I Am the Chosen King (31 page)

Mortemar—February 1054

King Henry of France, realising he personally had little to gain and much to lose by continuing the war against Geoffrey Martel, comte d’Anjou, had ordered a reconciliation to be made. William of Normandy had flatly refused. Victory had been his at Alençon and Domfront, the power of the Bellême family had been incorporated into his vassalage, and Martel was on the verge of being broken, but Henry decided to dictate peace terms! William had poured scorn on the proposal and had stormed out of the French court without leave, in a vile temper. In furious retaliation, Henry of France turned about face and allied with Geoffrey against Normandy. William was not best pleased, but neither was he distraught. Henry had given an excuse for him to pursue, at last, his freedom and autonomy.

With the levies from the north-west of France mustered at Mantes Henry entered Normandy through the region of the Évreçin, while from the north-east, with troops under the command of William’s brother Odo and Rainauld, comte de Cleremont, the Duke launched a formidable campaign of pillage, slaughter and destruction. The size of Normandy’s immediate response was unexpected. Had Henry been hoping that the landowning nobility of upper Normandy would not, when it came to it, take that last step into treason? If he had then he was to be disappointed. William had mustered a force large enough to counterattack from both the eastern and western sides of the Seine. Normandy, as a whole, had decided to shed vassalage to France.

The February air was cold, frost whitening men’s breath into steam clouds as they huddled beneath cloaks and blankets around fires that gave out little warmth. Tree, branch, fence, barn—whatever came to hand was torn down and burnt, the many spirals of dark smoke rising to blend with the melancholy grey of a low and brooding winter cloud. Daylight at this time of year was brief; a tiresome season for fighting.

Before Henry had so enraged him, William had no inclination to seek independence for Normandy from France, but his decision was forced. Capitulate to Henry’s dictation or become his own lord? If he could keep his nerve and the loyalty of those who followed him…the notion flourished and, as he had hoped, not in his own mind alone. During the years of rebellion he had proven himself to those men who admired his resolute determination and courage. Normandy was a young country, planted and nurtured by Viking settlers a few generations beforehand. Autonomy and audacity were in the blood of her sons, as was respect for a man’s success in battle. A man whose star was rising, bright and savage. Who showed, from the very first, a natural ability to rule and lead.

Such a man was William. Ruthless in revenge, compassionate in forgiveness. He calculated his response to every situation calmly, and deliberately combined leniency with ferocity. His temper was more dangerous than a mid-winter storm, but he was also fair in judgement and generous to those who served him loyally. The lords of Normandy had no respect for a man who altered allegiance on the whim of a cold-blowing wind, even if that man was the King of France Capable men such as Roger de Montgomery, Hugh de Gourney, Ralph de Tosny and Robert, comte d’Eu, elected to stand firm behind their duke. With them ranged Walter Gifford, William fitz Osbern, Roger de Mortemar and William de Warenne. Duke William they would serve and no other.

William’s tent was little warmer than the winter air outside, despite several braziers and a scatter of furs on the floor. The Duke barely noticed the cold—what mattered chilled fingers and chilblained toes when tomorrow all of Normandy could be lost to him? He stood at the central table, hands spread over the map unrolled before him, concentrating on the inked lines that depicted Normandy, his mind on what was happening to the other side of that squiggled emblem that represented the river Seine, where Robert d’Eu was leading his troops against the approaching western attack under the French King’s brother.

Murmuring quietly among themselves and rubbing surreptitiously at frozen hands, his noble lords and officers watched his intense stillness. They would have been surprised to have been privy to his thoughts at that moment.

A messenger had arrived an hour after dawn, bearing a letter from the Duchess Mathilda. At first William had been disappointed for he was desperately awaiting an encouraging word from d’Eu; however, a flicker of contentment had passed over his expression as his private clerk had read his wife’s words to him. He had a daughter, of good weight and health, fair-haired and blue-eyed. Agatha, she was to be called.

