It is odd now, after so many battles so much death. That now I look back and see myself young, and wanting to prove myself. There are few terrors like your first battle and military campaign. This was mine the conquest of Emerald Isles. I truly lost belief in the idea of god, especially on the battlefield where lives are cast away needlessly and endlessly.
It was the year of our lord 1228, at the Castle of Winchester. The land had greatly stabilized under the reign of King Henry III. This was backed by wise leaders in his kingdom, as it did enjoy a surplus in the last years, which lead to increased tensions with the Kingdom of Scotland to the north. Scotland’s King fearing that King Henry III, who had not committed to open warfare since his time as Prince, would turn the armies of his kingdom upon Scotland. The Scots did the unthinkable they blockaded the city of London. King Henry’s response was swift declaration of war.
I had specific duties to the Duke of Winchester, Duke Gottfried Waldemar. Gottfried after my return from the academy, created the Office of the Winchester Expeditionary Combat Force. He placed me as the office head. Gottfried divided his force into what was required to defend Winchester, and all other forces were mine to organize train and equip. I was given command of four-thousand five-hundred and forty men which consists of two-hundred and forty Knights, four-hundred Medium Cavalry, four-hundred Light Cavalry, one thousand Longbowmen, and two thousand five-hundred infantry. I first had to organize this force I divided the cavalry companies into companies of forty men, the longbowmen were divided in hundred man companies, and the infantry into one hundred and twenty-five man companies. There are a total of six knight companies, ten medium cavalry companies, 10 light cavalry companies, ten longbowmen companies, and twenty infantry companies. As it is costly to maintain such a large active force I enacted active and reserve units. There are only a certain number of units active at one time, each of the cavalry strata have two units active at any given time. The longbowmen have four units active at any given time. While infantry also have four companies active at one time. The force immediately available for any combat tasking is 1140 men. Each unit is active for three cycles of the moon. Once the cycles have passed, the active units are stood down and new active units are activated to relieve them. I focus on combat training, and formation training, this has developed this force into a semi-professional force. The cost of maintaining the force is only fragment of the budget allocated to me at the time. Thus with the surplus funds I had two buildings built, a barracks and armory that handle the full force available at once, and house all the armor designated for the warriors.
It was sudden it was spring when Gottfried visited me suddenly and without warning he was dressed in fairly formal wear, his tunic was ornate to show off his status as a Duke. His expression was truly puzzling; his usually bright and sharp eyes were dim and cold. My office in the castle was simple, my desk in the center with several book shelves and two displays with shield with a painted coat of arms and two swords behind it. I kept my armor, on a stand in a corner of the room. The armor had consisted leather jerkin and trousers, medium mail which hung just past my knees, a surcoat of leather with some iron plates weaved into it, plate bracers, and plate greaves. As he entered I immediately stood up from my desk and bowed.
“My Lord, welcome to my office, how may I be of service?” I asked with a surprised tone
“There has been a call to arms, directly from the King, he bid all lords to gather in York for a counterstrike on the scots,” said Gottfried whose expression completely deadpanned, “Are we ready?”
“Currently I have one thousand one-hundred and forty men currently active, they are ready to deploy on a moment’s notice,” I said then I broke down the way I divided my force after that explanation, “I can call up another three thousand four hundred combat ready men, and maybe another thousand or two conscripts, so what happened that is so pressing?”
“The King finally has decided to marshal an army to deal with the Scots. We are to build our army in York,” said Gottfried, “I will take the force we currently have, I want you to call the rest of our force, and then send the bulk, keep one thousand, and raise another one thousand.”
“As you command, my lord,” I responded, “the standing force will be ready to deploy by dawn, and the messengers will be sent out, the bulk of the force should be leaving here within two months, I will arrive with the remaining force in about five to six months from when the bulk should leave.”
“Good, I am taking my leave, Caelian,” said Gottfried as he quickly left the office, my adjunct, a man by the name of Joshua Greystark, who served as my squire until achieving knighthood some six months ago, entered my office. He was wearing the black velvet uniform trimmed silver cloth, with black leather boots. That I made standard among the commanders. The one I gave to my patron and for me was gold lined. The symbol for the office was a gold pin formed in the shape of wing. The commanders were authorized to wear a pin with their coat of arms. The rest of the rabble was given black leather uniforms instead.
“Lord Greystark, we are in a war time situation, recall all units, and conscript a thousand recruits,” I said calmly, “The messengers need to leave immediately. I want all combat forces ready within three weeks including the conscripts.”
