The Queen from Provence

by Виктория Холт

‘Welcome, my son. It does me good to see you.’

  ‘How fare you, Father?’

  ‘Oh well enough. There is much to occupy me as co-Regent with the Queen. It is never easy to work with another. It would be so much simpler to stand alone. You are troubled I can see.’

  ‘I have come for your advice.’

  Richard glowed with pleasure. There was nothing more gratifying than to know this beloved son came first to him when he was in difficulties.

  ‘What is it, my son?’

  ‘I would like to leave Edward’s service.’

  ‘Oh. What is it? A quarrel?’

  ‘I find I can no longer stomach his behaviour.’

  ‘Rough riding through the country. That boy is growing into a fool.’

  Henry gave his father an account of the boy who had lost his ear.

  ‘My God,’ said Richard. ‘What a fool he is! He is like his mother. He does not realise that the people in the end decide on whether he shall keep his throne. And you were there.’

  ‘I tried to remonstrate, but I knew that advice from me makes him act more violently. It has happened in the past. I took the boy to his home and gave the family a purse.’

  Richard nodded. He knew that Henry would take the right action.

  ‘I feel that I can no longer serve him. I want to go abroad.’

  ‘To go abroad. That means to Gascony to serve with the King.’ Richard frowned. ‘I would not have that. And to leave Edward! One day he will be King, you know.’

  ‘If he is going to be like our grandfather I would have no wish to serve him.’

  ‘I understand that well. If he is going to be like his grandfather he will not long be King. Henry, you could stay with me. Nothing would delight me more. Edward will want to know why you have left him.’

  ‘He would know. He is fully aware of my disgust. Father, I can no longer ride out with him when cruel senseless disgusting acts are likely to take place at any moment. I will not, Father.’

  ‘Nor shall you. By God, you are as royal as he. But for the fact that his father was older than I by a few months you would be the heir to the throne. What a happy thing for England that would be! So, as my son, you need not serve your cousin if you do not wish to. But I could not agree to your going abroad, Henry.’ Richard hesitated. ‘You are no longer very young. You must know what is happening. The Queen grows more and more unpopular and the King is not loved by his people. This matter of Simon de Montfort’s quarrel with the King has been watched by the barons. There could come a day when they will takes sides as they did in the days of your grandfather. Henry, you should be here. You should learn what is happening.’

  ‘I have learned a little,’ Henry answered. ‘I have seen the people’s sullen looks when the Queen rides by. I have heard the whispers and now and then the shouts.’

  ‘It is not a healthful state of affairs. I do not see enough of you. Stay here for I see no reason why you should remain in Edward’s household if you have no wish to do so.’

  It was not long before Edward arrived at Westminster. He had come, he said, in search of his cousin Henry and would speak with him.

  When they were alone together Edward grasped his hands.

  ‘Henry, you left me,’ he cried reproachfully.

  ‘Yes,’ said Henry.

  ‘It was on account of that wretched boy.’

  ‘Wretched boy indeed … now and all his life. Think what you have done.’

  ‘I have thought of little else since it happened. I shall never forget the sight of you picking him up in your arms.’

  Henry said: ‘I shall stay with my father.’

  ‘I want you to come back with me.’

  ‘I prefer to stay here.’

  ‘You forget your place, Henry. I am your lord.’

  ‘Oh, what will you do if I refuse to come back? Cut off my ears?’

  ‘Henry, we have always been good friends. It was always the two of us. We were the ones. I want it always to be like that. We used to make plans together, talk of what we would do when we grew up. It was always good fun.’

  ‘We were children then. Perhaps you have still to grow up since you find pleasure in roaming the countryside tormenting people.’

  ‘I want to stop all that.’

  ‘What? Give up your games! Give up your sport!’

  ‘It was no real sport. This is why I want you to come back. I want to go to that boy’s home. I want to show him my remorse. I want to give him money …’

  ‘I doubt money could compensate for the loss of an ear.’

  ‘I will do something for him. I am going to take a vow, Henry. If you come back with me I will change. Yes, I will. I am not a boy any more. I suddenly saw how silly it all was. One day I shall be King. I want to be a good King. I want to be like the great Conqueror. He could not have gone around the country making cruel sport with the people.’

  ‘He would never have become the great ruler he was if he had.’

  ‘You are right, Henry. You have always been right. Oh, I listened to Henry, Simon and Guy de Montfort. I think they wanted to lessen me in people’s eyes. I was foolish. I listened to them. No more, Henry. You will see. So come back with me and our first task shall be to recompense that poor boy.’

  Henry hesitated. ‘Do you mean this, Edward?’

  Edward held up his hand as though making a vow.

  ‘I swear it. From now on I change my ways. From now on I shall begin my training. I am going to be a great King, Henry, when my time comes. My name shall be spoken with those of the greatest of my ancestors.’

  Henry took his cousin’s hand.

  ‘I will come back with you,’ he said.

  Two days later the Queen came to her son in a state of great excitement.

  ‘I have heard from the King,’ she cried. ‘We are to prepare to join him. Edward, he has a bride for you.’

