King Athelwulf

Medieval 5: Elgar 6 Wessex, Take Notes, 1 part.

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In the year 850, the first wave of the Danish invasion of England began off the coast of Kent where King Athelwulf’s son, Athelstan, ruled as sub-king over Kent, Sussex, and Surrey. With his ealdorman from Kent, Athelstan defeated a Danish fleet. It was a pyrrhic victory. Athelstan died shortly after the battle, and a few months later, an ungodly number of Norse ships landed in the Thames estuary. Kent no longer had the ships to hold them off. The Danes sacked Canterbury, besieged Rochester, and overran London.  This was no simple raiding party.

When London fell to the Norsemen, King Berhtwulf of Mercia brought out his army. Berhtwulf lost. The army of Mercia was devastated and they appealed to Wessex for help. Kent, which at that time was nominally part of Wessex, also appealed to King Athelwulf. As soon as the Norsemen overran London, even before the Danes pushed up the Thames, Athelwulf sent out a call to arms. He only hoped men would come in number to at least match the reported five thousand Danes. It would have been more Danes, but Ragnar, the son of Lodbrok wanted no part in the invasion of Wessex. He took part of the army north to invade Northumbria instead.

Elgar gathered his three hundred and accepted an additional hundred from Odda in north Devon. When they joined Eanwulf’s six hundred that made a thousand men out of Somerset. The whole sub-kingdom in the east, Kent, Sussex, and Surrey only added a thousand to the number, though to be fair, Kent was already struggling for control of Rochester, Faversham, Canterbury, and Dover. For the most part, everything east and north of Watling Street was in Danish hands.

The rest of the army, the three thousand had to come from what had always been the heart of Wessex: Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, and the Isle of Wight. Athelwulf and his Ealdormen managed it but they needed the three hundred Ceorle was able to bring from Devon to do it. They only hoped the Danes did not come up with any surprising, uncounted men at the last minute.

Elgar, now age thirty, led the men of Somerset. Eanwulf stayed home with his wife, Wulfram, who was pregnant in her mid-thirties and having a hard time of it. She was confined to her bed on doctor’s orders and Eanwulf was afraid to leave her for fear that he might lose her. It worked out, even when Elgar appointed his friends Osfirth the Saxon and Gwyn the Celt as his chief lieutenants.  They were also over thirty and a majority of the army was younger, war being a young man’s game. Besides, the older men in the army, in particular those who fought at the Parrett River knew it was Elgar who engineered the victory. Men did not mind following a winner. It gave them confidence that they would get home alive.

King Athelwulf was not entirely happy that Eanwulf stayed home, but Osric of Dorset convinced the king that he got the better of the deal getting Elgar in Eanwulf’s place. He told the king, “We matched the Danes the way they fight and our good men beat their good men.” That was not exactly true, but it sounded good.

The Danes built their line between a forest and a bend in the river so the West Saxons could not use their horsemen to strike their flank or rear. Clearly, some of the leaders of the Danes had been at the Parrett River and saw how affective a cavalry charge could be. Elgar prepared for that. He filled the forest with his men in green, all excellent archers. Then he struck the Danish line in a way to turn them, so their backs would be toward the woods. It sort of worked. Mostly the men on the riverside got pushed back, creating a space between the lines and the river.

This time, the Danes also had about two hundred horsemen. No doubt they stole the horses on their way through Kent, London, and up the Thames. They were learning. The men of Wessex also had about two hundred men on horseback, but Elgar only counted a hundred and forty worth anything. Most of the rest were servants, monks, and priests not there to fight. Elgar had to charge his men to fight the Danish horsemen in the first real cavalry fight almost since Roman times. The Saxons got the worst of it, being outnumbered, but they did keep the Danes from crashing into the Saxon line in payback for what happened at the Parrett River.

Once the back of the Danish line came within range of the woods, they began to be devastated by Elgar’s archers. They would not last long if something was not done. The Danish commander had to send his reserves into the woods to rout out the enemy there, but not many of them would come back out of the woods. There were dwarfs there, and even some dark elves in the shadows just itching to use their axes on the enemy, and the archers disappeared only to reappear as soon as the Danish reserves passed them by.

After that, the Danes very quickly began to surrender. King Athelwulf with his son Athelbald and his ealdormen deserve the credit for restraining their men, a bunch of wild Saxons filled with blood lust.

