by Anne O'Brien
It was always necessary.
Interference many would call it. I had seen the austere criticism in the face of the Earl of March. As for a wife for Richard, did I not know the value of a wife for a powerful man? I would ensure that the future queen was of my choosing, fair and well-born and fertile, a formidable bride for my son, as I had been for Ned. Richard would be the most sought after prince in Europe.
I assessed what my ambassadors were telling me from the courts of Europe. There was a Valois princess to be considered, but one to be rejected since England would not warm to being tied with the enemy. An offer from Scotland? What value to us in a Scottish alliance, another nation for which Englishmen had no love.
‘I hear on the diplomatic grapevine that the Visconti Dukes of Milan were sniffing out the possibility of providing a wife for Richard,’ John offered with deceptive insouciance when I told him of my thoughts. ‘Lionel’s second wife was a Visconti so I think they look to renew the connection.’
I regarded him, neither accepting or rejecting, merely walking round him to place a hand on his shoulder, in recognition of his kindness. ‘It may be possible. Equally I may have been too quick in my rejection of the young girl Anne. If the Holy Roman Emperor will step back from his French sympathies, forging his own interests in Europe now that his French wife is dead, it might provide an interesting alliance. It is an idea that appeals to me.’
So I would change my mind. It was my prerogative to do so in the interests of England. I had much experience of changing my mind when unfolding events suggested it would be to my advantage.
I pressed a little harder with my hand so that John would know my purpose.
‘There are more immediate concerns. Mistress Perrers may have been stripped of her influence, but she is still in possession of her ill-gotten wealth,’ I advised. ‘It would be far better filling the coffers of my son than feathering her own multiplicity of nests.’
‘And you look to me for a fellow conspirator against her?’
‘Who else?’
There would be no conspiracy. Legality was now engraved on my soul. It could be accomplished with a recourse to law, to accuse her of embezzlement before parliament. Perhaps even banishment might be considered, once her possessions had been seized. I had not won every battle with Alice, but, with John’s help, I would be victorious in the war.
‘You might find an appointment for her husband, William de Windsor, somewhere in Europe,’ I suggested. ‘Does not Cherbourg require a new Governor? Windsor might be unscrupulous but he is able.’ My smile was thin. ‘Mistress Alice can take herself out of England to accompany him.’
Standing, stretching, John of Lancaster bowed and saluted my fingers, departing to set all in motion while I, pleased with the result, returned to my devising of the perfect, most advantageous, matrimonial alliance for Richard.
Ned would approve.
Acknowledgements
My grateful thanks, as ever, to my agent Jane Judd, who enjoys the complexities of the lives of medieval women as much as I do. She provides me with a constant presence in my writing, full of insight, calm good sense and advice, in a sometimes frenetic world.
My appreciation of the work of my editor Sally Williamson at HarperCollins cannot be overstated when she is willing to indulge me in chatting about historical characters, existing six hundred years ago, as if they still live and breathe today. Her oversight and advice are invaluable when I am swamped with detail.
And of course my gratitude to the whole editorial team at HarperCollins. They turn my ideas and writing into a book. Without them Joan of Kent would not exist as The Shadow Queen.
My debt to Emma Draude and Sophie Goodfellow at EDPR must not be neglected. I am most appreciative of their expertise and enthusiasms when bringing my historical characters to the notice of the reading world.
Finally my thanks to Helen Bowden and all at Orphans Press, who answer all my internet questions and without whom my splendid new website would not exist.
What inspired me to write about Joan of Kent?
Who was she?
Joan of Kent, during her eventful life, was Countess of Kent in her own right, Princess of Wales, Princess of Aquitaine and ultimately King’s Mother. She was a woman of royal birth and unsavoury reputation. What was it about this woman who made an impact on the court circles of the late fourteenth century that appealed to my imagination?
A Plantagenet princess, she was first cousin to King Edward III, a woman of royal status although her father’s name was tainted with treason. Joan was by tradition beautiful, raised in the royal household, but was salaciously notable for her three marriages, two of them clandestine and one certainly bigamous. Thus she has intrigued readers of history as much as she has invited condemnation. Was she ‘… the most beautiful lady in the whole realm of England, and by far the most amorous.’ Was she ‘beauteous, charming and discreet’? Or was she ‘given to slippery ways’?
