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The Legacy of Uhtred

Dunaden

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Mar 3, 2012
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The Legacy of Uhtred

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My name is Osulf Eadulfson of House Bamburgh, the Earl of Bernicia as well as Westmorland. My family claims to trace its lineage back to the famous Uhtred of Bebbanburg who, according to my family tradition anyway, single-handedly placed Alfred ‘the Great’ and his descendants in the House of Wessex onto the throne of England and drove the Vikings from our shores some 200 years ago. Whether you believe it or not, we Bamburghs have been here in the north for a long time, on both sides of the border. Hell, most of my relatives, the Dunkelds, the Dunbars and the Durhams, are on the wrong side of Hadrian’s Wall, subjects to the King of the Scots. Actually, come to think of it Bebbanburg was actually north of Hadrian’s Wall as well, but whatever, it’s just an expression. And King Malcom III ‘Cannore’ is actually my first cousin as well, though once removed, grandson of my late Uncle Ealdred. The only other surviving Bamburghs, other than my younger brother and heir Halden, are my cousin Eadulf, the Earl of Teviotdale and Lanarkshire, who is also just over the border in Scotland, and some other cousins in his court. Leaving me to hold our ancestral home all alone on Angle-Saxon soil.

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I had spent my youth fighting along the border, mainly against my cousins who were trying to steal cattle and anything else they could lay hold of. Eventually, my worth was recognized and I was finally able to reclaim my ancestral home, and Westmorland to boot, as my own, though as vassal to Duke Morcar of Northumbria. Now being past my third decade, I decided it was time to settle down and start a family, raise another generation of Bamburghs to carry on. So with that in mind, I married a Breton girl, Elina verch Edouarzh de Penthievre, the daughter of Edouarzh mab Jafez, then Count of Penthievre in Brittany. The man had an army of children, so if his daughter was even half as fertile as her old man, there would be plenty of Bamburghs running around soon enough. To raise the odds even higher I arranged for my brother, Halden, to marry an Irish woman, named Éua nic Cú Uladh Dál Fiatach, daughter of Earl Cú Uladh mag Aed of Ulster. The marriage gave me an Irish ally a little closer to hand than my new father-in-law.

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But as the saying goes, the gods laugh while men make plans. Because, like my ancestor Uhtred before me, the men of Bebbanburg would once again be called upon to help England survive the coming of the Northmen. And not just one invasion, but two at the same time.
 
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Sounds like fun
 
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Interesting start. So what's the plan? Any ambitions of conquest, or will you ride out the storm and see where you end up?
 
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Hey good start!

Thank you.

Sounds like fun

Thanks, I hope so.

Interesting start. So what's the plan? Any ambitions of conquest, or will you ride out the storm and see where you end up?

No real plan other than survival and the vague idea to keep England for Anglo-Saxons. We'll see if I can do that by supporting Anglo-Saxon Kings, or be forced to take charge myself, provided I meet the first criteria, survival.
 
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England, 1066 – The Coming of the Northmen
England, 1066 – The Coming of the Northmen

From the south, the Bastard, Duke William of Normandy, was leading a Norman invasion to claim England for himself. He had raised a great host of mercenaries, freebooters, and other riffraff, typical Normans, some 5,000 men, and was leading them across the Channel against the recently elected King Harold of England. William disagreed with the results of the election that had made Harold King.

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Meanwhile, King Harald Hardrada, or ‘Hard Ruler’, of Norway was also disputing the election. He didn’t have to raise a company of freebooters and riffraff to go to war, he didn’t need to as he already had a Kingdom full of Norwegians and some allies, and he had begun gathering them to throw at England.

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Elections had been disputed in the past, but never on this scale before.

