Plantagenet 1 - The Plantagenet Prelude (48 page)

He nodded. ‘But if they had not let me go …’
They
meant his father. ‘… I should have followed you.’

‘How would you have done that?’

‘I would have ridden to the sea and got into the boat and then I would have ridden on to Aquitaine.’

‘You will be an adventurer, my son.’

Then she told them about Aquitaine and how the troubadours came to the court and sang beautiful songs, for Aquitaine was the home of the troubadours.

‘Listen, Marguerite,’ commanded Richard. ‘Does not my mother tell beautiful stories? Is she not better than your old Becket?’

‘What is this talk of Becket?’ asked the Queen.

‘Marguerite always talks of him. She says that she and Henry cried when he went. Marguerite loved him … so did Henry. They said they loved him better than anyone, better than our father … better than you … That was wicked wasn’t it, my lady, for he is a wicked man.’

‘You listen to gossip,’ said the Queen. ‘You will not mention this man. He was wicked because he offended the King. That is an end of him.’

‘Is he dead?’ asked Richard, at which Marguerite burst into tears.

‘He is not dead,’ said the Queen to pacify Marguerite. ‘But he is not to be spoken of. Now I will sing you a song from Aquitaine and you will understand then how happy we shall be there.’

And there with Richard leaning against her knee and Geoffrey looking at her with wondering eyes, and Matilda and Marguerite sitting on their small stools at her feet, she thought, Here is my future, in these beautiful sons and particularly Richard. What care I for you, Henry Plantagenet, when I have my sons? I will bind them to me and they shall be truly mine. They will hate those who do not treat me well - even though that be you, King Henry.

When Eleanor left England the King was relieved. He decided now that he would live openly with Rosamund and brought her out of seclusion. She was a great solace to him but he was a worried man. He thought constantly of Thomas Becket, and try as he might he could not get the man out of his mind. Thomas would be living now in poverty in his monastery. Thomas who had loved luxury and needed comforts. Henry remembered how cold Thomas had been when the wind blew and how he had laughed at him for his weakness. But Thomas was by no means weak. He had a strong spirit and was of the stuff that martyrs are made.

There was not room for us both in England, thought Henry.

He could not long enjoy his solitude in England, peaceful as everything was there. Fresh trouble had broken out in Brittany which meant crossing the seas again. He said a fond farewell to Rosamund and left.

‘The fate of all our kings, since my ancestor William the Conqueror took this land and added it to his estates of Normandy,’ he mused.

In September news came to him that his mother, still known as the Empress Matilda, was grievously sick at Rouen; and before he could get to her side she was dead.

That saddened him. There had been affection between them, and she had loved him as dearly as she was capable of loving anyone. Now that she was dead he thought of all she had done for him; how, when she had known that the English crown could not be hers she had schemed for it to be his. He had been her favourite. His brothers - now both dead - had been nowhere with her.

In a way she reminded him of Eleanor - both strong women, both brought up with the idea that they would be rulers. It was a mistake to bring up women so. Matilda’s married life had been stormy from the start. At least he and Eleanor had started by loving each other.

As mothers he compared the two women. Eleanor seemed to be developing an obsession concerning that young cub Richard. And I never took to him - mine though he undoubtedly is. He’s his mother’s boy. Ready to defend her against any - including me. A fine sportsman. It did a man good to look at such a boy and know he was his son. But he could not like him - not as he could young Geoffrey, the whore’s son. Strange, he had begun by making much of the boy because Eleanor hated to have him in her nurseries, and it had grown from that. And Henry, his first-born since they had lost William, Henry was a fine boy. Charming and handsome. A son to be proud of. There was an estrangement between them now for the boy had been put under the tutelage of Becket, and the man had somehow weaned him from his natural affections and taken them himself. Thus when there had been a quarrel between Becket and the King, the boy would take the side of his tutor rather than his father.

Becket. It all came back to Becket.

