Category: Vanora Bennett

Vanora Bennett

Alice knows those stories. The routiers and condottieri of the Free Companies, who fight the wars of whichever prince will pay their fees, and amuse themselves in between times, are said to commit every kind of crime: from eating meat in Lent to slitting open pregnant women to kill their unborn and unbaptised children. The countryside of the southern lands is supposed to be full of their victims: a sea of vagabonds – priests without parishes; destitute peasants; artisans looking for work. ‘So you’, Alice says, ‘were one of the famous sons of iniquity…’ The Pope calls them that when they rob churches. But the Pope also uses them regularly. Alice knows she sounds a little breathless. She can’t altogether keep the admiration out of her voice. If she’d been a man, she thinks, she might have done exactly the same thing as Wat, to better herself fast.

Vanora Bennett

A kind of wonder takes Chaucer over as he pants up Fleet Street and past the walled orchards and gardens of this lovely riverside suburb for princes of kingdom and Church.This isn’t mob action, not really, even if there were men back there shouting that they were off to break into Newgate Jail and set the prisoners free.It’s something else. Something he’s never seen, or imagined.These men don’t loot. They aren’t trying to get rich, or even just get fed. They’re not remotely interested in picking up a few unconsidered trifles from the palaces they’re passing, however lovely the houses are, however manicured the gardens.They’re here to destroy. And they know their targets.