Currently, I was serving as on Duke Morcar’s Council as his Marshal, and was actively focusing on improving my knowledge of strategy to serve in the role more effectively. Naturally, with the threat of war looming, I went to the Duke and asked him what should we do to prepare for the coming invasions. While he was much younger than I, he had been trained for war and was considered a skilled tactician and he was a better fighter than I would ever be, despite my role as Marshal.
He said we will do nothing. He said we will send King Harald whatever levys and gold that we were obligated to do, and nothing more. I asked if he wanted to raise any local troops to try and repulse any enemy landings along the coast. Again, he said no, “They elected Harold over my objections, and now he is King. The duty of King is to protect England from foreigners. Our duty is to send him men and pay our taxes, which I have done, nothing more.”

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I don’t know what was happening in the south with the Normans, but what I do know is in September of 1066, the Norwegians first landed in North Riding with an army of close to 2,000 men, and due to Duke Morcar’s orders, no one was there to oppose the landing or stop them from marching inland and laying siege to Eoforwic.

Duke Morcar was doing nothing to defend Eoforwic for some unknown reason, but I took steps to protect my own home and family. I spent my hard-earned coin to raise and equip some Men-at-Arms for Bernicia, a regiment of 100 Light Footmen. I also sent out a call to invite skilled warriors to join my household as knights.

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By the first of November, all of Bernicia was in good spirits, the harvest was in, and it had been bountiful, I had put my new regiment to work patrolling the roads and keeping them safe for travelers. The peasants were happy and they actually thanked me for their good fortune, and sent gifts to Bebbanburg. I accepted their generosity graciously and hoped the extra gold would help us weather the coming storm.

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In late November, it seemed Duke Morcar’s gamble had paid off, King Harold arrived with some 5,800 men to lift the siege of Eoforwic. He drove off the Norwegian army, killing more than a third of them. But instead of retreating for their ships, the Norwegians instead fled west, deeper into England. And Harold turned his army around and returned to the south to deal once again with the Bastard.

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A month later, I was home to celebrate Yule with my family. My wife Elina had just given me the good news, she had proven as fertile as I had hoped and was already pregnant with my first child. And two warriors, both commoners, an Anglo-Saxon named Cynehelm and a Scot named Marcas, had answered my call for knights and joined my household.

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That was when the true Norwegian invasion began, as two more fleets appeared off the coast, and they were headed straight for Bebbanburg.

One fleet was Norwegian, but the other consisted of King Harald’s newest allies, the Swedes. They were just the beginning as more fleets soon arrived. Within a week, 2,200 Norwegians lay siege to Bebbanburg, while the Swedes and another army of Norwegians headed south into Dunholm.


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Well that's not an ideal development.

I did chuckle at the "comparison" between Normans and Norwegians and the need (or not) to recruit riffraff and freebooters :)
 
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Well that's not an ideal development.

I did chuckle at the "comparison" between Normans and Norwegians and the need (or not) to recruit riffraff and freebooters :)


Things are about to go from bad to worse. Earl Osulf does not think much of the Norwegians, or the Normans for that matter.
 
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Bebbanburg, 1067 – The Siege
Bebbanburg, 1067 – The Siege

The Norwegians had brought no siege weapons on their first wave of ships and hadn’t had time to construct any after landing, so they could not breach our walls, but they seemed content to keep us bottled up in Bebbanburg and wait for us to surrender. They set up camp well outside of bowshot from the castle walls and blocked all the approaches to the castle, with even few longships patrolling off shore to prevent any possible resupply by sea. And so there we remained for the next six months.

I don’t wish to remember the siege, there was hunger and disease, there were betrayals and desertions. My people suffered terribly and many of them died from hunger, disease, and occasionally from the actions of the Norwegians. They didn’t have siege weapons, but that didn’t stop them from blindly launching arrows over the walls which sometimes found a mark. Occasionally, they launched fire arrows and landed a lucky shot on something that would burn. We were able to contain such fires to a few structures, but that didn’t always help those trapped inside. The death toll mounted, not only among the commoners, but among the wealthy merchants and nobles, and even reached into my Council. The Suffragan Bishop Ælfmaer died, too weak from hunger to fight the ravages of some disease after donating his share of food to the parish children.

