[Norman Conquest 01] Wolves in Armour (48 page)

“Now, if you ladies and gentlemen will excuse me, I think that it’s time to retire,” she continued. “There will be an escort of guards to accompany you to Ludgate and I have arranged with the captain of the guard to have the gate opened to admit those of you who are residing in the city. Unless you wish to spend the night here, I suggest you make ready to leave shortly.” With a regal nod Queen Edith strode from the chamber.

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The following morning Alan and Anne examined the list of properties that Malachi had as promised sent around to them, a dozen in all. Being a Sunday, the 22nd of July, there was little else to do after attending Mass at the nearby St Peter’s Church and they wandered around the city looking at each house from the street.

Feeling much safer with Bishop William and Engelric now knowing that the depositions had been delivered to the Chancellor, Alan was content to walk abroad with just two bodyguards as security against the usual cut-throats that inhabited every city.

Despite having a population of some 10,000 crammed within the city walls, with the closure of the shops and markets for Sunday the city was surprisingly lacking in hustle and bustle and the people who still thronged the streets moved more slowly and with less urgency. As they knew Jews work on Sundays, that afternoon they sent Leof to Malachi with a list of the eight houses they wished to inspect, suggesting Tuesday as being suitable. That evening Malachi sent a note in reply confirming that one of his retainers who was familiar with the properties would arrive at eight in the morning on that day to conduct them to the various properties.

The next morning, Monday, Anne and Alan visited the two glassmakers in the city, both workshops being near each other on Ropery Street near the river.

The use of glass was rare and it was explained to them that there were only three glassmakers in England, two in London and one in York. Alan explained their needs. Four large windows each about six feet high by four feet wide for one side of the Hall, eight smaller windows about four feet square, four for the opposite side of the Hall above the height of the guest rooms and four for the private rooms at the end of the Hall. Finally they needed eleven small windows about two feet by one foot for the ten guest rooms and the bathing room.

The transparency of the glass was not of particular concern as the purchase was for the purpose of allowing in light, not beautiful creations like the stained glass windows that both workshops had under manufacture. They settled on a price with a master-glassmaker from Paris named Renier, an elderly man who had migrated to England ten years before and whose broad-sheet glass was of higher quality than that of the other workshop, which Renier described as being operated by a former employee.

They watched intrigued as Renier by way of demonstration heated a mass of glass in the first furnace and blew it into an elongated shape with a blow-pipe. He then reheated it several times in the second furnace and then, while the glass was still hot, cut off both ends before cutting the resulting cylinder with shears and flattened the sheet onto a heated iron plate and then allowed the glass to slowly anneal in the third and coolest furnace to avoid it cracking.

Renier explained that the resulting piece of glass would be about one foot square after being trimmed, and that the windows would need to be made of a number of panes fitted into a wooden frame, which could then be opened or closed depending on the wish of the owner to admit or exclude outside air. On discussion with Renier Alan and Anne decided that the slightly greenish soda-glass would be acceptable, being the cheaper alternative both because of the materials and the greater ease of handling at lower temperatures.

Renier accepted Alan’s measurements and the piece of knotted cord on which they had been made, but specified that he would send an apprentice to take final measurements before the project began. The apprentice would accompany them on the journey home, and departure was arranged for Friday the 27th July. Delivery and installation was promised within six weeks and Alan paid a fifty percent deposit to seal the bargain.

They also arranged for a sheet-metal worker from Walbrook Street to travel to Thorrington and finally fix the problem of the leaking chimney.

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Promptly at eight in the morning on Tuesday a young man in his early twenties, whose clothing and very appearance were those of the arch-typical Jew, presented himself at the ‘Fox and Goose’, advised that his name was Joshua and took them to the houses that were of interest, methodically from west to east, beginning at The Strand approximately a mile west of the city walls at Ludgate, Holebourn Bridge outside Newgate, then into the City to Coleman Street, Broad Street (where they had a meal at an inn, carefully avoiding ordering pork), then on to Bishopsgate Street and Harp Lane before swinging back to the west and visiting Friday Street and Carter Lane and so back to the ‘Fox and Goose’ at about six in the evening. There Joshua left them with encouragement to visit Malachi the following day and an assurance his master would be available all day.

Footsore from walking, Alan and Anne sat in the inn Commons to eat and drink, sharing a trencher and ordering meat pottage, pork and egg pie, spinach tart, spiced chicken stew and an apple pie with cream.

They discussed the relative merits of living inside and outside the city. Convenience, closeness to markets, the nearness to the palace at Westminster of the properties outside the city walls, their mutual dislike of the crowdedness and filth of the city and the effect that the shortness of the winter days would have on the opening and closing times of the city gates. In winter the gates would be open for less than eight hours a day.

Eventually they decided that they were most likely to be out of the city when the gates closed and that the house at Holebourn Bridge, just outside Newgate, offered the best compromise of location, size, features and cost. It was, like almost all of the houses in the city, of wooden construction and relatively elderly, requiring some repair. It had six bedrooms, a large Hall, Solar, servants’ quarters in the attic, stabling for a dozen horses and a large out-house capable of conversion into guards’ quarters. Anne made the comment that all the houses they had inspected had been vacant of their owners, but with most necessary staff present- as if Malachi had already foreclosed on the properties.

Next morning Anne insisted that they not hurry down to Malachi’s chambers, but keep him waiting so as not to seem to anxious to seal a bargain. She decided instead to go shopping and requested Alan’s presence and that of six guards.

It was that morning that Alan found something he detested about Anne. He hated going shopping with her. His idea of shopping was to know what you wanted, find it, bargain an agreed price and leave.

