Welsh Castle
Copyright Oggbashan April 2021
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 during the reign of William Rufus (1087 -- 1100). Conversations are assumed to be in Norman French, Welsh, Cornish and Latin retold in modern English.
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"Malcolm? You are an idiot. Get on your horse and go!"
My uncle was insistent. Within quarter of an hour, I was on the road to Cornwall.
Life isn't easy for those that upset a King. It was such a simple thing. William Rufus asked me to bring my retainers from Cornwall to join him fighting in Normandy. I suggested that they would be better used protecting my castles there against any invasion. That was enough to annoy him. I was banished from the Court, my possessions confiscated, and if I hadn't fled London as quickly as I could, I might have been imprisoned in the Tower of London until the King's rage passed -- which it would in weeks if not days.
If I had been more experienced, I would have known better. But my father had died two months ago and I had only been at Court for ten days, to receive my lands as my father's heir and to declare my fealty to the King. He didn't know me; I didn't know him. What I should have said was "Yes, of course, Your Majesty. Can I have leave to return to Cornwall to prepare my men?" I should have taken my time and then returned to Court to say we were ready, by which time the King would probably have rescinded his command. But even a suggestion that I was reluctant was enough to annoy him.
I reached Cornwall long before the King's commissioners and packed up my valuables, and everything I thought I might want and took a ship, going from Falmouth via Bristol to Dublin where I thought I would be safe until the King relented. My friends would urge my case with the King and probably I would be restored to favour soon. I left my mother in charge and told my soldiers manning my castles to cooperate with the King's men when they arrived.
All might have been well. But it was late Autumn and sea passages could be dangerous. We took a risk, and lost. We ran into a SW storm and were wrecked on the coast of South Wales. Or perhaps not wrecked as such, but damaged making our ship unseaworthy. We managed to enter a river estuary and ground the ship before we sank.
The Captain and owner was worried. His ship was unseaworthy. He couldn't deliver to Dublin, and without trading he had no income. I bought the ship from him, with its cargo of building materials and employed him and his sailors.
We were below a rocky outcrop and where were we seemed to be a secure harbour navigable for medium sized ships. There was no one around nor any sign of human habitation. We unloaded the ship to attempt repairs. I was worried that we could be vulnerable if we were found by the Welsh so I erected a palisade around the top of the mound and extended it down the sides including two springs of water. Three weeks later our defences were reasonably secure but we couldn't repair the ship to make it seaworthy for what it might encounter at this time of year. We didn't have the materials.
At the end of those three weeks a Welsh herald came from the local Prince, Cadwallader. We received him with courtesy and told him that we had been shipwrecked, and until we could get materials to repair the ship, we were stuck at least to the Spring. We were not an invasion -- just shipwrecked mariners. I accompanied him about twenty five miles to where the Prince was currently staying.
My discussions with Prince Cadwallader were satisfactory. He agreed, for money, to lease as the land around the estuary as long as we signed a defensive alliance. We would not attack him. He would not attack us. If a force attempted to land where we were to try to attack him, we would defend the route inland until the Welsh prince's forces could arrive.
The reason that the estuary was unused? Ten miles down the coast was a better but small harbour with a town. An estuary with a poor track inland was not much use to the Welsh so we could have it. I was grateful. It was beyond the reach of William Rufus' rage, even if he was still annoyed with me.
Now that we had legal ownership of the land, we set to work to turn our palisade into a proper castle. It might take five years but the materials were around and we had the skills. Within six months we had a shell keep on top of the mound that extended down the slope to include the first spring. We had water. We had supplies after we had made our way along the coast to the town. The supplies had come by small ship as had materials to repair our ship but that would still take months.
One February night we noticed a ship in difficulties about one mile offshore. It had lost its mainmast. We hurriedly lit signal beacons so it could seek refuge in the estuary. It was a King's ship that had been heading for Bristol. Within a week, the sailors of our ship, aiding the new ship's crew, were able to repair it so it could continue its journey. I sent letters to my mother and to King William. I asked my mother to arrange to recruit some more men at arms. Although we had defences, I had only had twenty men at arms that weren't enough to defend the walls if we were attacked. My men were exhausted from building the castle and now I was expecting then to build a proper stone wharf and a breakwater to protect against the strong waves that only came with SSW gale -- very rarely but threatening.
During the week that the ship was being repaired I went back to Cadwallader and get his permission to provide refuge and repairs to any ship that was no threat to him. The nearby town had only a small crowded harbour, heavily used and not really suitable for repairs to sea-going ships. I advised the King that my estuary could be used by King's ships that needed it.
But the Welsh Prince was old. His son, Edwyn, about my age, would inherit in a couple of years and I was aware he wasn't as happy to find an English castle so close as his father had been. I tried to make friends with him and say that we were not threat to him or his people, but I could see he was still worried, especially since the track inland had gradually been improved because so many local people used it to trade with us. If the improvements continued it could become a useful route for any invaders -- that I would try to stop, of course, but with only twenty men? Could I? He was worried that my inadequate force could be easily brushed aside.
So was I. Even a small invasion force would overwhelm us easily. All we might be able to do was delay them for a few hours. I needed more men.
Cadwallader decided he would come to visit us. I protested that we were still a building site but he would bring his tents by sea. The road inland was still poor beyond the five miles we had improved it. When his ship arrived it was towing two local fishing boats that had collided. They had broken a couple of planks above the waterline but started some leaks below. The fishing boats crews were bailing frantically and relieved to be hauled up on to the hard standing beside our wharf.
Our workmen and sailors started work on the repairs even as Cadwallader's ship was being unloaded. By the time he arrived the repairs were almost finished and he was delighted that we had worked so hard for Welsh fishermen. He asked for the amount that was owed to us but I replied that it would be free as a professional courtesy to distressed mariners. Cadwallader and Edwyn inspected our castle as far as it had progressed. They could see that much more work needed to be done but when finished, for its small size, it would be stronger than any castle Cadwallader had. Edwyn had a small quibble. He thought the embrasures in our battlements were too wide. Any competent Welsh archer could kill anyone using them. Cadwallader agreed and offered to sell us some timber to erect wooden barricades.
That evening we had a banquet in Cadwallader's tent, far more comfortable than my as yet roofless hall. Cadwallader was surprised but pleased when I offered him my formal fealty, reserving that due to King William Rufus for my lands in England. But when in Wales I would be Cadwallader's man. After he had accepted my fealty, I offered to promise the same to Edwyn, as Cadwallader's deputy.
Edwyn asked his father first.
"Edwyn, you should always accept freely offered fealty. We need allies and Malcolm, although weak in men at present, could be a help to us."
Edwyn accepted my fealty. As soon as he had done so, Cadwallader announced than now I was his man, he would send ten Welsh archers to augment our strength, and ten masons to help with the castle building, and to learn Norman techniques of fortification. He also offered a young Welsh priest, not just to look after our spiritual needs, but to teach us Welsh. I accepted all his offers with gratitude. So far the castle's chapel was still a wooden building but the stone chapel should be completed in about three month's time.
Later that day I had a quiet word with Edwyn. I was concerned that he had been reluctant to accept my fealty.
"Edwyn? I'm not sure you trust me."
"You are right, Malcolm. You are English and I am unsure how far to trust you, but... But? In Wales, family relationships are important. Yet we are not related. That makes me wary."
"OK, Edwyn. I'm single and unmarried. Have you any female relations I could consider?"
"You're serious?"
"Yes. I want to stay in Wales, safe from my King's easily aroused anger."
