by Robert Irwin
Now Rivers spends more time closeted with the King, since the dangers that Edward guessed at a few months ago are more obvious. Warwick and George of Clarence have met in Calais and Clarence has married Warwick’s daughter Isabel in defiance of Edward. A few days after the Earl of Pembroke had talked about goblins with Anthony, he is summoned to lead an army north against Robin of Redesdale’s contumacious rebellion. Then Edward, Rivers and Anthony and other loyal lords make their way north more slowly. It is only when they reach Nottingham that they learn that Pembroke and his force of Welsh cavalry have been defeated at Edgecote and that Pembroke and Stafford been beheaded by the northern rebels. When Rivers hears the news, he laughs mirthlessly and exclaims, ‘The goose! The goose!’ When Anthony asks his father what he means, Rivers tells him that Jacquetta believes in the curse of the living goose and that every man who ate of the meat pressed upon them by Ripley at that dinner will die violently. But Rivers tells Anthony not to worry, for he does not believe that such a stupid creature as a goose can carry a curse. Indeed he does not believe in curses at all. Nor does he believe in talismans and so he refuses to wear one of Jacquetta’s little manikins round his neck.
The army that Edward has brought with him begins to desert in great numbers. They are in Neville territory and soon Edward finds himself to be the ‘guest’ of George Neville, the man he had so recently dismissed from the Chancellorship. Though there is no question of the King being a prisoner, nevertheless he finds that he is not allowed to leave Warwick Castle.
Anthony and his father have failed to escape in time and they are lodged in Kenilworth Castle and there they are left in no doubt that they are its prisoners. Anthony’s cell is much less comfortable than Malory’s one in Ludgate. When will they be tried? And where? Perhaps it will be York. Anthony, who has nothing to read, plots his defence, or rather many defences since he cannot be sure of what their enemies will accuse him and his father. He wishes that he had talked more with his father and learnt more about the world that existed before he was born. Now Anthony thinks that he would like to know about his father’s boyhood in Northamptonshire; and about his service in France with John of Bedford; and the famous joust at Smithfield against the Spaniard Pedro de Vasquez; then his father’s secret marriage to the widow of John of Bedford, Jacquetta de St Pol and the scandal that resulted from this mésalliance; his pardon by King Henry; also Anthony would like to know what his father remembers of his and his sister’s childhood.
After a few days the warden of the castle finds Anthony something to read. It is a fragmentary manuscript containing the last part of ‘The Franklin’s Tale’ and all of ‘The Squire’s Tale’ from The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
‘The Squire’s Tale’ is as follows:
The great King Cambuskan ruled the land of Tartary. He had two sons, the older being Algarsyf and the younger Cambalo and the youngest child was a daughter called Canace. Cambuskan held a feast to celebrate the anniversary of twenty years of his rule, but the feast was interrupted by a knight who entered the hall mounted on a mechanical steed made of brass. The knight had a mirror in his hand, a gold ring on his thumb and a sword by his side. He told Cambuskan that he was an emissary from the King of Arabia and India and that the steed was a gift to mark the feast. The steed will take the King anywhere in the world in a single day. The mirror and the ring were for Canace. The mirror would reveal any danger, as well as any deceit by a lover. When she put on the ring she would understand the language of birds. The sword would cut through any armour and if someone had been wounded by it, the wound would never heal until it was touched by the flat of the sword’s blade.
The strange knight was thanked and led to his chamber and the feasting resumed. That night the revellers slept long and heavily except for Canace who went out into the royal park as the sun was rising. She heard the birds, and thanks to the ring, she eavesdropped on them. A female falcon was lamenting her abandonment by her former lover and consequently she barely escaped a fowler’s net. After the bird swooned in Canace’s arms, she carried it into the palace where she tenderly cared for her. But the plight of the female falcon has taught her to distrust all men.
Anthony reads on. Later that morning the mysterious ambassador offered to demonstrate to Cambuskan how the brass steed worked. First he opened a lid on the horse’s back and dropped in some lighted coals. Next he pulled a lever. Whereupon the horse stamped its feet and steam came out of its nostrils. Then the ambassador invited Canace to mount up behind him so that he could take her for a short ride. No sooner had she done so than the horse unfurled its wings and rose steeply in the air. It circled twice round Cambuskan’s palace before flying off in the direction of India. The ambassador had succeeded in his mission which was to abduct Canace.