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Hunger drove us to slaughter every animal in castle, starting with the milk cows, then the horses, the chickens and goats, finally the dogs and cats, and any rat we could catch or any gull we could knock from the sky. The fishermen who had fled to the safety of Bebbanburg, gathered on the eastern walls to stare out at the sea in despair. Not a mile off shore swam a bountiful harvest that could have fed every man, woman, and child in Bebbanburg, but 2,000 Northmen prevented them for collecting it.

Suffice it to say after six months, with no sign of any relief force coming from Duke Morcar in Eoforwic or King Harold himself, I surrendered Bebbanburg in June of 1067. Under a flag of truce, I opened the gates and walked out alone to negotiate the surrender. The Norwegians kept me with them as their troops poured into Bebbanburg and took control of the castle. My wife, brother, and sister-by-law were taken prisoner and held for King Harald Hardrada.

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When King Harald Hardrada later arrived to inspect the first prize his men had captured in the invasion, I asked to meet with him to negotiate my family’s release. It was agreed and I was brought before the Norwegian King. He sat in my own hall, at my high table, a big burly man about 20 years my senior with a shaggy head of hair and a full beard, both fading from gold to white with age. He was dressed in the same iron mail and leather as his men, except for the rich red and gold cloak over his shoulders and the golden circlet on his head.

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I knelt before him as my escort indicated and waited for him to speak.

He spoke, with a thick, but understandable accent, “You are Osulf Bamburgh, you were lord of this place?”

“I am Earl Osulf of Bernicia and am still lord of this place.”

The King smiled, “You have gold to ransom your family?”

I nodded.

He said reasonably, “Why shouldn’t I just kill you and take your gold and keep your family to sell for even more gold?”

“Because you are an honorable King and I have surrendered and given my parole.”

He nodded and then sounding almost disappointed, “Yes, I suppose I am.”

He gestured to me to join him at the table and then he continued, “So let us start with your wife, the Countess of Bernicia. I hear she is pregnant. This will be your first child and heir?”

I nodded again, “Yes.”

Harald grinned, “So a most valuable prize. I couldn’t part with her for less than 25 gold.”

I did a quick tally and this was more than half of all I had. Would I be able to ransom my brother and his wife as well? But then I looked at the grinning King and realized, the greedy bastard knew exactly how much coin I had and planned to take every bit of it. There was little point in haggling.

“Agreed.”

He looked surprised for a second and then motioned to one of the guards, “Bring her.” He said as I placed the first payment on the table. Harald’s eyes lit up when he saw the gold.

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A short while later Elina was ushered in looking tired and pale and unbalanced with her swollen belly, but otherwise unharmed. She ran up to me but didn’t hug me as she looked around at the armed strangers filling our home.

Harald spoke again, “Now, your brother is next, I think. Your heir, for the moment at least.” With a nod toward Elina and her condition.

I was resigned, “How much for Halden?”

“10 gold will do.” Exactly half of my remaining coin.

I could only nod, “Agreed.”

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I placed the smaller stack of gold on the table next to the first. My brother was soon brought into the hall, he looked scared as usual, but that turned to relief when he saw me. When they released him, he stumbled over to stand beside me.

I asked about my brother’s wife, “And for the Lady Éua?”

The King smiled, “10 gold as well.” The last of my coin.

“Agreed.” And a man was sent to fetch my sister-by-law.

I added a third stack of coins to the table. And we waited.


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Then the man sent to fetch Éua came back alone, he went to the King and whispered something to him. Harald looked at me and I saw a brief glimpse of shame, and then he looked at my brother and it became pity. Then he reluctantly pushed the last stack coins back toward me and said with a sigh, “I’m sorry, it appears the Irish girl did not survive her time in captivity.”

My brother cried out in grief and lunged forward, but what brought up short by the leveled spears of Harald’s guards. I put my hand on his shoulder and pulled him back, keeping my own rage in check.

King Harald continued, “You are free to stay here in Bebbanburg and go about your business as usual. The people of Bernicia will soon be my subjects and I wish us all to prosper. But I am leaving a garrison in charge and any sign of resistance will be punished severely.”

