The Red Rose of Anjou

by Jean Plaidy

  ###

  It was at this council meeting that Warwick received his first intimation that the relationship between himself and Edward had changed.

  There were many of Edward’s new and intimate friends present, and Warwick did not realize at first that they were there to rally round the King, who gave no indication to Warwick that anything had changed between them.

  Everyone knew what hopes Warwick pinned on friendship with the King of France and how he prided himself on his ability to handle Louis. Therefore the first shock came when Edward declared that he did not trust Louis of France.

  ‘We have heard from our good friend the Earl of Warwick.’ said the King, ‘that Louis is eager for an alliance with us. But it is a fact that Pierre de Brézé, who is Margaret of Anjou’s warmest and most faithful supporter, is highly favoured at the Court of France.’

  ‘This is not so,’ cried Warwick. ‘When Louis came to the throne Pierre de Brézé was imprisoned in Loches...’

  ‘And quickly released,’ retorted Edward. ‘Moreover 1 have it from one of our French prisoners that Louis is plotting against us.’

  ‘That is nonsense,’ cried Warwick, shattered not so much by these accusations as by the fact that Edward had brought them up before the Council without first consulting him. ‘I shall send a despatch to the King of France immediately informing him of the allegations which have been made against him and asking him to prove to you all that they are nonsense.’

  He looked defiantly at the King who met his eyes with a smile as he said that as usual the Earl of Warwick had got to the root of the matter and if he thought that was the right action then so must it be.

  Warwick breathed more freely. It was not really a revolt. It was just an opinion he had expressed. He had not meant to go against him deliberately.

  ‘And now,’ said Warwick, ‘there is the question of the King’s marriage. This must be settled. I hope very nun h that the King will agree with me.’

  Again that charming, affable smile. ‘I do, my lord. Indeed I do. Nothing would suit me better than to be married.’

  ‘Your subjects will be delighted,’ cried Warwick.

  ‘It may be,’ said the King, ‘that my choice may not be 10 the liking of everyone present. No matter, I shall do as I like in this.’

  ‘My lord,’ said Warwick beaming with pleasure, ‘tell us who is your chosen bride.’

  He was certain now that all was well. He had discussed the marriage with Bona of Savoy, and Edward had understood what advantages it could bring.

  I hen Warwick could not believe he had heard correctly. Had the King gone mad?

  He was saying: ‘I have chosen my bride. She will be Elizabeth Woodville, daughter of Lord Rivers.’

  A deep silence fell upon them. Warwick sat as though numb.

  At length George Neville spoke. ‘The lady is virtuous and very beautiful, my lord,’ he said, ‘but is she not too far below you for marriage?’

  ‘She is indeed virtuous and beautiful,’ agreed the King. ‘As for her lowly station, praise be to God that is a matter which can easily be remedied.’

  George was trying to divine what his brother was thinking. He knew that he could have had no idea that the King was going to announce this.

  He stammered: ‘I know her mother was the Dowager Duchess of Bedford but she is not the daughter of a duke...nor an earl even. How would such a marriage be received, my lord? What would other rulers think?’

  ‘They shall be at liberty to think what they will. I will have Elizabeth Woodville or no one.’

  ‘My lord!’ Everyone was intent on Warwick who had now risen to his feet. ‘I know well your jovial nature. You are amusing yourself at our expense. You do not mean this, of course...’

  Edward was still smiling but there was a strong note in his voice.

  ‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘I mean it with all my heart. Stop your efforts to persuade me. In any case they are too late. Elizabeth Woodville and I were married at Grafton Regis...’

  Warwick sank to his chair. He said nothing. The beats of his heart were like hammer strokes. He could have struck that smiling, handsome face.

  He said nothing, but he knew it was over.

  The puppet had turned into a man and was no longer his to control.

  ###

  When Warwick left the council chamber he had a great desire to be alone to think. In all his life he had never felt so shattered. That Edward had acted so was bad enough but it was some time since that May day at Grafton Regis and he had been keeping his marriage secret all this time...and meanwhile he, Warwick, had been negotiating with the King of France. Edward had humiliated him in the extreme. Not only had he broken free but he had actually kept this all important secret from the man who had made him.

  Warwick was not sure how to act.

  His brother George came to him in great anxiety. For some moments they looked at each other, unable to express their thoughts. George was very worried.

  At length he said: ‘What shall you do?’

  ‘He is determined to act as he fancies. It is this woman. She must be a witch.’

  ‘He is easily bewitched by women.’

  ‘He has had so many he must feel very deeply to have been dragged into this by this one. Think what it means. He allowed me to negotiate with Louis while he was actually married. I shall be the laughing stock of all France and England.’

  ‘Not you, brother. Louis will understand that we have a feckless stallion to deal with.’

  ‘I shall never forget the way he stood there smiling at me...with that look in his eyes. "I will do what pleases me. I shall take no heed of the needs of my country, of the efforts the man who put the crown on my head made to do just that." Oh George, what base ingratitude!’

  ‘Indeed it is so,’ agreed George.

  ‘And think of the implications.’