In London Anne was in a shopper’s heaven. Entire streets were devoted to the selling of single types of product. This morning she was, for some reason, seeking ironmongery, and the additional guards were there to be used as pack-animals. She started at one end of the row of shops and carefully examined iron and copper cooking pots and pans, cooking utensils and a whole range of items that Alan had no idea as to what they were. From time to time she would ask his opinion, which she invariably ignored.

After an hour, being driven insane by her shopping methods, as she returned to shops previously visited and like a true merchant’s daughter began to bargain down to the farthing, Alan discovered the secret to going shopping with a woman. Stand there, nod occasionally, detach the brain and think of something else.

Eventually, now down to two guards as the other four had been dispatched back to the ‘Fox and Goose’ weighed down with purchases, she decided that it was time to have a meal and then visit Malachi in his chambers.

It was early afternoon, about an hour before Nones, when they arrived at Malachi’s office and were ushered in virtually immediately. Their host poured them an excellent wine into wonderful ruby-coloured glasses. The glassware was imported from the Levant, he commented.

Anne asked if Malachi was aware of any other properties for sale and expressed some interest in the house at Holebourn Bridge, seeking the asking price. £20 said Malachi, immediately beginning a selling spiel about the spaciousness of the property, its excellent location, stabling, strong construction and so on.

Anne responded with concerns about is age, pointing out at length the extent of repair worked needed, the rising damp, dry rot, need for the roof to be re-thatched, repainting and the need for substantial alterations to meet their needs.

Malachi had a list of tradesmen who did excellent work at modest prices, the quality of whose work he could personally attest. Anne pointed out that for £20 they could buy a manor in Middlesex within five miles of the City at Chelsea or Kensington, with two or three hides of land, which would be just as convenient for attending at Westminster and which would actually produce an income instead of merely being an operating expense.

Alan hadn’t thought of that before and was genuinely keen on the idea, saying that if he visited those villages tomorrow he was sure that a visit to the local tavern in each village would produce the names of a number of land owners who had the right of sake and soke and who couldn’t afford to pay the Heriot and needed an urgent sale.

Anne thought that was an excellent idea and suggested to Malachi that they meet on Friday, before the Jewish Sabbath commenced in the evening, to discuss whether they still had any interest in the Holebourn Bridge property.

Seeing what he had thought to be a certain sale evaporating before his eyes, Malachi gritted his teeth and said that the lowest he could go would be £12 and at that price the owner would be losing money. Anne had Malachi confirm that, although outside the city walls, the property was classified as part of the city and that no Heriot was outstanding or payable on it, and then accepted the offer, instructing Malachi to have his lawyer draw up the necessary deeds and that the Heriot clause was to be included in the deed- which was something else that Alan had not considered. Anne collected the list of tradesmen from Malachi and they left the thoroughly crestfallen Jew in his office after making arrangements to meet at Sext the next day to complete the documentation and finalise payment.

Back at the ‘Fox and Goose’ Anne took Alan upstairs and made fierce love to him, thoroughly roused by her success. As they lay entwined afterwards Alan asked, “Why not Chelsea or Kensington?”

“Because, my love, any of our London friends would expect to be able to invite themselves along whenever they felt like it and use it as a hunting lodge. If you want any time to yourself you have to be either in the City or at least half a day’s ride away,” she replied in a lecturing voice as she fondled him into hardness for preparation for another bout. When they eventually rose, ready and ravenous for the evening meal, Anne sent Leof off to Renier the glassmaker to arrange a one week delay in their departure, to Friday the 3rd of August.

Next morning, Thursday, Anne spent in Threadneedle Street with Alan and four huscarles, examining ribbons, sewing threads and bolts of cloth, items of haberdashery, hats, and lace kerchiefs to cover her hair. At least the parcels sent back to the inn this morning were much smaller and lighter. Both that day and the previous day Alan had found several shops in which he was interested. Book copiers, apothecaries and a shop that dealt in specialised instruments suitable for surgery. Specialist saws, scalpels, surgical spoons and hooks, clamps, retractors and the like, apparently imported from Iberia. Anne wasn’t interested and wandered out after a few minutes, making Alan realise that he’d have to arrange his own shopping expedition.

At noon they met with Malachi and his lawyer. Alan and Anne both carefully checked through the deeds of the house at Holebourn Bridge, going back to its original grant from the Crown and the current deed, all written in English, including the clause that no Heriot was outstanding or payable on it and the standard clause that the vendor, an Englishman named Ealdean from Croyden in Surrey, knew of no defects that had not been disclosed. Ealdean had already signed and sealed the deed, properly witnessed by a priest, so presumably Ealdean had either been somewhere closer than Croyden or had been sent for last night. All was in order and Alan and Anne signed the authority for Malachi to debit their account by the sum of £12 and Malachi produced a receipt signed by Ealdean, again witnessed, for that amount.

Business transacted, they returned to the ‘Fox and Goose’ and sent Leof and two of the huscarles on errands to the carpenter, bricklayer and thatcher recommended by Malachi with instructions to the tradesmen to meet them at the house at Holebourn Bridge at Prime early the following morning. They then walked the half-mile to their new house to introduce themselves to the servants and conduct interviews.

They had noticed on their previous visit that the house had been kept reasonably clean and they had bought it fully furnished. It had a butler of about 30 years of age, a cleaning maid of about 15, a stableboy of about 12 and a female cook of about 35. The butler’s name was Aikin and had been with the previous owners for the five years they had owned the house. The maid was his daughter Aidith and the stableboy his son Tiw. They shared one room in the servants’ quarters in the attic. The cook was a fat and bad-tempered woman called Frithswith who lived with her family in the city.