MICKEY AND LILY - A MEDIEVAL TALE

Historical Fiction

1.  THE CORONATION - 1377

On 15 July, in the year of our Lord, 1377, ten-year-old Mickey Barnwell watched another ten-year-old, Richard of Bordeaux, proceed on horseback to his coronation as King of England at Westminster Abbey.  Mickey stood behind a peddler’s cart with his companion Lily Castleberry, as the two marveled at the spectacle.  The boy King dazzled in his ceremonial attire. The following day, the young King would sit on his throne as Richard II.

Men-at-arms on their remarkable steeds came first, followed by dignitaries, barons, and earls, and sundry knights.  Church officials and the aristocracy elite, Sir Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, among them, marched ahead of Richard’s retinue.   During the procession, Richard’s tutor, Sir Simon Burley, carried the Curtana, the Sword of Mercy, and a knight of the Chamber held the reins of Richard’s mount.

Lily Castleberry, a girl equal in size to Mickey and as rough and tumble as he, squealed, “Look, Mickey, he’s beautiful.”

“He looks like a girl to me.”  Mickey, a sturdy lad and a blacksmith’s son, preferred to stare in awe at the mighty steeds and the glittering beauty of the knights’ swords.

The two scurried behind the crowd of on-lookers and followed the entourage to its end, where the knight of the Chamber reined Richard’s horse to a halt before a make-shift castle.  There, young girls, dressed in white, showered the new King with flowers.

“Oh, I so wish I could be one of them,” Lily romanticized.  Her eyes consumed the sophisticated elegance of the royalty.

Mickey rolled his eyes.  He did not know then that he would willingly face the mighty dragon for the hand of that same young woman in marriage in a few years.  However, for the moment, he brushed off as beyond comprehension Lily’s rapture with all things aristocratic. 

The day following Richard II’s grand procession, the Brownwells and Margaret and Lily Castleberry watched as Sir Henry Percy, Percy’s thirteen-year-old son, Harry, and the rest of the Percy family entered the Abbey and took their place of honor among the dignitaries.  Although Mickey did not know them, there were the influential John of Gaunt and his son, Henry of Bolingbroke, first cousin to Richard II.  Finally, in the late afternoon, Richard and his entourage made their way from the Abbey to Westminster Hall.  Simon Burley hoisted Richard upon his shoulders and carried him to the Great room.  King Richard lost a shoe on the road.  Lily, ever attentive, rushed into the column and returned the slipper to the young King.  That was the highlight of Lily’s day; indeed, the highlight of her trip.

Mickey’s family, the Barnwells, was of peasant stock.  Mickey’s grandfather was the last of a long line of Northumberland farmers who tilled the soil a few meters from Alnwick Castle, the powerful Percy’s family home.   They were Anglo-Saxons who came by their family name before the Normans invaded England.  In times of drought and military conflict, Mickey’s ancestors provided life-saving water to their neighbors in Northumberland from a well near their livestock enclosure.  First known as the family with the well near a barn, they became known by a shortened version, the Barnwells.

All things, good or bad, come to an end.  Mickey’s grandfather encouraged his son, Jasper, to forego the farming life and take up an occupation in town.  Jasper apprenticed as a blacksmith in the shadow of massive Alnwick Castle.  He excelled as a smithy and became a master of the trade, esteemed throughout Northumberland.  For the past year, Mickey worked alongside his father as an apprentice.  The boy with curly brown hair, freckles, and hazel eyes showed exceptional craftsmanship for his age.

With Sir Henry Percy’s blessing, Jasper took his young family to the coronation of the new King at Westminster.  An adventure of a lifetime for Mickey, his family tagged along behind the Percys as they made the pilgrimage of over three hundred miles to Westminster Abbey.  The widow, Margaret Castleberry, tended to the women of the Percy household.  She and her daughter, Lily, traveled with the company.

Margaret Castleberry, nee Wood, married a mercenary knight named Robin Castleberry.  During the Hundred Years War, he signed on with Sir Robert Knolles to bolster the English forces in northwest France.  Castleberry headed up a group that broke away from Sir Knolles’ main force and suffered an ignoble defeat at the hands of the French.   Lily, Castleberry’s daughter, was three years old when her father lost his life in battle on 4 December 1370.

The Crown, in the person of Edward III, confiscated what little wealth Castleberry had accumulated through his mercenary missions.  A Northumberland native, Margaret’s fate was in doubt, as was that of little Lily until Margaret retained a job as a domestic in the Percy household.

Lily, who did not remember her father, except for the stories of his courage in battle, lived in proximity to the opulent life at Alnwick Castle.  She fanaticized that, if her father lived, she would enjoy the life of the Percys, and not as a servant at their beck and call.  Despite Margaret’s efforts to reframe reality for the boisterous hoyden, Lily preferred her dream world.

