Hoodsman: Blackstone Edge Read online

  They told tales of being robbed by roving gangs of starving axemen, who could not safely cross the Ouse as the women and children could. Those folk that had luckily begun their journey in the robust health normal to Danelaw farmers, but now they looked like they were made of sticks. Those that were not in good health to begin with, had not made it this far.

  The two couples worked endlessly alongside the English monks from the closest abbeys. There were continuous problems seeing to the needs of the flow of refugees. This included anything from caring for weeping wounds, to reuniting families that had become separated, to doing the tally on the heavily-guarded food carts to ensure there was only the allowed pilferage by the carters and no more.

  Raynar kept Beatrice and Anske safe in their toil by demanding that they dress like nuns in homespun, rather than like ladies. This was not so that they were safe from the refugees, so much as so they were safe from the Norman knights. Beatrice was, after all, a wealthy countess in her own right, and Anske was perhaps the most comely young woman that these rough knights would ever meet.

  Anske was like an angel amongst the children. She had a knowledge of healing, and a healing touch, that put Raynar's own healing skills to shame. Alone, or with Raynar's help, or with the help of one of the monks, she would move between the clumps of families sitting and laying on the floor of one of the warehouses, doing everything she could to help them, heal them, make them feel better and more hopeful.

  But everyone working amongst all of this endless sadness and filth eventually reached their physical and emotional limits. With Anske, the Angel of Selby, it came on the same day that the Bishop was touring Selby. The bishop had not believed the reports of his own clerk, and had come to see the unfolding tragedy for himself.

  Raynar, and the little old monk that often helped Anske, had come to fetch her to take her to luncheon with the Bishop. She was sitting with a woman. All alone with a woman, and both were weeping. Raynar and the monk squatted down and Raynar asked if he could help.

  "The woman has no group, no village group," Anske blubbed out.

  "No problem," he replied, "we will find them. This is normal work for us."

  "You don't understand," Anske wept. "She doesn't want to find them."

  "That isn't reasonable. She would be far better off with her own village, her kin."

  "Raynar," Anske stood, and the two men stood with her. "Raynar," she fell into his arms and then stared at the monk, directly in the eye. "They ate her children."

  Raynar's mind went numb at the horror of the words. The monk at least had the presence of mind to lead them both away from the bereavement of the mother, to get them away from such all encompassing grief, to get them outside into the fresh air. The monk also had the presence of mind to report it to the bishop.

  * * * * *

  The huge numbers of refugees continued through early December, as even villages who had not been visited by Norman patrols had decided to move south. They feared that the Normans would visit them after the first snow had fallen. That they would perish in the winter freeze if they did not move ahead of the Norman's wave of destruction. The only good news to this, was that therefore some villages of Yorkshire still had roofs that could shelter the others coming after them.

  Midway through December, a Danish ship arrived at Selby. The approach of the Danish longship caused a panic in the town. Boat loads of Breton archers were sent across the river to the archer tower there. A call went out to the billets to assemble the garrison. The ship, however, was manned by Normans and aboard was Count Robert Mortain, who had been in charge of containing the Danish fleet on the Humber.

  Robert had traded food to the Danish fleet in exchange for the ship, and he was on his way to spend the feast of Saint Nicholas in York with his half-brother King William. This news was almost enough to have Raynar aiming an arrow at the man. This devil had just had the villages around the Humber cleared so that the Danes could not get succor from them, and now he was providing them the succor himself.

  The ship, of course, could go no further than the boom. Thorold, however, had designed the new boom to be stronger than the original, and more versatile. It was actually two booms, one across the river, as was the original, and another that connected the midpoint of the boom to a giant tree upstream on the far bank. This second boom added strength to the center of the main one and also deflected floating debris towards the south bank where it could be cleared before it could snag the main boom.

  Thorold now showed Count Robert the full ingenuity of his design. With a hundred men holding two anchor lines attached to the south end of the main boom, he had the chain to the pilings on the south bank released. The bank end of the boom floated downstream and took up the slack in the anchor line.

  Once the free end of the main boom was midstream and pointed downstream, the anchor line was slackened and the ship was towed upstream past the temporarily broken boom. Once the ship was past the boom, the hundred men heaved the anchor lines upstream and pulled the free end of the boom back into place where its chain could be reattached to the pilings on the bank.

  As a reward for this feat, Thorold was taken by Count Robert to feast with William in York. Thorold strongly suggested that Raynar take Beatrice and Anske back to the Lincoln while he was gone, but they all refused. There was still so much work to do with the refugees.

  Thorold's place at the meal table at Beatrice's house, was taken by the Norman commander, on the excuse that if he was replacing Thorold in his duties, then he must keep to Thorold's daytime schedule. He was a stubborn and thick-headed man who had caused problems for Thorold in everything Thorold had attempted. Beatrice, however, had no problem controlling him and getting her way, so Selby ran more smoothly without Thorold than with him.

