Chapter 6: Forward onto Freedom
War came to the North once again, this time by Derby’s instigation. Our forces quickly rallied to Warwick, the scene of infanticide and murder. Mercian men were not prepared nor expecting a rebellion of such strength, and thus were separated from each other, to their cost.
Warwick saw half their army slaughtered before they were properly raised, and a path through the realm was opened. Derby knew however that his army, and his coin, would only march so far and last so long. So he needed to strike hard while the iron of his enemies was soft. And he did. The Saxon men of Wessex were swift and hardy, cutting down all in their path. Mercia was open to invasion and pillaging, but Derby knew he had to force another, conclusive battle, lest the boy king reformed his men and truly fought back. The rebellion could not fight such a war and win.
So it was that Derby forced another battle, this time on the outskirts of Sherwood forest. There three enemy commanders, Old Offa retainers, were killed. Two hundred men of Mercia were slain and for only one score of rebel soldiers. His point made, Derby ordered a march on Leicester and sent heralds before him to every village and the city itself, proclaiming that either the Earl would find a flag of truce there, or no men at all. If any men were to be found otherwise, they would be put to the sword. Mercia did not hear his claims. Thus, the city was put to siege and for many months, the nerve of the king was tested against Derby’s, each knowing that a flinch would prove fatal. What would fail first, Old Offa’s food and walls or Old Chester’s purse?
Eventually, perhaps humorously, both men moved in the same instant. On the very day Derby was organising an assault, the king sallied out to disperse the rebel band. Fortune favouring him, Derby quickly brought his plan into motion and pushed back, and back, until the walls were behind his own men and the city began to fall. Resistance melted away when the boy king and court fled the field, leaving Derby in Offa’s old seat and, for the first time, in command of his own destiny.
Here he first met his son, now a man grown, as an equal and commander in the rebellion. The youth was clever, having been tutored at the hand of Old Chester himself, and was a child both of war and peace. Derby looked upon him and was pleased.
But the war was not yet over, though it had most certainly been won. Mercia yet remained a power in the country and repulsing the king meant only that he would face further recrimination from his council, not that Derby could walk free. No, a great battle was required to disperse the growing army of Mercia one last time, to thoroughly exhaust the king’s patience and coffers if not his reserves of men. Derby of course was becoming poorer too, though the capture of Leicester had helped immensely with keeping the Saxon Band attentive. Burton was the place of the enemy encampment whilst they gathered their forces. Derby therefore threw caution to the wind, buoyed by past fortune and victory. And in a battle of thousands, he emerged victorious. The king was destitute and unpopular, the realm burning and the people beaten. He conceded defeat, with a grace similar to that of his blessed father.
Derby and Chester were now free from the chains of Mercian kings and their fallen kingdom. Free to pursue higher causes and greater destinies. What, may you ask? Well…I’m glad you asked. For now, we have reached the end of the beginning. Here then, the House of Lancaster would be born from the fires of war, and unite the whole North, the whole Isles! Against whatever fate and devil may throw at us!
