Stewart Binns - Conquest

As his leader was still unconscious, Alphonso decided to sear the wounds. With Einar and Martin holding Hereward’s body, Alphonso applied a heated seax, making his leader convulse with shock. They dressed his wounds tightly and wrapped him in his warm winter cloak before carefully placing him close to the fire. Martin went off to hunt hare or rabbit, while the others took turns to stand sentry.

It was thirty-six hours before Hereward regained consciousness, and they immediately began to force food into his mouth. Alphonso’s worst fears were soon realized: he was infected. It was almost certainly blood poisoning caused by arrows dipped in some form of poison or human and animal faeces. It was a well-known trick of archers to add the insult of poison to the injury of the arrowhead. They needed to find a physician – not easy at the best of times, but with the country about to dissolve into panic and chaos after a calamitous defeat, it might well be impossible.

Their first thought was Torfida at Glastonbury, but that was too far. Their second hope was Harold’s manor at Bosham, but they thought it likely that William would soon despatch some men there to defile further the King’s memory. They decided that Winchester would be the safest option. Although Edith, King Edward’s widow, was thought to have conspired with Tostig against King Harold, she was, after all, a Godwinson and Harold’s sister. Surely, after the slaughter at Senlac Ridge, she would offer Hereward the assistance of her physicians.

The three men made a stretcher from branches and tied the head end to the saddle of Hereward’s horse. They then took it in turns to form a pair to carry the feet end, while the third led the horses. Hereward was over the initial shock of his injuries and the loss of blood. The first threat to his life, caused by the trauma of his wounds, had passed. But his body boiled with fever. Whenever he was conscious enough, they poured water or stew down his throat. Three times they opened his arrow wounds, cleaned them out and cauterized them again. Fortunately, the spear wound to his shoulder, although the most severe, had not become infected.

They made slow progress, taking almost a week to get to Winchester. When they arrived, the gates were closed and the sentries nervous. Only their bloodstained jerkins, easily recognizable as those worn by Harold’s elite hearthtroop, earned the four of them admission to the burgh. Several fyrdmen and a few surviving housecarls had made it to Winchester, so the details of the battle were known.

Before the three weary men made any attempt to seek help, they received bad news. William’s forces were on the loose, and Dover had been looted and burned. Part of the Norman army was approaching Canterbury and several squadrons were reported to be heading west towards Winchester. The old Queen had already made a hasty departure for the nunnery at Salisbury. Most of the garrison had left and were heading for Glastonbury; there would be little help for Hereward in Winchester.

Praying that Hereward would survive another long journey, his three companions bought a cart and oxen, loaded it with whatever supplies they could buy, and departed north-west for Glastonbury. They estimated they could be there by the eve of All Hallows, the agreed date set for their rendezvous. The roads and tracks were deserted, as people, paralysed by fright, ceased trading and sought refuge wherever they could find it. Winter would soon make it difficult for the Normans to rampage across the land; in the meantime, everyone hoped that they would be the fortunate ones and escape the ravenous eye of the new regime.

Torfida, Ingigerd and Maria had been sorely tempted to rush to London with their girls when news of the terrible defeat reached Glastonbury. The report said that all but a tiny handful had perished with the King. They were even more inclined to go when they heard that Earls Edwin and Morcar had belatedly arrived in London with a large contingent of housecarls. As England’s only surviving senior earls, they had called a Witan at which Edgar the Atheling had been elected King in succession to the slain Harold.

However, the three women had decided to wait until the date of their agreed rendezvous had passed before making any journey. All logic suggested that their men were with Harold, lying dead on the battlefield, mutilated and stripped of anything worth stealing. Torfida was certain that Hereward would have fallen next to the King and also suffered whatever ghastly fate had befallen him.

The wisdom of their decision was confirmed only days later by the news that, two days after the Witan and the promotion of Edgar as King, Edwin and Morcar, whose treachery seemed to know no bounds, had decided that London could not be defended and had retreated to their realms in the North.

William had shown just one small mercy on Senlac Ridge.

Late in the afternoon, on the day following the slaughter, Edith Swan-Neck had arrived on the battlefield. She was accompanied by two housecarls and a monk from Bosham Abbey, Harold’s private chapel. Dressed in the sombre black of mourning, her dignified beauty shone like a beacon amid the lifeless flesh of the battlefield.

Immediately recognizing her status, William nodded politely as she approached.

‘How may I help you, my Lady?’

‘My Lord Duke, I am Edith Swan-Neck and I have come to collect that which is rightfully mine – the body of my beloved, the King of England, Harold Godwinson.’

William’s response was firm. ‘You may not have him, madam. I will not have him become a martyr to his people.’

‘He is already a martyr, no matter what you do with his body. I just want a Christian burial for my husband.’

‘But you are not his wife. His Queen is Ealdgyth; she awaits in London.’

‘She is his Queen in name only. By ancient custom, I am his wife and the mother of his children. You have no right to deny me this.’ She flashed a look of defiance at the Duke, sufficient for him to vacillate.

He turned to Odo, Bishop of Bayeux. ‘What is your advice?’

‘It is not a spiritual issue, my brother; it is a matter of common sense. You have to rule these people from now on, so it would be wise at least to allow their dead King a Christian burial.’

William thought for some time about Edith’s request. Like the English men he had just defeated on the battlefield, here was one of their womenfolk with the same stubborn resolve.

A gust of wind blew off the Channel, a breeze that had the chill of winter in it.

The Duke shivered. ‘Madam, if you can find it up there, you may take the body. My trusted friend William of Malet will accompany you. Harold must be buried in an unmarked grave on the shore he so dismally failed to protect. It will be done this night, in darkness, in a secret place, so that no one may return to dig his body up and make a sacred tomb for him elsewhere. See that it is done.’

The Duke would make no further concessions.

When she reached the place where William of Malet suggested the King had fallen, Edith took off her shoes, pulled her dress up to her thighs, tied it in a knot and strode into the heap of bodies. In the fading light, aided by a single lantern, it took them nearly an hour to find Harold’s body. Her mind set on her purpose, Edith paid almost no attention to the remnants of men beneath her feet. All weapons, hauberks and valuables had already been removed, so it was difficult to tell one corpse from another, but Harold bore a telltale mark that only a few had seen, an emblem that Edith knew intimately.

Without hesitation or a hint of repulsion, she pulled at the tunics of body after body to reveal their belly below the navel. At last, she found what she was looking for and sank to her knees to touch him. He was tattooed just above his pubic hair with the Wyvern, the Dragon of Wessex, and coiled around the dragon’s legs was a phallic serpent, its head and protruding forked tongue pointing towards his manhood. Only the King’s torso was intact; his limbs had been scattered and his head, severed from his body and bludgeoned beyond recognition, was only discernible by his distinctive mane of golden hair.