Виктория Холт - The Reluctant Queen

Prostrate with grief, I thought! It did not seem so since he was proposing to marry Mary of Burgundy.

They say he is determined to find the culprits."

They could tell me no more. I asked Richard about it.

There will often be such rumours," he said.

"One should not take a great deal of notice of them. It may be that someone was saying Isabel was young to die and the rumour starts. People are always ready to suspect poison when someone dies."

"Isabel was never strong."

Richard looked at me anxiously. I guessed what he was thinking. Why should Warwick, the strong man, and his healthy wife, produce only two delicate daughters? I guessed that thought had often been in his mind. With Isabel's death, his anxiety about my health had been increased.

I went to him and laid my hand on his arm.

"I am going to live for a long time," I said.

"I must... for you and Edward. As for Isabel ... that last child, little Richard, was too much for her. She was not well before. She had already had three children ... the last two too soon together. This rumour of poison is nonsense."

On Isabel's death Ankarette Twynyho had returned to her native village in Somerset and decided that she would settle there among members of her family. I am sure Ankarette would have been very contented and would have become quite a figure in the village with her anecdotes about the court and people in high places.

She had served the queen as well as my sister and therefore Clarence turned his attention to her.

He must have been the one who set in circulation the rumours that his wife had been poisoned, and as his hatred against the Woodville family had been intensified by this recent rivalry for the hand of Mary of Burgundy, he decided he would find a way of calling attention to their villainy.

With a company of guards he rode down to Somerset and there found Ankarette. His men seized her and took her off to Warwick to be tried for the murder of my sister and her baby son.

Clarence implied that she was a servant of the queen and that the queen had sent her to my sister with instructions to poison her and her child.

He set up his own judge and jury who, on his orders, found her guilty of the crime and condemned her to death by hanging.

The sentence was carried out without delay.

When I heard the news I was overcome with horror. I had known Ankarette well. She was quite incapable of such a deed. She had been very fond of Isabel and had loved all children.

Clarence was crazy. Why should she want to poison Isabel? Clarence hinted that the woman was obeying the orders of her mistress, the queen.

Richard was both bewildered and shocked.

"What a fool my brother is!" he cried.

"He acts without thinking. He just wants to strike a blow at the Woodvilles and he does this terrible thing to an innocent woman. After this, they will work against him more than they ever did before. He has proclaimed himself not only their enemy but as a reckless, foolish man, a creature of no judgement. He will destroy himself."

I thought perhaps that would be the best thing ... for him and for us all.

"You see what he has done?" went on Richard.

"He has not only murdered this innocent woman, but he has behaved in a manner which would only be permissible if he were king. He has taken the law into his own hands, which no subject must do. He must stop this rash behaviour or he will certainly find himself in such danger from which even the king will not be able to save him."

As for myself, I was shocked beyond measure. I could only think of poor Ankarette, that chatty, lovable woman, hanging lifeless from a rope.

It was a great relief to return to the sanity of Middleham. How thankful I was that Richard was lord of the northern marches, so that we could live there in the free fresh air.

There was a great welcome for us. The children were waiting to greet us. My anxious eyes went immediately to Edward. His cheeks were pink because he was excited and that gave him a healthier look. I was eager to discover how he had been while I was away. As for the other two, they were clearly in good health and spirits. I saw the pride in Richard's eyes as they rested on them, and also the faint anxiety when his eyes turned to our son.

Isabel's death and that of Ankarette had upset me a great deal. Isabel had never been robust but her daughter, Margaret, appeared to be a fine healthy child. I had heard that Edward, the Earl of Warwick for the title had gone to Clarence was quite healthy but lacking, so it was said; slow to speak, slow to walk. My Edward was bright enough; it was just that he was a little frail compared with his half-brother and sister.

I must stop worrying about his health, I chided myself. I must stop thinking about Ankarette. I must stop that dread I was beginning to feel concerning my brother-in-law. But having once been the victim of one of his mad schemes made that difficult. He was ruthless in his quest for power.

I wondered how long the king would allow him to go on wreaking havoc on the lives of those about him; and once more I rejoiced that we were removed from court and such intrigues.

Those were uneasy months. We had the occasional visitor from court and when we learned what was happening there my relief was intensified.

We heard that there appeared to be open hostility between the king and the Duke of Clarence, and that Clarence made a point ofstaying away from court as much as possible. On the rare occasions when he was at the royal table he ostentatiously inspected each dish which was put before him and refused all drinks. It was a studied manner of implying that he suspected poison. He talked openly about the manner in which his wife had been poisoned and the wicked woman who had been sent by the queen to perform the dastardly deed. She had been rightly punished, but it was those who had paid her to commit the crime who were the true culprits.

Such talk was very dangerous.

"It is said, our visitor told us, that the king is fast losing patience with the duke. As for the queen and her family, they are determined to be rid of him. I am sure some charge will be brought against him ere long. They do not take the accusation of being involved in his wife's death lightly."

