Conscience of the King by Alfred Duggan

Author:Alfred Duggan [Duggan, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2012-09-26T23:00:00+00:00

5.

491–515

The Founding of Wessex – My Wife

Meets with Misfortune

We made a safe voyage across the Channel, and then coasted up the German shore until we reached the mound-villages of the Frisians. There we landed, and journeyed inland to the more fertile and less crowded country where Aella had been living when I first came to his hall. I had a sack-load of gold and silver, and everyone was pleased to see us, though I gave out quite frankly that we had left Britain because I had been turned out of the war-band of the South Saxons. Of course, I did not say why I had been turned out, that would have been altogether too frank; I think most people assumed that Aella had considered me a dangerous rival, and a menace to his young son. Frideswitha was sensible, and she wanted me to be a great man for the sake of Cynric’s future. In public her attitude to me was one of respect and admiration, whatever she thought of me in private, and since men and women mix together a good deal among the Germans she helped to sway public opinion to my side, as the harmless victim of a suspicious ruler.

The Saxons of the Continent are much poorer than their fellows who have plundered the rich provinces of Britain, and my sack of treasure made me the wealthiest man in the countryside. During that first autumn and winter of the year 491 we moved from hall to hall; but I found the lavish gifts that were expected of one in my position a serious drain on the sack, and next year I looked round for a permanent home of my own. As I have already told you, it is almost impossible to buy anything in Germany, for fear of insulting the possessor. In any case no one would dream of selling land, which is a hereditary possession that belongs to the family as a whole. But as all the German tribes are constantly on the move, land does in fact change hands, and not only through the death in battle of the original occupier; the system of mutual gifts provides a way out. I found a comfortable hall, with a good stretch of land attached; it was occupied by a lady whose husband had done well on the northeast coast of Britain, and had sent for his family to join him. In the course of a complicated transaction she made me a present of all future harvests until she or her descendents returned to Germany, and I gave her a well-founded ship to take her to the new settlement by the Wall. In a Roman province one would have said that I bought a lease, but here any such suggestion would have been an unforgivable insult. There is a great deal to be said for the straightforward Roman system of land sales by auction.

I lived peacefully in my hall for the next three years. There were plenty of homeless

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