Queen Of This Realm

by Виктория Холт

  He was staring at me with wonder. I knew Robert well. He was rather acquisitive and although he was becoming one of the richest men in the land, he could not have too much.

  “I see,” I went on, “that you are well pleased. On your knees, you ungrateful dog, for thinking I would cast you off when all the time I am planning for your pleasure.”

  * * *

  CREATING ROBERT EARL of Leicester was the brilliant ceremony I intended it to be. I had dressed with even more than my usual attention to that important and absorbing matter and I sparkled as I walked to my place in the Presence Chamber with young Lord Darnley going before me, as nearest Prince of the Blood, carrying the sword of state. Surrounding me were several noblemen among them Sir James Melville and Lord Hunsdon who was carrying the velvet ermine-lined mantle which I should put on Robert when the moment came.

  Robert followed in surcoat and hood. I was seated as he came forward and knelt before me and Lord William Howard gave me the parchment containing the letters of patent. Then Sir William Cecil read from it in a voice which could be heard throughout the chamber and Lord Hunsdon brought me the peer's robe which I put about Robert's shoulders. As I bent over him and saw the dark hair curling about his neck, I could not resist allowing my fingers to touch it and I tickled him to show how fond I was of him and that my pretending to give him to Mary of Scotland was just a joke so that I could bestow this title upon him.

  I saw James Melville watching me, trying to hide his shocked expression, and I was greatly amused. I could not wait to ask him what he thought of my new Earl of Leicester and Baron of Denbigh.

  “He is a worthy subject,” replied Melville, “and is a happy man to have such a good prince who can discern and reward his good service.”

  “Yet,” I replied, pointing to Darnley, “you like better yonder long lad.” He knew what I was referring to and he said: “No woman of spirit would make choice of a man who was more of a woman than a man, for he is beardless and lady-faced.”

  Sly Melville! He did not know how much I had learned of his intrigues with Darnley's mother to get Darnley to Scotland and married to Mary.

  He was a wily one, this Melville; but I liked him for his loyalty to his mistress and the manner in which he had always sought to defend her even over the matter of her beauty and her achievements.

  I was so proud of Robert as the second part of the ceremony took place. He looked so magnificent in his robes and it gave me the greatest pleasure to place the white sash over his right shoulder and present him with the sword and fix his cap and coronet. And there he was, standing before me in all his glory, my Robert, now the mighty Earl of Leicester.

  His eyes glittered as he looked at me and I was overwhelmed by my love for him. I could see from the triumph in his eyes that he believed that this was a preliminary to marriage … our marriage. And in that moment I almost felt that I could have acquiesced. Almost… but not quite.

  The trumpets sounded and we went to dine in the Council Chamber. It was a glorious and triumphant occasion.

  Afterward some of the guests came to my bedchamber where the glow of candles flickered over the rooms giving a pleasant intimacy. I had rarely seen Robert so happy. This honor would mean that people regarded him with even greater awe than ever. It was four years since his wife had been found dead at the bottom of a staircase. Had people forgotten? I had an idea they never would. But at least they could not now believe that I had been implicated in the murder, for why, if I had agreed to Amy's removal that I might marry Robert, had I not married him now that he was free? Some- times it seemed clear to me that I must never marry him for if I did—whatever the lapse of time—I should be suspected.

  I was glad to see that William Cecil and Robert were talking together in the utmost amity. They had always been suspicious of each other but Cecil was so obsessed with the idea that I must marry and get a child that he was almost inclined to smile on Robert as a means of achieving that end.

  Sometimes I wished that I had not the ability to see quite so clearly, for to see many sides to a question makes one uncertain. I liked Robert's company more than that of any other person; I was happy when he was near me and dissatisfied when he was not. Is that loving? Yet on the other hand I saw him just too clearly for comfort; he was avaricious, arrogant, determined to dominate all who came near him, ruthless in the extreme … yes, even enough to commit murder if the need were dire enough. All this I knew, yet I loved him. I should never be sure how Amy Robsart died, whether it was accident, suicide or murder… never wholly sure, and if it were really true that he killed her, should I not be very wary of a man who could act so to a woman whom he must have loved at one time? Then again it might have been that I was fascinated by Robert because I was unsure of him. I would not want a dull man like my cousin Lettice's Walter Devereux. There was a man who could be relied upon to do his duty to his country and his family. Yet such a man would tire me so much that I would not want him near me for long. I wondered how Lettice fared with him. She seemed happy enough; but she was sly. One would never know what Lettice was up to. It would not surprise me if she were deceiving poor Walter Devereux. But my feelings for Robert? Well, I loved him, I suppose—and I loved him as he was—ruthless and mysterious.

  Melville was beside me and he asked me what I thought of his Queen's letter regarding the proposed match with the Earl of Leicester.

  I replied: “She angrily refused him. I will employ lawyers to seek out who should be next in succession to me. I would wish it were your Queen more than any other, Sir James. My father had a wish to unite England and Scotland and would have declared his sister Margaret's son, James V of Scotland, next in line of succession after his daughter Mary; but at that time I was not yet born and there was my brother Edward to come. So it would seem that when I should die your Queen could likely come to the throne of England.”

