The Hoodsman: Frisians of the Fens

By Skye Smith

In the first two books in this series, the young porter, Raynar, survived the battles of 1066 first at Stamford bridge and then at Hastings road. In this third book, the year is 1067, and he is spreading the word that the Normans are coming to all of the small villages in the Fens of Lincolnshire.

Towards the Wash from Hereward's town of Bourne, he helps some Frisian axemen rescue their village from the Sheriff's men, and after he is injured, he is nursed back to health by the village women. Nursed by the tall, slender, fair, wonderful, and totally self assured Frisian women. Of course he falls in love.

In the first two books the elder Raynar completely got away with killing King William Rufus in 1100. In this third book, he must deal with the news that the new King Henry, the son of his worst enemy, plans to marry the daughter of his dearest friend and lover.

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 third 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

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skye Smith
• Release date: Feb 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781927699027

Book preview

THE HOODSMAN

Frisians of the Fens

(Book Three of the Series)

By Skye Smith

Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Skye Smith

All rights reserved including all rights of authorship.

Cover Illustration is The Lady of Shalott

by W.E.F. Britten (1901)

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 4 . . . . . ISBN: 978-1-927699-02-7

Cover Flap

In the first two books in this series, the young porter, Raynar, survived the battles of 1066 first at Stamford bridge and then at Hastings road. In this third book, the year is 1067, and he is spreading the word that the Normans are coming to all of the small villages in the Fens of Lincolnshire.

Towards the Wash from Hereward's town of Bourne, he helps some Frisian axemen rescue their village from the Sheriff's men, and after he is injured, he is nursed back to health by the village women. Nursed by the tall, slender, fair, wonderful, and totally self assured Frisian women. Of course he falls in love.

* * * * *

In the first two books the elder Raynar completely got away with killing King William Rufus in 1100. In this third book, he must deal with the news that the new King Henry, the son of his worst enemy, plans to marry the daughter of his old friend and lover.

* * * * *

* * * * *

The Hoodsman - Frisians of the Fens 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 third 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. Killling 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)

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The Hoodsman - Frisians of the Fens by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

Prologue

Writing historical novels about the twenty year conquest of England by a culture of vicious slave masters, means that I have to describe 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-1066 England was an Anglo-Danish kingdom. From the time of the retreat of the Romans, most of the northern peoples who came in waves of migrations to the British Isles were escaping the various mini ice-ages by moving south. Most of these waves came from the area around modern Denmark.

The Jutes who settled on the south coast came from Jutland, the top of Denmark. The Angles of the east coast came from the base of Denmark. The Saxons were from the mainland that connects to Denmark. The Frisians were from the Fen lands and islands to the south of Denmark. And last of all, guess where the Danes that populated the Danelaw migrated from?

Of all of these cultures, the one most ignored by the history texts is the Frisian. Shame on those texts. The Frisians were a boat and marsh people who settled in all of the low marshy coastlines around the North Sea. They were fishermen, animal breeders, and coastal traders. Their language was the trading language of the North Sea, and it is still the language most similar to Pre-Norman English.

Their ships, especially their cogs, revolutionized sea trading and hurried the end of the Viking era. The Frisian women were sought after as wives and mistresses across Europe. The Frisian men were stubbornly independent and fiercely free, and they continued the fight of the tribal-clan cultures of the north, against the master-serf culture spread by the church in Rome, right up until they were conquered by Napoleon.

It was the Frisian ideals of freedom and human rights that turned Holland into a republic. After the Dutch successfully invaded England, those same ideals turned England into a constitutional monarchy with a Bill of Rights. Those same ideals migrated to America with the Puritans, Quakers, and Dutch with a similar effect.

The Norman conquest of the Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Frisian villages was typical of when any centrally organized & literate culture steals the communal land of a tribal & oral culture. It was a predecessor of the Highland clearances in Scotland, and the native clearances in America, and the slave trade in West Africa.

When one culture attacks another using genocidal tactics, the first casualties are the old and the weak. To an oral culture, the loss of the elders is the equivalent of burning all of the books of a literate culture. The folk lose their knowledge, their traditions, their history, their technology, their self respect, and their ability to sustain themselves.

