Hoodsman: Hunting Kings Read online

  The Hoodsman

  Hunting Kings

  (Book Two of the Series)

  By Skye Smith

  Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Skye Smith

  All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

  Cover Illustration is "Battle of Hastings"

  by Philip de Loutherbourg (1804)

  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 4 . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-01-0

  Cover Flap

  This is the second in a series of historical novels about an English bowman, and the brotherhood of English archers that became the core of the resistance movement against the enslavement of the English by the psycho ruling elite of Normandy.

  It picks up exactly where the first novel, Killing Kings, left off.

  In this novel our bowman, Raynar, has survived the Battle of Stamford, and is traveling south with Hereward and the Northern Army, but he gets lost and ends up in the middle of the Battle of Hastings Road in 1066. He tries to shorten the battle by hunting Duke William across the madness of the battlefield.

  Thirty four years later, in 1100, he again finds himself hunting a would-be-king. This time he is hunting William the Conqueror's son Henry, across the madness of the coronation celebration.

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  THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith

  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 second 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)

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  THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith

  Prologue

  This historical novel is as historically accurate as I could make it. I have even used the old names for towns, so for instance Burna rather than Bourne, Scafeld rather than Sheffield.

  I did, however, convert the dates to our modern calendar to save the reader the confusion of January being the tenth month of the old year rather than the first month of the new year.

  I have also corrected a few popular misconceptions about that period of history. For instance, the Magna Carta was not the document that the rights of the English stem from, for it was based on King Henry's Coronation Charter of 1100. And that Coronation Charter was simply giving back the rights that all English had been given by the Danish King Knut the Great.

  As the emperor of the North Sea, Knut had his scholars identify everything that most of his northern kingdom's had 'in common' and he promoted these as the kernel of the laws, language, religion, and social structure of every land in his empire. So, for instance, English Common Law is derived from Knut's 'in-common' law.

  Another, almost universal misconception, is that William I conquered the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. In truth, he conquered the Anglo-Danes. The Anglo-Saxons were conquered in 1015 by Knut, which was what turned Knut into an Emperor. England was the jewel in Knut's crown. During Knut's reign all of the noble families of England became Anglo-Danish, either by direct replacement or through intermarriage.

  By 1066 Anglo-Danes comprised not only all the nobility and most of the land lords, but also most of the warrior class, and over half of the general population of England. York was the second largest Danish city in the world, after London.

  William's conquest of the Anglo-Danes may have begun in 1066, but it took him ten years of ceaseless genocide against the Anglo-Danes to eventually conquer them. By that time the Normans had killed off well over half the population of Anglo-Danes. In otherwords, a genocide of well over a quarter of the population of England. In Danish Northumbria they created a desert and called it peace.

  Normandy's culture was akin to a military dictatorship. England's culture was akin to a democracy with the rule of law. To put this in perspective, think about the changes in English life that would have happened if Nazi Germany had successfully invaded and conquered England.

  The m
ost widespread misconception is that Robin Hood and his Merry Men lived in the time of King Richard and King John. That misconception is due to the borrowing and the sanitizing of earlier legends and stories by the romantic writers of the Tudor era. The original legends and stories would have been based on the real life adventures of men like Hereward the Wake and the other Anglo-Danes who resisted William's conquest.

  Another misconception is that the Norman's brought Christianity to England. Not so. England had long had Orthodox Christians who followed the true Church of Constantinople, and also Romanized Christians who followed the excommunicated break-away sect of Rome. The Norman's followed the Romanized sect, because the excommunicated Pope in Rome would sell them forgiveness for genocide against Orthodox Christians and non-Christians.

  The Caliphate of Al-Andalus is mentioned in this novel. This was a Moorish Muslim kingdom in what is now Spain. Cordoba was the second largest, second wealthiest, and second most advanced city in Europe after Constantinople.

  This novel mentions the "hairy star" or "star of Bethlehem". 1066/67 had one of closest passings of Hailey’s Comet ever recorded. It was in the sky for months, and passed closest to the sun in March of 1066. This date is another misconception because on our modern calendar this would be March of 1067. Whatever the date, it was taken as a good omen by many would-be-conquerors, and triggered all sorts of invasions.

