by Hilary Green
‘Demanded?’ Her lips curled in scorn. ‘She can demand all she likes. We will deal with her and her husband once I am crowned.’
‘It is a matter to be considered,’ Henry said. ‘You cannot keep my brother in prison indefinitely.’
‘Why not? My father kept his brother, Robert Curthose, in prison for the rest of his life after he defeated him.’
‘It would be unwise to do that with Stephen. He still has supporters and if he was imprisoned they would never be reconciled to you. He would be the focus of repeated uprisings.’
‘What do you suggest?’ Robert asked.
‘He might be offered the chance to return to his hereditary lands in Blois. If he will take an oath to remain there and not to foment discontent that might be the best solution. Alternatively, we could suggest that he enters a monastery.’
‘Very well.’ She was growing impatient. ‘That can all be decided later. You said there were two matters of concern.’
‘The second, and more pressing, is the matter of the consent of the Londoners. At my invitation they sent a delegation to the conference, but at its conclusion they said that they still needed time to consider and to report back to their colleagues.’ He pre-empted her angry response with a pacific smile. ‘Now that they know that you have the backing of the Church, I am sure that they will soon decide to throw in their lot with us. Meanwhile, I suggest that you continue your progress towards the city, so that you will be on hand when they have made their decision.’
‘We have been discussing that,’ Robert said. ‘Windsor is still in the hands of Stephen’s men, so we propose to advance to St Alban’s.’
‘Very wise,’ Henry agreed. He bowed to Matilda. ‘A little patience, madam, and every obstacle will be removed.’
The court moved to St Alban’s. She was welcomed with the same enthusiasm as in Wilton and Reading and she established herself in the abbey. Very soon after her arrival she was informed that a delegation of aldermen from London was waiting to attend on her. Before they were admitted, Robert took her to one side.
‘Be politic. Remember that we need the assent of these men for your coronation. We must not antagonize them.’
The delegates entered, six men in middle age, robed in fur-lined cloaks and hung about with chains of gold. They bowed, but did not kneel. She regarded them stonily.
‘Well, sirs? What would you with me?’
The eldest, apparently the leader, stepped forward. ‘We come to offer you allegiance, madam, and to invite you to enter the city.’’
‘Invite?’ Her eyebrows went up. ‘Since the whole of England is mine, what need have I of your invitation to enter my own city?’
Another man stepped up beside his companion. His look was meeker. ‘What my friend means, my lady, is that we come to make arrangements for your reception into the city. We wish to greet you with all due ceremony.’
‘Very well, then. Speak to my steward, Humphrey de Bohun. Make your arrangements with him.’ She stood up. ‘You may go.’
They bowed and backed out of the room, but not before she had seen them exchange angry glances.
She reached Westminster in mid-summer and entered Westminster Hall in solemn procession, but her triumphant mood was soon dashed.
‘Stephen’s queen and William of Ypres have raised the men of Kent,’ Robert reported. ‘They are already within a few days’ ride of London and are devastating the countryside as they advance. We must hurry the arrangements for the coronation.’
‘It must be done properly,’ Brian protested. ‘If it is scanted it will seem we are afraid.’
‘I agree,’ she said. ‘But it will be costly. Until now there has not been time to make full account of what there is in the royal treasury. I have sent for Turstin, so we should have his report soon.’
Turstin’s account gave rise to considerable dismay. The treasury was much depleted. Stephen had been spendthrift in distributing largesse to his supporters. More importantly, in the anarchic situation with no central authority, taxes had not been collected, or had been pocketed by local lords. Her experience in Anjou and earlier in Germany came to her aid and for the next days she was occupied with administrative affairs. Her spirits were boosted by the appearance at court of Geoffrey de Mandeville. True to Bishop Henry’s prediction he had seen where power now lay and came to swear fealty and offer her the keys to the Tower of London. As a reward she confirmed him as Earl of Essex.
King David was still with her, and one day he came to where she was working with a request.
