The Forbidden Queen (113 page)

As soon as he is gone, my eyes blind with tears, I order up my litter. I will need no belongings so I pack nothing. While I have my wits, I will determine my future: I will impose no unnecessary grief on those I love. My mind skitters back to that terrible time when I took the decision to set Owen free because I could not contemplate the anguish of his death, only to return to him when we found a way out together, a solution that our minds could fathom and apply.

But now there is no solution for me. Madness strips
away all solutions. Death cancels all loyalties. I know I must free Owen to live his own life without the burden of my slow disintegration. There is no going back for me this time.

And yet, when the litter arrives at the door, for a moment still I hesitate. Will this be the greatest mistake of my life? I feel well, strong, in control of my actions. Perhaps I am misled after all. I should dismiss the litter and wait at the door to welcome him home, take his hands and kiss his dear face.

How will you tolerate the pity in his eyes? How will you tolerate it when passion dies and he cares for you out of duty? When he sits beside your bed, rather than carrying you to his own, when you no longer even recognise him and he turns from you in grief that is too great to bear?

I dress as a widow in sombre state, my still golden hair hidden, my still beautiful face veiled. I leave no written note. What to say? He will know. We said all that was needed without words when his body loved mine and my responses were of my own volition. I will remember that final moment until I can remember no more.

One final task. I visit the nursery and kiss my children: Edmund and Jasper and Owen. They do not understand. I hold them close and kiss them.

‘Be good. Be brave and strong. Obey your father and remember your mother.’

I touch Alice’s hand. She is weeping.

I am ready.

I leave my ring and the dragon brooch on the coffer beside his bed. The ring he gave me when we flouted all law and decency and wed, the brooch I took when I first loved him. I leave them for him, and I step into my litter.

I stand at the door of the great Abbey at Bermondsey. How cold my hands are. The door swings open because they expect me—I have sent word. They will take me in for my own sake with as much compassion as my money can buy for me. I will bear Owen’s final child here, in the care of the nuns.

I take one step forward.

If I go in, I will never step back into the world.

No, I cannot! Owen, my love, my love
.

His promise, made to me in the chapel at Windsor, slams into my mind.
I will never allow us to be parted, this side of the grave
.

But it cannot be. My heart is breaking, my face is wet with tears that I cannot stop. Almost I step back, to be with him until I have no more breath in my body. Then my father stands before me. The capering halfwit, the vague, gibbering remnant of the king he had once been. The pain sets up a flutter in my head, behind my eyes. I know that soon it will become intense.

Goodbye, Owen. Goodbye. God keep you. Always know that I love you. Know that I have given you your freedom because I love you too much to tie you to a mindless ghost
.

I take a breath.

One day I know that Owen and I will be reunited, in God’s grace. There will be no more grief, no more tears to overshadow our love. It will last for all eternity.

I step over the threshold.

Katherine de Valois is an enigma.

History books make little comment on her, the underlying thought being that there is very little to say, other than that she was daughter of Charles VI of France, wife of Henry V and died at a comparatively early age, perhaps afflicted by the instability that affected her father. As Queen of England and Queen-Dowager, she played no role in English government and in fact very little in the raising of her son. The same could be said, of course, for many medieval women from aristocratic or royal families. Their main importance was as a marriageable commodity for the transference of property—’an animated title deed’ in effect. Thus Henry’s desire to marry Katherine.

Katherine de Valois merely fits into this pattern of medieval land transference, as a woman silent and generally unimpressive.

Nor have historians been complimentary to Katherine. We receive the notion of a young woman who was beautiful and gracious but lacking in more than basic intelligence and with a very limited education. The archetypal ‘dumb blonde’ in fact, who had little to say and no opinion to give.

Was this all that could be said for Katherine?

Solid evidence for much of her life is lacking, but what it lacks in hard fact, it gains in rumour, myth and legend, particularly in her falling in love with Owen Tudor. The blatant romance of it has been open to wide speculation.

In writing
The Forbidden Queen
I have made use of the outline of Katherine’s history as far as we know it. I have placed her firmly in the centre of English politics, as she undoubtedly was, making sense of what is not recorded. As for the romantic myths, I have made use of them, and make no excuses for doing so.

By the time I wrote my final sentence, I had decided that Katherine, rather than a rather dim but lovely creature, must have been a remarkable woman.

I am always delighted to keep in touch with my readers who
are interested in my writing, both the process and the content. I enjoy receiving feedback and readers’ thoughts and insights into my heroines.

You can keep up to date with events and signings on my website and contact me: http://www.anneobrienbooks.com

Why not visit me on my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/anneobrienbooks

Or follow me on Twitter:
@anne_obrien

I also have my own blog where I write about history in general and what I am investigating in particular. Or anything historical that takes my interest…

http://www.anneobrienbooks.com/blog/2012/11/katherine-swynford/

Katherine de Valois is an enigma.

History books make little comment on her, the underlying thought being that there is very little to say, other than that she was daughter of Charles VI of France, wife of Henry V and died at a comparatively early age, perhaps afflicted by the instability that affected her father. As Queen of England and Queen-Dowager, she played no role in English government and in fact very little in the raising of her son. The same could be said, of course, for many medieval women from aristocratic or royal families. Their main importance was as a marriageable commodity for the transference of property—’an animated title deed’ in effect. Thus Henry’s desire to marry Katherine.

Katherine de Valois merely fits into this pattern of medieval land transference, as a woman silent and generally unimpressive.

Nor have historians been complimentary to Katherine. We receive the notion of a young woman who was beautiful and gracious but lacking in more than basic intelligence and with a very limited education. The archetypal ‘dumb blonde’ in fact, who had little to say and no opinion to give.

