A New Beginning?

By Tim Brightwell

Summer at our cell in Spalding, Lincolnshire.
Summer in the flood lands and the fens of the Isle of Ely, near Cambridge.
The sun shone through the reeds to greet another day, the river Glen looked calm and quite normal for this time of year as it flowed towards joining the river Welland, the reeds were rustling and swaying in the wind. It was a beautiful day, one on which you could only feel glad to be alive.
My thoughts were, however, elsewhere as I wrestled with the problems of the future of our kingdom. The freedom and contentment of our Anglo-Saxon population was ever with me at this time.
Another day dawned, one of rumour and intrigue, the question on our minds, were the Normans going to arrive or not, and if they did what was going to happen.
The word was that they would destroy much of our abbey if we tried to defend it and murder and replace our abbot with one of their own, let alone what they would do to the local population if there was any resistance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823080699

Book preview

Chapter 1

A New Beginning

1066

L eofric’s story with Hereward the Wake, leaders of the Saxon fightback.

Setting the Scene

Summer at our cell in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

Summer in the flood lands and the fens of the Isle of Ely, near Cambridge.

The sun shone through the reeds to greet another day, the river Glen looked calm and quite normal for this time of year as it flowed towards joining the river Welland, the reeds were rustling and swaying in the wind. It was a beautiful day, one on which you could only feel glad to be alive.

My thoughts were, however, elsewhere as I wrestled with the problems of the future of our kingdom. The freedom and contentment of our Anglo-Saxon population was ever with me at this time.

Another day dawned, one of rumour and intrigue, the question on our minds, were the Normans going to arrive or not, and if they did what was going to happen.

The word was that they would destroy much of our abbey if we tried to defend it and murder and replace our abbot with one of their own, let alone what they would do to the local population if there was any resistance.

King of Northumbria

The man who, along with the king of Norway, tried to topple king Harold.

Earl Tostig, brother of king Harold, was deposed as king of Northumbria in October,1065, he took refuge in Flanders that year and became one of the first to champion William the Conqueror to become king of England.

In the middle of 1066 he raided the Isle of Wight with a large number of soldiers and went on to ravage parts of Sussex.

He then went on to raid the north of Lincolnshire but was sent packing by earl Eadwine, Edwin, and Morkere, better known as Morcar, he then sought refuge in Scotland with king Malcolm. Edwin and Morcar were sons of Alfgar, brothers in law to king Harold.

Stamford Bridge and king Harold

Harold had other problems, challenges to his throne in the north of England. A huge fight with the Vikings at Stamford Bridge took place.

Earl Tostig enlisted the aid of Harrold Hadrada, king of Norway. With him and his troops, he invaded Yorkshire and camped at Stamford Bridge, eight miles east of York. Our king Harold and his men fought well and won. Tostig and Harrold both died in the battle on the 25th September, 1066.

Harold was then told William had landed at Pevensey Bay, on the south coast of the nation, as Harold had told his ships to stand down there was no opposition.

William took over the area unopposed, wiping out villages in his way as he went, mainly to cause Harold to react sooner rather than later as he would not have time to recover from the Stamford Bridge battles. He brought 700 ships, and 14,000 men with him, 2000 horse as cavalry. This alone was a huge undertaking, just imagine!

Harold paused for just three days in London on his return, he then went to fight William. William sent an envoy to speak to Harold and offered to fight him by himself thereby saving their armies.

Harold refused, and on 13th October 1066, they were just eight miles apart.

On Saturday 14th October 1066, the fighting began at Battle, eight miles from Hastings, Harold had the high ground, on Senlac Hill. William had bows and arrows that could, and did kill men easily at eighty to one hundred yards distant. William had cavalry and charged the English lines, Harold’s men formed a great shield wall to hold them off which they did very well by all accounts. After hours of attacks Williams’s men were getting nowhere.

