tiring work but not lonely as I took Hanno with me as bodyguard and companion. He had a fund of stories about his travels, telling me tales of black bears that lived in his native Bavarian forests, and the local witches, and ghouls and wicked elves who stole children away from their cradles …
Hanno had joined our company after the siege of Acre. King Richard had captured the strongly fortified port only a month after his arrival in the Holy Land, a feat that was much admired, even by his enemies. Acre had been under siege for nearly two years at that point, and was considered all but impregnable, but Richard’s arrival with siege engines and massive reinforcements had sealed its fate. I had been sick when the citadel fell; wounded and suffering from a mysterious malady that kept me in a feeble, dizzy condition for weeks. Hanno had also been wounded and we had been allowed to recover in the same quarter of Acre, the part controlled by the Knights Hospitaller, the healing monks who combined a deep love of Christ with a fearsome reputation as ruthless fighting men.
Hanno had been part of the German contingent in Outremer under Duke Leopold of Austria, but he had been left behind when his liege lord had departed for home after quarrelling badly with King Richard, the leader of the expedition. Our impetuous English monarch had kicked the Duke’s banner from the walls of Acre when it had been hung beside his own and the standard of King Philip Augustus of France. He said that it was not fitting for the flag of a mere duke to hang beside that of kings. Actually, it was all about money, as it sooften is in warfare – and peacetime, too, as Robin was fond of telling me. Or rather, plunder. By displaying his banner next to Richard’s and Philip’s, Leopold was claiming an equal share – one third – of all the loot from the captured city of Acre. And Richard wasn’t going to allow this. From his point of view, Duke Leopold had failed to capture Acre after trying for so many months, whereas Richard had succeeded in a matter of weeks. The upshot was that, soon afterwards, Leopold quit the Great Pilgrimage, returning to Austria furious with King Richard and vowing to get his revenge.
Abandoned by his lord because he was too weak to be moved, Hanno had slowly recovered and then joined Robin’s force of Sherwood outlaws turned soldiers. Despite the language barrier, which Hanno soon overcame, after a fashion – he had the curious habit of always speaking as if the event he was speaking about was happening at that very moment – as a hunter and warrior he fitted in well with Robin’s gang of former deer-poachers and murderous brigands. And he seemed to adopt me, taking it upon himself to teach me everything he knew about stalking large prey – whether animal or human.
At the castles and great houses that I stayed in while travelling England on Robin’s business that winter, I was usually obliged to entertain my audience in the evenings with music, mostly of my own composition, although sometimes other men’s work, and I was pleased to notice that I had something of a growing reputation as a trouvère . At Pembroke Castle in South Wales, after hearing ‘My Joy Summons Me’ – a canso I had devised with King Richard the Lionheart himself in Sicily on the way to the Holy Land – the famous knight William the Marshal, now a great magnate and, in Richard’s absence, oneof the justiciars of England, even paid me the compliment of inviting me to leave Robin’s service and join his household.
Though the Marshal promised me bright gold and the grants of several manors, I regretfully informed him that I could not leave my master after we had endured so much together on our travels out East. He was not pleased at being refused; plainly he was not used to it, and he had some difficulty in hiding his considerable irritation.
‘Of course, I understand your loyalty to Locksley; I even applaud it,’ said the Marshal grumpily.
Hanno had joined our company after the siege of Acre. King Richard had captured the strongly fortified port only a month after his arrival in the Holy Land, a feat that was much admired, even by his enemies. Acre had been under siege for nearly two years at that point, and was considered all but impregnable, but Richard’s arrival with siege engines and massive reinforcements had sealed its fate. I had been sick when the citadel fell; wounded and suffering from a mysterious malady that kept me in a feeble, dizzy condition for weeks. Hanno had also been wounded and we had been allowed to recover in the same quarter of Acre, the part controlled by the Knights Hospitaller, the healing monks who combined a deep love of Christ with a fearsome reputation as ruthless fighting men.
Hanno had been part of the German contingent in Outremer under Duke Leopold of Austria, but he had been left behind when his liege lord had departed for home after quarrelling badly with King Richard, the leader of the expedition. Our impetuous English monarch had kicked the Duke’s banner from the walls of Acre when it had been hung beside his own and the standard of King Philip Augustus of France. He said that it was not fitting for the flag of a mere duke to hang beside that of kings. Actually, it was all about money, as it sooften is in warfare – and peacetime, too, as Robin was fond of telling me. Or rather, plunder. By displaying his banner next to Richard’s and Philip’s, Leopold was claiming an equal share – one third – of all the loot from the captured city of Acre. And Richard wasn’t going to allow this. From his point of view, Duke Leopold had failed to capture Acre after trying for so many months, whereas Richard had succeeded in a matter of weeks. The upshot was that, soon afterwards, Leopold quit the Great Pilgrimage, returning to Austria furious with King Richard and vowing to get his revenge.
Abandoned by his lord because he was too weak to be moved, Hanno had slowly recovered and then joined Robin’s force of Sherwood outlaws turned soldiers. Despite the language barrier, which Hanno soon overcame, after a fashion – he had the curious habit of always speaking as if the event he was speaking about was happening at that very moment – as a hunter and warrior he fitted in well with Robin’s gang of former deer-poachers and murderous brigands. And he seemed to adopt me, taking it upon himself to teach me everything he knew about stalking large prey – whether animal or human.
At the castles and great houses that I stayed in while travelling England on Robin’s business that winter, I was usually obliged to entertain my audience in the evenings with music, mostly of my own composition, although sometimes other men’s work, and I was pleased to notice that I had something of a growing reputation as a trouvère . At Pembroke Castle in South Wales, after hearing ‘My Joy Summons Me’ – a canso I had devised with King Richard the Lionheart himself in Sicily on the way to the Holy Land – the famous knight William the Marshal, now a great magnate and, in Richard’s absence, oneof the justiciars of England, even paid me the compliment of inviting me to leave Robin’s service and join his household.
Though the Marshal promised me bright gold and the grants of several manors, I regretfully informed him that I could not leave my master after we had endured so much together on our travels out East. He was not pleased at being refused; plainly he was not used to it, and he had some difficulty in hiding his considerable irritation.
‘Of course, I understand your loyalty to Locksley; I even applaud it,’ said the Marshal grumpily.
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