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II. A New England (1070-1075)
II. A New England (1070-1075)
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England in 1071
(Apologies for the highlight on Northumbria, this is the best picture of this timeframe I had saved)
The early years of William's reign were marked by a restructuring of the realm. Most of England's southern aristocracy was left destitute, with William appointing Norman nobles to their positions, with the only pre-conquest earl left being Cadoc. While his support in Normandy's victory in the War of English Succession and the union of their children surely placated William, it is also very likely that the new monarch just plainly liked Cadoc, as posterior letters imply high esteem on the king's part toward his vassal.
Unfortunately, this wasn't enough for William to concede Devon, whether directly or as a vassal. No, while it had friends in high places, Cornwall's influence didn't change in the slightest, it remained the humble county it ever was. Instead, Devon became the seat of one Richard de Brionne, an ambitious and greedy man, infamous for his ruthless pillaging during the war.
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Meanwhile in the north, surprisingly, not only was House Godwin allowed to maintain all of its gains in Northumbria, but the end of the war also saw the release of Wulfnoth Godwineson and his ascension to the Earldom of Mercia. The reason behind William's leniency towards what were essentially rivals for the throne is unknown, but it might have been a result of the Anglo-Saxon unrest that followed William's conquest.
With the looming threat of Anglo-Saxon revolt and the existence of agitators like Hereweard the Wake, a nobleman with a claim to the throne who could lead the rebels was the last thing a monarch could want, thus William might have opted to compromise with the Northumbrian noble. Much like he did to Harold years before he snatched the crown from Edward's cold forehead, William might have demanded an oath from Tostig, however, this one was founded less on coercion and more on a mutually beneficial pact. Tostig paid homage and gave his word not to stir trouble in exchange for the maintenance of his titles and the freedom of his brother.
While that may have worked for a while, one must not forget how deals with the scions of Godwin tend to end.
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While he lamented his son's arrogance, Cadoc did respect his guts. He felt like the boy had the impetus necessary to guide Cornwall one day. He thought that–with the right guidance–Peder could do great things, although what father doesn't think that of his son?
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In September, an unexpected proposal reached Cadoc. The 15-year-old Prince William–recently appointed Earl of Dorset–requested the hand of his firstborn daughter, Rioantdrec, in marriage. While the thought of giving his two daughters to the Normans wasn't all that pleasant, an alliance with Dorset and the tightening of the bonds between Cornwall and its conquerors were both welcome. Thus, with the earl's blessing, a second betrothal between the houses of Normandie and Cerneu was declared.
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As November's end neared, William announced his plans for his coronation on February 2nd of the next year, inviting vassals and foreign rulers alike to attend. Cadoc, of course, heeded the call, departing on the 25th of the same month, with the expected arrival being on the 21st of January. Unfortunately, there were some delays, one of which is told in a Cornish folk tale.
According to tradition, while passing through Basingstoke, the earl's entourage happened upon a village right when the locals were celebrating the marriage between two great local clans. The story tells that the commoners, upon seeing the earl's procession, invited them to partake in the festivities. Cadoc, in a show of humility, accepted the offer. This delayed the journey by about ten days, but, when questioned by one of his companions, Cadoc simply responded: "Those commoners gave me a seat at their table, allowed me to peer into one of the happiest moments of their lives, the least I could do was give them a little of my time".
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Cadoc arrived on the 31st of January, and, as scheduled, William was crowned by Fulk–his suffragan bishop–on the 2nd of February. Long live the king!
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William abandoned his mortal coil on the 21st of February, 1074. He died from wounds sustained during a visit to the Duchy of Gelre, where he was attacked by a band of ruffians. Even though he was close to one of the Duke's holding–Guelders–no men were sent to support the King of England. Upon his death, the Curia Regis–the Norman replacement for the Witan–elected William's firstborn, Robert Curthose, to the kingship. The young king, while ambitious, didn't have any great accomplishments or display any notable skills, he hadn't even been entrusted an earldom after the Conquest.
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A few months later, the sorrow of the kingdom would be overshadowed by the celebration of the Cerneu, as the 4th of June saw the birth of Cadoc's fourth child, Salomon, named after both the 5th-century Cornish warrior-king and the biblical King of Israel.
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A particular event marked the August of 1075, one that has since been imprinted into the folklore around Cadoc. A commoner, Madron, came before the earl's court with quite an eccentric offer, an enchanted meal, capable of concending visions from beyond the veil. The earl's bishop was disgusted at the proposition, calling the man a witch.
However, Cadoc didn't see it that way. While pious, he was no zealot and not the bit aloof to the superstitions of the commoners, and how every single one had a grain of truth. Moreover, the elder had piqued his curiosity, thus he accepted the magical supper.
It's said that Cadoc was never the same after that experience. No one has certainty as to what he saw, the only thing they knew is that it wasn't good. Cadoc screamed of hellfire, torture, and anguish for as long as the fish's effect lasted. While scarring, this experience did appear to have a silver lining, as the earl seemed to emerge wiser, more learned from his delirium.