  ‘I am thinking of that and wondering how you will act. Do you think it would be better to say nothing just at first? After all the deed is done. They are married. Nothing can change that...save divorce. You behaved with admirable calm at the Council.’

  ‘I was shocked into silence.’

  ‘That is not such a bad thing for it might have been dangerous for you to have spoken your thoughts.’

  ‘By God if I had...’

  ‘Yes...And we all were with you. This is an act of folly which I doubt not the King will learn to his cost and when he does it is to you he will turn, brother. He will wish that he had listened to you.’

  Warwick was silent. George was right, of course. George had a clear, incisive mind. He would have to accept this low-born woman as the Queen. And in time it might well be that having seen his folly the King would turn back to him. He sighed deeply. Then he said: ‘You are right, George. I must be calm. I must say nothing. I must appear to accept this woman as Queen.’

  Thus when Edward came to him smiling as though there had been no rift between them he agreed to present the Queen to the lords in Reading Abbey.

  ‘My brother Clarence will walk on one side of Elizabeth and you, Richard, on the other. That pleases me. My brother and my closest friend to welcome her. She will be so happy...and so shall I.’

  Swallowing his rage, suppressing his rancour Warwick did it but it needed iron control of his feelings to perform the exercise with a good grace.

  ###

  To keep up this attitude was easier to contemplate than to put into practice.

  Elizabeth Woodville was an ambitious lady and she was surrounded by impecunious members of her family. She was determined to advance them and such was her power over the King that she had little difficulty in doing this.

  Warwick was glad to see that many of the nobles were growing more and more disgruntled by the elevation of the Woodville family. The Queen married her sister Margaret to Lord Maltravers, son of the Earl of Arundel; her sister Mary was married to the son of Lord Herbert who was heir (o the Pembroke title; a
nd there was outraged indignation when her brother John, aged twenty, became betrothed to the Duchess of Norfolk who was nearly eighty years old.

  It was easy to see the motives behind these marriages. No one could realize the tremendous importance of the right marriage more than Warwick. He owed his vast wealth and titles to his. He could see that in a short time the Woodvilles would be of greater importance than the Nevilles through these advantageous marriages.

  The people did not like it. They deplored the marriage. Even the most humble in the land criticized the low birth old Elizabeth Woodville—which was amusing if it were not so very useful.

  It began to dawn on Warwick that if he were not careful he would be ousted from the realms of power. All that he had clone would be forgotten; there would be a new ruling family in the country—that of the Woodvilles.

  The time had come (or him to do some deep thinking. What did a King-Maker do when his puppet refused to respond to the strings? He found a new puppet.

  It was an exciting project. There’ was another. At the moment he was a poor neglected prisoner in the Tower.

  ‘This needed a great deal of thought.

  There came a day when he found himself face to face with Edward and because his plans were now taking real shape in his mind he no longer felt the need to cloak his feelings.

  Edward noticed the strange brooding expression on his face and when he asked what ailed him, Warwick’s rage broke out.

  ‘Need you ask, my lord? I am suffering from a surfeit of disloyalty. I have given my life to what I believed was a good cause. I have squandered men and money in giving England a ruler whom I thought would serve her well. And what does he do? He makes a marriage which is suicide to his political advantage. He has destroyed the hope of an alliance with France. As for myself I have had indignity heaped upon me. While I was negotiating with the King of France you, my lord, were making a mockery of those negotiations...of not only your faithful friend but the King of a powerful country. Do you wonder I am sick at heart?’

  Edward expressed no surprise that he should be addressed in this manner by a subject. He had always recognized Warwick as a specially favoured one. He laid an arm about his shoulders.

  ‘You distress yourself unnecessarily,’ he said. ‘I know the people don’t like my marriage. But Elizabeth is different from all other women I have ever known...and I speak of one who knows the sex well. It was the only way, Richard. It was marriage or nothing...’

  ‘And you were duped by that tale?’

  ‘Oh come, she meant it. She was a virtuous widow.’

  Warwick threw off the King’s arm. ‘It was an act of folly and I promise you it is one you will regret.’

  He did not wait for more. He had made the break now. Affable as he was, Edward would not forget that scene in a hurry.

  Now he would have to act, Warwick had decided, and he knew what he was going to do.

  ###

  Warwick rode north to his castle of Middleham, his head teeming with plans. At Middleham were the King’s brothers George and Richard. He had always been on very good terms with them. There could not be two brothers less alike. George, Duke of Clarence was vain, avaricious and selfish; he was easily swayed and Warwick had been able to win his friendship. The other, Richard Duke of Gloucester was a quiet, studious boy, rather delicate, and he had been brought up at Middleham and had formed a close friendship with Warwick’s younger daughter Anne.

  Therefore Warwick had the two Princes as he thought in his power. Clarence would be malleable; he was not so sure of Richard. The younger boy was passionately devoted to his brother Edward, and would not be easily persuaded that his own advantage might lie elsewhere. In fact Warwick was certain that Richard would stand by his brother no matter what happened.

  Clarence on the other hand was disgruntled. He was old enough to see that the Woodvilles were fast becoming the most important family in the land and that was something he was not prepared to tolerate, for there was an arrogance about the new Queen’s family which extended even to the King’s brother.