  If there was any good news, it was that the flood of refugees had peaked and in late December slowed dramatically. There was no news from further north, so no one knew if this was because there were no more to come, or because the folk were blocked by weather or patrols or worse. They all realized that this good news for Selby was probably the worst possible news for the Yorkies still in Yorkshire.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  The Hoodsman - Blackstone Edge by Skye Smith

  Chapter 4 - Thorold returns from York in January 1070

  After the feast, Thorold returned from York on that same ship with Count Robert. Many other knights sailed with them to save them the ride through the gooey mess that now passed as highways in the lowlands of Yorkshire. The ship stopped for only an hour at Selby, and it did not intend to cross the boom. Instead it returned to York for more passengers.

  The passengers from the ship were astonished by the quietude of Selby compared to when they had left for York. There were far fewer refugees, so there were fewer monks, administrators, guards, and carters. There were the folk of Selby and a garrison of archers to defend the boom, and few others.

  After Thorold had made his fare-thee-wells to those that were continuing on to Lincoln by horse, he walked alone towards his house. Young Raynar greeted him on the street. Anske and Lucy greeted him at the door. Beatrice greeted him in their room, with the door slammed shut.

  Over the evening meal and late into the night, Thorold described every part of his journey to York and the King's feast. York had still not been rebuilt after the fire that the Normans had lit in the summer, and the folk were suffering horribly. The folk were living under temporary roofs and most walls of the burned buildings also had small temporary roofs to save the walls from turning to mud in the wet weather.

  Norman patrols were at every building site to ensure that any treasure trove that was uncovered in the rubble became the King's. There was a labour shortage because William had all able-bodied men fully busy building a new bailey. There was a shortage of food because the Norman foragers had taken it all. Commerce had virtually stopped except for simple barter.

  Meanwhile the Norman feast lasted a week and was sumptuous in its plent
y. The knights who had survived the Danish invasion were celebrating, and the nobles had new faith in this King who had turned a most certain defeat, into victory.

  "William has relearned this year what he already knew in '66 when he was planning the invasion of England with Tostig and Harald of Norway," said Thorold. "Their real enemy is Denmark, and the main source of Denmark's wealth and power is the Danelaw of England. Now he has discovered how to defeat them. Even if he cannot match their fleet of ships, he can starve them."

  "He is starving the English farmers and villagers," said Beatrice.

  "Which starves their allies in Denmark," replied Thorold. "William is now a god to his knights. By creating a wasteland out of Yorkshire and pushing the Yorkies out, he has not only starved the Danish fleet this December, but he has also starved any future fleets should they come.

  The proof is the ship that took me to York. To a Dane, a ship like that is the center of their lives, like a church is to a monk, and yet the Danes were so hungry that they exchanged it for food. What is more, he has rid himself of those troublesome Danelaw axemen who so often have swelled the armies of his enemies." Thorold had so much bad news that he thought he may as well tell it at once and be done with it.

  "The Norman priests are overjoyed with William despite his raiding the altars to pay the Danegeld. Separating the axemen, the healthy men, from the women, has devastated the old religions, both the ways of Woden and the ways of Constantinople. The women and children can now be converted to Romanized Christianity."

  Raynar spat a curse to the floor, and Beatrice looked at him in shock.

  "The chief justice of the kingdom, Odo, has told the nobles that under Knut's laws if land is empty of folk and of roofs and of hearths for a year and a day, it becomes common and under the trust of the crown. Since William had declared himself as the same as the crown, in a year he can decide the fate of most of the land of Yorkshire. He can name the new land lords. He can fling out gifts of land to all of his followers."

  There were blank looks from the others. They had not been around the law for twenty years as Thorold had.

  "Don't you see? Most of the land rights of the Danes and Frisians were communally held by the clan. The Normans could not take title to the land by replacing the chief or the warlord as they did in Wessex. It was not the chief's land, it was the community's land.

  Now, if the Normans can keep the folk of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire from returning and rebuilding their villages for a year and a day, then the crown can claim it, legally, under English law and with the approval of the church. After a year and a day, the villagers will only be allowed back on their land as serfs, to serve whichever Norman lord that the King gives tenancy to."

  "This is a nightmare," groaned Raynar, "the freemen of a thousand villages will become slaves."

  "They may already be slaves. The new Norman lords of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire are overjoyed because William has solved the problems they were having with their pigheaded freemen tenant farmers. They can now offer those tenancies to the refugees from the North. Of course the farmers and current tenants are given first choice. Become serfs themselves, or their tenancy is cancelled and they must leave."

  "That is unfair. The courts would not allow it!" exclaimed Beatrice.

  "The courts are ruled by Bishop Odo, William's half brother. The only reason it was not done last year was the shortage of farmers. That has changed. The refugees now moving south are farmers and there are a lot of them, and they are hungry."

  "This gets worse and worse." Raynar could not say more. His voice was shaking.

  Beatrice was beginning to understand the full extent of this news, and she was horrified by it. "It will be like the ripples when you drop a pebble in a pond. The refugees accept serfdom, and the tenants become migrants, and wander until they are starving and then they accept serfdom, and more tenants become migrants, and so the ripples will travel to the edge of the pond. "

  Thorold reached to her and held her hand and looked into her eyes. "I must remember that way of explaining it."

