The Battle of Carham by H A Culley

Author:H A Culley [Culley, H A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orchard House Publishing
Published: 2019-04-10T16:00:00+00:00

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‘I won’t be able to go riding with you after today,’ Gunwald told Eadulf as they rested their horses after racing along the north bank of the River Thames. Both the groom and Fiske had accompanied them but remained at a discreet distance.

Gunwald had won but then he was the more experienced rider by far, though the other boy was improving quickly.

‘Oh,’ Eadulf said, unable to hide his dismay. ‘Why, are you tired of winning all the time?’

‘No,’ Bjorn’s son laughed. ‘You have improved a lot over the past month and I enjoy riding with you and, if I’m honest, your company generally, especially since we started to learn the basics of swordsmanship together. No, my foster father is being sent on a mission to Northumbria and he thinks it will be good experience for me if I go with him.’

‘Really?’

Eadulf’s mind was racing. The only thing he liked about living in the king’s palace was the time he spent with the king’s bastard. His earnest desire was to rejoin his half-brother Aldred and now he saw a way of achieving this.

‘You know my brother has estates in Bernicia; I would dearly love to see him again. Do you think your foster father would take me with you?’

‘I’m sure he would be agreeable if I ask him, but I’m not so sure your mother and the queen would be so happy to lose you.’

Eadulf’s heart sank. At nearly nine he was beginning to think of himself as a man. He was taller than Gunwald and looked more like ten or eleven, but that made little difference to how Ælfgifu saw him. However, the queen had just given birth to a son who she had named Harthacnut, meaning Cnut the Tough, and her mind and that of Eadulf’s stepmother were on the political implications of his birth.

Ælfhelm, a former Earl of Deira, had a daughter, Elgiva. As earl Ælfhelm had been indolent and ineffective and therefore King Æthelred had him disposed of so that he could make Uhtred Earl of all Northumbria. The king also had Ælfhelm’s sons blinded, which had enraged the people of Deira and made Æthelred even more unpopular.

When Sweyn Forkbeard seized the crown he married his son, Cnut, to Elgiva to increase his acceptance in the North. Once Cnut was secure on the English throne she became less significant politically and he divorced her in order to marry Emma of Normandy. Nevertheless, Elgiva remained important as the mother of Cnut’s two eldest sons – Svein and Harold.

‘The king will be pleased that you have presented him with a son, lady,’ Ælfgifu said as she took the baby away to give to the wet nurse.

‘Yes, I’m sure. I suspect that Elgiva will be less pleased. Harthacnut represents a threat to her sons.’

‘You think that she intends harm to him?’ her daughter asked in alarm.

‘Not physically, no. But she will plead with Cnut for him to name one of her brats as his heir.’

At that moment one of Emma’s maids entered the room and stood nervously at the door.

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