The story continues with an account of Cambuskan’s raising of a mighty army which he led in the direction of India; Cambalo’s taking the magic sword and setting out to rescue Canace; Argalsyf’s setting out to do the same with the magic mirror; an Indian prince has fallen in love with a description of Canace; his consultation with a talking head and the commissioning of a fresco which depicts the male falcon being taken by a larger bird so that it was unable to rescue his mate… ‘The Squire’s Tale’ is full of exotic marvels, and as Anthony reads on, his mind drifts off the page. He would like to travel to the East and watch those who pray in pagan temples. He wants to see the vegetable lamb of Tartary, the Magnetic Mountain, Klingsor’s palace and perhaps the Paradise Garden of the Old Man of the Mountains. He wants to talk with Indian anchorites, dog-headed men and black sages. He imagines resting in the sunny glades of Arabia Felix and later encountering the Empress of Dreams in the dark forests of Asia. And he would like to fly to these regions. Surely the conquest of the air cannot be far off?
He would like… But now his reverie is interrupted by the arrival of a gaoler who puts him in shackles before leading him out of his cell. Now Anthony thinks he must concentrate once more on the trial and on what his defence will be.
Once he is out in the courtyard he is horrified to learn that Warwick and Clarence have determined that there is no need for a trial, since the guilt of ‘the King’s evil counsellors’ is plain for all men to see. Besides, as Warwick is fond of saying, ‘Dead men make no war.’ His father is standing beside the block at the far end of the courtyard. He is unshackled and is suffered to kneel and pray. Then he is made to kneel again with his head and neck extended over the block. A few moments later the axe falls. Anthony watching is almost convinced that they are all in a dark dream.
Then it is his turn to be unshackled. But, ‘You were never one of the King’s evil counsellors,’ says a kindly sergeant who is removing his chains. ‘My lord of Warwick is a merciful man and besides he says that you are nothing but a jousting popinjay. So here is your sword and the gate is open. Hurry before the Earl changes his mind.’
As Anthony staggers out of Kenilworth Castle, an absurd thought strikes him. Now he will never know how ‘The Squire’s Tale’ ends. Then he throws up. It is only much later that he weeps for his father. He slowly makes his way to London and on the way he learns that many others of the nobility have also met their deaths. The best men in England were being slaughtered and soon, Anthony thought, the kingdom would be at the mercy of merchants, peasants and women. And more fighting must follow, for there is a new uprising in the north. It is led by Humphrey Neville, who, though a kinsman of the Earl of Warwick, is no friend of the Kingmaker. Instead, Humphrey has raised the banner on behalf of Henry of Lancaster and Margaret of Anjou.
By the time Anthony enters London autumn is setting in. As he makes his way to the Woodville townhouse, he tries to prepare himself to console his mother in her grief. But when he reaches the house he learns from the steward that his mother is not there to be consoled, for she is lodged in the Tower and will shortly be tried as a witch. It is one of Warwick’s men, a certain Thomas Wake, who has accused her. He says that ‘the serpent woman’ had made a finge
r-length leaden image of a man at arms, broken in the middle and tied with thread, and used this to make Edward fall in love with her daughter. He will bring forward a priest who will testify that he saw Jacquetta perform a conjuration with the leaden image of a man before it was left behind in his church. The charge continues: ‘This was the crafty serpent nurtured on the poison of ambition which, insinuating itself into the minds of princes, poisoned them so with the malice of its virus that there was scarce a King, who inflamed by the angry venom growing therefrom, did not betake himself to the clash of arms by which he sought to appease the fever of that venom’. So his mother is also accused of practising enchantment in order to envenom the King’s mind against Warwick in an attempt to compass his destruction. If found guilty, she will burn. Meanwhile she is confined in the Wakefield Tower.
