Henry shook his head, so angry he could not trust himself to speak.
Willem had joined them, not wanting to interrupt the mercer’s anguished account of his town’s betrayal, but now he touched Henry’s arm, gesturing toward the castle. “The drawbridge is coming down.” As they watched, the gates were swung open and men came racing out, with the castellan, Hugh de Lacy, in the lead.
“Thank God you are here, my liege!” Gasping for breath, de Lacy fell to his knees before Henry, as much an act of exhaustion as one of obeisance. “But if only you’d come a few hours sooner. We could do nothing, had to watch from the battlements as the townsmen surrendered and that treacherous French Judas turned the town over to his soldiers for their sport. But we were dumbfounded when we saw what was happening in the French camp. They were pulling out, leaving behind tents, carts, livestock, even their mangonels and other siege engines. We’d expected them to launch another attack on the castle, and instead they were retreating!”
Getting stiffly to his feet, de Lacy winced, for he’d incurred several minor wounds in the defense of the castle. “It makes sense now, though. They saw your banners, my liege, and fled like rabbits, the craven whoresons. They’ll never get over the shame of this-”
De Lacy broke off, for his king had whirled and was running for his horse. The other knights were quick to follow. Watching as they galloped away from the burning ruins of Verneuil, the castellan shouted after them, “Catch the bastards! Make them pay!”
They did not return to Verneuil until nightfall. The castle garrison came out to greet them, but asked no questions. The torch-fire playing upon the weary, grim faces told them all they needed to know. “We’ve run out of most of our provisions,” de Lacy said to Henry, “but what we have is yours, my liege. We would be honored to give you shelter tonight.”
“That is kind of you, Sir Hugh,” Willem interjected, “but we will continue on to Conches where we left our supply wagons.” He wanted to get Henry away from Verneuil, knowing the sight of the town’s charred remains would only salt his wounds, but Henry gave him a quelling look and shook his head.
“No,” he said curtly. “We stay here tonight.”
Willem knew better than to argue. Taking de Lacy aside, he told him that they’d overtaken the French army’s rearguard and killed those they’d caught. But Louis and his knights had gotten across the border to safety. “For now,” Willem added coldly, and then told the castellan of the day’s treachery. De Lacy was outraged. If the town had been taken by storm, the French would have been justified in pillaging, raping, even burning it to the ground. But once they’d made a truce, they were honor-bound to keep it. And the deceit they’d practiced upon Henry was such a flagrant violation of the conventions of war that it threatened the very foundations of their society. Sworn agreements of respite and truce were like the Peace of God, ways that the Church and kings sought to avoid guerre a outrance — war to the extreme, to the death.
When men heard of the French king’s shameless duplicity, de Lacy snarled, they would not be willing to serve such a lord. Willem hoped that was so, but he had a more jaundiced view of his fellow men and their flexible concept of honor. “This,” he said tiredly, “will be remembered as a day of infamy.” And he went in search of Henry.
He found the king walking with Geoff through the wreckage of Verneuil, and fell in step beside them. They passed the blackened shells of houses and shops, an occasional body draped in cloth and awaiting burial. The flames had been extinguished but the wind still swept embers up into the air and they glowed in the dark like scorched fireflies. The night was hot and still. Now and then there came to them muffled wailing, muted sobs, the sounds of mourning. They walked for what seemed like hours to Willem, and in that time, Henry spoke only once, saying in a flat, tight monotone that went beyond anger, “I want this town’s walls rebuilt. Find men to see to it, Willem.”
“I will, my liege,” Willem said, and they continued on in silence.
From the twelfth-century Annals of Roger de Hoveden:
The King of France neither restored to the burghers their hostages nor preserved the peace as he had promised, but entering the town, made the burghers prisoners, carried off their property, set fire to the burgh, and then, taking to flight, carried away with him the burghers before-mentioned into France. When word was brought of this to the King of England, he pursued them with the edge of the sword, slew many of them, and took considerable numbers… But in order that these events may be kept in memory, it is as well to know that this flight of the King of France took place on the fifth day before the ides of August, being the fifth day of the week, upon the vigil of Saint Lawrence, to the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by punishing the crime of perfidy, so speedily avenged the indignity done to his Martyr.
