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  THE HOODSMAN

  Queens and Widows

  (Book Ten of the Series)

  By Skye Smith

  Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Skye Smith

  All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

  Cover Illustration is "Finding the Body” by Marcus Stone (1862)

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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  Revision 2 . . . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-09-6

  Cover Flap

  In 1079, the Conqueror is critically wounded by Raynar in a skirmish at Gerberoi. With the Conqueror ill, Philip of France encourages rebellions against Norman rule. William placates Philip by choosing different sons to be the heirs of Normandy and of England. His favourite son Richard, is to be the next King of the English.

  With William ill and rarely in England, Regent Odo and the rest of the Norman ruling class keep to the South. Raynar is in Scotland visiting Margaret when Northumbrian rebels kill the Bishop of Durham. In revenge Odo's army Harrows the North, yet again.

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  While King Henry is busy securing and rebuilding the West Country after the Category 5 hurricane of August 10th, 1103, Queen Edith must rule the palace and the court of England. With the help of Raynar, Countess Lucy, and Countess Maud, she moves the court from Winchester to Westminster.

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  The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows 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 tenth 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 recruits 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).

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  The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows 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 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 1079 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 were no longer any English Earls.

  Invading 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.

  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.

  Now weakened in health and support, the Conqueror faced rebellions from those who had suffered from his viciousness. He was slow to recover from the wound he took while quelling the rebellion of his own son Robert, and so he stayed in Normandy and left the running of England to his half brother, the B
ishop Odo. It was Odo who ordered the second Harrowing of Northumbria, in revenge for the killing of the Bishop-Prince of Durham by rebels.

  The year 1080 was pivotal. William's wife Matilda, and his son Robert visited Scotland to forge an alliance with Malcolm of Scotland, and while there became the godparents of Margaret of Scotland's new daughter, Edith. The same Edith who would become the next Queen of the English. Prince Canute the Holy, a sworn enemy of the Conqueror, became the new King of Denmark and his intention was to put Danes back in control of the Danelaw.

  There was a new treaty with Philip of France to put a halt to the fealty conundrum caused by the Duke of Normandy also being the King of England. On the Conqueror's death, the thrones of Normandy and of England would be inherited by different sons. The next King of the English would be William’s favourite son Richard. In 1080, William’s new Forest Law created the ‘New Forest’, and shortly afterwards Richard died there in a ‘hunting accident’.

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  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 hit 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 prospect for the coming winter was starvation.

  The new King Henry, youngest son of the Conqueror, and his English Queen Edith (Matilda II), had so far successfully 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. How long would that support last if they allowed the folk to starve?

  While Henry traveled about keeping the peace and organizing the rebuilding after the storm, Edith ran the palace and the central court. This would the first of many times that she would run England as Regent on her husband's behalf.

  Under her rule the royal court changed radically to have more pomp, and be more moral. Instead of filling it with the 'old boy' network of rough Norman lords left over from the invasion, she filled it with their half-Norman, half-English sons and daughters: the first generation of Anglo-Normans.

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  The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Cover Flap

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - The battle of Tamara Sound, Cornwall in October 1103

  Chapter 2 - Without a ship in Oudenburg, Flanders in March 1079

  Chapter 3 - Welcomed back to Huntingdon in March 1079

  Chapter 4 - Save the children in Fulwood, S.Yorkshire in March 1079

  Chapter 5 - John's mother in Hathersage, Derbyshire in March 1079

  Chapter 6 - Searching for the children in Peaks Arse in March 1079

  Chapter 7 - An ice storm sweeps across Peaks Arse in March 1079

  Chapter 8 - Shire court in Sheffield, S.Yorkshire in March 1079

  Chapter 9 - In a nun's cart to Dun Holm (Durham) in April 1079

  Chapter 10 - Scottish raiders south of Dun Holm in April 1079

  Chapter 11 - With Margaret in Dunfermline, Scotland in May 1079

  Chapter 12 - Romance at Loch Fitty, Scotland in May 1079

  Chapter 13 - Vision of St. Margaret at St. Serb's Inch in June 1079

  Chapter 14 - Judith's steward visits Northumbria in June 1079

  Chapter 15 - Judith's welcome at Huntingdon in September 1079

  Chapter 16 - Robert leaves for Caen from Cornwall in October 1103

  Chapter 17 - With Queen Edith in Winchester in October 1103

  Chapter 18 - The Queen rules in Winchester in October 1103

  Chapter 19 - Gateshead on Tyne, Northumbria in March 1080

  Chapter 20 - A new baby girl in Dunfermline, Scotland in May 1080

  Chapter 21 - The Lady of the Bridge at Gateshead in July 1080

  Chapter 22 - Taking Cristina to Winchester in October 1080

  Chapter 23 - Cristina decides in Winchester in November 1080

  Chapter 24 - The Queen rules in Westminster in October 1103

  Chapter 25 - News of Magnus in Westminster in December 1103

  Chapter 26 - Traveling to Lincoln with Lucy in December 1103

  Chapter 27 - Murdering a king in the New Forest in winter 1080-81

  Chapter 28 - Marching to Newcastle-upon-Tyne in February 1081

  Chapter 29 - Traveling to London with Lucy in December 1103

  Chapter 30 - Safely back to Westminster in December 1103

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  The Hoodsman - Queens and Widows by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

  Chapter 1 - The battle of Tamara Sound, Cornwall in October 1103

  The huge cog sailing ship, on which William of Mortain had hoped to escape to Normandy with his treasure and knights, had been towed to the safety of a beach. It floated in the shallows only a hundred paces from the shore. The crew aboard her were setting the anchors and feeling relieved at escaping a drowning on the reefs of Tamara Sound. Raynar had his own ship's crew release the tow lines and then row forwards into the shore so he could step ashore.