He was thinking, not of battles and warfare, but of his daughter. He would enjoy having a little girl to curl her fingers around his and smile and gurgle at him. Who would grow to love and respect him as a daughter ought adore her father. He had a son, but he did not much like Robert. An ugly, loathsome child, continuously mewling and puking. Mathilda doted on the boy; perhaps now she also had a daughter he would not be so frivolously cosseted. William looked forward to watching her grow into a woman as beautiful as his own mother had been; counts or dukes or kings would seek her hand, a strategic alliance would be formed…but not if Normandy lost everything to Henry of France, if all was lost on the opposite side of the Seine, where the armies would be meeting somewhere near Mortemar.

If Normandy fell Mathilda would return to her father in Flanders. The children would be safe under his protection. No doubt she would find herself another husband…William’s clenched fist thundered down on to the map. “I will not give ground to the whims of bloody France!” he roared. “Normandy is mine—as it is yours. Does Henry think we are feared of him? Does he think we are going to run squealing and whimpering from the poxed whoresons of his army?”

Enthusiastically they echoed his certainty, his courage, William fitz Osbern, Roger de Montgomery…the leather hanging covering the tent entrance flapped backwards as an officer of the guard stepped through, ushering a grime-faced messenger before him. The men within the tent turned as one to stare. The messenger bore the emblem of Robert d’Eu on his shoulder.

For a long moment no one spoke, moved, or barely drew breath.

William could feel his body trembling, a myriad diffuse thoughts tumbling and churning through his mind. He closed his eyes in a swift prayer, stepped forward, his hand stretching out to take the roll of parchment from the messenger’s hand. If they noticed it shook, he did not care…he took it, gazed at the seal of Robert, comte d’Eu. His fingers snapped the wax seal. He stared at the dull black ink scrambling across the parchment in mystical loops, circles and lines. For this one moment William wished that he had been taught to read, to see for himself what had happened those few miles away across the river at Mortemar…

“Sir?” The cleric was there at his side, his hand reaching to take the letter. William gave it to him and turned abruptly on his heel, stalked to the far side of the tent, poured himself wine, drank it in one gulp.

The cleric read hurriedly, a smile touching the edge of his lips, broadening to a grin and a rousing shout of delight. “My Lord Duke! Sir! Mortemar is won! Henry’s brother has fled, his troops slaughtered or dispersed. Guy de Ponthieu is captured.”

“And that is not all!” Ralph de Tosny was ducking through the opening behind the messenger, the edge of his cloak glistening from frost, his breath coming fast as if he had been running. “Henry has received word of the defeat before us—he is withdrawing.” Ralph crossed the tent in a few brief strides and knelt before his duke. “You have won victory over France, my Lord!”

A cheer erupted from those within the tent, except from William. He again closed his eyes in prayer, released the breath that he had not realised he had been holding. Opening his eyes, he allowed a smile of satisfaction to slide over his clean-shaven face. He would initiate a reconciliation with Henry, with terms advantageous to himself and those who had shown their loyalty.

He held out his hand to de Tosny, who touched his lips to the ducal ring. The fighting would not be over, for there would always be someone who wanted something from the Duke and no doubt Henry himself, once his wounds were licked, would try again to destroy Normandy’s young duke.

William tossed back his head and laughed. He could try, but by God, he would not succeed!

York

In his earl’s palace in York, the capital of the North, Siward, Earl of Northumbria, lay bed-bound, the curtaining pulled close on the side of the bed where the cold of a north-east wind persisted in breaching the shuttered windows. He had sustained a wound to his knee at the battle of Dunsinane fighting against that whore-poxed Macbeth of Scotland, a wound that had festered. He was dying, and had no son of age to follow him as earl, for his eldest had been slain at that same fight, an axe taking his head from his shoulders in one swift and terrible blow. Victory. Huh, what price victory? So Macbeth was defeated and fled into the northern isles, Malcolm, Duncan’s son, was returned with England’s aid as king of that cursed country, but for Siward Scotland was most certainly cursed.