  "This is all too evil to believe. The Norman's are starving the folk into willingly becoming slaves." moaned Raynar. "Is that the end of your bad news?"

  "Were it so, but no, the worst is last. William is planning a winter campaign against Northumbria, especially Dun Holm. He now knows how to take vengeance for the Norman army that was slaughtered there.

  He will kill the axemen or make them flee, and then clear and burn the villages, and kill the stock, and force the folk to live without shelter and without food through the winter. Northumbria is to be emptied of all succor as was the Humber, but there will be no escape for refugees fleeing south. To the south is Yorkshire, which has already been cleared. The Northumbrians will starve and freeze in the wasteland that is now Yorkshire."

  Raynar caught his breath at that news. "May William freeze to death in a northern blizzard for this deviltry." He cursed and spat to the ground to invoke it. They all repeated it and spat.

  They sat in silence for some time. Anske held Raynar’s hand and she knew by the movement of his fingers that he was tense and thinking and searching for words. "No," she said, "No, No, No."

  Beatrice was half-dozing cuddled close to Thorold. "What? What?"

  Thorold gave her a squeeze. "I think Raynar was about to tell us that he was leaving to warn Cospatrick. Am I right?"

  "Only as far as Dun Holm, to warn my friend, Bishop Aethelwine."

  "It is a good thought and I had it myself while I was in York," said Thorold. "I have men I could send, but each time I think of the route they must take, I drop the thought. The King's men control the highways around York and his army will be using the only highway, Dere Street. The other ways are by ship, but the weather is against you, or overland, but now there is no food or shelter in Yorkshire and winter is here."

  Anske squeezed his hand. "You see love, it is impossible for you to start from here and warn them in time. You would die trying the impossible and waste your own life for nothing."

  Thorold put his hand on Raynar's shoulder. "If there were a way, lad, I would have sent someone already. My best chance was in York. If I had known someone like you in York, then they would be in Dun Holm by now," he said "But I was alone there, surrounded by Normans, and constantly watched."

  He watched the frustration work the young man's face. The lad was feeling the Cassandra curse, knowing the future and knowing there was nothing he could do about it. "All we can do is pray that William values the villagers alive as serfs for the south, and helps them to migrate south. Without his help they are doomed. This winter, the once wealthy farmland of Yorkshire and Northumbria will become a frozen wasteland."

  It was not a happy homecoming for Thorold. It would have been better not to tell the news. He could not even leave Selby and go back to Lincoln or to Spalding. He had been ordered personally by the King to be the keeper of the boom until the Danish fleet had left the Humber.

  * * * * *

  It was a winter of hunger and shortages for village folk from Derbyshire to Scotland. Horses were becoming rare, or usually well-done, as the mutton and pork ran out. The second-last animal to be eaten by a Danelaw farmer was the horse. The dairy cows and oxen were saved for last.

  Selby fared better than most towns. Thorold had turned the King's words into the official title, Keeper of the Boom. He used the title to become the virtual reeve of the town. The Norman commanders, with no orders to the contrary, treated him as such.

  The commanders became dependant on Thorold’s long experience of being the Shire Reeve, to be a source of solutions for their own problems. He had been the Reeve during good times and famines, and he already knew what worked and what did not. Raynar and Beatrice became his aides and in Selby, their orders were as his.

  The garrison in Selby had been stripped down to just the Breton crossbowmen required to defend the boom, but they served Thorold’s purposes well. There was a shortage of carters, carts, and cart h
orses, and Thorold tackled that problem first. Without carts there was no distribution. Without distribution there was no balancing between plenty and shortage.

  He sent word around the countryside that carters working for him would be escorted and protected by archers. The results were immediate. In these perilous and wintry times, the carters had been hiding their carts and their draught animals for fear of losing them to army foragers, to scavengers, or to desperate and hungry folk. Carters began to walk into Selby to accept the offer, and then would lead four archers back to where they had hidden their cart.

  The next problem Thorold solved was the disastrous state of the highways due to the months of flooding. The folk along the roads were huddled and crowded together under their remaining roofs trying to survive the hungry winter, by hiding from it and sleeping. Once there were carts he sent well guarded carts of food along the highways and offered food in exchange for the work of fixing the highways. The farmers left their beds and shelter to fix the drainage channels so that the roads were not under water, while their wives carried sandy soil and rocks to fill in the swampiest areas. Goods were beginning to move again.

  The one ship upstream from the boom was overbusy carrying Norman passengers and had little space for cargo. The call for carters was expanded to include a call for shipwrights. The ship-building craftsmen of the Humber had stupidly been cleared by the Normans with the other freemen. Now Thorold wanted them back.

  Four serviceable hulks had been found high and dry or half sunken at Riccall. Once the shipwrights began to arrive, work began on the first and closest of the wrecks. Once it was floated it was moved to Selby where it could be refounded. Each of these ships was already on the York side of the river boom. With more ships plying the Ouse from Selby to York, and the highways to Selby now passable, Selby became the main port for supplying the needs of that burnt and hungry city.