The bishop insisted the witch was captured and executed immediately, but, when the men searched for Madron, they couldn't find anything. An investigation was launched to find him, but, there were no registers of him, no memories of his person in the village where he claimed to live, no sightings of this grim figure after Cadoc's encounter with it.
Truth be told, no one, in all of Cadoc's demesne, knew of this man.
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While Cadoc languished in his visions, unrest spread through the kingdom. Though William had managed to mitigate the flames of rebellion, with no faction posing a significant danger to the Norman monarchy, his death fueled them.
Three major oppositions to the throne rose, the strongest of which was Robert's own kin, Richard of Normandy, who could raise an army half the size of his liege's, potentially even more if William Rufus or other vassals chose to back him.
The other two were the Godwin siblings, whose major obstacle, ironically, wasn't the king, but each other. While Mercia supported the restoration of Harold to the throne, Northumbria eyed the crown for itself. This divided the Anglo-Saxons, significantly hampering the chances of any revolt.
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Still, it would be foolish to ignore these threats and the clear issue underlining them, legitimacy. Thus, on the 8th of November, Robert announced his plans for a coronation ceremony. What was unexpected, however, was its location and the hands that would lay the crown upon the monarch's head. Robert was to be blessed by the Pope himself in Rome, in a grand celebration.
Compelled by both his obligation to the king and the opportunity to visit one of the most important sites of Christendom, Cadoc set sail a few days later.
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Post Scriptum
Sorry for this rather uneventful update. Normally, I wouldn't make a chapter solely dedicated to it, but I want to make Cadoc's journey to Rome its own, more narrative-style, chapter, so this one does the heavy lifting of setting that up. It will be my first crack at a short story in English, so I hope you all are as excited to read it as I am to write it (May the Lord help me though, because I am not a good character writer at all).
I don't know if it was noticeable, but the narration voice changed a bit in this chapter. I don't know, I felt like, during my first pass, I accidentally made it a little "less dry", I don't quite know how to explain it, then I just decided to run with it. Regardless, tell me how you few about this and which one you prefer.
I also tried to give Cadoc some more characterization. I picture him as a rather down-to-earth guy, just a genuinely kind man who isn't too good for anything and eager to help. This is probably much more personable than any realistic depiction of a medieval ruler should reasonably be, but I feel like I can handwave that as creative liberty and him simply being a bit more connected to his people, as the ruler of a rather small chunk of land with a rather prominent focus on its communal identity, than a lord with huge dominion could be. Also, I simply want to write a paragon-ish character lol
The death of William sure was unexpected. I hope another Norman tries to make the Domesday Book a thing, otherwise my mention of it in the first chapter would be rather nonsensical.
A funny tidbit about William's demise. Hereweard the Wake ditched England while I was not paying attention and, a few months before William's visit, he conquered Berlin from one of the independent pagan (?) duchies. William was probably on his way to some tournament or something of the sort in the Holy Roman Empire when he was attacked, one that Hereweard would have most likely attended as a local ruler. So, I like to imagine Hereweard and his men just saw William on their way and decided to jump the bloke, while the local duke just shrugged and went "Not my problem". I don't care how much of a stretch that is, it's funny enough that I want to canonize it in this universe.
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Even though William is gone, the Anglo-Saxons shouldn't divide themselves and make themselves weaker for when some Norman decides to get rid of them.
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It's such a shame for the Anglo-Saxons, their cause was weakened purely because of Northumbrian greed. A united House Godwin during the Interregnum in the fallout of William's death would have proved a formidable opposition to the Normans, but, alas, it wasn't meant to be, at least not yet.
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Another good chapter. Regarding William Rufus' election as king in 1074, did the Curia Regis serve as a body to truly elect the king, carrying over Anglo-Saxon tradition, or was it more akin to a faux election, with England being inherited by Rufus?
This depiction could make sense, given the fact that few people lived in Cornwall during the Middle Ages. Today, the county's population is just shy of 600,000 people—less than 1% of the UK's population. While Cadoc certainly wouldn't know everyone in Cornwall, but say, if he ruled in a historic administrative centre like Bodmin or Launceston, I'd think it wouldn't be unrealistic to see him quite connected to the people.
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The election narrative mostly served to bolster legitimacy, something that Curthose was much in need of. Realistically, William could have chosen any of his sons as successor just like he did on our timeline, but the constrictions of the game's mechanics force the election of Robert, which is a tad ironic, given he was the only one of the three brothers to never reign and had quite the turbulent relationship with his father. Maybe that known disapproval by the late king is a part of the reason why so many contested his rule.
In OTL, an example of election in Norman England can be found in Henry I, who had himself "elected" by a small group of barons as a means to bypass Robert's claim.
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Oh my goodness! I had convinced myself that Rufus was elected king, despite your narrative clearly showing the contrary. I must profusely apologise for such a bone-headed mistake.
How I swapped the two men around, I shall never know myself.
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Honestly, he should have been, as he was clearly favored by his father.Oh my goodness! I had convinced myself that Rufus was elected king, despite your narrative clearly showing the contrary. I must profusely apologise for such a bone-headed mistake.