CHAPTER TEN
August 1173
Rouen, Normandy
Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, was pleased, but not surprised, to be given such a warm welcome by the king. Of all England’s clerics, he had been the most steadfast in his support of Henry and the most critical of Thomas Becket during their acrimonious clash between Church and Crown. He’d been twice excommunicated by Becket, the second time for taking part in the coronation of Henry’s son, and this ecclesiastical censure had set off Henry’s fateful rage, leading to Becket’s bloody murder upon the floor of his own cathedral. Gilbert had been absolved by Rome seven months after Becket’s death, but had been restored to his bishopric only that past May, for his hostility to the martyred archbishop was a stain upon a previously unblemished reputation. Once widely admired for his austerity, his estimable intellect, and masterly knowledge of canon law, he would now go to his grave known as the bishop who’d defied a saint, and for a proud man like Gilbert Foliot, that was not easy to accept.
It was some consolation, though, that he stood so high in the king’s favor, and he gratefully accepted a seat beside Henry upon the dais in the great hall. Sipping a cup of spiced red wine, he listened with enormous satisfaction as Henry related the flight of the French king from Verneuil. He was equally pleased to hear that Henry had sent a detachment of Norman knights and Brabancon routiers into Brittany to deal with the Breton rebels, for his desire to see the king triumph was greater than his disapproval of hired mercenaries.
Henry turned the conversation then to the bishoprics still vacant because of Hal’s appeal to Rome, and Gilbert was happy to reassure him that he could rely upon the backing of the Church. He did not doubt that His Holiness the Pope would approve the elections, pointing out that the papal legates had instructed the electors to choose men who would preserve “the peace of the realm” and reminding Henry that the only prelate to cast his lot in with the rebels was that perpetual malcontent, the Bishop of Durham.
“And the Bishop of Lisieux, may God damn his treacherous soul to Hell,” Henry said bitterly, for that was still a fresh wound.
Gilbert had never liked Arnulf of Lisieux, considering him to be a self-server and far too devious and cynical for his own good, but he was surprised, nevertheless, that Arnulf should have made such a major miscalculation, concluding that the bishop was most likely trying to keep a foot in both camps. He was even more surprised by what Henry said next, asking if it was true that he’d founded a hospital in honor of Thomas Becket, for the slain archbishop was usually a topic that Henry assiduously avoided.
“No, my liege. The hospital of Holy Trinity at Southwark was founded by Thomas himself. After his canonization, we changed the name to St Thomas the Martyr and I offered sinners a remittance of thirty days of penance if they contribute to the hospital.” Since the king had been the one to bring the subject up, Gilbert now felt free to mention a recent action of Henry’s. “I heard, my liege, that you have named Thomas’s sister Mary as Abbess of Barking.”
That was a signal honor, for abbesses of Barking were normally daughters of kings, but Henry shrugged it off, saying that he was merely righting a wrong. “I ought not to have sent
Becket’s family into exile,” he admitted. “It was done in anger and was unjust to hold them to account for his transgressions.”
This was the first time that the king had confessed to making mistakes of his own in his war of wills with Becket. “It is a generous gesture, nonetheless,” Gilbert said.
Henry shrugged again. It had not escaped him that Gilbert no longer made use of the slain archbishop’s surname. Thomas had always been thin-skinned about his family’s merchant origins, preferring to call himself “Thomas of London” rather than the more pedestrian “Thomas Becket,” a sensitivity his enemies had been quick to seize upon. He’d always been “Thomas” to Henry until their falling-out; after that, he’d managed to make “Becket” sound like an epithet.
“You never liked him, did you, Gilbert?”
“No, my lord king, I did not.”
“In fact, when I chose him as archbishop, you said that I’d performed a veritable miracle, turning a worldly courtier and soldier into a man of God.”