The Normans knew this, and so did the Frisians.

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The Hoodsman - Frisians of the Fens by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

Table of Contents

Title Page

Cover Flap

About the Author

Prologue

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Assassins at the Travelers Domus, London in September 1100

Chapter 2 - The Frisians near Burna, Lincolnshire in September 1067

Chapter 3 - Finding the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 4 - The Women of the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 5 - The Prisoner of the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 6 - The Guard Captain comes to the Travelers Domus in September 1100

Chapter 7 - The Sheriff of Peterburgh, Northhamptonshire in September 1067

Chapter 8 - The Women of the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 9 - Fortifying the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 10 - Winter on the Island of Westerbur, The Fens in September 1067

Chapter 11 - Hoodsman in the Palace, Westminster in September 1100

Chapter 12 - The Frisian Cogs of the Wash in March 1068

Chapter 13 - Meeting a princess in Spalding in March 1068

Chapter 14 - The meeting of the Northern Earls in Spalding in March 1068

Chapter 15 - Treachery in Spalding in March 1068

Chapter 16 - The love of a princess in Spalding in March 1068

Chapter 17 - Karvi and the Treasure in April 1068

Chapter 18 - Amnesty Proclamation in the Domus, Holborn, October 1100

Chapter 19 - The men of Sherwood Forest in April 1068

Chapter 20 - Raynar returns to the Peaks in April 1068

Chapter 21 - Saving the Widow Sonja in Loxley in April 1068

Chapter 22 - The fairie walks with her goddess in Peaks Arse in April 1068

Chapter 23 - Treasury business at the Travelers Domus, London in October 1100

Chapter 24 - Meeting Eadric the Wild in Chester in May 1068

Chapter 25 - Meeting Welsh princes in Chester in May 1068

Chapter 26 - Edwin marches on Warwick in May 1068

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The Hoodsman - Frisians of the Fens by Skye Smith Copyright 2010-13

Chapter 1 - Assassins at the Travelers Domus, London in September 1100

The warning horn, again. Was it a dream? Other calls of alarm. Raynar's eyes opened with a start. It was real and he was awake. He rolled from his bed and reached for his Seljuk bow and a quiver of arrows. His short Damascus sword was in the sheath built into weave of the quiver. No time for boots. He was out the door and shut it hard behind him. His old legs ached as he ran and then jumped up the first three stairs and in four more leaps was on the roof boardwalk that ran along the outside wall.

Wyl was there already, yelling something to someone in the street. Beneath him he heard the creak of the opening of the small door next to the street gate. In a glance down he saw the Inn's two watchers armed with pikes push out onto the street and an old man limp in through the door. After a quick breath, Raynar half kneeled and bent the bow to reverse the C of it's arch and pulled the bowstring into place to hold the now massive tension.

It was a type of bow rarely seen in England. The kind that Seljuk Turks were using to kill the Frankish knights in the Holy Land. When the C was not reversed it still looked like a bow, but had the draw weight of a child's bow. He chose a shaft with a heavy point and nocked it.

Help him, help Master Risto, Wyl called down to the watchers, as he nocked an arrow into his own longbow. He loosed and unthinking, nocked another arrow with a smooth and practiced movement.

Raynar took aim down the street. Risto, his friend from Al-Andalus, was holding the narrow Temple Lane against four swordsmen so that the wounded old man could escape. Another swordsman was on the ground pulling at an arrow imbedded in his thigh. Four others were behind the first four trying to get around the sword fight. The watchers were not advancing. The watchers were gate keepers, not warriors. They were not anxious to get near the melee of flashing steel with their wooden staffs.

Raynar’s first arrow hit the lead swordsman with such force that he was pushed against the wall and then slowly slid down the wall to sit in the slime of the gutter. Wyl's second arrow hit the right shoulder of another swordsman. Risto took advantage of the shock of his opponents and charged at them with violent slashes of his Salamancan sword.

