MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Winter 1100 AD: The Battle of Nottingham (Evening)
The funeral pires were burning fiercely on the hillside, fuelled by the oaks of Sherwood and Edward was recovering from the battle in his tent and contemplating Rufus' crown on the table before him when his equerry entered.

Sire! a deputation from the city is here to plea for mercy.

Edward stirred from his thoughts picked up the English crown and emerged from the tent into the stench of smoke and death outside. A small group of well-dressed Englishmen were gathered outside under the curious and careful gaze of his surviving knights. Their leader, a well dressed man with an impressive set of whiskers, stepped forward and bowed.

"Your majesty, I am Alan Wheatley and I have the honour to be the Sherriff of Nottingham. I am here together with this deputation, and on behalf of the Constable of Nottingham Castle to negotiate terms for the surrender of the keys to the fortress."

"Da yer have any daughters Mister Wheatley?" asked Edward pretending to inspect the English Crown in his hand.

The Sherriff seemed perplexed "Yes, sire I have a daughter. Her name is Marion." he replied.

"Then my terms are quite simple Sherriff. Tell you and yer friends, both here and in the fortress that if they hand over the keys to the Fortress to me tonight I will offer them and their families my protection tomorrow, when my army enters the city. If they do not then they can remain where they are until my soldiers find them and meet their fate like the rest of the population."

But, Sire surely we can discuss.... began the Sherriff.

"There is nothing to discuss, Sherriff. You can see the state of my army. Thanks to your King I have less that thirty knights remaining, and much of my army are hired thugs. Do you think I can deny them the spoils they have fought hard for here today. I can offer you and your friends protection but nothing more. Accept it now or negotiate with my soldiers tomorrow."

"You leave us no choice. Sire!"

"There never was one. Hand my men the keys and go with them to gather your people together in an easily defensible location, then stay there until what must be done is over."

The next morning Edwards army sacked Nottingham, claiming the warm. beds, ale and women that it craved. Whilst the castles dignitaries and their families cowered under the protection of Edwards knights.

[Didz]

Summer 1101: Nottingham Castle

Sire! Wallace reports that the English are still skulking about in the forest to the west and that another small English army has left London and is marching North, probably to join them.

Another small army. repeats Edward scornfully Another small army, like the small army that Rufus brought with him last year. De'yer think that Wallace has learned to count yet, or must we discover what small really means to him only when we count the corpses on the funeral pires.

"Tell, Wallace that I want ta'know how many English not how big they are and that if he cannot count them on his fingers and toes then I shall relieve him of them."

Aye Sire! I'll make sure he gets the message. Replies the equerry. Also, I am afraid there is bad news from Rome, Sire.

Bads news from Patrick. Did the Pope not get our message?

"Nay! Sire I'm afraid he did not. It seems his Holyness Pope Gregory died before Patrick could deliver our message. The new Pope has called himself Pope Aczo and comes from Portugal, so I am told."

"He died...my God he died. Thats the best news I've heard all week. Can there be any doubt now that God favours us. What do we know of this Portuguese Pope, does he favour our cause?"

"MacDougall, writes that he is quote 'utterly corruptable', Sire"

"Ha! Ha! Saint Andrew's bollocks" guffaw's Edward thumping the table in excitement "God has truly smiled on us today, lets waste no time then, have a chest of 500 florins dispatched immediately to Rome with a note congratulating his holyness on his new errm!....calling, and assuring him of the full support of Scotland in his future success. Patrick can deal with the details, just make sure his holiness is in our pocket before we march on London, and let Patrick know there will be more gold to come if he needs it."

[Didz]

Winter 1101: A time of consolidation and change
With most of England under their control the Canmore's spent the winter of 1101 consolidating their hold on their lands. Troops were rested and retrained and fresh troops were raised to help stabilize their control of their existing lands.

Edward remained in Nottingham, intent on preparations for a march on London in the Summer. The capture of the fortress of Nottingham provided the Scots with some of the most modern facilities for producing armour and weapons available at the time and Edward is engrossed in plans for their future incorporation into the army.

Fresh news arrived from Patrick MacDougall their man in Rome. I regret to inform your majesty that Pope Aczo the Corrupt died before I was able to deliver your gift of 500 florins. However, you will be pleased to announce that the college of Cardinals have just appointed a candidate from our allies in Sicily to the papal throne. I have met with Pope Alexius and he sends greetings to you his most loyal, faithful and trusted servant, and wishes you well in your endeavors.

It appears that God has some pride after all, or perhaps just a sense of humour. [Scotland's Pope-o-Meter rating rockets back up to 10/10]. Edward was becoming increasingly convinced that God really was on his side and the side of the Scots, he had never been a particularly pious man but it seemed to him that the facts spoke for themselves even if some of the heretic's wandering the country claimed otherwise.