So began the Norwegian occupation of Bebbanburg. We were allowed to stay in our homes, sleep in our beds and conduct our business and daily activities. But there were Norse warriors everywhere, and they controlled the walls, the gates, the granaries, and the cisterns, and nothing left the castle without their permission. Just to the south, Dunholm had also fallen to King Harald and his Swedish allies.
 
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Very much worse indeed.
 
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Very much worse indeed.

Yes. It was a shock to actually click on paying the ransom and have it pop up with her death instead.

Osulf has now had his options severely limited and can only wait for outside help, since even if the Westmorland levys were raised, they are too few to free Bernicia, let alone survive the short march over without getting slaughtered by the Norwegian armies roaming about the north of England.
 
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1067 – 1069 The Occupation, Part 1
1067 – 1069 The Occupation, Part 1

Most of the Norwegian army marched south, leaving a garrison to hold Bebbanburg and all of Bernicia. A Norwegian named Gunnar af Island was in charge of the new garrison, a tall blond man in his forties. Gunnar wasn’t much of warrior, but he was a gifted diplomat and spoke our language fluently. While he was technically in charge, he had several lieutenants to handle the actual defense and other military aspects of his command.

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As the leaders of our respective peoples who were now thrown together for the foreseeable future, we would end up spending a lot of time together, trying to make this situation go as smoothly as possible. The first thing Gunnar did was to help us get food brought in to feed those who had spent the last six months starving. For that alone, I would always look favorably on him. Eventually, he let us launch our fishing fleet to bring in fresh fish, though the fleet was escorted by warships to prevent any smuggling in or out of the castle.

We received little news of either war, and most of that was filtered through Gunnar, who tended to highlight Norway’s victories and downplay or just leave out any setbacks. We did hear some rumors that King Harold was doing well against the Normans, but he was for the moment, ignoring the Norwegians and their allies. But we in Bebbanburg could do nothing but wait and see what would happen.

My wife soon gave birth to a daughter, who we named Agatha. She was a weak, delicate child. The midwife thought it was the result of the deprivations her mother had suffered while pregnant during the siege and her later captivity. But I loved Agatha instantly and she represented the first of a new generation of Bamburghs.

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I also took a third knight into my household, another Anglo-Saxon commoner named Thurcytel. It was an easy posting for a knight, as the possibilities of any battle in the near future appeared slim, which he seemed quite happy about. He was basically getting room and board to spend his time training.

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As promised, the Norwegians did not interfere with us and we went about our business. A new year began with very little news, we knew the Norwegians had set up in northern England and King Harold had done nothing to dislodge them. In the spring, Gunnar was happy to tell me that that Harold had finally come north, but he had lost a battle against the King Harald and his allies that had forced him to retreat again to the south.

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Then in midsummer, Gunnar called me into his office to discuss my liege, Duke Morcar. It seems Duke Morcar was finally going to war. But he didn’t appear to be joining with King Harold to fight either of the invaders, instead he had inherited two internal squabbles in England from his brother, Duke Eadwin. The late Duke Eadwin of Mercia had been defending against his vassal, Earl Edgar of Warwickshire, in a war against Eadwin’s tyranny, and he had also been defending against Duke Hacon of East Anglia’s attempt to claim the Duchy of Lancaster. With Eadwin’s death in battle, Duke Morcar had inherited his late brother’s titles as the Duke of both Mercia and Lancaster and was forced to go to war whether he liked it or not.

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Gunnar wanted to know if this was some ploy on Morcar’s part to march south and join up with King Harold. I laughed, and said there is little chance that Morcar would ever support King Harold. I and the men of Bernicia couldn’t join Duke Morcar in his wars because my parole with King Harald said I could not take up arms while he was at war with England.

By the end of summer, members of the Norwegian garrison were boasting that both North and East Riding had fallen to Norway and their Swedish allies were laying siege to West Riding. Gunnar confirmed that news, and predicted that the war would be over soon, and we would soon have the same King (he would eventually prove to be half right). He was upset that he was stuck babysitting Bernicia instead of joining the fighting. But based upon what I had seen of his skills, King Harald had been wise to keep Gunnar away from the battlefield.

