Copyright Oggbashan May 2020
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons. This story is set at the time of the Hundred Years War.
Conversations are assumed to be in the English and French of the 14th century retold in modern English.
This is a sequel to my 2017 story Men At Arms.
Two years ago we had buried Lord Henry and his wife Lady Agnes. I, as the deputy castellan of the recently finished castle and walls around the now town of Journy-des-Anglais, had been appointed temporary castellan until a suitable replacement could be appointed.
But I was worried. Eight years ago we had occupied Journy at Christmas while retreating from a defeat by the French. Our fifty men, led by the then Sir Henry, had been escorting the baggage train as the older men no longer suitable for the main army. Eight years on, we were all, except Sir Henry's former clerk, who became Squire Giles, much too old to be effective soldiers even defending walls.
Most of us had taken French wives, widowed by the wars. But most of the wives had been too old for child bearing. Even the few children that had been born were far too young. Yes, we had adopted our wives' children from their former marriages but less than five were old enough to become men at arms.
Journy and the castle were at the extreme edge of the English possessions in France and likely to be one of the first places attacked. But could I defend it with the remaining elderly men, survivors of the fifty who had taken it eight years ago? I thought not. Even before Lord Henry died we had been pleading for younger troops from the commander of the English forces in France but he had been reluctant to send efficient soldiers to sit behind walls. He needed every man for his armies in the field.
I really needed a garrison of a minimum of one hundred efficient men. One hundred and fifty would be a more realistic number given that any French army would be likely to attack with thousands. With the old men I now had, we couldn't defend the town's walls and would have to retreat into the castle keep and hope for relief from Calais.
Now I was castellan, even if only temporarily, I could do things I couldn't do as Lord Henry's deputy. I might get reproved by the commander of our armies in France, but six months ago I had sent Giles, now newly knighted as Sir Giles, to try to recruit men at arms from Sir Henry's estates in England and the surrounding area.
My wife Lady Jeanne had made a useful suggestion. Apart from my old men at arms, Journy was very short of men. Almost all the French men had been with the French armies or dead before we occupied. Then we had about two hundred single women who hadn't taken an elderly man at arms as a husband. Now the imbalance was worse, Because of roving bands of bandits many of the surrounding settlements had decided that it would be much safer behind Journy's walls. But almost all that had come to swell the town's population had been single (or widowed) women. We now had five hundred unattached women and no spare men.
So Jeanne suggested that we looked for men at arms who weren't married and we should sell Journy as a town of desperate women who wanted men. She asked Sir Giles, wife, Marie, to go with him, taking their seven year old son and a dozen of Journy's unattached younger women as a sample of what would be waiting for any man at arms who decided to join Journy's garrison.
What Giles and I wanted were experienced men at arms who felt that they were getting beyond battles in the field but could defend walls effectively. We were looking for men in their early thirties, perhaps late twenties.
Three of the women with Giles were sisters, all younger widows of Frenchmen who had been killed with the French army. They found a man at arms, Harold, a giant of a man who thought he was descended from King Harold's mistress Swanhilda. He looked like it. He was well over six feet tall, had a shock of blond hair that he had difficulty fitting under his helmet, and he fought as the Saxons had done at the Battle of Hastings. He carried a heavy axe with a six foot handle that he wielded double-handed. He could outreach swordsmen and he had a shield suspended from his neck that covered him to below the knees. Only someone as strong as Harold could wear a shield like that.
Giles was told that during Harold's last battle in France he had decapitated eight French men at arms and a fully armoured knight, shearing through the plate armour as if it had been butter. He could use a sword or longbow but preferred his axe.
The three sisters couldn't decide which of them should have Harold so gave him an ultimatum. If he came to Journy he could have all three, or none, and then choose someone else. Harold decided to come to Journy and be with the three sisters. Six months ago, when he had been fighting in France, his wife had died in child birth; Harold hadn't been able to attend the funeral of his wife and stillborn son. The idea of defending walls with his women inside was appealing.
