Chapter 15
January, 1177
Falaise, Normandy
There had been rumors for the last few weeks that his release was imminent. At first Hugh allowed himself to feel the thrill of excitement but as the days passed and he heard nothing firm, his hope faded. He became convinced that the king meant this confinement to last indefinitely and he knew that if he was forced to spend much longer with Ralph de Fougères, one of them was going to end up dead.
There were three of them who were royal prisoners still, two years after the end of the war, awaiting the verdict of the king. Robert, earl of Leicester, was a decade older than Hugh, a greying, slender man who kept mostly to his own suite of comfortable rooms in the fortress and conferred primarily with the half dozen knights he’d been permitted to retain as his personal servants. Hugh knew from Haworth, who mingled frequently with Leicester’s men, that the earl was very anxious about what Henry would ultimately decide to do with him. He had been inarguably the king’s most strident opponent. After the surrender of Brittany, Henry had attempted to end the war by offering terms to the Young King. It was a direct result of Earl Robert’s adamant intervention and his refusal to accept anything which Henry offered that the peace talks broke off and the war continued for another year.
As for Ralph de Fougères—well, the man would not let him be. The Breton had no friends at Falaise, nor his own attendants, and being a garrulous man consequently sought Hugh’s company, imagining there was still some bond between them because of their previous alliance. Although the other man didn’t speak of it, preferring to rehash their escapades in Avranches before William Longsword had made his appearance, Hugh knew that de Fougères was even more apprehensive about Henry’s intentions than Leicester. The Breton had been a constant thorn in the king’s side since the latter had come to the throne. If Brittany had the reputation of instability, it was largely due to de Fougères’ warmongering.
Hugh wasn’t so worried. It was true he had much to answer for but the countryside he had ravaged had been his own traditional lands; he still held the title of viscount of Avranches. He had surrendered immediately when challenged by the king and the royal forces in England had never been confronted by the men he’d left behind to defend Chester. He believed that if Henry had intended to execute the three of them for treason he would have done it already and made an example of them, but he didn’t know how the king could have justified such an action without similarly punishing the primary instigator of the rebellion: his own son.
Still, he hadn’t expected their imprisonment to last this long. Every other rebel had already been released and he could find no reason why the king should have decided to hold onto them. Falaise was one of Henry’s favorite castles; it was large and comfortable and Hugh had been accorded several chambers for his personal use and treated with due deference by the king’s servants and retainers. He was not prevented from meeting with Leicester or de Fougères and for exercise was permitted to hunt whenever he desired. Yet, he sometimes wondered if it were not easier on the mind to be shut up like a common criminal in some sterile enclosure. His imprisonment had the semblance of normal life but Falaise wasn’t Chester. He missed his castle and he missed England.
He thanked God Roger was with him—he would have gone mad if Haworth had opted to return to Chester. Hugh, always generous to his knights, hadn’t required any of them to share his confinement when the king released them upon the end of the war. But Haworth had insisted over Hugh’s admittedly lukewarm protestations on remaining. The earl often suspected that he was the burly knight’s only passion in life, an idea which was highly flattering but occasionally constricting. Haworth would sulk but otherwise turn a blind eye to Hugh’s sporadic flirtations with other men; it had only been Hugh’s lengthy affair with Robert Bolsover that had stretched his capacity for jealousy almost to its limit.
Not that there was anyone at Falaise in whom Hugh had the slightest interest anyway. It was just as well that Haworth had stayed.
He was a great source of information. Everyone seemed to like the silent, solid man and no one minded if he was present when political matters were being discussed. His simple allegiance to the earl was admired by most of Henry’s garrison at Falaise, even if it was considered misplaced. He was asked to join in sword practice sessions because his style was heavy and blunt and provided a good challenge. When he sat in the hall alone with a cup of wine, he was invariably joined by a group of younger men who wanted advice on how to swing a sword to its greatest advantage. And Leicester’s men accepted him as a comrade in arms. With all his contacts, it was easy enough for him to discover what was going on inside and outside Falaise. That was how, in December, Hugh had learned about the rumor of his imminent release.
But it wasn’t until the middle of January, when his hope had already died, that it proved true after all. King Henry had arrived at the castle in time for the Christmas festivities and afterwards closeted himself with his counselors for several days. Hugh saw the Young King arrive as well but whether out of a desire to prove to his father that he had nothing anymore to do with the rebels or whether he was simply ashamed of what had happened, he didn’t seek out any of the three prisoners. Haworth reported that there weren’t many of the king’s men who liked the Young King; he said that although they understood the king’s parental weakness for his son, they didn’t think that this foolish, complaining wastrel was fit material for the throne and they shuddered to imagine what would have happened to Henry’s carefully constructed empire if he had won the war. Hugh had been as surprised as anyone when it had become clear that the Young King was to remain his father’s heir. From the point of view of both the allies and the rebels, then, the war had changed nothing. Hundreds had died and countless properties destroyed, the king of Scotland humiliated and Hugh himself imprisoned for almost four years so far—all for nothing. Perhaps that was the most crushing defeat.
Hugh, Leicester and de Fougères were informed by the king of his verdict on January 16th. Hugh left Falaise the very next day with Haworth but he was too numbed by shock to even feel the slightest elation that he was leaving Ralph de Fougères as well.