Suddenly a whole group of William’s men began to run from the fight, apparently Harold’s men thought they were fleeing, though I suspect it was merely a ploy, so they followed and in rode Williams’s cavalry to begin slaughtering all in the English lines.

Harold chose to not use his horses in battle, if he had he might not have lost, he rode to the fight and fought on foot. His men stood little chance against the well drilled cavalry, then the infantry finished the English (Anglo-Saxons) off.

Before this Harold was struck by a stray arrow in the eye, he soon died of his wounds, another story tells us that William sent in a death squad to kill him, who really knows?

It was 6th January 1066; when he died he had been King for just 281 days. He became one of our most talked of kings, due to the battle, one can only wonder what he might have achieved if he had had the chance of a long and fruitful life!

William thought he would be offered to become king straight away, this did not happen so he travelled along the coast to Dover killing those who opposed him, he followed the line of north Kent to London.

He was forced away from the bridge into London.

The Normans crossed the Thames at Wallingford and followed the road to Beckhampstead, 25 miles from the city, there the English leaders met him, submitted to him, and offered him to become king of England.

On 25th December 1066, he was crowned at Westminster, William the first.

He might have expected everyone to submit to him, they did not, he had many years of fighting to come. William had the Tower of London built and began taking over his new country.

This age was over and a new one was beginning, we were forced to look to France and Rome now. William spent most of the rest of his life in Normandy and died in 1087.

It is interesting to note that the Normans were originally Vikings who fought any opposition and colonised the Normandy area, they settled with acceptance from the French king. He had no choice at the time, as he was weak, they adopted their laws and language. They did fight and take other areas of France and many other lands on their way to the crusades, hence, Normandy, men from the north.

Following the dreadful events at Hastings where our king Harold had been killed by the Normans, William had moved about settling each district with his own lord and abbot where applicable.

Our own abbot had told us that this was a Norman takeover and to make no mistake they would be here. This area of deep bogland, marsh, rivers, islands and reeds was the last to be settled as it was so inhospitable, but settled in the Norman way it would be we had no doubt, this did not bode well!

The remaining Saxons were terrified, even dead Saxons were having their tombs smashed, the living were demoralized.

We heard stories we hoped were wrong but they centred on the what we thought might be false lines, that our York minster was gone in flames and every religious house and church and chapel were destroyed and plundered right across the country, they were intent on wiping us from the face of the earth, if we stood in their way.

Pavefactus est Populus. The people were terrified.

Frithric, abbot of St Albans, was evicted and replaced by a man called Paul, a Norman monk, he was helped by archbishop Lanfranc to build the great church of St Albans.

It is said some of the ruins of Verulam, the Roman city, were used to build this 548-foot-long place of worship, Roman bricks are visible in the arches of the transept. It seems that this Paul brought all his friends and relations from Normandy, many of these people were ignorant but they were given farms and woods and property in general formerly owned by the Anglo-Saxon English.

Frithric was fond of saying Libera Nos Domine, Good lord deliver us, but we received no help from above! Another line he uttered frequently was, Deus Noster Refugium God is our refuge, though this seemed to little avail.

Chapter 2

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Reed-gatherer near Ely circa r 1880-90

The dogs name was Blake.

Photo: Camb. Antiq. Soc.

Exploring the Floodland!

I looked around for places to hide, tiny pieces of land surrounded by thick reed beds that nobody who did not live here would know about, I was busily making note of them in the back of my mind…just in case a fast exit was needed to a good hiding place.

Training Future Soldiers-freedom fighters.

May I take this opportunity of introducing myself, my name is Leofric Bartholomew and I have tasked myself with the somewhat cumbersome job of writing the history regarding these very dark days in which the very future of our nation was at stake.

Records of the notes obtained from rooms occupied by the enemy have been copied and used as accurately as possible while this task was attempted, I can only say I have done the best I could under the circumstances as it was by no means easy as I had much else to do at the time, that’s my excuse anyway and its not really up to me to judge such a thing, it is, however, the most accurate work I can make at the time.

