Valour and courage

Enrique of Castile (1230-1303) was a younger brother of Alfonso X, King of Castile, and hence a brother-in-law of Edward I. His career shows the importance of Anglo-Castilian relations at this time.

Arms of Enrique of Castile

In his youth, after a failed plot against Alfonso, Enrique was obliged to seek refuge in England. He arrived in 1256 and was welcomed by Henry III; in return Enrique offered to lead troops to conquer Sicily on Henry’s behalf, but this plan fell through. In 1259 Enrique left England and ended up in Africa, where he took service with the Hafsid Emir of Tunisia, Muhammad al-Mustansir. To the shock of his Christian comrades, Enrique adopted the customs and dress of the Hafsid court. A sort of medieval Laurence of Arabia.

Enrique then made his way to Italy, where he fought against Charles of Anjou at the Battle of Tagliacozzo in 1268. He was captured and taken to Apulia in Sicily, where Charles had him exhibited to the public in a cage, loaded down with iron fetters. Outraged Castilian troubadors urged Edward I to secure Charles’s release. One of them, Austorc de Segret, warned the English king that if he failed, he would forfeit the respect of the French:

“Now Edward will need valour and courage if he wants to avenge Henry, who was unparalleled in wisdom and knowledge, and he was the very best of his kin. But if he now stays shamed in this matter, the French over here will leave him neither root nor branch nor well-armed forces, if his worth is stripped of merit”.

The Battle of Tagliacozzo

Another, Cerverí de Girona, called upon Edward to avenge Don Enrique and make war on his captors. The king preferred diplomacy, and spent the next 23 years lobbying for Charles’s release. At last, in 1291, Charles II of Sicily agreed to let his elderly prisoner go. The charter of release, which is held at the archives of Napoli, states that Charles explicitly agreed to do this at Edward’s request. Enrique’s release came too late for Eleanor, who had died the previous year.

Enrique must have been tough. He had survived decades of brutal imprisonment, and went home to serve as regent of Castile. The old man was suitably appreciative of his rescuer’s efforts: when the Anglo-French war broke out in 1294, he dispatched hundreds of knights of Castile to aid the English.

More bribes required

“Politics, politics, politics - yes!”, as Mel Brooks once said.

In June 1298 the diplomats of England and France laid their competing claims to Gascony before the pope, Boniface VIII. Philip IV brought against his vassal, Edward I, a charge of treason for having waged open war against him, his liege lord. As a result he demanded Gascony, his vassal’s fief, as a forfeit. The English lawyers responded that Gascony had always been held of the French crown as allod (freehold), not a fief, and that Philip had failed to uphold his side of the feudal contract, as set out by the Treaty of Paris. Therefore he had forfeited his lordship.

 Both arguments were bogus. Philip had deliberately provoked war by denying Edward a safe-conduct and breaking his sworn word in council. Equally, there is no proof that Gascony had ever been held as freehold of the French crown. But this was war and politics, and the lawyers on both sides happily lied through their teeth.

Count Guy of Flanders, Edward’s ally, sent a warning to his sons in Rome:

“You should know that the Roman court is very grasping, and that anyone who wants to do business there must make many gifts and promises and pledges.”

In other words, the papacy was corrupt as hell, and if you wanted anything from the pope it was best to turn up loaded with bribes.

Boniface VIII

It didn’t help that Pope Boniface VIII was one of the most eccentric characters to sit on St Peter’s Chair. At first he welcomed the Flemings, but then changed his attitude. Boniface wanted peace between England and France, and to that end was prepared to sacrifice Flanders.

Count Guy of Flanders

The Flemish envoys went to their English colleagues and asked for help. Edward I’s agents made it clear the English would send no more troops or money to Flanders, but were prepared to try and put diplomatic pressure on Boniface. On 25 June 1298 Guy’s sons and the English envoys had an audience with the pope, in which the head of the English deputation asked for Flanders to be included in the peace. Boniface erupted and declared that he would not risk anything for the sake of Flanders, and that if Count Guy regretted entrusting his affairs to the papacy, he could go take a running jump.

Clearly, more bribes were needed.

Two kings, two masters

In 1276 Girard VI, Count of Armagnac in southern Gascony, was summoned to arms by Philip le Hardi (the Bold), King of France. Along with other Gascon nobles, Armagnac was sent into the kingdom of Navarre, south of the Pyrenees, to lay siege to the city of Pamplona. The situation was très compliqué. Henri III, the last king of Navarre, had died in 1274 without a male heir, so all the other kingdoms south of the Pyrenees scrambled to grab the vacant throne.

