The Tudor Bride (10 page)

Like all the king’s official correspondence, the seal had been broken and the letter read by his chief clerk so Catherine was able to scan its contents. It was written in Latin, the universal diplomatic language of Europe.

‘It is from Jacqueline, Mette,’ she confided, moving nearer to me so that her voice did not carry to the rest of the spectators. ‘Jacqueline of Hainault, who was married to my poor brother Jean, if you remember. Her father died soon after Jean did and left her heir to the territories of Hainault and Holland. Then I believe she married her cousin the Duke of Brabant, although it seems not willingly.’ Her brow creased with concern as she read on. ‘Now she is in terrible trouble and asking for our help.’ She nodded at Walter dismissively. ‘You are right, Master Clerk; his grace will want to deal with this immediately. I will see that he gets it.’

We moved to the seating area where Catherine perused the letter more closely.

Nearly an hour passed before the king and Gloucester abandoned their energetic assaults on the pells and wandered across to the barrier to take refreshment. Their faces were glistening with sweat and both men hastily removed the heavy gauntlets they had been wearing in order to grasp the cup of the wine their squires poured for them. Catherine immediately approached the king and drew him aside to read the letter, while the duke took the opportunity to stroll over to the spectator stand where Catherine’s ladies still sat. He rapidly had the three Joannas giggling at some light-hearted remark, but his dallying was interrupted when King Henry strolled up and thrust the letter into his brother’s hands.

‘You had better read this, Humphrey,’ he said. ‘The Duchess of Hainault and Brabant is a lady in distress. You may have met her in Flanders when you stood hostage for the Duke of Burgundy during our peace talks in Calais four years ago.’

Humphrey pondered this suggestion but shook his head. ‘No, although I did hear talk of the new dauphin’s beautiful wife. Would that be the same lady?’

‘Yes, but she was not dauphiness for long, as Prince Jean died soon after that and she married the Duke of Brabant. Not a successful union it seems. Anyway, she is in Calais now and asks permission to come to England. Awkward though it may be in view of her close relationship with our ally Philippe of Burgundy, I do not see how we can refuse. Greeting her is a job for the Lord Warden of the Cinq Ports but, although we must regard her as an honoured guest, I would not advise carrying her ashore in one of your infamous chair-litters. This lady is reputed to need careful handling.’

Catherine protested at this. ‘I think that is a little unkind, my lord. Her husband is a violent brute and the Burgundians have invaded her territory. She deserves our sympathy.’

Ignoring this outburst, Humphrey returned his attention to the letter, but King Henry gave Catherine a quizzical look. ‘Another way of looking at it may be that she has run away from her husband and abandoned her people. Not something any prince worth his honour would do.’

‘But she is not a prince,’ Catherine insisted. ‘She is a princess who has been forced into marriage with a half-wit cousin by the Duke of Burgundy on the basis that there will be no offspring to inherit either of their territories, meaning that in due course he can add them to his own. That is manipulation of the ugliest kind and Burgundy should surely not be allowed to get away with it. Jacqueline is connected to every royal house in Europe and might have been Queen of France, if my brother Jean had not died before his time. She deserves our help.’

King Henry forced a placatory smile, clearly unwilling to enter into a public debate on the subject. ‘I understand that you have sympathy for your former sister-in-law, Catherine, and with that in mind I will agree to let her come to England, even though it will undoubtedly annoy Philippe of Burgundy who, I am sure I do not need to remind you, is our greatest ally against the forces of the Pretender. Now, let us drop the subject.’

Catherine allowed him to take her hand and lead her back to her seat on the dais, but from where I stood I could see a mutinous expression that the king did not see. King Henry immediately went to speak to his brother, who was again surrounded by a giggling gaggle of young ladies.

‘Well may you practise your charm, Humphrey,’ I heard the king remark in a tone too low for Catherine’s hearing. ‘You may soon need all you can muster. I will send a courier to Calais today and I suspect that Duchess Jacqueline will waste no time in taking ship for Dover. If you take the highway tomorrow, you should be there in time to greet her and bring her back to Windsor for the tournament. You do not want to miss that!’