  “There may be heirs of Your Majesty's body.”

  “Nay, I do not think that likely, Sir James. I was never of a mind to marry unless I was compelled by my sister's harsh behavior toward me to do so. But as you know I stood out against it and my victory brought me freedom. I have promised myself that I shall remain a virgin.”

  “Madam,” he answered with his Scots canniness, “you need not tell me that. I know your stately stomach. Ye think gin ye were married ye would be but Queen of England, but now ye are King and Queen baith. Ye would not suffer a commander.”

  I smiled at him. He understood me well.

  “Come,” I said, “I will show you some of my treasures. I have them here to hand.” I opened my desk in which I kept miniatures of those of my friends whom I loved best. I had carefully wrapped them and written their names on them so that I could select them and study them at will. On one of these I had written “My Lord's Picture”. I unwrapped it and showed it to Melville. It was a very good likeness of Robert.

  I said: “If the Queen of Scots saw it she would not hesitate to take him. What think you, Sir James?”

  “Allow me to take it to her.”

  I almost snatched the picture from his hands. “I have only this one of him. If he goes to Scotland she would have the original.”

  I certainly was not going to give up Robert's picture. I feared that if the Scottish Queen saw how handsome he was, she might decide to take him in spite of his lack of royal blood.

  No, Robert's picture was certainly not going to Scotland.

  When I was alone in my bedchamber and my ladies concerned themselves with the intricate operation of preparing me for my bed, unlacing me, helping me out of my whalebone hips and petticoats, letting down my hair, placing the false pieces in their tray, I was feeling contented.

  I knew which way I was going.

  * * *

  THERE WAS FURTHER trouble with the Grey family. It had been said that Jane Grey was remarkable for her wisdom. Perhaps—but it had not prevented her from going to the block before she was seventeen. They had no instinct for survival, those foolish Grey girls.
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  All the same they were a menace. Katharine was still under restraint. But she had given birth to two sons. The first was understandable, for she had achieved that in secret, but when her husband had been in the Tower with her they had contrived to meet and a second son was the result. Now a possible heiress to the throne who had two sons was in a fairly strong position, especially when the reigning Queen had declared her desire for virginity and was now past thirty. A plague on Katharine Grey! I thought; but it was entirely due to the plague's coming to London that she had been removed from the Tower and while her husband Lord Hertford was sent to his mother with the eldest child, she with the younger went to her uncle in Essex.

  Of the three Grey girls Jane did seem the only one to have had any sense, for although she had lost her head it was through no fault of hers. The other two, Katharine and Mary, seemed quite feckless. I had not anticipated trouble from Mary. She was a poor creature, almost a dwarf. I suppose few men had looked her way—royal-blooded though she was—until one day she formed an acquaintance with a man who held a post at Westminster Palace. He was in fact distantly—very distantly—connected with the Knollys family and I supposed that was why he had been given the post of Sergeant Porter at the water gate. The foolish pair decided to marry secretly and this they did.

  The match was most unsuitable in every way. Dwarf as Mary was, she, being royal, committed an offense by marrying without the consent of the Sovereign and the Council. Perhaps the silly creature thought it did not matter in her case. But the incongruity of the match was that Thomas Keys, the bridegroom, was unusually tall and the pair must have looked ridiculous together.

  What if there should be a child of the marriage? It might be quite a presentable child for if she was minute he was large enough and the child could be somewhere in between which would make it normal, and through Mary it would have royal blood and a claim to the throne.

  There was only one thing to do and that was separate the pair, so Thomas Keys was sent to the Fleet prison and little Mary to the Duchess of Suffolk, who was her step-grandmother. If she were not already pregnant that would prevent further complications.

  Cecil discussed the matter with me in private.

  I said to him: “We have the two Grey sisters under restraint, and so should sleep more quietly in our beds.”

  He looked at me shrewdly. I think he was beginning to respect me more than he ever had. He had deplored the frivolous side of my nature and that I could understand, for sometimes I deplored it myself, but I think he was beginning to see that there were times when I could use it to advantage.

  I went on: “Mary of Scotland will always be the one to be feared most, and she is so taken with Lord Darnley that she is besotted by him.”

  “She intends to marry him. It will strengthen her claim, for he has a slight one himself.”

  “What do you think of Darnley?”

  “Dissolute and weak.”

  “And do you think he will be a help to our lady of Scotland?”

  Cecil shook his head.

  “She has declared her intention of marrying him,” I said. “The little boy is puffed up with pride and already sees himself as the King of Scotland which …” I added slyly … “is what happens with ambitious men when queens lift them from their humble status.”

  Cecil smiled. He was beginning to realize that I would never share my throne with any.

  “Well, Master Cecil,” I went on, “here we have the Grey girls in restraint where they can do little harm even if they had the wit to do so. Oh, I know they would be merely the figureheads of ambitious men as poor Jane was, but we have them safely under lock and key. And Mary of Scotland is to marry her Darnley. May she have quick joy of him for I'll warrant it will not last long.”