Osfirth rode up to Elgar and pointed across the river. It took a minute to see what Osfirth was pointing at. He just caught it when Gwyn rode up and turned his eyes in the direction Osfirth pointed. Then everyone looking in that same general direction caught it as the Flesh Eater mothership rose up from where it parked and no doubt watched the battle. It did not hover for long before it shot off to the east, toward Kent, East Anglia, or across the water to Danish lands. It happened so fast less men saw it than one might think.

“If you blinked, you missed it,” Gwyn mouthed the old expression.

“Where do you think they are going?” Osfirth asked.

Elgar shrugged. Reed, Pinoak, and Marsham would all find out and report.

The men of Wessex marched many prisoners to Kingston on the Thames where they would hammer out a peace treaty with the Danes. Thus, the first wave of invasion by the Norsemen petered out, though many Danes stayed in the land and settled in places like Mercia, Essex and East Anglia, and southern Northumbria, in the old kingdoms of Lindsey and Deria around York.

As it turned out, the Northumbrians also found a way to victory. Ragnar Lodbrok and his men ravaged the countryside for a time, but eventually the Northumbrians built an army that won the day. Ragnar was captured and legend says he was thrown into a pit of snakes. The legend also says he issued threats even as he died. He swore he had sons who would avenge him, but the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms would have to wait for that. In fact, they had to wait fifteen years for those sons to get old enough to make good on that threat.

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Elgar went home to Watchet and his girls where he worried less about the Norsemen and more about the Flesh Eaters and what they were planning. They had been good, relatively speaking. They were not eating many people, but rather using people to further their aims of bringing the world into their orbit where they could feast at their leisure. They were experimenting, and the Norsemen were their guineapigs.

“The men around Rochester in Kent were fitted with mind control devices,” Pinoak reported. “It did not work out too well.”

Elgar understood. “Men controlled in that way, or by some enchantment, don’t respond well to changing situations. They are slow to react and in a battle situation that is a quick way to die.”

Pinoak also understood. “I believe the Flesh Eaters may abandon that idea. They brought their mothership to watch and take readings to see the results.”

“I saw,” Elgar said and turned to Marsham. “So, Northumbria…”

“Nothing I could do to stop it,” Marsham said right off. “Warthog was determined to get in on the action.”

“The son of Piebald the dwarf,” Elgar frowned.

“The same,” Marsham said. “And Hassel and Heath brought their troop to observe, but I know they got in some target practice.”

“My sister, Heath,” Pinoak said proudly before he got quiet seeing that Elgar was not pleased.

“And some of your own elf troop came up from the Coquet River, don’t tell me… They could not help themselves.”

“Lord,” Marsham said and looked down like one prepared to be punished.

“You all know the rule,” Elgar thought hard and projected his thoughts so he could include Warthog and Hassel in the message though they were miles from the Somerset coast. “You are not to mingle with humans or get involved in human squabbles or wars without permission. Lucky for you, history has accounted for this, though creating a snake pit so the humans could throw the Danish leader into the pit was unnecessarily cruel. Don’t do it again.” He cut the message and mumbled to himself. “It’s like Serket all over again.”

“Lord, your brother’s friend Ceorle, ealdorman of Devon was killed in the cavalry struggle,” Reed said to change the subject.

Elgar nodded. “Odda has been given the job. I talked with him and with Osfirth. Osfirth has been trained in the coastal watch and he has agreed to take Odda’s place between Countisbury and Pilton so Odda can move to Exeter. I am going to miss Osfirth on the Parrett River, but I have good men in Combwich since we drove out the Danes from that place, and he will have Gwyn in Carhampton as his neighbor, so all should work out well.”

“You hope,” Reed said.

“That is all we can do,” Elgar said. “Keep me informed as far as the Flesh Eaters are concerned. If they don’t soon figure out that the human race will never unite and submit to being eaten and leave this world of their own accord, I may have to pay them a visit and force the issue.” He paused and thought a moment before he added, “I especially want to know if they start breeding. We don’t need them to start a colony here.”

He walked into his house and thought he should bring Genevieve to talk to his wife and daughters. She could at least follow along with all that prattle.

“Hey!” Genevieve protested.

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MONDAY

Second chances matter, and the sons of King Athelwulf begin to show some promise. Untl Monday, Happy Reading.

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Medieval 5: Elgar 4 Carhampton, the Sequel, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

King Ecgbert died in 839 and Athelwulf returned from Kent to take the crown of Wessex. It was not quite as easy as it sounds. Among the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, there were always other claimants to the throne. But King Ecgbert did everything he could both before and after he returned from Hingston Downs to assure Athelwulf’s  ascension to the throne would be smooth and uncontested. If he succeeded, Athelwulf would be the first son to follow his father to the throne in nearly two hundred years.

