and, yes, I was proud of the way they fought! Right down to the slaves wielding pitchforks to protect themselves and their families. Properly equipped, properly trained and properly led, the English make the finest foot-soldiers in Europe. The problem the English have had for the last 300 years, since Alfred the Great, is that apart from 1,000 or so huscarles and a similar number of thegns, they have neither been properly equipped or trained. And since Alfred they have not been properly led. Edmund Ironside, had he lived beyond his early twenties, may have been a man to lead you to greatness, but from your point of view, regrettably not.”
One of the English party burst out, “What about King Harold, don’t you rate him well as a leader?”
“Harold and before him Godwin were certainly good administrators. They basically had to run the kingdom for The Confessor. As I understand it, Harold Godwinson was a very capable and likeable man. As a good general? He won the victory at Stamford Bridge by gathering and moving his army quickly and falling on the Norwegians by surprise when they were unprepared. Good aggressive tactics in forcing the encounter on his own terms, but once he had achieved surprise and his army was fighting a Norwegian army that were largely improperly armed and armoured, a ten-year old should have been able to lead his forces to victory, particularly when Hardrada was killed early in the battle.”
Alan felt Anne’s fingers digging into his arm, either in warning or annoyance he could not tell. “As to Hastings, again he got his army there quickly, assumed an excellent defensive position that should have been unassailable, but from what we Normans could see once he set up his flag he didn’t move all day. We saw no evidence of any leadership at Hastings. The English just stood and fought- and fought well! Unbelievably well. They refused to give up even when the battle was clearly lost, and still fought on with courage and ability- but with no leadership, just dogged determination.
“At Wivenhoe we fought smart. We knew the Danes would be coming. We’d seen them row up the river. Whether they won or lost at Colchester we knew they would be coming back and stop at Wivenhoe. We had time to plan, prepare and undertake some basic training of the raw troops, and to call in every man in the Hundred. The Danes came in dumb and stupid, totally unprepared and thinking it was like an afternoon walk. We took them by surprise and made them pay for their arrogance- although there were too many English bodies lined up by the church waiting for burial after the battle. The Danes we just threw in a ditch and filled it in.”
“I’m sure that 500 of my men would be more than a match for yours, and your vaunted ‘combined forces’ theory,” said Morcar hotly in English.
Alan gave him a calm look and confident smile before replying in Norman French, “I would hope that never happens, Morcar, because that would mean that something is very amiss in the kingdom if North is fighting South. But if it does, we will see what we will see! Now, I do see that we are being called to table for the feast, so we will bid you both farewell as I’m sure you will have a much more exalted place than we poor country folk.”
The guests were indeed heading towards the tables and being shown their seats.
As they walked slowly across the Hall Hugh de Grandmesnil clapped Alan on the shoulder and said quietly, “The king and I were listening in on your conversation with the English and what you said put the insolent young puppies in their place! Well said! After their defeat at Fulford Gate, having their balls saved by Harold taking a new army north, and then failing to march south to support him at Hastings, I think that they’re hardly qualified to give anybody a lecture on military tactics!”
Anne had been surprised by the positive reception she had received from the few Norman ladies at the levee when introduced by Alice. She had anticipated a Norman anti-English clique. Instead she had found a number of women of several nationalities, almost all of whom were related by birth or marriage, who had their own cliques and were more than happy to see a new face and hear new stories. Long-held family conflicts and more recent instances of perceived slights and arguments had fractured the female Norman nobility into several groups.
Alice Bigod was not firmly the member of any group and both she and Anne were welcomed as they moved around the room. Anne’s accent was not an issue when all the other ladies spoke French with Norman, Flemish, Breton, Danish or other regional accents. Many of the ladies of the great barons remained in Normandy where it was deemed safer- after all, the king had not yet brought his wife Matilda to England. Matilda, with the advice and assistance of Roger de Montgomery and Hugh d’Avranches, ruled Normandy during William’s periodic absences.
