The Siege of Tremadoc

“Leon, the messenger tells me that Lord Harlech has landed up the coast yonder with three large ships.”

“The news travels faster than our messenger. The village folk have abandoned us and fled into the hills already, Owen. I’m sure that Lord Harlech arranged this to make his siege here easier. We have lost most of our fighting men and our Lord Tremadoc is up in Conwy attempting to take over another stronghold whilst his bitter enemy is picking at his arse. Harlech thinks he can take us with only three ship loads of men. He must be confident.”

“What’s his strength then?”

“Hundred at the most and probably a siege engine or two and our strength is only about forty if you include the women and children.”

“Do we surrender or do we fight? You have been left in charge here.”

“Don’t remind me. We can’t just open the doors and let him in with a fanfare. We need to put on a show. We haven’t the resources for a long siege and I reckon if Harlech knows his stuff he’ll pitch us out of here in two days. That’s why he’s only brought three ships.”

“What do we do? Have you a plan?”

“I’ll send a messenger to Tremadoc to tell him we are under siege whatever that does and now we have to assess our strengths. We know our weaknesses and only if Harlech knew of them then he would be on us in a trice.”

“What strengths have we got? Even our gates are down.”

“At least we have two workable siege engines Tremadoc left here for repair. We can at least catapult the rubble of this falling down castle at the enemy and clear away the courtyard. Old Tremadoc or whoever commissioned the building of this castle was a cheapskate. The lime mix they used was as weak as the stuff out of their backside. Only the rendering is keeping the walls up. One blast from their siege engine and we are done for. We need to be cunning and split his forces so that we don’t get a full head on attack. We need a weasel to go to him and divulge our apparent weaknesses.”

“The cobbler is the likely candidate. He’s a coward and a gossip.”

“Right, arrange an emergency meeting of the Sergeants that we have left here and include the cobbler on the pretence that he knows about our siege engines since he helped to repair them and also the carpenter to keep him company.”

“Now I have arranged this meeting to tell you all that I have sent a messenger to Lord Tremadoc telling him of our imminent attack by Lord Harlech and we have to hold out for at least three days until our force returns from Conwy.”

“Will Tremadoc send us help Leon?”

“Yes, Herman the Cobbler, he will. He cannot afford his family seat to fall in the hands of Harlech. Now I want to list our weaknesses in defence of this place and how we are going to bolster them up if we can. Firstly, the collapsed outer wall. They will target that so we need to build it up as much as we can.”

“Can we fill the moat?”

“No Sergeant, we don’t have time or the manpower and it leaks like a sieve. Secondly, we haven’t the manpower to guard our harbour tunnel, the same for the other old siege tunnel that we haven’t blocked yet. Ten men of theirs in each could easily penetrate and have us in a fix. Thirdly the portcullis and gates; the gates are down for repair and no point in re-hanging them as the portcullis walls are crumbling and they can easily pull the rotten ironwork down. Fourthly we have no arrows. Tremedoc’s bloody son, Ganyon, used the whole thousand or more up on target practise from the tower shooting at the seagulls. If he knew all this then Harlech would march in here by the end of the morning.”

“Can’t we just surrender and avoid the bloodshed?”

“No, we can’t Herman. If Lord Tremadoc would find out, then he would hang us all by our heels from the oaks.”

“Now I need a volunteer to try and negotiate with Lord Harlech. To tell him that Tremadoc is sending a force down to counterattack and he’ll be here in two days or less.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Good man Herman. This might buy us half a day of grace. Here is a letter to give to him outlining our conditions. Tell him we have sixty fully trained soldiers here and four siege engines. That will make him ponder a while.”

“Well, he fell hook, line and sinker the stinking coward. He will crawl to Lord Harlech on his slimy belly and gleefully tell him of our weaknesses. There is nothing like an arrogant enemy to be hoodwinked into a trap.”

“Hey Leon, you must admit we are very weak.”

“Yes, but if Harlech takes the bait he will divide up his forces. Some will go through the tunnels to nip us on our arses and the rest he will split between the gate and the collapsed wall. He probably won’t even use the siege engines knowing our moat is dry. A few ladders and they have breached our walls and that’s the end as far as he will see it.”

The siege started with a rider in livery riding up to the gates and shouting an ultimatum. Normally his act would be followed by a hail of arrows but obviously knowing that none were available from within, he had the cheek to ride right up to the moat bridge to cast his message. All he got was a few stones in return. A messenger reported to Leonthat men could be heard advancing along the harbour tunnel and along the old siege tunnel under the keep. Leonalready had two men positioned on the beach at the harbour tunnel ready to shut and bar the iron outer gate and trap the intruders inside. The castle entrance of the tunnel was also closed and impenetrable. The old siege tunnel was fragile and large rocks thrown from the castle walls would collapse it. Tremadoc hadn’t attempted it because he knew that there was a danger of his precious walls above also collapsing at the same time. That was a risk Leonwas prepared to take.

To order, Harlech again split his frontal assault to the front gate and to the collapsed wall. As his troops advanced, they were met by a hail of rocks and stones sent up by the two siege engines in the castle, manned by the women and fed with rocks by the children, injuring the attackers and slowing their progress. Harlech sent a party of men to scale the portcullis to attach ropes to haul it down. As the party reached the portcullis it fell forward onto them, trapping and injuring most of the men of the advance party. Seeing the portcullis down and the gateway freely open Harlech ordered his troops forward on both fronts.

The scaling ladders were quickly erected in the dry moat and troops sent up the crumbling wall. As they slithered down the inner side what met them was not a hard standing of the inner courtyard but a large deposit of water, the castle’s main water supply. They slithered into the ‘inner moat’ of fresh water. Owen’s Men at Arms ensured, with spears, that they didn’t climb out and many met their fate drowning. This sent mixed messages back about the prudence of this means and direction of attack.

A party of men rushed through the open gateway to be met by a wall of wooden gates erected as a barrier. The second portcullis dropped, cutting the advancing party into two parts and trapping a couple of screaming soldiers in the process. The inner gate house was a newer addition and built of stronger stuff. Rocks were hurled down from above on both the inner and outer parties, injuring many. The group trapped between the second portcullis and the old gates advanced in an attempt to break through but the gates were toppled forward crushing many. The stone throwers from a height and the Men at Arms with their pikes picked off the stragglers.

Leon, who was dashing to every position, ordered the net of rocks to be dropped over the siege tunnel. The walls miraculously held but anyone in the old tunnels would have met their fate. Screams were coming from the harbour tunnel as the trapped men inside shouted for help. A couple of spearmen kept the attackers at bay at the castle gate, preventing the trapped soldiers from knocking it down. The Lord Harlech forces retreated to reform and were met by a further cascade of rocks from the siege catapults. Leoncalculated that through injuries, deaths and entrapment he had depleted Harlech’s force by at least half and his men had only suffered minor scrapes.

The final gory act came when Leon released the dozen soldiers trapped in the harbour tunnel. These men crawled out of the gates of the besieged castle on all fours in agony since their ankle tendons had been severed. Harlech and his men lost their spirit for further battle and retreated to their ships licking their wounds.

“Tremadoc will be pleased with you Leon.”

“Bugger Tremadoc! We saved our own skins on this siege. What do you think Harlech would have done with us here? Turned us into slaves at the best or hung us by our heels from the highest trees. I’m going off to offer my services to the war lords of Anglia. They pay well for mercenaries and the spoils are richer than here, in this God forsaken land.”