Anthony is allowed a brief visit. He finds her much changed. It is awful, but since the execution, really murder, of her husband and her indictment for sorcery, she does indeed appear to incarnate what Anthony imagines a witch should look like. She has lost weight and her face is pinched. Her hair has gone grey and she has not troubled to comb it. A grey cat is curled on her lap which she says is called Malkin. Her eyes glitter as she launches a maledictory tirade against Warwick and Clarence. They will rue the day that they ever sought to cross her. If they think that they have a helpless old woman at their mercy, they are so very much mistaken. She is hardly less bitter against her son-in-law, the King, not only for failing to protect her husband from judicial murder, but also for lately giving full pardons to Warwick and Clarence for any misdeeds they may have committed in the past twelve months. Anthony even gets a sense that she bears him an unspoken grudge for having been spared when his father was not.
As they talk, Anthony comes to understand that Jacquetta’s case is by no means hopeless. Edward is beginning to break free from Warwick’s control. Moreover Jacquetta will appeal to the mayor and aldermen of London, for she remains popular with Londoners after she helped save the city from riot and pillage in the days when she was Duchess of Bedford. Then Jacquetta smiles craftily.
‘Besides I have my little men to do me service.’
Next, and this is most strange, she shouts, ‘They do not know my strength!’ and with that she grabs the cat and raises it up to her face and then forces the full length of one of its legs down her throat. When she pulls it out again she spits blood, but she is triumphant.
‘They will see.’
By great good fortune, as Anthony is leaving the Tower he encounters Tiptoft coming in. Tiptoft has judged that it is now safe to return to London and the King has made him Constable once more. He promises that Jacquetta will be more comfortably lodged elsewhere in the Tower, and when Anthony explains the case against her, Tiptoft says that he will interview Thomas Wake and his tame priest, so that everybody may be clear about what the facts are. Doubtless Thomas Wake will find that he has been mistaken. Before they part, Anthony asks Tiptoft if he has a manuscript of ‘The Squires Tale’. Though Tiptoft does indeed possess one, it is not complete, for it is just the opening of the story and only a few pages long. But he says that he will lend Anthony The Book of the Lion, for that is much more exciting and easily Chaucer’s best work.
Clarence is pressing Warwick to declare Edward illegitimate, so that Clarence may succeed to his brother’s throne. But Warwick’s position is less powerful than it seemed at first. He knows that he must raise an army to deal with his distant kinsman, Humphrey Neville’s Lancastrian revolt on the northern border. Yet the other great lords prove reluctant to recognise Warwick’s pre-eminence and only pitiful numbers muster for the Kingmaker. Violent feuds erupt all over England.
But Edward remains popular, for though now plump, he is still handsome and his speeches are always pleasant. He commends Clarence and Warwick, ‘My beloved brother and fair cousin, these are my best friends. All shall be forgiven and bygones shall be bygones’. Then Edward with an escort provided by his brother Richard of Gloucester and Lord Hastings, rides north to deal with Humphrey Neville’s revolt and in York Edward sets about mustering a large army.
Malory had been one of those released from prison when the Earl of Warwick had entered London in triumph and now from his manor at Newbold Revel he sends Anthony chapters from Le Morte d’Arthur. So it is that Anthony learns about Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s half-sister, who after much studying in a convent became a great clerk of necromancy. Though she was married to King Uriens she was passionately in love with a knight called Accolon and because of this love she tried to murder her husband and stole Excalibur from Arthur leaving the King with only a replica. But though Accolon was possessed of the marvellous sword and was close to killing Arthur in mortal combat, Nimue, the Damosel of the Lake, who looked on the fight, having divined that Accolon possessed the real Excalibur, used her enchantment to make him drop the sword. Whereupon Accolon was doomed. As he lay dying, he confessed all to Arthur, ‘This sword has been in my keeping this twelvemonth; and Morgan le Fay, King Urien’s wife, sent it me yesterday by a dwarf, to this intent, that I should slay King Arthur, her brother. For you shall understand King Arthur is the man in this world that she most hates, because he is most of worship and of prowess of any of her blood; also she loves me out of measure as paramour, and I her again; and if she might bring about to slay Arthur by her crafts, she would slay her husband King Uriens lightly, and then had she devised me to be King in this land, and so to reign, and she to be my queen; but that is now finished,’ said Accolon, ‘for I am sure of my death.’
