The Queen of the Elves Read online

  The Lord almighty bless you and direct your whole life.

  oOo

  Editor’s Note:

  Eadric Silvaticus (the Wild), a Saxon nobleman in the West Midlands, resisted Norman rule after 1066. Mention of him is made in the Anglo/Saxon Chronicle in 1067 and possibly again in 1075. His marriage to an elf comes from Walter Map in his De Nugis Curialium.

  William bequeathed Normandy to his eldest son Robert despite their bitter differences (Robert had sided with his father's enemies in Normandy, and even wounded and defeated his father in a battle there in 1079). His son, William Rufus succeeded William as King of England, and the third remaining son, Henry, was left 5,000 pounds in silver.

  Robert Curt Hose, inherited Normandy but was not allowed any revenue with which to pay his followers and was expected to be content with an empty title and bide his time until William Rufus died. Often helped by the King of France, he continued to wreak havoc against William and later against younger brother Henry. Henry captured Robert in 1106 and imprisoned him. Robert lived in captivity another 28 years and died in his early 80s.

  William Rufus (the Red), is described as a devil-may-care soldier, without social graces, with little show of conventional religious piety or morality and, according to his critics, addicted to every vice. It is also said he was a wise ruler and victorious general. He taxed the nobility and looted the Church to pay for his wars. Rufus finally died while hunting. Speculation has it that his death could have been an accident, an assassination, and even that Rufus may have been the last Western king to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual.

  Henry was present when Rufus died and hurried to secure (steal) the royal treasury. His succession was quickly confirmed while his brother Robert was away on the First Crusade. Henry's 28 year long reign, a period of peace and prosperity in England and Normandy, was filled with judicial and financial reforms.