[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (28 page)

“Secured against land, just five percent. A month,” answered Jacob.

Alan winced. “And we hold the
landbo
c
deeds of title as security?” he asked.

Jacob looked affronted.
“Of course!
”

“As I said, it
’
s your decision, my love. I would say that I’d probably treat those who have part-paid differently from those who have paid nothing. How much money is involved?” said Alan.

Without needing to check his ledgers Jacob replied
,
“
A total of
just over
£38
from the fo
ur non-payers. A further
£27
and some p
ennies from those who have part-
paid.”

“
That’s
a
lot of money, then” said Alan. “As I see it the options would be to give them more time, to foreclose or to start to charge interest- which would at least give them a big incentive to pay the principal. We are, of course, forbidden to loan money at interest, so any such arrangement would need to look as if the loan has been refinanced through the Jews.”

“Where are the four manors of those who haven’t paid anything?” asked Anne.

“Two in central Essex, one in Suffolk and one in Hertfordshire, my lady” answered Jacob.

“Seize those estates immediately. There’s no excuse for them not having made the effort to pay
something
after eighteen months. Give the other ten written formal notice that they have one month to repay in full, and verbally advise them that you can provide finance
- which we will fund, although obviously you won’t advise the defaulters of that fact
. Go through the books of the seized estates and advise me whether the steward or somebody else in the household is capa
ble of administering the estate or whether we need to appoint another steward,
” instructed Anne brusquely. After a moments pause she added
,
“We’ll also need to see if their taxes are paid up to date. Get the part-paid ones to provide proof they have no debt to the Crown
, and that the money we provided
was
used to pay the Heriot
. The last thing we need would be for the king to seize the estates for arrears of tax.”

Alan nodded and then after a reflective pause, during which he characteristically rubbed his
bearded
chin, he said
,
“With this news of the Danes I’ll order that the manor house at Ramsey improve its fortifications. Harvest isn’t for another four or five weeks and with the labour from at least my four villages in the area that work will take less than a week. You may wish to do the same at Wivenhoe. I’ll also move some of the horses at stud from Ramsey to the new stud at
Great Bentley
, where they’ll be safer.” After another pause he asked Jacob
,
“As a matter of interest, how much wealth do we have at the moment?”

Jacob frowned. “I’m not entirely sure. It varies day to day depending on sale and purchase of cargoes. It would take some time to work out the value of the land you own, the land that my lady will own once I foreclose, the value of her businesses, the value of merchandise- and whether its value is taken at cost or at sale price. The values of the mining
and fulling businesses, well th
ose
would depend on what somebody would pay. Those would be at least
£1,000
by themselves. I can tell you that you have
£3,715 cash on deposit at call. At a rough guess I would say about £6,000 in all, almost certainly quite a bit more.”

Alan snorted in disbelief and said
,
“And two years ago I was a landless knight with less than a shilling in my purse. Now I, and my wife, have more money than most of the earls, and all from the proceeds we gained by
defeating
the Danes in battle last year
- a
nd Anne’s good management of that seed-money.”

Anne smiled happily
.
“I told you, I’m a merchant’s daughter and learned how to turn one penny into two at my mother’s breast. Each voyage of the ships gives a
profit of at least
50
percent. From Aquitaine the profit margin is closer to
200
percent. Our Factor buys wine direct from the vineyard and in London we sell direct to the larger houses, if they buy by the tun
,
and to the retailers.
He also buys spices and luxury items in bulk.
We really could make a lot of money if we invested the spare cash in extra ships and more merchandise
- b
ut we can’t spend all the money we’re making now, so why bother? I don’t think either of us want to build up a merchant empire.”

“Certainly not me,” replied Alan. “I just don’t understand it or have the gift of making it work,
un
like you and Jacob
-
nor frankly
do I have
the interest. Nobles or warriors aren’t supposed to engage in trade. We
’re
earn
ing
more money than we can spend and that’s more than enough.”

“We could hold parties and serve the guests food covered in gild,” said Anne mischievously, knowing Alan’s hatred of ostentation. Alan snorted in reply.

“What do you think of the idea of endowing a hospital, or perhaps a lazar house at Colchester
?
” asked Alan. “I believe that the abbeys and priories receive sufficient patronage and that doing something practical for people in need may be a suitable use
for surplus funds. Charity is encouraged by God.
”

“Not a lazar house,” replied Anne. “Leprosy and other similar infectious diseases, plagues and poxes and the like, are God’s punishment on those
people
who have somehow offended him. I wouldn’t see it as being fit to endow such an institution. Perhaps
establishing and maintaining
an orphanage
would be a suitably pious gift.”

Alan
inclined
his head to acknowledge his wife’s words but not to indicate agreement. After a moment’s pause he continued the previous conversation with Jacob.
“
E
xactly where are these four manors that Anne is just about to acquire?” he asked.