Richard said little to our guest, but afterwards he confided in me that Edward must be realising at last that he would have to take some action against George. Who could guess what mad scheme was on his mind?

Even in the north we heard of the trial of Dr. John Stacey. In fact the whole country was soon talking about it.

Stacey was an astronomer at Oxford who was accused of witchcraft. He was arrested and under torture admitted that he dabbled in the evil arts and implicated a certain Thomas Burdett who was employed in Clarence's household.

That was when interest in the case became so widespread, because under torture Burdett admitted that they were studying the stars for the purpose of reading the fate of the king.

Even Edward must take note of this. He had set up judges to discover the nature of these investigations and the verdict was that these people had been concerned in prophesying the death of the king and, moreover, using their arts to bring this about. This was treason and sentence was passed on all the men involved. They were taken to Tyburn and hanged.

This should have been a warning to Clarence, as one of the accused was a member of his household.

Clarence never learned lessons. He railed against the injustice done to innocent men. He blamed the Woodvilles. They controlled the king. The king had no power over his wife and her rapacious relatives were running and ruining the country.

Every day we waited to hear of some outrageous act. Edward's patience was at an end.

It was a June day when a messenger came to Middleham from the king. Clarence had been committed to the Tower and Richard was commanded to come to court without delay.

The king's younger son, Richard, Duke of York, was to marry Anne Mowbray, heiress of Norfolk, and Richard must play his part in the ceremony.

"Marry!" I cried, when Richard told me.

"He is only a child."

"I believe all of four years old and his bride is six. But she is one of the richest heiresses in the country. This will be the queen's contriving."

I was horrified to contemplate such a marriage. Why, the boy was much the same age as my own son Edward.

However, for such an occasion, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester must be present.

It was a long and tiresome journey and I knew Richard's heart was heavy. Clarence was a menace and there would be no peace while he was allowed to pursue his rebellious ways but for a brother to be a prisoner in the Tower was something Richard found hard to accept. I was sure the king felt the same.

When we arrived in London, Richard went at once to the king. He was with him for a long time and when he came back he was very sorrowful.

"I think Edward is probably going to forgive him," he said.

"He cannot bear to think of the little boy whom he used to love so dearly as an enemy. He said to me: "He wants my crown, Richard. I believe nothing else will satisfy him. He is so wild ... so foolish. How long does he think he would last as king? He never thinks beyond the moment. There is more to being a king than wearing a crown and smiling at the loyal shouts of the people. George will never understand this." I said: "You have done the only thing possible by sending him to the Tower. He will come to his senses there. It seems the only way to make him realise the dangerous position he has put himself in." I think he agreed with me but he is wavering."

It was shortly after that when Cecily, Duchess of York came to visit us. The duchess, Richard's mother and my father's aunt, was a lady of great presence. She was indeed one of the most regal persons I have ever met; and I believe that since her son Edward came to the throne she behaved as though she were a queen, , demanding homage from all those who came into contact with her.

In her presence one felt impelled to show the respect due to royalty.

She was a very handsome woman. In her youth she had been noted for her beauty and known as The Rose of Raby; but now her face was ravaged by sorrow. I had heard that she had never recovered from the death of her husband, for they had been a devoted couple and she had accompanied him on many of his campaigns even when she was pregnant, which she invariably was at that time.

Seeing her now in her old age, but still a commanding figure, I could imagine how angry and humiliated she had felt when her husband's head, adorned with a paper crown, had been set on the walls of York. It must be a consolation for such a woman that her son, Edward, was now King of England.

I went to her and knelt, which seemed the natural thing to do in her presence. She bade me rise.

She said: "I am in great distress. I would speak with Richard."

"My lady." said Richard.

"Anne and I have no secrets from each other. You need have no fear to speak before her."

She looked at me intently. Then she said: "Very well. Stay here. It is of George I wish to speak."

"George is the king's prisoner," said Richard in dismay.

"His own brother!" cried the duchess.

"There should not be quarrels within the family."

"George has been behaving very foolishly." said Richard.

"He has done so many reckless things damaging to the king. And now he has allowed himself to be involved in this witchcraft plot against the king's life."

"George is a little careless. He means no harm, I am sure."

Richard looked faintly exasperated. I guessed he had heard that said so often in his childhood.

"My lady mother," he said, "you must know that George has committed many acts for which other men would have lost their heads."

She looked at him disbelievingly.

"I know he has a streak of mischief."

"Mischief indeed! Do you know he shut Anne up in a cookshop and left her there to work in the kitchens? Do you call that a streak of mischief? He should have lost his head for that alone."

"Richard! You are speaking of your brother."

"I know it and I wish he were any man's brother but mine."

"You must not talk thus of George. Anne, you must persuade him. You must understand that this is his brother ... my son!"