The King had been thinking about his eldest son and some time before it had occurred to him that if young Henry were crowned King of England during his father’s lifetime there could be no doubt of the succession.

Some of his ministers thought that it would be unwise to have two crowned kings.

‘My own son!’ cried Henry. ‘What should I fear from him?’

True, young Henry was but a boy, but that would not always be so.

The more he thought of the idea the more he liked it. It would bind young Henry to him. Surely he would be grateful to a father who had done so much for him. Surely that would wean his allegiance from Becket.

Then again his ministers reminded him, it was a law that a king must be crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and as the Archbishop was in exile who could perform this important ceremony?

There was Roger, Archbishop of York and the King’s servant. But the Archbishop of York was not the Primate, though the king had done everything in his power to make him so.

In the privacy of his apartments he thought: What if I made my peace with Thomas? Then he could come back and crown young Henry. He had to admit that he wanted Thomas back. He wanted to renew the fight. He couldn’t help it. The man had been close to him. Young Henry mourned for Thomas and so in a way did his father.

Fortunately for Henry, Pope Alexander was a man of devious ways and when such a man was in difficulties, as Alexander undoubtedly was, it was not an insuperable task to make him agree to something which was outside his rights.

In a weak moment Alexander agreed that the coronation of young Henry should be performed by Roger, Archbishop of York.

Knowing that having been forced by Henry to make such a concession Alexander would immediately attempt to rescind it, Henry put preparations for the coronation into progress.

He sent word to Eleanor that Henry, who had joined her and the other children in Aquitaine, was to be brought to Caen with his wife, young Marguerite, and wait there until he sent for him.

Eleanor had written to the King telling him that Marguerite had declared that the coronation could be no coronation unless it was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and this so angered the King that when he sent for his son he commanded that he come alone. If Marguerite thought she must be crowned by her beloved Becket she should have no coronation at all.

Meanwhile messengers had arrived from the Pope who, afraid of what he had done, sent letters to cancel his previous promise.

Henry took the letters and promptly burned them. He gave the impression that he had not received them. He had the ports watched and all travellers searched so anxious was he that no edict should reach his bishops from the Pope. One however did get through. This was a nun who had been sent by Thomas and she carried a letter to Roger of York.

She arrived and found her way to Roger on the day before that fixed for the coronation. He read it. Thomas forbade him! The Pope forbade him! Roger had come to his present position through obeying the King, not Thomas and the Pope.

The day dawned and young Henry, aged sixteen and reckoned to be the most handsome prince in the world, was crowned by Roger de Pont l’Eveque as King of England.

The King watched with complacence.

He had yet again proved that he could do without an Archbishop of Canterbury, and he had secured the succession - so he believed.

He himself was thirty-seven years of age and constantly engaged in battle as he was he might meet his death at any time.

All was well. England would have a king to follow him, if by mischance he were to meet his end.

Chapter XV

TRAITOR’S MEADOW

T
here was one who was not pleased by the coronation and that was the King of France. It was the custom for kings of France to have their eldest sons crowned before their deaths and so make a new king who could step right on to the throne when the old man died. But what of his daughter? Was she not the wife of young Henry? Why was she not crowned?

Louis then began to make attacks on the Vexin for he said that if Henry did not regard her as young Henry’s wife and queen, he saw no reason why he should have her dowry.

Henry decided that it was easier to crown Marguerite and make peace with Louis than to stand out against the crowning and have to make war. One thing he could not do was lose the Vexin.

While he was in France the Archbishop of Rouen visited him, and the reason for his visit was to tell him that the Pope wished him to make his peace with Thomas Becket. It was an impossible situation. For several years England’s Archbishop had been in exile and this displeased the Pope. Becket would be happy to return to his post. It was for the King to invite him to. If he did not the Pope had hinted that he would have no alternative but to excommunicate the King of England.

Henry pretended to consider the matter. To see Thomas again! He had to admit that the idea was not displeasing. On the contrary it filled him with an excitement he could not understand.

He was in excellent spirits when he met Louis to take leave from him before returning to England.

