Plantagenet 1 - The Plantagenet Prelude (22 page)

‘Nay, I am well aware of them. What I tell you is that were you the humblest serving-maid I would be willing to sacrifice all for your sake.’

‘What you mean is you would be ready to take me to your bed for a night, perhaps two, if I proved worthy. I could never marry a man who thought me such a fool that he must tell me blatant lies.’

‘I see you are too clever for me.’

‘You realise that then. A man should never marry a woman who is too clever for him. It is not the key to happy marriage.’

‘Oh, Eleonore, you are known throughout the land of France as the Queen of Love. Have done with banter. I would marry you. I beg of you consider my proposal.’

‘I do not need to consider it. I could not marry you. You must look elsewhere for your wife.’

‘I shall not give up hope.’

‘It is always comforting to hope,’ she said. ‘Now I would listen to your excellent minstrels.’

She was amused by the young man. His wooing was almost abrupt. She had been in his castle not more than a few hours and he had asked her to marry him. Nay, my little man, she thought, you must do better than that. Do you think you could compare with my Henry?

She would tell Henry about the brash young fellow. How they would laugh together. Perhaps she would make a song about it. Oh, she could not wait to be with Henry!

She was thoughtful as her women undressed her, combed her hair and helped her to the bed which had been made ready for her.

‘Four of you will sleep in this room tonight,’ she said, ‘and one of my esquires will sleep across my door. It has occurred to me that we may have a visitor.’

Her women laughed. ‘Surely the Count would not be so bold.’

‘I am here in his castle. He has hinted and I have seen some purpose in his eyes. I think I should take these precautions.’

How right she was. As she expected the young Count attempted to come to her bedchamber. Her trusted esquire who lay across her door sprang to his feet, his sword unsheathed. When commanded to stand aside he said that he acted on the orders of the Queen and any who crossed the threshold would do so only over his dead body.

‘A fuss about nothing,’ grumbled the Count and went fuming back to his bed.

How Eleonore laughed in the morning when she heard the account of this.

She decided that she would not spend another night in the castle of Blois and secretly ordered that preparations be made to leave.

Theobald came to her. He was very suave. He begged her to stay another night for he had heard that there was a band of robbers in the neighbourhood, and by the next day he could get together an escort to accompany her and her party.

A twinge of alarm came to Eleonore then. She knew what means ambitious young men adopted with heiresses. He could make her a prisoner in his castle, force her to submit to his attentions and keep her there until she agreed to marry him. She had no doubt that plans along this line were formulating in the Count’s mind.

She was not really afraid and half amused. How dared he! He had been in possession of his estates only two years and he was behaving like a brigand.

She would teach him a lesson.

She pretended to believe him.

There was more feasting that night, more songs were sung. She noticed how he endeavoured to fill her goblet. Did he think she was an innocent? It was she who contrived to make him drink as much as to fuddle his mind. She knew that he spoke truth when he said he was sending for guards. They would not be to conduct her on her way but to guard her in the castle.

She had planned what she would do. She had ordered that every member of her party be prepared to leave that night in secret. As soon as the castle was quiet they would creep down to the stables where everything would be in readiness. They would slip away and when the Count awoke in the morning he would find his guests had gone.

She was an intrigant by nature.

She amused herself by giving a little encouragement to the Count, implying that she might consider him, providing he behaved in a manner which she considered due to her dignity. She would be hurried into nothing and an attempt to effect this would meet with her disapproval.

She managed to instil into his somewhat fuddled mind that he must give her time and that she would be rather amused by his methods to coerce her.

Thus he decided to leave her in peace for that night and her plans were successful. Very quietly she and her party left Blois, and in the morning when the ambitious young Count awoke he cursed himself and all who served him because they had allowed this prize to slip between his fingers.

How she laughed as she looked back at the far distant castle of Blois in the early morning light. If he sent the fleetest riders after her he would never catch her now.

‘We will make for Anjou,’ she said. ‘There we shall be safe for that is the Count of Anjou’s land, and the Count of Anjou is the Duke of Normandy and were I to fall into his hands it would be with the greatest of pleasure for he is the man I am going to marry.’

So they made for Anjou and as they crossed into it she was exultant.

Her complacency was short-lived. As they crossed the meadows they saw a rider in the distance, a young man who begged to speak to the Queen.

He told her he had been in the employ of Henry Plantagenet, now Duke of Normandy, and had been passed into the service of Henry’s young brother, Geoffrey Plantagenet.

‘My lady,’ he said, ‘I still serve the Duke of Normandy and so I come to tell you that four miles ahead lies an ambush. Geoffrey Plantagenet plans to abduct you, to take you to his castle, and to keep you there until you promise to marry him. He hates his brother because he has inherited much while he has but three castles in Anjou.’

Eleonore laughed aloud.

‘Take this young man,’ she said, ‘give him food and from henceforth he shall serve me. I promise you, my good fellow, that ere long you shall find yourself in the service of the Duke of Normandy for any who serves me will serve him also. We will now change course. We will leave Anjou and go south to Aquitaine. We will ride to Poitiers and I promise you it will not be long before we have reached my city.’