  Cecil nodded and I went on: “Should I not have reason for rejoicing?”

  “Your Majesty is right,” he said. “We should rejoice.”

  And we did even more when the news came to us that Mary had indeed married Darnley and he was proclaimed King of Scotland.

  “I am confining the Countess of Lennox to the Tower for daring to bring the marriage about—another troublemaker out of the way. We shall deplore the marriage in public, Master Cecil, and only while we are alone congratulate ourselves that it has taken place.”

  “It can bode no good for Scotland,” said Cecil. “And what is bad for Scotland must needs be good for England.”

  * * *

  A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY occurred about this time.

  I knew that Kat had been ailing for some time. I insisted that she remain in her bed and pass on her duties to others which she did most reluctantly, until she became too ill to be able to do anything else.

  When it was borne home to me that she was not going to recover, I was overcome with grief and whenever I could escape from my state duties I was at her bedside. She loved to hold my hand and talk of the past. Sometimes her mind wandered and I believe she thought she was back in the Dower Palace at Chelsea where Sir Thomas Seymour had pursued me.

  “You were a wayward girl,” she said. “You led him on. Oh, it was dangerous … and so exciting. Do you remember when he cut your dress to pieces in the garden? Do you remember when he came barefoot to your bedroom?”

  I said I remembered.

  “And the terrible time they took me … and Parry, remember? The Tower … I never knew such fear … and I betrayed you, I betrayed my darling…”

  Then I would go down on my knees and try to soothe her.

  She had never betrayed me, I told her. She had only told what had happened and they had forced her to do that. She was my very dear Kat and one of the happiest days of my life had been when she had come back from the Tower.

  So we talked and each day she grew more wan, her voice more faint, and she could not remember very clearly those events from the past. She merged Thomas Seymour with Robert Dudley. “Such men,” she said. “The most handsome men in the world… both of them. We both loved them, didn't we, my precious.”

  I hid my tears from her but when I was in my bedchamber I wept for my dearest friend.

  It was a very sad day when she died. I shut myself away and would see no one. There was nothing I could do but grieve.

  THE POSSIBILITY OF A marriage for me still excited the minds of all those about me. I think Cecil had realized that I was speaking the truth when I told him I would never marry, but being the politician he was he was as interested as I was to receive offers from heads of state with whom he was eager to make alliances.

  Catherine de' Medici was offering her son, now Charles IX, and as he was about sixteen years of age and I was past thirty we should have made a somewhat incongruous pair. Moreover I believed he was a little mad, but the crown of France, as Cecil pointed out, was not to be lightly turned aside. I replied that as Queen of England I should be expected to live here and as he was King of France he must be in France; I reminded him of the unsatisfactory state of affairs between Philip of Spain and my sister Mary. It was one of those points which people like to argue over and which are always so useful in making negotiations hang out over a long time. I always looked for them because although I was determined not to marry abroad—or anywhere—I found discussing the possibilities too fascinating to cast on one side. Then it was suggested that as the King of France would certainly have to stay in France why should I not take his brother the Duc d'Anjou. The age difference would be even greater, I said. But talks went on.

  Then I made a discovery which infuriated me. I had suspected for some time that my cousin Lettice Knollys was interested in Robert and he in her. I had dismissed this because she was married to Devereux, and although for a girl of her nature that might not be an obstacle to a passionate friendship with another man, I did not think that Robert would jeopardize his future so certainly as to have a relationship with someone so close to me. That there were women in Robert's life I accepted. He was a normal man and I would not have had him otherwise. His wife was dead—not that he had spent much t
ime with her—and I expected that he would have light affairs outside the Court, and I imagined that when he indulged in them he would be thinking with regret how different these women were from the prize he coveted.

  I had often watched Lettice. She really was a very beautiful woman. That she was restless, I guessed, for it was clear that Walter Devereux would not satisfy her and I had given him a post which kept him in Ireland for most of the time. He was an excellent administrator but a dullard in company I could well believe.

  I should have sent her away from Court before it happened because my instinct told me that any man on whom Lettice set her fancy would not escape very lightly, and that in many ways she would call the tune. In a manner of speaking she was not unlike myself. Perhaps that was why I felt I understood her so well.

  I intercepted those glances; I noticed how embarrassed some of my ladies were when I referred to Lettice and Robert, so I was sure.

  I felt like summoning them both to my presence and banging their heads together, and then dismissing them from Court. No! I would not give them a chance to be together. They should be clapped into the Tower.

  This was folly. I must curb my temper. If I said I would marry Robert he would drop Lettice tomorrow like a piece of hot pie that burned his fingers. But that was too big a price to pay even to discountenance them.

  I asked Lettice about her husband and whether she missed him. She made vague answers and I found myself accusing her of clumsiness, taking great pleasure in nipping her arms till she cried out in pain. Sometimes I slapped her with real venom, and because she received these marks of my displeasure with a veiled smile, almost of derision, I wondered whether she suspected I knew.