The Red Rose of Anjou (15 page)

The Duke riding beside her was smiling gaily. He talked to her about Greenwich and how fond of the place he had become since it had passed to him through his Beaufort uncle. Not the Cardinal whom she had met but his brother Thomas, Duke of Exeter.

‘I was granted a further two hundred acres in which to make a park. I have done this so we have some good hunting there. You like the chase, my lady?’

‘I do.’

‘Then you will find great pleasure in some of our forests. I always say we have the best in the world. When I was granted the land I had to agree to embattle the manor, and make a tower and a ditch...and all this I have done. So I shall proudly welcome you to Greenwich.’

She rode along in silence, her colour heightened, her head held high.

So they paused at Greenwich and afterwards made their way through Southwark and into the City of London. The pageants so astonished and delighted her that she forgot the unpleasant encounter with Gloucester. London had surpassed itself. The citizens revelled in pageantry and this show they were putting on to welcome the Queen was a prelude to all the rejoicing that would take place at the coronation.

All the tableaux and scenes which were enacted were for the union of Henry and Margaret and the theme was that for which they had all been longing. Peace. It was true they had all believed that peace would come with the conquest of France. There had been a time some twenty years before when that dream had seemed to be at hand. And then Henry the Fifth had died suddenly, cut down in his prime, and since then the scene had changed.

Well, if this was not great victory, it was peace and peace would mean an end to the exorbitant taxation which had been crippling trade and making them all poor.

At the bridge at Southwark the pageant represented Peace and Plenty. There was one puppet display with Justice and Peace as the figures. These approached each other and after much juggling met in the kiss of peace. Then Saint Margaret appeared; and there were dancers and children reciting and in the hair of every girl was a daisy.

It was a great triumph. Henry was delighted with the impression she had made on the people and refused to have his spirits lowered by the knowledge that they were cheering a peace which had not yet been made. The marriage had taken place, yes... but the only concession which had been agreed on was a truce. We must have peace, Cardinal Beaufort had said; and Henry agreed with him.

‘My brother would rise up and curse you if he could,’ was Gloucester’s comment. ‘Peace. Never. We are going to fight on until we put the French crown where it belongs: on the head of the King of England.’

Gloucester was hot-headed. He always had been. But why had he come to Blackheath and been so affable? And Margaret had shown her contempt for him. He must explain to her.

He did.

‘I could not understand,’ she told him, ‘how you could have been so gracious to him. He is no friend of yours.’

‘That I know well. I don’t trust him. I always double the guards when he is near. I am sure he would do me some harm if he could.’

‘And yet you behaved as though he were your very dear uncle!’

‘He was playing a part, Margaret. I had to play one too.’

‘I could not hide what I felt.’

He smiled at her tenderly. ‘You are so good, so honest. But, my dearest, Gloucester is a dangerous man. He has his followers. He has always been a favourite with the Londoners.’

‘Then the Londoners are false to you.’

‘Indeed not. You saw their welcome. They are powerful, you know. They stand on their own at times...If they express their disapproval we have to be wary.’

‘And you...a King.’

Henry laughed. ‘Dear Margaret, you are wise and clever. But you have something to learn.’

She did not answer but she thought: ‘I will never accept those who are my enemies. I will not pretend to love them.’

Meanwhile Gloucester was discussing the Queen with the Duke of York. There was a bond between them. They both believed they had a claim to the throne. Gloucester would have to wait for his nephew to die; but York descending on both sides of the family from Edward the Third and through his mother from the Duke of Clarence who had been older than John of Gaunt, secretly believed he had a higher claim than Henry himself. So Gloucester felt he could be sure of York’s agreement.

‘She slighted me,’ said Gloucester. ‘I wonder I did not ride off right away. The impulse to do so was there. But I restrained myself

‘You restrained yourself admirably. We were all astounded. You seemed as though you positively admired the girl.’

‘She is pretty enough, I grant you. But there is a strong will there. I can see our Henry will be as wax in her hands.’