Picture me if you like in my small dark room with piles of papers all around it trying to make some sense of it, placing each record of events in the correct place so its understandable, I tell you its been a mighty task, almost driving me crazy at times! I can only say I have done my very best.

If you like it’s a warning to others as well to not fight as its such a dreadful waste of effort, time and above all life! while causing much pain and suffering at the same time of trying to deciding a cause, which would prevail?

The problem we were faced with was that we were being attacked in all walks of our lives so we were faced with no choice and it was as simple as that!

The Beginning, Perhaps?

Myself and a group of friends were part of a group of local young blokes who had formed an unofficial group of defenders against the Norman onslaught, we liked to think that might just be the case anyway!

We called ourselves the Boston Defenders as one of the lads who was born in Boston; we thought it was a grand title! We were forty in number to begin with though the number rose very quickly, even before we had experienced any fighting! Hatred towards the invaders of our peaceful land was rife.

I was at the time a novice from Thorney abbey, set on an island in the midst of the waters that surrounded the area, I seemed to get enough time to run the group, so mainly on the grounds that nobody else had put up their hand to do the job I took it on!

Was I a mug? Not sure yet, though I must admit to begin with I enjoyed getting everyone together and it was always good fun, we all had a laugh! Plus the fact that we felt we were doing something positive in relation to making a stand against the enemy, attempting to fight back!

At this point it was mainly talk, we were just doing something positive in the very negative world that surrounded us. There seemed to be no talk of fighting back, we had to try and do something……. Surely!!

We trained several times a week, using the same methods we watched the local force carry out, which was made up of local men, mostly fathers. Though our swords were only pieces of wood, we used short broad hunting knives and shields to protect ourselves, the knives were concealed under the skirts of our garments and tied to our girdles.

I must admit we got carried away with this training at times. To build our leg muscles we ran in the shallow and sometimes deep fenland bog, we raced until we were exhausted, then lay on an island laughing at ourselves, we carried logs of different sizes over longer and longer distances to build our muscles.

At times we carried a long pole as the quickest way to travel the fenland was sometimes to launch yourself across the waterways that were not too far across, poles were left permanently at certain places to aid folk in general. The general way to get through the flood and marshlands was by horse or boat in areas too deep.

Stilts were used by some people as you could go where you needed, to get over the smaller waterways where it was possible to do so, between any dry land especially around the edges of our fenland. We all became expert with these, had long and drawn out mock fights. Our shoulder and arm muscles developed quickly, we had our own poles hidden away as you were never sure as to where and when they might be needed, the lower end of these poles consisted of heavy iron with spikes of nails sticking out of them to not only give us grip in the water and mud but to use in defence if necessary.

Our main method of fighting, if any was called for, was with our bows and arrows, when we had any time it was used in practising firing. A lot of dinners were provided after our efforts as we improved, the use of short lances was becoming more and more important, especially when planning to attack from our flat-bottomed boats, then onto land.

More importantly on horseback we became very wet and cold in rushing onto land in mock attack mode. Arrows slung across our shoulders, knives, bows, axes, poles at the ready plus lances. We were beginning to put on a show of strength, impressing even ourselves.

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Yearly work carried out each year.

Chapter 3

Abbot of Caen

T he enemy installed Lanfranc, abbot of Caen as primate of our Kingdom. Most Saxon abbots and priors were evicted and replaced by French or Italians, a few stayed, subject on submission to William.

Most of these people spoke no English, it was the most insulting thing that could happen in these religiously charged times. Nothing from the pulpit or confessional could be understood, many of the clergy were instructed to only confer in French or Latin. Most of them could do no other!

The people leading the country had cut themselves off from its population, considering themselves far superior and we would make them pay we decided, sooner or later, somehow!Though at this time it was mainly talk.