‘It is in connection with the bishopric of Durham. You will remember, perhaps, that the previous bishop, Geoffrey Rufus, died a month or so ago. I wish to have my chancellor, William Cummin, installed as bishop in his place. He was a pupil of Bishop Geoffrey’s and has proved a loyal and able chancellor.’
‘You want your man in Durham to reinforce your influence in the area, is that it?’
‘Your cousin tried to wrest Cumbria from me, before you arrived in England. But although I lost the battle at Northallerton, the one they are calling the battle of the Standard, I still control that area and I have kept the peace there. Which is more than can be said of much of the rest of England.’
‘I know it, and I should like to reward you for the support you have given me. But there is opposition in the Church to the appointment of Cummin, is there not?’
‘The local clergy do not like him, that is true.’
‘Is it true that you have refused to allow them to bury Bishop Geoffrey until they accept Cummin?’
‘It is one way of bringing pressure to bear.’
She compressed her lips. ‘You know that I have given an undertaking not to interfere in church appointments? It was a condition of Bishop Henry’s support.’
‘Are you determined to abide by that undertaking? It seems to me that it significantly curtails royal power.’
‘That is true. My first husband spent most of his life fighting to retain that control.’
‘Then is it not time to assert your own authority? After all, you are queen in all but name now.’
She hesitated a moment longer. David was a powerful man and she needed to retain his support. Finally she nodded. ‘So be it. I will sign the charter constituting Cummin Bishop of Durham.’
He smiled and kissed her hand. ‘You are your father’s daughter. He would have had no truck with such attempts to dilute his influence.’
A few days later she noticed that Bishop Henry was no longer at court. No one seemed to know where he had gone.
There was one obvious way of acquiring revenue. The city of London had not suffered as the rest of the country had from the constant fighting. Stephen’s queen was Matilda of Boulogne before her marriage and held lands in London and Kent as well as in France. The connection had served the Londoners well, with steady cross-Channel trade. Matilda sent for the wealthiest burghers. Many of them were the same men who came to her before and their attitude from the start was reserved, if not openly hostile. She seated herself on the dais at the end of the hall, behind the great table, the symbol of royal authority, as she recalled seeing her father sit to receive supplicants and give judgement.
She said, ‘Gentlemen, the current unrest has greatly depleted the royal coffers and the coronation will require considerable expense. I look to you to make a significant contribution.’
The leader, whom she had mentally nicknamed ‘pig face’, bowed minimally. ‘Naturally, we shall be happy to be of assistance. But Your Grace will be aware that we, too, have suffered in the current unrest. Trade has been badly hit. It has been impossible to move goods around the country without losing them to bandits or having them confiscated by local lords. Food has been hard to come by. We have been forced to import wheat, at great expense. Many of our citizens have fallen on hard times and we have had to support them out of charity. So we look to you, in your gracious benevolence, to ease the burden of taxation until we have had time to recover our losses.’
She regarded him for a moment in silence. His belly swelled proudly under a tunic of scarlet wool. Cloth that colour did not come cheap. His cloak was trimmed with fur and a heavy gold chain hung round his neck. His companions were accoutred in similar fashion and not one of them looked as if he had ever missed a meal in his life. She thought of the scrawny children and the haggard women she had seen as she travelled through the countryside. Her mood became steely.
‘I understand that the usurper Stephen gave you certain concessions with regard to the collection of taxes. You should know that I will have no truck with that. We shall revert to the system which was in place in my father’s time and which served him well. You will be required to pay the same amount in tax that you paid in his day.’
A murmur ran through the group and glances of dismay went from eye to eye.
Pig face spoke again. ‘Madam, it is impossible. Perhaps, when peace has been re-established and trade has picked up again, we may be able to find the sort of sums which were exacted from us in your father’s day. But until that time we beg that you will excuse at least a part of the tax.’
The recent days and weeks had taken their toll. She was very tired, and now that the prize was almost within her grasp her nerves were strung as tight as a bow string. Her temper snapped. She rose to her feet.
