Iain Campbell - Wolves in Armour

While the main force of the Norman army waited at Nutfield, William proceeded to Winchester where he received the first important submission- that of Queen Edith, widow of Edward the Confessor and sister of Harold. With reinforcements landed at Portsmouth, and with Edith’s agreement, William took control of Portsmouth without opposition. From there he proceeded to Oxford where he received the submission of the first of Edgar the Aetheling’s party, Stigand the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Next William moved on to Hertford, twenty miles due north of London. During this time his army left a trail of devastation and destruction twenty miles wide, frightening the English and showing his ruthlessness. Finally the English made up their minds and a deputation was received by William near Hertford, when the uncrowned king Edgar, Earl Waltheof, Ealdred Archbishop of York, most of the other bishops, many of the land’s few remaining nobles and the principal residents of London came to swear oath and give hostages to William.

During this peregrination of nearly six weeks Alan remained at Hastings recovering from his own illness. By then most of the injured men had been discharged, either recovered sufficiently well to return to their homes on the continent or, in many cases, dead. To Alan’s delight and surprise, the surgery on Hugh de Berniers had been successful and he had retained his leg, although he would never ride a horse to battle again and had returned to Normandy.

LONDON DECEMBER 1066

On the afternoon of Christmas Day 1066 Alan was standing with Robert de Aumale near the rear wall of Westminster Abbey watching the coronation service of King William I of England. The church was packed with every pew taken and every inch of space crammed with people, almost all men. It was freezing cold and the stone walls seemed to suck out what little heat the packed bodies could generate. The breath of each person caused a momentary cloud before their faces. The unwashed packed humanity gave off a sour smell that not even the clouds of incense arising from the altar could cover. With an overcast and chill day outside, the light was dim in the abbey despite the hundreds of candles lit near the altar.

Alan pulled his cloak closer about him and rubbed his gloved hands together. After months of hard travel his cloak and even his ‘best’ clothes were showing signs of wear.

William was dressed magnificently in red velvet. Attended by Archbishop Ealdred of York he swore to uphold the laws of England and rule the people justly. As William had taken the Crown by conquest, the congregation which included the great nobles of Normandy and England and the lesser nobles, King’s Thegns and Officers of England were asked firstly by Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances in French and then by Archbishop Ealdred in English whether they accepted William as king.

The first roar of approval was loud. With the second, in their enthusiasm to show their loyalty, the English shout was nearly enough to bring down the walls. A few minutes later, as the Archbishop proceeded with the ceremony, walking to a table to take up the small bottle of chrism, there was shouting outside and the smell of smoke drifted into the abbey.

Alan looked at Robert and raised his eyebrows before giving a shrug and leading the way towards the door, just as a dozen or so armed Norman infantry ran in.

Once outside they could see soldiers on one side of the forecourt holding burning torches and apparently setting fire to buildings. Several houses were already well alight. There was a large group of local people gathered for the ceremony, and a number were sprawled on the ground injured or dead. Whatever the mood of the crowd may have been minutes earlier, now it was sullen and angry. As he ran the fifty or so paces towards the group of soldiers, who numbered about twenty, Alan roared at them “What in the name of Christ do you think you’re doing?”

One, who appeared to be a sergeant, turned from his task with a burning torch still in his hand and shouted back “The English are attacking the king in the Hall! They’re rioting here! We’re creating a distraction to save him!”

By then Alan and Robert had reached the group of men, who were now standing watching the exchange. “Fool!” shouted Robert “We’ve just come from the Hall. There is no attack. The shouting was part of the ceremony.”

“You men, put out those torches and organise a bucket brigade to put out those fires!” ordered Alan. By now a considerable number of Englishmen had gathered. Most were watching the Normans with ill-concealed animosity- not surprising given that they had just started to burn down houses. A few of those who were quicker of wit were already running up with buckets of water and dashing them against the flames of those houses that were alight.

“I don’t speak the language of these animals and anyway I don’t take orders from fancy-dressed bastards like you!” snarled the sergeant in reply.

In a blur of movement Alan’s sword rasped out of its scabbard and he struck in one continuous motion. The head of the Sergeant bounced against a whitewashed wall in a spray of blood. There was a murmur of approval from the crowd. “Does anybody else want to challenge my authority?” demanded Alan. “No? Then move your arses and get those fires put out now!” Alan shouted instructions to the crowd and soon a chain of eighty or so men were passing buckets between a nearby well and the fires. After about half an hour the fires were under control and nearly out. Alan and Robert went to return back to the Coronation ceremony, but were just in time to see the prelates and newly-crowned king filing out of the abbey.

Despite the festive season Alan was able to find a tailor and a cordwainer, both on Cordwainer Street, to make him a new tunic and hose and a new pair of boots. His clothing and boots had been poor enough quality previously and had been worn out by heavy service over the last few months. With London packed for the coronation Alan and Robert were sharing a room in a shabby inn on Threadneedle Street at Alan’s expense, using the money that he had recently obtained. Gillard slept in the hayloft above where the three horses and the mule were stabled at the rear of the inn.

With Hugh de Berniers gone and the remains of his squadron split up to make up losses in the other cavalry squadrons of Geoffrey de Mandeville, no fighting was on immediate offer. With little booty as yet handed out to the Barons, de Mandeville’s victualler the Frenchman Michel de Boulogne had, if anything, become even more mean and irregular in his payment of wages.

Alan had also used the time spent on London to have the gold jewellery he had looted melted down into four-ounce ingots by a goldsmith in Wood Street and sold the rings and jewels to a pawnbroker in a side street just east of the Chepe Market.

While the newly-crowned king’s castle was being raised on the south-eastern edge of the city next to the River Thames, with a large number of houses and other buildings demolished to make space, William was residing outside the city at nearby Barking, in a manor now vacant as the thegn who had previously held it had died in one or another of Harold’s battles.

Two other fortified places were being raised by barons in the south-west corner of the city close to the river, Baynards’s castle and Montfitchet Tower. William recognised the importance of the city and its large and traditionally bellicose population. He was determined to keep it under control. Unfortunately, the forced demolition of many houses and other buildings to create the three fortifications did little to improve the mood of the city’s people.

William often held court at the abbey and Old Palace complex at Westminster. It was there on the 29th December that Alan, resplendent in new clothes of fine burgundy-coloured wool, presented himself to Corbett, William’s steward to remind him of William’s promise. Corbett told him to return the following evening, after Vespers, when it was likely that William would be able to see him, depending on how events of the day had proceeded.