The Archer's Marines: The First Marines - Medieval fiction action story about Marines, naval warfare, and knights after King Richard's crusade in Syria, ... times (The Company of Archers Book 5) (2 page)

      
Cornell’s vassalage direct to the king is important.  It means the region’s other lords have nothing to gain except casualties if they fight for us or against us.  Besides, they probably know of the king’s decision to let “God’s Will” determine the outcome and will not want to risk the king’s displeasure by involving themselves in a decision he wants left to God.

       The most worrisome possibility is that there is no clear winner in Cornwall such that Cornell abandons his efforts in Cornwall and returns to Hathersage with a force strong enough to defeat us here and lift the siege.  Should that happen William will have to decide whether or not to follow Cornwall back to Derbyshire and bring him to battle even if it means fighting Cornell on ground that is neither friendly nor favorable – and I will have to decide whether or not to call off the siege so that our mercenaries and archers can join and William’s pursuing forces and strengthen them.

       Our basic problem is the same as Cornell’s - neither of us can afford to let the other remain alive and neither of us can afford to let the other possess strongholds from which he can rebuild his forces and start again.  Whether we like it or not we’re in a war that will go on until either Cornell or William are dead – and their heirs such as my nephew George along with them.

       Our reality, however, is different from Cornell’s – we need to settle the matter as soon as possible so our fighting men can embark for the Holy Land and start earning their pay by carrying refugees to safety and taking Moorish prizes.  We can’t risk sending them off to earn the coins needed to pay them until Cornell and his heirs, if he has any, are dead.

       The good news, of course, is that there apparently has been some kind of battle in Cornwall and Cornell may already be dead.  At least that is the rumor that reached us last week and swept through our ranks like a wildfire. 

       In the meantime Leslie’s mercenaries and their families are taking advantage of the empty village and moving into the villagers’ empty hovels.  Even more important, they seem quite content with the way things are going – and that’s significant when dealing with mercenaries.  That will change, of course, when they start taking casualties.

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       Robert Leslie, the commander of our band of Scottish mercenaries, and I are once again sitting together on a log bench in front one of the village hovels and speculating about how long Hathersage can hold out.  An old dog has come up and flopped over on his side at my feet.  This is probably his home.

       Leslie is interested in William and how he started as a serf and got to be the Earl of Cornwall and why I am helping him.  I don’t tell him all the many details including that I’m his older brother.  What I do tell him is that William is smart and loyal to a fault and fully supportive of my goal of establishing a school for young lads as the Greeks and Romans once had.

       “William’s been crusading in the east to the Holy Land as I have.  He knows how hard it is to find dependable men who can scribe and sum to work with the merchants we deal with.” 

       I try to explain why William wants his son George, and the likely lads we’ve found to study with George, to learn scribing and summing - so they can take over from us when they grow up and we’re too old to sail from port to port sorting out problems and seizing opportunities.” 
And lead our sailors and Marines.

       The boys, I try to explain to Leslie, are my students at Restormel and not a one of them is from the gentry - so it’s a great opportunity for them to advance themselves and prosper. 

      
Leslie doesn’t get it.  I can see from the look on his face that he doesn’t understand why we’re trying to educate the boys and isn’t interested.  He’s just trying to be friendly and make conversation.  So I stop trying to explain and we just sit quietly for a few minutes looking at Hathersage.

       After a while, at Leslie’s request, I’m once again regaling him with a description of my encounter with Cornell’s Belgian mercenaries in Sarum down in Wiltshire when they were traveling to join Cornell.  It’s something he can understand.  And as you might imagine, we both begin speculating and laughing about what might have happened in the city that night and how the mercenaries from Flanders might have responded to being gulled out of their weapons and horses. 

       Leslie is particularly interested.  He knows all about his fellow mercenary captain and had even served with him in the same army a few years ago.  That was when they had both contracted for their mercenary companies to fight for old King Henry in one of his campaigns against the Capetian king in Paris. 

       “He’ll never live it down,” Leslie roars as he slaps his leg in delight.  He’s already heard the story three or four times and still can’t get enough of it.

       We are both still smiling and chuckling at the misfortunes of the Belgian mercenary captain, Robert Kerfuffle, when a messenger and his three guards ride in from London with a parchment from my brother.  The winds and conditions in the Channel had been favorable and it had only taken them a little more than two weeks to reach us - and the news they bring is good news, very good news.

       Cornell is indeed dead of the battle at the River Tamar, George and my students are doing well, and William wants me to return to Cornwall as quickly as possible. 
He obviously wants to take our galleys and men to Cyprus
.  But he also wants to add Hathersage to our holdings as soon as it is taken.  He thinks we’ll have a strong claim to it as “The Will of God,” but only if we have it very firmly in our possession. 

      
Our siege lines have been tight.   The people in the castle probably don’t even know of their lord’s death.  Well, it was Cornell’s idea to combine Hathersage and its manors with those of the Cornwall earldom and now it’s likely going to happen – for my brother and little George.

       Accordingly, before I return to Cornwall, William wants me to consider Leslie or one of the local gentry as a possible vassal to hold Hathersage for us.  He wants it held under the conditions of vassalage he’s listed on his parchment message plus any more I think appropriate. 

       It’s up to me to make the final decision.  If I think Leslie is capable of holding the castle for us, and Leslie agrees to do so, I’m to write up a contract of vassalage and feoffment on one of the blank parchments in the pouch the messengers brought to me. 

      
I can tell William’s serious about this; he included a skin pouch full of ground charcoal for me to use as ink and some goose feathers I can sharpen to use for quills.

