The Prince of Darkness (19 page)

How excited Isabella was to see the sea! She wanted to run into it and catch it with her hands.

She stood gazing at it in wonder. John watched her indulgently.

‘Such a lot I have to show you, my love,’ he said.

They went on board their ship and he found it hard to draw her away from the deck, so enthralled was she. She was excited beyond words when she beheld the white cliffs of her new kingdom.

‘You shall be crowned ere long,’ John told her. ‘The most beautiful queen England has ever known.’

He was excited to be in England which always seemed more home to him than any other land. England had accepted him when some of those who lived in his overseas dominions had been prepared to take Arthur. It was because England would never have accepted Arthur that men such as William Marshal had come down in his favour. So he owed a lot to England; and now he was going to honour that land by giving it the most beautiful woman in the world to be its queen.

He called together a council at Westminster and there, glowing with pride, he presented Isabella to them. They could not but be moved by such charm and beauty and the unfortunate affair of the Portuguese embassy seemed to have been forgotten, as was the manner of his snatching Isabella from the man to whom she was betrothed. After all, the troubles of Hugh de Lusignan were scarcely something for the English to worry about.

There would be a coronation for the Queen and the people loved a coronation. They had wondered why the King’s
previous wife had not been crowned with him. There had been rumours then that he was thinking of casting her off. They might have been sorry for her, but here was a new bride and there would be rejoicing in the streets, dancing, bonfires and perhaps free wine. Therefore, it was a matter for rejoicing; and when the people saw the exquisite child who was to be their new queen, they were enchanted by her. The cheers for Isabella resounded through the city.

Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, came to Westminster to perform the ceremony. The King had given orders that the Abbey was to be strewn with fresh herbs and rushes on the great day and a certain Clarence FitzWilliam received thirty-three shillings for doing this. There was one chorister whose voice was considered the most beautiful heard for many a year. He was known as Ambrose and the King ordered that he should be given twenty-five shillings to sing
Christus vicit
.

John wanted his people to know that this coronation was as important to him as his own had been. He wanted the whole country to welcome Isabella, to see her in all her youth and beauty and to applaud their king for possessing himself of such a prize.

They were willing and so Isabella, amid great rejoicing, was crowned Queen of England.

No one could doubt John’s joy in his queen and his determination to honour her.

They were happy – John and Isabella. She continued to delight him; he was sure he would never tire of her, nor look at another woman only to compare her with Isabella to her great
disadvantage. Isabella was supreme, with her child’s body and the deep sensual appetites of an experienced woman, and he thought little of anything but the times when they could be alone together. As for Isabella, everything that happened was so new to her; and apart from her sensuality she was an inexperienced child of twelve. Novelty delighted her and she had plenty of that; to be the centre of an admiring circle was not new to her but it never failed to delight her; and to find that English strangers were as surely delighted with her as the people of Angoulême was a delicious discovery. Sometimes she thought of poor Hugh the Brown and she wondered if he were very sad. She hoped so for she could not bear him to forget her. Sometimes she thought of what it would have been like if she had married him. How different he would have been from John. Hugh was very handsome and he had never understood what she was really like as John had from the moment they met. Something within her still hankered after Hugh, but life was too exciting for brooding. She loved her golden crown and the homage of the people. The coronation had delighted her. She could have endured a great deal to win the title of Isabella the Queen, so she enjoyed travelling through the country with John which they did immediately after her coronation.

She loved fine garments – so did John; she could not hope to wear such splendid jewel-encrusted clothes as those which belonged to him, but he gave her rich presents. For travelling in the winter he ordered for her a
pelisson
with five bars of fur across it to keep out the wind. After her coronation five ells of green cloth and another five ells of brown were sent to her so that she might command her seamstress to make it into a gown for her. The King gave her jewels too and how she enjoyed
appearing with him at the head of a table while all others looked on with amazement at her sparkling gems and beauty.

She could regret nothing while life promised such excitement.

Their journey through the country was leisurely, for they stayed in the castles of the nobility and there John would receive the homage of his barons which would be extended to Isabella.

By Christmas they reached Guildford and the feast of Christmas was celebrated with much feasting and merriment. Games were played in which the Queen took the central part and for once John was prepared to stand aside and let the limelight fall on someone else. They danced, they sang, they feasted and they drank; and the King would not leave his bed until dinner time.

Up to the north of England they travelled, through Yorkshire to Newcastle and Cumberland right up to the borders of Scotland. By March they had reached the Pennines and greatly daring they battled their way through this range of wolf-infested mountains. Life was full of adventure for the young Queen who until she had met John had never been very far from Angoulême – the only journey she had made being that to the castle of those whom she had then believed would be her new family.

It was Easter time when they reached Canterbury. Here they were greeted by Hubert Walter the Archbishop, and during Mass in the Cathedral he placed the crowns on their heads in accordance with an old custom so that it was like being crowned again.

