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    The Hoodsman: Forest Law
    The Hoodsman: Forest Law
    The Hoodsman: Forest Law
    Ebook327 pages6 hours

    The Hoodsman: Forest Law

    By Skye Smith

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    By 1076, the Conqueror's neighbours, including Philip of France, were worried enough about his vicious greed to openly enter into alliances against him. The unbeatable Conqueror began to lose battles and ground. The psycho opportunists who had rallied to him while he was a winner, were now drawn to towards other opportunities in the warm islands of the Med.

    For any Danelaw men who had survived a decade of rebellion against the brutal regime of the Conqueror, there was a new strategy. Encourage the Norman psycho's to turn on each other. Encourage a Norman Civil War. Captain Raynar changed from a wolf into a fox.

    * * * * *

    On Saint Lawrence's Day, August 10th, 1103, a Category 5 hurricane devastated southern England. At the time, King Henry was still taming the Norman Earls who did not want him as their king. Vicious slave masters such as Mortain, Earl of Cornwall, were refusing to accept Henry's Charter of Liberties (the predecessor of the Magna Carta), so Captain Raynar sailed his ships to cut Mortain off from fleeing to Normandy.

    * * * * *

    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 nineth 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:
    1. Killing Kings
    2. Hunting Kings
    3. Frisians of the Fens
    4. Saving Princesses
    5. Blackstone Edge
    6. Ely Wakes
    7. Courtesans and Exiles
    8. The Revolt of the Earls
    9. Forest Law
    10. Queens and Widows
    11. Popes and Emperors
    12. The Second Invasion

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSkye Smith
    Release dateApr 3, 2013
    ISBN9781927699089
    The Hoodsman: Forest Law

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      Book preview

      The Hoodsman - Skye Smith

      THE HOODSMAN

      Forest Law

      (Book Nine of the Series)

      By Skye Smith

      Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Skye Smith

      All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

      Cover Illustration is by Charles Laplante (1879)

      Robert throwing himself on his kneesbefore his prostrate father

      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 2 . . . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-08-9

      Cover Flap

      By 1076, the Conqueror's neighbours, including Philip of France, were worried enough about his vicious greed to openly enter into alliances against him. The unbeatable Conqueror began to lose battles and ground. The psycho opportunists who had rallied to him while he was a winner, were now drawn to towards other opportunities in the warm islands of the Med.

      For any Danelaw men who had survived a decade of rebellion against the brutal regime of the Conqueror, there was a new strategy. Encourage the Norman psycho's to turn on each other. Encourage a Norman Civil War. Captain Raynar changes from a wolf into a fox.

      * * * * *

      On Saint Lawrence's Day, August 10th, 1103, a Category 5 hurricane devastated southern England. At the time, King Henry was still taming the Norman Earls who did not want him as their king. Vicious slave masters such as Mortain, Earl of Cornwall, were refusing to accept Henry's Charter of Liberties (the predecessor of the Magna Carta), so Captain Raynar sailed his ships to cut Mortain off from fleeing to Normandy.

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      The Hoodsman - Forest Law 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 nineth 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).

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      The Hoodsman - Forest Law 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 about 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 1076 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 was no longer any English Earls left in the kingdom.

      Conquering 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.

      When the young King Philip of France took as his wife, Bertha, the step daughter of Robert the Frisian, Count of Flanders, he did so because he needed a strong ally against Normandy. With the support of Brugge and Paris, rebels rose on all of Normandy's borders. Norman psycho-culture was hated in all of the places that William had conquered. Even William's eldest son, Robert, turned against him and William was critically wounded while trying to capture Robert.

      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.

      The same brutal tactics were brushed up and used again in later centuries to clear the clans from the communal land of the Scottish Highlands, and to clear the native tribes from their communal land in the USA and Canada.

      * * * * *

      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 arrived 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 new King Henry, youngest son of the Conqueror, and his English Queen Edith (Matilda II), had within three years, 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.

      The devastation caused by the hurricane complicated everything for the royal couple, because how long would the English folk rally to them if they were allowed to starve. Meanwhile, Belleme's most powerful ally, Mortain, the Earl of Cornwall was still making trouble in the West Country. Henry did not want Mortain in England, and his brother Robert did not want him in Normandy where Mortain could again join with Belleme, who was now in exile on his huge estates in Normandy.