The two attackers remaining in his fight stepped backwards and stumbled over the man on the ground. Risto was a seasoned warrior and made good use of the opportunity to make a tactical retreat to behind the staffs of the watchers. Two more swordsmen sprouted arrows, both in the chest, and the rest of the gang ran back down Temple Lane towards the Thames.

The watchers moved forward cautiously and checked the five downed swordsmen for signs of life. Three were dead, one was almost dead but Risto finished him with a thrust of his narrow blade. The last was about to be clobbered on the head by a staff, but Risto stopped the watcher by pushing him aside. Risto held the watcher's staffs for them, so they could drag the wounded man towards the small door next to the gate. The wounded man was howling with the pain of being dragged by his wounded arm.

Raynar made it down the stairs in three leaps. His aging joints regretted the jolting immediately, but he ignored the sharp pain as he made a beeline through the flower garden to the gate and drew his thin Syrian sword. He was blocked from making the street by the watchers and their bloody load. He turned and looked down at the wounded old man sitting on a stone bench with his shoulder slumped against the wall. It was Gregos. He was bleeding badly and in shock.

He turned as Risto came in through the door and he ordered a watcher to throw the bolt. Risto was covered in blood and was holding one wound closed by the pressure from his hand. Wyl was hopping though the flower garden on his good leg. On the uneven soil hopping was faster than limping.

Wyl gave orders for all three wounded men to be taken to the bath house. Some of the other tenants of the Domus broke out of their curious stares and stepped forward to carry the men. Risto told them to check the swordsman for other weapons. They found two daggers which they dropped to the ground.

In the bath house, under Raynar's instruction, they stripped the men. Also on Raynar's instruction, a messenger was sent to the Greek physician that lived four streets away. The old man's wound was deep. Raynar allowed Risto and the wounded attacker to drink pure water, but would allow none for Gregos. He sat by his old friend and held linen to the deepest wound to staunch the flow of blood.

Wyl was using battlefield knowledge to cleanse Risto's wounds with wine and bind the slashes in his skin. Risto was complaining loudly of the sting of the wine, but everyone knew he was just using his voice to keep himself from falling into shock. The wounded attacker was told to lie still and warned not to move the arrow in his shoulder until the surgeon arrived. His face was ashen, and his good arm kept twitching.

Gregos opened his eyes and looked long on Raynar's face trying to focus his eyes and his thoughts. Find paper. I must send a message to the king. For the king only.

Raynar gave instructions to one of the young orderlies and was brought paper, quill and ink.. He wrote what Gregos dictated slowly and carefully and exactly for Gregos was dictating in code.

When the messenger arrived back with the Greek physician, he was handed the coded message and told to deliver it to Westminster palace on behalf of Master Gregos Demetrious. The messenger was to ask for Clerk fitzHooren at the gate of the palace, and then tell the clerk that the message was in the King's personal code and must be placed in the King's hand.

At first the young man balked at such a task. He was of peasant stock and had never even approached the palace at Westminster, never mind ask to be shown to the King. Wyl calmed his fears and sent the two watchers with him to ensure his safety, and to ensure he did not balk at the task and end up at an alehouse instead.

Wyl and Raynar watched the Greek physician work his magic on the three wounded men. As a boy, Raynar had learned that he had a healers touch, so he had always taken an interest in the healing craft. What he had learned in his fifty two years had served him well, and too often.

This physician was a master of medical skills that were still mostly unknown in England. For instance, he was using a sewing thread to close the wound, that he claimed would not rot or fester in a wound. A thread made from the fibers of a prickly plant grown on the Greek island of Kos.

The three men all had wounds that were deep enough that if this had been a battlefield, they would have been cursed with a painful festering death. Instead, after his cleansing and stitching, the physician pronounced that all of them would live. The two fighters must stay quiet for a week and have their bandages changed daily. Gregos must be put to bed and must not be moved for at least a week, and would be weak for at least a month. The physician told them that he would visit the old man each morning for the first week.

Gregos had a long lease on a room at the Domus, and he and Risto were taken to their beds in that room. The attacker was locked in a spare room, which was bare but for a pallet to sleep on.

