by K. T. Tomb
He was holding up a pair of white cotton gloves for each of them.
“The contents of this library are very fragile,” he said to Chyna. “It is imperative that they are treated with the utmost care and respect.”
“Thank you for that, Victor,” Chyna said, trying to steady her racing heart.
“I will take down the manuscript you asked for and place it on a reading stand. Do not try to return it to the shelf; leave it there when you are finished. The pages cannot be copied, but if you would like, you may photograph them.”
He climbed a ladder and pulled the leather-bound volumes from the shelf, placing them carefully on the table in the center of the room for them before he exited the library. Chyna immediately began reading. Ever since her teatime conversation with Angus McKinley, she had come close to being obsessed with the magnificent memory of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Chyna soon realized that Angus McKinley was more than just a caretaker at Dordogne. As she began to read the manuscript, she decided that he was more of a modern marvel.
To the world, Eleanor of Aquitaine has always been portrayed as an elderly, controlling shrew who worshipped her son, Richard le Cœur de Lion and then fought tooth and nail with her other son, John the Lackland during her reign as regent. But what Chyna read in the thousand-year-old manuscript was everything but that.
Eleanor was born into the ruling family of the duchy of Aquitaine, a large province that covered most of western France, its borders stretching from the shores of the Bay of Biscay on the Atlantic to the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea. Aquitaine was a cultured center, much ahead of its time compared to the other French duchies and cities, who still lived in a medieval world. Aquitaine was also the largest of the French duchies, the prize of Western Europe. Because of this, France was determined to add Aquitaine to its empire. Eleanor’s family had ruled Aquitaine since Ranulf I, Duke of Poitiers, first held the title from 841-867. The title was passed down hereditarily through the family to Eleanor’s father, William, in 1127.
It seemed that Eleanor’s parents were just as intriguing as she was; in fact, it was possible that she inherited her unique style and flair purely from their influences and from that of the beautiful and cultured court they built and immersed her and her siblings in.
***
In 1127, Duke William IX of Aquitaine died, leaving his son, William X, as the next duke of Aquitaine. William and his family ruled the large duchy from their castle at Poitiers, although they vacationed at castles by the sea such as Talmont and in the lush valleys of Bordeaux.
Their happiness, however, was short lived and with the tragedy that befell her family, Eleanor’s journey to the rule of Aquitaine and her lifelong legacy began.
Sadly, tragedy struck the family in 1130, when the her apparent died at the age of 4. This brought up talk of a possible female succession, and William decided to name Eleanor as his heir, to become the Duchess of Aquitaine, the first and only woman to rule the duchy in her own right. Eleanor developed a love of the arts in her childhood, surrounded by them at court. Not only did Eleanor become an excellent poet and writer, but she also received a thorough education as preparation for her future role as the Duchess of Aquitaine. She traveled the duchy with her father, visiting her future lands and forming a very close relationship with her him.
In 1137, William attempted to bring the church back to Aquitaine and, becoming a new man of humility, decided to go on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a place of worship to Saint James the Greater. Eleanor had no idea that when she bid him farewell she would never see him again. In the summer of 1137, Eleanor received news that her father was dead, having suffered from food poisoning, and that she was the Duchess of Aquitaine.
So this was how Eleanor’s journey to infamy began. As a child of about sixteen years old, she became the Duchess and undoubted ruler of one of the largest—and certainly the most prosperous—duchies in Western Europe. Chyna could imagine how intimidated the girl must have felt, how confused at losing her beloved father so suddenly. In another stroke of destiny her family was again culled and there was now only Eleanor and her sister, Petronilla, left.
Eleanor was being urged to marry before one of the lords of Aquitaine, who were all greedy men, would attempt to rape and marry her so they could take control of the country. And so Eleanor agreed to marry King Louis’ son, the Dauphin, Louis, in the summer of 1137. The two were wed in Bordeaux and upon the marriage the agreement was that Eleanor would remain the sole ruler of Aquitaine, Louis as her consort, and in the course of her death, he would inherit it. The titles bestowed upon the couple on their wedding day were Duchess and Duke of Aquitaine, Count and Countess of Poitou and Eleanor was declared the Princess Royal of France. A week after their marriage, on August 1, 1137, King Louis VI died of dysentery. Louis was now King Louis VII of France.
