Warwolfe (de Wolfe Pack Book 0)(8)
Finally, Téo du Reims, bastard son of the Duke of Reims, wielded his fearsome morning star, and Bartholomew Eni yn dda, or of Wellesbourne, was a Welsh mercenary from the ancient town of Wellesbourne and the man all men feared.
These were the Anges de Guerre, men who had served with de Wolfe for as long as anyone could remember. Each man was a cog in a bigger wheel, men who fought together as seamlessly as the rain blended with the clouds. All of the men were leaders but there were those that took more easily to command and those who simply wanted to fight – de Lohr, de Winter, and du Reims were those who commanded with grace and ease. De Reyne, de Lara, and de Russe also had the ability, but they tended to lead by actions rather than words. And the rest – Wellesbourne, St. Hèver, and de Moray – were pure beasts of battle. Nothing – and no men – stood in their way and lived to tell the tale.
It was a collection of knights the world had never seen before, all of them led by the greatest knight of all, the knight known as Gaetan de Wolfe. Norse and Breton on his father’s side, Gascon and Saxon on his mother’s, de Wolfe bore all of the fighting traits of those bloodlines as a man with no weakness and no faults, only glory. Descended from the kings of Breton, he had more nobility in him than even the Duke of Normandy, a man with whom he was particularly close. They thought alike, which was why William placed so much faith in his Warwolfe. He and Gaetan had fought many battles together, but none so important as the one they were about to face on this day.
Therefore, the Duke of Normandy and his Companion nobles were towards the rear of the lines as the Anges de Guerre set up the shield wall. Given that there were three distinct lines – one in the middle and then the right and left flanks, de Wolfe himself took command of the center line while de Lohr and du Reims took the left and the right, respectively. These were cavalry lines with the infantry in the front and the archers to the rear. De Winter, de Reyne, and de Lara had command of the three groups of archers while the rest of them – de Russe, Wellesbourne, St. Hèver, and de Moray positioned themselves up with the infantry. Those men would be the first to see action.
And with the final positions achieved, all they could do at that point was wait.
But the wait wasn’t long.
Harold and his army appeared an hour after sunrise, coming over the rise from the north and seeing the Normans dug in on an elevated position to the south. Seeing the thousands of men waiting for him, Harold deployed his army on a similar rise. The armies faced each other as the sun rose and the clouds, which had gathered at dawn, began to flitter away on the sea breeze.
Now, there was a blue sky and bright light illuminating both armies. De Wolfe realized as he watched Harold position his men that somehow, somewhere, the king had picked up fresh men. He could tell because they didn’t move like men who had just marched hundreds of miles from the north. There was some energy to their step. But he also noticed that, from what he could see, Harold had very few archers. Mostly infantry, some cavalry, and limited archers.
That would be his fatal mistake.
News of the lack of archers made its way back to Normandy at the rear of the lines along with another message that the Norman archers, as a result, were going to be used sparingly. The reason was obvious – when two armies face one another and rained arrows down upon each other, archers from each side would pick up those arrows from the opposing army from the ground and reuse them. With so few Anglo-Saxon archers, the Normans could use up their supply of arrows quickly. De Wolfe wanted to conserve ammunition.
The duke understood that but he was also impatient. He had a throne to claim and another property to add to his Normandy holdings, and he didn’t have much patience. He sent orders to the front of the lines for de Wolfe to begin the bombardment before the Anglo-Saxon lines were set and de Wolfe obliged.
Under fair skies and light winds, the Norman’s didn’t wait for Harold’s army to completely set their lines. The first strike was from the Norman archers, raining spears of death upon the unprepared Anglo-Saxon army and creating a good deal of casualties at the onset. Men panicked, ranks wavered, as the Normans charged with all of their might.
After that, it was bedlam.
Eight hours later
Whoosh!
The mace barely missed his head.
Into the eighth hour of fighting, de Wolfe was forced to nearly throw himself from his horse as a Saxon cavalryman in close quarters fighting hurled ten pounds of iron and death straight at his head. That didn’t please de Wolfe, not in the least. So once he ducked low and as the mace sailed over his head, he thrust his sword upward to block it, then used his free hand to grab it. But the Anglo-Saxon warrior wouldn’t give it up so easily and de Wolfe ended up driving his big boot into the man’s thigh to force him to release it. When the warrior faltered, de Wolfe used the mace and slammed it right into his opponent’s mouth.
It was enough of a jolt to cause the enemy warrior to fall forward, spewing blood, and de Wolfe used a dagger tucked into his tunic to stab the man in the back of the neck. The enemy fell off the horse, but de Wolfe didn’t care in the least. He was more focused on the horse, a fine animal, and he immediately claimed the beast as a spoil of war. He grabbed the reins and raced over towards the edge of the field where the priests and squires were gathered, all of them watching the battle and looking for opportunities to rush in to help their masters. One of de Wolfe’s squires, a young man with the surname of le Mon, took the fine Saxon horse as de Wolfe’s big, gray wolfhound barked excitedly. Restrained by the squire, the dog was forced to remain as its master whirled around and charged back into the fray.