Welsh Castle

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.

*

"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I should have taken my time and then returned to Court to say we were ready, by which time the King would probably have rescinded his command.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."

"I have a younger sister, Blodwen. She is twenty two -- older for an unmarried Welsh woman."

"Why is she still unmarried?"

"The only person who offered as much older and she didn't like him. My father didn't insist when Blodwen made it clear she was reluctant. She is a strong-willed woman but I think she could be a great wife, as a partner, standing beside her man, but never behind him."

"Blodwen sounds like the sort of wife I would want."

A couple of weeks later I went to Cadwallader's base and met Blodwen. She was a small black-haired Welsh woman and It was obvious that she had strong views and an easily aroused temper,. She, like Edwyn, wasn't wholly convinced that having an English castle within their borders was a good thing. But was it still an English castle? With the Welsh archers and masons the numbers were nearly equal. But we now had a small army of female domestics, all Welsh. Welsh, not Norman French, was spoken throughout the castle and my men were becoming more fluent in Welsh.

+++

Two months later we were learning more Welsh, from the priest, the Welsh archers and masons, and the women the Welshmen had brought with them. We had many Welsh women working as domestics. We were unable to learn much about archery from the Welsh archers. Being a skilled archer takes many years of training.

I had some good news. Four King's ships has taken shelter from a storm when they were heading for Bristol. We had repaired their superficial damage and resupplied them before they could continue when the storm had passed. Two of my Cornish castles had defended against raids by Breton pirates, organised by my mother and the King's Commissioners. A King doesn't apologise, but my lands and titles had been restored, a tacit acceptance that I was right to insist that my castles should remain manned. My mother had recruited forty experienced men at arms that she was sending to me in Wales.

A month later before the new men at arms arrived, the Breton pirates attacked the Welsh harbour further along the coast and were repelled by Cadwallader's men.

We moved our repaired ship further inside the estuary. Our bailey walls were still incomplete when the Bretons attacked us. I was worried because we had so few men, but the Welsh archers kept them at bay until one of our maids had informed Cadwallader who sent Edwyn with a large force to drive them off. We captured a damaged Breton ship and repaired it to become part of Cadwallader's forces.

"Why, Malcolm, did you give the ship to my father?" Edwyn asked.

"Edwyn, I am your father's liegeman, and yours, subject to my fealty to the English King. What is mine, is his, and yours. Although King Rufus has restored my lands and titles he probably won't forget than he was annoyed with me. I am safer based in Wales. But I know you aren't as pleased as your father to see an English castle on your lands. Giving the ship away is a small thing but I would like you and I to be friends and allies.

"And you renamed it 'Blodwen'. Why?"

"I hope that will please her. I like her, and if she'll have me, I would like to marry her, Edwyn."

"That's her decision, Malcolm. She's still not sure about Englishmen."

"I'm not really English. I am a Norman. Yes, my King is King of England, but we still think of ourselves as Norman, and speak Norman French."

I laughed.

"Actually, we speak Welsh much more frequently than Norman French. I am a Welsh liegeman, living in Wales, and owe fealty to you and your father, which means more to me than my fealty to King Rufus who could always become annoyed with me again."

"But when your other men arrive, you will have an English garrison."

"Cornish, Edwyn. That makes a difference. The Cornish are nearly as independent of the English King as you are to the other Princes of Wales. They follow me, not the King. That is one of the things that upset King Rufus. He isn't sure that Cornishmen and Cornish Lords are as supportive of him as they should be. We are, but he's suspicious."

"Is he justified in that suspicion?"

"No. We are Cornish but we can see advantages in supporting the King of England, as long as he doesn't try to restrict our own rights and customs. He's not likely to do that. Other parts of England, like Kent, have their own peculiar customs and laws. King Rufus is unlikely to want to change them as long as our soldiers will be there for him. They will -- but not at the expense of leaving Cornwall, or here, undefended. My castle and harbour are becoming a useful place of refuge for English ships facing bad weather."

"And those ships are helping you to increase trade..."

"Which benefits your father and you, Edwyn. We can take larger ships that the town along the coast."

"OK, Malcolm. When I get back I will ask Blodwen if she is willing to consider you as her husband."

"Please, Edwyn, don't push her too hard. I don't want Blodwen to feel she has no choice. She could react badly."

"I don't think she will. She likes you more than I do. Yes, we are friends, and you have sworn fealty to me, but I am still worried that you might side with the English against us."

