At two o’clock Bryce attended his class in the history of medieval England. Dr. Dickinson was ready to begin the Hundred Years War. This conflict was launched by King Edward III over the succession to the crown of France. Edward is considered one of the more successful of medieval English monarchs. He succeeded his father, Edward II, whose reign was a disaster in many ways, in 1327 at the age of 14. For the next three years, England was effectively ruled by his mother, Isabelle of France, and her lover, Roger Mortimer.
Edward did not succeed to the throne in the ordinary way, with the death of his predecessor, but rather with the deposition of Edward II by Queen Isabelle and Mortimer. That was in January of 1327. For months Edward II was kept in prison, moved from place to place to prevent his supporters from freeing him. Eventually, in September, he died at Berkeley Castle. While there is some controversy about the death, the traditional account says he died as a result of having a hot poker shoved up his ass. This is an end which the chroniclers evidently thought appropriate for a man accused of the crime of sodomy with his favorites, Piers Gaveston, and later Hugh Despenser, but whether it is true or not the records do not clearly indicate.
In any case, young Edward III eventually asserted his independence when he was 17, executing Mortimer and imprisoning his mother for two years. After that, Isabelle lived a fairly comfortable, even luxurious life, but in exile from the royal court and the seats of power.
It was through Isabelle that Edward III had a claim to the French crown, which was the basis for the Hundred Years War. France had been governed by kings of the House of Capet since the year 987. Throughout this lengthy period, son had succeeded father without fail until 1316. In that year, Louis X died on 5 June, leaving a pregnant widow. Finally, on 15 November Queen Clemence gave birth to a son, who was proclaimed king as John I, but the boy died four days later. There followed the reigns of Louis’ brothers, Philip V (1316-22) and Charles IV (1322-28), both of whom died leaving only daughters. Isabelle, mother of Edward III, was a sister of these last kings in the direct line from Hugh Capet, and claimed the throne for her son.
The French nobility gathered, and decided they did not want the English king as their monarch. Consequently, they invented the so-called Salic Law, according to which the throne passed only through the male line, female connections not counting. This ignored the fact that the original law of the Salic Franks, on which this claim was based, applied to personal property, not to the throne. It ignored the fact that Hugh Capet had been chosen by the Frankish nobility in 987 upon the death of Louis V despite the fact that the last king of the Carolingian dynasty had an uncle and cousin in the male line still living. It ignored the fact that each king from Hugh Capet to Philip Augustus (1180-1223) very carefully had his son recognized as co-king and heir during his own lifetime in order to insure that the throne remained in the House of Capet. The Salic Law was a legal fiction to keep the English king out, pure and simple. The French nobles then hailed a cousin of the last Capetian, Philip of Valois, as their king, and had him crowned as Philip VI.
Once he was firmly on the throne of England, Edward III refused to accept this decision, and claimed the throne of France as well. From this time until the accession of George III in 1760, the English monarchs included among their titles that of King of France. After winning his spurs against the Scots at the Battle of Halidon Hill, Edward III placed Edward Balilol on the Scottish throne and annexed significant parts of southern Scotland. These gains soon proved ephemeral, however, and the Scottish national leader, King David II, son of the hero Robert the Bruce, soon recovered the lost territory, so in 1338 Edward signed a truce with the Scots. His attention was elsewhere, and the prize immensely greater.
Philip VI of France demanded that Edward perform homage for the Duchy of Aquitaine, the remnant of the extensive lands in France once held by the English monarchs, but lost by Edward’s ancestor, King John, more than a century earlier. Edward refused, claiming he was the rightful King of France. Warfare began in 1337 with raids across the borders in Aquitaine, i.e., southwestern France, and by English raids on the coast of Normandy. During the early 1340s the conflict centered on rivalry over the succession to the Duchy of Brittany, but in July of 1346 Edward landed in Normandy with a significant force of about 7,000. Outnumbered by a larger French force of over 20,000, Edward marched across Normandy, raiding as he went, heading for Flanders. The County of Flanders was a fief of the French crown, but was often in conflict with the kings, so Count Louis II recognized Edward as his liege lord. Finding that he could not outrun the French, Edward decided to give battle at Crecy in Picardy, just south of Calais.
