Chapter 2

Rome, Papal States. January 1067

Pope Alexander II was furious. It was late January, and he had received word that not only William’s invasion of England failed, but the entire Norman Army had been wiped out by Marion’s forces. Then he received news of how she treated his representatives when they went to York to investigate Marion for witchcraft. They had been shot in their knees, then Marion proceeded to have sex with her female lover in front of them. Her Goliath of a husband joined her, and when he was done, she dumped his juices into one of the priest’s mouths and forced him to swallow. On Christmas, she had the nerve to force the Church in England to declare her the Queen of England. After reading the news of her coronation twice, Alexander crumbled the message and threw it in his fireplace, knowing he would have to make some serious decisions. He spent the rest of the week praying, seeking guidance for dealing with this unfortunate turn of events in England. Coming out from prayers, he spoke to his servant:

“Nothing good is going to come out of this. That English queen is too well embedded and has the support of most commoners and many minor nobles. If her ideas are allowed to spread, it would be the end of everything.”

“But, your eminence, what can commoners do against a trained army?”

“Have you read any of the reports from England?”

“No, your eminence.”

“Well, I have. According to the reports, Marion’s army has some new weapon that can kill from over three hundred paces away, and her army usually crushes the opposition in less time than it takes to eat dinner. Then we have been getting reports and drawings of some iron horse that can move faster than a horse can run and keep that speed up while moving more people and goods.”

“If the reports are accurate, what can be done?”

“She must be crushed, and all these devilish things must be destroyed.”

“Can she be crushed, and what happens if we fail?”

Alexander looked at his servant with horror. What would happen if Marion won? Would the church survive; Marion’s dislike of the church was well-known, and if the church was responsible for trying to crush her, Alexander couldn’t imagine what Marion might do.

With William’s invasion defeated, Alexander had lost some political clout but thought he still had enough to eliminate Marion. The first step was to issue a papal bull declaring Queen Marion of England a heretic and excommunicating her and her inner circle from the church. Next, he sent messages to the King of France, Philip I, the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV, and several other minor rulers, asking for aid in the fight against Queen Marion I. This was difficult because everyone wanted something, and there were too many ways such an action could backfire on him.

He was declaring a total war on Marion, and people with nowhere to retreat tended to fight even harder. From reports, Alexander knew that most ordinary people in England were loyal to or at least liked Marion. She had sided with them against the church and overbearing nobles. They would be angry if they felt that she was being unfairly punished but then again, who cared about commoners? Most of the English nobility hated her, which was enough for Alexander. A possible recourse for Marion might be to kick the church out of England. Alexander only examined this briefly before discounting it, figuring she wouldn’t dare force God’s representatives out of the country. Marion wasn’t planning on kicking the church out of England, but her reasoning was different. As long as the English preachers didn’t encourage rebellion, she intended to leave them alone, already having enough problems to deal with without adding religion to the mix. After Alexander had sent out his messages, he sent another to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Alexander wanted him to travel to Rome to hear about Marion firsthand.

Since Britain was an island, Alexander knew he would need the help of Venice and probably Genoa. The Iberian kingdoms had their own problems to deal with, but Brittany was right next to Britain, and he was hoping that the duchess of Brittany could be persuaded to commit her fleet to help ferry troops across. This force would take at least a year to muster even if they encountered no problems and everyone agreed. Their biggest problem would be the stormy English Channel. He didn’t even consider the small English navy a threat, but he would have changed his tune if he knew what Luke was planning.

Paris, France. January 1067

Meanwhile, the mood was mixed up in Paris, France. When Duke William was killed, King Philip lost a powerful noble who only somewhat listened to him. On the other hand, if Philip could move fast, he could seize all the former duke’s lands. This would give Philip the perfect base to mount an invasion of England or Brittany later if he wanted to. Another advantage to seizing William’s former lands would be more land under the French crown’s direct control. The problem was that England was very close, and Philip had little control over French lands. He also had Brittany, Burgundy, and Flanders to contend with; none were very friendly. If these weren’t enough problems, Philip was only fifteen and hadn’t won any nobles’ respect.

Philip had first figured his best bet for resisting Marion was to support the Scots and hope they could tie up Marion’s army until he could gather the support of his nobles. As time passed, that bet became a losing one because Marion had already crushed most of the Scottish resistance. Her army continued to fight through the winter when every other army was in their winter quarters, and it was steadily pushing into the highlands to take the fight to the stubborn Scots.

By mid-January, Philip knew he had to rethink his Scottish strategy. Most of Scotland was in Marion’s hands, and only a few stubborn bands of highlanders were left. One of his advisers asked about the Welsh. Maybe they could be bribed to attack. Philip agreed to send representatives to Wales to inquire what it would take to attack England.

Then the pope’s letter arrived, and Philip paused. If he could get concessions from the pope, it would make it worth his while to go to war with England. But then again, maybe not. Philip knew all about Hardrada’s failed invasion, and from what Philip’s spies sent back, Hardrada was determined to stay on Marion’s good side. Staying on her good side was easy: don’t mess with her, and she wouldn’t mess with you.

Philip sent February thinking and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of waging war against the anti-Christian queen of England. From the pope’s message, he knew that Marion had been excommunicated, but from her record, Philip didn’t think that would bother her. Why should it when she had a female lover and had stolen church lands? Then there was her massive husband to worry about. They said he was an evil sorcerer who ate children for breakfast. Very few people who met him didn’t feel afraid of him. Ultimately, Philip decided to wait and see what happened with his inquiries with the Welsh before continuing. Hopefully, someone else would deal with Marion, and then he could sweep in and take over. He did move to take over William’s former lands for his own, which didn’t take much effort since the Normans had no army left. This move helped secure his northern flank and added to the French crown’s tax revenue since they didn’t have to share it with another noble.

Holy Roman Empire. January 1067

Emperor Henry IV had no intention of doing anything about England. The Holy Roman Empire wasn’t a naval power and had enough problems at home to deal with. The only thing that made him even consider anything was that the new ruler was a woman who had been excommunicated. Henry had other ideas; he would pay the Scots to continue their fight, or maybe he could pay off some of the angry English nobles. While his agents were paying off Marion’s enemies to keep her off balance, Henry would try to get the new devil weapons Marion was using. He heard that Hardrada had some of those new weapons, so maybe Henry could trade or buy some of these devil weapons hoping to beat back some of his more dangerous enemies with these new weapons. Henry’s biggest problem was the decentralized nature of the Holy Roman Empire. There was no capital city, and with many of the cities, especially the Italian ones, their loyalty was suspect. To make matters worse, the nobles were independent and always wanted something in return for anything they did for him.

He was on his way from Colone to Aachen, talking with one of his concubines after an evening of fun. A better term for this concubine would be a courtesan because she was gorgeous, knowledgeable, and possessed a sharp wit.

“What do you think will happen with that English queen, your majesty?”

“I don’t know, Gretchen. All the reports we have gotten say she is ruthless, intelligent, beautiful, and has the support of the lower classes, including her soldiers. Then there are the reports of her husband. I guess he would make Goliath look small and weak while being smarter than Archimedes. I do know if the queen’s attitudes toward the classes spread, everything will be ruined.”