Виктория Холт - The Hammer of the Scots

‘’Tis not his way or my way, it is a matter of how the country is governed.’

‘And you will let him have a say in that and tell you what to do?’

‘Certainly he and the other barons must have a say. That is the way the people wish it to be. But rest assured, dear lady, that it shall be my will that is done – though it may be I have to persuade my subjects to accept it.’

‘They should obey unquestioningly.’

‘That is something they have never done. A king cannot prevent the humblest peasant from questioning if only in his mind.’

‘Peasants, dear son, do not possess minds.’

‘Ah, dear mother, let us not make the mistake of underestimating the people. We have seen what disastrous effects that can have.’

‘Your father never considered the people.’

‘There is truth in that and let us face it – he came near to losing his crown.’

‘Oh, how can you speak of your father thus!’

He put his arm about her. ‘We loved him dearly,’ he said, ‘but our love did not prevent the disasters of civil war. I am determined that that shall never happen in my reign. This is as strong an arm as ever wielded a sword, dear mother, but my heart and my brain will tell me when it must sheath that sword.’

The Queen Mother looked at her son with trepidation. She felt that her rule was coming to an end.

There was feasting fitting for the occasion in the great hall at Tonbridge. Gilbert de Clare sat beside the King and expressed his pleasure in his return. This was an honest expression of his feelings, for Gilbert was not a man for pretence. Like all sensible men, he wanted to see the country at peace with itself, for only then could prosperity come. He was three or four years younger than Edward and had become the most powerful of the barons. There had been a time when he had supported Simon de Montfort against the royal party, but he was a man who would not hesitate to change sides.

He would always prefer to support the King. Moreover there was a family connection. Twenty years before when the King’s half-brothers and sisters had invaded the country to see what advantages they could get, Henry had decided that he would be a good husband for his kinswoman, Alice of Angoulême. Gilbert had been not quite ten years old at the time and had had no say in the matter. The marriage had been quite unsatisfactory.

Now as they drank wine together and listened to the minstrels who sang for the pleasure of the company Gilbert contemplated the happiness of the King and his Queen and his eyes grew a little wistful – a fact which was not lost on the King.

‘I trust we shall now enjoy a period of peace,’ said Gilbert. ‘The barons are hopeful.’

‘I shall do my best to see that their hopes are fulfilled, for I believe they want the prosperity of the country as much as I do myself.’

‘It is what the barons have always wished for, my lord.’

A reminder of Gilbert’s honesty. He was not going to pretend to please the King and pander to some mistaken notion that the dead must be praised and that Henry was a saint. Henry had brought his troubles on himself and as he was King those were the country’s troubles. Gilbert implied that the barons would be behind the new King while the new King acted wisely and for the good of his country.

As that was exactly what Edward intended to do he did not resent Gilbert’s attitude.

‘This is indeed a happy augury,’ went on Gilbert. ‘You have your crusade behind you. The people like a crusader king as long as his crusade is in the past and they cannot be taxed to pay for it while their king goes off and leaves his country in hands other than his own. So they like a crusader king who has proved himself in advance to be a great warrior and if that king has a loving wife and a family it pleases them. That is a great boon to a man.’

‘Forgive me, my friend,’ said the King, ‘but do I sense that you are not happy on that score?’

‘I will tell you this, my lord: if I could rid myself of Alice and take another wife, gladly would I do so. She comes from an overbearing family. Your grandmother was a wild woman, sire, and when she was Queen of England had power even over King John for long after their marriage, but when she married Hugh de Lusignan she bred a race of harpies.’

Edward smiled faintly. Gilbert’s wife, Alice of Angoulême, was the niece of Alice of Lusignan who was Henry III’s half-sister.

‘You speak of my family, sir.’

‘And my own since I married into it. But truth is truth, and you, my lord, will be the first to recognise it as such.’

‘So you would divorce your wife and the Pope is proving intransigent, I’ll swear.’

‘You have guessed it. How easy it is to be trapped into marriage. I was a boy of ten. What can a boy of that age do but obey the wishes of his elders, and there he is saddled with a wife for the rest of his life.’

Edward laughed. His wife had been chosen for him, and yet had he had a chance to choose from the whole world he would have picked her. He was lucky. He must be sympathetic with poor Gilbert.

‘Best of good fortune,’ he said, ‘and when you are free, Gilbert, we’ll find a good wife for you.’

‘With my lord’s permission I will find my own,’ was the reply.

It was a very pleasant sojourn at Tonbridge. Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, and the most powerful man in the country under the King, was with him.

Edward expressed his gratitude for the hospitality which had been given him; he implied his pleasure in the Earl’s support, while he was determined to keep a watch lest it should be diverted.

After Tonbridge, Reigate, where John de Warenne was waiting to receive the party.

Grandson of the great William Marshal and therefore belonging to one of the richest families in the country, as a boy John de Warenne had been one of the marriage bargains of the day; and Henry III had arranged a marriage for him with his half-sister, Alice de Lusignan, who was the aunt of Gilbert Clare’s wife. To the King it had seemed an ideal arrangement for, family man that he was, he was eager to setttle his impecunious relations as comfortably as he could. Edward had never had any reason to doubt the loyalty of this man who was so close to him through his family ties.

