THE HEIRS OF THE ESPECS.
IN the days when the Norman kings reigned in England, the Especs were of
high account among the Anglo-Norman barons. Many were the brave and
pious men who bore the name; but the bravest and most pious of them all
was that Walter Espec, a great noble of the north, who maintained high
feudal state at the castles of Wark, Helmsley, and Kirkham, and who
figured so conspicuously as chief of the English at the battle of the
Standard, and harangued the soldiers before the battle from the chariot
from which the standard was displayed.
But not only as a warrior was Walter Espec known to fame. As a
benefactor to religion, his name was held in honour and his memory
regarded with veneration.
It seems that Walter Espec had, by his wife Adeline, an only son, who
was a youth of great promise, and much beloved by his parents. Nothing,
however, pleased him more than a swift horse; and he was so bold a rider
that he would not have feared to mount Bucephalus, in spite of heels and
horns. Leaping into the saddle one day, at the castle of Kirkham, and
scorning the thought of danger, he spurred his charger beyond its
strength, and, while galloping towards Frithby, had a fall at the stone
cross, and was killed on the spot. Much afflicted at his son's death,
Walter Espec sent for his brother, who was a priest and a rector.
'My son being, alas! dead,' said he, 'I know not who should be my heir.'
'Brother mine,' replied the priest, 'your duty is clear. Make Christ
your heir.'
Now Walter Espec relished the advice, and proceeded to act on it
forthwith. He founded three religious houses, one at Warden, a second at
Kirkham, a third at Rievalle; and, having been a disciple of Harding,
and much attached to the Cistercian order, he planted at each place a
colony of monks, sent him from beyond the sea by the great St. Bernard;
and, having further signalised his piety by becoming a monk in the abbey
of Rievalle, he died, full of years and honours, and was buried in that
religious house; while his territorial possessions passed to the Lord de
Roos, as husband of his sister.
Nevertheless, the family of Espec was not yet extinct. A branch still
survived and flourished in the north; and, as time passed over, a
kinsman of the great Walter won distinction in war, and, though a knight
of small estate, wedded a daughter of that Anglo-Saxon race the
Icinglas, once so great in England, but of whom now almost everything is
forgotten but the name. And this Espec, who had lived as a soldier, died
a soldier's death; falling bravely with his feet to the foe, on that day
in 1242 when the English under King Henry fought against such fearful
odds, at the-village of Saintonge. But even now the Especs were not
without representatives; for, by his Anglo-Saxon spouse Algitha, the
Anglo-Norman warrior who fell in Gascony left two sons, and of the two
one was named Walter, the other Osbert.
While Dame Algitha Espec lived, the young Especs scarcely felt the loss
they had sustained in the death of their father. Nothing, indeed, could
have been more exemplary than the care which the Anglo-Saxon dame
bestowed on her sons. In a conversation which Walter Espec held on the
battlements of the castle of Wark, with his brother-in-arms Guy
Muschamp, the heir of an Anglo-Norman baron of Northumberland, he lauded
her excellence as a woman, and her tenderness as a mother.
'I was in my tenth year,' said Walter, 'when my father, after having
served King Henry as a knight in Gascony, fell in battle; and, albeit my
mother, when she became a widow, was still fair and of fresh age, a
widow she resolved to remain; and she adhered firmly to her purpose. In
truth, her mouth was so accustomed to repeat the name of her dead
husband that it seemed as if his memory had possession of her whole
heart and soul; for whether in praying or giving alms, and even in the
most ordinary acts of life, she continually pronounced his name.
'My mother brought up my brother and myself with the most tender care.
Living at our castellated house of Heckspeth, in the Wansbeck, and hard
by the abbey of Newminster, she lived in great fear of the Lord, and
with an equal love for her neighbours, especially such as were poor; and
she prudently managed us and our property. Scarcely had we learned the
first elements of letters, which she herself, being convent-bred, taught
us, when, eager to have us instructed, she confided us to a master of
grammar, who incited us to work, and taught us to recite verses and
compose them according to rule.'
It was while the brothers Espec were studying under this master of
grammar, and indulging with spirit and energy in the sports and
recreations fashionable among the boys of the thirteenth century--such
as playing with whirligigs and paper windmills, and mimic engines of
war, and trundling hoops, and shooting with bows and arrows, and
learning to swim on bladders, that Dame Algitha followed her husband to
a better world, and they found themselves orphans and unprotected. For
both, however, Providence raised up friends in the day of need.