Ecgbert took his son to Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, well within Athelwulf’s subkingdom of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey and they met the bishops of Winchester and Canterbury there. They granted land to the churches and certain rights concerning the disposition of the monasteries in their jurisdictions along with pledges to protect and defend the church under their watch.

Once the church was firmly on their side, he turned to the cultivation of his Ealdormen, his chief sub-rulers for the shires that made up Wessex. For the most part, he was content with the men he had overseeing the shires of the West Saxons, including the frontier shires with Eanric in Somerset and now Godric in Devon. His only questions were for Dorset where his friend Oslac could hardly get out of bed.

Oslac was pivotal to Ecgbert gaining the throne all those years ago. He carefully cultivated that friendship, even marrying his son to Oslac’s daughter, Osburh, who gave him grandsons. Now, Oslac’s brother Ethelhelm was running things in the shire. He was not doing a bad job of it, but he was not found anywhere near the battle. How unbecoming of a Saxon. At least Oslac’s son and Osburh’s younger brother, Osric, proved at Hingston Downs that he knew the value of a good sword. Still, Ethelhelm was old and had no sons, so Osric would probably take over once the old man died. He let it go. His most trusted men had no kingly ambitions, and that was what mattered.

His review of his Thegns took even less time. He spent his first twenty years on the throne getting rid of most of the men who might have challenged Athelwulf for the throne, that and fighting Mercia. He felt proud of his time as king and promptly died in 839, was buried at Winchester, and Athelwulf took the throne. Athelwulf appointed his own son, Athelstan to be sub-king of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and with nominal rule over Essex in his place, and life stumbled on.

Godric of Devon was the first to pass away after the king. Ceorle took his place. Elgar called it a no-brainer. In 840, Elgar turned twenty and Alfpryd turned sixteen, and they could not wait given father’s condition. They married and Alfpryd had a daughter they called Alfwynn. Then Elgar’s father died, Eanwulf became the Ealdorman, and he moved his family from Wedmore back to Somerton where Wulfrun could help watch over Mother.

Both of Elgar’s sisters, the elder Eadburg of Wiltshire, with her husband Godderic of Edington, and the younger Eadswip of Dorset with Osric, son of the ealdorman traveled to Somerton to visit Mother and share in their grief. Eanwulf’s childhood friends, Ceorle and Odda showed up shortly after, and it felt briefly like old home week. Then Athelwulf arrived with Osburh and their two younger sons Athelbald and Athelburt, and their daughter, Athelswith who was the eldest of the three children.

Athelswith and pregnant Alfpryd hit it off, and his sister Eadswip stayed with them, much to Elgar’s chagrin.  Osburh got to meet Elgar who was otherwise ignored by the older men. Elgar took that moment to pick on his sister Eadswip, Osric’s wife.

“I’ve been surrounded by women my whole life,” Elgar complained.

“Is that a bad thing?” Eadswip asked.

Elgar realized he was in danger of saying the wrong thing as Athelswith, Osburh, Eadswip and Alfpryd all looked at him expecting an answer. He said, “As long as I can be surrounded by the woman I love, no. That is a good thing.” He gave Alfpryd a quick kiss and hastily retreated.

Athelwulf came to confirm Ceorle in Devon and Eanwulf in Somerset. He talked to Osric about Dorset and his uncle Ethelhelm. Osburh came mostly to visit with her brother Osric who she so rarely got to see. Sadly, they were both commiserating when word came that Oslac the Bedridden, as he came to be called, was the last of the old men to die.

Osburh and the king, with Eadswip and Osric hurried to Dorchester, stopping only briefly in Sherborne to visit the Bishop there. Ceorle and Odda had to get back to Devon. Ceorle said he worked things out with Odda where Odda would oversee the coast from the fort at Countisbury to Pilton as a kind of land grant to defend the coast against the Danes. “I won’t let you down,” Odda said, several times.

Godderic and Eadburg stayed with Mother for a short while, but Godderic was not a sociable person. He was nice, but he did not say much, and became totally tongue tied around the king. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Eadburg did not mind talking for two, and then some. When they left to return to Eddington, Eanwulf came into the room where Alfpryd and Elgar were cuddling and Wulfrun and Mother worked on sewing something. Eanwulf let out a great sigh.

“Ah, silence,” he joked before he looked at Elgar and got serious. “Hard to believe you are old enough to be married,” he said and added, “Have you considered what I asked you?”

