Steward

You there! Stop running! You can only run if I tell you, or there’s a Welshman with a long sharp bloody sword behind you.

I’m the Earl’s steward in Pembroke, so I’m responsible for keeping any trouble under control. Wherever you find people, you’ll find trouble ... arguments over land, over inheritance, over payments. And that’s just the honest folk! Then there’s bandits, poachers, thieves and forgers to deal with.

My Lord has an important duty to carry out justice in his lands, and we do our best in the County Court. As Steward I preside at the Court when my lord is absent, which is most of the time to be honest. I’m his right hand here – I even have authority to use his seal.

The Court is a nice money maker, not just from the fines but for handling any piece of legal work on the lord’s lands, like presenting petitions for help and so on. But anything to do with the church is the bishop’s problem, not the lord’s, and goes to the Ecclesiastical Courts, and thanks be for that.

The County Court session is coming up soon, so I'm hoping to clear some space in the Dungeon Tower. We've got a bandit, a murderer and two people who were caught with bad pennies, and I've got rope enough for all of them. Unless they die in the meantime, of course, in which case we are spared the trouble of hanging them.

Don’t look so frightened! Most people get off with just a fine, but if we didn't string a few miscreants up then this country would be in a fine mess.