Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Peaceweaver > Status Update

The elite of England, brave fighting men, backed up by untrained ploughmen, blacksmiths and grim-faced monks whose flanks were ungirded, armed only with clubs and maces. To one side, the archers stood ready, their arrows stuck into the ground around them, ready to fly in rapid succession. While my stomach heaved with fear, all of England stood ready; prepared to spill without mercy the Norman blood upon our shore.

“She isn’t my wife. We were hand-fasted twenty years ago. Eadgytha is a good woman and has given me many happy years and some fine sons. I will never abandon her but the king and queen agree that I need a gently born wife. One who can climb to the heights with me, who will fight at my side and, if we go under, will rise with me again, still fighting. I say you are that woman, Eadgyth. Say you will have me.”

‘For some reason, Queen Edith had decided that I was to be a favourite. She slipped her hand through the crook of my elbow and proceeded to lead me around the room, introducing me in such a way that no one dared snub me. Her conversation did not falter and her voice was loaded with insincerity as she gushed and simpered over me as if we were old friends. The court looked on with feigned delight’

“I say that as the life drains from me, I will curse you. All that is now yours will perish, your strongholds will fall, your treasures will be lost and your people will turn from you. Your country will founder, and never again rise to power. Your countrymen will be vassals … forever more. That is my curse, Gruffydd ap Llewellyn, and I will die willingly if it may be so.”

‘There is no one in this stricken land who flees King William more diligently than we, for Eadgytha, long time known as the Gentle Swan, was twenty years King Harold’s mistress, and I, also named Eadgyth, was Harold’s queen, and mother to the Ætheling, Harold Haroldsson, who even now tumbles in play with his brother upon the dusty floor.’