There was no one to follow him now. Waltheof, son of his second wife, was too young, a four-year-old child. There was no one else of Siward’s blood to take over the care of these desolate but beautiful moorlands of laughing rivers, swirling hill mist and singing wind.

York had been an important city long before the Vikings had taken it for their own. Roman armies had once lived here within its stone defences. The incoming English Saxons had used its waterways for sea trade several hundred years before the Norse adopted the city, named it Jorvik and expanded it into the second-largest settlement in all England.

To the head of the King’s Highway in Conig Street, one of the few York roads to retain its Saxon name, Earl Siward had built his stronghold, from where he had ruled for almost forty years.

Of Viking birth, Cnut had appointed him as guardian of the volatile North—as Godwine had been selected for the South. He had been the right man, had bridged the gap between the established wealth of the South and the independent freedom of the North, a vast, rolling area of wild land that had once, not so long ago, been a kingdom in its own right, with its unique identity, where a dialect that was peppered with Scandinavian sound changes and meaning was unintelligible to many Southerners.

Siward breathed a long sigh. It would not be many more days before God sent his warrior angels to escort an old soldier up into heaven. His wife sat close beside the bed, her head bent over a tangle that had knotted the thread of her drop spindle. She looked up at the sound of his sigh and set her spinning aside. There was no disgust in her face at the smell of wasting flesh, no reluctance to be near or to touch her lord. She was a young woman in the full-blossomed beauty of youth and Siward she loved beyond life itself. She rinsed a linen cloth in a bowl of rose-petal water and wiped his face.

Catching her hand clumsily within his own, Siward stopped her. “You are to go with our son to Edward when I am gone. He will see you safe kept.”

“Hush, husband, you may yet become well.”

Movement was difficult for his body was swollen and contorted, but Siward lifted his hand to caress her cheek. “I am for God, my dear-heart. I will be happy to meet him when I am certain that you and Waltheof will come to no harm. Take care of the boy, for he must become earl one day when he is grown. Tell Edward this, that Siward, who has served with all faith, would see his son as protector of the North.”

Who would be earl after him? Most likely Ælfgar would be moved from East Anglia, Leofric’s sour-tempered son of a cur. One of Godwine’s brood would be the only alternative—but as fair-minded as was Earl Harold, that clan held over-much ambition for England already. Ah, it was not his problem to worry on. The fate of Northumbria lay in the hand of God, as did his own.

“I would be dressed in my armour when the time draws near, and stood on my feet,” he said. “I would meet my God as a warrior ought, not lying idle abed. And after, I would be taken to the church of my founding, at Saint Olafs to the north-west wall of this dear city. Perhaps there I shall be remembered for some short while.”

“None shall forget you, my Lord.”

Siward patted her hand. Let her believe it so if she chose. Few, save for those who had loved them, remembered the dead once they had passed on.

The woman struggled in vain to contain her tears. She could not face life without his gentleness, had already decided that Waltheof would indeed go to the King, but not she. She would be going with her lord, for it was too bitter a thing to remain without him. And it would be a bitter thing for this ancient kingdom of Northumbria to lose such a man.

Siward died as he had asked, dressed in his armour and standing on his feet, as the first snows of winter fell with a quiet hush over the night-darkened moors. Within a day his wife followed him, the blood let from her wrists after the four-year-old boy had been set within the arms of his nurse, surrounded by the protection of an armed escort and sent south, to Westminster.

Would peace have settled on Siward’s departing soul had he known King Edward’s choice for his successor?

With Champart gone Edward, in his boredom and despair, had sought entertainment and distraction and found both within an unexpected blossoming of friendship. Tostig and his wife were often at court, preferring the company of his sister, the queen, to that of his mother or brothers. Tostig was unlike the rest of his family. He frowned on an excess of drink or women, condemned ribaldry and foul language.

Edward began to like Tostig Godwinesson and his piety, and that liking, as once it had for Robert Champart, soon developed into something more like a dependancy. To Tostig, therefore, at the King’s command, went the highest honour below Wessex. Tostig was given Northumbria.

