Hoodsman: Forest Law Read online

  THE HOODSMAN

  Forest Law

  (Book Nine of the Series)

  By Skye Smith

  Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Skye Smith

  All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

  Cover Illustration is by Charles Laplante (1879)

  "Robert throwing himself on his kneesbefore his prostrate father”

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Revision 2 . . . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-08-9

  Cover Flap

  By 1076, the Conqueror's neighbours, including Philip of France, were worried enough about his vicious greed to openly enter into alliances against him. The unbeatable Conqueror began to lose battles and ground. The psycho opportunists who had rallied to him while he was a winner, were now drawn to towards other opportunities in the warm islands of the Med.

  For any Danelaw men who had survived a decade of rebellion against the brutal regime of the Conqueror, there was a new strategy. Encourage the Norman psycho's to turn on each other. Encourage a Norman Civil War. Captain Raynar changes from a wolf into a fox.

  * * * * *

  On Saint Lawrence's Day, August 10th, 1103, a Category 5 hurricane devastated southern England. At the time, King Henry was still taming the Norman Earls who did not want him as their king. Vicious slave masters such as Mortain, Earl of Cornwall, were refusing to accept Henry's Charter of Liberties (the predecessor of the Magna Carta), so Captain Raynar sailed his ships to cut Mortain off from fleeing to Normandy.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  About The Author

  Skye Smith is my pen name. My ancestors were miners and shepherds near Castleton in the Peaks District of Derbyshire. I have been told by some readers that this series reminds them of Bernard Cornwell’s historical novels, and have always been delighted by the comparison.

  This is the nineth of my Hoodsman series of books, and you should read the first “Killing Kings” before you read this book. All of the books contain two timelines linked by characters and places. The “current” story is set in the era of King Henry I in the 1100’s, while the longer “flashback” story is set in the era of King William I after 1066.

  I have self-published twelve "The Hoodsman ..." books and they are:

  # - SubTitle

  . . . . . . . . . . . . William I Timeline

  . . . . . . . . . . . . Henry I Timeline

  1. Killing Kings

  . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066 killing King Harald of Norway (Battle of Stamford Bridge)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100 killing King William II of England. Henry claims the throne.

  2. Hunting Kings

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1066 hunting the Conqueror (Battle of Hastings Road)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100 hunting Henry I (Coronation Charter)

  3. Frisians of the Fens

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1067/68 rebellions. Edgar Aetheling flees north with Margaret.

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100 amnesty and peace. Henry recuits English bowmen.

  4. Saving Princesses

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1068/69 rebellions. Margaret weds Scotland (Battle of Durham)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1100/01 Edith of Scotland weds Henry (Battle of Alton)

  5. Blackstone Edge

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1069/70 rebellions (The Harrowing of the North)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101 peace while the economy is saved from the bankers

  6. Ely Wakes

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1070/71 Frisian rebellion (Battles of Ely and Cassel)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1101 Henry collects allies. Mary of Scotland weds Boulogne.

  7. Courtesans and Exiles

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1072/74 English lords flee abroad (Battle of Montreuil, Edgar surrenders)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102 Henry collects allies (the Honor of Boulogne)

  8. The Revolt of the Earls

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075/76 Earls revolt (Battles of Worchester and Fagaduna)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1102 Earls revolt (Battles of Arundel, Bridgnorth, Shropshire)

  9. Forest Law

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1076/79 fighting Normans in France (London Burned, Battle of Gerberoi)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103 fighting Normans in Cornwall (Battle of Tamara Sound)

  10. Queens and Widows

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1079/81 rebellions (Gateshead, Judith of Lens)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1103 Edith made Regent (Force 5 Hurricane)

  11. Popes and Emperors

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081 Normans slaughter English exiles (Battle of Dyrrhachium)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104 Henry visits Normandy (Duchy run by warlords)

  12. The Second Invasion

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082/85 power vacuum, peaceful anarchy (Regent Odo arrested enroute to Rome)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085/87 Re-invasion and Harrowing of all England (Battle of Mantes, Conqueror dies)

  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1104/05 Henry invades Normandy twice (Battle of Tinchebray).

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  Prologue

  Writing historical novels about the twenty year conquest of England by a culture of vicious slave masters, requires describing England as it was before the era of the Anglo-Normans. It is difficult to separate reality from all of the popular misconceptions about the era. For example, think of all of the connotations and misconceptions attached to just one phrase: Anglo-Saxon.

  Pre-Norman England was very much an Anglo-Danish kingdom. Not only were most of the nobles and lords Anglo-Danes, but about half of the villages were Anglo-Danish. York was the second largest Danish city in the world, after London, and was a wealthy place because of the wealth of the Anglo-Dane farms of the Danelaw. Before the Normans, the Danelaw was more Danish than Denmark, and larger, and wealthier, and more populated.