The English forces had some time to prepare, as the French were delayed by swollen streams and heavy baggage trains. Edward stationed himself and the traditional medieval cavalry, the armored knights, on a slope, giving them the advantage over anyone attacking uphill. But more importantly, English yeomen (independent farmers) armed with the longbow, developed during years of conflict with the Welsh, stationed themselves behind large pits and mounds of dirt. Sharpened stakes were fixed in the pits. These arrangements formed something like a funnel directing the French attackers up the hill towards the English cavalry.
The French began to straggle in. They were still fighting typical medieval battles, where the goal was one-on-one combat, and capturing the opponent and holding him for ransom. There was no real strategy involved. The French vanguard arrived, saw the English knights on the hill, and attacked without waiting for the larger part of the French forces. They ignored the yeomen behind their trenches and mounds. After all, yeomen were peasants, weren’t they? They did not count. Until, that is, those peasants began slaughtering the French noblemen in significant numbers. As French reinforcements arrived, they decided to attack the yeomen, but then they and their horses fell onto the sharpened stakes in the trenches. Eventually, the French and English cavalry closed, but the French were thoroughly demoralized by this time. This battle, fought on 26 August 1346, was a major English victory, and of greater significance for wider history than the purely military.
Dr. Dickinson spent the last third of the class on the greater significance of the English victory. This was the first time since the Roman Empire that infantry had defeated cavalry. From the Battle of Adrianople in 378 until Crecy in 1346 cavalry reigned supreme in Western warfare. Not only that, but cavalry meant knights, that is, noblemen. All that armor and equipment for man and horse was expensive, and could not be afforded by the common man. But the longbow was by comparison a cheap but effective counterpoise. Peasants practiced with the longbow after Mass on Sundays on the village green. The longbow could slay an enemy as much as 200 yards away, whereas the knight had to engage in close combat for his sword, mace, or lance to come into play. There had been archers used previously, but as auxiliaries, sort of softening up the enemy prior to the cavalry charge, but at Crecy it was the archers who won the battle. This heralded a social as well as a military revolution.
Things did not change overnight. Swiss pikemen had their role to play in this transition in Central Europe. The Black Death, arriving only two years later, had a devastating impact on all medieval society. But the 14th and 15th centuries was a time of turmoil, rebellion, and change for the entire West. Nobles dug in their heels in defense of their privileges, and peasants rebelled. All in all, these were not pleasant times.
Finally, Dr. Dickinson read a few lines from 1066 and All That. According to this ‘memorable’ source, Edward invented “a law called the Gallic Law according to which he was King of France, and could therefore make war on it whenever he felt inclined.”
Leaving the class, Bryce and his fellow students had much to discuss, but most of it was put off for an hour, while those with a late afternoon class scurried to their classrooms. They would re-convene in an hour as the medieval England study group in the seminar room in Filson Hall.
Bryce went to the SAT house, where he was scheduled to meet Annette Rimbault. He also hoped to have some time to rest and take stock of where everything was at this point, as so many things had been happening, it was easy to lose sight of some of them. Damon had gone back to the apartment after his Spanish class, and would be concocting a wonderful evening meal for the two of them.
Annette was waiting. Bryce had requested that she see him about that recording of the Governor’s telephone conversation with the University President. First of all, he congratulated her on her series of articles, which, he said, “single handedly brought down the raging bull.”
Annette laughed, but insisted others deserved their portion of credit as well.
“Now, about that recording,” Bryce pushed on. “Do you have a copy?”
“Of course. If I wrote those articles without evidence, I would be in deep doo-doo. My sources were valid, but this is additional protection in case Rodes decides to take out his fury on me. I had to have a copy to protect myself,” Annette said.
“Okay. Several people I’ve talked to want a copy. In particular, Dr. Caldicott is salivating over this story, and is a long-standing opponent of President Rodes,” Bryce began with the easier request.
“I think he deserves a copy, then,” Annette agreed. “He’s a dear, and I’m sure he will be discrete and not get me in trouble.”
“And then,” Bryce continued, “at the fraternity meeting last night, I related the story, just as you told it to me. It was a sensation. So now the brothers want a copy for the fraternity archives.”
“I don’t know, Bryce,” Annette temporized. “As I told you yesterday, some people in Dinklemore Hall could get in deep trouble if it got out that they had copies of the conversation, and especially if they were found to be disseminating it.”
Bryce argued that the brothers were trustworthy, and would not let it out of the fraternity, but Annette remained skeptical. Finally, Bryce told Annette he had not used her name in any fraternity context except with Damon and Curtis, and he would ask them to never identify the source. It would be put about that there was a wire-tap on the President’s phone line, something he would believe, as he was definitely given to conspiracy theories. With this understanding, Annette produced a disk from her purse, and allowed Bryce to make a copy on a fraternity computer.