‘Traitorous dogs! You were among the first to rally to my cousin’s support, because he wooed you with soft words and promises. You paid your taxes to him and, by God’s blood, you shall pay as much to me.’ Her voice sounded harsh and strident in her own ears. ‘Get you gone and turn out those purses which are as fat as your bellies. Find what you owe, or you may find yourselves living at my expense in the Tower. Be gone, I say!’
They shuffled their feet and looked at each other. There was a mumble of protest, quickly stifled, and then they all backed away towards the door and there was an unseemly scramble to be first out of it.
Robert had been a silent spectator during the interview. Now he shook his head ruefully.
‘Sister, I fear you have made a bad mistake in treating them so roughly. Their goodwill is essential until your rule is firmly established. It is only a few days now until the coronation. It would have been wiser to speak them fair until then.’
She rounded on him bitterly. ‘Do you not understand? I am a woman. There are many, like those men who were here just now, who think because of that I shall be easily swayed and persuaded to grant them favours. I have to show them that I can be as firm, as steadfast, as any man. Many have yet to be convinced that a queen can rule. I have to be both king and queen to command their obedience.’
He frowned. ‘Very well. What you say is true, but it will do no harm to let them see the gentleness of the woman as well as the ruthlessness of the King.’
‘Listen,’ she said. ‘You have trained many a hawk to come to the fist. How is it done? By gentleness? No, by being harsh until it knows its master. If you offer food and then snatch it away it grows keener and more obedient, until it gets its reward. Kindness and gentleness come after obedience, not before. That is a lesson I learnt from the King my father.’
He sighed and shrugged. ‘So be it. What is done cannot be undone. We must hope for the best. Stephen’s wife and William of Ypres are ranging the countryside almost up to the city walls. I do not know how much longer we can hold them off.’
The date of the coronation was set for 25 July. On the evening before, she feasted her companions. The exhaustion that had assailed her in recent days had not eased its grip and, as a concession, she reclined on a couch instead of sitting at the table. The first course had just been brought in when they were all shocked into silence by a sudden clamour outside.
‘What is going on?’ Brian asked.
Robert left the table and strode to the window. ‘They are ringing the bells. All the churches in the city are sounding their bells.’
‘It is in celebration, no doubt,’ Brian said. ‘A way of welcoming the glad event tomorrow brings.’
Robert looked uneasy. ‘Let us hope so.’
The door of the great hall crashed open and Alexander de Bohun, her master-at-arms, rushed in. ‘Madam, you must fly! The citizens have opened the gates to your enemies. They have taken up arms themselves. I have seen them, streaming out in their hundreds, heading this way.’
She started up. ‘Then they must be stopped. Sound the alarm! Call all my knights. Summon the men-at-arms. Arm yourselves, my lords!’
‘It is too late!’ Alexander cried. ‘They will be upon us before we can organise our defence. You must leave at once.’
Robert had run to the door. Now he returned. ‘It is true! The numbers are too great. We might beat off the citizens but if the ex-queen and her troops are behind them we have no hope. To horse, my lords! Our priority is to convey the Queen to safety. We will head for Oxford. Regroup there if we are separated.’
16
OXFORD AND WINCHESTER, 1141
‘It is a setback but not a disaster.’ Robert was addressing the royal council in the great hall of Oxford castle. ‘Our departure may have been somewhat precipitate but we were able to withdraw from London without losing any of our forces. What matters now is to consolidate our hold on the areas we still control before we make another attempt to enter London. The ex-Queen and her supporters must be brought to battle and defeated. Once that is done the Londoners will soon return to their true allegiance.’
In private he was less sanguine. ‘We must appeal again to your husband for his assistance. Fortunately, he seems to be well situated in Normandy now.’