  By 1076 the northern Danelaw was still a wasteland, emptied of folk by the genocidal Harrowings of the Normans. The Anglo-Danish lords had given up on ever living in England again, and were becoming mercenaries for Norman-fearing kings and nobles from Wales to the Byzantine. There was no longer any English Earls left in the kingdom.

  Conquering England had been extremely costly to the Conqueror, both in terms of resources, and of lost opportunities on the continent. The ranks of his ruling warrior class, and his knights had been thinned again and again. And not just from battle wounds and ambush, but because there were enticing opportunities for warriors with the Norman lords who were carving out a new empire from the western border of the crumbling Byzantine Empire.

  When the young King Philip of France took as his wife, Bertha, the step daughter of Robert the Frisian, Count of Flanders, he did so because he needed a strong ally against Normandy. With the support of Brugge and Paris, rebels rose on all of Normandy's borders. Norman psycho-culture was hated in all of the places that William had conquered. Even William's eldest son, Robert, turned against him and William was critically wounded while trying to capture Robert.

  To keep events from turning against him, William needed more money and more land
to give as honours to warriors who would join his armies. The source was in England, where a third of the land was not deeded to land lords, but instead was held as in-common land for the communal clans and villages. William's new Forest Law used legal trickery to claim vast stretches of communal land as his own land. It was the greatest real estate swindle in English history.

  The same brutal tactics were brushed up and used again in later centuries to clear the clans from the communal land of the Scottish Highlands, and to clear the native tribes from their communal land in the USA and Canada.

  * * * * *

  Fully charged hurricanes rarely reach England, but on Saint Lawrence's Day, August 10, 1103, a huge one hit the south of England. Since it arrived just before harvest with ripping winds and deluges of rain, it became a historically documented event. Crops, roofs, and ships were destroyed en masse. The continuing damp caused disease and pestilence in animals and folk.

  The new King Henry, youngest son of the Conqueror, and his English Queen Edith (Matilda II), had within three years, navigated an invasion by his older brother Robert of Normandy, and a revolt of wealthy earls lead by Belleme the Impaler of Shrewsbury. By rallying the support of the English folk, they had evaded a Norman Civil War in the kingdom.

  The devastation caused by the hurricane complicated everything for the royal couple, because how long would the English folk rally to them if they were allowed to starve. Meanwhile, Belleme's most powerful ally, Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall was still making trouble in the West Country. Henry did not want Mortain in England, and his brother Robert did not want him in Normandy where Mortain could again join with Belleme, who was now in exile on his huge estates in Normandy.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Cover Flap

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Assassins on the streets of Winchester in October 1103

  Chapter 2 - Edith's dinner plans ruined in Winchester in October 1103

  Chapter 3 - A king's messenger comes to Huntingdon in September 1076

  Chapter 4 - The old Norse ships in the Fens in September 1076

  Chapter 5 - Welcome to Oudenburg, Flanders in September 1076

  Chapter 6 - The truth about Robert in Brugge in September 1076

  Chapter 7 - Four vital women in Winchester in October 1103

  Chapter 8 - The arrival of Robert in Brugge in October 1076

  Chapter 9 - At court of Philippe in Paris in October 1076

  Chapter 10 - Robert in court in Brugge in October 1076

  Chapter 11 - Château Gaillard-sur-Seine, The Vexin in October 1076

  Chapter 12 - The burning of Rouen, Normandy in October 1076

  Chapter 13 - At Bertha's court in Paris in November 1076

  Chapter 14 - Assassins in Paris in November 1076

  Chapter 15 - A big man finds Judith in Brugge in November 1076

  Chapter 16 - Big John in Paris in November 1076

  Chapter 17 - A visit home to Peaks Arse, Derbyshire in May 1077

  Chapter 18 - Visiting Sonja in Loxley, S.Yorkshire in May 1077

  Chapter 19 - A visit to London, England in August 1077

  Chapter 20 - The great fire of London in August 1077

  Chapter 21 - Wylie advising the city fathers in London in August 1077

  Chapter 22 - About the Forest Law, south of London in August 1077

  Chapter 23 - Planning an assassination in Montreuil in September 1077

  Chapter 24 - Waiting for William in Gerberoi all through 1078

  Chapter 25 - Looking at ships in Ferneham, Hampshire in October 1103

  Chapter 26 - The twin hulls in Ferneham, Hampshire in October 1103

  Chapter 27 - William comes to Gerberoi, France in January 1079

  Chapter 28 - Ambushing a king in Gerberoi in January 1079

  Chapter 29 - Betrayed by Robert in Gerberoi in January 1079

  Chapter 30 - Reporting to the Palace in Paris in January 1079

  Chapter 31 - Racing down the coast to Cornwall in October 1103

  Chapter 32 - The battle of Tamara Sound, Cornwall in October 1103

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  Chapter 1 - Assassins on the streets of Winchester in October 1103

  His stomach muscles tightened from his nervousness. Why was he doing this? Well at least the wind had stilled and rain had stopped and the air was warm. Winchester was between storms, or perhaps they were just in the center of a huge one and between the two edges of the storm. Despite not wanting to be here, at least he hadn't been on a ship or a boat in the Manche. Not that there were many ships left after the great maelstrom of the tenth of August. The speed and the power of the wind on that day had been unimaginable.