Then Bryce asked, “Do you know what Marc wants to talk about? This morning, before our French class, he asked to speak to me one on one, but was kind of vague about what it was he wanted to talk about.”
“Not really,” Annette replied. “I’ve been after him lately because he’s become so negative about everything.” She chuckled, “He thinks his cynicism is so advanced and worldly wise, but I think he’s just like a petulant little boy stomping his foot at the world.” Then, in a more serious voice, she added, “I do worry about my twin. He’s so unhappy. He’s given up just about everything we shared growing up. I don’t know exactly what caused it, but something went wrong for Marc back in high school, and he turned against the Church, against our parents, against all the values we grew up with. If he’s having second thoughts, I’m all for it. But I don’t know anything specific. I love my brother, but don’t understand him at all.”
“Thanks, Annette,” Bryce responded. “I did not mean to cause you anguish. I’ll meet with Marc here at the house at seven, and see where it goes from here.”
“Thank you. Don’t be too hard on him,” Annette replied as she took her leave.
Very well satisfied with his successes as far as the recording was concerned, but no more enlightened about Marc than before, after Annette departed Bryce snagged a beer and sat down for a rest until his study group met.
Sitting there, he considered the various “matters” he had going, in addition to his normal work as a student. There was the on-going effort to identify the attackers of Peter Boyington, which, as Beau Lyle pointed out last night, and his cousin Roland did again this morning, was not only about Peter, but about the safety of anyone on campus who some hate group decided to attack. Then there was the related matter of the ‘Aryans Forever’ blog. It seemed pretty clear that the authors of that on-line piece of boasting were not themselves the attackers of Peter, but were in some way allied, and were involved in the attacks on the demonstrators a week ago. Bryce was fairly certain the authors were Barry Miller and Sean Rollins, the pair renting the carriage house from Dr. Caldwell, but he needed more than suspicion to do anything. He hoped Hunter Matthews could help along those lines.
Bryce also realized that it had been several days since he had visited Josh Young, the activist vice-president of the LGBT Club, who had also been injured in the demonstrations last week. He berated himself for this neglect, and vowed to make up for it at the earliest opportunity.
In addition to these campus issues, there was his on-going secret attempt to document his partner’s descent from a Revolutionary War soldier, qualifying Damon for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. Bryce was aware that, despite his sometime bravado, Damon felt very strongly his supposed lack of roots, his feeling that he did not really belong anywhere. Over many beers, he had listened to Damon bemoan that fact. Damon definitely had left behind the ghetto society into which he had been born. But he also rejected what he saw as the superficial and ephemeral concerns of the leaders of the Black Student Organization. He was not an African, as his contacts with the Ngolo family from Mali revealed to him. But he did not feel comfortable in mainstream white America either. Bryce considered that documenting his descent from free blacks dating back to the time of the founding of the Republic would be an appropriate counterpart and complement to the DNA analysis which he had done last fall, which fixed the origins of Damon’s ancestors among the Bambara speaking people of West Africa. In all the turmoil of campus activities, Bryce definitely did not want to lose awareness of this personal matter, which he thought of as a gift to his partner.
Then, there were the discussions with his friends. He really enjoyed the intellectual give and take in the exchanges with David Simpson, Mike Sandoval, Nate Hagan, and especially Jason Todd. These discussions, or what Jason called their ‘philosophical roundtable,’ forced Bryce to hone his own thoughts more carefully. He definitely did not want to bring those discussions to a close, but he also did not want to alienate any of the group, so that was an on-going matter, and one which on occasion required him to be diplomatic, and rein in his confidence in the correctness of his own position.
At four o’clock the medieval England study group met in Filson Hall, where the History Department was located. John Filson (1747-88), for whom the building was named, was a native of Pennsylvania, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, an early settler in Kentucky, and a school teacher, but it was for his book The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, published in 1784, the first history of the area, which entitled him to the dedication of the history building on campus.
The group were definitely interested in the material covered since their last meeting, and especially in the continuing English efforts to conquer Scotland and in the beginning of the Hundred Years War. Wars, it seems, were of more interest than other aspects of history to a lot of people. Well, they had definite beginnings and ends, and usually definite winners and losers, unlike most of the other activities of mankind.