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

      Table of Contents

      Title Page

      Cover Flap

      About the Author

      Prologue

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 - Assassins on the streets of Winchester in October 1103

      Chapter 2 - Edith's dinner plans ruined in Winchester in October 1103

      Chapter 3 - A king's messenger comes to Huntingdon in September 1076

      Chapter 4 - The old Norse ships in the Fens in September 1076

      Chapter 5 - Welcome to Oudenburg, Flanders in September 1076

      Chapter 6 - The truth about Robert in Brugge in September 1076

      Chapter 7 - Four vital women in Winchester in October 1103

      Chapter 8 - The arrival of Robert in Brugge in October 1076

      Chapter 9 - At court of Philippe in Paris in October 1076

      Chapter 10 - Robert in court in Brugge in October 1076

      Chapter 11 - Château Gaillard-sur-Seine, The Vexin in October 1076

      Chapter 12 - The burning of Rouen, Normandy in October 1076

      Chapter 13 - At Bertha's court in Paris in November 1076

      Chapter 14 - Assassins in Paris in November 1076

      Chapter 15 - A big man finds Judith in Brugge in November 1076

      Chapter 16 - Big John in Paris in November 1076

      Chapter 17 - A visit home to Peaks Arse, Derbyshire in May 1077

      Chapter 18 - Visiting Sonja in Loxley, S.Yorkshire in May 1077

      Chapter 19 - A visit to London, England in August 1077

      Chapter 20 - The great fire of London in August 1077

      Chapter 21 - Wylie advising the city fathers in London in August 1077

      Chapter 22 - About the Forest Law, south of London in August 1077

      Chapter 23 - Planning an assassination in Montreuil in September 1077

      Chapter 24 - Waiting for William in Gerberoi all through 1078

      Chapter 25 - Looking at ships in Ferneham, Hampshire in October 1103

      Chapter 26 - The twin hulls in Ferneham, Hampshire in October 1103

      Chapter 27 - William comes to Gerberoi, France in January 1079

      Chapter 28 - Ambushing a king in Gerberoi in January 1079

      Chapter 29 - Betrayed by Robert in Gerberoi in January 1079

      Chapter 30 - Reporting to the Palace in Paris in January 1079

      Chapter 31 - Racing down the coast to Cornwall in October 1103

      Chapter 32 - The battle of Tamara Sound, Cornwall in October 1103

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

      Chapter 1 - Assassins on the streets of Winchester in October 1103

      His stomach muscles tightened from his nervousness. Why was he doing this? Well at least the wind had stilled and rain had stopped and the air was warm. Winchester was between storms, or perhaps they were just in the center of a huge one and between the two edges of the storm. Despite not wanting to be here, at least he hadn't been on a ship or a boat in the Manche. Not that there were many ships left after the great maelstrom of the tenth of August. The speed and the power of the wind on that day had been unimaginable.

      It was already dark, and the footing was treacherous from the debris torn from buildings by storms. The destructive force of the wind of that storm six weeks ago had been truly frightening, but then it had been followed by a string of other storms. He wondered how much of the kingdom now had lost this year's harvest. He tripped over something in the shadows and cursed. Families had hung oil lanterns from their gates to help folk to find their way through the wreckage, but they just served to make the footing trickier because they either cast shadows or dazzled your night vision.

      He came to a long and wide plank laid across something mucky and smelly in the road, but there was already a man coming towards him on it. This could be the man. He stepped to one side to let the man pass, but under his damp, heavy cloak he put his hand on the wooden handle of his Valkyrie knife. That was a grand name for what was really just the long bladed eel filleting knife common to women of the Fens. The man had a candle lantern and as he stepped off the plank he held it up to cast light around. Watch your step, he cautioned, and caught Raynar's eye, the plank is greasy.

      Thanks, but I'm better without your light, replied Raynar and waited for the man to move along before he stepped onto the plank. The stranger continued walking, but now he was whistling what sounded like a Breton folk song. A hawk's screech echoed down the street. Hawks did not fly in the dark, and certainly none would roost in the center of a city.

      A shiver ran down his spine. He took a deep breath and continued walking as if nothing was wrong. He had purposefully waited for the wind to stop before he set out from John and Marion's house. Not because of the wind itself, but because a wind would have masked other sounds and smells and set too many distracting shadows in motion.

      He stepped off the plank and chose his way carefully. The closest wall ran straight along the street, but had a shadowed area halfway between two gate lanterns. Someone could hide there. Such a wall of dried bricks and wattle was usually topped by a narrow roof of scrap wood which served to keep the wall from being leached by rain. The roof had been blown onto the cobbles in front of him. The debris made a light crunch when he walked over it.