Following the talk about the Duchess of Hainault’s letter, Catherine became unusually quiet for the rest of our stay at the practice ground. She waited to reveal the reason for this until we were in her bedchamber with no men present, preparing her for dinner in the great hall.

‘Why should a woman have no say in her own future, even when she is the ruler of her own country?’ she asked indignantly as Agnes and I removed her fur-lined heuque and began to unlace the warm woollen kirtle beneath. Sensing that the question was rhetorical, we exchanged quizzical glances, but remained silent, expecting further enlightenment. Being the maid of honour on duty, Lady Joan busied herself in the queen’s jewellery chest, selecting the pieces to be worn and sensibly keeping her counsel.

‘If we show the slightest sign of exercising any power, even power that is legally ours, we are instantly considered to be difficult or, as my lord puts it, to “need careful handling”.’ Catherine glanced round at the three of us, still busy at our tasks. ‘Not one of you speaks, but you all know what I mean. Joan, has your mother never complained of such things?’

Lady Joan looked up from the jewel casket, her cheeks hot. ‘Not in my hearing, your grace,’ she said diplomatically.

Catherine shrugged and sat down on her dressing stool. Agnes moved in to arrange her hair more elaborately for the formal headdress she would wear with her elegant ground-sweeping gown. I had not yet noticed any of the court ladies copying Catherine’s French fashions, but it could be only a matter of time before there was a rash of steeple hats and houppelandes.

Agnes began to twist handfuls of Catherine’s hair into ropes, pinning them to the crown of her head. ‘Have you ever met the Duchess of Hainault, Madame?’

‘No.’ Catherine shook her head, tugging against the tress her attendant was arranging. ‘Ouch, be careful, Agnes! Well, I was at her wedding when she married my brother Jean, but we were all children then and I do not remember her except as a bride in the cathedral at Compiègne. Charles met her later, when she was the dauphiness, and said she was very beautiful but heiresses are always beautiful to men, are they not?’

‘Will she live here at the English court now?’ Lady Joan laid a collar of Lancastrian SS gold links set with diamonds on the dressing chest, ready to drape around Catherine’s shoulders. ‘After she arrives, I mean.’

‘We shall have to see if we like her,’ Catherine responded. ‘She may not fit in with our merry little band. You are happy that you stayed with me, are you not, Joan? Or do you miss your mother?’

This double question flustered Lady Joan. ‘Oh yes – I mean no. Well, I miss my lady mother, of course, but I am very happy that you managed to persuade her to let me remain in your service, Madame.’

‘That is good because it was not easy. And of course King James is here for the occasion of his being knighted by the king. Does that please you also?’

This abrupt change of topic seemed to turn Lady Joan’s cheeks a deeper shade of pink. ‘King James, Madame?’

I frowned, striving to fathom where this conversation was going.

With a teasing smile Catherine pursued her theme. ‘He spoke to me of you yesterday, Joan. He said he had watched you from a window, playing bowls in the garden, and thought you the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. I received the impression, however, that he actually knows you rather better than merely as a vision of loveliness viewed from afar. Would I be right?’

Both Agnes and I were by now wide-eyed with astonishment. This suggestion of a liaison between Lady Joan and the King of Scotland came as a complete surprise; then I remembered Joan’s plea for my intervention with Catherine on her behalf. Suddenly I understood the real reason why she had been so anxious to stay at court.

I felt quite sorry for her in the circumstances. Clearly her lover, if he was that, had spoken to the queen of his interest without forewarning Joan. Tongue-tied and deeply embarrassed, she was unable to think of anything to say.

Catherine took pity on her. ‘Well, since you do not deny it, I must suppose that the two of you are at least acquainted. And whilst King James is obviously very enamoured, he spoke most honourably and delicately about you. He writes poetry, did you know that? Well, of course you do. Really, Joan, there is no need to look so crestfallen. You have not committed any crime and not even your high-minded mother could object to such an acquaintance. King James has asked me to take his part in marriage discussions with your mother and the king, but first I would like to know whether you would be willing. Consent is still required by the Church, however; many marriages are somehow forced on unwilling and unfortunate noblewomen like Duchess Jacqueline.’