In and around Alnwick Castle, the girls viewed Mickey, the hard-working young smithy, as a catch.  They knew better than he that marriage would be in the offing in a few years, and they awaited their chance.

Lily, who could wield a sword and wrestle as well as any boy her age, took a different approach.  One day, as Lily and Mickey fished along the River Aln, Lily said, “I’m lucky, I live in a castle, and I am learning French.”  She ran on, “All the wealthy people speak French when they don’t want the help to know what they’re talking about.”

“Big deal,” Mickey said.  “You live in a cold, damp room and spend your time waiting on everyone else in the place.”

Not to be put off, Lily said, “I have taste and style.  If my father had not died in battle defending our country, I would have girls waiting on me.”

“Why do you want people waiting on you?  You can take care of yourself.”

“But I will be a lady, and ladies need others to wait on them.”

Mickey said, “Your Mum is a lady, and she doesn’t have anyone waiting on her.”

Without a viable response at the tip of her tongue, Lily retreated to an old standby.  “Boys are so dumb.  You don’t know anything.”

Mickey ignored Lily, the one thing she did not want him to do.  Lily rose, stomped her foot, and marched across the open fields to Alnwick Castle.

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2.  DUISBURG – 1379-1381

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“I’ve heard good things about you, young Barnwell,” Sir Henry Percy said on a Monday morning when he paid a visit to Jasper Barnwell’s forge.

“Thank you, sir,” twelve-year-old Mickey responded and returned to his work.

Sir Henry turned to Jasper, “Things are heating up.  The bloody Scots encroach on us whenever they get a chance.  Westminster is a mess with a child as King.  His counselors are having a field day lining their pockets while Richard is powerless to stop them.  The damn riff-raff in Essex and London complain about wages and taxes. And the fighting in France is not going well.”

“As you say, Sir,” Jasper replied.

“I need you here, Barnwell.  Keeping the horses shod is a full-time job.”

“Aye, Sir.  I am working from dawn to dusk, as it is.”

“I need a bladesmith,” Sir Henry declared.  “It takes too damn long to get our swords from the Continent, and it’s bloody expensive.  How’s your boy doing?”

Jasper’s voice revealed paternal pride.  “He’s as good a smithy as there is in the shop; no doubt about that.”

“I want to send young Barnwell to Duisburg, Niederrhein, to learn sword-making from the best.”

By Friday of that same week, Mickey Barnwell was on his way to apprentice with Hans Albrecht, master swordsmith in Duisburg, Germany.

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By means of introduction, Hans Albrecht said, “If you learn the craft I teach you, you will be a rich man.”

Conversation with Herr Albrecht was not a problem for Mickey.  His Middle English was not far removed from Hans’ Low German.

Mickey took in the grizzled, balding man with skinny arms, as the man hammered a twisted core of iron with remarkable force and dexterity.  Where does he get such strength?

“Ach, pudgy boy, you wonder where Hans’ power comes from; I tell you.  My arms are like piano-wire, flexible, and strong, stronger than steel.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You want to work hard all day and night?”

“I want to make the finest, strongest swords in the world,” Mickey declared matter-of-factly.

“Is that so?  We shall see.”

Mickey worked from daybreak to dusk; he broke only for necessary trips to the loo and meals.  He toiled day after day; he worked the mechanized bellows to reach maximum temperatures, always under the watchful eye of Herr Albrecht.  He gradually learned to form the blade by heating the wrought iron and steel to molten, causing the two metals to join.  Mickey tempered the edge over the flames a second time and then quenched it in oil or brine.  He liked the finishing touches best.  Mickey worked assiduously to grind and polish the weapon to its sharpest edge and highest shine. Those blades he deemed worthy, Mickey adorned with his signature MB.

While Mickey Barnwell worked on his skills, the master filled him with the knowledge he would need to be a master bladesmith.  “You must insist on finding the finest steel from only the best smelters.  If you choose inferior steel, your fine craftsmanship will come to naught, and you will place your knight in grave danger.  His sword will bend or break.  I cannot emphasize this enough; put your initials on only the very best from your forge.”

Mickey worked and listened and didn’t say a word.

The master said, “You must make sure you have ample charcoal for your blast furnace and bellows.  Charcoal adds the carbon to the iron to make it steel, and its heat is the magic that turns your iron and steel into a formidable weapon.”

Two years with Herr Albrecht passed before Mickey Barnwell crossed the Channel to England and traveled north along the sea to Alnwick.  During those two years, the chubby young teen grew as tall as a man.  His sturdy frame added muscle as his baby fat melted away.  Mickey’s forearms became piano-wire strong, and his hands were calloused and hard.  The look in his hazel eyes conveyed confidence.