It was said that Aldred, Archbishop of York, had placed the crown on Williams head, as he did Harold’s, and that he had rebuked William for wrong doing, murdering so many civilians, causing so much pain and suffering, burning towns and villages where people lived who opposed him. He sadly passed away due to stress and sorrow on 11th September 1069. He could not stand to see his country torn apart, his own kin murdered.

The Norman age had begun, or had it! …….Really?

Spalding

This was great in the summer but with the dreadful winter winds coming in from the Wash, it brought snow, ice and rain and it was as a result very cold, worse than a little further inland at Thorney, or maybe it just felt that way. I had recently been moved from Thorney to Spalding but had time to settle in before all the trouble began.

I had made my way from Thorney by boat to the nearest dry land towards Crowland abbey, there were a number of heron making their dreadful startled noise when they were disturbed. We were also delighted to see the wonderful coloured flash of a kingfisher flying by. Squabbling ducks were everywhere fighting over food or a drake, pigeon were fighting in the trees along the edge of the water making a lot of noise. Everything seemed to be fighting these days.

This was a lovely scene, the waterways were a beautiful place to live, even the noise of the breeze going through the reed beds was quite special, relaxing in its own way.

You could almost believe no war existed amongst us in our land.

It did exist, however, and we would all have our lives turned upside down very soon!

When I was dropped off on dry land I began to make my way through the vast forests of elder, willow and reeds, they never seemed to end. The tops of the willows caught the breeze on this early morning, little snaps of blue sky fought their way through with a welcome shot of warmth, though the air was not cold.

I thought that going cross country may have been easier for me than taking the road which was not at all direct, this was not so as even for me it was hard going. I regarded myself as being quite fit, at least at the beginning of this trip.

The pole was proving a great help as I could get a good distance with a little run up to help get me over the fen ditches, though the reeds held me back at times. I must admit I soon became wet and muddy, it did not matter how hard I tried to stay clear of all water and mud it began to cling to me.

However I knew there was a quite large river that may or may not be full at this time of year, at times it tended to fill or drain it went by the name of Cat water, I could perhaps clean myself of the mud, before going on my way.

Every now and then the breeze produced an unusual sound, I had to stop to make sure it was not perhaps some Normans waiting somewhere near me to cause trouble, I was being very careful these days, who was around the next corner?

A lot of noise was coming towards me, splashing water and crashing reeds, I crouched low in the water, didn’t know what else to do as it came closer. Suddenly a huge stag appeared in front of me and stood very still. His eyes were bright and shining as he gazed in my direction, if he could make out what I was he did not seem to mind, another came crashing through the reeds and reared up when he noticed the other had stopped. They stood and looked about them!

I had no way of transporting these animals, so no use for food, even if I could subdue one, so I just kept my position and watched, the larger one snorted several times reared up and stormed off followed by the other. There were others I could hear moving in my general direction so I kept my place and saw a few more, nothing to match either of the first two though, what beautiful animals. What a lovely land we lived in!

There was a track on the other side of the water which led to Crowland abbey, my destination for the rest of today and tonight. I carried some papers for abbot Adhelm, a good friend and frequent visitor to our abbot Rudgang at Thorney, I was given the impression that advice on what we may expect if, more likely when, the Normans came.

I looked either way as far as I could see, not that that was very far as my view was reed beds and more reed beds, I listened for anything that might be approaching.

I then took a few steps backwards, prepared my pole, ran towards the particular ditch and took a leap to try and reach the far side, planted the pole towards the middle of the said water.

It was much deeper than I had expected and the first section of the pole disappeared into deep bog leaving me with not much to propel myself to the other side, with a rather large splash I found myself desperately trying to get out of this very cold, muddy and wet situation. I would like to think I moved on from this with some sort of dignity but sadly I didn’t.

Very wet and rather unhappily, I progressed along the side of the track, glad to see the paperwork was alright as it was in a sealed leather bag around my neck.

It was about four miles from Thorney to Crowland in a straight line, quite a few more if you went by track, the idea being safer and possible quicker going through the fen. I think I will stick to the track in future!