Then in November of 1068, Gunnar would have his chance to see war closer up. An army landed in Bernicia and lay siege to Bebbanburg. But it wasn’t my liege lord, Duke Morcar, or King Harold coming to free us. It was an army sent by William ‘the Bastard’ to try to steal King Harald Hardrada’s prize. King Harold had driven the Normans out of southern England, so they were trying a different tack.

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The siege lasted less than a month, however, as the main army of Norway raced north to drive off Normandy. The Normans fled to the northwest and Norway broke off pursuit.

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The brief excitement was over, and life under occupation resumed. I continued my martial studies, focusing on personal combat, training with my bored knights and becoming a stalwart leader.

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At this rate he will end up as a vassal of Harald.
 
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1069 -1072 The Occupation, Part 2
1069 -1072 The Occupation, Part 2

Another year passed. In the Spring of 1069, word came from the south, Morcar and his Northumbrians were trying to free Eoforwic and King Harold was trying to free East Riding. A portion of West Riding had fallen to the Swedes and they had moved north to and were laying siege to my other county of Westmorland. Then in June, the Normans returned to siege Dunholm. No one knew where the main Norwegian army had gone too, not even Gunnar and the Norwegian garrison holding Bebbanburg.

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Westmorland fell to the Swedes, but North and East Riding were freed by the Anglo-Saxons and Harold had men in West Riding trying to clear that as well. The Normans were still camped outside Dunholm, but it wouldn’t hold out much longer. Was the tide turning against King Harald? Gunnar and the rest of the Norwegian garrison, seemed nervous and jumpy. I had to work hard to keep things calm and avoid any incident that might spark bloodshed, as my unarmed people would not fare well.

Then the Swedes came east and chased the Normans out of Dunholm, keeping it in Norwegian hands. Gunnar let slip that a small Norwegian army had landed in West Riding and was met by the armies of Northumbria and England at Whitby, 4,000 Anglo-Saxons against 1,300 Northmen, a brief moment of cooperation between King Harold and his strongest vassal, Duke Morcar. But as soon as the battle was over, they split apart again. King Harold led his men to West Riding to free the castle there while Morcar went off into Mercia to fight his other wars.

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It was shortly after that battle that Duke Morcar sent a messenger to Bebbanburg. In it, he officially stripped me of my position as Marshal and my spot on his Council. He gave both positions to Countess Margaret of Staffordshire, a daughter of the House of Wessex. I assumed he was sleeping with her, as she was a known fornicator and had no skill at all in warfare.

I wasn’t too upset, I wasn’t going to leave my family to return to Eoforwic to sit on his council, so Countess Margaret could have the seat. Three months later, she left Eoforwic to have her baby and Earl Eadric ‘the Wild’ of Shropshire replaced her on the Council.

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While they played at war, I played with my 2-year old daughter, who despite her delicate frame, had turned out to be quite adventuresome.

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In October of 1070, both the wars Duke Morcar had been fighting were over, so he was free to commit his forces elsewhere. Again, instead of aiding the King Harold, he raised his banners for another cause. He declared war on my cousin, King Malcolm of Scotland, in the Northumbrian de jure war for the Earldom of Cumberland, held by another of my distant cousins, 10-year old Earl Dolfin Dunbar.

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After three years, Gunnar was getting lax in censoring the news of the war, as we often spent nights drinking together (I had learned Gunnar had a wife back in Norway and a grown son off somewhere making his way in the world). It appeared King Harold was spending more time in the North since the Norman threat had been weakened. He reportedly had chased the Swedes across the border into Scotland and defeated them in a battle in Cumberland. Also, the Normans had slunk back to Dunholm to renew their siege, but soon fled further north to the Scottish border, as they were trying to avoid any contact with either the Norwegian or the Anglo-Saxon armies. Duke Morcar was fighting the remnants of the Swedish army in Westmorland and the now the Scottish army had crossed the border into England hunting the Northumbrians and joined the chaos in northern England. And I continued to sit in Bebbanburg waiting to see how it all played out as another year ended.