The castle erupted in activity, a single alarm bell rung out, alerting those who were in Winchester proper to return to the castle immediately and that something had happened. The commands of the Duke had been passed to the soldiers, through their commanders. I prepared the baggage train, that would support the army until it arrived in York, anything it could need I had prepared. Now it was a simple waiting game, I had to wait for the troops to arrive. It was amazing how quickly the forces amassed in Winchester Castle. I set the requirement of all forces available within three weeks, the army was available within two and a half weeks. I sent my adjunct, Lord Joshua Greystark as the commander of the main body. He led 2335 men north to York. I kept 1065 men, and had another 1065 men ready for training. I then began to organize the new forces developing them into companies. Once that was settled I then made the training program condensing much of the normal training routine into a five month training period. With the aid fully trained units went smoothly. I had little time to impart a vast amount of knowledge upon these new men. To speed up the men’s growth I set up a number of war games that would teach application of the training. It took a month to arrive in York. It amazed me to see the entirety of the English forces sprawled in a camp outside the city. Though, to me, the army looked like it was a noisy rabble than a force that could achieve anything significant. As I entered the camp with my men, I immediately identified my patron’s part of the camp. I set my banner next to my fathers before letting some of the soldiers taking Falcon to a place to rest. I then entered the tent that my patron was in. Gottfried was wearing a black tunic and trousers made of velvet lined with a gold fabric. It was the one I had created to bring a similar uniformity to my office. There was another in the tent, who had a crown setting next to him on the table that was set up in the center of the room. He had sharp features and a regal presence. Before speaking I had bowed before the king, who simply made a signal for me to stop.
“My Lord, I have brought two-thousand one-hundred and thirty men, to your banner, all ready for combat,” I said in an unusually formal tone. Gottfried who noticed my uneasiness beckoned me to sit down. Needless to say Gottfried wore an amused expression at my slight discomfort at the time. I simply took my seat and consumed a glass of wine. I took a deep breath to calm myself.
“So who is this Gottfried?” asked the King who seemed to be looking at me as if I was familiar.
“He is my godson, I adopted him, he is my official successor,” said Gottfried in a sad tone, “His name Caelian Alexander Blacke, he is Stephan’s son, and successor to the Black Falcon and Grey Hammer.”
“You look a lot like your mother,” said the King
“My mother….?” I asked almost confused then Gottfried shook his head and the King who was about to speak but stopped.
“Caelian, please tend to the men, and let them know we should be marching to war, in a fortnight’s time,” said Gottfried
“Yes my lord, if you will excuse me your majesty,” I said with a bow, and he signaled for my dismissal. I left the tent, and I ensured that our force was well tended to and that we would be ready for the march north. As Gottfried had told me that we would leave within a fortnight. The army poured out of York a precession of soldiers and banners. I was assigned as a commander of a single infantry company so I marched with them on foot, Falcon walking behind me. It would be a month before we encountered any resistance. Scouts returned to camp and let us know of a large Scottish force ahead already arrayed for combat. Alarms spread through the camp men were arming themselves in their armor. Gottfried’s force would take the center of the army, with the king’s force. The Duke of Nottingham would be on right flank, and on the left was the army from Caernarvon and Exeter.
I stood in command of my company which was at this time equipped with swords, medium armor. The medium armor set of heavy mail and a leather surcoat. We were in the second line of the formation behind the spear infantry. Behind us was the longbowmen forming the third line. Cavalry held in reserve. The left and right flanks took the same formation. The Scottish army led by an unknown general, the center of their formation was axe and sword infantry. There was infantry with incredibly long spears on the flanks and Light cavalry in the rear of the enemy formations. The stage was set for my first battle. The king rode in front of our lines on his great white destrider.
“Men of England, It has certainly been awhile since we have stood on the field of battle,” said King Henry, “Our enemy feel as if we have grown lax in our peace with them, today is where we prove them wrong. Seek victory here and now!”
Our lines erupted in to a resounding cheer. The King then returned to his place at the command of the cavalry. The enemy moved ever closer advancing on our position. In my helmet it was hard to hear anything but the sound of my own heart. A clear resounding trumpet echoed across the battlefield, signaling the commencement of arrow fire. With a resounding twang the archers unleashed a volley of arrows that created a small cloud in the sky. The arrows struck the enemy ranks randomly hitting and eliminating people from the fight. As second volley once again flew from their bows and the arrows came cascading down upon the enemy. The spearmen were withdrawn to the second line and we advanced to be the leading edge of the battle. The line was steady as the enemy was within charging range. I took out a throwing dagger that I had with me and threw it into the enemy ranks. It was imbedded into one of the enemy shields. Another trumpet sound of a different tone echoed through our ranks, it was the signal to charge forward.
“Charge!!! Eliminate the Scottish Forces!” I screamed out reading my sword for a first strike on the oncoming enemy. Our line surged forward in cacophony of clanking metal and roars. As I got in fighting range I launched a thrust at the first enemy I saw, my attack pierced both flesh and armor. The ease in which this man was incapacitated shocked me. As the screams of the wounded began to reach me as the melee began in earnest. I withdrew my blade to engage another enemy who had come up. His axe came towards my head. I parried the blow, following through with a counter by slashing out his throat. Blood splattered across my helm and armor, I still remember the smell, the indescribable wretched smell. I fought a few more wounding one and taking a slash to the thigh. The enemy broke scattering to the four hills. The cavalry came charging onto the routing enemy running down everything in their path. The battle was disastrous for the scots. The entire army lost no more than two hundred men in the battle, my unit suffered twenty casualties.
We returned to our camp leaving the dead and dying to rot on that field. Their horrid screams as they tried in a futile effort to cling to life. That night left me queasy as I remember the first life I took. I ate nothing that night. That man’s expression as he realized that my sword had impaled him, it twisted in shock and despair. It would be a few days before I would recover completely from the emotional and physical wounds that that battle inflicted.
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