Was this all that could be said for Katherine?

Solid evidence for much of her life is lacking, but what it lacks in hard fact, it gains in rumour, myth and legend, particularly in her falling in love with Owen Tudor. The blatant romance of it has been open to wide speculation.

In writing
The Forbidden Queen
I have made use of the outline of Katherine’s history as far as we know it. I have placed her firmly in the centre of English politics, as she undoubtedly was, making sense of what is not recorded. As for the romantic myths, I have made use of them, and make no excuses for doing so.

By the time I wrote my final sentence, I had decided that Katherine, rather than a rather dim but lovely creature, must have been a remarkable woman.

I am always delighted to keep in touch with my readers who
are interested in my writing, both the process and the content. I enjoy receiving feedback and readers’ thoughts and insights into my heroines.

You can keep up to date with events and signings on my website and contact me: http://www.anneobrienbooks.com

Why not visit me on my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/anneobrienbooks

Or follow me on Twitter:
@anne_obrien

I also have my own blog where I write about history in general and what I am investigating in particular. Or anything historical that takes my interest…

http://www.anneobrienbooks.com/blog/2012/11/katherine-swynford/

2     Questions for your reading group

4     Inspiration for writing
The Forbidden Queen

6     And After…

8     Further reading

9     Travelling in Katherine de Valois’s footsteps

12   Author biography

14   Why I write

15   Q&A on writing 20 A writer’s life

22   A day in the life

23   Top Ten Books

1.     What do you think of Katherine? What appeals to you about her and what doesn’t?

2.     Apart from Katherine, who is your favourite character in the book and why?

3.     What influence did Katherine’s childhood have on her as a young adult? To what extent do you consider our adult characters to be formed in these earliest years?

4.     Katherine was described as ‘tall, fair and beautiful.’ Yet history has written her off as the archetypal ‘dumb blonde.’ Do you, from the decisions she made and the way she responded to influences at the English court, think this does justice to Katherine?

5.     After Henry’s death, Katherine is left with no role to play, her part in the childhood of her son is restricted by those placed in authority over him and her. How does Katherine react? What would you have done in a similar situation?

6.     Shakespeare wrote a wonderful love scene for Katherine with King Henry. Do you think that the evidence merits it? If not, why did he do it? Can we forgive authors for writing their own version of history?

7.     What is your feeling about Henry V’s relationship with Katherine? Could she have done anything to improve it?

8.     Katherine lived though a period of bloody warfare and yet seems untouched by it. Can we excuse her for this, even when the war is between the two sides of her family, English against French? Would we expect her to have
more sympathy with her disinherited brother?

9.     Katherine’s relationship with Edmund Beaufort was at best foolhardy, at worst politically dangerous. Can we have any compassion for her? Is her falling in love with Owen Tudor just as foolish and lacking in judgement?

10.   Do you consider that Katherine deserved the punishment and restrictions inflicted on her by the Duke of Gloucester and the Royal Council?

11.   In what manner does Katherine’s character develop when she falls in love with Owen Tudor? Is she a better or worse person? Does your reaction to her change throughout the novel?

12.   What do you think of Owen Tudor? Is he hero or villain? Did he fall irrevocably in love with Katherine, or merely use her to improve his own lot in life?

13.   At the end, faced with impossible pressures, Katherine retires to Bermondsey Abbey. Could you have done the same in similar circumstances?

I was inspired to write the story of Katherine de Valois because although history records her as being very much a fairy-tale princess—fair and beautiful and greatly loved by King Henry (indeed contemporaries believed them to be the perfect couple)—the historical evidence did not quite stack up for me.

But why not? Their love story in Shakespeare’s
Henry V
is legendary. On his betrothal Henry ‘kissed her with great joy’ and on the day of their marriage he is said to have looked proud and emotional, as if he were ‘king of all the world.’ As well he might, of course. By marrying Katherine, Henry would take possession of the kingdom of France, without having to waste one more drop of English blood in battle.

But their marriage—lasting only a little more than two years—is a sorry tale of absence. Katherine’s honeymoon was spent on campaign. Back in England Henry went on royal progress, only taking Katherine with him for part of the journey. As soon as she was pregnant he left for France to renew the war. They only met once more, briefly in France, and Henry never saw his son. Dying, Henry made no attempt to contact his beautiful wife.

So what sort of relationship was it? I had to find out, just as I had to discover if Katherine truly was the weak, manipulated young woman who appears between the pages of history books. It seemed to me that there was far more to say about this youngest of the French Valois princesses. After Henry’s death, Katherine fell into a dangerous relationship with Edmund Beaufort. And then there was her scandalous marriage to Owen Tudor
when she quite deliberately married below her station, Owen being no more than her servant.

All of this did not sound to me like the lifestyle of a young woman mourning the lost love of her life. Nor did Katherine, in her relationship with Owen, give the impression of being perpetually under the influence of stronger characters.

Was such contrast and ambiguity not a gift to an historical novelist?

In the light of this I decided that Katherine deserved a re-evaluation, allowing her a life of her own within her two marriages. I hope I have done her justice in writing
The Forbidden Queen
, allowing us to see the woman behind the façade.

There is nothing but tragedy to record for
Katherine.
In her own words she suffered from ‘a grievous malady, in which I have been long…troubled and vexed.’ Whether physical or mental is not clear, but she died at Bermondsey Abbey on 3rd January 1437, aged thirty-five years. Her infant daughter, sometimes named Margret, sometimes Katherine, was born and died at Bermondsey.