But scandal was not the only element of fascination in Joan’s life. So was her ambition. As wife of Edward of Woodstock, later to be known as the Black Prince, she blossomed as Princess of Aquitaine where she made as many enemies as friends. As King’s Mother to the boy King Richard II she succeeded in the early years in keeping a firm grip on the power behind the throne. But her past scandals could undo all that she had achieved, threatening to destroy her secure hold on power. Would it, because of Joan’s marital history, be possible to accuse Richard of illegitimacy and so dethrone him?
How was the proud woman to be able to protect herself and her son? Always subtle and carefully manipulative, Joan exhibited a range of talents drawing into her political net the Royal Council and the powerful prince, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
There is so much here to entice the lover of medieval historical fiction. Was Joan simply a pawn in the pattern of royal alliance-making, forced into marriage with a powerful family against her personal wishes, or did she take her future into her own hands? Was she a woman of perfect compliance, or did she have a will of iron? Was her marriage to Prince Edward one based on a childhood love affair, or were Joan’s motives far deeper in her bid for personal power?
A character of much notoriety, some charm and considerable ambition. This is Joan of Kent, The Shadow Queen.
In the steps of Joan of Kent
How unfortunate for us that so many of the castles and palaces that Joan would have known and enjoyed in her lifetime no longer exist or are in a critically ruined state. Others have been much developed so that Joan would recognise very little of what exists today and we would find it difficult to catch a trace of her. But here they are, for your enjoyment:
Palace of Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, a royal place much enjoyed by Edward III and given to the Prince of Wales for his own use, was originally a motte and bailey castle but was greatly added to as an important centre throughout the medieval period. It became the Prince’s favourite home and it was where Joan first lived after her marriage to him. Becoming unfashionable, it gradually fell into ruin and was only saved from extinction by English Heritage.
Palace of Kennington, north of the Thames, although a favourite residence of Prince Edward, and where he and Joan spent some of the early months of their marriage, sadly no longer exists.
Havering-atte-Bower, one of the favourite residences of Queen Philippa, no longer exists. No walls were visible by 1816.
Bisham Manor, Berkshire, or what is left of it, is now a health club.
Wallingford Castle, Oxfordshire, where Joan probably died in 1385, is ruined but at least there is some element of the home she would have known. She lived here in her final years when she retired from Richard’s court.
Castle Donington, Leicestershire, the most important of Joan’s own family properties, has been demolished. The church of St Edward, King and Martyr at Castle Donington, would have been known to Joan.
Palace of Woodstock, Oxfordshire, built as a hunting lodge, was where Edward was born and where Joan spent some
of her childhood with the royal children. Badly damaged during the Civil War in the seventeenth century, it was further demolished and what was left of the stone used in the building of Blenheim Palace nearby.
The Church of the Grey Friars in Stamford, where both Thomas Holland and Joan were buried, suffered in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. All that is left today is the gatehouse. We have no record of the chapels and monument that Joan planned for her first husband and herself.
Arundel Castle, Sussex, where Joan was probably born and spent the early months of her life, is one of our most notable castles but has been much rebuilt in the centuries after Joan’s time. The original stone keep still exists.
Palace of Westminster, mostly destroyed by fire in 1512 so that what we see today would not be familiar to Joan except for its position on the River Thames.
St Andrew’s Church, Wickhambreaux, Kent. Wickhambreaux was the only manor in Kent owned by Joan. It is probable that she visited and stayed at the manor on her annual pilgrimage to Prince Edward’s tomb every June after he died. The church of St Andrews dates from the fourteenth century so Joan would have known it well.
But here are other major English historical sites, used by the royal family over the centuries, for living accommodation, celebration and religious ceremony and burial, where we might catch more than a glimpse of Joan:
Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel, Berkshire, where Joan lived as part of the royal household. She was married to Edward of Woodstock in St George’s Chapel.
Canterbury Cathedral, Kent, where Edward, Prince of Wales is buried. The Black Prince’s Chantry was founded by Edward Prince of Wales in 1363 in a act of piety in response to a Papal Dispensation to allow him to marry Joan of Kent who was related to him within the degrees of forbidden consanguinity. There is a roof boss of Joan of Kent in the chapel.