The arms of Armagnac (pre-1304)

The barons of Navarre appealed to Philip for help, and he sent a French army under Eustace de Beaumarchais to defend Pamplona. Unfortunately the French made themselves unpopular, and in 1276 violence exploded in the city between pro and anti-French factions. This was why Armagnac and his comrades were dispatched to deal with the situation. They laid siege to Pamplona, only for the Navarrese barons to escape at night. This was allegedly due to treachery on the past of Gaston de Béarn, a Gascon nobleman who had previously fought against Henry III and Edward I of England. Gaston was a kinsman to Don Almovarist, one of the barons of Navarre, and so conspired to help the rebels get away. Shortly afterwards Pamplona fell to the French and was sacked with terrible brutality.

An aerial view of Pamplona

Six years later, Armagnac was summoned to arms again. This time he was part of the Gascony expeditionary force to North Wales, raised by Edward I to spearhead the invasion of Gwynedd. Armagnac and the other lords of the South were ‘Montagnards’, warlike mountain people, and Snowdonia held no terrors for them:

“They [the Gascons] remain with the king, receive his gifts,
In moors and mountains they clamber like lions.
They go with the English, burn down the houses,
Throw down the castles, slay the wretches;
They have passed the Marches, and entered into Snowdon”.

Armagnac’s service in Navarre and Wales was a consequence of the Treaty of Paris in 1259. This made the Gascon nobility subject to two masters: the king of England as their immediate lord, and the king of France as overlord. This arrangement enabled both kings to exploit the military resources of Gascony, and meant the likes of Armagnac was a soldier of England and France. His son, Bernard, fought for Philip le Bel in Flanders.

Longsword unleashed!

My new ebook, LONGSWORD (VI): THE BROKEN ARROW, is now on release! Please see links to Amazon US & UK below - get it while it's HOT!

1282 AD.

The fragile peace is about to be shattered. King Edward’s victory over the Welsh and Irish five years earlier was only temporary, and now hostile forces gather again. In Wales the defeated prince, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, plans to claw back his lost power. His turncoat brother, Dafydd, seeks to break free of the king and help the Welsh to recover their liberty. At the same time a fresh revolt breaks out in Ireland.

England itself is threatened. In the northern countries, deep inside Sherwood Forest, the outlaw Robyn Hode conspires to raise the northern barons against the king. He is inspired by the enduring memory of Simon de Montfort, Edward’s old enemy. The northern rebels hope to destroy the king and replace him with Guy, one of Simon’s exiled sons. Robyn sends the broken arrow, a signal of rebellion, to all corners of the kingdom.

Sir Hugh Longsword, the king’s faithful servant, stands between the king and this host of enemies. After sixteen years in royal service, he is determined to finally bring peace to a war-weary land. Yet he must also face the enemy within: Hugh’s rise to royal favour has made him unpopular, and his own master, Robert Burnell, conspires against him. While he fights off the enemies of the state, Hugh must guard against knives in the back.

Longsword VI: The Broken Arrow is the latest historical adventure novel by David Pilling, author of Reiver, Soldier of Fortune, The Half-Hanged Man, Caesar’s Sword and many more novels and short stories. He is also the author of Rebellion Against Henry III: The Disinherited Montfortians 1265-1274, a nonfiction book published by Pen & Sword.
 

Longsword (VI): The Broken Arrow on Amazon US 

Longsword (VI): The Broken Arrow on Amazon UK

New Longsword!

Part Six - and possibly the last - of the Sir Hugh Longsword series is now on pre-order on ebook and Kindle! LONGSWORD VI: THE  BROKEN ARROW IS scheduled for release on Monday 20 April - see links for pre-order below!

1282 AD. The fragile peace is about to be shattered. King Edward’s victory over the Welsh and Irish five years earlier was only temporary, and now hostile forces gather again. In Wales the defeated prince, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, plans to claw back his lost power. His turncoat brother, Dafydd, seeks to break free of the king and help the Welsh to recover their liberty. At the same time a fresh revolt breaks out in Ireland. England itself is threatened. 

In the northern countries, deep inside Sherwood Forest, the outlaw Robyn Hode conspires to raise the northern barons against the king. He is inspired by the enduring memory of Simon de Montfort, Edward’s old enemy. The northern rebels hope to destroy the king and replace him with Guy, one of Simon’s exiled sons. Robyn sends the broken arrow, a signal of rebellion, to all corners of the kingdom. 

Sir Hugh Longsword, the king’s faithful servant, stands between the king and this host of enemies. After sixteen years in royal service, he is determined to finally bring peace to a war-weary land. Yet he must also face the enemy within: Hugh’s rise to royal favour has made him unpopular, and his own master, Robert Burnell, conspires against him. While he fights off the enemies of the state, Hugh must guard against knives in the back. 

