The Strangled Queen (19 page)

Now that he had made a deal, what point was there in further
concealment? In fact he was not altogether displeased to have someone at last to whom he could show with impunity his wealth of foodstuffs, of which he was most certainly more vain than of his administrative titles. If he had become a provost through ambition, his real aptitudes were more suited to the business of a grocer. With his round face, his
snub nose, and his short arms,
he w
ent to and fro among, his casks
of lentils and peas, sniffed his cheeses, and let his eye rest caressingly upon his strings of sausages. Having just spent two hours dining, he looked as if he were already hungry again.

"The fellow, deserves to be raided with clubs and pitchforks," thought Guccio. A servant prepared a large parcel of victuals, which, enveloped in a cloth; to cover them, Guccio attached to his saddle.

"And if by any chance," said the Provost,
showing him out,
"you should happen to go short yourself in Paris, I might as occasion offers be able to send you a wagon-load."

"I'll think about it, Provost. Besides, you will not have to wait long to see me
again. And in the meantime you
may rest assured that I shall speak of you as you deserve."

Thereupon Guccio left for Neauphle, and went
to
the bank where the clerks, when they heard his news, overwhelmed him with gratitude.

"And so," said Guccio, "every week someone will come from Cressay or you will arrange to take there, when night has fallen, half of what the Provost sends you. My uncle. takes a great interest in that family, who stand better at Court than one might expect from appearances; take care that they lack for nothing."

"Are they to pay cash or is it to be debited to them?" asked the manager.

"You will keep a separate account which I shall deal with myself."

Ten minutes later Guccio arrived at the manor, triumphantly
brandishing his parcel of provisions. When he went to her room
and unpacked his acquisitions, Marie had tears in her eyes. "Guccio, one might think you were a magician," she cried. "I would do much more to see you regain your strength, and
for the joy of earning your love. You will receive as much again every week. Believe me," he added smiling, "it's
less
difficult than finding a cardinal in Avignon."

This reminded him that he had not come to Cressay only to flirt. As they were alone; he took the opportunity of asking Marie if the casket he had left in her care the autumn before was still in the same place in the chapel.

"You will find it where we
left it,"
she replied. "My greatest anxiety was that I would die without knowing what to do, with
it."

"Don't worry about it any more; I am going to take it back with me. And for God's sake, if you love me, think no more of
dying,"

"Not any more now," she said, smiling.

Having assured her that he would return more often, he left her biting delightedly into dried plums.

Having gone down into the Great Hall, he told Dame Eliabel that he had brought back wonderful relics from Italy, that they, were most efficacious, and that he wished to pray over them alone in the chapel so as to obtain Marie's; recovery. The widow was astonished that so
devoted, clever and busy a
young man should at the same time be so pious. Clearly, he had
every good quality.

Having obtained the key, Guccio went and shut himself up in the chapel; there he went behind the little altar, found without difficulty the hinged stone and, searching among the sainted bones, whoever's they were, recovered the leaden casket which contained the receipt signed by Archbishop Marigny. "Here's a good relic to cure the kingdom with," he said to himself.

He replaced the stone and went out, wearing a somewhat sanctimonious expression.

Having received the thanks and embraces of the lady of the manor and her two sons, he at once set out
upon
the road to Paris.

Overcome with fatigue, he was compelled to sleep a few hours in the small village of Versailles. The next day he arrived back at his uncle's, to whom he told everything or, at least, nearly everything; that is, he did not much elaborate upon the steps he
had taken on behalf of the Cressays, but he described the family and the actions of the Provost with such violence and indignation that the banker was surprised.

"I hope you have brought back the Archbishop's receipt? asked Tolomei.

"Certainly, Uncle," replied
Guccio, handing him the leaden casket.

"Are you really telling
me
" went on Tolomei, "that this provost told you himself that he raises double taxes, of which he gives part to a secretary
of Marigny's? Do you know which
one?"

"I could find out. Portefruit believes now
that I
am a great friend of his."

"And he says that the other provosts do the same?'"

"Without hesitation. Isn't it a disgrace? They make of hunger an infamous trade and they guzzle like pigs while the population starves round them. Oughtn't the King to be told?

Tolomei's left eye, the one that was never seen, had suddenly opened, and his whole face took on a different expression, at once ironical and somewhat alarming. At the same time the banker rubbed his plump and pointed hands together.

"Excellent! This is very good news you bring me, my little Guccio; very good news indeed," he said smiling.

2. Vincennes

THE
modern
man, when he tries to imagine the Middle Ages, generally believes that he must make a terrific imaginative effort. The Middle Ages seem to him a dark period, lost in the mists of time, an era of the world upon which the sun never shone and in which lived a race of alien human beings, a society radically different from the one we know. But, indeed, we only have to look about us at our own world and read our newspapers every morning; the Middle Ages lie at our very door; they persist beside
us today, and not only in a few monumental remains; they lie beyond the sea which borders
our coasts, within a few hours
flying; they, form part of what is still called the French Empire, and present our twentieth-century statesmen with problems they are unable to resolve.