Westminster—March 1055

Edith brushed a speck of fluff from the shoulder of her brother’s cloak, stood back a pace to admire him. Tostig was a handsome man, full-faced, fair-haired and blue-eyed—as were all Godwine’s offspring. His chin was firm and square, his shoulders broad above a strong chest with muscular arms. Of all her brothers, Edith loved Tostig the most.

“You look splendid!” she declared with pride, flicking her eye critically for a second time over the formality of his attire. “The apparel of an earl suits you well.” She turned to smile at Tostig’s wife. “You are fortunate to have such a fine man as husband, Judith. My one regret is that you will soon be leaving court now that Easter is upon us.” Her happiness faded to a wail of dismay. “I doubt that I will come and visit you in that wilderness that is the North. They say that the wind blows all the time and that the populace is almost as uncivilised as the Welsh.” Edith shuddered, rubbing her arms against the fearful thought of both evils.

Judith laughed, moving forward to cheerfully embrace her sister-in-law. They were devoted friends, these two childless women.

“Our winters we shall spend here with you—and for the summer, there is a fine residence at York, a city, I have been told, which boasts a minster and several churches.”

“Oh, indeed,” Edith agreed, admiring her sister-in-law’s fortitude. “With also a rabble of foreign traders and an abominable stink from the poor quarter and the muck that clogs the waterways.”

“So we will feel most at home.” Tostig laughed. “’Twill be no different from the midden heap that is London. It is no use, my dear, I cannot put off going into my earldom any longer. Winter is not a time for riding northwards, but now that the catkins are dangling from the trees I must soon be away.”

His pleasantry was to some degree faked, for he too had heard nothing good of the barbarian North—even the language was apparently unintelligible. But to counter his ill-ease, he was full of pride for his promotion—how long had he waited for such reward? And to get Northumbria for his own…! He would make a good earl, would rule with wisdom and a firmer hand than that old fool Siward. There was much to be done. Siward had turned too much of a blind eye to the blood feuds, murder, theft and highway robbery. That might be their way in the North, but it was not Tostig’s. It would stop. Northumbria would, like it or not, become civilised, would benefit from the enforcement of the King’s law. Siward had been old, set in the lawless ways of the past.

Settling his cloak more comfortably on his shoulder, Tostig touched his fingers to the diamond and ruby glitter of the cloak pin. Earl! He understood his brother Harold’s pride in the title now—but equally, he puzzled over his brother’s absurd leniency in matters of the law. Harold argued that to punish lesser crimes with harshness left little with which to punish those who deserved more severity. Remove a hand for stealing an apple from a tree—then what could be meted for stealing gold from a king? A whipping for the one, mutilation for the other, that would be Harold’s choice. Tostig preferred to punish minor misdemeanours with a hard hand, so that fear would deter the more serious crime. Hah! Within the turn of the year he would most assuredly prove Harold wrong.

“So,” he said, running his hand over the delicious feel of the marten fur. “For the first time I am to take my seat at Council as an earl. I confess that there has been occasion when I despaired of receiving such honour.”

When Godwine had died and Ælfgar was installed as Earl of East Anglia, for instance. Tostig had felt that Harold ought to have remained there and he himself awarded Wessex. Although he was the younger, he was the more dedicated to duty and God, the more insistent on the letter of the law—and the harder-working of the two. Or if Harold must have been given Wessex, why had Anglia gone to Ælfgar, an idle, ineffective wastrel, more often than not drunk?

“It was only a matter of patience, brother,” Edith said. “I have always wanted you as earl, but in the right place and position. Once Siward was gone…” She crossed herself, murmuring a brief prayer for the old man’s departed soul. They never talked at court of the paganism that had surrounded his dying. To be dressed in his armour indeed! The old Viking way? Was it any wonder the North under Siward had remained so backward?