Gilbert blinked; he’d not known that his angry sarcasm had reached Henry’s ears. “I am sorry, my lord-”
“For what? You were right.” Henry’s smile was rueful. “You can hardly be blamed for disliking him. He had a tongue like an adder, calling you ‘a hapless Judas and a rotten limb,’ calling your fellow bishops ‘priests of Bael and sons of false prophets.’”
“He was never one for forgiving his enemies,” Gilbert agreed, wondering where Henry was going with this.
“You of all men know how vengeful he could be, how prideful and stubborn. Most of those who are so certain of his sanctity never even laid eyes upon him. But you’re in a unique position to judge, Gilbert. Can you truly accept the Church’s canonization of him as a saint?”
That was a question Gilbert has often asked himself in the months after Becket’s murder. “Yes, my liege,” he said quietly. “I can.”
“Why?” Henry asked, but he sounded more curious than skeptical.
“It is true that Thomas’s life was not a holy one. But none can deny he died a martyr’s death.”
“And is that enough to confer sainthood upon him?”
“His martyrdom…and the miracles that have been reported at his tomb and elsewhere in the months since his murder.”
“Miracles can be faked, as you well know, for reasons of politics and profit. How can you be sure they are genuine?”
“I daresay some of them are not. But there have been too many to discount, my liege. You may be sure I investigated these reports with great care, for if truth be told, I did not want to believe in them. Even when Thomas cured my fever, I continued to doubt.”
Henry had heard of Gilbert’s own miracle. Eight months after Becket’s murder, he’d fallen gravely ill, lay near death until his friend and fellow bishop, Jocelin of Salisbury, prayed to Thomas for his recovery. “So what convinced you, then?”
“The manner of his death could not be dismissed out of hand. Nor could the discovery that he’d worn a hairshirt and braies under his garments, infested with vermin and lice that had burrowed into his groin, or the revelation of his confessor that he’d mortified his flesh with daily penitential whippings. I was told that his back was scarred with the marks of past scourging. Can there have been more painful proof of sanctity?”
Henry could not argue with that. “I admit I thought he was a hypocrite until I learned that he’d worn those filthy, lice-ridden braies next to his private parts. After that I did not doubt his sincerity, however misguided it was.”
Gilbert nodded his agreement. “And then there are the miracles. They began almost as soon as he drew his last breath. The wife of a Sussex knight was cured of her blindness after praying to Thomas. Eight days after the martyrdom, Father William de Capella, a London priest who’d been stricken with palsy was cured after drinking water mixed with the saint’s holy blood. I spoke with Father William myself, could find no other explanation for the recovery of his speech. A local woman’s palsy was healed after her husband applied rags dipped in the martyr’s blood to her afflicted legs. People are said to have been cured of lameness, deafness, withered limbs, and deadly fevers.”
Gilbert leaned forward, so caught up in the intensity of his recital that he did not notice as wine splashed from his cup. “Even the brother of one of the men implicated in the murder was cured after drinking the ‘waters of St Thomas’!”
“Water mixed with his blood? Remarkable that he bled enough to keep filling those little tin phials that the monks pass out to those who make offerings,” Henry said dryly. “That is almost a miracle in itself.”
“Surely you do not doubt the existence of miracles, my lord king?”
“Of course not. But it cheapens them to be accepted too readily. Is it true that Thomas punishes those who fail to keep promises they make to him?” And when Gilbert confirmed it, Henry said with a crooked smile, “Now that sounds more like the Becket I remember.”
Gilbert was not deceived by the flippancy; it was obvious that Henry had been paying closer attention to the martyr’s miracles than he was willing to admit. Before he could respond, though, there was a stir at the other end of the hall. Henry’s steward was pushing his way toward the dais. “My liege, a messenger has just arrived from Brittany.”
“Have him come forward,” Henry commanded, and a disheveled youth, muddied and bedraggled, soon approached the dais. Kneeling, he looked up at Henry with a gleeful grin that conveyed his message better than any words could have done. “I bring you glad tidings, Your Grace. My lord, William du Hommet, bade me ride to Rouen as if my horse’s tail were on fire, and by God, I did. We engaged the Breton rebels yesterday morn in open country near the town and castle of Dol, which they’d taken by bribery. It was a total triumph, my lord. We captured seventeen of their knights and killed most of their men-at-arms. Some got away, but Lord Raoul de Fougeres and the Earl of Chester and sixty or so knights retreated back into Dol Castle. Lord du Hommet said to tell you that they are penned up like lambs for the slaughter, but he lacks the siege engines to take the castle and urges you to come straightaway.”