There was a gravel ridge up and out of the fen near here, much dry ground for those in need, towards the end of it was my destination, Crowland abbey.

As I sat in the sun I could hear a group of horses approaching along the ridge, sounded like quite a lot of people. This was not normal as only the abbey was along this track, I fell to my knees and lay behind a bed of reeds.

As the first horse appeared the awful thought that this was the first of the Norman invasion into this area came into my mind. The men were all wearing battle gear and were talking in a language I did not understand, so it appeared I was thinking along the right lines.

This was not good, I had my knife and pole to defend myself, but was lacking any experience, or confidence, come to that, and there was nobody with me. I would just have to stay hidden, no matter what, and hope nobody would see me.

Chapter 4

M y group of fen fighters known as The Boston Defenders.

All of the Defenders would be with their families, which was not ideal, as I could not get a message to them to prepare for the worst, the worst being our force of fathers fighting would not be of any use against the fearsome and very well drilled Normans. We knew well that their hearts were more concerned with looking after our families which we also knew was right for them as in similar position we would do the very same!

The main body of horse had now passed, I estimated their number to be between forty and fifty, the dust they caused in the air was really bad, they were on a mission without a doubt. I hoped I was wrong in thinking the worst not just for the abbey but the people of Spalding and my cell who had been nothing but supportive in their dealings with us at the abbey and cell.

The Boston defenders. The group names: Began at forty, the number quickly reached seventy-eight.

Aiden Edgar Camp/Hut Maker

Alton Endicott. Fisherman

Zac Fishman. Fireman

Holt Franklyn. Fisherman

Manton Espenson. Arrow man

Montgomery Haggard. Eel trapper

Rand Hampton. Butcher 1

Rice Cyneric, Camp/Hutmaker

Ripley Kersey. From Boston…

Roan Hunnisett, Arrow Man

Roe Leofwine. Camp/Hutmaker

Rowan Meginhard. Doctor 1

Roweson Ledford. Camp/Hutmaker

Ware Jernigan. Butcher 2

Whitney Cynebald. Doctor 2

Wilbur Hathaway. Camp/Hutmaker

Wilfrid Eoforwine

Winchell Millhouse. Camp/Hutmaker

Woodrow Huxtable

Tait Hambleton

Tedman Martinson

Wynchell Marley

Zack Brightcard

Xander Brightcard (our only brothers).

The Girvii

Gopal Girvii Aescwine. Wife’s name, Rahmullah

Vitt Hal Biotmonap, Leader of the Girvii.

Vin Girvii Eadgifri,

Star Girvii Osiac,

Bikassim Girvii Sunningfu,

Gopal Girvii Grendel,

Andi Girvii Hanaper, Wife’s name, Haddof

Rizal Girvii Ecgfrith, Wife’s Name, Waiyawut.

Six Iceni/Romano Britons

Arthfael,

Bricius,

Sextilius,

Their leader: Vercingetorix, (King over Warriers)

Seisyll,

Toutorix

77 Soldiers to Begin the Fight Back!

The Girvii

These men came highly recommended by Tonbert, king of the Girvii, he felt they could represent his people, of the old English tribe, well in battle. We would no doubt need people like them if we were going to make any mark at all against the Norman invader. Some of my men thought they would be difficult to work with; they were soon proved wrong much to my satisfaction!

They were very disciplined and exceptionally strong, not only that but they mucked in with the rest of us with any job, at any time. Their enthusiasm and commitment were infectious and it spread throughout any camp they were in.

They had fled and fought the Romans, then the Angles from the north, then the Saxons from the south in the 5th century. They eventually found peace in the wilds of the fens, lost to all, for a long time! Their peace was ruined by these new invaders from across the sea, so they decided to join with the Anglo-Saxons and fight, yet again, for their freedom, land and solitude.

Iceni

These men had joined us, or offered to join us before we had even