  Once he had his boots in hand, he had two huge oarsmen lower him down. He felt his old back jerk with the strain and he cursed that once again he was, yet again, doing a young man's job, at his age. The sea in Tamara Sound was cool on his bare feet, but not cold , and the water here was barely over his knees.

  Captain Mark was waiting for him on the pebble shingle beach. The hull of Mark's own ship had been split open during the sea battle for the cog, and so Raynar's ship had towed him to this shore before rescuing the rudderless cog. Mark's crew had beached the hole in the hull as high and dry as they could, and now some of the crew were pushing logs in place to use as rollers for pulling it even higher out of the tide.

  The rest of Mark's crew had grabbed their bows and quivers and spread out along the shoreline to cover every way down from the low cliffs of Sutton Hoe, above them. Every oarsman on both of the English ships were bowmen, and over half of them carried Welsh style Ywen selfbows, what the English called longbows.

  Mark allowed him time enough to put his boots back on before he began to speak. "What now Ray? Mortain will no longer be aboard the cog. He will have escaped in that snekkja.” He looked up at the sky to throw a curse, or perhaps a prayer, to the storm god. "May he be sunk by the next storm.” Unfortunately the snekkja design was very sea worthy, which was why that type of midsized longship was favoured along the Normandy coast that faced Cornwall.

  "I've told my crew to stay aboard my ship and keep watch.” Raynar replied. "No one is to get off that cog, no one is to get on her, and no boat is to come near her.” It didn't take many words to brief Mark. He was a captain with long experience who had, a few times, made the run from England to the Byzantine through the Pillars of Hercules.

  "Your men are doing exactly what they should be doing,” Raynar continued while he had a good gander around. "Making sure no one comes onto this beach without our permission. Did you send any scouts out and about? Of course you did."

  A warning call was being relayed down the beach. This beach was on the north end of outer Tamara sound and was about three miles south of the narrows where the ferry crossed to the west side of the sound, to Saltash. Saltash was the village closest to the bailey fortress of Trematon that Mortain's father Robert had built to secure all the harbours further inland. A fortress that now, after over thirty years of use, was mostly built of stone.

  "Scouts returning skipper, and they have a nob with them,” the last man in the relay called softly.

  "Well let's hope the nobleman is carrying greetings from Ranulf le Meschin,” Raynar muttered, "and not from Robert of Normandy, or worse, Trematon castle."

  B
y the look of the nob, he wasn't a nobleman at all, but just an itinerant knight. He was having trouble walking in his heavy armour and armoured boots along the strand, walking sort of like he had webbed feet. He was a plucky bugger though, walking straight into a nest of peasant bowmen, each of which had arms the size of legs from pulling at oars for half of their lifetimes.

  The knight stopped in front of them and looked from one old man to the other. He felt a right fool to be asking, "Which of you is Raynar the Treasury Agent?” when both of these men were obviously grizzled sea captains.

  "That would be me,” replied Mark, quickly and in French, just in case this knight was no friend to Ray. "And who might you be?"

  "I come from Ranulf le Meschin. His army is at the ferry landing across from Saltash. We were watching the sea battle from the hill above us here. It was fantastic. He wants to know what you need from him."

  "And just why,” replied Mark, "should we believe you?"

  "Ah yes, of course,” the knight handed him a small stick with notches cut into it. "My lord said that you would be able to tell me what this is."

  Mark looked at the stick and was silent. He didn't have a clue. The knight leaped back from them and pulled at his sword hilt. Two arrows would have been in his heart in a breath if Raynar had not called out. "Hold, everyone hold. I am Raynar. That is the practice stick I was using to explain the Treasury's new tally sticks to Ranulf's wife, Lucy."

  The young knight pushed his sword's hilt back in place, and sighed with relief as the bowmen pointed their arrows to the ground and eased the bowstrings. "Glad to meet you sir. I am glad you were standing closeby. Do you have the other half?"

  Raynar fished in his purse and handed the other half of the split stick to Mark. They mated exactly. Each of the men took their halves back. "So first tell me the lay of the land,” Raynar asked of the young knight.

  "Of course. This beach is less than a mile from the fishing town of Sutton on Sutton harbour, the first inlet to the east of here. The ferry to Saltash is the other way. Ranulf is above us on the rise of Sutton Hoe waiting for my return."