“My recommendation is that we divide them up on the basis of the number of warriors each village and thegn provided, except I would suggest that we make special provision for Wivenhoe where they had many untrained cheorls and sokeman take part in the fight. Other than that, the largest number came from Thorrington. You each have a listing of how many men came from where. I suggest that Wivenhoe gets all the spears and one eighth of the rest. The split up of the remainder would be according to this list I’ll now hand out.”
With only a few questions and items to be sorted out, agreement was reached with a speed that surprised Alan, who had known wealthy Norman lords argue for half a day about a couple of swords.
At the conclusion of business Alan thumped his tankard on the table to attract attention. “Hlaford! Last week we were fortunate at Wivenhoe. Yes we won a battle that those of you who are bards can weave into a memorable song. But the simple fact is we were lucky. We had 500 poorly-armed farm-boys who barely knew which end of the spear to hold. The few Danes who reached our line and fought man to man massacred our men.
“We won because they fought dumb and did exactly as we expected. That will not always happen. At some time in the future we will fight against capable leaders who deploy their men innovatively, or know how to either use combined arms or how to fight against them. We won’t always fight defensive actions. Some of you have huscarles, professional full-time soldiers, in your households. They should be professional enough to know that they need to train every day. Your fyrdmen should not come straight from the plough to the battle.
“Before now you could say that you didn’t have arms to give them. That is not now the case. Each fyrdman must receive half a day of training a week in individual weapons skills and formation fighting. If he complains about spending his time doing that, particularly in the busy seasons, remind him of Wivenhoe and the fact that he may not be lucky enough to avoid facing a Danish battle-axe next time, and it’s his life you are trying to save. Appoint your fyrdmen into squads and put a senior man in charge and drill them. Next time I call I expect- no demand- to have 500 trained men on the field. You, along with every freeman in the Hundred, have a duty to be ready to defend your village, your Hundred or your country. At the risk of offending you, the national fyrd performed badly at all the three battles fought last year. The performance last week of the local fyrd was unacceptably bad. The Wivenhoe farm-hands and slaves fighting for their village and homes fought at least as well as the fyrdmen.
“You will ensure that in three months time that does not happen again,” he continued in a thunderous voice, before continuing more moderately. “If any of your sergeants need training to be able to train your men, send them here and we’ll teach them how to lead and train men. Those of your men who do not have swords or battle-axes can use spears and bows- they’re cheap and effective enough if the man knows how to use them properly and fights as part of a team. You should each send huntsmen here for a fortnight for Warren to teach how to use a bow in battle. Warren will begin his classes on Monday week. Each man will make his own shield. They are easy enough to make, taking just a couple of hours even for an unskilled man, and we’ll use the standard ‘kite shaped’ design. I want every fyrdman in every village to have a linden-wood and ox-hide shield in a week. They can hew, cut and glue the linden-wood; you can provide the rawhide. In the unlikely event that a village doesn’t have somebody who can instruct others to make a shield, lessons can be arranged.
“Horsemen. You saw how my meagre twenty horsemen could dominate their part of the battlefield. A few of you were at Hastings. Most have not seen a battle where there are hundreds or thousands of horsemen involved. I need five young men, each in some of the armour you have just received, and five fit young rounceys from each of you for me to train to fight on horseback. The future of warfare is on horseback and I’d suggest that sending some of your own younger sons would be suitable. I’ll be doubling my own force to 40 trained men. That will give us a significant force of 100 men on horseback. Again, have them here on Monday week.
“After we have equipped and trained our men, if the Danes, Norwegians, rebel English- or our Norman neighbours Geoffrey de Mandeville or Richard of Clare or Aubrey de Vere- come calling with sword and fire we will meet and defeat all of them. We will be able to beat anybody who comes with less than a full army at his back. Hlaford, don’t go away today feeling self-satisfied. You have work to do!”
The thegns were all thoughtful after being addressed in this manner. Some were clearly upset at being told that their performance of their positions had been lacking and that improvement was demanded. However, most appeared to accept that change was needed in changing times- largely prompted by Alan’s success in the encounter with the Danes.
After a light lunch and several more tankards of ale, the thegns had their men load the booty into their wagons, while the thegns themselves went to visit the ‘incredible palace’ that Alan had built. Most admiration was reserved for the toilet system. Any warrior respected good latrines.
The meeting developed into a drinking session in the afternoon, when the rest of the wine was finished off and Alan’s innovative plans discussed. By ten that night most of the thegns were snoring on beds in the guest quarters. Each left next morning after they woke, ate the traditional small breakfast washed down with ale to ‘take away the headache’ and rode away.
“That went much better than I expected,” commented Alan to Osmund, Faran and Anne at lunchtime.
“Not really,” said Osmund smugly. “I put up a reasonable argument, one that was fair. I put it in writing to everybody so they can see it is fair and know that you can’t change it later. Everybody received the same offer, without favour. If they argued about it, their fellow thegns would have seen them as penny-pinching slugs who can’t be trusted. Our Hundred system is built on mutual trust. It just wasn’t worth anybody’s time to argue about what was clearly fair. Of course, they didn’t know about the 100 sets of arms and armour we took two days before, the contents of those ships, or the ships we took the day after the main battle. None of that was their business because they weren’t involved in those fights, but if they had known about it that may have caused some arguments- after all you got nearly a quarter of the arms and armour on offer today. However, I did think some of them were going to wet their pants during your little lecture. Now what happens next?”
“Faran and Wybert, Anne’s steward at Wivenhoe, are to get the Quarter Day taxes ready to be paid and the rents in by Midsummer. Osmund, you and I will ride a circuit of the manors and talk to the stewards and the village head-men. Faran, get the second ploughing of the fallow fields and the haymaking completed. Hugh, recruit as many men as full-time soldiers as you can. Talk to the male refugees and see if any want to take service. Increase the number of beds in the barracks until this training cycle ends. Buy some decent chargers or rounceys at Colchester, say ten of the best you can find. Roweson and the stud at Ramsey can’t be expected to cope with these numbers, not after we already stripped them bare a few months ago. Anne and I will be off to visit her family in Ipswich, but we should be back well before Midsummer Day. We can buy some horses while we’re there.”
It was shortly after sunrise at four in the morning on Saturday the 9th June when Alan, Anne and an escort of a dozen mounted men-at-arms rode out for the 28 mile ride to Ipswich. The men were armed, but not wearing their armour, the rolled up chain-mail being carried on two sumpter horses. Two other horses were laden with bundles of cloth which Anne had removed from one of the trading cogs, well wrapped in hessian.