‘Then it will be the Queen with whom we have to deal.’

Gloucester clenched his fist. ‘I will think twice before I submit to the will of a woman...and a French one at that. This is a disastrous marriage. We have given away so much and gained what? A French Queen! Mark my words, we shall be called upon to give away more. We should be waging war on France, not making a marriage with her.’

‘We have gained little, it is true. Minorca, Majorca! Empty titles! And they are after Maine...?’

‘I tell you this,’ said the Duke of Gloucester, ‘I shall not allow the daughter of so-called King René to insult me with impunity.’

‘The little girl will have to learn her place,’ agreed York, ‘and that means that although she is allowed to sit on a throne and wear a crown on her pretty head she will have to take account of her noble subjects.’

‘Ah yes, our dainty little Queen has much to learn.’

At the end of May the coronation took place. It was a splendid occasion and the people crowded to Westminster to have a share in it. There was rejoicing throughout the capital and in spite of the fact that the royal exchequer had to be drained to its dregs to provide for it, all seemed very satisfied.

Wine flowed from the conduits in the streets of London; the people danced and sang.

‘This marriage means peace,’ they declared. ‘Peace at last. Long live King Henry and his pretty little Queen.’

They would not remain for long in this state of euphoria.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Margaret was happy. Henry was all she could have wished and he was devoted to her. He had had her emblem of the daisy shown in every possible place; it had even been enameled and engraved on his plate.

‘The young fool is besotted by the French wench,’ commented Gloucester.

He would have his revenge, though. He would be equal with them all. He had never managed to outwit that wily old bird the Cardinal, nor Suffolk; but he would have done but for that unfortunate matter over Eleanor and the waxen image. He often wondered not how such a clever woman could have become involved in such practices but how she could have been so careless as to have been caught. She had been working for his advancement, of course. She had wanted to see him on the throne.

He would have been there but for people like the Cardinal and Suffolk. They thought they were clever arranging this French marriage but they had not seen the end of that yet. All they had was a temporary truce, and the French would soon be making further demands. He could see it coming.

Meanwhile, Margaret reveled in her role as Queen. She dazzled Henry with her prettiness and her quick wit. She visited the Cardinal at his mansion of Waltham and there she was received with great pleasure.

The old man delighted in her youthful charm. She was such a dainty creature and he was amused to think that such a delicate-seeming person could conceal a woman of strong will which she undoubtedly was.

But she was willing to submit that will to him.

‘I know,’ she told him, ‘that there is so much I have to learn and I want you to teach me.’

This seemed the utmost wisdom to the Cardinal for in spite of the adulation she was receiving she realized her shortcomings and she could not have sought a better teacher.

His old eyes misted over as he watched the beautiful young creature and she raised her blue eyes to his and said: I shall never forget our first meeting. I knew then that you would be my friend.’

‘You are so young and yet from the first I saw your latent wisdom,’ said the Cardinal. ‘There is no one on earth I would rather see than you beside the King on the throne.’

‘I hope I may come and see you often now that you do not always find it easy to come to Court.’

‘What a plague old age is when a beautiful Queen invites a man to Court and he is too infirm to take advantage of the honour. My dearest lady, whenever you come to see me I shall deem it the greatest honour that could befall me.’

Margaret enjoyed such compliments, particularly coming from this old man of the Church who was, she had quickly sensed even now, the most important man in England.

He talked to her of affairs in England. He said that what England needed was peace and he was sure the King realized this. She was heartily in agreement with that because it was exactly what her uncle the King of France wanted. The trouble, she knew, was that he wanted it on certain terms which the English might not be prepared to give.

He talked of Gloucester. His hatred for the Duke was in every inflection of his voice, every gesture, every expression which flitted across the old face.

‘Gloucester has been at the root of all our trouble. In his first marriage he offended Burgundy when Burgundy’s friendship was of vital importance to us. He was a menace to his brother Bedford, as fine a man as ever came out of England and almost as great a soldier as his brother the late King. T’was a pity Gloucester was not strangled at birth. He has caused nothing but trouble in this realm.’