In July of 1971, my wife received some bad news, her father, Edouarzh, had died of old age. He did leave behind 14 children and countless grandchildren, but unfortunately only one county for their inheritance. The oldest legitimate son, Jafrez, became the new Count of Penthievre and custodian of the rest of his siblings. Count Jafrez also agreed to renew the alliance between Bernicia and Penthievre based on the strength of my marriage to his half-sister.

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Later that year, Duke Morcar, on his way north to Cumberland, did stop in Westmorland long enough to free it from the Swedish garrison, but made no more to come east to free Bernicia. Westmorland was just a convenient base to launch his assault on Scotland.

The year 1072 marked five years of Norwegian occupation. Norway had lost almost all of the progress it had made in the war, only Bebbanburg and Dunholm remained of its original conquests. But in the Spring of 1072, a fresh wave of Norwegian troops landed in North Riding and quickly recaptured it. Another army marched on East Riding and lay siege to it. West Riding was already under siege by the Scots, fighting their war against Duke Morcar.

King Harold sent his army into Dunholm to free that county. The Norwegians abandoned the siege of East Riding and moved north to challenge the Anglo-Saxon army. 4,600 Northmen and allies, against the 4,800 Anglo-Saxons. Duke Morcar had an additional 2,400 men just over the border in Cumberland. If he had again joined forces with King Harold, they could have ended the war right there. Instead, Morcar moved south to chase the Scots army out of West Riding, leaving King Harold’s army to be broken and scattered by the Northmen. Dunholm and Bebbanburg would remain occupied.

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In November of 1072, Countess Elina presented me with a second daughter, who we named Eanswith. She did not have her sister’s frailty, a perfectly healthy little girl.

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I continued to study war and strategy, even if I was not actively participating. I learned how to better justify going to war. It sounds cold and harsh, but if war was needed, you need to be able to start a war with minimal costs and a valid cause.

While I was focusing on war, Elina was looking at ways to improve our lives. She brought a business opportunity in Westmorland to my attention, and she encouraged me to make an investment in it, despite the potential risks. I went along with her advice and it paid off, we would be seeing profits for the next 10 years, provided we still held Westmorland beyond the end of this war.

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I'm excited to see your new endeavor and to see which direction the Bamburghs will take.
Agatha seems quite the lively child, I look forward to seeing her and Eanswith grow once the war is over.
The throne of England is hotly contested as always and no winner in sight. A hard choice between a bastard and hard ruler but Alfred doesn't look too good now.
 
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Morcar is doing his best to see Harold defeated for good it seems.
 
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I'm excited to see your new endeavor and to see which direction the Bamburghs will take.
Agatha seems quite the lively child, I look forward to seeing her and Eanswith grow once the war is over.
The throne of England is hotly contested as always and no winner in sight. A hard choice between a bastard and hard ruler but Alfred doesn't look too good now.

Welcome to my new story, but never fear, The People of the Forest will continue with it's irregular weekly updates. This one will be updated more frequently, especially with the initial enthusiasm for the story.

Osulf is collecting daughters, we shall see where they end up, Agatha is not letting her delicate condition hold her back..

England is doing well against William 'the Bastard' , he has never recovered from setbacks earlier in the campaign. But King Harald took full advantage of King Harold's early focus on the Normans to gain a strong foothold on the shores of England, and despite some minor setbacks of his own, he has kept that foothold.


Love the story so far, will be following closely.

Thank you, hope you continue to enjoy the ride.

Morcar is doing his best to see Harold defeated for good it seems.

Morcar is letting his disdain for King Harold blind him to the consequences that all in England will face if this invasion succeeds. He will not be happy with the results.
 
