Newgate. When able to do so Anne attended Mass at the church on most days. With several donations of vestments and the funding of a stained-glass window she was seen by Father Edward as one of his most important parishioners, causing him to call to visit weekly when he knew that Anne was in London. The simple and moving service lifted all their hearts. Unfortunately, heavy rain had begun to fall while they were in the Church, and so it was with damp, if not wet, spirits, they returned home.
Alan spent a pleasant hour or so in the nursery with Anne and Juliana, who was now sitting up, paying attention to what was happening about her and generally smiling and gurgling happily. She held a bead rattle in one hand and a piece of sea-coral in the other, fashioned into a teething ring for her to chew to assist the emergence of her milk-teeth. The coral had been a gift from Bjorn.
At mid-day a sumptuous meal was served with the whole household seated in the Hall, except for the kitchen and serving staff. Bjorn and several other of the sailors who didn’t have local family had also been invited, some 26 seated at three tables. Wilda the cook had again shown her ability to produce delicacies when required. Having attended at Mass herself together with the other servants, knowing the simple tastes of the soldiers, sailors and servants who formed most of the diners and knowing that after Lent any rich food would be most welcome, she had limited herself to two soups, roast pig, a mutton and herb stew, pork pies, braised spiced pork in almond milk with mushrooms, four different dishes of accompanying vegetables, followed by apple pie, strawberry tart and mixed cheeses, all accompanied by fresh white wheat bread and freshly-churned butter. Osmund recited, from memory, two long poems in English. Bjorn regaled the diners with his reminisces of his visit as a young man to the Holy Land, describing strange places, strange people and unusual customs.
In the late afternoon a slightly tipsy Alan accompanied his wife upstairs to the family’s private rooms. With her pregnancy Anne had again resumed minimal consumption of alcohol, as she had when carrying Juliana. While she didn’t insist on Alan doing the same as he rarely drank to excess she had little sympathy with his complaints when he did so.
Early on Easter Thursday Anne, Juliana, Osmund, two maids and five guards headed east through the crowded Cornhill, along Leadenhall Street to Aldgate. The ladies were riding in a cart and they were destined for Thorrington, intending to take a leisurely two days for the journey. After a brief kiss and a wave to his wife, Alan rose west towards Gloucester and the Welsh border.
He arrived at Staunton-on-Wye late on the second day, Saturday 18th April. He looked approvingly at the state of the fortified bailey as he rode in and was greeted by Leofwin the second in command. “Robert is over at Bobury with his steward David, talking to the miller. He should be back soon!” said Leofwin, ushering Alan and his men into the Hall and ordering ale be brought to wash away the dust of the road from the travelers’ throats.
Leofwin was correct. Robert and David arrived after about an hour, Robert hurrying in as the guards outside had advised him of Alan’s arrival. “My lord”, he said, with a courtly bow. Alan snorted with amusement, rose and grasped his friend by the forearm, before clapping him on the shoulder and resuming his seat. A servant brought more quarts of ale.
“How fares the ‘overlord’ of my western realm?” asked Alan.
“Well enough,” replied Robert with a smile at the description. “As you can see, we’ve completed the fortifications here and the Hall is complete. It has quite basic facilities, but more than usual for a frontier manor. The repairs to the villages are complete. You’d hardly know the Welsh came through with sword and fire a little more than a year ago. Last year there was a reasonable harvest, although sown late. While the granaries aren’t full, there’s more than adequate food in the four villages- which is more than can be said for most of the shire after the Welsh invasion. This year’s crop is in the ground and appears to be growing well. With God’s Grace and a year of peace all should be well.”
“Ah! A year of peace. That may be a problem,” said Alan in response. “What men and arms do you have?”
“Well, of course I have the 10 mounted men-at-arms and ten huscarles you provided. Another 10 local infantry, properly trained and equipped, 10 longbowmen full-time. Another 20 fully trained longbowmen part-time, and 67 fyrdmen armed with spears, partially trained. The full-time men are all mounted, including the foot-soldiers. I have enough ponies that you took on your raid to mount all the full-time men and most of the part-timers. Those numbers exclude Baldwin, Warren and Leofric” said Robert, the last a reference to the Norman man-at-arms, Norman archer and English huscarle respectively, who acted as Robert’s officers. “As to horses, we have 14 rounceys and 70 Welsh mountain-ponies. The cavalry are equipped as you provided. A few with hauberks and the rest with byrnies, sword, shield, helmet and lance. The huscarles have their own armour, of course, mainly byrnies, but a few hauberk-style. The full-time infantry have byrnies, helmets, shields and swords. The archers have the longbows you acquired from Wales- no mail armour, although all have padded armour. They all also have their
Alan nodded his understanding of the array of force and its equipment, and that he was not displeased. “How many arrows for the longbows?”
Robert paused before replying, “I’m not really sure. I think about 500.”
Alan replied, “Thirty bowmen, three sheaves each, is over 1,000. Get the fletchers busy and make a war- stock of 1,500, plus any needed for day to day use.” Alan thought for a moment and continued, “Arrange short- swords for the bowmen and swords and helmets for the spearmen. I’ll provide the funds and you can buy whatever you need at Colchester- with its iron and steel industry that would be the best place to buy. Step up training. How often do you run patrols and how often do you train?”
“You speak as if you expect an imminent invasion,” commented Robert. “We haven’t seen a Welshman on our lands in over a year. You made your point very clearly last year to their local
The evening meal, a simple pottage and a meat stew with rye bread, was served as Alan explained the current political events. “We have a situation where I expect within the next three months things will explode. Last year we had the rebellion at Exeter, the raids by Harold’s bastard sons with the support of the Irish and the invasion by the Welsh. This year it looks like a full-blown revolt in the north and the involvement of the Danes on the east coast at least with raids and possibly the landing of men to support any rebellion in the north. If the Aetheling and his advisors have any sense they’ll also arrange Eadric
The next day Alan spent touring the four villages and meeting with their headmen Siric, Aella, Bearn and Defan. He noted that a number of his soldiers now had women and learned that several of the wives from Essex had made the journey with their children to be with their husbands. Most of the wives were those women who had lost their men in the Welsh invasion the year before and who had been looking for men to support them and their children. Nearly half of the garrison slept in cottages in the village.
The following day Alan observed the warriors at their training. He sent a message to Bernard de Neufmarche, who held nearby lands, that he would like to arrange a mock-attack on one or more of his villages to test the readiness of both of their forces.
That night he rode out with a mounted patrol on a loop along the river valley nearly to the border and then back via Witney, Winferton and Ailey.
The next night he rode with most of the men to stage a mock-attack on Yarsop, easily overwhelming the