Longsword VI: The Broken Arrow is the latest historical adventure novel by David Pilling, author of Reiver, Soldier of Fortune, The Half-Hanged Man, Caesar’s Sword and many more novels and short stories. He is also the author of Rebellion Against Henry III: The Disinherited Montfortians 1265-1274, a nonfiction book published by Pen & Sword.

Longsword (VI): The Broken Arrow on Amazon US

Longsword (VI): The Broken Arrow on Amazon UK

Half and half

A coule of pictures of the old bastide town of Castillones, just south of Bergerac in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwest France.

The bastide was founded by Henry III in 1260, shortly after the Treaty of Paris (1259) which established the duchy of Aquitaine - otherwise known as Guienne or Gascony - as a fiefdom held by the Angevin kings as vassals of the Capetian kings of France. This awkward arrangement gave rise to a host of problems, not least tenurial rights. Castillones was shared between the Angevins and the Capets, and the frontier of the border district of the Agenais ran right through the middle of the town: effectively this meant that subjects of the English crown lived in one half, subjects of the French in the other.

 

The problem was finally resolved in the peace of 1303, whereby Philip IV restored Gascony to Edward I and permitted the Anglo-Gascons to have Castillones all to themselves.

You have sung well

Following on from yesterday’s post. In 1296 the Bruces supported Edward I’s invasion of Scotland, in the hope that he would put a Bruce on the throne after King John Balliol had been given the Alan Sugar treatment (you’re fired etc).

According to John Fordun, Edward changed his plans due to the influence of Antony Bek, the fighty Bishop of Durham. Fordun recites an exchange between the two:

“If Robert de Bruce were king of Scotland [said Bek], where would Edward, king of England, be? For this Robert is of the noblest stock of all England, and, with him, the kingdom of Scotland is very strong in itself; and, in times gone by, a great deal of mischief has been wrought to the kings of England by those of Scotland.”

Edward answered: “Par le sank Dieu! vous aves bun chante” [“By Christ’s blood” You have sung well. I will change my plans.”]

Fordun has to be taken with a pinch of salt: he was writing much later (1380s) and had little good to say of Edward. Yet his reported dialogue has a touch of veracity, especially Edward’s reply in Norman-French. The Bruce in question was not the victor of Bannockburn, but his grandfather, also known as The Competitor. Edward knew him well: they had fought together against Simon de Montfort in England and in the Holy Land.

Everything we know about the Competitor suggests a devious and forceful character, not the sort of man any king would want for a rival. Yet, If Edward had ignored Bek’s advice and planted the Competitor on the Scottish throne, perhaps things wouldn’t have unravelled quite so spectacularly as they did.

Stick to thy mass, bishop!

The spring of 1296 witnesses two important sieges in Scotland and Gascony. On Easter Monday (26 March) the Scots descend upon Carlisle, the gateway to northwest England. Here the garrison is commanded by Sir William Keith, a knight in the retinue of Robert de Bruce, Earl of Carrick. At this stage the Bruces are fighting for Edward I, in the vain hope that he will put a Bruce on the Scottish throne after deposing John Balliol.

Carlisle castle

Nicholas Trivet, a Dominican friar, supplies a vivid account of the siege:

“Therefore, with the king spending the solemnity of Easter at the aforesaid castle, seven earls of Scotland, namely the earls of Bowan, Meneteth, Straderne, Lewenos, Ros, Athel, Mar, and John, son of John Comin of Badenau, after a strong army had been gathered in the valley of Anandia, on the second feast day of Easter entered England, and were laying waste to everything by slaughter and burning, not sparing age or sex; and coming to Carlisle, they surrounded the same city with a siege. Moroever, after they had burnt the suburbs, they heaped up combustible things at the gate of the city, and a certain noble of Galwidia, while he was approaching the gate of the city, was dragged by an iron hook by the men, who were upon the gate, and was killed after he had been stabbed by lances. Indeed, a certain spy, who had been detained in the prison of the city, when he had heard about the arrival of these men, set fire to the prison, the fire of which was carried down by the force of the wind onto other houses, and a great part of the city was burnt. However, men and women, running together to the walls, propelled the Scots from the walls with stones and missiles, manfully defending the city. The Scots, seeing that they were not making progress, gave up the siege on the fourth feast day and returned to Scotland.”

In Gascony, a few days later, the French lay siege to Bourg on the Gironde. If the town falls, English power in northern Gascony will collapse. The French throw everything at Bourg: surviving accounts show payments for stones purchased from local stone-cutters, and for a siege engine dragged up to the site. Meanwhile a French fleet blockades the Gironde to prevent supplies getting through. The large sum of 23, 141 livres tournois is spent on this operation.