      He could now see that the shadowed area of the wall was caused by a buttress. He heard the light crunch of a boot behind him. He had been counting his paces. Someone was walking through the wreckage of the roofing about twenty paces behind him. A shiver ran up his back. He tuned his hearing to the sound of footsteps. It had been wise of him to wait until the wind had stopped. The deep shadow was now only three paces away.

      As soon as he entered the shadow of the wall's buttress, he half turned and flattened his back against the wall. Just as he turned there was a scurrying of steps. He was now looking back towards the last gate lantern and saw the bulk of a man and a flash of steel. He lifted both arms in front of his chest and braced himself against the wall to stop the charge. A blade, a long dagger, grazed off his forearm and the steel sang with the sound of metal on metal.

      The attacker was a professional. His experience and instinct told him that his first dagger slash had struck mail. He adjusted his attack and changed his balance to the other foot and brought his other hand up from below. A second dagger. Again the dagger was blocked by an armoured arm.

      Raynar now knew that the man had two daggers and that he knew how to use them. He had to keep the man from realizing that this was a trap. He needed to hold the man here for a moment more, until help arrived. He did the natural thing. He yelled Help. He yelled Murder. He yelled Footpad, and while his attacker was focused on his yells, he kicked hard at where his shins should be. He connected with a satisfying grind under his boot.

      The attacker's right dagger flashed and Raynar twisted so that it hit his left upper arm instead of his chest. The attacker was no longer slashing, he was stabbing, the only way for a small blade to defeat mail. He felt the crunch of the blade as it split the metal rings, and then the burn and sting as it sank into his flesh.

      He forced himself to ignore the sudden pain and the instantaneous weakness in his left arm, and instead tried to see the flash of the other dagger. He was too late to block it. He felt it crunch into the rings protecting his heart, but then there was a sickening sound of snapping bones and, mid strike, the power went out of the dagger. The attacker slumped to the ground as if he were a sack of corn.

      Sorry, Ray, whispered the huge bulk now blocking the weak lamp light. I think I hit him too hard.

      Raynar looked down at his feet. The man lying across his feet was certainly not moving, and most likely dead. When he tried to move his legs to keep his balance he fell forward, but a huge hand caught him. Oye, you're bleeding, said the young voice and suddenly he was lifted off his feet and twirled in the air out of the shadows and into better light. Acca's worried face filled his vision for a moment and then his feet touched the ground again.

      From down the street in the direction he had come from, there was a scream of agony followed by whimpering. Now there were calls from the watchers at each gate asking who was there and what was happening. From down the street he heard John's booming and familiar voice bellow out I'm John from up the road. We've just caught a footpad. I'm taking him to the night watch, but he is dragging his feet.

      Good on ya, John, came a response from the closest gate. Give him another kick from me.

      Acca was looking Raynar over carefully. The only blood is from your left arm, but it is bleeding like a stuck pig. He turned away and gave a piercing whistle and by the time he turned back, they could hear the sound of horse hoofs and cart wheels on the cobbles.

      Two men were coming towards them out of the torch light. A small man in front, bent over and stumbling forward, and a huge bulk of a man behind him. I caught the man who fingered you. He can still talk. How did you fare.

      We have a knifeman, replied Acca, but I hit him a bit too hard.

      That's alright, lad, though the hangman will curse you for the loss of his earnings. Just don't tell your mother that you've killed a man.

      Raynar is wounded, continued Acca.

      Then absolutely don't tell your mother.

      A cart reached Acca at about the same time as John Smith, his father, who was pushing the finger-man along in front of him. The two men leading the cart each had a longbow in one hand with an arrow nocked and held in place by their bow hand.

      Hide the bows, lads, John said quietly, in case the night watch happen by. The carters unstrung their bows and then stored them back in the long box under the seat of the cart.

      Here, you lot, ordered Acca, Ray took one in the arm and he is spurting blood. Help me get the mail off him so I can bind it.

      None too gently, John handed his prisoner to the two carters and the prisoner whimpered in pain. Here, watch him. If he gives you any grief break his other arm. He then set about removing Raynar's cloak, and then unhooking the mail sleeves from the mail shirt and from the mail gloves. Piece by piece he gently pulled the armour off Raynar while leaving the injured arm for last. Then he slowly removed the last sleeve. He could feel Raynar wince, but there was no stopping now.