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1073 -1076 The Occupation, Part 3 – Occupations End/1076 - To the Victor go the Spoils
1073 -1076 The Occupation, Part 3 – Occupations End

Of course, as soon as we invested in Westmorland, it came under siege again. This time by the Scots. Luckily, Duke Morcar was actively trying to fight the Scots, so he chased them off before they could do any damage. But while he was hunting the Scots, the Norwegians were hunting him. King Harald didn’t like having a wild card running around, who may or may not join up with King Harold. And in April of 1073, Duke Morcar was captured by King Harald Hardrada after a battle in East Riding.

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In July of 1073, Gunnar told me that the Bastard had given up on his attempted conquest and agreed to a white peace with England. King Harold Godwineson had successfully repelled the first invasion and could now focus on King Harald Hardrada. But it was not looking good. Between King Harald and his allies, Sweden and Moray, the Norwegians had twice as many troops and already held several castles in the north.

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In August, the Norwegians and King Harold met at the Battle of Halifax. King Harold was defeated and fled, clearing the way for the Norwegians to return and lay siege to castles in North and East Riding. Meanwhile, the war for Cumberland continued to play out, but without Morcar’s leadership, the Scots were gaining the upper hand.

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The new year brought the happy news of another child on the way. I loved my daughters, but like any man, I dreamed of a son. I also received some surprising news, somehow, I had inherited or been granted a claim on the county of Lancashire, I have no idea where this claim had come from.

With Morcar still held prisoner, there was a struggle for power within Northumbria, I was trying to get reinstated onto the Council, but was opposed by the Prince-Bishop Æthelwine of Dunholm. Æthelwine was Morcar’s trusted friend, so I decided my best hope was to win him to my side, rather than try and compete with him.

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In March of 1074, the army of Northumbria was caught lurking near Bebbanburg by the Norwegians and they were slaughtered. The retreating army then ran straight into the arms of the Scots army at Poclintun and suffered another terrible beating.

The rest of the year saw the Norwegians still besieging Eoforwic in North Riding and Poclintun in East Riding.

My third daughter was born in September, we named her Leofwynn. Then I received news that my efforts to win over Prince-Bishop Æthelwine had paid off. As Duke Morcar’s confessor he was allowed to visit Morcar in his prison cell. After one such visit, he brought me a message from Morcar asking me to rejoin his council as Marshal. I agreed, but of course, with Morcar a prisoner, and Eoforwic under siege, the Council would not be meeting anytime soon. But the title of Marshal had its own benefits and prestige.

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The Northumbrian army did manage to regroup and once more march on Cumberland. At the battle of Caer Luel, they routed a small Scots force and started a siege. As long as they stayed in Scotland, the Norwegians would probably ignore them.

King Harold came north again at the start of 1075, he landed in Dunholm with 3,300 men and quickly freed it from the Norwegian garrison in a bloody assault. Then he marched north to lay siege to Bebbanburg. While we waited inside, under the close watch of the Norwegian garrison, our fellow Anglo-Saxons were outside trying to find a way in. But they had little time. The Norwegians had captured both North and East Riding, and as soon as they heard of the siege, they came rushing north.

I spent most of the siege studying the tactics of Alexander, learning how he used pontoon bridges and rubble fill to move armies across rivers and other water obstacles. But I took a break from my study of ancient battles to watch a real battle take place below the walls of my home. 2,800 Swedes arrived first to try and break the siege of Bebbanburg, but King Harold’s army was too strong and began to throw them back. But the Swedes were but the vanguard of the enemy army. Another 3,000 Norwegians soon reinforced the Swedish lines, pinning the Anglo-Saxon Army in place and assuring its destruction. The survivors broke and scattered, leaving 800 dead behind.

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The Norwegians pursued them, and in July, a second battle took place at Poclintun, and my people again fled. King Harald Hardrada realized that chasing them further was useless, to end this war he needed to control the land, so he settled in to siege down Lincoln and Nottingham.

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Meanwhile, Northumbria army was learning the same lesson, they were driving the Scots before them, but as long as King Malcolm still held Cumberland, the war would never be over.

Spring of 1076 found the sieges to the south continuing. King Harold had sailed around the Norwegian armies and landed in North Riding and was again trying to liberate Eoforwic. The Norwegians ignored him and continued with their sieges of Lincoln and Nottingham.

