This, however, was the limit of his authority, as the Northumbrians still refused to swear allegiance to him. Several attempts had been made through 1067 and 1068 to install in the region an English earl who was both loyal to King Guillaume and who would be accepted by the Northumbrian people. Each of these attempts, however, met with failure. Finally – probably around Christmas 1068 – the king appointed Robert de Commines as earl, sending him north to take the province by force. It is this episode and its aftermath which form the focus of Sworn Sword.
In writing the novel I have tried for the most part to remain true to historical events. The Northumbrian rising – including the battle at Durham, the death of Earl Robert de Commines, the siege of York and its relief by King Guillaume – did indeed all take place in the early months of 1069 and on the timescale portrayed. Similarly, although Tancred and his companions are all fictional, many of the other characters are based on real historical persons, including Malet, his wife Elise (known in some sources as Hesilia) and their children, Guillaume fitz Osbern, Gilbert de Gand, the Northumbrian leader Eadgar ?theling, Harold’s handfast wife Eadgyth (popularly known by the more familiar name of Edith Swan-neck), and Dean Wulfwin. The original castellan at York, Lord Richard, is also based on a historical person, whose real name was Robert fitz Richard. However, since the novel contains two other Roberts – de Commines and Malet – I decided to change his name to avoid confusing the reader.
So far as possible, then, I have tried to stay close to the agreed facts. On some occasions, however, I have diverged from the agreed history to meet the demands of the story. For example, it is recorded that in the hours prior to the real battle at Durham, ?thelwine, the bishop of the town, actually warned Earl Robert of an impending attack, but that the latter did not believe him. Why the bishop would have betrayed his people in this way, and why the earl ignored him, are questions which I felt I could not satisfactorily answer, and which in any case did nothing to advance the plot. The true location of Earl Robert’s death – burnt to death in the bishop’s own house – only complicated matters further. Since I had no further role for ?thelwine in the novel, I chose to omit this episode entirely from the opening chapters, and to change the place of Earl Robert’s death to the mead-hall in the fastness.
There are also many places where the true details are disputed or impossible to ascertain, and in these cases I have felt free to speculate. For example, although the Normans were known to decorate their shields and banners with their devices and colours, Earl Robert’s hawk and Malet’s black and gold – as well as those belonging to the other lords – are by and large my invention. The two exceptions are the gold lion on a red field that was the symbol of Normandy, and the purple and yellow which was the traditional banner of Northumbria.
The precise movements of individuals in the medieval period are often difficult to trace, and in this respect too I have engaged in some speculation. Whether Robert de Commines really fought in the battles at Varaville (1057) and Mayenne (1063), or campaigned in Italy – as I have suggested – is not known, although it is by no means impossible. The same applies to Robert Malet’s journey from Normandy and participation in the relief of York, for which there is no evidence.
Whether Eadgyth was in fact even still alive by the time of the Conquest – and if she was, what happened to her – cannot be said for certain. However, her second daughter by Harold, Gunnhild, is known to have been educated in the convent at Wilton (much later, in c. 1093, she was abducted from there by the lord of Richmond, Alan the Red). Thus it is not unreasonable to suppose that Eadgyth, if she lived, could have accompanied her in taking refuge there following the Norman victory and her husband’s death at Hastings. If she did, she is likely to have enjoyed a comfortable existence. Ian W. Walker makes a strong case in his book Harold: The Last Anglo-Saxon King (Sutton, 1997) for identifying her with the Edith ‘the Fair’ and the Edith ‘the Beautiful’ who are named in Domesday Book. If he is right, then it is clear that she was a wealthy woman by the time of the Conquest, with large holdings of land worth more than ￡520, a significant sum at the time.