Eleanor was now a queen.
There never seemed to be a dull moment in the life of ‘The Eagle’ of Aquitaine. It was becoming obvious to Chyna that the chronicling of these events had been deliberately done so by the author of the manuscript. Piece by piece, the picture was becoming clearer about who Eleanor was as a woman; it was a direct reflection of who she would be as a queen.
In four months, Eleanor had become both the Duchess of Aquitaine and the Queen of France. While Louis set out to attend the funeral mass, Eleanor went to Paris where he intended to join her later. Eleanor found Paris horrible.
It was barely a city, with houses built upon houses. The university was an embarrassment, and although many praised the royal castle on the Île de la Cité which seemed stranded on the Seine, Eleanor found it as bad as the city; a dark stone building which was dour and plain. She certainly had work to do in Paris.
Upon Louis’ arrival, Eleanor realized how different she was from her husband. Louis was a quiet man, who was easily controlled and very saintly. Eleanor was no saint. She was high-spirited and raucous, and took on her role as queen seriously. She began by transforming Paris into the city it was always rumored to be; a city of art and beauty.
Many at Louis’ court deeply disapproved of Eleanor, calling her a whore for her un-saintly behavior and her work in beautifying and culturing the city, heresy.
Eleanor and Louis’ marriage had yet to be consummated, and although the couple was still young, an heir was needed. Eleanor attempted to supplicate her husband’s eager advisors. They consummated their marriage and Eleanor was with child in 1145. That same year she gave birth to a daughter, named Marie.
And it was just about then that Eleanor’s life changed forever. She had just become reconciled with her husband and they were now finally living together as a true husband and wife should; even welcomed their first born child, when the world went mad and fell into war.
***
“Moshi moshi,” Keiko said softly into the phone.
“Keiko, Ichita wants to know what’s happening over there.”
It was Miyako, Ichita Nagasaki’s sister. Keiko wasn’t happy; she had purposely not called her boss because she didn’t have anything good to report. Keiko shrugged and replied.
“I spotted her coming back from the airport this morning. She took the FBI agent to catch a flight back to Turkey but then when I saw her on the way back, the computer nerd from New York was with her. She made a fast turn toward Bath so I figured they were going to London. I lost them somewhere outside of Bath.”
“What do you mean, you lost them? He’s not going to be happy about that.”
“Well, Ichita can get all the angry he wants. If he expects me to keep up with a lead-footed girl in a Jaguar XK, then he needs to get me that R8 I’ve been asking for, the V10 one.”
Keiko was pissed off; she hung up the phone without bothering to hear what Miyako had to say next. She had tried her best, but once Chyna had hit the straight roads outside of Bath, the Jaguar had left Keiko and her Audi A4 in its dust.
She kicked the tire of her car and stomped around on the side of
the road a little.
Where could they have gone? she wondered.
Keiko knew there was something she was forgetting; she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Flipping open her trusty Blackberry Torch, she speed-dialed Hashimoto.
“Hashimoto-san,” Keiko said in her most sultry voice. It sounded like Haaa-shimoto-saaan.
She dragged out the ‘Ha’ in his name when she spoke to him; that always seemed to make the quaint man stop and pay attention to her.
“Hai, Keiko.”
“I lost the gaijin outside Bath, Hashi. Is there anywhere in the area that has anything to do with Robert’s family, just in case they’re not on the way to London?”
“Ah, let me check. I’ll call you back in a few minutes.”
“Arigato, Hashi.”
