Conquest

It was as if she knew it had brought them to where they needed to be and that it would lie dormant until the next phase of their lives came to pass.

11. The Oath

The next crucial phase in the lives of Hereward and Torfida began, like many important happenings, without warning.

It was early May 1064, a warm spring day with nature in full bud. The Duke was mounted on his destrier in the middle of a Norman conroi, a powerful squadron of twenty-five mounted warriors led by a knight. They were practising an attack with their spears pointed downwards like lances, a devastatingly effective cavalry technique if carried out in a disciplined formation. The Duke knew that if ever it came to a fight against the English housecarls, his mounted conroi would have to break their legendary shield wall.

Riders cresting the horizon with messages for the Duke were commonplace, but these three had an urgency about them that was immediately apparent. When they reached William, they and their horses were sweating profusely and the men relayed their message breathlessly.

An important English earl had been shipwrecked on the coast, near the mouth of the River Somme, in the lands of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, William’s brother-in-law and his vassal. Guy had seized the earl under the Lagan Law of shipwrecks and was holding him in Montreuil, from where he would be ransomed for a sum befitting his status. One of the ship’s English crew had escaped and fled to Rouen — to seek Duke William’s help, and with news that the shipwrecked mariner was none other than the Earl Marshal of England, Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex.

William bellowed at his messenger almost before he had finished his report. ‘Go to my brother, Odo, and tell him that he must take fifty men to that fool Ponthieu and have Earl Harold delivered to me immediately. I will welcome him into Normandy at Eu, six days from now. Go! Go quickly!’

William was riding hard to Rouen within the hour.

Harold Godwinson must have been both relieved and impressed as he crossed the wooden pontoon on the River Bresle at Eu. On the opposite bank was the substantial presence of the Duke, surrounded by a grandiose assortment of counts, bishops, sheriffs, knights and 250 of his finest warriors. Not only that: as a mark of his beneficence, the Duke had paid Guy of Ponthieu a preposterous sum for the Earl’s ransom.

The show of respect between the two men, as they hailed one another with their swords and then shook hands, was sincere. Here were the two most important warlords in north-western Europe — one already called ‘sub-regulus’ to King Edward, the other a king in all but name, lord of the most powerful province in the region.

As William and Harold rode off together towards Rouen, Hereward could not help but notice their similarities rather than their differences. Both were exceptionally tall, although Harold was slightly shorter; both were fair, one very blond, the other a distinct redhead, and both were proud and self-confident. They were talking animatedly in Norman French, and seemed in good humour.

For the next few days, the Duke and the Earl were rarely seen. Their discussions were held behind closed doors in William’s palace at Rouen. Nevertheless, the rumour soon spread around the city that, indeed, this was the visit William had said would happen and that the Earl of Wessex had come to pay his respects and acknowledge the Duke of Normandy as his future king.

Rouen was alive with excitement. The English King was already sixty years of age; it could not be long before William’s accession came to pass. England was known to be a rich land with prodigous harvests and sturdy beasts, a treasure trove waiting to be plundered by every opportunist in Normandy.

As Hereward and Torfida sat by their hearth and discussed the dramatic arrival, their thoughts moved quickly to the motives of Harold Godwinson. Surely, the Earl felt great unease in bowing to Duke William? He must also know of the reputation of the Normans? If William became king, Normans would rapidly fill the bishoprics and supplant the earls and thegns.

There would be war.

Perhaps he was striking a bargain with William and they were planning England’s future together, with Harold negotiating guarantees about his own position?

Or would he simply take the throne himself after King Edward’s death?

The next morning, the Captain of the Duke’s personal squadron and two sergeants-at-arms arrived at the farmhouse and summoned Hereward to the Duke’s palace.

On hearing the news, Torfida jumped to her feet and grabbed Hereward excitedly. ‘This is the moment we’ve been waiting for; you are going to meet the Earl. By the time he leaves Normandy, we will know what we must do. But, be careful, there are great forces at work here; these are powerful and dangerous men.’

When Hereward reached the ducal palace, he marched up to the richly carved throne with the brisk step of a confident man. Queen Matilda sat to the Duke’s left, Harold was on his right.