Alfred Duggan - Lord Geoffreys Fancy

Alfred Duggan 1962

Published by Pantheon Books, a Division of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-11086

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce

this book or portions thereof in any form.

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE page 11

1. LA CREMONIE 15

2. THE LADY ISABEL 29

3. WAR IN NEGRIPONT 43

4. WAR IN SATINES 58

5. SIR GEOFFREY STANDS TRIAL 73

6. THE GRIFONS OF WALLACHIA 88

7. PELAGONIE 107

8. THE GRIFONS 126

9. THE PARLIAMENT OF LADIES 146

10. JEANNE DE CATABAS 160

11. A PILGRIMAGE TO ROME 180

12. THE GRIFON INVASION 197

13. TURKS AND GRIFONS 213

14. THE RETURN OF SIR GEOFFREY 231

15. CONCLUSION 250

AUTHOR'S NOTE 254

WALLACHIA

GLOSSARY OF PLACE-NAMES

Andreville: Andravida

Argues: Argos

Brenice: Prinitza

Mount Caride: Carydi

Castel Rosso: Carystos

Channel of St. George: Dardanelles

River Charbon: Alpheus

Chorinte: Corinth

Clarence: Glarentza

Dalphinet: Daphni

Estives: Thebes

La Bondonice: Boudonitza

La Cremonie: Sparta (Lacedemon)

La Grande Maigne: Maina

La Grite: Calavryta

La Sole: Salona

Lambasse: Lampsacus

Lamorie: the Morea

Malvoisie: Monemvasia

Naples de Romanie: Nauplia

Negripont: Euboea

Nicies: Nikli

Oro: Oreus

Porto Leone: Piraeus

Satines: Athens

Veligoute: Veligosti

Wallachia: Thessaly and Epirus

LORD GEOFFREY'S FANCY

PROLOGUE

Yesterday I overheard one of my grandchildren boasting that his grandmother, my wife, had been a cannibal heathen Turk until she married me. So I have decided to write down the adventures of my youth; partly to inform my descendants of their noble, Christian and civilised ancestry; but partly as some little memorial to the hero I followed in my youth, the best knight in all Romanie, my lord Geoffrey de Bruyere.

I myself was born into one of the great families of England, the Briwerrs. But my father was the younger son of a younger son, holding only a single fee from the Bohuns of the Welsh March; and in the very year of my birth, 1233, the greatness of the Briwerrs vanished with the death of Sir William Briwerr of Devon. He had been one of the foremost barons of England, a stubborn old-fashioned King's Man who told Archbishop Langton to his face that Magna Carta did not bind King Henry, for it had been extorted from his father by force. Yes, while he was alive the Briwerrs mattered. But he left no male heir, and his lands were divided among women. Nowadays there is no great magnate to look after country knights of the house of Briwerr.

Our fee will support only one knight, and I was the third son. Richard would stay at home, and in due time succeed; Henry became a clerk in the family of the Bishop of Hereford, for we all had a sound education; but I told my father, as soon I was old enough to decide, that I had no vocation for the celibate life. In our old-fashioned family we believe that rules are made to be kept, so I could not be a clerk. Since a Briwerr cannot go into trade I must fight for my bread. At twelve years of age I went to learn the profession of arms as a page in Ludlow Castle.

Then my father won a good ransom, and very generously used it to fit me out with sound mail and a destrier. When I was twenty years old, and properly equipped, Lacy of Ludlow dubbed me knight. I came home for a few days, to take leave of my parents before I went out into the world with their blessing.

My mother was interested chiefly in my private life.

"Never seduce a virgin," she said most earnestly. "You'll hear men boast of it, but it's a felon's trick. Half an hour's fun for the man, and the girl ruined for life. Don't rape peasants, either, even if you are ravaging the land of their lord. That's not even fun, for a fastidious gentleman. Marry a nice girl as soon as you can support a wife; and remember that nice girls don't make the first advances. In the meantime, if you please some pretty married lady there's no harm in making her happy so long as you are discreet about it. No harm in this life, I mean; you know your catechism. But chastity is too much to expect from a man, though most men take it for granted in their womenfolk. For the rest, say your prayers night and morning, try not to get excommunicated, and remember that by now your grandmother is probably out of Purgatory and can see from Heaven everything you do. Don't make her ashamed of you."

My father was more practical.

"Choose a good lord and stick to him. Take a ransom if it's offered, and remember that there's no point in killing even a penniless foe after the fighting is over. But if you are going to kill a prisoner, tell him. Let him see a priest if one is handy; then cut his throat and get it over. King John used to lock up his captives and let them starve, not knowing whether they were meant to live or die. That's a beastly trick; no knight should ever do it. That's why you must make sure you serve a good lord. Take wages at the beginning, without giving your fealty; then you can leave without dishonour if you don't like your lord's habits."

He shook a finger in warning.

"Some lords will try to pay you with empty titles, so don't do homage for a fee until you have seizin of it. Grand Babylon would make a very nice barony; but if you are offered it in lieu of wages point out that the infidels hold it and you are not strong enough to dislodge them. Oh, and by the way," he added, "remember that you come from what has been a great family. Our ancestors came here from France in King William's time, but they may have left brothers behind them. If you meet a Briwerr anywhere oversea you may claim kinship with him."

I rode southward from the March into the King's England, with a single servant to lead my packhorse and clean my mail. At Portsmouth they were recruiting for the mesnie of the Earl of Leicester, governor of Gascony, and I enlisted at a wage without any oath of fealty. But one season in Gascony was enough for me, though Earl Simon was an honest lord. The Gascons hated him, King Henry did not trust him, and he was always short of money; I would never get rich while I followed his banner. So early in 1254 I rode eastward into Toulouse, and then on through Provence towards Lombardy. I could have found employment in Toulouse, but it would have meant serving the King of France, who is usually at war with the King of England. That might have brought trouble to my father. But on the far side of the Rhone, and even more on the far side of the Alps, no one either helped or hindered our unfortunate King Henry.

In Lombardy there were wars on every hand; but they were private fights between Guelfs and Ghibellines which were really hereditary blood fends, and a stranger from England would never be trusted. King Manfred of Sicily was recruiting troops and had the reputation of an honest paymaster; but there were a great many Saracens in his army and all his followers were under the special excommunication of the Pope. I felt that my mother would not like me to join him. There were also papal forces, who enjoyed great spiritual benefits; but there was no money to pay them, and in my twenty-first year I needed money more urgently than a safe conduct through Purgatory. I wandered uneasily through Tuscany to the lawless Abruzzi, where any castellan would give me hospitality if I fought for him in the next skirmish; but they were all treacherous brigands, and I had no desire to stay with them.