Remembering what he owed to his connection with the Especs, the Lord de
Roos received Walter into his castle of Wark, to be trained to arms; and
another kinsman, who was a prior in France, received Osbert into his
convent, to be reared as a monk. The orphans, who had never before been
separated, and who were fondly attached, parted after many embraces, and
many tears; and, with as little knowledge of the world into which they
were entering as fishes have of the sea in which they swim, each went
where destiny seemed to point the way.
On reaching the castle of Wark, Walter Espec felt delighted with the
novelty of the scene, and entered with enthusiasm upon his duties as an
aspirant to the honours of chivalry. Besides learning to carve, to sing,
and to take part in that exciting sport which has been described as 'the
image of war'--such as hawking, and hunting the hare, the deer, the
boar, and the wolf--he ere long signalised himself in the tiltyard by
the facility which he displayed in acquiring skill in arms, and in
chivalrous exercises. Indeed, whether in assailing the pel, or charging
the quintain on horseback, or riding at the ring, or in the combat at
the barriers, Walter had hardly a rival among the youths of his own age;
and, after being advanced to the rank of squire, he crowned his triumphs
in the tiltyard by successfully charging on horseback, _a la_ Coeur de
Lion, with a sword in one hand and a lance in the other.
But still Walter Espec was unhappy; and, even when his dexterity and
prowess in arms moved the envy or admiration of his youthful compeers,
his heart was sad and his smile mournful.
And why was the brave boy so sad?
At the time when Walter was winning such reputation at the castle of
Wark, Jerusalem was sacked by the Karismians. A cry of distress came
from the Christians in the East; and the warriors of the West were
implored to undertake a new crusade, to rescue the Holy Sepulchre and
save the kingdom founded by Godfrey and the Baldwins. The warriors of
the West, however, showed no inclination to leave their homes; and the
pope was lamenting the absence of Christian zeal, when a boy went about
France, singing in his native tongue--
Jesus, Lord, repair our loss,
Restore to us thy blessed cross;
and met with much sympathy from those of his own age. Multitudes of
children crowded round him as their leader, and followed his footsteps
wherever he went. Nothing could restrain their enthusiasm; and,
assembling in crowds in the environs of Paris, they prepared to cross
Burgundy and make for Marseilles.
'And whither are you going, children?' people asked.
'We are going to Jerusalem, to deliver the Holy Sepulchre,' answered
they.
'But how are you to get there?' was the next question.
'Oh,' replied they, 'you seem not to know how it has been prophesied
that this year the drought will be very great, that the sun will
dissipate all the waters, and that the abysses of the sea will be dry;
and that an easy road will lie open to us across the bed of the
Mediterranean.'
On reaching Marseilles, however, the young pilgrims discovered that they
had been deluded. Some of them returned to their homes; but the majority
were not so fortunate. Many lost themselves in the forests which then
covered the country, and died of hunger and fatigue; and the others
became objects of speculation to two merchants of Marseilles, who
carried on trade with the Saracens. Affecting to act from motives of
piety, the two merchants tempted the boy-pilgrims by offering to convey
them, without charge, to the Holy Land; and, the offer having been
joyfully accepted, seven vessels, with children on board, sailed from
Marseilles. But the voyage was not prosperous. At the end of two days,
when the ships were off the isle of St. Peter, near the rock of the
Recluse, a tempest arose, and the wind blew so violently that two of
them went down with all on board. The five others, however, weathered
the storm, and reached Bugia and Alexandria. And now the young Crusaders
discovered to their consternation how they had been deceived and
betrayed. Without delay they were sold by the merchants to the
slave-dealers, and by the slave-dealers to the Saracens. Forty of them
were purchased for the caliph and carried to Bagdad, where they were
forced to abjure Christianity, and brought up as slaves.
Now, among the boys who had yielded to the prevailing excitement, and
repaired to Marseilles to embark for Syria, was Osbert Espec; and ever
since Walter received from his kinsman, the prior, intelligence of his
brother's disappearance, and heard the rumours of what had befallen the
young pilgrims on their arrival in the East, his memory had brooded over
the misfortune, and his imagination, which was constantly at work,
pictured Osbert in the caliph's prison, laden with chains, and forced to
forswear the God of his fathers; and the thought of his lost brother was
ever present to his mind. And therefore was Walter Espec's heart sad,
and therefore was his smile mournful.