I hate him,’ said Margaret vehemently. ‘So does Henry. He doubles the guards when he is around.’

‘You must be wary of him. He hates your marriage. He wanted the King to have one of the daughters of the Count of Armagnac. He does not want peace. He wants to continue the war.’

‘Did his wife plot against the King?’

‘Yes, she made waxen images with a witch and some soothsayers. They got their just deserts. She has been a captive ever since.’

‘Why was Gloucester allowed to go free?’

‘He was not suspected of plotting against the King’s life.’

‘I feel sure he was involved. Henry thinks so.’

‘Well, that is Gloucester. Be careful of him. He will harm you if he can. You have a good friend in the Marquess of Suffolk.’

‘I have, and the Marchioness is my dearest friend.’

‘Cling to them. And the Shrewsburys. Kings and Queens have many enemies.’

‘They will not get the better of me,’ said Margaret.

When she next came to Waltham the Cardinal showed her a chamber he had had prepared for her. He called it the Queen’s Chamber and the Cardinal had gone to great expense to furnish it elaborately with hangings of cloth and of gold from Damascus.

Margaret was delighted with it. She felt that with such friends as the Cardinal and the Suffolks she cared nothing for her enemies. And she was not going to put up any pretence of liking them. She would make it very clear to the Duke of Gloucester that she regarded him as an enemy.

###

Margaret was delighted with the friends who rallied round her. With such as them what had she to fear from a few enemies? She was already assembling what was known as the Court Party, and she insisted on Alice’s being in constant attendance.

Alice was delighted, but she was wise enough to know that the joyous feeling which at the time prevailed throughout the country could not last. Her husband was worried, too.

‘It is only a truce, that’s what they don’t realize,’ he said. ‘There has to be a reckoning soon and then the question of Maine and Anjou will arise again. When the people know what price we have had to pay for peace they will blame me.’

‘They must not do so,’ cried Alice. ‘What have you done but what you consider best for England?’

‘My dear, one’s intentions get little consideration. If one is successful one is a noble hero; if one fails, a villain.’

‘Oh come, William,’ said Alice. ‘You are strong enough to stand against them.’

‘I fear Gloucester.’

‘He has not the same power these days.’

‘He could always make trouble and now his friendship with York is growing.’

‘York. What is his grievance?’

‘That he doesn’t wear the crown.’

‘Why this is a nonsense.’

‘It would seem so. But he reckons he comes nearer through Clarence than Lancaster does through John of Gaunt.’

‘That is going back a good way.’

‘That matters not. There is a certain reason in it.’

‘Oh, no, it is too far back.’

‘As you say, it is far back and there are closer matters with which to concern myself. I have to face the Parliament. Well, I can tell them that the delegation will be coming to England to discuss the truce and that in the meantime I am advising the strengthening of the frontiers round Maine.’

‘That should please them.’

‘For the time being. But the reckoning is coming. I want them to know that whatever is arranged it is none of my doing.’

Alice looked at him a little dubiously. She did not remind him that when a man set out to guide a country’s policy, to be the most important minister in the land, he would surely be blamed if anything went wrong.

‘The Queen settles in happily, it seems,’ she said to change the subject.

‘Is she really beginning to lead the King?’

‘I can see it coming. She was born to lead and he to be led so the outcome is inevitable.’

‘Alice, try to restrain her a little.’

‘It is difficult. She is honest by nature. She finds it hard not to speak her mind. She lets it be known that she regards Gloucester with something like venom. She is sure that he is plotting to destroy the King.’

‘She is probably right but she should not say these things. Gloucester will show his hand if she goes much farther. At the moment he is pretending to support the marriage—which we know full well he did everything he could to prevent. I distrust him in this mood.’

‘Margaret does not yet understand the devious ways of statesmen.’