As was only to be expected, Kevin Weatherington emerged as a stout defender of the policies of the English kings, arguing that the unification of the British Isles was a geographical necessity, and that King Edward’s rights to the throne of France were better than anyone else’s. He was opposed by Chris Robles, who emerged as the leading critic of the English position. He argued that if the Scots and the French did not want this puffed up Englishman as their ruler, that was their prerogative. This suited Bryce, so he could act as a neutral presiding officer and mediator. He supplied much background information, especially about the genealogical connections, which most of the students found confusing. Why is it, he was asked, that Edward III thought he should be King of France, when his uncles, Louis X, Philip V and Charles IV, all left daughters. In addition to the unfortunate John I, Louis left a daughter, then Philip V left four daughters, and Charles a posthumous daughter when he died in 1328. It very definitely did not go down well with the female sector of the group when Bryce explained that under existing law the monarch had to be male, and, while these daughters might claim a closer blood connection to the previous monarch, they were not male, and did not have sons who were old enough to be considered by the French nobles who made the decisions in 1328. Edward was the nearest ‘adult’ male at the time. He was 15, but coming of age was generally considered to be age 14 at that time. At that age, one could get married, so presumably one could also inherit a throne. Isabelle of France, Edward’s mother, was married at age 15, as was Edward himself. These early marriages were probably more common among the well-to-do than among the peasantry, as the well-to-do had no problem with the matter of supporting a large family. Bryce came armed with genealogical data, and noted that Edward III and his wife, Philippa of Hainault, had twelve children, three of whom died in infancy. Charles of Valois, father of Edward’s rival King Philip VI, had thirteen children, but by two wives. That was another fact of life. Many women died in childbirth, in large part because of unsanitary conditions. The trade-off was that many men died on the battlefields, which kept the population at low levels. Bryce cited from his computer information to the effect that the population of Europe as a whole doubled between the years 1000 and 1500, but that only meant going from 36 million to 81 million, compared to the 710 million in 2000.
“Things weren’t quite as crowded then,” he commented, “especially after the Black Death.” But that was a topic not yet covered in class.
Although Bryce attempted to steer the discussions into other aspects of the period, it seemed that the most outspoken members of the group still wanted to talk about the wars. Kevin persisted in defending the English side, while Carlos insisted on presenting a critical interpretation, at least in part in order to tweak Kevin’s anglophilia. Not long before their ending time, Carlos summed up his arguments. “The English are trying to conquer Scotland and France. They have already conquered Wales, and they are meddling in Irish affairs on a regular basis. So who can we identify as the warmongers and imperialists of the fourteenth century?”
That set off Kevin, with not only a defense of English policy, but a defense of the unique role of the English in developing institutions which protected the rights of individuals and the rule of law. Conquering someone else was almost a gift to the conquered in Kevin’s opinion. This led Bryce to wonder whether Kevin would be in Dr. Dickinson’s class on Tudor England next semester, when that assessment of the English monarchy definitely did not seem to Bryce to be the case. However, he bit his tongue, and continued to play the role of impartial mediator until six o’clock.
With the conclusion of the study group, Bryce went first to the cafeteria, where he had agreed to meet with Hunter Matthews. Hunter was there, waiting for him.
“Here you are,” Hunter said, “a complete analysis of that blog in which you were interested. By the way, it’s some of the most boring drivel I’ve read in a long time.”
“Thanks, Hunter. I agree,” Bryce said. “I read those postings, and I was barely able to get through them. They’re full of grammatical errors, mistakes in history, extremely questionable statements about biology, as well as stultifying prose. Obviously, I’m not interested for the literary merits of the postings.”
“Didn’t think so,” Hunter laconically commented. “With my work, you can definitely prove the identity of the authors, or at least the identity of the computer from which this stuff originated. It’s posted on a pretty popular host, so no problem there.”
“Okay. I think we agreed on $500. Here’s my check, and it’s well worth it if it helps find the clods who beat up Peter Boyington,” Bryce said, handing Hunter the check.
Hunter took the check, looked at it, and said, “Thanks.”
“Now that we’re squared, how long did it actually take you to trace that blog?” Bryce asked.
Hunter grinned. “About half an hour. And another 15 minutes to write up the statement of conclusions.”
“You’ll be a millionaire some day,” Bryce commented.
“Plan to,” Hunter replied, and took off.
Glancing over the report Hunter handed him, Bryce was not at all surprised to read that the blog originated from a computer registered to Sean Rollins. The question now was how to make the most effective use of this information.