How I swapped the two men around, I shall never know myself.
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I noticed I made a mistake, a rather big one, in this chapter. In the section about factions, I mentioned Richard standing as an opposition to his brother, but he didn't actually form his faction, in fact, he isn't even involved in it. The actual leader of his supporters is William Rufus. I will probably rewrite that part in the next couple of days, whenever I get around to it.
I won't say much to avoid spoilers and because I haven't played much ahead (I probably will now though, I think won't start writing the third chapter until I reach the death of Cadoc in-game), but, let's just say, he is shaping into quite a different person from his older brother. He does take a bit after his father, but not much. There is also a rather interesting event surrounding him, one that will have to be reinterpreted because of yet another mistake I made when I wrote the last chapter (This one is not as big as the previous and I decided to stick with it because I find the resulting narrative kind of interesting).
I won't say much to avoid spoilers and because I haven't played much ahead (I probably will now though, I think won't start writing the third chapter until I reach the death of Cadoc in-game), but, let's just say, he is shaping into quite a different person from his older brother. He does take a bit after his father, but not much. There is also a rather interesting event surrounding him, one that will have to be reinterpreted because of yet another mistake I made when I wrote the last chapter (This one is not as big as the previous and I decided to stick with it because I find the resulting narrative kind of interesting).
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Thanks for the new chapter. Interesting to see how this is unfolding.
Good luck on writing your next chapter, despite the challenges you lay out. I'm sure it will turn out better than you think.
I actually think you could have developed this into its own chapter. I know William isn't your main character but this is a good story.
Good luck on writing your next chapter, despite the challenges you lay out. I'm sure it will turn out better than you think.
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Honestly, I considered giving it a narrative segment in this chapter (Sort of like the Vinous Vendetta intermission in @High Speed Flying Gladius' Burgundian AAR, which I absolutely adored reading in-between writing the first draft and final pass of this chapter), very hard, but I eventually decided against it. Maybe I will revisit the idea later, I could still write it as an extra chapter, in fact, the more I think about it, the more I warm up to the idea of a Monty Python-esque short story about a straight man William playing off of Harold's band of lunatics out for revenge for Anglo-Saxon England.
Thank you! I hope so, I'm really excited to do it, but also pretty anxious.
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Yes, the work of @High Speed Flying Gladius is also a very good model to follow. Definitely some good story telling there.
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Is that all that much of a stretch? I direct you to the life of Simon de Montfort the Younger; he and his brother ran across a rival in a church in Italy and basically did jump him.
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William's untimely death has opened up a vaccuum when England doesn't need it. But it looks like Cadoc is content enough to not take advantage of things. Good for him.
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That was quite an interesting read, thank you for showing me it. The jumping part is pretty plausible, it's the part about Harold being in the Netherlands that is a bit farfetched.
Cadoc is quite lacking in ambition, I'm afraid. While it would be nice to have Devon, it hasn't rested on Cerneu hands since the fall of the old kingdom, Cornwall went on without it for two centuries now, it can do without the earldom for two more, from his point of view. He also doesn't actively seek personal glory.
So he is just kind of happy with where he is at in life, which is one of the reasons I want to try out more narrative chapters with him, because, from the perspective of history books, the earl is a bore.
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I would just like to say thank you for the support of all readers, you guys have been real nice.
I feel like I got to a point in the game where I can go back to writing again. However, I feel like you should be informed that the next chapter won't be Cadoc's journey, no, I will actually make the William extra. It will be quite unlike the rest of this AAR, it will be dumb, it will be silly, and it will be fun (At least for me).
I expect to finish this in a couple days, see you then.
I feel like I got to a point in the game where I can go back to writing again. However, I feel like you should be informed that the next chapter won't be Cadoc's journey, no, I will actually make the William extra. It will be quite unlike the rest of this AAR, it will be dumb, it will be silly, and it will be fun (At least for me).
I expect to finish this in a couple days, see you then.
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I can see why this won an award, impressive work for a first AAR.
I'll admit I don't particularly like Cerneu, nothing to do with the writing I just think anyone who is friends with The Norman Bastard is a wrong un. I'm also deeply suspicious of his response to the fish supper, Cornwall is the land of fish (and tin, pasties and correctly ordered cream teas) so no true Cornishmen should react that way to fish, though I suppose being friends with William would be a one way trip to Hell so perhaps it is not that surprising.
Anyway looking forward to the William Extra scene and hoping Cerneu falls off the boat and is eaten by sea gulls while on his journey.
I'll admit I don't particularly like Cerneu, nothing to do with the writing I just think anyone who is friends with The Norman Bastard is a wrong un. I'm also deeply suspicious of his response to the fish supper, Cornwall is the land of fish (and tin, pasties and correctly ordered cream teas) so no true Cornishmen should react that way to fish, though I suppose being friends with William would be a one way trip to Hell so perhaps it is not that surprising.
Anyway looking forward to the William Extra scene and hoping Cerneu falls off the boat and is eaten by sea gulls while on his journey.
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I'm glad to see you're also enlightened, much unlike Cornwall's eastern neighbour.
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