Mickey found his father at his forge, working as always.  Jasper looked up from his task at the intrusion and then did a double-take as he recognized the young man before him.  “Son, you are a man,” Jasper said with pride and affection.

Mickey smiled, warmed by his father’s comments.  He said, “I’m getting there, Father.  But it will be a while before I am a man like you.”

“If only your mother could see you now,” Jasper said in a wistful moment.

“I have learned much.  I am ready to begin a life that will make you both proud.”

“Sir Henry will want to see you forthwith,” Jasper advised.

With confidence tempered by humility, Mickey said, “I am ready.”

Word spread among the eligible young ladies in Alnwick, “Mickey Barnwell is back in town.”

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3.  PERCY - 1066-1385

Fourteen-year-old Mickey Barnwell didn’t speak French.  He did not have the opportunity to be in the company of English royalty and aristocracy in his young life.  He did not know their Norman history, nor did he care.  Mickey knew the myths and lore of his Anglo family.  He also knew the master of the estate, Sir Henry Percy, as a kind, if somewhat condescending man.

William de Perci, a Norman noble, accompanied William, Duke of Normandy, at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066.  William’s Norman forces defeated the Anglo-Saxon army of Harold Godwineson.  Godwineson claimed the English Crown as Harold II only months earlier in January 1066.  From that October on, the Norman French aristocracy supplanted the former Anglo-Saxon landed gentry.

In 1309, Henry Percy, 1st Baron Percy, purchased Alnwick Castle.  The Baron was an aristocratic warlord who served under Plantagenet Kings Edward I and Edward II.  He proved his worth as a warrior and administrator in the Scottish and Welsh border wars.  Percy died at the age of forty-one, but not before he established a northern English stronghold in Northumberland against Robert the Bruce and his marauding Scots.

Sir Henry Percy, the current Lord of the estate, was the 3rd Baron Percy’s son and the man who sponsored Mickey’s two-year apprenticeship to Hans Albrecht.  On the day of Richard II’s coronation, the event attended by Mickey and Lily, the young King made Sir Henry the 1st Earl of Northumberland.  Earlier that year, Sir Henry’s son, thirteen-year-old Henry, also known as Harry, became a knight, as did Richard II’s cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke.

The Percys were warlords, and medieval warfare was up-close and personal.  Firearms did not become a factor until a century later, and large ordinance did not come into play until later in the Wars of the Roses.  The weapons of choice for medieval knights included his sword, often a broadsword up to a meter in length, and his lance.  The latest state-of-the-art weapon of the time was the English longbow.  Mickey Barnwell was on a track to become a wealthy and famous commoner.

The Earl granted Mickey a plot in the nearby Pennines foothills with a charter to make the finest swords in the land.  The place was ideal for Mickey’s needs.  The forest provided ample hardwood for charcoal, the magic elixir of his trade.  Jasper and Mickey built Mickey’s forge with funding from Sir Henry.  The great Baron took his cue from the teenager.  He searched through his aristocratic channels to find the best iron and steel smelted on the Continent.

Mickey started small; first, he performed all the required tasks for every sword his forge produced.  As he gained confidence in his new situation, Mickey expanded his operation.  He learned to select suitable people to cut the timber and make charcoal.  Jasper guided him as Mickey selected his apprentice smithies.  Several of Jasper’s journeyman blacksmiths opted to join the teenager in his new and exciting venture.  By 1385, the eighteen-year-old businessman oversaw a twelve-man operation. 

Early that year, twenty-one-year-old Sir Harry Percy made a personal appeal to the swordsmith.

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At fourteen, Lily Castleberry was as ill-informed as Mickey about the Norman aristocracy governing their lives.  Still, she was far more attuned to the ways of power in the Castle.  Lily’s ardent desire to be one of them required her to grasp the breadth and depth of the Percy Family dynasty.

During the two years Mickey was in Germany learning his trade, Lily began the magical transition.  No longer was she the hoyden capable of outdoing the boys; Lily became an eye-catching and demure maiden easy to notice and difficult to miss.  The breeze that caught Lily’s straw-blond hair offered a hint to her spirit.  Her startling blue eyes conveyed intelligence.  The childhood freckles faded, and her smile revealed beautiful white teeth.  Lily learned some French but spoke the language with an Anglo accent.  Lily was of age to bear children.

In the spring of the year Mickey returned, Lily was curious about her childhood companion.  She stopped by Jasper Barnwell’s forge.

Mickey, as tall as a man, caught sight of her as he worked.  The hazel-eyed teen smiled and said, “Hello, Miss.”

“Mickey, you are so grown-up,” Lily said.

“Lily?”  Mickey’s smile broadened.  “Lily, is that you? You look terrific.”

Lily said, “All the girls in town are talking about you, Mickey.”

Mickey said again, “You look great.”

With a knowing smile, Jasper watched his son.