Keiko opened the driver’s door and sat back in the seat. There was a big bag of cold potato wedges sitting on the dashboard in front of her and she ceremoniously dipped them into a jar of medium heat salsa con queso and ate them. There was something about cheese with Keiko. She’d never had cheese before she’d left Japan and now she couldn’t do without it. Suddenly the phone rang and she jumped to answer it.
“Moshi moshi,” she said.
“Keiko-chan, it turns out that there’s a castle they own in Winchester with a rather venerated library. It’s most likely where they went. You know, to do some research.”
“Hai. Arigato, Hashimoto-san.”
***
Around 1145, the city of Edessa, a Christian city in the Asia Minor, was captured by Muslim forces. The citizens were massacred, sold into slavery, or severely punished.
To prove his loyalty to God, Louis decided that the only way to redeem himself was to capture Edessa back from the Muslim forces and restore it to Christianity and its glory. Louis wrote to the German emperor, Conrad III, and convinced him to join the French troops on the expedition that became known as the Second Crusade.
Eleanor had no intention to sit home in Paris.
Although reluctant, Eleanor convinced Louis to let her join him on the crusade. In 1147, Eleanor and Louis finally reached the Holy Land. The two-and-a-half-year campaign was stressful, and constant bickering took place between Eleanor and Louis, distancing them more.
Thierry of Galeran had accompanied Louis, he made constant accusations against Eleanor, accusing her of keeping countless lovers in her tents and practicing sorcery.
The French and German troops reached Constantinople to a royal greeting. Louis and Eleanor lodged at Blachernae Palace with Emperor Manuel I and his wife, Irene of Sulzbach. Eleanor and Irene had much in common besides their uncanny similar physical appearances. Irene had the same air about her, and refused to sit around and let the men do all the work, just as Eleanor had displayed in Paris.
The trip was exhausting, the two sides rarely agreed, and the whole crusade was a mess. In hope to reconcile their marriage which was deeply hurt while on the crusade, Louis and Eleanor visited with Pope Eugenius, who persuaded the two to sleep in the same bed once again. Eleanor agreed, and while still out on crusade, she became pregnant with her daughter, Alix.
This did not stop Eleanor from joining the men on their patrols and sorties and the heavier she became, the more she defied Louis’ wishes, so he succumbed to the pressure and had the blacksmiths of the city make the special suit of armor for which she would become renowned.
The unusual suit became known as the Armor of Aquitaine and some took to calling it the Eagle’s Armor, but all in the same it was the strangest thing that had ever been seen on a battlefield. It stirred even more rumors of heresy and witchcraft as Eleanor would ride into the midst of the fighting, parting the lines of the men who fled from her in sheer fear, to urge her soldiers on.
She wore a mail coif that ran down her neck and spilled over her shoulders like hair and a close helm over it to hide her feminine features. The usual cuisse and greave for her thighs and legs and beautiful winged gauntlets for her hands and arms enhanced the suit. She had a hauberk of the finest chain mail which was worn under a gorget; but the most stunning item of armor she wore was her bevor.
It was doubly thick for her protection and molded to the queen’s body in every way such that the finished breastplate bore the shape of the swell of her breasts and the curved mound of her pregnant belly. Across her breasts, she had the metalworkers paint the crest of the crusaders and over it, with its wings spread wide, was a large eagle.
In 1152, Eleanor had had enough of Louis, and although he tried to persuade her to reconsider, Eleanor decided to have her marriage to Louis annulled. Barely two months after Eleanor and Louis annulled their marriage, Eleanor remarried. She had married Henry, Duke of Anjou, a member of the honorable Plantagenet family.
Henry’s grandfather was the King of England, Henry, his mother, the famous Matilda, Lady of the English, former empress of Germany and the Duchess of Normandy. Eleanor was 11 years older than Henry; nonetheless, Eleanor had found a man she loved more than Louis and in 1154, a son named Henry was born. 1154 also marked another great event in Eleanor’s life. Her husband became King Henry II of England, following the disastrous reign of King Stephen of England. Eleanor was now the Queen of England.