Jacob had to refer to his notes as he’d memorized the financial information, but not the geographical. After a pause he replied
,
“Ah…
In Essex there is Markshall near
Halstead on the Colne in Hinkford Hundred
, owned by Gothmund;
Norton in Ongar Hundred near Chelmsford, owned by Godhild of Greensted
; Claret Hall in Hinkford Hundred, owned by Leodmer the priest
.
Bushley
in
Danish
Hundred in
Hertfordshire
, owned by
Leofwin- who is a substantial landholder with many manors and should be able to pay.
”

Alan nodded and said
,
“At least they’re all in areas that should be relatively safe from attack.
The manor at Norton should be useful, as we usually break our journey to London at Chelmsford and we can stay there overnight.
None
of the manors
are more than a day’s ride away. I’ll have a look at them in the next few weeks, on behalf of their new owner,” he concluded with a smile.

*
 
*
*
 
*

Next day Alan rode the s
hort distance east to the horse
stud at Great Bentley to inspect the facilities and check on progress. While Alan had been away in the west the long-awaited horse trainer, named William, had arrived from Amiens with a young assistant named Ivo. Alan wanted to see how the training of the horses to fight in battle was progressing.

Great Bentley was a little less than two miles from Thorrington and so Alan and Osmund arrived after a journey of just a few minutes. Great Bentley was a wealthy village and while it
had just three hides of land under cultivation it supported nine plough teams. It had extensive woodland able to provide forage for hundreds of pigs and a salt
-
house owned by Alan, although no mill- the villagers used Alan’s mill at Thorrington. Most importantly from Alan’s view, it had extensive meadowland and pasture. Cows and sheep can be supported by grazing on the grasses on the wasteland. Horses are more delicate, requiring better grazing and supplementary feed. Alan had given most of the village
and its cropping fields
to the thegn Swein in
laen
, but had retained most of the woodlands, meadow and pasture.

The stud was located near the stream to the west of the village
, closest to Thorrington
. As Alan approached he was delighted to
see in the fenced-
off pasture over two dozen mares with foals at heel, nursing or gamboling about on their long legs. In a larger field were some twenty or s
o of the Welsh mountain ponies
. These,
together with others at
the
other manors
, were
being retained to provide the means for his warriors to move swiftly. Alan knew that these hardy beasts would need little in the
way of facilities or attention.

In the last few months a collection of buildings had been constructed to create the horse establishment. Two cottages, forty stalls, a hay-barn, a small granary for
horse-
feed, sheds for storage of tack and equipment and a large fenced training enclosure with sand spread thick on the ground. In the enclosure a man was working a horse at longeing
with
the long-rein, with the horse trotting in a circle and learning to answer commands. In a clear but unfenced area another young horse was being halter-broken, led back and forth by
a man holding the halter reins.

Workers, men and women, hurried purposefully as they mucked out stalls, refilled wate
r-
troughs, groomed horses, collected droppings and performed the multitude of
the
other tasks in a stable. A farrier was checking the hooves of a yearling, picking out dirt and stones and trimming one of the
fore hooves
. Two men, one of them Brunloc, were working
‘backing’
a yearling, one holding
the
reins as the other quietly flipped a blanket on and off the back of the horse, which was sidling and tossing its head
, snorting and whickering
. A group of a dozen riders were just returning from an exercise ride, the
ir
horses sweaty and blowing.

After dismounting and handing the
rein
s of their mounts to a groom, who
then
led the horses away, Alan and Osmund walked over to the training enclosure
and
lean
ed
against the wooden railing as they watched William gently and with patience work the horse, a yearling mare, with voice and arm movements. Whilst he held a long whip, it was not used. After about fifteen minutes Brunloc came over and lean
ed
against the fence next to Alan.

“How good is he?” asked Alan.

Brunloc nodded and said
,
“He’s good, and so is Ivo. What he’s doing at the moment myself and half a dozen of the men here and at Ramsey could do, working with yearlings and taking them through to being broken for riding at two years
of age
. You work with each horse every day to get them used to people and instill the basics for building on later. They’re intelligent creatures and very inquisitive. We have to overcome their fears and their automatic ‘flight’ response to run from anything they’re unfamiliar with. That involves making us humans the leader of the herd, somebody to be trusted and followed. That in itself, including breaking them for r
iding, takes nigh on two years.

“William
spends most of his time training the older horses for battle, able to be controlled without using
rein
s and not be frightened of noise or other distractions. He’s training them to use the ‘fight’ part of their ‘fight or flight’ instincts. He started about a month ago and is working with the older horses you bought as mounts for the Wolves. The first batch is more or less finished. Eight are back in the stables at Thorrington, two have been held back for further training and he’s just started on the second batch of ten. It’ll take him at least six months to complete the training of the mature cavalry horses you already have. Between here and Ramsey we have nearly seventy foals born in the last few months, over thirty weanlings from last year and about twenty yearlings.
There’s p
lenty of work for all of us.”