By now the man was surrounded by Henry’s lords and knights, and as soon as he was done speaking, he was barraged with congratulations and praise for his amazingly swift ride. Even allowing for Henry’s posting of fresh horses at his castles and abbeys for the use of royal couriers, his was a remarkable achievement; Dol was more than one hundred fifty miles from Rouen.
Henry was delighted. Ordering wine for the messenger and promising a generous reward, he broke the seal on William du Hommet’s letter and began to read rapidly. Geoff had entered the hall after the courier’s arrival and he was shoving his way through the crowd, eager to learn what had happened. Catching sight of the Earl of Essex and the elderly Earl of Arundel, he veered in their direction, and when they told him that the Earl of Chester and the Breton rebels were trapped in Dol, he gave a jubilant shout that was more often heard on the hunting field.
“This accursed rebellion is in its death throes,” he predicted joyfully. “First the Count of Boulogne is struck down, then the French flee from Verneuil like thieves in the night, and now Hugh of Chester is caught in a snare of his own making!”
The men smiled at the enthusiasm of youth. “Well, not yet,” Willem said. “But I’d wager he’ll be shut up in a royal castle by week’s end.”
“You mean by next week, do you not? We will not even reach Dol till then, and if the siege lasts-” Geoff paused in surprise, for the two men were laughing at him.
“Clearly you have never ridden with your lord father when he is in a hurry to get somewhere,” Willem said with a grin, and when Geoff conceded he had not, they laughed again.
“Ah, you are in for a treat.” Arundel was grinning, too. “Fortunately for these old bones, I’ll be left behind, for the king knows that I could never keep up with him. As you’ll soon see, lad, it is the closest that men can get to flying. I remember when-” He broke off then, for Henry was shouti
ng for silence.
“Why are we wasting time?” he demanded, and Willem jabbed Geoff playfully in the ribs before asking innocently when the king wanted to depart. Henry looked at him as if he’d lost his wits. “When do you think, man? Now!”
The young Earl of Chester was baffled and heart-sore that his luck could have soured so fast. At first all had gone according to plan. Joining Raoul de Fougeres, they’d launched a highly successful chevauchee, burning and pillaging the lands of those Bretons who’d remained loyal to Henry. Hugh had enjoyed himself enormously, finding that his first taste of war was even more fun than a tournament. But it had not lasted. Warned that the king’s routiers were on the prowl, they’d decided upon a direct challenge, and both sides met on the battlefield on August 20. The experience taught Hugh why prudent commanders avoided pitched battles when at all possible, for it turned into a debacle. Their lines broke, and because men were never so vulnerable as when in flight, the slaughter that followed was terrible. Retreating in confusion, Hugh and the Breton lords found their only escape route blocked by the routiers and they had no choice but to withdraw back into Dol.
The three days that followed were utterly wretched. They’d watched helplessly from the battlements as the townsmen surrendered their city to Henry’s commander, Lord du Hommet, and to add insult to injury, they then had to watch as other Bretons joined in the siege, for they’d alienated much of the countryside with their raiding and plundering. Hugh became so disheartened that Raoul de Fougeres had turned upon him in anger, berating him for his lack of fortitude. The siege would soon be lifted, he’d insisted. Those lowborn routiers were little better than bandits. They knew nothing of true warfare, lacked even the most rudimentary siege engines. It would not be long until they’d lose interest and move on, seeking easier prey. Hugh very much wanted to believe him, but he was not encouraged when Raoul then put the knights and garrison on half-rations. If the siege was not going to drag on, why did they need to worry about running out of supplies? Wishing that Hal were there to bolster his sagging spirits, Hugh tried to ignore his growing chorus of regrets by getting thoroughly drunk.
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