'Goddam' An Archer's Tale

The year is 1485 and an old man, in all likelihood the last of his breed, begins to relate his past life to a man in whom he sees a kindred spirit. Richard Stanyard, once an archer of Henry Vth tells of his former life as a participant in the king’s great victory at Agincourt and the subsequent actions and sieges of the campaign to conquer France. Although these events are now decades past and the old man is well into his dotage, a mere shell of his former self, he has remembered it all. Joy and sorrow, pride and guilt, yet he is determined that the times through which he lived and those who shared those times should not be forgotten. Through his words, memories and dreams the deeds of his hero king, his comrades and himself live again. His stories relate the events of the times he ‘followed the grey goose feather’ as a very young man and plied his trade as a bowman with the other ‘Goddams’ of the English army. This was not the courtly combat of the romances, but war to the knife, with a common bowman such as Stanyard offered none of the honour and courteous respect of his noble leaders. Instead he faced death, blood and fury, gain and loss, butchery and despite this the love and respect he felt for those with whom he served. Siege and open battle, glorious in victory, but tainted with the horrors of the reality of war, Stanyard saw them all and grew through his experiences to become a respected figure amongst his fellows. Now, in his old age his tales tell of the finely honed, yet murderous skill of the English archer. The bloody face of combat hand to hand and advancement and booty gained at the cost of others’ lives, both friend and foe. Stanyard served his masters well in bloody battle, siege and sack. Nevertheless, despite all he has seen and done, he maintains throughout an element of humanity that gained him his greatest prize of all, the woman he loved.