[Norman Conquest 02] Winter of Discontent (3 page)

After making the announcement to his close associates Robert, Osmund and Brand
,
the news was quickly passed to the rest of the party and Alan found himself having to pay for celebratory mugs of ale and listen to the often ribald words of congratulation from his Anglo-Saxon troopers. Not least amongst the things causing Alan to be in good spirits was the genuine enthusiasm with which his retinue had received the news, showing that the Norman knight and his Anglo-
Danish
wife had indeed been fully accepted by the parochial men from Essex in the year or so that he had been
l
ord of Thorrington and the somewhat less
er time that Anne had been its l
ady.

The next morning the weather had improved to a slight drizzle, but still with a bitingly cold wind
howling from the north
. Accompanied at her insistence by Anne, and with the
youth Leof in tow, they went to Cornhill to negotiate for a cartload of flour- wheat and rye.
All the lands
on the Welsh border had been devastated by invasion barely six months ago and
Alan
had no doubt that even basic food items such as bread would be at a premium on the border. For that reason he was buying at Gloucester, rather than Hereford, as at this distance from the ravaged area prices should still be reasonable. Anne handled the negotiations, first checking the quality of the goods on offer and then negotiating a good price,
with
delivery
to
Staunton-on-Wye
and
the wagon to leave on the morrow. The muddy dirt tracks that passed for roads would be in such poor condition after
the
rain that delivery was expected to take at least two to three days after leaving Gloucester.

Next they passed out of North Gate and entered the Monastery of St Oswald, located next to the river just outside
t
he town walls. The monastery was not as large or as prosperous as St Peter’s Abbey and the Sext Mass which they attended at noon was conducted in a small chapel rather than at the main altar. The service was conducted in Latin by a Canon and proceeded expeditiously, the small congregation gathered presumably not being adjudged worth the effort
of a sermon or more than basic b
ible readings. Afterwards Alan approached an acolyte and obtained an invitation to dine in the refectory before seeing Brother Brunwin, the librarian. The fare
provided
at the table in the refectory was plai
n, basic and relatively meager.

Alan had a project in conjunction with
B
rother Leanian, the librarian at
St Botolph’s Priory at
Colchester, in which as Alan moved around the country he sought out various books on
B
rother Leanian’s ‘wanted’ list. In return
,
when the books were copied in exchange for books held at Colchester, Alan also received a copy. He had built up a considerable personal library of over two dozen books, including medical and military texts, poetry and classical works from the Greeks and Romans
, as well as a number of books of English poetry
.

On being ushered into the small dark room that was the library, Alan cast an eye at the small collection of books that lined one wall and immediately reached the conclusion that it was unlikely there would be anything of interest either to himself or to
B
rother Leanian. After a brief discussion Brother Brunwin took Alan’s list and then stood to read it in the light cast by the sole window of the room
. Nearby were
two monks sitting at small tables copying and illuminating basic religious texts
. Alan’s
expectations were fulfilled
, in that
Brother Brunwin would have wished to obtain many of the works on
B
rother Leanian’s ‘available’ list, but had nothing to offer in return.

Leaving St Oswald’s they walked the short distance to St Peter’s where they entered the larger and more brightly lit library overseen by Brother Alwin. Th
is
library was of obvious learning and industry. There were over a dozen small oak desks each with a wooden book-holder. Half a dozen monks in black habits were studying and making notes on wax tablets- even scraps of parchment were valuable and any important notes would be copied out later.

“Several of
these Brothers are
our scholars and teachers,” explained Brother Alwin. “We have something of a reputation as to the abilities of the scholars who live amongst us.”
Half
the adjoining large workroom was taken up by
a
dozen wooden desks and work-benches, each with a copy stand
; each was
occupied by
a
monk
, all
with the utmost care copying ancient tomes onto sheets of parchment or vellum. Three were undertaking what appeared to be commercial works, copying Psalt
ers or Books of Hours for sale.

Here Alan was more successful and an agreement was reached to exchange three books between the abbeys. Two were medical works by Hippocrates and Galen, in Greek, and one an early English religious text from the seventh century. The copying would only take t
wo
months or so as the books were not large and
B
rother Leanian had specified he did not want ornate illumination. Alan would then receive his own copies in due course from Colchester
Priory
.

The following day the rain stopped, although the wind was still bitterly cold. Well protected by warm clothes and cloaks, and with Anne and her maid Synne sitting wrapped in blankets on the light cart, they departed out of West Gate, rode across the wooden bridges over the River Wye after paying the pontage fee and headed north to Hereford.

Before departing from Winchester Alan had sent word to his manor at Thorrington in Essex for
more
men to meet them at Hereford. He expected the
arrival of
Normans Baldwin, a trained man-at-arms, and Warren, an archer
; also
the Anglo-Saxon huscarle officer Leofwin and a force of five huscarles and ten Anglo-Saxon mounted men-at-arms from the company that Alan called his ‘Wolves’. Although they had further to travel, the slow progress of Alan’s party meant that the men from Essex should have covered the greater distance in less time.