The blockade fails. Barran Sescar, a Bayonnais privateer in charge of the Anglo-Gascon fleet, smashes through the line of French warships and delivers a constant flow of victuals from England: corn, hay, beans, bacon, stockfish, everything the defenders require.

King Edward’s resources are strained on all fronts, not least in terms of manpower. One of the English captains serving in northern Gascony is Ralph Basset of Drayton, a lord of the Welsh Marches. He was one of those present at the death of Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1282, and his military record shows how Edward I’s fighting men were dragged about all over the place. Ralph will be recalled to fight at Falkirk in 1298, where he delivers a crushing putdown to Antony Bek, the fighting bishop of Durham:

“Stick to thy mass, bishop, and don’t teach us the art of war!”

The banners of the king

5th April is the anniversary of the Battle of Northampton in 1264, where Henry III defeated Simon de Montfort junior.

Henry had summoned the feudal host on 6 March to campaign (so he said) against the Welsh. He soon dropped this pretence and further summons on 18 March made it clear he meant to fight the Montfortians. In early April the king formally declared war by raising his dragon standard, a splendidly decorated banner with jewelled eyes and a tongue that seemed to ‘flicker in and out as the breeze caught the banner, and its eyes of sapphire and other gems flashing in the light’.

The royal host marched on Northampton, the key to control of the midlands. On sunrise on Saturday the 5th, the royal army advanced over the water meadows to attack the town from the west and southwest. They were driven on by a choir of monks singing “Vexilla Regis prodeunt”, a Latin hymn composed by a 6th century bishop of Poitiers. The first verse translates as:

“The banners of the king issue forth,
 The mystery of the cross does gleam,
 Where the creator of the flesh, in the flesh,
 By the cross-bar is hung." 

The royalist infantry, armed with ladders and hurdles, attacked the south gate. Meanwhile a flanking force led by Philip Basset and the Lord Edward made a detour to the southwest. They quickly opened a breach in the wall of the garden of St Andrew’s Priory, and there is some suspicion that the prior had been bribed to undermine the wall: certainly, he was later suspended from office by Simon de Montfort.

As royalist soldiers poured through the breach, just two men stood in their way. This was Simon junior himself and his squire, Ingram Balliol. Simon twice threw back the infantry - showing what an armoured knight could do against footsoldiers - but then lost control of his horse. Driven mad by the slashing of spurs, the beast galloped forward and flung Simon headlong into the ditch. His life was saved by Edward, who prevented royalist soldiers from dragging the stunned knight out of the ditch and shoving a knife through his visor.

Simon’s capture tore the heart out of the resistance. The walls were abandoned as the defenders threw down their weapons and fled to safety. King Henry’s men set about taking prisoners and plundering the town; a businesslike process in which little blood was spilled. Between 55-100 Montfortian knights were captured, a bitter blow to Simon senior’s cause.

Dastardly invasions

Part of an idea I have for a (nonfiction) book, showing how wars are not isolated events.

As every fule nose, in March-April 1296 the armies of Edward I overran the lowlands of Scotland. What is sometimes not appreciated is that this was part of a much wider conflict, and that Edward’s dastardly invasion took place at the same time as an equally dastardly French invasion of Plantagenet Gascony. If we’re talking moralism and the right to autonomy, then a medieval Gascon had just as much right to these things as a medieval Scot. But might makes right…

In April 1296 Robert II of Artois was appointed the French lieutenant in Gascony and the duchy of Aquitaine. He was given extensive powers by Philip le Bel to act ‘as if the king were personally present’. He was to issue pardons, negotiate alliances and truces, conclude ‘paréages’ (a form of land transaction), inspect garrisons and fortresses, instigate inquiries into the crimes of royal officials and confer knighthood. Robert was also to take homages, fealties and oaths from all those living in the lands ‘which the king of England was wont to hold within our kingdom’. Edward had been treated by Philip in exactly the same way as Edward treated John Balliol, all part of the vicious merry-go-round of medieval politics.

Robert was effectively appointed as Philip’s viceroy in Gascony, a territory which the French had laid claim to via perfectly illegal means: this was an even more naked power grab than the invasion of Scotland, but who cared so long as you got away with it? At the start of April, just a day or two after the sack of Berwick in Scotland, Robert took an army of Artesian and other northern French troops into Gascony. On the 28, the same day as Edward arrived at Dunbar, he had reached Angouleme. Here he summoned nobles of the surrounding region for two months’ service in the host, before moving on to Périgord.