But it seemed to Chyna, as she read further, that Eleanor was never going to find reprieve from the fighting.
When she and Henry left France for England, Eleanor found her new land in the same shape as that of Paris when she first entered the French city at the age of 15. Before his marriage to Eleanor, Henry had controlled Anjou and Normandy, and now he controlled in addition not only England but Gascony, Touraine, and Aquitaine.
Although Eleanor was the legal owner and ruler of Aquitaine, Henry claimed the duchy as part of his land holdings. His lands were now larger than the King of France’s.
Henry and Eleanor both had their work cut out for them. Under King Stephen’s reign, the English barons had taken control of the weak king. They built castles without Stephan’s authorization and set up forms that held the vassals responsible for military duty. King Henry II tore these castles down and set up military duty, a form of taxation instead. In 1166, the barons were at war with one another once again and Eleanor rode out in her magnificent armor to control her restless subjects.
In 1173, rebellion exploded in England. Eleanor and her three older sons: Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey rebelled against Henry II. Eleanor was captured and locked up for 16 years in a tower in England. While Eleanor stayed imprisoned, war raged. Soon John, Henry’s only loyal son, turned against him also. In the 16 years that Eleanor was imprisoned, Henry had been killed in battle in 1183 and Geoffrey had died due to injuries in Paris in 1186.
1189 brought about great changes. Eleanor was released from prison and Henry II died. Richard, Eleanor’s favorite son, became King Richard I. While on crusade in the east, he left Eleanor as regent over his kingdoms. He gave Eleanor full control over England and the French provinces, stating that Eleanor’s word should be law. Eleanor turned out to be a ruthless and cunning ruler. She brought order to England in Richard’s absence and when Richard was captured in the Holy Roman Empire, she raised his ransom and had him freed. Before Richard’s return, his brother, John, attempted to usurp the throne from their mother. Eleanor beat off John, but later reconciled with him and even had Richard and John reconcile upon Richard’s return.
On April 1, 1204, Eleanor died at the age of 82 at the Abbey of Fontevrault. She was buried there, between Henry II and her son Richard, who is today remembered as Richard le Coeur de Lion, Richard the Lionheart.
Chyna sat back in the chair at the reading table, took off the white cotton gloves and sighed deeply.
“Oscar, could you take photographs of these pages, please?” she asked softly.
“Did you find something that we can use?” he asked as he approached her slumped figure.
“Oh, absolutely,” she replied as she pushed the chair back and stood to stretch out her back. “I have found absolutely everything tha
t we could possibly need.”
“Then old Angus McKinley was right.” Oscar was already busy snapping pictures of the first pages.
“More than right, Oscar; the man might have been on to the secret behind the armor’s disappearance all along! All we have to do is see if the clues lead us where I think they will.”
Chapter Four
“Oscar, when you finally get to Dordogne,” Chyna started, “you have to meet Angus immediately. He’s the caretaker there. Have you ever met someone that was so completely immersed in one thing—and had been so for so many years—that everything they were just seemed to be about that thing?”
“Yeah,” Oscar replied, a little wistfully. “Sounds like my dad and the ranch.”
“Exactly. Well, that’s how Angus is, too.”
“I remember watching a PBS documentary once about the life of the people on a very well-known English estate that belongs to a real life duke and duchess. They showed how the estate is basically supported by an entire village of people.”
“Really? That’s fascinating.”
“I know. The Dowager Duchess still lived on the estate and the staff members always quote her as saying that people either came there and then left the next day or they came there and stayed for the rest of their lives. I guess Angus is one of those ‘never leave’ kind of employees.”
“Yes, Oscar, it seems so, but it also seems that there are a lot of those in the Montgomery’s employ.”
Chyna decided to give the helpful old man a call. Most of the information that she had gathered on the case so far had been straight out of his mouth so she doubted that asking for his help again would steer her off course.
“Mr. McK– Umm, Angus, this is Chyna,” she said into her cell phone. “How are you doing this afternoon?”