One of the young orderlies had been sent up to the roof to watch Temple Lane for the return of the attackers. When he was relieved by another, he came and reported that the Holborn street people had stripped the other attackers bare before the physician had arrived.

By the time the physician was being escorted back to his own house, the sun was low and the September heat was gone from the day. Wyl had calmed the other tenants of the Domus by telling them that the attack was an assassination attempt on a treasury official, and was not the work of footpads or raiders.

Wyl and Raynar then sat together and allowed their battle fury to calm. They enjoyed the cooling air of the courtyard as if it were a sweet delicacy. It was a very pleasant place to wait for the inevitable knock on the gate from the Holborn Watch. As the Innkeeper, Wyl would have to explain the bodies in Temple Lane, and pay a good bribe to have them disposed of.

Perhaps you should not stay, Raynar, warned Wyl. for the King's men will probably come and they will be asking many questions. Questions that may have no easy answers for you.

I will stay, replied Raynar. I am too old to run from trouble anymore. Besides, this time we can tell the truth. Gregos rents a room at the Domus, and he was attacked in Temple Lane, and the staff of the Domus protected him. We even captured one of the attackers for them to question.

He closed his eyes and frowned. If I had not been taking my afternoon nap at the time, perhaps Risto would have fewer wounds, but then again, if I had been out doing errands, he may be more wounded than he is. And how did you beat me to the roof with that game leg of yours?

I was reviewing the accounts in my strong room, explained Wyl, "it has no windows but it does have a high vent through the outside wall to the street. It is also the room where we store weapons. I heard the ring of steel on steel and knew immediately that there was violent trouble in the street.

I grabbed a bow and a quiver and my hunting horn. It was me blowing the warning horn as I hopped towards the stairway to the roof. From the roof I saw Gregos stumbling up the lane towards the Domus and I saw Risto being backed up the lane holding off the attackers with that Salamancan blade of his. My God, that man can fight. His sword is so light and so fast that the attackers' broad swords seemed to be as clumsy as axes.

It was me who ordered the door opened for Master Gregos. You know the rest. I am happy to know that you still have the strength to string that Seljuk bow of yours. You may have noticed that my own longbow is now one of the light training bows. I no longer have the strength of arm or back for a full bow."

Speaking of bows, I think you should invite a few of our brothers to visit the Domus for a fortnight or two. Say four. Four bowmen of the Brotherhood of the Arrow should be able to defend these walls, and they could share the occasional watch. Are there any still in London?

Hmm, thought Wyl, Many of our older brothers live in London but they all have profitable businesses. They would come if I asked, but would not be pleased by the invitation. However, their sons would welcome the chance of some excitement, and being merchants sons they would know the sword as well as the bow. Wait for me here while I send out a messenger.

Wyl rose from his seat and stretched his leg. He limped over to one of the older orderlies and spoke quietly to him. He fished something from his purse and gave it to the man. The man was gone through the door in the gate within a minute. Wyl limped back to his chair. Done, was all he said.

About an hour later the watchers returned with the messenger who they had escorted to the palace. The messenger was bubbling with excitement as he reported to Wyl. I did what I was told. I asked for the clerk. He wanted the paper, but I wouldn't give it to him. I said it was for the King's hand only and that it was from Master Gregos.

The lad's face was pink from excitement. The bloody clerk was going to turn me away, but then I told him that Master Gregos was badly injured and may be dying, and that this paper was from him with urgency. He looked over at the watchers, as if needing confirmation. The palace, it is so rich. I though the Domus was rich, what with stone floors and tile roofs, but the palace. It ... He was interrupted by Wyl asking him to get on with his report.

Oh, yes, well the clerk took me in tow, and we left these two at the gatehouse, and the clerk and I went inside and I had to wait in this big room filled with lords and ladies in fine clothes. The clerk was a cleric or a monk, but his habit was not of homespun, it was of fine cloth. I alone in the room was in drab cloth. Thank the gods that it is still warm and so I wasn't wearing my winter woolens.... He broke off again at the look in Wyl's eye, and got back to the report.

"The clerk whispered to another court officer and