The Traitor's Wife (39 page)

Parliament dispersed on August 22, having drawn up an enormously long indictment against Hugh in which he was charged with some things that were true, such as taking Hugh d'Audley's lands and having Llywelyn Bren executed, some things that were false, such as having declared that allegiance was not due to a king who did not guide himself by reason, and some things that were debatable, such as having guided and counseled the king evilly. The Despensers had until August 29 to leave England from the port of Dover. Those who had attacked their lands and the people on and near them were given full pardons.

The day after Parliament disbanded, the king and Eleanor walked to his cottage of Burgoyne, where a man dressed in seaman's garb awaited them. “Hugh!”

The king, who longed to embrace Hugh as much as Eleanor did, tactfully stepped into another chamber. At last husband and wife drew apart, and Eleanor asked, “Hugh, where shall we go? I understand that your father left for France as soon as the messenger brought him the news. Shall we join him?”

“Let the king come in here again, my love, and we shall discuss our plans.”

Edward entered the room on cue. “My dear niece, we have been thinking about this matter, and we think it best that you and the children stay in England for now.”

“Not here, without Hugh!”

“It is only for a short time, my love.”

“A short time? You have been exiled! Good God, Hugh, you are not thinking of coming back like Gaveston, are you? They killed him!”

“Which I have not forgotten for a moment,” Edward said, staring out a window. “My brother Piers came back ill-advisedly. We had no plans; we trusted in the honor of men who had none. With Hugh it shall be different. He will not come back until it is safe to come back, and when it is, it will be a black day for our enemies.”

“Until that day comes to pass,” Hugh said, “you and our children are safest here. Don't fear, my love. We shall be reunited soon, forever, and in England.”

Eleanor shook her head. “I understand none of this and like none of it, but you must know best. But Hugh, where shall you go?”

Hugh smiled. “Ned—the king, that is—intends to put me under the protection of the men of the Cinque Ports. I have developed a taste for this seafaring life.”

E
DWARD, ARE YOU GOING TO LET THIS GO ON? THE MAN HAS TURNED PIRATE! He is a menace to England's sea trade, and you know it.”

The king, riding away from Canterbury with his queen and Eleanor on a fine day in October, shrugged. “You forget, my dear, that Hugh is an exile. He is not within England's borders, and I have no control over him.”

“Lady Despenser, are you pleased to be the wife of such an illustrious pirate?”

Edward started to defend his niece, but Eleanor from her litter said coolly, “I do not approve of Hugh's actions, but as he was turned out of his own country with nothing to live upon but his own wits, I cannot blame him overmuch.”

“In any case, he has been most successful at it,” said the king cheerfully. “Two ships seized already, with cargoes worth thousands of pounds! Hugh never was one to do things by halves.”

Edward had been unusually cheerful lately, and unusually busy. He had suddenly ordered Bartholomew Badlesmere, his faithless steward, to give up custody of Tonbridge Castle—the same castle that Hugh had seized in his pique over the Countess of Gloucester's false pregnancy—and Badlesmere had refused. Badlesmere had also gone into Kent, against royal orders, and after a trip to Canterbury himself had traveled to Oxford. There the Marcher lords had assembled, ostensibly to attend a tournament, in reality to be within striking distance of the king should he foolishly try to recall the Despensers. Edward had responded to Badlesmere's acts by sending knights to secure Dover Castle. Now he had suddenly got it into his head to go to Canterbury, and with him had come the queen and Eleanor.

Eleanor had been invited by each of Hugh's sisters to spend his exile with them, but the king had wanted her to stay with him at court. In her anger over Hugh's banishment, she took a certain pleasure in sitting at the high table beside her uncle each night, knowing that her very presence there, big with Hugh's child, was irksome to Hugh's enemies. This state of mind, as well as the news that had been circulating about Hugh's new career, had made her feel very much of a sinner as she knelt beside Becket's tomb. She said abruptly, “But it is very wrong of Hugh. He must make amends somehow.”

“You can tell that to his face, my dear niece.”

Eleanor started up in her litter, where she had been stretching out as languidly as one could in the jouncing vehicle. “We are to see Hugh?”

“We are?” asked the queen.

“I have arranged to meet Hugh on Thanet Island. Eleanor, naturally, will want to go with me.” Eleanor nodded vigorously. “Isabella, I think it best that you return to London. I doubt that Hugh will be able to receive you on Thanet in the manner in which you are accustomed.”

“Very well,” said Isabella. “I should not like to be entertained by Hugh's accomplices in piracy.”

