The Plantagenet Prelude - Plaidy Jean. Страница 57

‘What would I not give to be crossing the sea with you.’

‘I am flattered that you so much enjoy my company.’

‘It is not you I wish to be with,’ she said. ‘I wish to see my own fair land of Aquitaine.’

‘That you might sit in the gardens and surround yourself with soft-eyed singers who laud your charms and pretend to be in love with you?’

‘Why should they pretend?’

‘Because you are no longer young and the bearing of children does not beautify a woman but adds to her years. They would feign to set you up as the Queen of Love. And why? Because you are the Queen of England, that is why.’

‘Have done,’ she said. ‘When this child is born I shall go once more to Aquitaine.’

He nodded, smiling derisively at her, but his thoughts were far away in the bower of his fair Rosamund.

Soon afterwards he left for France.

A message came from his mother. She wished him to call at Nantes where she was staying with his brother Geoffrey.

Matilda met her son with the pleasure she always showed on seeing him. They embraced and she looked at him anxiously.

‘How fares it in England?’ she wanted to know.

‘All is well. I have left the government in capable hands. I have the best man in the world for Chancellor. And Eleanor knows how to rule.’

‘It was a good marriage,’ said Matilda.

Henry grimaced. ‘She’s an overbearing woman.’

Matilda could find no fault with that. No one could have been more overbearing than herself.

‘I wished you to come here,’ she said, ‘because of Geoffrey.’

‘Geoffrey again! Not plotting against me once more?’

‘Geoffrey will never plot against you again.’

‘You are hoping for a miracle.’

‘Nay, my son. Your brother Geoffrey is grievously sick. I fancy he will never leave his bed again.’

‘Geoffrey...but he is so young!’

‘Death strikes down the young as well as the old. You must make sure you lose nothing by his death.’

‘His death! You cannot mean this!’

‘You shall see for yourself. I wished to prepare you.’

She went with him into the chamber where Geoffrey lay.

‘Geoffrey, my son,’ she said, ‘your brother is here.’

Geoffrey smiled wryly. ‘The King of England,’ he muttered.

‘I am here,’ said Henry. He knelt by the bed and looked anxiously into his brother’s face. ‘What ails you, Geoffrey?’

‘My time has come. It was a short stay, was it not?’

‘Nay, you’ll recover.’

‘Is that a command?’

‘You should take it as such.’

‘You always wanted to command us all. But you cannot command Death, brother.’

‘You talk nonsense. You will recover.’

‘I think not. So you rule England now as well as Normandy which was to have been mine.’

‘I paid you for it, remember?’

‘I remember your promise to pay me a pension. I don’t recall receiving much of it.’

‘There are many calls on a king’s purse.’

‘I know, I know. And it is of no moment now.’

‘You had Brittany. You got that by my good graces.’

‘For which I must be grateful. Were not the dogs grateful for the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table?’

‘They were indeed, but I was never a rich man, brother, and you never a dog.’

‘Not with England and Normandy and...what else is it, brother? I’ll swear now it will be Brittany.’

‘Geoffrey, let us be friends.’

Geoffrey smiled and held out his hand. ‘It is always good to be friends with a dying man. Fear not that I should ever seek to haunt you with reproaches, brother. I was always proud to be your brother. You were our mother’s favourite.

She loved you. You must have had very special qualities to be loved by her.’ He smiled. ‘Do you remember how she hated our father?’

Henry bowed his head.

‘And he is dead now. And I shall soon follow him. You will go on and on to greater glory, Henry. It was good of you to come to my deathbed. Or did you come for Brittany?’

Henry looked at his brother with sorrowing eyes. He was thinking of how they had played together in their youth; but he was also thinking of Brittany. How could he help it? The Dukes of Normandy had always laid covetous eyes on it.

He could bring up the matter when he saw Louis.

He did not talk of these matters to Geoffrey. He tried to soothe him. He talked a little of their boyhood but the continual conflict between their parents had not made that a very happy time.

On a hot July day Geoffrey died. Looking down at the still face of his brother Henry could not believe that he was gone. He felt tears in his eyes and wished that they had been better friends.

But almost immediately came news that Conan of Brittany, the son of the displaced Duke, was marching towards Nantes.

Henry immediately set about gathering together his forces. He left his army to stand against any invaders and went on to Paris where he was determined to get Louis’s agreement that he should hold Brittany.

Louis received Henry with all the honours possible. His Queen joined with him. Constance was anxious to see the man whom Louis’s first wife had married. She found him bold, a little coarse in some ways, but a man of great strength and she saw at once that he was in complete contrast to Louis.

Unlike Thomas Becket, Henry entered Paris without a great show of magnificence. He had left the best of his army behind to hold Brittany, in any case, and as he was the King of England and Duke of Normandy, ruler over a greater territory than the King of France, he had no need to proclaim what was obvious.

The two men took their measure. It was six years ago that Eleanor had shown her preference by marrying Henry.

Louis had recovered from the humiliation now and had a new Queen; as for Henry his passion for Eleanor was fast dying and any cause for resentment against each other seemed to have dwindled away.

They would never be close friends. They were two different types. Louis had arranged special church services which he thought would please his guest. Henry would have preferred to see more of how the people lived, how they reacted to the laws of their land; he would have liked to meet some of the beautiful women of France. But he had come on a mission and it was imperative that he conclude it with satisfaction. The conferences began. Louis would support Henry in Brittany; he would give the baby Marguerite as her dowry the much disputed Vexin, which was on the borders of Normandy and the Ile de France.

This was the buffer state between those two and possession of it meant a certain security for Normandy.

It was a very satisfactory meeting and when Henry left Paris he brought with him the baby Marguerite whom he would take to England to be brought up as his daughter.

Even more satisfactory was the fact that when Conan of Brittany saw the forces of the Duke of Normandy and King of England he changed his mind about standing out against him, and he decided that he must try to make peace. Henry shrewdly agreed to do so and even compromised by making Conan Duke of Brittany, providing he recognised himself as a vassal of the Duke of Normandy and King of England. This Conan agreed to; and at the public ceremony swore that he would serve Henry with his life.

While this was happening Henry received two messages from England.

His wife had given birth to another son. She had called him Geoffrey after the King’s dead brother and father.

Henry smiled ruefully. So there would be two Geoffreys in the nursery now. He could picture the elder one being known as Geoffrey the Bastard. That would be as Eleanor wanted it. Was that why she had chosen the same name for her own son?

The other piece of news was that Rosamund had also borne a son. She had called him William.

Henry was pleased. He longed to see his children and most of all he longed to see Rosamund.

Before Henry reached England he received news of another death, which was a little disconcerting. It was not that he cared greatly for the man who had died; but his passing was of some political significance for he was the son of King Stephen. Henry had reason to be grateful to this man, for had he been ambitious he might have laid claim to the throne which as the only surviving son of the late King would have seemed to some a reasonable thing to have done. William however was not ambitious; he had had no desire to build up an army and go to war against Henry Plantagenet. Moreover he was wise enough to realise that the people of England considered Henry the true heir and would have flocked to his support.