Warily they rode. There had been two indications of what ambitious men would attempt to win the hand of an heiress.

‘None shall take by force what is mine to give,’ said Eleonore.

They came to her city of Poitiers and she took up her lodging in the chateau; there she sent a messenger to Henry to tell him that she would await him there and when he came they would be married without delay.

How long the waiting seemed and yet she knew he came with all speed! It was necessary for them to marry quickly and that no hint of who her bridegroom was to be should reach Louis’s ears. As Duchess of Aquitaine she was his vassal and he had the right to forbid her to marry a man of whom he did not approve, and it would not be only Louis who disapproved of a match between Normandy and Aquitaine.

At length he came. She was in the courtyard waiting to greet him. With great joy they embraced and eagerly discussed the arrangements for the wedding which must take place without delay. They would not wait for the ceremony of course, although each realised the importance of it. They had been lovers before and were impatient for each other.

The wedding was to take place on Whit Sunday and it would not be celebrated with the pomp which had accompanied that of Eleonore to the King of France for it was most important for it to take place before anyone could stop it.

However spies had already conveyed to Louis that Henry of Normandy had joined Eleonore in Poitiers and that arrangements were going on to celebrate their marriage.

Louis was furious. Not only was he jealous of Eleonore’s obsession with young Henry, but if Aquitaine and Normandy were joined by the marriage of these two, then Henry of Normandy would be the most powerful man in the country.

He demanded that his vassal, Henry of Normandy, come to Paris immediately.

That was a summons which Henry could only ignore. Instead of obeying the King he went to the cathedral with Eleonore and there, on that warm Whit Sunday, Eleonore of Aquitaine became the bride of Henry of Normandy.

Chapter V

QUEEN OF ENGLAND

R
arely had Louis’s passions been so strongly aroused as when he heard of the marriage of Eleonore and Henry. In the first place he could not endure to think of her with that young virile man. Henry of Normandy was uncouth; he might be learned, but he was rough in manners and Eleonore had always been so fastidious. What was the attraction? He knew. It was that overwhelming sensuality in her which had both fascinated and yet appalled him.

There was more to it than mere jealousy. There was the political implication.

Henry of Normandy had now become the most powerful man in France. Apart from Normandy he would now be in control of Aquitaine, Maine and Anjou; which meant that he possessed more land than anyone in France, not excluding the King.

Louis’s ministers deplored the divorce and its consequences. They implied that they had told him so and he should never have agreed to let Eleonore go. Only a few weeks after the separation and she had changed the face of France, geographically and politically! Henry had a touch of his great-grandfather in him which was recognised by many. He was undoubtedly a chip off the old conquering block. It was as though William the Conqueror was reborn.

If he got control of England, which seemed likely, and was in possession of so large a slice of France, what power would be his? And there could be no doubt that he would know how to exploit it.

Louis discussed the matter at length with his counsellors. Men such as Henry of Normandy had many enemies. There was his brother for one. Geoffrey of Anjou was incensed because his father had left him only three castles. It was true that there had been a proviso in his father’s will that if and when Henry became King of England, Anjou was to be passed over to Geoffrey, but knowing Henry, Geoffrey rather doubted this would come to pass. Henry had always been too fond of his possessions to give anything up. If Geoffrey was ever going to gain possession of Anjou he felt he must do it now before Henry had the might of England behind him to help him hold it.

There was one other who feared Henry and that was Eustace, the son of Stephen. Because his father was the King, Eustace rather naturally believed that on his death he should take the crown. Matilda had found it impossible to wrest that desirable object from Stephen so why should her son become King on Stephen’s death? That Matilda had the first right to the throne mattered not to Eustace. He was determined to fight for it.

As Louis’s ministers pointed out, here were two stalwart allies, both with grievances against Henry and much to gain.

Let there be an alliance between them and surely if they stood together against Henry they would have a fair chance of victory.

Louis called a meeting and plans were discussed. Both Eustace and Geoffrey were exultant at the thought of having their revenge on Henry. They hated him fiercely for Henry, with his careless ways, his rather crude manners and his innate knowledge that he was going to make a mark on the world, aroused their bitter envy.

In the family circle Geoffrey had always been obliged to take second place to his elder brother. It had been clear that Henry was his father’s favourite, and his mother, whose tongue and tempers they all tried to escape, had a devotion for Henry which seemed alien to her fierce headstrong egotistical nature. It seemed as though she had transferred all her hopes and ambitions - and they had been monumental - to her eldest son. Geoffrey had always lived in Henry’s shadow and he hated him for it.

Eustace hated Henry of Normandy with an equal fervour. If Geoffrey was a weak man, Eustace was not. He had fierce passions; he longed for power and often he despised his father for his weakness. Eustace was such that he would have stopped at nothing to reach his goal. He was violent and his desire for power was much greater than any qualities he possessed to attain and hold it.

These were the chief allies whom Louis drew to him. As a further gesture he offered his sister Constance to Eustace as a bride.

