The end of the Norman Conquest was followed by frequent and seemingly endless rebellions from the English. If that had been all, it might have been manageable. But across the Channel, Mann also rose in revolt with the support of Anjou. The Little French King, deeply covetous of Normandy's lands, actively backed both Anjou and Mann.
This forced William to rush back and forth between both sides of the Channel. The issues in Normandy were old hat, but the constant English rebellions made him despise the English with a particular passion. He developed such severe PTSD that, for a time, he couldn't even bear to hear the word 'rebellion'.
But what he found most intolerable was that these damned English, in their defiance, had colluded with the Danish. It resulted in him, a Lord of the Normans, having to pay the Danegeld—an absolute, utter humiliation.
He therefore abandoned his initial policy of conciliation, for it was utterly useless. He purged nearly all English powers, both clerical and secular. Of all the high nobility, only two remained Anglo-Saxons. Across all twenty-nine monasteries in England, only three abbots were still Anglo-Saxons.
Warren was, very fortunately, one of them. Leveraging his brother-in-law's Identity as a Norman and his own extensive social network, he successfully held on to his positions as Vice Bishop of Hereford and Abbot of King's Bridge Monastery.
"Well, thanks to that damned Countess, Lanceston Castle is out of the question. And now a joke about me is making the rounds all over Hereford: 'When is a bride not a bride? When the groom is EDe Guillaume!' I had a man flogged for telling it, but it did no good. I'm going to catch that bitch, flay her alive, nail her hide to a wall, and let the birds peck at her flesh."
EDe said hatefully, punctuating his words by slamming a fist on the arm of his chair.
EDe's father was one of the Norman Knights who had come to England to serve King Edward the Confessor. He had not participated in Duke William's Battle of Hastings.
In truth, few in England believed the minor Duke from across the Channel could defeat a powerful king. EDe's father was one of them. However, he was a bit more cunning than most; he chose neutrality, finding an excuse to hide out in Brittany and wait for the storm to pass.
After Harold was killed, he joined in on a few of Duke William's campaigns to quash rebellions—a classic case of jumping on the bandwagon. His performance was nothing special, but he put in a decent effort.
The severely traumatized Duke William seemed to demand a kind of moral purity from others. He gave EDe's father no land. Instead, on a ridiculous pretext, he stripped him of his title of Baron and took away nearly half of his fiefs.
The reason? When he went for an audience with William, he was wearing his hair long in the Anglo-Saxons style, not short like a Norman. Furthermore, the first foot he stepped into the palace with was his left.
And Lanceston Castle was one of the fiefs that had been taken away.
"Enough, enough. I have no patience for a young man's whining. I suggest you close your filthy mouth; your words are a desecration of this Holy Temple.
"Next Sunday is the Epiphany. After the prayers, I will announce the death of the Bishop of Hereford, as well as the sacred news that has just reached England from Rome: we have a new Pope. Your sordid little affair will be quickly forgotten," Warren said deliberately.
"It seems, barring any surprises, you will be chosen as the next Bishop."
"Indeed. With the gold and silver your mother transported and my own savings from over the years, the bishopric is well within my grasp."
"So you must help me find a way out of this."
"It seems the Countess is quite beautiful, then."
"I… I just… want revenge on that woman!"
'That woman,' EDe thought, 'that woman.' But he couldn't summon the courage to repeat the vicious things his mother would say whenever she spoke of Emma, the daughter of the Earl of Hereford. The truth was, he didn't want to flay Emma's skin. He wanted to kiss her lips.
EDe lowered his head, his fire doused by despair.
"But… it's too difficult. There are few men in England right now who dare to cross the Earl of Hereford."
The Earl of Hereford's name was William FitzOsborne, a distant relative of Duke William. The Earl's father had been a guardian minister to the old Duke of Normandy, and the King trusted him just as he had trusted his father.
He wouldn't have been sent to garrison the Wales Border Region otherwise.
"The King has never fully recovered from the wounds he sustained during the campaign against the Danish in the Northern Territory. His health has been declining lately, and he has begun to arrange his affairs.
"He favors his second son, who is more obedient, compliant, and better serves his own interests. The eldest, Prince Robert, has lost the King's trust due to his laziness, recklessness, and poor judgment. England will be left to the second son, while Prince Robert will be sent across the Channel to govern the Duchy of Normandy."
"An arrangement like that sounds as if he's been tempted by the Devil himself. There will be trouble. Prince Robert doesn't seem the type to accept such a thing quietly."
"It's practically inevitable. And that hypocrite, the Earl of Hereford, clearly thinks Robert is a better choice—or rather, an easier one to control."
.....
A day ago, Eric never would have imagined it. How could he, the king of thieves in Xialing, have been so careless as to get fleeced himself?
Talk about a thief robbing the king of thieves.
How utterly absurd.
The problem was, inside the stolen package, besides last year's market permit, were his credentials identifying him as a Cultivator of King's Bridge Monastery.
With no other choice, Eric prepared to use [Scent Concealment] to see if he could get directly into the Earl's castle.
Once inside, he would figure out a way to persuade the Earl.