse with Normans who do not speak English and you should never rely on an interpreter you don’t know. To return to the issue you raised, what defeated England was its inability to deal with three invasions, including that of Harold Godwinson’s own brother Tostig, and four hard battles in six months. You should be relieved Harald Hardrada and his Vikings aren’t in control of the land. Normans are constantly quarrelling and fighting, but do so for a reason- usually for land or money. Norsemen do it just because they’re bored. Hardrada was a pagan barbarian, only nominally Christian since he had two wives. He was unpopular even with his own people because his cruelty, was dishonest and capricious. He was cunning and clever- but with a joy of bloodshed. To be trusted by nobody, as shown by his actions while in the employ of the Byzantine Empress.
“Fourthly, as far as I am aware no Englishman has so far been dispossessed of lands he lawfully owns. William made promises of land and riches to those who followed him. He has been able to keep those promises from the lands resumed from Harold and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine. The Godwinsons controlled nearly half of England in their earldoms. They used the land for their own enrichment and advancement.
“Edgar the Aetheling, together with Archbishop Stigand and many others submitted at Berkhampstead. Edwin of Mercia and Morcar of Northumbria submitted shortly after the coronation. So also did Thorkel of Arden, Copsi and many others. Edgar Aetheling, the man the Witengemot elected king after Harold’s death, has been treated as a kinsman and endowed with additional lands, not killed or chased into exile as happened in Cnut’s time. Edward’s wife has been treated well and confirmed in her lands and her dower. There has been no massacre such as Cnut instigated at Christmas 1017, when he had many Eadwig, the then Aetheling, and other high ranking nobles of Mercia murdered. The English royal family has not had to have itself and its heirs smuggled overseas to avoid assassins as it did in Cnut’s day. Englishmen are being confirmed in their lands, and in most of their offices- at a price of course. William never does something for nothing and he has a large amount of mercenaries in his army that he has to pay.
“You made a point about enslavement. Frankly, the biggest embarrassment I have is the fact that I now own fourteen men and their families, my theows. They are Christians. In Normandy we don’t own men, women and children, able to sell them at whim. I know that for most that status is only temporarily, usually for not being able to pay debts or fines, except for the war captives. How many do you own yourself? I really don’t know what to do with them. They’ve been useful for the last few months in working to build my new fort, along with the labour from the cottars and the sokemen, but what do I do with them in the longer term? Owning people and being able to sell them is distasteful to me. I could emancipate them and make them cottars, freemen who work for me three days a week in return for the rent on their cottage. That would accord with traditional English custom.
“You English have a highly stratified society. You have the nobles, the earls. The earls comprised just four families, those of Godwin, Leofric, Siward and Bamburgh. The Kings Thegns were several hundred men. The lesser thegns amounted to probably 5,000- now after the four battles of last year perhaps 2,000. The cheorls, the sokeman and the cottars are all free, but many live in poverty. And there are the slaves. I understand that one man in five in England is a slave. Fortunately I have many less. A villein is almost free, in that he is tied to the land and he passes with the sale of the land, but he is usually a wealthy peasant. He would be given land and a plough and oxen at my cost. He would owe me three days a week of labour and the use of his plough and team and ploughing time and extra labour at harvest time. How is he worse off than a freeman, a sokeman who owes three days a week in labour but has to provide his own plough and oxen? To be fair, a cheorl or sokeman can sell what land he has, which a villein cannot, but other than that there is little practical difference.
“I’m perfectly content with the people I have and intend to make no changes, other than to manumit my slaves. Thegns, cheorls, sokeman and cottars will remain unaffected. The only thing that I can see that will change the very generous way that King William has treated his former enemies is if they plot or revolt against him. If that happens, then his wrath will be terrible to behold and there’ll be devastation and slaughter on a large scale. He rewards loyalty, and punishes disloyalty with utmost severity.
“Do you intend to free your slaves? William and the new Norman lords have sworn to keep to the laws of the Confessor. I, and I expect, our king, will do so. A few recently arrived Normans may not. But again that will be no different to the past and when this comes to William’s attention he will deal with it if necessary.” Alan wiped his hands on the table-cloth. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have lost my appetite and will go about my duties.” He did, however, slip the capon pie into his pocket and carry a quart jug of ale out with him.
Alan spent the early afternoon with Kendrick the steward making the arrangements for the ploughing of the demesne fields. It was the end of the first week in March and the ground was no longer frozen hard. Alan had divided his own demesne into thirds and intended to implement the three-field system. The first of the sokeman had started to plough their own fields and it was time for Alan to insist on his rights of priority. With the coming of the ploughing season and the start of sowing early the following month, work on the fort, which had been proceeding slowly in any event, would have to cease. The cutting down of many hundreds of trees for making the palisades for the fort had been used as an opportunity to astart part of the forest, the first step in turning it into grazing land or plough-land. An area of perhaps twenty acres had been cleared and added to Alan’s personal demesne. The back- breaking work of clearing the tree stumps and roots would begin in May and would be a job that would probably take several years.
Later Alan rode through the sunny afternoon with an escort of four men to Ramsey both to visit his horse stud and to meet with Alric the thegn whose Hall was on the outskirts of the Tendring. Alan visited the stud first, knowing that a visit to Alric’s Hall would take many hours, as the thegn was an excellent host. The stud was located on grazing land about a mile from the village of Ramsey. There was a cluster of eight cottages, a barn and the stable with a large number of stalls formed into a “U” shape. Nearby was the fenced training-yard. The land was fenced into ten paddocks. Four of these contained mares, nearly all with foals at foot. Two contained yearlings and two contained stallions and mares of two years of age. Two much smaller paddocks each contained a single stallion. The grass had only just started to grow and each paddock had a pile of hay and a trough of oats, as well as a trough of water. The horses still had their winter coats of hair and looked quite rough.
Alan was met by the stud-master Roweson, an elderly thickset white-haired cheorl who had been Kemp’s stud-master for ten years or so.
“God Hael, Roweson!” said Alan as he swung his leg to dismount.
“God Hael, Ealdor!” replied Roweson easily, despite only having met Alan on his one previous visit to the stud shortly after he assumed the manor. After a few moments two young lads ran up carrying pitchers of ale for the five visitors, which they quickly quaffed to settle the dust in their throats.
“How goes the herd?” asked Alan, wiping beer froth from his upper lip.
“Much the same as when I saw you last two months ago,” replied Roweson in his slow and deliberate speech. “Thirty-four breeding mares. We lost one during the winter. Twenty-nine foals, twelve colts and seventeen fillies. Thirty-two yearlings. eighteen mares and fourteen males- all now gelded as you instructed. Ten two-year olds, after you took those twenty horses several months back, all mares. And the two stallions of course.”
