MacDidz: The Scottish Blog

[Didz]

Summer 1130: Oxfords Revolt.

In the summer of 1130 AD the resentment of the dispossessed Anglo- Saxon nobility once more festered into open revolt. Godwine, the former Earl of Oxford, who had been stripped of most of his estates by William, Duke of Normandy, had hoped to have his lands restored when the Scots kicked the Normans out of England. But instead the Norman squatters had merely been replaced by Scottish ones and as time had passed and his fortunes dwindled it became obvious that he must do something to try and reclaim what was rightfully his.

He raised a small army and marched north gathering additional support as he went and hoping to raise enough men to either force the Scots to negotiate or, if not, to seize the city of York as a bargaining chip. By this time Godwine had an army of some 680 men, including a small core of 200 English Knights and 240 longbowmen from Cheshire. The rest of the force were mostly local levies consisting of a mixture of archers and spearmen.

However, if Godwine really hoped for a negotiated settlement his timing could not have been worse. With King Kyle still on his way back from the Holyland the only person available to negotiate with was his uncle, Alexander the Mean, and he was not likely to be reasonable about anything least of all giving money to an Englishman.

News of the English revolt reached Alexander at Nottingham just as Godwine’s army reached the Great North Road and Alexander lost no time in mustering a force to confront them. At 59 Alexander was somewhat old to be going into battle, but with the prospect of Englishmen to kill nobody dared suggest that he did not lead the army himself.

Nevertheless, some concern was expressed when Alexander announced that all he would be taking to crush the revolt was his own personal retinue and 240 knights.

The city of Nottingham was full of troops, but Alexander was adamant that he would not need them to deal with a bunch of English rebels. He had already decided that this would most likely be his last chance of battle and he wanted it to be glorious. He imagined himself leading the charge that would crush the English under its hooves. It was only when he was politely reminded that the English might not co-operate in this vision and that longbowmen with their stakes were notoriously good at frustrating mounted charges that Alexander was finally persuaded to take some crossbowmen, 2 ballistae and 120 men at arms along just in case.