Westminster Abbey for the tombs of Richard II and Anne of Bohemia as well as King Edward III and Queen Philippa.
And Afterwards:
Joan of Kent continued to remain a constant support for Richard until her death in 1385, possibly at Wallingford Castle, it is said suffering from a broken heart caused by the vicious conflict between her two sons, Richard II and John Holland. She was about fifty-eight years old when she died, and not in the best of health in these final years. In her will, it was the beds, symbols of wealth and power, that were important:
To my dear son the King, my new bed of red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, and heads of leopards of gold with boughs and leaves issuing out of their mouths. To my dear son Thomas Earl of Kent, my bed of red camak [sic.] paled with red and rays of gold. To my dear son John Holland, a bed of red camak.
King Richard II ruled, not always wisely, until 1399 when he was overthrown by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, thus beginning the House of Lancaster as King Henry IV. There was some truth in the old predictions. Richard died, probably in February 1400, a prisoner at Pontefract Castle, it seems from starvation, for which Henry must accept the guilt. Richard’s first wife was Anne of Bohemia, as Joan had planned.
Joan’s two Holland sons, Thomas and John, switched their allegiance from Richard to Henry Bolingbroke, but then participated in the Epiphany Rising of 1400 to kill Henry and his four sons and restore Richard. When the rising was crushed they both fell foul of Henry’s vengeance. Both died as a result but both had descendents to carry on Joan and Thomas Holland’s line. Joan’s two daughters also married well to carry on the Holland and Plantagenet line.
John, Duke of Lancaster, never did fulfil his ambition to become King of Castile in more than name. He remained in England as counsellor to Richard, married his long-time mistress Katherine Swynford and died in 1399.
William Montagu, Earl of Salisbury, remained Joan’s close friend until the end of her life. A soldier by repute, he was also a valuable counsellor of King Richard, advising him to treat the peasants in the Revolt of 1381 with mercy, and serving the King on various commissions until the end of his life in 1397. He was buried at Bisham. Tragically he killed his only son in a tournament in 1382, the earldom ultimately passing to William’s nephew John after much bitter dispute.
Epitaph of Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales
Edward’s title, the Black Prince, frequently used in history, was not found in evidence until the Tudor period, and so it would be wrong to use it to assess either his character or his reputation. The reasoning behind such a title is obscure, and will remain so. Was it attributed to his black armour? No, since his armour would not be black when burnished for battle. Was it a later comment on his autocratic temper, or even an example of presumed French propaganda, painting him black as their most notable enemy? There is no evidence of either of these.
The epitaph on the Prince’s tomb in Canterbury Cathedral is strikingly lacking in either arrogance or autocratic pride, but portrays him as a ‘caitiff’, a man worthy of contempt. It is not an original composition but was based on an anonymous 13th century French translation of the Clericalis Disciplina written in Latin by Petrus Alphonsi who was physician to Henry I. On the tomb it is written in French, but is here translated by the antiquary J Weever in Ancient Funerall Monuments, 1631.
Who so thou be that passeth by,
Where these corps entombed lie:
Understand what I shall say
As at this time speak I may.
Such as thou art, some time was I,
Such as I am, such shalt thou be.
I little thought on the hour of death
So long as I enjoyed breath.
Great riches here I did possess
Whereof I made great nobleness.
I had gold, silver, wardrobes and
Great treasure, horses, houses, land.
But now a caitiff poor am I
Deep in the ground, lo here I lie
My beauty great is all quite gone,
My flesh is wasted to the bone.
My house is narrow now and throng,
Nothing but Truth comes from my tongue:
And if ye should see me this day
I do not think but ye would say
That I had never been a man;
So much altered now I am
For God’s sake pray to the heavenly King
That he my soul to heaven would bring,
All they that pray and make accord
For me until my God and Lord:
God place him in his Paradise,
Wherein no wretched caitiff lies.
Here Edward, Prince of Wales, wretched caitiff, lies for all time, as a supplicant for human prayers and divine mercy. Death levels us all, even a Plantagenet prince.
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ISBN: 9781489226495
TITLE: The Shadow Queen
First Australian Publication 2017
Copyright © 2017 Anne O’Brien
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