“I would like you to break your journey at Leeds Castle. You miss nothing, and will be able to tell me how well Badlesmere has it fortified.”

Isabella nodded graciously.

Hugh had found a large, comfortable house near the village of St. Peter's, so close to the sea that by walking only a few feet to a waiting boat, he could be out of England and therefore not in violation of his terms of exile. He came to the door himself to greet the royal party, and as soon as Eleanor saw him, her dismay about his new livelihood melted. She flung her arms around his neck as he bent to help her from the chariot, and he pulled her as close as he could to him, her belly being in the way.

“Did you enjoy the pilgrimage, my love?”

“Very much,” said Eleanor. She thought of that earlier pilgrimage she and Hugh had made there, at a time when they had had so little to concern them, and fell silent.

Hugh, however, had turned to the king and was giving him a manly embrace. “How is the queen?”

“She is well,” said Edward. “She is headed to London, and will be stopping at Leeds Castle.” He gave Hugh a knowing look that puzzled Eleanor.

The weather being fine, and the king having never lost his scandalous predilection for swimming, he proposed that he and Hugh go into the water. Hugh most reluctantly agreed, and after a few minutes of paddling about arrived cloaked and shivering in the house's modest hall, where Eleanor, Hugh's cook, and the king's cook were consulting as to the evening's menu. Edward came in about a half hour later, glowing. “That was splendid! Hugh, if you had stayed longer, you would have warmed up beautifully.”

Hugh grinned. “That's what a fire is for, your grace.”

After a meal of fish, combined with a wine so exotically delicious that Eleanor suspected that it must have come from the spoils of Hugh's piracy, the trio of Edward, Hugh, and Eleanor retreated to the room Hugh had designated as the king's chamber. The night having turned crisp, they lounged by the fire, Eleanor leaning cozily on Hugh, the king with an avuncular arm draped around his nephew by marriage. It was not a setting conducive to worry, but one concern nagged at Eleanor. “I do not understand. Bartholomew Badlesmere still has control over Leeds Castle, does he not? What if he refuses to admit the queen?”

“He won't be there; that shrewish wife of his and Walter Culpeper are holding it while he and the Marchers tilt and plot in Oxford. But you are right; they may well refuse the queen, either on their lord's orders or just out of sheer contrariness. That is what we hope.”

Eleanor stared. “Hugh? You want the queen to be refused entry?”

“Ingenious, isn't it?” The king beamed. “It's Hugh's idea. Isabella won't take such a refusal lightly—after all, Leeds is her castle by rights. She will be outraged. She will complain to me, and I will avenge this ill behavior by besieging Leeds Castle. All of England will be indignant on my queen's behalf. Badlesmere will be utterly isolated.”

“Lancaster has long disliked Badlesmere; he thought that he had no right to be appointed steward without Lancaster's consent because Lancaster claimed to be the hereditary steward of England.” Hugh chuckled. “So Lancaster is unlikely to come to his aid. And as for the Marcher lords, who among them will want to fight against the queen?”

Eleanor's head swam. “So with all the advantage on our side, we seize Badlesmere,” the king concluded cheerfully.

It seemed a very unlikely outcome to Eleanor. Who would be fool enough to deny the queen entry to her own castle? The very next day, she had her answer: Lady Badlesmere.

After being turned away, Isabella had gone to the royal castle at Rochester, minus nine of her men, who had been killed in the clash with Badlesmere's garrison. Edward and Eleanor promptly joined her. Hugh, knowing that his presence would be ruinous to a scheme that was going to plan, put back out to sea.

In mid-October, the king sent Pembroke, the Earl of Richmond, and the Earl of Norfolk—the latter being his much younger brother Thomas—to begin besieging Leeds Castle. Badlesmere succeeded in persuading Hereford and the two Roger Mortimers, uncle and nephew, to aid him, but Lancaster not only refused his aid, as predicted by Hugh, but persuaded Hereford and the Mortimers to withdraw theirs. Pembroke, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London had been sent to Kingston to negotiate with Hereford and the Mortimers, but their desertion of Badlesmere's cause left the king, now at Leeds, with no need to negotiate with his enemies. He was even able to send for his hunting dogs to pass the time as the siege progressed. There turned out to be little time for hunting, though. On October 31, 1321, soon after the king's arrival, Leeds Castle fell. Badlesmere's wife and children were sent to the Tower and a half dozen members of the garrison were summarily hanged. Badlesmere himself, far from the castle, fled north.