  * * *

  The royal party set out from Portsmouth on a warm May day, and the Queen was in a state of high excitement at the prospect of being reunited with her husband. Edward’s feelings were mixed. The prospect of marriage did not displease him and the reports of his bride were promising. Henry was staying behind with his father who, with the departure of the Queen, assumed the entire Regency.

  Sanchia was with them. She was sorry to leave her husband but she had the compensation of her sister’s company and she could not forgo the opportunity of seeing her family once more.

  Henry was impatiently waiting at Bordeaux for their arrival, in a fever of anxiety lest disaster should befall them; and when he saw his Queen he was wild with joy.

  It was his happiest moment since he had left her, he told her. They embraced fervently; then he turned to the rest of the company.

  In the castle a great feast had been prepared. Never had he felt more like celebrating anything, said the King. He wanted to hear what the family had been doing and how baby Katharine fared. Poor darling, what a pity it was that she was too young to join them!

  Later he explained the position to the Queen and Edward.

  This marriage was necessary if they were to keep Gascony. King Alfonso, who had come to the throne on the death of his father Ferdinand III, was being very firm in laying down his conditions.

  The little Eleanora of Castile, the bride-to-be, was very young. She was the daughter of Ferdinand by Joanna Countess of Ponthieu – that lady whom Henry had churlishly treated in order to marry Queen Eleanor. Joanna, after being jilted by Henry, had married Ferdinand who had already had Alfonso by a previous marriage. Thus the young Eleanora was the new King’s half-sister and he was in control of her destiny.

  He had offered her to young Edward and Henry had seized on it as the only way out of the predicament he found himself in after his quarrel with Simon de Montfort, which could have lost him Gascony.

  Once the marriage ceremony was performed, Gascony would be safe for Henry.

  It had to be admitted that Alfonso was a little cynical regarding the intentions of
the King of England.

  This was not to be wondered at. Young Eleanora’s mother had been badly treated by Henry who after being betrothed to her had abruptly broken off his contract. Moreover the young girl’s grandmother had been that Princess Alice who had been sent to England as the bride-to-be of Richard Coeur de Lion, and had been seduced by Richard’s father when she was a child and kept by him as his mistress so that the marriage she had come to England to make had never taken place.

  Nothing of this nature was going to happen to his half-sister, Alfonso determined; therefore she should not go to Edward but Edward should come to her; he should travel to Burgos and if he did not arrive by a day which Alfonso would appoint, the contract would be broken and he would invade Gascony.

  Henry said: ‘You see what a position we are in.’

  ‘What an arrogant fellow!’ cried the Queen.

  ‘He is indeed, my dearest. But we are in his hands. If we are to keep Gascony, Edward must be in Burgos before the date expires.’

  ‘He shall be there,’ said the Queen.

  No time was lost, as soon as the contracts were signed and agreed on, Eleanor and Edward set out for Burgos. Henry’s presence was needed in Bordeaux so he could not accompany them.

  Travelling across the Pyrenees was hazardous, but at least it was summer, and the Queen’s determination was well known.

  Michaelmas day marked the end of the period allowed them.

  They arrived on the fifth day of August, thanks to the indefatigable efforts of the Queen; and there was great rejoicing in Burgos.

  * * *

  The young Infanta Eleanora saw the arrival of the cavalcade with the Queen riding at the head of it, her son beside her.

  This was Edward – who was to be her husband.

  Her heart leapt with excitement for he was very handsome. She knew at once who he was because of his bright flaxen hair. There was a distinction about him. He was very young – not much older than herself; and she thought that since she had to marry and leave her home she would rather it was with this Edward than any other.

  Her home had never been the paradise enjoyed by the Queen of England and her sisters. In the first place her mother had not been her father’s first wife. Ferdinand had never been very interested in her; his favourite child had naturally been Alfonso, son of a previous marriage, and Alfonso had shown very clearly, since he had become King, that he ruled them all.

  Alfonso had little time for his half-sister and regarded her merely as a pawn in his political game. But she was very useful at this time, he admitted; and he would be glad to see her a potential Queen of England.

  His interests were divided between politics and astronomy, and he was reckoned to be very clever. In fact he had invented tables concerning the heavens which were known as the Alfonsine Tables of Astronomy. He was known as The Wise, and his knowledge of the stars had brought him great prestige.

  So he had little time for his stepmother Joanna and his half-sister Eleanora, except when they could be of use to him.

  Joanna, who had herself been buffeted from one bridegroom to another, had told her daughter that this was what an Infanta must expect; but the King of England was notoriously devoted to his wife and it seemed likely that his son would be the same with his.

  Therefore the little Infanta, having lacked the happiness in childhood that some had had, at least had the compensation that it was no great wrench to leave her home.

  Down to the courtyard. Her mother held her by the hand. And there he was, the flaxen-haired boy, his eyes eagerly scanning those assembled until they came to rest on her.

  Then he smiled and she blushed a little.

  Her heart leaped with pleasure for she read in his looks that he was not ill-pleased.