It was about this time that I received word from my cousin Count Eadulf of Teviotdale. He said while we were still family, he no longer wanted to be subservient to an Anglo-Saxon kinsman. He had three children of his own and he considered his family a separate line of House Bamburgh, the Bamburghs of Kelso, so he formed the cadet House Bamburgh-Kelso, referring to his capitol city in Teviotdale. I was at a loss, as I had considered him the head of House Bamburgh for the last few years, and hadn’t been asking anything of him. It seems he was trying to distance himself from his Anglo-Saxon history and prove he was completely Scottish.

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Soon after that, both Nottingham and Lincoln fell to Norway, while King Harold was still trying to reclaim Eoforwic. With the Norwegian armies now bearing down on him, and after 10 years of war, King Harold finally bowed to the inevitable. Norway had won.

King Harald IV ‘Hard Ruler’ of Norway and now England.

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1076 - To the Victor go the Spoils (or You Lucky Bastard)

Throughout both invasions, Duke Morcar had refused to help King Harold defend England. He didn’t like King Harold any more than he liked William ‘the Bastard, or Harald Hardrada. So he didn’t care which of the three was King, he would be just as content to ignore any of them, secure in his position as the most powerful Duke in England, now holding four Duchies following the death of his brother. But therein lay his mistake. He assumed this war was about who got to call themselves King. He forgot that Harald Hardrada was already a King, and he wasn’t coming for a title, he was coming for land, land for his people, better land than the rocky hillsides and fjords of Norway. He wanted the green pastures and forests of England. So Morcar was shocked when King Harald stripped away all his lands and titles. He was not alone as Harald stripped the lands and titles of King Harold and all the Anglo-Saxon Dukes.

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And then King Harald turned around and gave those lands and titles and all the de jure land below those titles to his men and his allies. And in one fell swoop, all of England was ruled by Norwegians and Danes, Duke Gunnar of Mercia, Duke Åmund of Jarnamóða, Duke Rolf of Essex, Duke Arne of Jórvik, and also Countess Gyda of Devon. Yes, the commander of the garrison of Bernicia and my drinking companion for the past 10 years was now the Duke of Mercia.

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Well almost all of England was ruled by the Northmen. A few of us Anglo-Saxons slipped through the cracks. Somehow, we were missed when the titles were being stripped or handed out, leaving a few Anglo Saxons still holding land in England. I’m not sure how it happened, England is huge and there are many, many earls and Dukes. Duke Eanhere of Kent, a 6-year old son of House Godwin, was the highest ranked noble to retain his land and titles. I think he and the 8-year old Earl Ælfwine of Gloucestershire slipped under notice because their fathers had been killed near the end of the war, and the Norwegian clerks just didn’t know who the new rulers were in order to seize their land and titles. 18-year old Countess Rioantdrec of Cornwall, may have gotten through the same way, or they just didn’t realize a woman held Cornwall.

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But why was I spared? I think I figured it out. When Harald was handing out Duchies and all the de jure titles below them, there were two situations where the Anglo-Saxon Earls were spared, the first was if the Duchy they were apart of was vacant before the war. Harald had no one to strip a title from and no title with de jure vassals to hand out. So those vassals kept their lands, this may better explain the situation with Cornwall. The other instance is where Harald stripped a Ducal title, but kept it for himself. This is what I think saved me, I was a de jure vassal of Northumbria and Harald kept the Duchy of Northumbria for himself, so I wasn’t stripped of my title by a new Duke. And even though Westmorland was a de jure part of the Duchy of Lancaster, I was able to keep it because my main holding was as a vassal of Northumbria.

Of course, another possibility was, after occupying Bernicia for 10 years, King Harald simply thought of me as a vassal already.

Whatever the reason, the Norwegians had failed to completely purge all of the Anglo-Saxon lords. There was another unexpected result of my escaping this purge. It turns out, with me being the only one of the survivors to still be holding two counties (and an adult), I was now considered the leading light of Anglo-Saxon culture.

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