The Winter also brought sad news that Queen Margaret, the mother of Alexander, Edmund and David Canmore had died. King Edward was the son of their fathers first marriage to Ingibiorg, daughter of Finn Amasson, widow of Thorlinn, Jarl of Orkney and thus had Norse blood in his veins, which some say accounts for his fierce and brutal ways. Nevertheless, Edward viewed the death of Margaret as an omen of the changes to come, ambassadors from the Danish court were becoming increasingly demanding over the rights of they thought they had to land in Northumbria, and in particular to York. Queen Margaret had kept these whining Vikings under control but now she was gone Edward realised it would only be a matter of time before the Danes decided to try and recover the land they had lost to the English at the Battle of Stamford Bridge.

Edwards only hope was that he could finish the English, before the Danes became too much of a nuisance.

[Didz]

Summer 1102: Nottingham Besieged
As the Winter of 1101 retreated so the English advanced. A number of them had spent a cold winter in Sherwood Forest living on their former masters deer and terrorizing local travellers. Now bolstered with fresh men from London they laid seige to Nottingham Castle.

They made a big show of constructing a ram and some scaling ladders but seemed less excited about actually using them, and Edward's initial concerns about the ability of the garrison to resist an English assault subsided. The passive behavior of the English merely encouraged the Scots to become bolder. They began making sallies from the castle to harry the English, at first in small numbers and eventually in strength.

The English proved to be equally unwilling to face the Scots in the open as they were to face them on the walls of Nottingham and at one point the Scots were able to drive them from their seige works and take possession of their seige engine and ladders.

Eventually, after much wasted loss of English lives they gave up altogether, lifted the seige, and retreated back towards London.

[Didz]

Trouble with the Danes
It was soon after the lifting of the English seige of Nottingham that Edward was informed of the first trouble with the Danes.

Danish ships had been seen patrolling off the Scottish coast for months but in the late Summer of 1102 they began to attack trading vessels entering and leaving the port of Edinburgh. Edmund had sent ships of armed men to drive them off and had been successful in doing so, but the loss of Danish lives had meant that relations with the Danish court were now hostile and Edward was worried that this would become a distraction from his main objective of London.

He commissioned the building of three new Holks in Edinburgh, in the hope that this would dissuade the Danes from further aggression and sent his own ships across the North Sea to scout the Danish coast and establish whether the Danish were massing for an invasion. Initial reports suggest that they are not, but Edward is convinced it will only be a matter of time unless he can do something to mend the rift.

A diplomatic mission is called for and Edmund is instructed to look for a suitable emissary.

[Didz]

Summer 1103: Wallace goes sightseeing in London
Whilst Edward made finishing touches to his preparations to march, Raudri Wallace made his way to London. He quickly confirmed that his previous assumption that Prince Henry was in London had been correct, and that the new King Henry was resident in the city accompanied by an army of about 400 men, including a personal retinue of 62 knights and 21 Archers. The rest of the army were spearmen of varying and dubious quality.

Winter 1103: Remember the Danish.
Edmund sends word from Edinburgh that he has found a volunteer suitable and willing to go and talk to the Danes. He is a Stewart by the name of Angus and will sail for Antwerp in the next tide. Edmund also explains that he has taken the initiative of attaching a man called Gille Petair to Angus Stewart's staff. Petair can do a reasonable impression of a Frenchman, and smells strongly of garlic (or worse). Therefore, it is hoped that he will be able to acquire any information which the Danes might not be willing to disclose to Angus. He also reports that the latest scouting reports from the ships patrolling the Danish coast confirm that a large Danish army is massing near Antwerp and that a powerful Danish fleet lies off the coast near Bruges.

Concerned but satisfied that all that can be done to placate the Danes is being done, Edward marches south with his army intent on dealing with the English presence on the Island once and for all.

He is joined en-route by 160 mailed knights from Wales. In fact, the army marching on London could hardly be called a Scottish army. Whilst, it did include 240 Scottish Archers and the 62 Scottish Knights of Edwards personal retinue, the remainder were either mercenaries, Welsh or locally raised English Knights keen to win favour with their new King.

[Didz]

Summer 1104: London under siege.
As Edward approached London news reached him that King Henry had appealed for more troops and hastily increased the size of the London Garrison. It now consisted of over 800 men more than double the figure quoted by Wallace a few weeks ago.

Unperturbed Edward also appealed for more troops, hiring 150 Welsh volunteers and calling for a further 150 highlanders and 80 horse to join him from Nottingham.