      And you, you stubborn bugger, you wasn't goin' to wear this old mail, John's gruff whisper had an I-told-you-so tone to it.

      Acca, John whispered to his son, wrap your scarf around the arm here and then cinch it tight till the blood stops. Once the blood had stopped he lifted Raynar gently into the cart. Then he carelessly chucked the corpse and the finger man into the cart. The finger man screamed in pain and then continued his whimpering.

      You two take the point, he said to the two bowmen carters, let's get Ray back to the house. Bloody hell, Marion is going to skin us when she sees this.

      No, hissed Raynar between short breaths, the palace. Take me to the palace. I am late for dinner already. Maud is there. She can see to my wound.

      As he says, lads, John said to the carters. To the palace. Take the fastest way.

      Raynar shook off a sudden weakness and looked across the rocking cart at the prisoner. The man's face was a mask of pain, and his right arm hung at a strange angle from his shoulder. I am going to turn you over to the palace guard, Raynar said. He was forced to say it twice to get the attention of the prisoner. First, however, I am going to ask you some simple questions, and you are going to tell me the simple truth. If not, I will have John break your other arm.

      * * * * *

      * * * * *

      The Hoodsman - Forest Law by Skye Smith

      Chapter 2 - Edith's dinner plans ruined in Winchester in October 1103

      Edith's breasts ached. She changed her posture hoping the ache would lessen. Dinner was late and soon she would have to leave her guests and go and feed baby William. She looked around the dinner table and tried to smile. How could she rally her patience or strength and be a gracious hostess. It was less than two months since William Aetheling had been born and she had been over busy ever since. Thank heavens her sister Mary had come over from Boulogne to be with her for the last three months of the pregnancy.

      Even more than Mary, than heavens that Maud of Huntingdon had come to visit just before the birth. That woman knew more about birthing than all of the royal midwives, and had immediately taken charge. And of course Maud had come with Lucy of Spalding, who was like an older sister to Maud. Maud would give orders in her soft and pleasing voice, and if the women around her did not jump, they had to answer to the big, bold and brash Lucy. Lucy who had trained as a shield maiden in the Frisian way of her father’s villages.

      When she had been near her time, it was Maud who had asked sweetly that Henry and Robert leave the palace. When they were slow to obey, it was Lucy who had grabbed each by the arm and pushed them from the queen's quarters. When the news went out that it was a boy, it was Lucy who stayed by the babe and let no one touch him without Edith's permission, especially not Robert. After all, the baby William had probably cost Duke Robert his last chance of ever claiming the throne of England.

      Edith knew she should be more forgiving of Robert. After all, he was not just the Duke of Normandy, and her brother-in-law, but also her godfather. The poor man had lost his own young wife, Sybilla, just last Lent. Again she gave thanks that Maud had arrived in time to take over her own birthing. Sybilla had died in childbirth, an all too common death for young mothers. It was sheer luck that her second baby, Henry, had survived.

      Since the now infamous storm of Saint Lawrence’s Day, she had lost her patience with the old drunkard, Robert. Just after she had birthed back in August, that tremendous storm had ended a summer drought with a great flood. It had ruined the fruit and corn crops, had robbed many of their roofs, had sunk many ships, and had saddled her with Robert's company while his ships berthed in the safety of Portsmouth harbour.

      That violent tempest had been just beginning. Every week since, there had been violent windstorms of warm, humid air that often brought flooding rains. So it was that she and Winchester palace were still catering to Duke Robert and his escort, a full month after they should have returned to Normandy.

      Worse, the winds were so strong and the rains so drenching, that the men were no longer leaving the palace for days at a time to go hunting, and so they were constantly underfoot. She had ceased holding regal banquets for Robert's entire escort after the first week. Tonight, with her winter larder already spent, she was hostess at an evening meal that was set at but one table in her personal dining room.

      She glanced around the table. Henry and Robert were still being boring discussing the sharing of the 3,000 silver marks that was Robert's yearly stipend under the treaty of Alton. Collecting this princely sum was the main reason he was in Winchester, but he had also brought William Warenne with him, back to the England he had fled. Warenne's plea for Henry's forgiveness for switching sides at Alton had muddied the issue.

      Warenne had been put under guard as a traitor the moment he stepped ashore, but Robert had convinced Henry to pardon him and return his English honors and

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