‘It is fitting,’ said Louis, ‘that the sister of the King of France should in time be the Queen of England.’

The strongest bonds to hold together an alliance were those of marriage and Louis could not have told the world more clearly that he was supporting Eustace’s claim to the throne of England.

‘There is one other matter,’ his ministers reminded him, ‘you are now free to marry and you should do so without delay. You must marry and produce a son. It is what the people are waiting for.’

Somewhat reluctantly, but understanding the need for him to take this step, Louis was married to Constance, the daughter of Alfonso of Castile.

Both Henry and Eleonore believed their marriage to be an ideal one. They were two of a kind. Sensual in the extreme they had known themselves to be; that was what had first attracted them; but there was more than that. She delighted in his vigour and ambition. He was charmed by her ability to follow his quick mind as he explained his schemes to her.

When he talked of going to England, much as she would hate to lose him she would put no obstacle in the way of his going. Indeed, she was eager for him to go. It was his destiny to become the King of England.

What a woman she was! She could be beautiful and more seductive than any woman he had known; yet her mind was alert; she had grown in political stature because of her need to keep pace with him. The fact that she was some twelve years older than he was meant nothing to them as yet. Her body was perfect and her mind was mature.

Theirs, as they had known it would be, was the perfect union.

Therefore when he talked to her of his plans for going to England, for making an understanding with Stephen, fighting him for the crown if need be, she was with him. The parting would be agonising for her but she knew he must go. They were destined to be King and Queen of England, and if they must suffer to gain the prize then so be it.

She was as completely confident of his final victory as he was himself.

How pleasant to lie together in their bed which had lost none of its charm now that it was no longer illicit and when they were temporarily satiated with the force of their passion to talk of the future.

‘Stephen is a strange man,’ mused Henry. ‘It is difficult for me to think of him as an enemy. My mother declared that she hated him and yet sometimes a strange look comes into her eyes when she speaks of him.’

‘It is natural that she should hate the usurper who took her throne.’

‘It seems he is a man it is difficult to hate. He has shown a kindliness to me which is strange. When I went to Scotland in order to march against him and was deceived as to the support I could count on, he gave me money and the means to return to Normandy. What do you think of such a man?’

‘That he is a fool,’ said Eleonore.

‘Yes, in a measure. But I am not sure. I cannot find it easy to think of him as my enemy.’

‘Oh come, my love, he has taken your mother’s crown. He would set up his son Eustace in your place. Rest assured he is your enemy.’

‘Aye, so it would seem. Men and women have strange passions, Eleonore. I would like to know more of Stephen’s.’

‘Do not concern yourself with his nature but his crown. The crown that is yours.’

”Tis true, and ere long I must go to England to claim it.’

And so they made plans during those idyllic weeks, but they knew that the honeymoon must soon be over and the arduous task of gaining a crown must begin.

They travelled to Falaise where Eleonore met the redoubtable Matilda - Countess of Anjou, daughter of Henry I of England who was still known as the Empress because of her first marriage to the Emperor of Germany.

The two women took each other’s measure.

Matilda was naturally delighted with Henry’s marriage to the greatest heiress in Europe. Moreover she recognised a strong woman.

She decided that she approved of the match.

Eleonore, knowing something of the history of her mother-in-law, could not help thinking that she had mismanaged her life. There she was, still handsome, a woman who had found it difficult to control her passion. She had passed on her temper to her son, Henry. Because of the amity between them Eleonore had so far seen little of that temper; she had heard rumours though that it was formidable.

It should never be aroused against her, she assured herself. And if it were? Well, was Eleonore of Aquitaine of the nature to be alarmed by a man’s tantrums?

Often she wondered why Matilda had been content to give up the fight for her crown. She had fought for it and had come near to gaining it, but her unfortunate nature had been her downfall and in due course although the people of England recognised her prior claim they preferred the mild and charming Stephen to the virago Matilda.

And so Stephen reigned in England and Henry must cross the seas and challenge his right to the crown.

Matilda talked with them. She wished that she was younger so that she could accompany her son to England. Now and then she mentioned the past. The English were a people it was not easy to understand. They had acclaimed her in Canterbury and had been ready to do so in London, but suddenly they had turned against her and just as she and her company were going into the hall to dine, the mob had stormed the palace and she had been forced to flee.

Henry knew what had happened. He told Eleonore when they were alone. Matilda had offended the English so much that they would never accept her.

‘Make sure,’ Matilda confided in Eleonore, ‘that Henry never offends the English - at least not until the crown is safe on his head.’

Eleonore certainly would, although she believed that Henry would be wiser in that respect than his mother had been.

He was eager now to leave for England, he wanted to get that matter settled. If he could bring Stephen to such a pass that he swore his heir should be Henry Plantagenet, he would be content. He was going to try.

Both Matilda, his mother, and Eleonore, his wife, agreed that he should lose no time and he prepared to leave for England.

Before he was ready there was news for him. Forces were mustering against him. Eustace was determined to take Normandy, and Henry’s own brother wanted Anjou.