And this was true, for after four days Accolon died of his wounds and Arthur commanded that his corpse be sent to Morgan le Fay.
Morgan’s message to Arthur is defiant, ‘I fear him not while I can make me and those with me in the likeness of stones; and let him know I can do much more when I see my time.’ But later, as if in contrition, she sends to Arthur a damsel bearing as a gift the richest mantle that was ever seen for it was studded with precious stones. Arthur is pleased and is eager to try the mantle on, but Nimue comes to him in private and warns him of its danger and so, at Nimue’s urging, Arthur commands Morgan le Fay’s damsel to don the robe herself and in an instant the girl is consumed in flames and the robe is no more. So this was the second time that Nimue rescued Arthur, but it was this same sorceress who beguiled Merlin, who was Arthur’s wisest and most trusted counsellor and brought about his doom.
Anthony reflects that he has found no good women in Malory’s book; Morgan le Fay, Nimue, Guinevere, Lynette, Elaine, they are all deceitful. They are adulteresses, sorceresses or both. When Hellawes of the Castle Nigramous was thwarted in her lust for the living Lancelot, she would then have had him dead so that she might have his corpse to caress. In the Le Morte d’Arthur some damsels denounce Sir Marhalt as a woman hater, but he replies, ‘They name me wrongfully for it is the damsels of the turret that so name me and others such as they be. Now I shall tell you for what cause I hate them so: for they be witches and enchantresses many of them. And this is the principal cause that I hate them.’
Edward, having defeated and captured Humphrey Neville, stays to watch his beheading in York, before riding back in triumph to London. There he swiftly sets about assembling a council of lords that he can trust. Anthony finds that not only has he inherited his father’s title, Earl Rivers, but he has acquired some of his father’s responsibilities, for he is appointed Lord High Constable of England and as such, he is also Master of the Horse, he commands the royal armies and he administers martial justice. He takes little pleasure in this onerous honour and thinks that Warwick may be right and that he is at heart only a ‘jousting popinjay’.
The case against Jacquetta is brought before the King’s Great Council. The parish clerk who was supposed to bear witness against her has refused to do so and has now vanished. As for Thomas Wake, he is eager to admit that it is possible that he may have been mistaken and Edward, after agreeing with him, declares that it is likely that she may be innocent
. No one is going to argue with the King and Hastings is heard to remark that, for his part, he would never sleep easily if he knew that he incurred that woman’s enmity.
Anthony consults regularly with Tiptoft concerning the Constable’s duties, for Tiptoft having held that office previously, is an expert on what has to be done. It is from him that he gets news of Ripley and the scheme to discover treasonous conspiracies in advance of their happening. Since Ripley, though lowborn, was notorious enough to be designated by Warwick as one of the ‘King’s evil counsellors’, he had taken sanctuary in Westminster Abbey during the brief ascendancy of Warwick and Clarence. Now he is back once more in his laboratory inside the palace. Ripley says that he has nearly enough sesame oil, except that the last consignment mysteriously failed to reach the palace. A further replacement delivery is expected from a ship chartered by the Peruzzi in Calais. Tiptoft proposes that he and Anthony should be at the Thames at dawn and see that it is safely escorted to the Tower where the earlier deliveries of sesame oil are being guarded.
At dawn the following morning Tiptoft and Anthony arrive at Billingsgate. This is a large water-gate harbour for ships and barges unloading fresh and salt fish, salt, oranges, onions, wheat, rye and suchlike commodities. They are met there by William Caxton, who as Governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London, has also received complaint from the Italians about the recent interception of one of their cargoes. They wait with a great crowd of bargees, stevedores and porters for the tide to turn. Then suddenly, just as the sun is rising, Anthony points to a bald man at the water’s edge.
‘That is him! That is the redhead!’ Tiptoft nods and his men advance on the bald man, who looks wildly round for assistance, but if there were any there who were minded to help him, they dare not face down the combined retinues of the two Earls and the Governor of the Merchant Adventurers. So the desperate man throws himself off the wharf. But he does not land in the water and instead breaks his leg as he falls into a wherry and there he is easily taken. On closer inspection, he is not really bald, for a light fuzz of red is beginning to grow on his shaven head.