  The most important invasion was not of England, but of the eastern provinces of the Byzantine Empire by the Seljuk Turks. This eventually led to the Crusades, and the weakening of Constantinople and the true Christian Church. The Byzantine Empire was picked to pieces by the Muslims, and more importantly, by the knights of the Romanized sect of Christianity.

  The demise of the Byzantine Empire hurried the spread of Greco-Roman knowledge out from Constantinople to all of the kingdoms of Western Europe. This included their knowledge of luxury goods, health care, banking, building, geography, navigation, and warfare. Greek was the language of the libraries of history and knowledge. Latin was the language that the Romanized Church had the Greek works translated into, so that the church could censor the contents.

  The tally sticks mentioned in this novel were introduced by Henry I to save England from the grasping greed of international bankers. For the next seven hundred years they provided the sound financial basis that built the British Empire.

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  THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Cover Flap

  About the Author

  Prologue

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Travelers Domus, Temple Lane, Holborn in August 1100

  Chapter 2 - The Highway to Hastings, E.Sussex in October 1066

  Chapter 3 - The Battle of Hastings Road, E.Sussex in October 1066

  Chapter 4 - The Aftermath, Hastings Road, E.Sussex in October 1066

  Chapter 5 - With Edwin's Army, Wallingford, Oxfordshire in October 1066

  Chapter 6 - Brotherhood of the Arrow, Wallingford in October 1066

  Chapter 7 - A Helpful Boatman, Wallingford in November 1066

  Chapter 8 - The Ferry at Staines-Upon-Thames, in August 1100

  Chapter 9 - Hunting a King, Wallingford in December 1066

  Chapter 10 - Hunting a King, Westminster in August 1100

  Chapter 11 - Hereward Returns, Wallingford in April 1067

  Chapter 12 - News about Kings, Wallingford in April 1067

  Chapter 13 - The Coronation Charter, London in August 1100

  Chapter 14 - In Search of Welsh Bows, Near Cirencester in April 1067

  Chapter 15 - Welsh Long Bows, Gloucester in April 1067

  Chapter 16 - Brother Tucker Commits, Repton, Derbyshire in April 1067

  Chapter 17 - Two Robins in Loxley, Yorkshire in April 1067

  Chapter 18 - The Fairie and the Giant, Nottinghamshire in May 1067

  Chapter 19 - Archery Matches, Nottinghamshire in May 1067

  Chapter 20 - A Priest, a Witch, and a Fairie, Southwell in May 1067

  Chapter 21 - Gregos and Tally Sticks, Holborn in August 1100

  Chapter 22 - The Longbow comes to Sherwood, Nottinghamshire in May 1067

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  THE HOODSMAN - Hunting Kings by Skye Smith

  Chapter 1 - Travelers Domus, Temple Lane, Holborn in August 1100

  Raynar was woken by the sound of his old friend Wylie putting down a tray. Old because both of them were now old, well over fifty years and feeling their age after last night's short sleep. He stretched as he sat up and immediately felt the aches and sores caused by yesterday's long journey from Winchester. "Good morning Wyl. Have my Andalusian guests woken yet?"

  He and his guests, his riding companions from Winchester, had arrived at Wyl's lodgings in the wee hours dressed as ordinary English merchants. It was a prudent disguise at a time when road travel was risky because King William Rufus had just been killed, and his brother Henry was not yet crowned in his place.

  In a time between kings, the men that normally ensured that the highways were safe for travelers, were otherwise busy guarding their Lords and their Lords' possessions from other Lords.

  Raynar, had been born a peasant, but now he was as wealthy as a Lord. Gregos, the elder gentleman he had escorted to England all the way from Cordoba, had access to wealth that was beyond measure. Not his, mind you, but his to use wisely and on just his say so.

  Risto, the much younger man from Cordoba, was a personal bodyguard to Gregos. His wealth was in his sword arm. Actually, both arms, for he was a very accomplished swordsman in the Moorish Caliphate of Al-Andalus. Though they were both citizens of the Moorish Caliphate, neither man was a Moor or a Mussulman. Both of them were second generation migrants from Constantinople and therefore of Greek heritage.