After this ceremony they went to the Archbishop’s palace where a banquet had been prepared for them. John was delighted.

‘It is rare,’ he told Isabella, ‘that a King of England is on such fair terms with his Archbishop.’

They would return to Westminster, he told her, and there they would hold Court and she would learn more of what it meant to be Queen of England.

She was delighted with the country – although the winter had been more rigorous than that to which she was accustomed but she was young, her blood was warm and she had her
pelisson
with the five bars of fur to protect her from the fierce winds.

Alas, their pleasurable meanderings through England were coming to an end.

The Easter festivities were no sooner over when a messenger arrived from Eleanor. It seemed that it was impossible for her to retire from life, for she could not resist watching closely what was happening in her son’s dominions. She had been more aware than he was of the trouble he was stirring up when he more or less abducted the betrothed of Hugh de Lusignan.

Now she had disquietening news for him. If he were wise he would prepare to leave England immediately. In short, what had happened was that after John’s marriage the Lusignans had naturally been infuriated with the Count of Angoulême, whom they considered had deceived them cruelly by being a party to his daughter’s marriage with the King after they had pledged her to marry Hugh, and that feud, healed by the betrothal, burst out again. John must remember that Hugh’s brother Ralph was Seneschal of the castle of Eu in Normandy so that the trouble could spread into the duchy.

The Lusignans, filled with hatred towards John, had declared they had thrown off their allegiance to him and had approached
the King of France, asking him to accept them as his vassals. Philip, like a wily spider, sitting in his web watching for unwary prey, was congratulating himself on the turn events had taken.

‘There is only one thing to be done,’ wrote Eleanor. ‘Gather together an army and come at once.’

John was a little petulant at the prospect of having his pleasure spoilt, but his mother was insistent and in his heart he had known something of this nature would happen soon.

While he was digesting his mother’s news another messenger arrived.

This one came from the Count of Angoulême who had the same story to tell.

The Lusignans were on the march, vowing vengeance. Moreover, Arthur’s stepfather, Guy of Thouars, was proving himself a clever strategist. In Arthur’s name he was amassing an army. There was trouble then not only from the powerful Lusignans and the King of France but from Arthur.

Arthur must not be victorious.

John made up his mind. He must prepare to leave England. He would need a big army so he sent envoys throughout the country commanding his barons to come with all speed to Portsmouth with their followers, for he planned to cross to the Continent without delay.

There followed the first clap of thunder from a storm which was to grow big.

Many of the barons had been consulting together and were recalling the good old days before the reign of Henry II when they had indeed been rulers of their estates. None of them could remember that time but the stories had been handed
down through their grandparents and parents. In the days of Stephen a baron was a baron. He was the king of his own lands and held jurisdiction over those who passed through them. They forgot that during that time it was not safe for travellers to go on to the road and that many of those who did were captured by cruel and avaricious barons and either held to ransom or robbed and tortured for the sport of other baron guests. This was a situation which to all decent men was intolerable and the rule of Henry II had wiped it out, much to the relief of almost every inhabitant of the country apart from those unscrupulous men who had profited from this barbarism.

Henry II’s stern but just laws had made the country safe again and that King was such that none would have dared to go against him; but when Richard had come to the throne and had enforced taxation in order to pay for his crusade the people had grown restive. But the knowledge that he was engaged in the Holy War made them little inclined to revolt against such taxes because they superstitiously feared they would offend Heaven by doing so and would consequently suffer more harm than if they gave up their money. So they paid up: and when Richard was taken prisoner and came back a hero they were proud of him. All who saw him declared that even towards the end of his life he had the appearance of a god.

And then he had died and there was John. In the first place John lacked those impressive good looks, that kingly bearing and world-wide reputation. John’s image was tarnished before he came to the throne. They had all heard of his exploits in Ireland and when, as Count of Mortain, brother of the King, he had ridden through their villages, they had hidden their daughters. It was well known that when Richard was away he had plotted against him without much foresight and wisdom
and consequently been forced to humble himself and crave pardon when his brother returned. They knew that that pardon had been given and Richard had been heard to say that his young brother had been led astray, and in any case he was not to be feared because he would never be able to make a conquest and if by good fortune a kingdom fell into his hands he would not be able to hold it against a foe.

That clearly indicated Richard’s contempt for John. It may well have been why, the barons now reasoned, he had at one time named Arthur as his heir.

And now, there was trouble on the Continent. The barons cared little for the Continent. They were English now, for though many of them had Norman ancestors, Normandy now seemed far away; it was their estates in England which they cared about and they had no desire to pay with their money and perhaps with their lives to help the King hold territories on the Continent while their affairs in England were neglected.

Some of the more bold of them now called together all those who had received a summons from the King and they met at Leicester where they decided they would make a stand against the King’s orders.