Several Mohammedan countries in North Africa and the Middle East are precisely in a period of fourteenth-century develo
pment and can show
us, in
a number of
respects, a reflection of what the European medieval world was like. Similar towns, their houses piled one upon another, narrow swarming streets, enclosing a few sumptuous, palaces; the same extremes of appalling misery among the poor and of opulence among great lords; the same story-tellers at the corners of the streets, propagating both myths and news; the same population, nine-tenths illiterate, submitting through long years to oppression and then submitting suddenly rebelling violently in murderous panic; the same influence of religious conscience upon public affairs; the same fanaticism; the same intrigues among the powerful; the same hate among ri
val factions; the same plots so curiously ravelled that their
solution lies only in the spilling of blood! The conclaves of the Middle Ages must have closely resembled the present discussions among; Moslem doctors of law. The dynastic dramas which marked the, end of the direct line of the Capets correspond to the dynastic dramas which today disturb the Arab countries; and the thread of this
story will be better
understood if we say that it could be defined as a merciless battle between the Pasha of Valois and the Grand Vizier Marigny. The only difference is that the European countries of the Middle Ages were not fields of expansion for the interests of nations better equipped with technical methods and arms. After the fall of the Roman Empire colonialism was dead, at least in our
part of the
world.

"We haven't been able to meet him face to face but, good heavens, we'll take him in the flank," the banker Tolomei had said in speaking of Marigny after the latter had returned to favour.

When Guccio had told him of the actions of the Provost of Montfo
rt
l'Amaury, Tolomei reflected for two whole days; then, on the third, having put on his fur coat, his hat and cape, since it was raining cats and dogs that afternoon, lie went to Valois's house. He found the King's uncle and his cousin Artois somewhat disconsolate, bitter in their talk, taking their defeat badly and dreaming of revenge.

Messeigneurs," said To
lomei, "during these last weeks
your actions have been such that, if you owned a bank or a business, you would have had to go into liquidation."

He could permit himself this tone: he was owed ten thousand pounds, and the other two accepted his reprimand without replying.

"You didn't ask my advice," went on Tolomei, "so I didn't offer it to you. But I could have warned you that a man as powerful as
Enguerrand would not dip his fingers into
the King's coffers. If he has embezzled, it will be in some other way."

Then, addressing himself directly to 'the Count of Valois, he said, "I have given you a great deal of money, Monseigneur Charles, so that you might raise yourself in the King's confidence; you should return me that money at once."

"You shall have it, Messire Tolomei," 'tried Valois.,'

"
When
I should not have the audacity
, Monseigneur, to doubt your word. I am certain of my debt; but still,
I must know
by what means it will be repaid me; and moreover, it is no longer you who have charge of the Treasury. but Marigny once more."

"And how do you suggest that we
can make an end of the foul pig" said Robert of Artois.
;" We are as interested in doing so as you can be, believe me, and if you have any better ideas than ours, we'll be grateful for them."

Tolomei smoothed the folds of his robe,, and crossed his hands on his stomach.

"Messeigneurs," lie replied, "stop accusing Marigny. Cease clamouring that he is a thief, now that the King has announced that he is no such thing. For a time you must appear to accept the fact that he is in power, and then, behind his hack, make enquiries in the provinces. Don't put the royal officers in charge

of this, because it is precisely against them that these enquiries must be directed; tell the nobles, both great and small, with whom you have power, to gather, information everywhere upon the actions of the men Marigny has placed in the provostships. In many places taxes are raised of which only half go to the Treasury. What is not taken in money is taken in food and then marketed.; Have this looked into, I tell you; and then
get the King's authority, and
Marigny's too, to convoke all the provosts, receivers of taxes and
financial agents, that they may
have their accounts examined before the barons of the kingdom.' I tell you that if you do this, such monstrous embezzlement will be revealed that you will have no difficulty in putting the blame upon Marig
ny, without having to consider
whether he is in fact guilty or innocent. And in doing so, Monseigneur of Valois, you will, have all the nobles on your side, since they loathe seeing Marigny's Sergeantsat-Arms poking their noses into everything upon their fiefs; and you will also have on your side all the common people who are dying of hunger and want a scapegoat for their misery. There, Messeigneurs, is the advice I permit myself to; give you and
which, were I in your place, I
should take to the King. I can
also assure
you that the Lombard companies, who have branches more or less everywhere,' can help you in your enquiries if you so wish it."

"The
difficulty will be to persuade the King," said Valois," because at the moment he is infatuated with Marigny and also with his brother, the Archbishop, through whom he expects to get a Pope."

"As far as the Archbishop is concerned, you need have no fears," replied the banker.
"I
have him in the hollow of my hand an
d I will tell you how when the
moment arrives."

When Tolomei had left,
Artois said to Valois, "That fellow is decidedly cleverer than we are."

"Cleverer ... cleverer . . ." murmured Valois. "What you mean is that he puts in his precise merchant's language what we had already thought."