"I won't Edwin. The King has my fealty, but while I am in Wales, that is meaningless. A month ago I contacted my uncle at the court and asked him to try to see what the King's reaction would be if I married Blodwen. Technically I need the King's permission to marry anyone. Since I am in Wales I can ignore that but I don't want to upset the King."

"Any reply yet?"

"Yes. My uncle says that the King won't object."

"OK, Malcolm. I'll try to find out what Blodwen thinks."

"Thank you, Edwyn."

About a week later Edwyn returned bringing Blodwen. She was accompanied by six ladies-in-waiting, more than she usually has. As a younger daughter she has two, but since this was a formal visit she had borrowed four more.

She sent one of them to ask me to come to see her in our newly completed Great Hall. When I entered, alone, she was standing in front of the High Table, flanked by her ladies. I came forward and dropped to my knees in from of her.

In faltering Welsh I asked her to marry me.

To my surprise she answered in perfect Norman French.

"Malcolm, do you know the consequences of what you are asking?"

"I think so, Blodwen. What consequences do you mean?"

"If you marry me, I will be the onsite commander of this castle whenever you are away. This will be a Welsh castle, and your men will be responsible to me. This will not be YOUR castle, but mine. Are you prepared for that?"

"Yes, Blodwen. I want a partner as well as a wife, a partner that will help me."

"More than that, Malcolm. You will be the junior partner. I am a Welshwoman and we run our men. I will run you. Are you still willing to propose?"

I swallowed.

"Yes, Blodwen." I replied.

"Very well. Before I give an answer I will show you how things will be. Stay kneeling. Ladies?"

I hadn't noticed, but all six of Blodwen's ladies-in-waiting had a wide ribbon tied around their waists. They came forward and bound my arms and legs before gently lowering me to the floor at Blodwen's feet. Blodwen took a similar ribbon from around her waist and gagged me with it. She bent down and took off a sandal before pressing her bare foot over my face.

"You are now my captive, Malcolm. You can't do anything to me but I could suffocate you or just kick you. This is a symbol of your submission to me. Are you still wanting to marry a woman who would control you?"

I nodded, all I could do.

Blodwen dropped to her knees and pulled my gagged head to her lap. Her hand stroked my hair.

"One last thing, Malcolm, and I'll give you my answer. You have sixty Cornishmen as part of your garrison. Are you willing to let then give their fealty to me?"

I nodded again.

Blodwen sighed before she and her women untied me. Blodwen led me behind the High Table, sat me down, and pointedly sat on my lap, winding her arms around my head before kissing me.

"Malcolm, pleas ask your men to come here."

I sent one of her ladies to bring my commander. A quarter of an hour later my sixty men were lined up in front of us.

I told them That I had proposed to Blodwen, and if she married me, she would be in charge of them. Were they prepared to swear fealty to Blodwen?

They agreed that they would. To my surprise Blodwen addressed them in fluent Cornish. She asked for their fealty. Each one of them came forward, one by one, placed their hands between hers, and swore their fealty, first in Cornish, then in Norman French, and finally in Welsh.

Blodwen turned to me.

"Now, Malcolm, I want your fealty too..."

I repeated what my men had said, kneeling in front of her.

"I will marry you, Malcolm," Blodwen said. "But you will be mine."

"Thank you, Blodwen. When?"

"You have a priest here. In a few days when my father and the rest of my family can come."

+++

And so it was. A few days later we married with a Latin nuptial mass. After we had made our vows in Latin we repeated them, first in Welsh ,then in Norman French and finally in Cornish.

After the wedding, in front of everyone, Blodwen asked me to re-pledge my fealty to her. I dropped to my knees in front of her and did.

She helped me to stand up again, and then, to my surprise, she knelt before me and gave me her fealty. I am her husband and Lord, but I am also hers.

+++

That night, in the marital bed, Blodwen kissed me passionately and often before using her ribbons to tie my wrists and elbows to the side of my body, and my legs together. She presented her naked breast for me to suck and nibble before she moved down and engulfed my erection. She kept me tied for over an hour before she released me, but she rode me twice more that night.

+++

Over the next few nights her bondage was more symbolic than real. My wrists were loosely tied bedside my body until we had coupled once and then Blodwen untied me. After that, just telling me not to touch was enough. When she was really pleased with me she would let me ride her once that night but she complained I was too tall and too heavy to do it often.