  So to Middleham where his two daughters, Isabel and Anne, with his wife were waiting to greet him.

  Richard was there too, in the courtyard. The boy had grown since he had last seen him, though he was delicate still and one shoulder was higher than the other, though slightly so and almost imperceptible. Poor Richard, he lacked the outstanding good looks and physique of Edward, but that had not prevented his partaking in all the manly pastimes which were necessary for boys of his rank.

  The Duke of Clarence was on his way, the Countess told him. He had sent heralds ahead to announce his coming as the Earl had expressed an urgent desire to see him.

  Warwick embraced his family. He loved them with as much affection as he could spare from his ambitions. Naturally he had spent little time with them. He could never prevent himself regretting that he had no son; but the girls were pretty, charming and obedient. He must therefore be grateful for what he had.

  Clarence arrived in rather flamboyant style, eager that none should forget he was brother to the King. Warwick greeted him with such respect that even Clarence was satisfied. He sat on the Earl’s right hand at table. Warwick intimated that he wished to speak to the two Dukes alone as soon as the meal was concluded.

  When the three of them were together in a small but private room Warwick looked very seriously from George to Richard and said that he had no doubt that they were as worried as he was by the manner in which the Woodvilles were behaving.

  ‘Indeed yes I am!’ cried Clarence. ‘These marriages...this taking of power...and all by these upstarts.’

  ‘I see you have a grasp of the situation,’ said Warwick. ‘The people are getting displeased. I do not think the King understands how angry the people are growing.’

  ‘If the people are growing angry my brother the King would be aware of it,’ said Richard gravely.

  Ah, thought Warwick, be wary of Richard!

  ‘Our brother is too busy with his woman,’ said Clarence with a laugh.

  ‘My lord, you speak truth. I fear this country will be at war again if we do not take heed. In fact I think it is time our King was taught a lesson.’

  Richard had gone white. ‘I will not remain here and listen to such lack of respect for the King.’

  With that he walked out of the room.

  ‘You mistake,’ Warwick called after him. ‘I love the King. I have served him with all I have...’

  But Richard was gone.

  Clarence shrugged his shoulders. ‘He is very young,’ he said. ‘He worships Edward blindly. He even says he likes this marriage because it is what Edward wants.’

  ‘It is true he is young,’ said Warwick, ‘and therefore you and I need not concern ourselves with him yet. I am glad he has left us for now we can talk as men.’

  Clarence smiled, well pleased. ‘I knew you had something of importance to say to me.’

  ‘Indeed I have. As you know, I have made your brother King of England.’

  ‘I know you are called the King-Maker.’

  ‘And rightly. It would seem, my lord, that if we allow matters to go on as they are you and I...and young Richard who will not listen...yet...will be the subjects of the Woodvilles, for all these marriages they are making are going to make them more powerful than any of us...even the King.’

  ‘I’ll not tolerate that.’

  ‘I thought you would not.’

  ‘What then?’

  ‘Your brother is not so secure on the throne that he can afford such a marriage. There is one other...’

  ‘Henry...poor old Henry...the prisoner in the Tower.’

  ‘A figurehead, nothing more. And we would have an heir.

  Not Margaret’s bastard...for bastard I believe him to be. Henry could never have begotten a son and she was friendly first with Suffolk and then with Somerset... There would be an heir...’ Warwick was looking intently at Clarence, whose e
yes widened as he grasped the Earl’s meaning.

  Clarence on the throne! Why not? He was Edward’s brother and in fact if Edward did not produce a child he was next in line.

  It was a glorious prospect.

  ‘Well?’ he said almost imperiously as though the crown was already on his head.

  ‘The King of France would be our ally. It would be necessary to get his help. We should also bring back Margaret to work for us...’

  ‘With the Prince of Wales...’

  ‘Why shouldn’t they work for us? Although the people detest her they like to have everything in order. If we could bring out Henry and ride with him into battle...and bring Margaret and the so-called Prince back to England...’

  Clarence’s eyes sparkled. He loved intrigue and as he thought of the possibilities of this he was overcome by excitement. He had always been jealous of Edward. His mother, his father, everyone had marvelled at Edward’s good looks and charm, and it had not been easy for one of Clarence’s nature to have such a brother.

  And now Edward had been a fool! He had married that lowborn woman; he had offended Warwick and everyone knew that Warwick had put him on the throne. Edward had at last shown that he was not so clever. And Clarence was going to show that he was clever, very clever indeed.

  Warwick was smiling. How easy it was. Henry would be much more malleable. Imagine Clarence on the throne! Still, it might never come to that.

  Warwick went on: ‘I have long known your regard for my elder daughter Isabel.’

  Clarence was smiling secretly. It was so obvious. Cunning old Warwick. Make Clarence King and his daughter Isabel Queen.

  ‘My lord,’ he said, ‘how well you have guessed my feelings. I have always had the highest regard for Isabel and of late my heart has become deeply involved.’

  ‘I have been thinking that a match between you two would be a very desirable outcome for you both.’

  ‘You have guessed my heart’s desire.’