Crusade

There we were, four progeny of England, in the company of Normandy’s military elite, admiring their icon of the oppression of our homeland. It was a perplexing experience.

Sweyn spoke to me as we left the great tower.

‘Sire, they do things on a massive scale. No army, no matter how big, could breach these walls.’

‘Never underestimate them, Sweyn. You don’t have to like them, but you must respect them and learn from them.’

‘Should we not also fear them, my Lord Prince?’

‘Yes, we should fear them; they are capable of inflicting terrible retribution on those who cross them.’

‘I can’t see how we can ever loosen their grip on England.’

‘Neither can I. They are here to stay, and we have to come to terms with that.’

Adela had been listening and reacted angrily. ‘I will never accept that.’

I tried to mollify her forceful stance. ‘One day you will. Eventually, the whole of these islands will belong to them. There is no one to stop them.’

‘That’s not true. I, for one, will never give up!’

‘Adela, it’s now more than ten years since Senlac Ridge; there are tens of thousands of Normans here. Look at this fortress, this beautiful chapel. We can’t make the sand in an hourglass fall upwards.’

‘But what will become of us, if we don’t fight?’

‘England will evolve. It is already changing, and what was fought for at Ely is vital. Everyone deserves to be treated according to the law and with respect; that is something I hope the four of us can strive for.’

‘But the rule of law, and respect for all people, must be just as difficult to achieve as freeing England from the Normans.’

‘Perhaps… but, like those who died at Ely, we can each find our own destiny in fighting for a cause — even if the cause seems impossible to achieve. Because nothing is truly impossible.’

‘Do you really believe that?’

‘Yes, I do. Hereward taught me that when I watched him lead a few hundred men against William and the entire Norman army.’

8. Atrocity at Gateshead

As we travelled north our welcome was less enthusiastic, but still courteous. Beyond Peterborough, the population was far more Anglo-Dane than Saxon and their loyalty to England had always been meagre, so it was hardly surprising that they should be lukewarm in their greeting to the Normans.

In the north and west, the Norman marcher barons ruled largely hostile territory from the safety of their redoubtable donjons, many of which were having their original timber structures replaced by massive stone keeps, deep ditches and high curtain walls. There was still unease in those parts of the country; the people looked cowed, their Norman lords apprehensive.

Almost no one recognized me, which was a relief. I had been a clean-shaven boy when I left England, now I sported cropped whiskers, fashionable in Europe, rather than the full beard of Britain and Scandinavia, and wore the garb of a Norman lord; to all intents and purposes, I appeared to be one of them.

For Adela and Sweyn, the journey through Northumbria was a trying time. Although they had witnessed the brutality at the end of the Siege of Ely, the enormous scale of the horrors of the Harrying of the North was almost too much to comprehend. Each devastated village, with its hideous corpses and decaying fragments of buildings, was a glaring reminder of the massacre at Bourne and what they had suffered there. I watched them carefully, fearing that at any moment they might leap on to the nearest of our Norman comrades and slit his throat!

We reached York in time for the celebration of a very singular day for the burgh. Although the north-west was still a wasteland, a few people were returning to the major eastern burghs of the past, such as York and Durham, where a modicum of normality was beginning to return.

Not only were the Normans building mighty fortresses in praise of their military prowess, they were also erecting great cathedrals in homage to God. Thomas of Bayeux, who had been appointed Archbishop of York by the King, had taken ten years to gather the resources to begin a new cathedral to replace the derelict Saxon minster. When he heard of our journey to the North, he decided that it was a perfect opportunity for Robert to lay the foundation stone. So, amidst great panoply, yet another Norman monument began on the site of a place of worship that was centuries old.

Thomas of Bayeux was that other type of Norman — not the marauding warlord intent on building a military empire, but the builder of cultural empires, a man devoted to creating places of learning and for the worship of God. He had a kindly demeanour, but still had the gleam of the zealot in his eyes.