It was a very pleasant stay therefore at Reigate, marred only by the increasing fears of the Queen for young Henry.

‘It breaks my heart to see how he tries to hide his weakness,’ she told Edward when, after the long day’s meeting and festivities, they were alone together. ‘I know the child is far from well. He is so easily fatigued. Your mother said that little John was the same.’

‘Henry is young yet, my love. He will grow out of it.’

‘But we lost little John.’

‘We were not here then.’

‘Your mother would stand over him like a watch dog. She is devoted to the children, however …’ The Queen stopped short, but Edward laid a hand gently on her shoulder and smiled at her.

‘I think we understand my mother,’ he said. ‘There was never one more devoted to her family. Being clever and beautiful and delighting my father she has grown used to having her own way. She will unlearn …’

But the Queen was uneasy and she had passed on that anxiety to Edward. Their daughter Eleanor was in fine good health. So had Joanna been when they left her in Castile; and Joanna could have been said to have made a rather difficult entry into the world. Acre was not the most temperate place to make one’s appearance and there had been a considerable lack of comfort. Yet she had bloomed from the start. The other little one had died, but that may have been due to the hardships her mother had suffered before her birth. No, they could get healthy children. Eleanor was unduly disturbed because of John’s death and her conscience continued to trouble her, because she had been torn between leaving her children and her husband.

The next day the Queen continued downcast, although she tried to hide her feelings for she knew how her fears disturbed her husband.

But the King was aware of this, and he took her into the chapel at Reigate and summoning the priest told him of the Queen’s anxiety.

‘There is a shrine close by, I believe,’ said the King. ‘Let a wax image be made of my son and there burned in oil before the image of the saint. It may be that he will petition God and the Holy Virgin for his safety.’

The priest bowed and said it should be done, for it was a much practised custom to burn in oil a wax figure representing someone who needed special intercession with Heaven.

‘Now,’ said Edward firmly, ‘it is in the hands of the saints and do you doubt, my love, that they will turn deaf ears to the prayers of a mother as loving as yourself.’

He was so good to her, said the Queen. And she could almost believe that she had been foolishly concerned, but her little Henry was such a dear child and she did so long to see him as full of health as his sister was.

‘That will come, I promise you,’ said Edward.

And soon after they left Reigate for London.

The whole country seemed to be converging on London for the coronation and Edward was sure that this was one of those occasions when it would be unwise to spare expense. The Queen Mother was in her element. She would have liked to take over all the arrangements and order what was to be done as she had during her husband’s lifetime.

Instead she must content herself with gathering together her family. It was wonderful to know that her daughter Margaret was on her way from Scotland and Beatrice, her other daughter, with her husband, John of Bretagne, would also be present. Then there was her son, Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, who would be with them. In fact every one of her living children would be there. If only her husband were alive she would need nothing more to make her completely happy.

Margaret was her very favourite daughter. Perhaps because when she was young she had suffered such anxieties about her and her strong motherly instincts had been called forth in all their fury because her darling daughter was being ill-treated by those barbarous Scots. Often now she thought of how the child had gone to Scotland, and how she had wept at the parting and clung to her mother and implored to be allowed to stay with her for ever. But they had had to send her and she and Henry had wept together and suffered for their child. And when they had heard that she was being kept a prisoner in that grim Edinburgh Castle and given nothing to eat but their loathsome oaten cakes and a messy mixture they called porridge, Henry, incited by his wife, had been ready to go to war even if it meant defying the barons and tearing up Magna Carta and throwing it in their faces, which, thought the Queen, was the best thing that could happen to that horrible document. They had gone to Scotland; they had rescued their daughter, and she was now reunited with her husband, Alexander, who at that time had been little more than a child himself. And mercy of mercies Margaret was now happy. Yes, she and Alexander were devoted to each other and they had three beautiful children to bless their union. The Queen Mother hoped they would be as happy as she and Henry had been. Margaret was of a gentler temperament than her mother and like the entire family she was indulgent of that overbearing maternal figure. She had a daughter who was very dear to the Queen Mother because the child had been born at Windsor, during that period when Margaret had visited her family and contrived to stay until it was difficult for her in her condition to go back to Scotland. The Scots were not too pleased that their Queen’s eldest child should be born out of Scotland. That it was but a daughter perhaps placated them a little. That child, Margaret after her mother, was now thirteen years old and she had inherited her mother’s beauty. Moreover Margaret had given birth to a son Alexander three years after Margaret’s birth – a beautiful boy and heir to the Scottish throne – and four years ago little David had been born.

How wonderful it would be to have all the grandchildren around so that she could pamper them a little and make sure that they loved their grandmother and at the same time assure herself that their parents were bringing them up in a manner of which she would approve. She loved to admonish them tenderly and they all listened to her and accepted her superior wisdom. Happy days were ahead in spite of her great bereavement.

Then there was Beatrice, her second daughter, who was greatly loved, the wife of John, Earl of Bretagne, a husband who adored her, and they had five beautiful children; Beatrice had accompanied her husband on the crusade and had been with Queen Eleanor at Acre when Joanna had been borne so the two had become as sisters, having shared the discomforts of the nomad life while at the same time they had condoled with each other over the terrible choice they had had to make whether to leave their children or their husbands. Now they would all be united; and there would be more grandchildren for the Queen Mother to take under her wing.