The tide is turning and the forces of the Empress are making inroads into King Stephen’s lands. The Warlord of the North rides south to help the Earl of Gloucester with one final push to dislodge the Usurper but fate has a twist in the tail.
This is book 10 in the Anarchy series: The Fallen Crown.
It details the events leading up to the momentous Battle of Lincoln in 1141. This was a battle which changed the nature of the Civil War. The Earl of Cleveland has to battle not only King Stephen but also Prince Henry of Scotland and a treacherous William Cumin who plots to be Bishop of Durham. A fast moving novel filled with battles and action it culminates in a clash of wills as Alfraed and Stephen square up to each other.
Excerpt
I turned my attention back to the enemy. As much as I would have liked to charge them I knew that our horses, despite the water and the grain, were tired. We would charge but only at the last minute. I saw the enemy horse form into a wedge formation. The ditch which ran alongside the road would be an obstacle. It was why I had chosen this site. He had enough men who were lightly armed who could outflank us but I gambled that he would not. He had weight of numbers and I hoped he would try to use them.
His vanguard had forty knights. They were ten abreast. Behind them came forty men at arms also ten abreast. The other twenty were a reserve. The mass of men, many of whom were on foot, were in a swirling mass with the reserve. As the column came towards us, at the trot, they walked behind. When they were four hundred paces from us I saw the black standard of Edward Fitz Mandeville rise and fall. It was a signal but what did it portend? I soon had my answer. The last twenty men at arms detached themselves and headed obliquely to their right to charge Dick and his archers. At the same time the knights and the rest of the men at arms began to increase speed. The slope made it necessary. They were not coming at us any faster but it was taking more effort to do so.
I donned my helmet and slung my shield over my shoulder and arm. I held my spear in my right hand. I preferred a spear. It was just as long as a lance but easier to wield. “Steady and wait for my command!”
Dick and his archers were under no such order and they began to loose as soon as the twenty men at arms, who charged them, were in range. With Aiden and his men alongside them they were a formidable force. I knew I could ignore that flank. I had to put my plan into operation. When they were a hundred paces from us and galloping, although in truth they laboured up the bank, I shouted, “Charge! For God, England and the Empress!”
My men cheered and we charged. We had a narrower front. Eight knights faced ten but my archers, under Dick’s command, had struck enough of those attacking them to direct their missiles at the main column. They were loosing from the enemies’ right and they had no shields to protect them.
We did not have enough time to get to full speed but the slope and the laboured gait of our enemy meant that we were travelling at the same speed and we had the slope with us. I saw Edward Fitz Mandeville before me. He was a big target. As his lance came towards me I lifted my shield while, at the same time, I used the spear overhand to stab down at him. I hit his shoulder and he tumbled from the back of his horse. His standard bearer, in the second rank, brought the standard down to smash into my spear before I could withdraw it. I had plunged it deep into Fitz Mandeville’s shoulder. I had felt the head strike bone. My sword flashed from my scabbard. The standard bearer was brave. He had no shield. Having used his standard as a weapon he was trying to regain control of his horse when I brought my sword diagonally across his neck. My blade clanged off his helmet and bit into his coif. It was sharp and my arm was strong. It knocked him from his saddle. My blade came away bloody.
We had forced our way into the heart of the enemy and now it was time for the second part of my plan. “Fall back!” I heard Gilles command the squires to do as I had ordered. I played my part and swayed in my saddle as though I had been struck. My men threw their spears at the enemy. We turned and galloped back up the road. We went in two lines and, as we neared the top we dropped into the ditch. I had scouted it out before and found no obstacles.
Wilfred and Edgar led my men at arms to charge into the uncoordinated mass of the enemy and as they did so I shouted, “Aelric! Now!”