Brother and sister walked, arm linked through arm, along the echoing corridors to the Council chamber of Westminster Palace. Long and narrow, the chamber brooded beneath a high, vaulted roof of carved rafters that soared above plastered walls painted with scenes of past glory. The coming of Hengest and Horsa into Kent with their three keels; Saint Augustine at Canterbury; King Alfred defeating the Danes; behind the King’s raised dais, the hand of God stretching down to touch the emblazoned banner of England. The entirety of Westminster was designed to impress, occasionally at the expense of comfort, but Edith was as proud of her royal domain as was Edward. Lavish and ostentatious, it had become a place of absolute monarchy, where, beneath the King, Edith could now strut supreme. How things had changed since that terrible year of 1052!

Guards stamped to attention as she and Tostig, followed by their retinue of servants, passed by. As always the palace was busy, an administrative town in its own right, the length of maze-worked corridors always a-bustle with men about urgent business. Tostig, being a son of Godwine, had been used to respect, but now he was an earl, the bowed heads and nods of courtesy suffused him with pleasure. Aye, long had he waited for this day!

Meeting Earl Ælfgar face to face inside the open doorway to the chamber dampened his euphoria, as if iced water had been poured over his head. The man scowled a glower of hatred, looking Tostig up and down as if he were a swineherd. Dipping his head but slightly to the Queen, Ælfgar turned aside, pushed his way with surly rudeness through the crowd of men and disappeared out into the corridor beyond. Several eyebrows were raised, a few muttered comments exchanged. Tostig would not have been their first choice to become the warden of the North, but he was infinitely preferable to that bad-mannered churl Ælfgar.

Escorting his sister to her throne in the forefront, Tostig took his place on a bench, beside Earl Ralf de Mantes of Hereford, setting his cloak with care so he might not crush its fine making. Ralf noted the apparel and smiled to himself Tostig had a right to revel in this, his first taste of pomp and ceremony. All too soon the shine would tarnish.

Rapping the stone floor three times with his staff, a herald announced the coming of the King. All who were seated rose, speech rustled to a halt and Edward, escorted by eight of his housecarls, entered in full regalia. If the King’s nephew assumed that Earl Tostig would soon tire of the panoply of ceremony, then Edward most certainly had not.

“Where are my Earls of Wessex and East Anglia?” the King asked, his voice echoing against the stone of the walls. “Did I not see your sour-tempered son striding away but moments past, Lord Leofric?”

Leofric was ageing, his joints ached and his sight and hearing were not so sharp as once they had been. Ah, age was a thing that crept up with more stealth than a huntsman pursuing a doe with fawn at foot. And his son was more of a disappointment now than he had ever been. Leofric sighed. “I know not where he has gone, Sire, nor why.” Did not add that he did not much care.

Edward shrewdly regarded Tostig, then questioned Edith with his eyes. She told him what she wished to know. “Harold, Earl of Wessex, sends word that he has been delayed—that he will be here by noon on the morrow. As for the Earl of East Anglia, I conclude that he has no wish to be seated with our dear brother Earl Tostig. He is intent on pursuing this quarrel against your choice of promotion.”

“Is he indeed!” Edward exclaimed. “Then he must think again.” Turning to the captain of his guard, he ordered, “Fetch him here. I would have Lord Ælfgar attend my Council!” Then, seating himself, Edward granted permission for his lords and nobles to follow suit. With some coughing and talk, the men settled their backsides on the wooden benches; only those who had the foresight had brought cushions.

They waited ten minutes, fifteen.

Earl Leofric sat with shoulders slumped, anger beginning to override his embarrassment. At least God had spared his dear wife Godgiva this humiliation, for she had been taken to His bosom three months since. How her spirit must be weeping at the foolishness of their only surviving son!

The captain returned and spoke to Edward, who erupted from his chair in volcanic anger. “How dare he! How dare the cur disobey my order! Where is he now? Gone to his private room, you say? Well remove him! Remove him from my palace and from my kingdom. He is banished, I send him into exile, damn his insolence!”

The murmur of astonishment swelled to a clatter of approval. Few men present felt sympathy for the idiocy of the man. Ælfgar had precipitated his own sentence of exile by persisting with this hostile warfare against the Godwinessons. Good riddance to him. England would be the better without his stormy tempers, bad manners and foul language.