With what do you associate the medieval time era? Bloodshed? Violence? Disorder? Darkness?
Who wants to read about these things? I have heard time and again that people do not like to read medieval fiction, and to put Christian in with it only makes it worse. How could there be anything Christian about a time period in history where Darkness ruled supreme?
But the stories I have unearthed from this time period, true stories, are fascinating. My biggest problem in writing Sirocco Wind was to chose which stories to put in and which stories to leave out.
My favorite story (which I deleted after much thought and prayer) was the true story of a man nicknamed William Longbeard. I allude to his story in Sirocco Wind, but was forced to leave it out as it took up too much room and did not forward the plot along.
William Longbeard (I can’t remember his true name) was born of fairly high placed parents and went in for the study of the law. He was an honest man and was soon dismayed to learn that the common man in those days (England 1198) had no rights, that there were two sets of laws, one for the landed, wealthy and noble classes, and one for the poor and landless serfs, servants, and slaves. He rebelled against the system and gathered together many like-minded people among the lower classes. He preached his sermons of freedom and equality through the streets of England. Of course the nobles did not like it, and tried vainly to shut him up. They imposed taxes, tried to hinder the trade of goods, and locked down the roads into and out of England. William went to France and appeared before King Richard, complaining of the treatment he was getting and appealing to the king for relief from the taxes and from the restraints on freedom. Richard said he would look into it, but he never did. William returned to London and continued to stir up trouble. They had secret passwords and secret meetings. They smuggled weapons into London and hid them in warehouses. The mood of the people on the street was ugly. A big fight was in the air.
Then the rulers found out about it. One day they shut down London streets. They imprisoned a few brave souls who tried to move about. Unable to communicate with each other or to reach their store of weapons, William’s army was defeated before they were able to fight. William himself and a small group of followers were chased down the street. They took refuge in a church. The king’s men burned the church and flushed William and his men into the street where they were arrested. They beheaded his men, but William deserved a public trial. Of course the outcome was fixed. William was convicted of high treason. In front of a crowd of silent, despairing watchers, he was tied to a rope and then drug through the streets behind a horse. When he was almost dead, they untied him and then hung him.
They buried him, but the people had the last word on William Longbeard. They came by the droves in the night and took handfuls of dirt because they felt the dirt on his grave was hallowed. The soldiers tried to keep them away, but they came anyway. William became a hero, and his life and message began a much stronger movement in England, France, and throughout Europe against the injustices of the feudal system. Not much later, King John would sign the Magna Carta, the document that became the foundation for our freedom in America and across the world. I’d like to think it was party due to William Longbeard, for his courage, insight, and resolve to stand up against unthinkable odds for something he thought was important.
There are many lessons we could learn from the lives of such men as William Longbeard. This is only one story of many that I unearthed. Some of them are almost unbelievable. I will continue to tell some of them in this column.
If you have any thoughts on the medieval time period, please let me know.
Thank you for responding!
Ginger Work
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