A thoughtful Alan returned back to the Hall, where he saw Anne sitting with a number of her new-found friends and sipping a cup of fresh apple juice. By now the Hall held probably 500 people, mainly standing and chatting while they awaited the arrival of the royal couple. A group of musicians, flautists, players of the lute, dulcimer, tambour, drums, cithara, pan pipes and the long straight trumpet began to play near the middle of the Hall. A choir also began to set up, awaiting their turn to perform.
With no prior announcement the king and queen walked in through a side door that came from their private chambers in the palace, accompanied by several flunkeys. They were still wearing the rich robes used for the Coronation and wore their crowns. Conversation ceased as all quietly bowed or curtsied to the royal couple, who walked arm in arm to the high-table which had been placed on a raised dais. William waved to the musicians to continue and slowly conversation resumed around the Hall. The great Norman lords and their ladies, Roger de Montomerie, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Hugh Grandmesnil, Robert of Eu, Hugh de Montford, William Warrene, William Malet, and of course his half-brothers Odo of Bayeux and Robert of Mortain and his cousin William fitzOsbern, attended on the royal couple. The men and their wives were tied by close bonds of kinship and marriage and it was like a family reunion. The young English earls Morcar, Edwin and Waltheof eventually were brought forward to make their obeisance to both the king and the newly-crowned queen. Here gathered on one dais were the men who held nigh on three quarters of the land in England that was not in Church hands.
Anne espied Queen Edith, the widow of King Edward, talking near the dais with Countess Judith, the king’s niece, Hawise Sourdeval the wife of Stephen Count of Brittany and Alice de Tosny the wife of Roger Bigod and a good friend of Anne. Presuming on her acquaintance with them Anne took Alan by the arm and led him to the group. Alan was introduced to those he did not know, and kissed them all on the hand with impeccable manners. The ladies were much taken by the young, tall, handsome man with flowing red hair and fine but understated clothing of black silk tunic and hose embroidered in silver thread and wearing sensible black half-boots, instead of the foppish and garish clothing and footwear adopted by some of the younger courtiers. At twenty years of age Alan and his wife- two years younger, auburn haired, shorter than her husband by a head, her slim figure temporarily spoiled by being five months pregnant, and dressed in a specially made dress of Hunter Green velvet that artfully sought to disguise her condition- made a striking couple.
Just then William and Matilda left the dais and started to circulate, immediately gravitating to the Englishwoman whose support after Hastings had been instrumental in having William accepted and crowned as king. William, while a hard man, recognised his obligations and he genuinely liked the 39 year old daughter of Earl Godwin who had been King Harold’s sister. Edith dipped into a curtsy, as the others in the group either curtsied or bowed according to gender. William reached out and took Edith by the hand before she had hardly started her obeisance, raised her up and introduced her to his wife.
Matilda still retained her beauty, despite her 37 years. At 4’ 2” she was as tiny as a doll, dwarfed by her husband, who at 5’ 11’’ was taller than average and solidly built. Her elfin face showed intelligence, grace and determination. She was polite and well-spoken. She was also three months pregnant with her tenth child by William- not her least contribution to the monarchy. This would be her fifth child in six years and Alan wasn’t sure how she and William had managed to have enough time together to achieve this over the last few hectic years.
Queen Edith introduced the others in the group who were not known to Queen Matilda. Matilda smiled at Anne and patted her arm in a sisterly fashion and took a step back to peer up at Alan. “You, Sir, I have heard of from my husband. He describes you as his most…interesting…vassal, and something of an enigma. I thank you for saving the life of my husband, but this seems to be but one of a number of interesting feats- not least marrying against the ban imposed on such matters!”
Alan smiled easily. “Given the example of yourself and my liege, I was sure that this would cause no problem. Like yourself and the king in your time it was something we wished to do, and at least we didn’t have to face papal disfavour!” William gave a bark of laughter and Matilda grinned. “And I paid a penance of six longboats,” concluded Alan.
Matilda nodded, still smiling. “Cheaper than our having to endow two abbeys! But yours was a generous gift to the king, and an example of one of those things I was referring to before. Overcoming an invasion by the Danes all by yourself!”
Alan laughed. “My queen, I didn’t have the resources to man the ships, and they do no good sitting rotting on the beach. It is better to have the king think he owes me a favour! We all need those favours at some time, and it did distract him from the question of our marriage!” Here he put his hand on Anne’s arm and continued in a somber tone. “As to the Danes, I wasn’t standing in front of them all by myself. The sheriff of Essex was sitting safe behind the walls of Colchester while Lexden and Winstree Hundreds were devastated. Villages were burnt; women were raped. Men, women and children killed. Thegns were impaled and tortured to death. None of the ‘civilised’ rules of warfare apply in such cases. Every man in the south of the Hundred came, and most of those from the north and east, even the slaves came with what they had- except the men from fitzWymarc’s villages. They wielded sword, bow, spear, hay-forks and sharpened sticks. They fought for their very lives and those of their families, and they fought well. We planned, set an ambush and defeated a larger force of professional warriors- at considerable cost. We took the longships and rescued hundreds of English captives being carried into slavery,” he concluded.
“That’s the dichotomy I was talking about,” replied Matilda. “Just about every man I know would be crowing about his victory. You are concerned more about those lost. And fitzOsbern tells me you had a recent successful action in Wales, which has his admiration as all he manages to do is lose men in ambushes. How did you manage that?”
“Well, I must say that I am rather more proud of that raid than of the defensive battle at Wivenhoe,” said Alan modestly. “I run a really good ambush myself. As for the success in Wales? I obtained good information about their land and where their men were. I made sure they didn’t know where we were or what men we had available- we arrived secretly and struck immediately. My men are well trained. We cut up a large Welsh raiding force a couple of nights before, which substantially reduced the men they had to oppose us. We went over the border like an Act of God- fast and hard, with a clear plan and clear objectives. I had a firm talk to Idwallon, the Cantref lord, and he understands the need to leave my lands alone.”
“Didn’t your intercepting the Welsh raiding party alert them to the presence of your men?” asked Edith.
“None returned to tell, my lady,” replied Alan dryly. “That was part of Idwallon’s lesson. One of his sons fell in the raiding party.”
“And William tells me that you think we need a navy?” asked Matilda.
Alan nodded. “The Irish raid our west coast. The Norwegians raid Northumbria and the Danes raid East Anglia. All do so several times each sailing season. They come over when they get bored at home and going raiding is the national pastime for all of them. Fifty longships, spread between Chester and Bristol in the west and York, Ipswich and Colchester in the east, can stop those raids by making it too costly for them. Fifty ships would also allow us to harry any invasion fleet if the Danes come. Otherwise we just sit on the land and try to guess where they are going to land next, always arriving too late.”