By now Lady Joan had dissolved into tears, and it was impossible to tell if they were tears of relief or remorse. I was about to rush to her side and put my arm around her, but Catherine beat me to it, pulling her hair from Agnes’s grip and abandoning her dressing stool to take the tearful girl’s hands and lead her to a window-seat where they subsided together. Wordlessly I handed Catherine a kerchief taken from my sleeve and she gently mopped Lady Joan’s eyes.

‘I am sorry, little Joan. I took you by surprise and clearly King James has raised the question of marriage without your knowledge. Men do that, I am afraid, especially kings, I find. They tend not to understand that women have feelings and wishes of their own and should be consulted. But do not cry. There really is no need. You are lucky if you have attracted the love of someone you might be permitted to love in return. If you wish, I will speak to your mother on your behalf when she returns to court. Meanwhile, I think you may continue your friendship with King James, always remembering that he is still a king without a kingdom and may never be in a position to marry if he is not restored to his throne. Besides, you know that he will be going with King Henry to France before too long, so perhaps it would be wise not to get too attached.’

‘H— he has promised to write to me f-from France, Madame,’ confessed the sniffling girl. ‘I did not wish to deter him. I am told that men going to war often need someone to write home to.’

‘Ah – the sweet innocence of the child!’ Catherine handed Lady Joan the kerchief, casting a playful smile at me as she did so.

I raised an eyebrow in return, thinking that she was not so far from being a child herself.

‘I am sure he will write charming and lyrical letters and you will treasure them.’ Catherine stood up, her tone suddenly brisk. ‘Now, I must finish dressing or there will be scores of people waiting for their dinner and I shall be chastised by King Henry for keeping them all waiting. You see – even queens live under orders.’

I shrugged my shoulders and gave her a smile of sympathy. At eighteen she had thought marriage and a crown would give her freedom to exercise her own will and was fast discovering otherwise.

E
arly next morning I had thought the queen was still abed, asleep, when Agnes came rushing into the robe room, her face a mask of fear. ‘Quickly, Mette, come quickly! The queen is hurt!’

Catherine was very pale, propped up on cushions in a chair in the presence chamber, where she had been carried by the Master at Arms, a sturdy soldier who had heard Lady Joan’s cry for help as she clattered into the stable yard at a hectic canter. It seemed that the horse-mad lady-in-waiting had been persuaded to assist Catherine in taking a secret dawn ride in the Windsor deer-park, which had come to grief when the queen had been knocked from her horse by a low branch. King Henry had been sent for, but had not yet arrived because at sunrise he had crossed the river to inspect the latest Thames navigation works. He must have missed Catherine and Joan sneaking out of the royal stables by minutes.

‘I am perfectly all right. Do not cluck like a mother hen, Mette!’

Catherine was right, I was fussing around her in trepidation, feeling her brow and propping her feet on a stool. ‘Well your grace, if you would care to tell me exactly what happened, I might be able to help,’ I fretted. ‘Should we send for a physician, I wonder?’

I would have liked to give her a more thorough examination, but was very conscious that we were not alone. Several high-ranking courtiers had interrupted their breakfast to offer help and were hovering anxiously in the background.

‘My back hurts a little, that is all. I was knocked clean off my horse!’ Catherine’s indignation had increased in proportion to the number of people she could see in the room. ‘Blessed Marie, Mette, send all these spectators away! There is nothing for them to see.’

She had dropped her voice to a hiss, but it still carried to every ear in the room and most of the courtiers began to drift away, muttering to each other.

‘Truly, Mette, I am not badly hurt, just shamefaced because I am entirely to blame for my bruises. I wanted to gallop, to be free!’ She winced as she shifted on the cushions. ‘I daresay the king will scold me thoroughly.’

‘Certainly he will and with some justification!’ King Henry heard her words as he strode through the door. The small gathering of remaining courtiers dipped their knees as he passed. Frowning fiercely, he bent over his wife and kissed her cheek, placing one hand on her forehead in concern. ‘I am happy to see that my worst fears appear groundless. I had dreaded to find broken bones at least. Please tell me there are none.’

Catherine’s expression was that of a small girl found with her fingers in the sweetmeats. It was only with a visible effort that she met his gaze, shaking her head. ‘No, my liege, none. I am sorry you were brought back from your business unnecessarily.’