‘Tomorrow,’ he said, ‘that thief of yours shall have his peace and a good one too.’

‘By the saints of France, what thief pray?’ asked Louis.

‘That Archbishop of Canterbury of ours,’ answered Henry.

‘I wish he were ours as well as yours,’ replied the King of France. ‘You will please God and man if you make a good peace with him, and I shall be ever more grateful to you.’

It was dawn and the meeting was to take place in a green field which was called Traitor’s Meadow.

The King of France, although he was stationed near by, had declared that he would not be present at the meeting for he realised that it would be an emotional encounter.

Henry surrounded by a few of his knights rode ahead of his party into the meadow, and there he waited until he saw approaching from the opposite direction the well-known figure and two of his friends riding on either side of him.

Oh God, thought Henry, is this he? He who used to look so fine on his horse in his magnificent cloak lined with fur. The years have ill-used him.

He spurred his horse that he might ride ahead and greet his old friend.

Thomas did the same and in that field they faced each other.

‘Thomas,’ said Henry, his voice shaken with emotion.

‘My lord King.’

Henry dismounted and Thomas did the same. Then the King held out his arms and they embraced.

‘Thomas, it has been so long since we met.’

‘It is five years,’ replied Thomas. ‘A long time for a man to be away from his home.’

‘I have thought of you often and the days we used to spend together. I doubt I ever laughed as much as I did with you. Why did you plague me so? Why could you not have been as I wished?’

‘Because I was your Archbishop, my lord, and I owed my allegiance first to God and then to you.’

‘I wanted you to have the highest honour. You knew that.’

‘It was an honour that should have come to me through my service to God, not through your favour.’

‘By God’s eyes, what troubles we have made for ourselves! My son Henry talks of you fondly. You bewitched him, Thomas.’

‘I am glad that he did not lose his love for me.’

‘Nay. ‘Tis hard to do that. You will come back to England, Thomas. Canterbury has been too long without its Archbishop. Your lands shall be restored to you.’

Thomas smiled but sadly. He knew Henry so well. How often in the past had his emotion extracted promises from him which in cooler moments he had not kept. Yet it was pleasant to be with this man, this Henry, for had they not loved each other well?

‘I have often thought,’ said the King, ‘that I would take the cross to the Holy Land. If I did, Thomas, I would leave my son Henry in your care.’

‘He is almost a man now with a will of his own.’

‘Yet he would be guided by you and this would I do if I were to leave on a crusade.’

Leave on a crusade! Leave England! Leave Normandy, Anjou, Aquitaine! These were the meaning of life to him. He would never leave them. But he liked to dream. He wished to show Thomas that he loved him, so he let himself indulge in this fancy.

‘I could not undertake a secular office,’ said Thomas. ‘But if you so desired I would give my advice to the young King.’

‘Thomas, you shall return. We will forget our differences. Come back to us soon.’

‘My lord is good,’ said Thomas. ‘There are certain bishops who have offended against the Church. None but the Archbishop of Canterbury should have crowned the young King. Those churchmen who agreed to this should be called to task for doing so.’

The King’s affability was a little strained at this.

‘I believed that as King of England I was entitled to have my son crowned wherever and by whomsoever I wished. You will remember how my grandfather and great-grandfather were crowned.’

‘My lord, when the Conqueror was crowned by Aldred of York the throne of Canterbury was virtually vacant. Stigand had not at that time received the pall from a legitimate Pope. As for your grandfather Henry I, when he was crowned Anselm the Archbishop was in exile. The Bishop of Hereford crowned him as Anselm’s representative and as soon as Anselm returned he was requested to perform a new coronation.’

”Tis true,’ said Henry. ‘And you shall perform a coronation for my son and this time his wife shall be with him for the King of France was sorely vexed because his daughter was not crowned with Henry.’

Thomas knelt then at the King’s feet; Henry leaned forward and lifted him. Then he embraced him. This was indeed a reconciliation.