Before she turned away and walked back to the Castle, Lily said, “I wanted to welcome you home.”

Mickey said, “I guess we won’t be going fishing anymore.”

Over her shoulder, Lily said, “Not likely.”

The young man watched her make her way across the field.

Teasingly, Jasper said, “Any time you are ready, you can get back to work.”

The young knight and patrician, Sir Harry Percy, noticed Lily Castleberry for the first time that spring.

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4.  SIR HARRY AND MISS LILY

After Mass, on a rainy Sunday, three-year-old Harry Percy escaped his mother’s grasp and splashed through a puddle near their home in Alnwick Castle.  Energetic, impulsive, and unpredictable, the boy charmed his parents and the staff with his outgoing personality.  The toddler was impish, never mean-spirited, and always busy, traits he maintained until the end of his days.

At the age of ten, Harry joined his father as a page while the elder Percy campaigned with the English forces in France.  There, young Harry observed the carnage that is warfare.  Death was a constant companion to life in medieval Europe.  Men at arms and many others died at the hand of marauding armies.  Mothers died in childbirth; babies perished at birth or before; pestilence and pandemic were equal-opportunity killers.

As the son of a warlord, Harry excelled at martial arts that served him well in battle.  He quickly mastered horsemanship; he was particularly adept with the sword.

Harry Percy was not a questioner; he was a believer.  He accepted his aristocratic birth and his Catholic faith.  Harry believed in a life hereafter, heaven, hell, and purgatory.  He learned that upon mortal death, the greatest joy is the resurrection, the rejoining of body and soul.  He believed in his father’s cause in Northumberland.  Having spent his youth, in part with Henry Bolingbroke and Richard of Bordeaux, Harry believed in the English cause, as long as it was consistent with the imperatives of the 1st Earl of Northumberland.

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Harry Percy happened to be at home in Alnwick Castle for an extended time before being called to duty.  He filled his days with practicing the martial arts and horsemanship he needed on the battlefield.  As one first notices spring flowers, seventeen-year-old Sir Harry Percy noticed the emergence of fourteen-year-old Lily Castleberry as she came into bloom.  While she attended to her chores around the Castle, Lily Castleberry espied the young knight noticing her.

Lily made time to observe the young man from a discrete distance.  Harry enjoyed the attention of so attractive a young lady, even if she was of a different class.  The courting dance continued for several months as Harry looked forward to performing his martial skills with greater anticipation.

Lily enjoyed the game and found the handsome young man appealing, but more than that, she wondered, is this my chance for a better life?  They continued thus until the couple found a secure location in the Castle.  There, they began two months of joyous encounters.  Harry taught Lily to ride, which expanded their options to include romps in secluded glens a distance from town.  Horsemanship came effortlessly to Lily.  Harry enjoyed the sex and the thrill of secrecy.  Lily cherished the intimacy and clung to the hope of a better life.

Harry’s departure to join Sir Edmund Mortimer in Ireland ended the season of love-making.  Soon thereafter, Lily Castleberry became quite ill with her first pregnancy.  She had been careful to keep her liaisons private.  Margaret, her mother, suspected the cause of Lily’s extreme discomfort but never said as much to her daughter.  Instead, she treated Lily with kindness and sympathy, as did the rest of the household staff.  Lily was convinced that she was the only person ever to feel so poorly but staunchly refused to acknowledge the cause.  Word of Lily’s aliment percolated through the Castle but was not discussed in Lily’s presence.  The Percys were aware; if they suspected their impetuous son, they never said.

When Lily decided to confide in her mother and make the big reveal, she was aghast that everyone knew of her condition. When word came from Ireland that Harry disavowed any connection to Lily’s situation, Lily was beside herself with humiliation.  She coaxed a stableman to saddle a mount for her and rode off in the direction of the sea.

That evening, when Lily did not return home, Margaret asked the staff to find her.  Upon getting word of the search, Sir Henry, himself mounted his steed and set off to locate the young lady.  Percy encountered Lily, prone, bleeding, and unconscious on a patch of rocks along the vast shoreline.  The Earl rushed Lily back to the care of her mother and an outpouring of love and sympathy.

Days of care and attention brought young Lily back to life.  She lost the baby and nearly lost her life.  Lily explained to her mother that she had fallen off the horse and struck the ground so hard that she lost her breath and passed out.  Margaret, the wise mother, knew her daughter and suspected that Lily’s fall might not have been an accident.  Margaret Castleberry never revealed that thought; instead, she showered her child with love and attention.

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The days of England’s rainy winter arrived before Margaret decided to steer Lily’s life toward reality.  She advised Lily that her best chance for a better life was to marry the enterprising young bladesmith who was the talk of the town.  Mickey Barnwell, who focused on his business in the Pennines foothills, knew nothing of the recent dramas in Lily Castleberry’s life.