“What?” Alfpryd immediately needed to know, and Elgar told her.

“He says with him and Wulfrun and their children living here, soon there will not be room enough for us and our children as well. He has suggested a trade. Maybe we take the house in Wedmore. What do you think?” Alfpryd wrinkled her nose at the idea of Wedmore.

“Speaking of children,” Wulfrun said, and got up to go check on hers.

“Not before the baby,” Mother raised her voice. She did not want to miss seeing her grandchild.

Eanwulf threw his hands up and Elgar kissed his wife.

841 sped by with only one event of note. A small number of Danish ships, around a half-dozen, were reported to have landed on the Isle of Portland around the first of the year. Osric immediately raised the army of Dorset, about six hundred men, mostly from Dorchester, Wimborne, Wareham, and Swanage. Ethelhelm stopped him from getting men from the north, from Shaftesbury or Woodyates or the west from around Sherborne. He figured six ships could not be more than two hundred and fifty, or at most three hundred men and they had double without going so far afield.

“Besides,” Ethelhelm said, trying to sound fatherly. “This is what the king expects of us, to defend the border. He would hardly be pleased with us if we bother him with every petty bunch of heathens that park on our shore.” He honestly did not understand the danger, and he never imagined the report he got might be mistaken. In fact, there were thirteen ships and over five hundred Danes who looted, pillaged, and burned churches in Portland and all the way up to Weymouth.

The battle was fierce, not at all what Uncle Ethelhelm expected. When the Danish commander threw in his fifty kept in reserve, the thirty men on horseback of Osric had to dismount and join the fray to keep the line from falling apart. Even then, they might have lost if fifty locals had not come up behind the Danes, hungry for revenge. The Danes squeezed out from the trap and hurried back to their ships. They left some of their men to die, and the men from Dorset did not have the strength to chase the rest. The Danes sailed free with plenty of treasure. Their crews might have been slim, but they were not going to leave any good ships behind..

When all was over, Uncle Ethelhelm was dead and Osric became ealdorman of Dorset. It was not the way Osric expected that to happen.

In 842, Elgar and Eanwulf rode Somersetshire, and got to know many of the Thegns and elders who talked for the people in the towns, villages, and on the farms in Somerset. They were mostly pleased to hear Eanwulf planned to continue the policies of his father, even to retaining the same Reeve, which is to say, tax collector. They all knew Eanwulf, of course, or said they did. They did not know twenty-two-year old Elgar, but he managed to impress the ones that mattered.

Elgar took Gwyn and Osfirth with him and visited on the less populated west side of the Parrett River. Eanwulf, with a troop of men, took the more populated east and north where Muchelney, Glastonbury. Wells, Wedmore, and Bath were located.

Elgar started at Athelney, the Misty Island before he went upriver to the main road between Somerton and Exeter. He went down the road to the border with what was now Saxon Devon and traveled up the border all the way to the coast, even cutting through Exmoor. He took Reed the elf with him, well disguised as a human hunter. Reed knew the way through the swamps and brought them safely to the small bay between Countisbury and Carhampton. Then they went up the coast to the Parrett River and back up to Athelney to complete the circle. Granted, they did some zigzagging enroute, but honestly, there were not great numbers of people living on the west side of the Parrett. Most lived on the river, the road, the border below Exmoor, or the coast so their circle route got to most of them. Besides that, only about half of the people on his side of the river were Saxon people. Plenty were British, so Gwyn and Osfirth both got a workout.

When they got back to Somerton, Eanwulf asked again about where Elgar planned to live.

“What about Athelney?” Elgar said.

“You mean Moringa, the Noble Island as father called it,” Eanwulf sought clarification.

“That’s the place. Father built a great house there next to the monastery as a redoubt in case the Mercians ever pushed into Somerset. There are still caretakers there and the monks farm the property.”

“I’m not sure Father ever finished building there,” Eanwulf said, thinking of the cost.

“He finished,” Elgar responded. “I visited there just now to look. It is big, a virtual fort. Alfpryd and I can have a big family there.”

Eanwulf did not think for long before he shook his head. “The mists come up strong in that place. The island is too hard to get to. People can pass by the place without ever knowing it is there. And even if they know, the area is a real swamp, a quagmire of mud and muck, very dangerous unless you know the way. No. There is a reason Father bult a stronghold there against possible Mercian incursion into the territory.”

“Just a thought,” Elgar said. The idea was moot in any case. Alfpryd, at eighteen, was pregnant again, and Wulfrun, who was twenty-nine, was also pregnant.