And for the second time they obeyed the instructions which were given them by the powers of finance. Messire Spinello Tolomei, with the ten thousand pounds for which he had made him
self guarantor with his Italian colleagues, was allowing himself the luxury of ruling France.

But it took nearly two months to convince The Hutin. In vain did Valois
repeat to his nephew,
" Remember, Louis, your father's last words. Remember that he said to you, `Get to know the state of your kingdom as soon as possible.' Well, by convoking all the provosts and receivers, you will learn that state. And our sainted
ancestor, whose name you bear, also gives you an example, for he ,

held a great enquiry of this kind in the
year '9
7."

Marigny approved such an assembly in
principle, but he did not think
that the time was ripe for it. He always had a good reason for
deferring it, justly objecting
that a moment when the country was in
a
state of upheaval was not the time to withdrawal the
King's agents from their posts at once.
and cast suspicion upon
their administration.

However, the central
authority was no longer solid and it had to be recognised that there were two factions in France which were opposed, at
variance and mutually
destructive. Torn between these two parties, ill-informed, no longer knowing what was calumny and what reliable information, by nature incapable of clearly making up his
mind sometimes according his
confidence to the left, sometimes to the right, Louis X never made a decision unless he was forced to, and thought that he governed when in fact he did no more than obey.

There was still no tiara l
ooming in the sky above Avignon
,
where Marigny had put up candidates who made no progress against Cardinal Dueze.

At last, on 19th March 1315, yielding to the violence of the baronial leagues, Louis X, upon the advice of the majority of his Council, signed the charter for the Norman lords, which was shortly to be followed by the charters for those of Languedoc, Burgundy, Picardy and Chartres in Champagne. These charters restored tournaments, private wars and gauges of battle. It was once more permitted gentlemen "to fight each other, to ride, to come and go, and to carry arms." The nobility regained their freedom to divide up lands
and create
new vassals without having to refer to the King. Nobles could no longer be arraigned except
before their peers. The Sergeants-at-Arms and the King's 'Provosts could no longer, arrest criminals or directly indict them without first referring to the lord of the region. The middle classes and freed, peasants could no longer, except in
a few
cases, leave the lands of their lords in order to claim the King's justice.

Finally, in the matte
r of military subsidies and the
recruitment of troops, the barons reacquired a certain independence which allowed, them to decide if they wished or not to take part in a national war, and how much they wished to contribute towards it.

Marigny and Valois, for once agreed, had succeeded in placing at the end of these charters a vague formula concerning the supreme royal authority and all that "by ancient custom belonged
to the sovereign prince and to
no other. This formula, in law
would have permitted a strong central; power to annul everything that had been ceded clause by clause. But both in spirit and in
fact all the institutions of the Iron King were destroyed. And The Hutin, inspired by Valois,
countered
with "Saint Louis" whenever, anyone mentioned "Philip the Fair."

Marigny, who had fought to the end to defend; the work of sixteen years of his life, said upon that particular day,
as he left
the Council, that they had laid the foundations for great trouble in the land.

At the same time the Assembly of all the provosts, treasurers and receivers was called for the middle of April; special investigates officers, called "reformers," were sent out; and when it became a question of where to hold, the Assembly, Charles of Valois prop
osed
Vincennes in memory of the King-Saint.

On the appointed day Louis X,
his peers, his barons, his Council, the great officers of the Crown and the members of the Exchequer, came in state to the
manor of Vincennes. They made
an imposing procession which brought the people to their doors, while urchins, followin
g, cried, "Long live the King!"
in the hope
of a handful of sugar-plums. It
had been bruited abroad that the King was to judge the tax-collectors, and nothing could have given the populace a keener pleasure. It was a warm April day and light clouds
floated high above the forest trees. A true springtime in which hope might burgeon; if famine were still abroad, cold at least was over, and people told each other that the next harvest would be a good one if Jack Frost did not scorch the young corn.

The Assembly was held in the open air near the royal manor, There had been some difficulty in deciding which was Saint Louis's oak, since there were so many of them about. Some two hundred receivers, treasurers and provosts were regimented th
ere, for the most part sitting
on wooden benches, some cross-legged on the ground.

Under a canopy
embroidered with, the arms of France the young King, a crown upon his head, sceptre in hand, was seated upon a faudesteuil, a sort of fold-stool deriving from the chair of State which, from the origins of the French monarchy, served as the sovereign's throne when he was travelling. The arms of Louis X's faudesteuil were carved with t
he heads of greyhounds and the
seat consisted of a red silk cushion
On each side of the King, the
peers and barons were assembled and the members of the Exchequer sat behind trestle-tables. One after
another the Royal functionaries were called up, carrying their
account-books, togeth
er with the "reformers who
had been placed in charge of, their particular districts. The work of checking threatened to become extremely, boring and Louis X, taking the proceedings patiently, was distracting himself by counting the wood-pigeons flying about the trees.

It was not long before it became cle
ar that the accounts in nearly every case showed
lavish squandering and traces of dishonesty and embezzlement, particularly during the immediately preceding months, since the death of Philip the Fair, and during the period when Marigny's authority had been undermined.