‘He writes that he holds most of the key castles, but he has yet to persuade King Louis to accept him as Duke. Louis is besieging Toulouse at the moment, so his attention is elsewhere and until he returns to Paris it is impossible for Geoffrey to do homage for the duchy, assuming that Louis is agreeable.’
‘Nevertheless, he is the de facto ruler of the duchy. Now, surely, is the time for him to throw his weight behind your campaign.’
‘I can only write and request his help. Whether it will be forthcoming only God knows.’
‘Meanwhile you must act as though you were already crowned. It is time to establish your friends in positions of power wherever possible.’
‘One thing above all else concerns me. I have not set eyes on Bishop Henry for many days now. Where is he?’
‘My spies tell me he has returned to Winchester. I am greatly afraid that he is thinking of changing his allegiance once again.’
‘That man!’ Brian had been listening to the conversation. ‘He is as variable as a weather cock, swinging whichever way the prevailing wind turns him.’
‘We cannot afford to lose his support,’ Matilda said. ‘I will write to him and try to persuade him that he can never trust Stephen again, that his own reputation will never recover if he reneges on his commitment to us – whatever is necessary to keep him with us.’
Robert’s expression was grim. ‘Write by all means, but I fear recent events may have convinced him that he has thrown in his lot with the wrong side.’ He did not refer to the affair of the Durham bishopric, but she knew that was in his mind.
She put her mind to ensuring the continuing loyalty of those who had come over to her side and to rewarding her most faithful friends. Miles became Earl of Hereford, Baldwin de Redvers was made Earl of Devon and William de Mohun Earl of Dorset.
She wished to signify her gratitude to Brian in a similar fashion, but when approached he shook his head with a smile.
‘I have no desire for power and I have no heir to inherit a title, nor am I likely to have. All I wish for is the opportunity to serve you. As long as I hold Wallingford, that is enough.’
Geoffrey de Mandeville was one to whom she showed special favour, knowing how crucial his support was in London. In addition to confirming him as Earl of Essex she granted him the sheriffdom and justiciarship of London, Middlesex and Hertfordshire and promised him the castle of the Bishop of London at Bishop�
�s Stortford, plus another he had recently built. She knew that the Londoners already resented the power of the feudal lords over the city and that de Mandeville regarded them as his mortal enemies. As part of the agreement she promised not to make any contract with the burgesses of the city without his consent. The thought of their discomfiture gave her pleasure.
Her husband’s response to her plea for help was brought by three of his most loyal lieutenants, Jules de Mayenne, Pagan of Clairvaux and Guy of Sablé. They arrived with a small troop of 700 knights – a welcome addition to her forces but very far from the wholehearted support she hoped for. Over the month of July her allies assembled at Oxford, bringing their armies with them. King David had been north to gather his troops and now returned. Geoffrey de Mandeville and his brother-in-law Aubrey de Vere arrived. Her other adherents summoned their feudal levies and soon Oxford Castle was the centre of an armed camp of considerable size. Only Bishop Henry still held aloof.
‘Go to him, Robert,’ she ordered. ‘Find out what the old fox is playing at. At all costs we must hold Winchester.’
Robert was soon back. ‘Henry refused to give me a straight answer but I don’t think we can trust him. My spies tell me he has had a meeting with Stephen’s queen. No one knows what she has promised him but we can’t afford to wait to find out.’
‘I agree. Pass the orders. We advance on Winchester. We will require Bishop Henry’s attendance, whether he wills it or not.’
There were two castles in Winchester, the royal castle at the south-western corner of the city walls and the bishop’s castle of Wolvesey at the south-eastern corner. As her army prepared to advance word reached her that the bishop had laid siege to the former. There was no longer any doubt about where his allegiance now lay. After a brief council of war it was decided that Robert should lead an advance party into the city, while she waited outside the walls with the rest of the army. The gates were still open and she watched tensely as Robert and his knights rode through them. She expected to hear the clash of swords and the sounds of battle, but all remained quiet. After a wait that seemed endless, a herald rode back to her and fell to his knees beside her horse.