the Kings Council.” The last being a polite dig at the sheriff to remind him of the status of the man with whom he was talking.
“Talking of Lady Anne, she’s not yet paid her Relief,” said fitzWymarc abruptly. Alan noted that no claim of forfeiture was being made.
“She’s not yet been notified of her assessment, so of course she can’t have paid. I would also say that she was most offended at the message and offer that your clerk, the scrawny one with the bad teeth, brought several months ago. As her husband I also of course take offence at that message. What is the assessment for Wivenhoe?”
FitzWymarc looked Alan straight in the eyes and lied to him that the message as understood by Lady Anne was not as he had meant and that no threat or coercion had been intended. Alan raised an eyebrow at Osmund and commented in a loud aside intended to be overheard, “Strange that I didn’t mention the contents of the message or offer, but Sir Robert seems to be intimately familiar with them.”
FitzWymarc turned beet red at the plain but unspoken message that he was lying. “The Relief figure is?8, set by Bishop William,” he snapped.
“For a property with a rated value of 40 shillings? Five Hides of land and five ploughs, that’s a nice even quadrupling of the value. May I ask what value was put on your nearby holding of Elmstead, where you have eight Hides of land, 22 ploughs, a mill, a salt-house and beehives?” asked Alan frostily.
“No you may not! That’s between the landholder and the official handling the transaction,” replied fitzWymarc abruptly.
“Still I’m sure that is something the king will look at when he returns, along with the Relief values of the other properties you hold in Lexden Hundred and around the shire- you being defined as an Englishman for the purpose of the Relief, holding those lands before William was crowned king and having to pay the impost. I recall you coming to Hastings and warning William not to fight as Harold’s army was so large- and then you seemed to disappear again, not being seen on either side during the battle,” said Alan in an even tone of voice. He borrowed the quill and ink on the table to fill in gaps in a message on a piece of parchment which he handed to Leof. “Take two of our men from the guard-house, visit Aaron the moneylender and come back here with the money,” he instructed.
“Borrowing money from the Jews?” sneered fitzWymarc.
“My financial affairs are none of your business. The Relief money Bishop William demands will be here within the hour. I would suggest that few of those of whom Relief has been demanded would have paid so swiftly. Please make sure that your clerk provides my clerk with a receipt.
“Now, talking about Reliefs, I’m aware that there have been many abuses of power by Earl Ralph, Bishop William and Engelric, both directly by them and by their minions. Many of these are crimes which the sheriff is required to investigate. I speak not of simple cases of overcharging, such as I have just experienced, but of threats and extortion and forced marriages. I’m recently back from Ipswich were I made a full report to Roger Bigod, the sheriff of Suffolk, and I believe he’s undertaking a full investigation. I have here 29 depositions of complaint, written in both English and Latin and sworn by the deponents in the presence of upstanding and honourable members of the local community- usually the local priest and the village head-man.
“Of the 29, 14 relate to matters which are a crime under both English and Norman law. Two relate to you personally. Two to Earl Ralph or his servants. Three to Engelric personally and the rest to the servants of yourself, the earl, the bishop and Engelric. I am sure that other depositions will be received. It’s your responsibility as sheriff to investigate these crimes to the fullest extent of the law, irrespective of who has been accused. I expect that you will place an immediate halt on the forced marriages that are proposed. The depositions each include a statement by the brides-to-be that they do not consent to the proposed match. A duplicate copy of each deposition will be placed by me into the hands of Chancellor Regenbald as soon as I can travel to London.” FitzWymarc looked as if he was about to become apoplectic, gasping with anger and bright red of face.
Just then Leof arrived back with a large and heavy sack full of coins, which Osmund insisted be counted out on the table- all 1,920 silver pennies, weighing nearly six pounds in weight. A receipt was demanded and received. This took some time as the coins were counted into piles. Osmund then handed the bag of written depositions directly into fitzWymarc’s hand.
The clearly furious sheriff made a gesture to stay Alan as he started to rise from his seat. “You made a comment a few minutes ago regarding my not being present with my men at Hastings. As you know I came to England years ago and received land from King Edward. You will also know that I am kin to King William. William does not reward either those who are disloyal or those who shirk their duty. After William was crowned I received the office of sheriff of Essex in place of the man who fell at Hastings. Consider those facts well.”
Alan thought briefly and then nodded. FitzWymarc had ridden into William’s camp shortly before the battle at Hastings and met with the man who was then duke and would become king, before again riding off. He now appreciated in hindsight that he had made a mistake and made an enemy of a man who was both capable and in royal favour. Any complaint against fitzWymarc was likely to be ignored. In the future he would have to try to mend bridges and avoid further confrontation.
“Well, that has ‘put the cat amongst the pigeons’,” commented Osmund wryly as they walked down the hill towards ‘The Hog’s Head’ Tavern after leaving the castle.
The Tavern was easy to find. It had no sign, but instead a dried and wizened pig’s head stared with empty eyes onto the street. ‘Brun the one-eyed’ was similarly obvious enough to find. He was the barman and had a verbal message from Linn, the young bandit who fitzWymarc had released several weeks earlier. Linn confirmed Pearce’s story of organised banditry across much of Essex and advised that he had joined a band operating in the forest and hills near Braintree and Coggeshall at the junctions of Lexden Hundred, Hinckford Hundred and Witham Hundred. Further contact could be made via a patron of ‘The Prancing Pony’ Tavern at Coggeshall called ‘Old Aelfhare’. Linn also reported that Peace had bolted north for Suffolk and points beyond as soon as he had been released. Alan handed over a penny for the information.
The pigeons came home to roost a few days later when Alan received a written message from Earl Ralph abruptly and rudely ordering him to attend immediately at Norfolk. Alan had Osmund pen a polite response ‘I must decline the kind offer of Earl Ralph to meet with me at Norfolk as that is not on my intended itinerary at this time and is of course some considerable distance. My own duties prevent me from accepting, but I am sure that we will meet in the near future either when you travel through the southern part of your earldom, or alternatively in London, where we will no doubt both shortly need to attend as members of the King’s Council’.
The following day another messenger rode in, this time with a much more polite letter from William Bishop of London asking to see Alan ‘on matters of mutual concern at your earliest convenience when you are next in London’.
It was now Wednesday 18th July, and with the warm and dry summer the village moot had decided to commence the harvest several weeks earlier than normal. Men, women and the older children walked the fields cutting the wheat, oats, rye and barley with scythes and tying it into sheaves that were then arranged in stooks at the end of the fields. The sheaves were next taken away for threshing, with the stalks then being placed in barns, made into haystacks or cut as chaff, and the grain stored in sacks in the communal granary. The cattle were allowed to graze the cut stubble. Certain that only sudden and cataclysmic heavy rain, of which there was no sign, could prevent a successful harvest, Alan was satisfied that it was time for a journey to London. If nothing else he needed to order the glass for the windows in the Hall before autumn came.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
LONDON AUGUST 1067
On the journey to London Alan was accompanied by Anne, two maids, Leof, Osmund, ten Wolves and ten huscarles. All the men were mounted and the women travelled in a light cart, and they made a leisurely journey with a halt for the night at Chelmsford. The second day was spent on the road through the Great Forest before they entered London through Aldgate at the east side of the city, travelled through much of the city and noted that the preliminary construction of fortified positions of The Tower, Baynard Castle and Montfichet Tower had been
