Saxon Dawn (Wolf Brethren) (35 page)

I did not think his daughter would approve of being compared with a dog but I smiled.  “Now that that is settled, you were saying about the campaign Lord Lann.”

“We would not need the whole army.  We could leave your bodyguard here and just use Prince Ywain’s men.  With Lord Raibeart commanding the archers and slinger, Aelle and his men protecting the land of the lakes then I think we could join with King Gwalliog’s men and drive the Saxons hence.”

“You have a sound general here King Urien.  I would hang on to him. “

“Don’t worry I shall.”

The rest of the afternoon was spent in sorting out the details.  The country south of Stanwyck was unknown to me.
The king explained where the roads ran and where he had his forces.  I did not say so at the time but he appeared to have a smaller and less well organised army than we did but so long as they fought better than Morcant Bulc’s men then I would be happy.

When Ywain’s mother heard the news of Raibeart and Maiwen she became busy and organised.  “We can have the wedding on the same day as Ywain’s
; unless you object, your majesty?”

The Queen was a force of nature and it would have taken a strong man to defy her. “No
, but the couple do not yet know of our decision.”

She waved away his objection, “They know well enough.  Any man with eyes to see could tell that.  I will speak with them when they arrive.”She glared at the two kings.  “You two will probably make it sound like a military strategy.”

I smiled it was good to see an old married man like the King receiving the same treatment as I did from my wife. Queen Niamh was as good as her word and as the party returned from their visit she approached them.  They dismounted and we saw her speak but could not discern the words.  It did not look like a conversation for only the Queen spoke.  When we saw the couple nod and hold hands then we knew that my brother would be married and related to a king.  I closed my eyes and listened for the voices.  I heard my parents tell me that I had fulfilled my oath; I had taken care of my brothers.

The next month passed in a blur.  We returned to my castle when Garth and my men returned to make sure it was in a good state of repair.
Brother Oswald had organised the locals and it was better than when we had left.  He seemed more than happy to be my cleric. We would need a garrison while we campaigned in the autumn and I let Garth and Brother Oswald deal with that.  Now that we had arms, armour and coins we could pay our farmers to be warriors too and Garth, who was one of them, was perfect for that role. The Queen had insisted that our wives stay in Civitas Carvetiorum while we campaigned and I could see, from King Urien’s face that he wished he was campaigning with us rather than being stuck in a castle with three women but he was always a kind king and he was resigned to his fate.

Aelle and his wife came to the fort for the wedding.  He looked much stronger now and wore a leather sleeve over his stump.  It had been designed by Brother Aidan who told us that
Aelle might be able to use his stump with training. It did not matter to Aelle and Freja, who was pregnant again.  They would be together now and there would be no more campaigning for Aelle.  He would be a ruler of peace and the war would be left to Raibeart and me. As the feast celebrated long into the night and I watched the three kings, Urien, Gwalliog and Rhydderch drinking and telling tales of the old days I reflected that my life was as near to perfection as it was possible.  I loved my life, I had a good family who understood what I had to do and, most importantly, my men respected me as a war leader they would follow to hell and beyond. The only hint of displeasure was the knowledge that Bladud still lived and still harboured a grudge.  As everyone smiled and laughed, his evil face glowered across the room.  Had I know what was to come I would have walked over and killed him there and then but that was not my destiny. 
Wyrd
had something else planned for me.

Coming in
Summer 2013- Part 2 Saxon Revenge

Characters in italics are fictional

All the kings named and used in this book were real figures.  Most of the information comes from the Welsh writers who were used to create the Arthurian legends. It was of course,
The Dark Ages
, and, although historians now dispute this, the lack of hard evidence is a boon to a writer of fiction.  Ida, who was either a lord or a king, was ousted from Lindisfarne by the alliance of the three kings.  King Urien was deemed to be the greatest Brythionic king of this period. 

While researching I discovered that 30-35 was considered old age in this period.  The kings obviously lived longer but that meant that a fifteen year old would be considered a fighting man.  If the brothers appear young then I suspect it is because most of the armies would have been made up of the younger men without ties.

The Angles and the Saxons did invade towards the end of the Roman occupation and afterwards. There appear to be a number of reasons for this: firstly the sea levels rose in their land inundating it and secondly there were a series of plagues in Central Europe. This caused a mass movement towards the rich and peaceful lands of Britannia. Their invasion was also prefaced by the last Roman leaders using Saxon mercenaries to fight the barbarians to the north and the west. At the same the time the Irish and the Scots took advantage of the departure of the Romans and engaged in slave raids and cattle raids. It was not a good time to live in the borders. Carlisle, by all accounts, was a rich fortress and had baths and fine buildings. It exceeded York at this period. Rheged stretched all the way from Strathclyde down to what is now northern Lancashire.  Northumbria did not exist but it grew from two Saxon kingdoms, Bernicia and Deira and eventually became the most powerful kingdom until the rise of Alfred’s Wessex.  Who knows what might have happened had Rheged survived?

I do not subscribe to Brian Sykes
’ theory that the Saxons merely assimilated into the existing people.  One only has to look at the place names and listen to the language of the north and north western part of England. You can still hear anomalies. Perhaps that is because I come from the north but all of my reading leads me to believe that the Anglo-Saxons were intent upon conquest.  The Norse were different and they did assimilate but the Saxons were fighting for their lives and it did not pay to be kind.

I
mainly used two books to research the material.  The first was the excellent Michael Wood’s book “In Search of the Dark Ages” and the second was “The Middle Ages” Edited by Robert Fossier. In addition I searched on line for more obscure information.  All the place names are accurate, as far as I know and I have researched the names of the characters.  My apologies if I have made a mistake.

The story will continue as the Saxons
, inexorably, take over what was Britannia and make it, what would become England.

Griff Hosker March 2013

If you enjoyed reading this book then why not read another one by the author?

The
Sword of Cartimandua Series
(Germania and Britannia 50A.D. – 128 A.D.)

Ulpius Felix-
Roman Warrior

Book 1
              The Sword of Cartimandua

Book 2
              The Horse Warriors

Book 3
              Invasion Caledonia

Book 4
              Roman Retreat

Book 5
              Revolt of the Red Witch

Book 6
              Druid’s Gold

Book 7
              Trajan’s Hunters

Book 8
              The Last Frontier

Book 9
              Hero of Rome

Book 10
              Roman Hawk

Book 11
              Roman Treachery

They are all available in the Kindle format
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The Aelfraed Series
(Britain and Byzantium 1050 A.D.- 1085 A.D.)

Book 1
             
Housecarl

Book 2
             
Outlaw

Book 3
             
Varangian

These are available in the Kindle format.

The Wolf Warrior series
(Britain in the late 6
th
Century)