  Though born a miner's son, Raynar had done well from the fortunes of the endless Norman wars that had marked his lifetime. And not just from his battlefield prizes, but from how he had invested those prizes to better himself. He had even learned how to speak and write Greek, which was how he came to be in the company of his traveling companions, Gregos and Risto.

  Wyl finished pouring the mint tea and then replied, "Your two wards are breaking their fast in the courtyard while they wait to be collected by their Ambassador. Apparently they expect their Ambassador to include them in the official Embassy party at the Coronation. Not much chance of that, I say. The message that they had reached London was delivered to the Embassy not two hours ago."

  Wyl was a Yorkshire Dane, born to an Innkeeper in York, and now an Innkeeper himself here in Holborn, just outside of London's west wall. He ran a fine Inn, on land that had once been considered a holy place by the Romans. The Inns buildings had been rebuilt in the Roman style to quarter Christian monks, wealthy monks, however the monks had never finished the buildings or taken occupancy. Wyl had leased the buildings and had turned them into a Mediterranean style Domus.

  Raynar savoured that first morning sip of tea and then told his friend, "Do not underestimate my guests, my friend. They may have looked like dusty merchants when they arrived late last night, but there is more to old Gregos than you could ever imagine. I was his guest in Cordoba for two months, and during that time he was consulted daily by the Caliph's Exchequer. He has much say in the running of that Caliphate, and the ear of the Caliph."

  "Well he did mention that he was on a mission for the Caliph to buy long haired sheep from our northern shires," Wyl chuckled. "I did think at the time that he seemed very well spoken for a shepherd."

  "Don't be insulting," Raynar chuckled, "I was a shepherd once too, remember. Besides, if the Caliphate is successful in creating a breed of longer haired Merino sheep, there will be fortunes to be shared."

  "Hmm, you were a shepherd, really? You were a porter when I first met you. That was a lifetime ago, before you began keeping company with nobles, and before you had
killed your first king." Wyl had been with him at the battle of Stamford Bridge back in '66 when a very young Raynar had put an arrow into the face of a nobleman who had later been identified as the King of Norway. Up north they still sung the legend of how Raynar of the Peaks defeated the Ogre of Stamford Bridge.

  The two men stared at each other. They did not need to put to words the secret between them. The secret that just days ago, Raynar had put an arrow into another king, William Rufus, the King of the English. While Rufus had been out hunting venison in the Ytene Forest, a dozen miles beyond Winchester, Raynar had been hunting Rufus.

  Rufus died with one arrow near his heart. The arrow had a blackened fletch, the sign of the vengeance of the Hood. After shooting the arrow, Raynar should have run away, but instead his curiosity kept him close to watch the king's hunting companions find the corpse. It was foolish not to run, but did mean that he had heard first hand how Henry, the king's brother, was going to cover up the killing and claim the throne.

  "So if his brother was there at the same time," asked Wyl, "then please tell me why you didn't put an arrow into Henry at the same time?"

  "I, I,..." Raynar collected his thoughts. "I just didn't. My plan was to shoot Rufus and then run. Instead I spent time with him as he died. He had been a warrior all his life, so I took the time to put his sword into his hand. That wasted my best chance to get clear of the place, so I had to hide instead."

  They both blew on their teas to cool them and then Raynar looked him in the eye and said, "You know how it is when you are hiding. Your stomach is in your throat. You stop breathing and hear your heart pounding in your ears. First there was one man, then two, then Henry and some others, all looking at the corpse of Rufus. Since I was trapped in my hide, I was concentrating on hearing and translating their French words, instead of making new plans."

  "I know, I know," replied Wyl, who had done his fair share of hunting men in his youth, "it's hard to think clearly when you are trying not to move or breathe, and while the blood pumping in your head sounds like drums. Oh, well, what is done, is done, or in this case, what is not done, is not done. It's just a shame that we are about to have yet another son of William the Bastard as our king."