  It was already dark, and the footing was treacherous from the debris torn from buildings by storms. The destructive force of the wind of that storm six weeks ago had been truly frightening, but then it had been followed by a string of other storms. He wondered how much of the kingdom now had lost this year's harvest. He tripped over something in the shadows and cursed. Families had hung oil lanterns from their gates to help folk to find their way through the wreckage, but they just served to make the footing trickier because they either cast shadows or dazzled your night vision.

  He came to a long and wide plank laid across something mucky and smelly in the road, but there was already a man coming towards him on it. This could be the man. He stepped to one side to let the man pass, but under his damp, heavy cloak he put his hand on the wooden handle of his Valkyrie knife. That was a grand name for what was really just the long bladed eel filleting knife common to women of the Fens. The man had a candle lantern and as he stepped off the plank he held it up to cast light around. "Watch your step,” he cautioned, and caught Raynar's eye, "the plank is greasy."

  "Thanks, but I'm better without your light,” replied Raynar and waited for the man to move along before he stepped onto the plank. The stranger continued walking, but now he was whistling what sounded like a Breton folk song. A hawk's screech echoed down the street. Hawks did not fly in the dark, and certainly none would roost in the center of a city.

  A shiver ran down his spine. He took a deep breath and continued walking as if nothing was wrong. He had purposefully waited for the wind to stop before he set out from John and Marion's house. Not because of the wind itself, but because a wind would have masked other sounds and smells and set too many distracting shadows in motion.

  He stepped off the plank and chose his way carefully. The closest wall ran straight along the street, but had a shadowed area halfway between two gate lanterns. Someone could hide there. Such a wall of dried bricks and wattle was usually topped by a narrow roof of scrap wood which served to keep the wall from being leached by rain. The roof had been blown onto the cobbles in front of him. The debris made a light crunch when he walked over it.

  He could now see that the shadowed area of the wall was caused by a buttress. He heard the light crunch of a boot behind him. He had been counting his paces. Someone was walking through the wreckage of the roofing about twenty paces behind him. A shiver ran up his back. He tuned his hearing to the sound of footsteps. It had been wise of him to wait until the wind had stopped. The deep shadow was now only three paces away.

  As soon as he entered the shadow of the wall's buttress, he half turned and flattened his back against the wall. Just as he turned there was a scurrying of steps. He was now looking back towards the last gate lantern and saw the bulk of a man and a flash of steel. He lifted both arms in front of his chest and braced himself against the wall to stop the charge. A blade, a long dagger, grazed off his forearm and the steel sang with the sound of metal on metal.

  The attacker was a professional. His experience and i
nstinct told him that his first dagger slash had struck mail. He adjusted his attack and changed his balance to the other foot and brought his other hand up from below. A second dagger. Again the dagger was blocked by an armoured arm.

  Raynar now knew that the man had two daggers and that he knew how to use them. He had to keep the man from realizing that this was a trap. He needed to hold the man here for a moment more, until help arrived. He did the natural thing. He yelled "Help". He yelled "Murder". He yelled "Footpad", and while his attacker was focused on his yells, he kicked hard at where his shins should be. He connected with a satisfying grind under his boot.

  The attacker's right dagger flashed and Raynar twisted so that it hit his left upper arm instead of his chest. The attacker was no longer slashing, he was stabbing, the only way for a small blade to defeat mail. He felt the crunch of the blade as it split the metal rings, and then the burn and sting as it sank into his flesh.

  He forced himself to ignore the sudden pain and the instantaneous weakness in his left arm, and instead tried to see the flash of the other dagger. He was too late to block it. He felt it crunch into the rings protecting his heart, but then there was a sickening sound of snapping bones and, mid strike, the power went out of the dagger. The attacker slumped to the ground as if he were a sack of corn.

  "Sorry, Ray,” whispered the huge bulk now blocking the weak lamp light. "I think I hit him too hard."

  Raynar looked down at his feet. The man lying across his feet was certainly not moving, and most likely dead. When he tried to move his legs to keep his balance he fell forward, but a huge hand caught him. "Oye, you're bleeding,” said the young voice and suddenly he was lifted off his feet and twirled in the air out of the shadows and into better light. Acca's worried face filled his vision for a moment and then his feet touched the ground again.

  From down the street in the direction he had come from, there was a scream of agony followed by whimpering. Now there were calls from the watchers at each gate asking who was there and what was happening. From down the street he heard John's booming and familiar voice bellow out "I'm John from up the road. We've just caught a footpad. I'm taking him to the night watch, but he is dragging his feet."