Marie had another idea. She also looked for unattached tradesmen. She found a couple of blacksmiths, a farrier, some bowyers, fletchers and others. Giles wrote to me asking for provision to be made for the tradesmen to set up workplaces in Journy. Most started with widows whose husbands had been in the same trade and already had the space and tools.
A year later I was relieved that we were much better balanced. Giles, Marie and the women had recruited two hundred and fifty men for Journy. Forty were tradesmen but they could also fight if needed. I felt that my chances of defending Journy were much better. I'd like more men, so would the unattached women, but the message that Journy needed men and there were available woman was known. Over the next year or so there was a steady trickle of men at arms willing to come to Journy and find a woman's bed,
Every night Lady Jeanne made sure I knew that I was in her bed and she wanted me. Although she was older than most of Journy's women she still wanted sex every night. She rode me. I let her because I was too old to be the active participant every night. I liked seeing her breasts swinging frantically above me as she pounded up and down. A few mornings each year I would wake bundled up and tied in the bedclothes as Jeanne demonstrated again that although I might be the castellan, she owned me and I was her captive Englishman. While I was helpless Jeanne might smother me with her breasts or pussy over a cloth gag so I couldn't bite her. Every time she tied me up her lovemaking afterwards was even more frenzied and I usually slumped into an exhausted sleep.
But I was making myself unpopular. I was unpopular with commander of the English forces in Calais because I had recruited men at arms he wanted. Journy was a garrison town, totally enclosed by the walls of the castle's outer bailey. When we had occupied it, its population was about five hundred, mainly women. Now the population was nearer two and a half thousand. Although I ran it as the acting castellan, I had established a town council to decide matters that usually affected only the civilians such as trading rules. Whatever the town council decreed, my orders took precedence and some were causing my unpopularity.
Lord Henry and now I knew that the French would attack Journy. There was no question of 'if' only when. So far we had had eight years, far longer peace than we had expected, but eventually we would have to defend against a French army. By the end of his first year, Lord Henry had ordered that every household must have a month's supplies of food at all times. Gradually that had been increased and my current order was that that each household must have six months' supply and the garrison a whole year's. I had also ordered that every garden must use at least a quarter of its area for growing green vegetables, and half the castle's formerly lawned areas should also grew green vegetables.
I now had ten sergeants and every three months the sergeants would visit every house to ensure that they had the adequate six months' stock of food. Some households didn't have quite enough and were encouraged, with the threat of fines if they didn't comply, to build up more. One person, Albert, a mercer and town councillor, was always in default. He couldn't see the need for my order and refused. After being fined for three consecutive quarters my patience ran out and I ordered him and his household to be evicted from Journy. He went, grumbling and complaining. Some other members of the Town Council, while obeying, objected strongly.
My other order, following on from Lord Henry's, was that if there had been a good grain crop that a variable percentage was to be taken to the castle as taxation. That was also resented although Journy had far lower taxes than most comparable towns, English or French. The grain stores now at the castle could make bread for everyone for at least a year. That was in addition to the year's supply of food already held by the garrison.
The town of Journy could survive a close siege for at least six months' probably longer though we might be bored of stored food and hungry by the eighth month.
At the start of the tenth year I had been in temporary command for two years while expecting to be replaced by someone more senior at any time. At the time I had been made temporary castellan I had also been made a baron, Baron John of Journy-des-Anglais. Whatever happened I would still be a Baron. Jeanne, who had become Lady Jeanne when I was knighted, had become a Baroness. She still didn't believe it. Before I had married her she had been the widow of a small scale farmer. Now she was the Baroness of Journy. I wasn't sure I believed it either. Ten years ago I had been an elderly sergeant in charge of a baggage train, with no expectations except to retire to a small cottage in England if I survived. Now I had been a knight for ten years and a Baron for two. But I would still like to retire. I was getting old.