  * * *

  They were married. She did not have much time to speak to him before the ceremony but he did let her know that he was happy to be her husband. He spoke a little of her language and she had been taught his so it was not hard to communicate.

  She thought he was the most handsome young man she had ever seen – and not only handsome, but different from any other.

  She was a little in awe of her mother-in-law, who was very beautiful and clearly determined to have her own way. They had the same name – or almost. The Queen’s had been made Eleanor instead of her native Eléanore; and Eleanora, which the Infanta was called now, would, the Queen told her, doubtless be changed to Eleanor when she was in England, for the English thought their way of doing everything – even spelling names – was better than anyone else’s.

  The Infanta told the Queen that she did not mind how they changed her name as long as they liked her.

  At which the Queen grunted and said they were a difficult people and in particular the Londoners.

  However Edward was more reassuring. The people would love her, he told her, because she was pretty and moreover gentle. He liked her gentleness too. In fact he was very pleased with his marriage.

  Alfonso was eager to show the English Queen that he could give her as good entertainment in Burgos as she had in England and there was a rich feast and a festival which was more stately than those held in England. Edward was most impressed but most of all he liked to sit beside his little wife and let her explain her country’s customs to him.

  Alfonso knighted Edward and the little Infanta was moved to see handsome Edward kneel before her half-brother.

  As the bride was so young – she was only just ten years old – there was to be no consummation of the marriage. That, said Alfonso, could wait.

  The Queen replied that the best way was to allow these things to settle themselves naturally; and in any case the little girl must finish her education first and this should have the Queen’s personal supervision, which she had given to her own children.

  This was all arranged to the satisfaction of Alfonso and in due course the party set out for Bordeaux and this time the little bride rode with them.

  * * *

  How delighted was the King to see them. He embraced the Queen, his son, and the little bride.

  ‘My dear little daughter,’ he said, ‘how glad I am to welcome you into this family!’

  Eleanora was delighted. It was such a pleasant family. The King loved them all so dearly and her mother had told her how important he was. He ruled a big country. The Queen was kind provided one did exactly what she wanted. And Edward was so gallant and rode with such skill and was so distinguished that she glowed with pride to watch him. Then there was the Queen’s sister, the Lady Sanchia, and Edmund who was her own age and Beatrice who was a little older. It was a wonderful family and what she had missed most – although she had not realised this until now – was a family life.

  The King was determined to welcome her warmly and his way of doing this was to give a grand banquet in her honour. There was a good deal of grumbling about the cost of this and the Infanta heard it said that it had cost three hundred thousand marks which was a very large sum of money.

  ‘We’ll find means of raising it,’ said Henry, cheerful as he always was when the spending of money was concerned; it was only when the need to find it arose that he lost his temper and became irritable.

  They stayed at Bordeaux until the end of the summer and as more brilliant festivals were devised to celebrate the marriage, the King’s friends grew more and more restive when contemplating the cost.

  Henry continued to shrug all that aside and finally decided that they would leave Bordeaux and start their journey home. First though he and the Queen would make a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Edmund, who had been his Archbishop of Canterbury until he died and been buried in Pontigny. Edmund had always been an uncomfortable man, being such a saint who, while he did continual penance for his own sins, had a habit of magnifying those of others.

  Having paid their homage to the dead St Edmund they felt considerably better about all the money they had been spending and travelled on to Fontevrault where Henry commanded that the body of his mother be re
moved from the grave in the cemetery there and put in the church. He ordered a tomb to be placed over it.

  By this time he was feeling very virtuous.

  The Queen was overcome with joy when messages arrived from the King of France to the effect that he would take it amiss if the party did not come to Paris and give him the pleasure of entertaining them.

  * * *

  Now the Queen was to experience the greatest pleasure because at the Court of France she would be with her three sisters.

  There was great rejoicing when the party arrived in Paris and, to please his wife, Louis insisted on giving the English party the finest lodging at his disposal. This happened to be the Temple which was the headquarters of the Knights Templar in France and was a magnificent palace.

  It was a wonderful moment when Eleanor was greeted by her sister Marguerite, recently returned from the Holy Land where she had accompanied her husband; and with her was Beatrice, now the Countess of Anjou, having married Louis’ brother Charles.

  To add to their joy the Countess of Provence, hearing that Eleanor and Sanchia were to be in Paris, had decided to join them. So that the four sisters and their mother were together.

  ‘There is only one missing,’ said Marguerite. ‘Our dear father.’

  ‘We must not grieve,’ said the Countess of Provence. ‘He would rejoice to see us thus, and perhaps he can. Let us, while remembering him, be happy in each other.’

  Henry, determined to court popularity – and also to let the French know that he was a rich King – spent his first morning in Paris distributing alms to the poor. This ensured his popularity and meant he was cheered wherever he went.

  ‘I know how happy you are, my dearest,’ he said to Eleanor, ‘and I am going to give a grand banquet to which I shall invite all the nobility of France. It will show the world how I honour your family.’

  ‘You are the best husband in the world,’ cried Eleanor. ‘The more I see of the men my sisters have married the more blessed I know myself to be.’