       If Leslie makes his mark on the contract I’m to preside over a commendation ceremony wherein Robert Leslie and his mercenaries offer their homage to William, Earl of Cornwall, and become his vassals - and, in return, Leslie and his heirs are granted the honour of holding the Hathersage fief and its lands. 

       On the other hand, if I think Leslie’s not up to the task or he won’t make his mark on our terms, William wants me to stay here in Derbyshire until we can find someone else.

       I’m anxious to get back to George and the boys so it doesn’t take long for me to reach a decision - if we are to hold Hathersage the Leslies are our only possibility. 

       After reading William’s parchment several times I invite Leslie and his son to sit with me to hear the latest news from Cornwall.  Everyone is curious and the two Leslies have been anxiously hovering nearby ever since the messenger arrived and handed me his pouch.  They quickly come over and join me under the wagon where I’m sitting to keep the rain from spoiling the ink on the parchment I’m reading. 

       When they’re seated I give them a big smile and tell them that the rumor we heard last week is true - Cornell is dead.  Then I begin casually and carefully inquiring about their possible interest in having the honour of holding Hathersage as vassals of the Earl of Cornwall. 

       Their eyes light up at the thought, as I rather expected they would, and we begin discussing what the holding of Hathersage and its manors as William’s vassals would require of them.   They are both very pleased and agree to everything I suggest.  They should be. There’s nothing we want from the Hathersage fief that the Leslies can’t honourably provide.

      
They’re absolutely enthusiastic. Having the honour of Hathersage and its manors is obviously beyond their wildest dreams; I think they would agree to almost anything.  William and I certainly know the feeling.

      
While the two Leslies sit and watch with growing excitement, I take a blank parchment out of the messenger’s pouch, sharpen up a goose feather with my one of my wrist daggers, and write up our contract. It’s a very detailed agreement so it takes up almost an entire page.
And, of course, both father and son are very impressed that I know how to scribe.

       When I finish I read it to them.  They like it right well as indeed they should.  Then, while the two Leslies are running around in the rain to arrange the necessary ceremony, I sit under a wagon to stay dry and write a parchment to King Richard.  The old dog I’d fed some bad cheese earlier this morning comes over and lays its head on my ankle.

       My message to the king is quite simple.  It says that “The Will of God” relating to the Earldom of Cornwall and Hathersage castle and its manors has been determined in mortal combat, as he so wisely decreed.  And God has spoken - Cornell is dead of an honorable wound and the king’s loyal vassal, William of Cornwall, now holds the earldom and Hathersage. 

       I add, of course, the customary assurances that William and his heirs and vassals are deeply grateful to the king for his wisdom and will in all ways loyally serve him – the usual meaningless blather that means so much to those in the nobility who are full of themselves.  I’ll either drop it off at Windsor on my way back to London or, better yet, send it to him by messenger.

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       The commendation ceremony for a feoffment is a very formal affair in front of witnesses as indeed it should be given its significance.  Leslie assembles his men and their families as soon as the rain cloud we’re under passes over and the rain stops.  Then he and his son and I stand on a wagon and his men and their families gather around and listen intently as Leslie loudly announces his homage and pledges his oath of fealty for himself and his heirs and the men of his company.  They are now, he announces, vassals of William, the Earl of Cornwall, and William’s heirs. 

       Immediately thereafter, as required by custom, I proclaim on behalf of William, Earl of Cornwall, that Robert Leslie and his heirs are granted the honour of holding Hathersage Castle and all its lands and manors so long as they meet their obligations to William and his heirs and to the king who William and his heirs owe their liege. 
The heir and next in line after William being, of course, his son and my nephew and student, young George.

      It is a stirring spectacle and it begins as soon as the rain stops coming down. Leslie, with his son and heir standing at his side, calls on his people to bear witness that he is accepting the Earl of Cornwall’s offer of the honour of the Fief of Hathersage and the stewardship of all its demesne lands and manors.  He does so, Leslie announces, under the following conditions which I read aloud from atop the wagon where the three of us are standing. 

       I read the conditions out quite loudly so Leslie’s people can see us and hear us - and I read them from the parchment I’ve written on, the one on which all the people present will see Leslie and his son and heir make their marks immediately upon it being read out.

       After reading aloud each specific condition I turn to the Leslies to get their loud “ayes” and an emphatic nod of their heads, after each of which the assembled people give a great cheer of agreement. 
Can we really do this?  I don’t know.  But it certainly sounds good.

       “Robert Leslie and his heirs agree to pay without delay all of the taxes the king levies on the fief of Hathersage and without delay answer the Earl of Cornwall’s levy for some or all of his men of military age.” … “Aye.”  Great cheers.

       “Robert Leslie and his heirs agree that each year they will deliver to the Earl of Cornwall at Restormel Castle three young brood mares and either four additional journeymen archers possessing admirable longbows or eight able bodied young men with strong arms to be apprentice longbow archers.” .. “Aye.”  More great cheers.

      
If some of the apprentices are young enough and lively enough they’ll become my students and learn their sums and letters; there’s no need to explain that to the Leslies today but I certainly will in the future.  I think they’ll like sending us some lively boys instead of only strong young men.

       “Robert Leslie and his heirs agree that each year they will require all men living on their honour of Hathersage to possess and know how to use a longbow and to each month hold an archery tournament open to all men with a prize of a silver coin for the best longbow archer and penalties for those of his men who do not qualify.”  … “Aye.”  More great cheers. 

      
Leslie’s men obviously like the idea of a monthly tournament with prizes; it gives them an opportunity to win extra coins.  What they apparently don’t yet realize is that they’ll now have to make longbows for themselves.  Yew wood is best but properly selected elm will do.