As Alan had anticipated he and Anne were seated at one of the lesser tables with other minor lords, including the Bigods, William Malet, William de Bernieres and Ivo Taillebois. The high table held the grand lords- de Warenne, de Mandeville, fitzGilbert, fitzOsbern, de Montford, Robert of Mortain, de Grandmesnil, the king’s niece Countess Judith, together with others including the English earls.
Two other Englishmen, Thorkel of Arden the son of Aethelwine the sheriff of Warwickshire, and Edward ‘The Rich’ of Salisbury and the sheriff of Wiltshire, sat at the high table with King William. Thorkel and Edward had kept their distance from the Aetheling’s party all evening and clearly had no wish to be associated with them. The small landholders and hangers-on sat on benches at long trestle tables that had been quickly put up by the servants and which would be taken down again later when the dancing started. Alan noticed his old friend Robert de Aumale sitting amongst the hoi polloi and made a mental note to speak with him before the evening was over.
The meal was a typical Norman feast, beginning with apples, stored in a cool place but still a little wrinkled due to their storage since harvest, and dried dates and figs. Then came the first remove of roast chicken and roast goat kid with cooked vegetables, including lettuce, cabbage, purslane and spinach. Later came the second remove of pork and beef with beet, radish, beans and parsnip. The meal finished with aged cheese and sweet desserts. The repast was taken leisurely and lasted about one and a half hours, with servants bringing bowls of water and linen cloths for the guests at the higher tables to use to clean their hands after each course.
Alan shared a trencher and a cup with Anne, using his knife to prepare her food into bite-sized pieces to allow her to remain neat, delicate and immaculate, and to preserve the cleanliness of her clothing. The wine they drank, well watered, was of reasonable quality. Alan assumed that both the food and drink at the high table was more elaborate than they were receiving, and that the masses below were receiving simple but substantial fare. After all, catering for over 100 guests would not be an easy exercise for Gundred’s cooks.
The conversation and gossip continued to flow, with William fitzOsbern’s appointment as an earl, although currently without any geographical appellation, being discussed favourably. FitzOsbern held large tracts of land in the west and south-west, having been granted much of the land formerly held by the House of Wessex. It was agreed that the intransigence of the citizens of Exeter, not really sufficiently serious to call a rebellion, was most likely the result of the presence in the city of Gytha, the mother of both Harold and to King Edward’s widow, Edith. As Queen Edith was now, after the death of her brothers at Hastings, a staunch supporter of King William, it was agreed that this state of affairs must be deeply embarrassing for her as Exeter was part of her dower lands.
As the guests finished their meal the lesser members of the company were chivvied away from their tables, which were dismantled and removed. The musicians who had been quietly playing lutes, a harp, several flutes, a recorder and a dulcimer, were joined by a drummer and two tambourines.
The hosts William de Warenne and his wife Gundred led the dancers on the floor for a simple processional dance. Alan partnered Anne. This was followed by several circle and line dances, again of relatively simple performance. Next came more complicated line dances, at which point Alan and most of the senior and middle-level Norman lords retired to their tables. This was in turn followed by dances involving pairs, with three or four groups of couples on the dance-floor. The relative paucity of women ensured that Anne and the other ladies were kept busy on the dance-floor, mainly with the younger unattached men who had spent time at court and had learned the social niceties that the older men had missed during their martial training. Some of the dances were processional, some were lively with the dancers singing, clapping their hands and in some cases leaping or hopping.
Alan took time to speak to Thorkel of Arden, an Englishman with substantial land holdings north and south of Coventry, who he found to be a level-headed and intelligent man of about thirty years. Thorkel’s primary concern, like almost all the men in the room, was protecting and expending his lands. Although he had been seated at the table with the Aetheling’s party he had studiously avoided speaking to them and made clear in his discussion with Alan both this distrust and dislike of the young earls. Thorkel had clearly attached himself to the Norman party and had decided that the Aetheling’s party held no benefit or attraction to him.
Robert de Aumale was sitting on a bench far from the high table, sipping a cup of the slightly sour wine provided for the lower-class guests, with a similarly slightly sour expression on his face, when Alan walked up and clasped his shoulder.
“How go things with you, Robert?” he asked. “Have you made your fortune with Geoffrey de Mandeville yet?”