Normally Alan would have expected the
37
miles from Gloucester to Hereford to be accomplished in half a day, as even with a horse-drawn light cart he would have expected to achieve seven miles to the hour. Instead it was nearly dark as they rode over the wooden bridge over the River Wye
outside the gates of Hereford
, again pausing to pay the toll fee, and then passed into the town
which lay
on the north side of the river. The road from Gloucester had been turned by the rain into a track of thick mud. The horsemen had walked their beasts at the side of the road on more firm ground, but even so each step taken by man or beast had taken effort as the soak
ed ground sucked at their feet.

The poor horse pulling the light four-wheeled cart had endured the worse of
the journey
,
being
forced to remain in the morass that the road had become and to strain to drag the cart, which often had its wheels mired almost to the axle. Several times the cart had become stuck in the mud and the men and horses had to strain to pull it clear. As they rode towards the
town
gate Alan noted the town walls looked as if they were newly repaired or improved. The town was one of the few in England to have had a castle before the arrival of the Normans
and t
he bulk of that structure dominated the city to the east of the bridge, being located on the north bank of the river.

At the South Gate of the town Alan found that word had been left for him by Baldwin that they had arrived the day before and had taken lodging at the ‘
Three S
hea
ves
’ inn. The Captain of the guard suggested that Alan may wish to consider patronising the ‘Lion’, as he felt that the
‘Three Sheaves’
was probably a too rough for ladies of quality. The L
ion
was on Broad Street and not far from the
Three Sheaves
which was on Castle Street, the two streets being separated by th
e c
athedral and its square.

Alan took the advice offered and they proceeded along Wyebridge Street, turned right into Middle Row and then left into Broad Street. The
Lion
was easily identified by its painted hanging sign and was just a little way up Broad Street. The inn
was inspected and found satisfactory, catering mainly to well-to-do travelers, and two rooms were taken at a two silver pennies each for the night, with board for the room occupants included. Alan, Brand and Robert wa
lked the short distance to the Three Sheaves
. It catered, as the Captain had indicated, to a rougher clientele, mainly soldiers and carters. Baldwin, Warren and Leofwin, together with fifteen men, had taken two large dormitory-style rooms. Alan negotiated for another similar room and board for ten men and stabling for all the horses at a cost
at this cheaper establishment
of an extra five silver pennies a day for the room and three pennies for the stabling.

They returned
to the L
ion, where Alan
instructed
his men to take the horses to the
Three Sheaves
’ stable. He wanted to arrange the transfer of all ten of his huscarle escort, but Robert and Brand demurred
- t
hey remembered all too well the attempt on Alan’s life during a hunt just days before at London and the powerful enemies
that he’d made by opposing the e
arl of East Anglia and the bi
shop of London in their extortion from the people of East Anglia in the absence of King William over the summer. In the end it was agreed that four huscarles, the
youth Leof and the maid Synne would remain with Alan and Anne. Synne would sleep on a straw mattress on the floor in the room occupied by Alan and Anne, to protect the maid from any unwanted attentions
-
Alan and Anne being too tired to require privacy. One huscarle would stand guard outside Alan’s bedroom each night.

Dinner that evening was the inevitable pottage, a thick vegetable soup flavoured with a little meat which for most people in the country was their main meal, a re-heated roast of lamb cooked the day before, beef pie and vegetables braised in stock, accompanied by wine
, mead
or ale depe
nding on individual preference.

Over the meal Alan and Anne heard what Baldwin, Warren and Leofwin had learned locally. They had not ridden to
the manor at
Staunton, but on their approach to Hereford from the east had passed through damaged and burnt villages and manors. Little damage had been noticed by Alan and his party on their journey north from Colchester, but it soon became clear that the land north and east of the River Wye had suffered severely
-
although apparently not as much as that to the west, where Alan’s manors were located. Alan agreed with Anne that next day she could accompany them on the nine mile ride to the west
to the manor of Staunton
, but specified that she would return that night to Hereford as there was little likelihood that suitable accommodation would have survived in any of his manors. Synne would remain in Hereford.

Next morning they rose early and were finishing a substantial breakfast whe
n they heard the noise of the others
of the party arriving outside. Anne was feeling better that day and r
o
de ahorse, although side-saddle rather than astride. They had to wait several minutes by the gate before it
was
opened at first light and then they rode west on the road that ran on the north side of the River Wye. Swainshill, Bridge Sollers and Byford were, if not devastated, certainly
still
significantly damaged even six months after the invasion.

After a ride of nine miles they reached Staunton, which was a little over a mile away from the river. The village of Monnington
lay
on the north bank of the River Wye. Bobury was to the south-west and Norton Canon to the north-east. The former
was
about two miles away and also on the river, the latter about three miles
distant
, and the four villages comprised the land which Alan had recently received from the king’s hand
.

Alan’s party was nearly thirty strong, the huscarles and Wolves wearing their armour, and engendered considerable concern as they halted in the centre of the village. A number of villagers were looking on and Alan called to a nearby gebur
, a freeman
of low station,
to fetch the village headman and elders
. He then
he dismounted and
assisted
Anne from her horse. Baldwin barked several sharp commands in
Anglo-Saxon
English and four pairs of Wolves, each in their distinctive green-dyed wolf-pelt cloak, moved
slightly
away into defensive positions, looking about alertly.