by Jean Plaidy
‘You bore Louis children.’
‘I was younger then. I was trapped and I had not then found the way out of the trap.’
‘I like not this dalliance with your poet.’
‘Why do you fear I should prefer him to you?’
The king picked up the stool which stood in the room and threw it against the wall.
Through the castle there was hushed silence. The King was in one of his tempers. He was showing his anger and jealousy and suspicion against Bernard de Ventadour and the young poet was warned that he should slip quietly away until the storm had blown over.
Henry raged about the apartment accusing her of infidelity but there was something lacking in this bout of rage.
Finally he flung himself on to the bed where Eleanor had lain watching him.
He seized her with sudden passion and declared once more that he would run his sword through any man who dared to make love to her.
Eleanor accepted his embraces; Ventadour retired from the court although he was to return later; and very soon after that incident Eleanor discovered that she was once more pregnant.
Since Henry’s appearance in France the situation there had become more peaceful and he felt it was time that he returned to England.
He had no intention of leaving Eleanor behind in France. He decided that she and the children should travel back to England ahead of him. The new child should be born there.
She missed Aquitaine and her troubadours for although there were many poets and singers at her court they did not seem the same as those of Provence. Often she thought of Bernard de Ventadour who had been driven from the Castle of Ventadour because of his verses to the Countess and now had displeased the King because of his devotion to Eleanor.
Bernard was a man who must have a lady to whom he could address his poems. No doubt by this time he had found another castle and another lady.
She shrugged aside romantic thoughts and gave herself up to the matter of preparing for another birth. My destiny, she thought! Is there to be no end of it? If I get another son I shall call a halt to this pattern.
She dreamed of a son. She wanted a son this time. She was fond of her children but young Henry was too overbearing, and already looked like his father. He bullied Matilda who did not show the spirit of the grandmother for whom she had been named.
This son would be different, she promised herself. Tall and handsome as Raymond of Antioch, as great a ruler as his father, in truth a king. But how could he be, when he had an elder brother?
It pleased her to dream of this son who had been conceived in the warmth of Aquitaine. Aquitaine should be his. She patted her body and whispered: ‘I shall bequeath it to you, little son.’
The child moved within her and she laughed delightedly. He must have understood her. She was convinced this one was going to be no ordinary child.
She had travelled to Oxford for she had decided that in this neighbourhood the child should be born. Just outside the walls of the city, close to the northern gate was Beaumont Palace with its serene views of green meadows beyond which rose the turrets of Oxford Castle from which years ago Henry’s mother had escaped on the ice. Here her child should be born.
She had no intention of nursing the child herself and asked her women to find a good woman, with child herself, who could act as wet-nurse to the royal infant.
The woman, clearly in a very advanced stage of pregnancy, was brought to the palace and there she was installed in the royal nursery.
The Queen lay languidly on her bed and bade the woman sit down that she might study her. She was clean, a country woman clearly. Her skin was fresh-looking and she was buxom and quite comely.
‘It cannot be long before you are brought to bed,’ said Eleanor.
‘Nay, my lady. I expect it hourly.’
‘You have no fear of childbirth?’
‘Why no, my lady. ‘Tis all natural like.’
She was not new to breeding and it was for this reason that she had been chosen, for she was known to have good milk and enough for two babies.
The royal child would be fed first and if there was enough over then she might feed her own baby. She understood this and was delighted to do the service asked of her. A stay in the royal palace, the honour of suckling a royal child. Everyone knew a woman was well rewarded for that.
‘What is your name ?’ asked Eleanor.
‘It is Hodierna, my lady.’
‘Well then, you must take good care of yourself for by so doing you will have good milk and only the best will be good enough for my child.’
‘I know it well, my lady,’ said Hodierna.
She was brought to bed the very next day and gave birth to a boy. Eleanor herself visited her and admired the child.
He was to be called Alexander.
A few days later a son was born to Eleanor.
He was called Richard and from the first he was more handsome than his brother. His limbs were long and straight and Eleanor loved him dearly.
Hodierna was the best possible foster-mother and she was right when she said she had enough milk for two boys.
As the months passed they grew into two of the finest boys at court and in time they were very much aware of each other like brothers.
When Henry returned he came to Oxford to see his new son. He admired young Richard, none could help doing that. But it was clear that he had something on his mind.
He had. He had seen Hikenai again and she had reminded him of his promise to do something for their son. He knew he could not delay the matter much longer.
Little Geoffrey would have to be brought to the nursery and while the good foster-mother was there with her little son Alexander, it seemed a good moment to introduce him.
He said to Eleanor when they were in their bedchamber, ‘There will be an addition to the nursery.’
She did not understand him at first. ‘An addition? We have two sons and a daughter. Is that not enough? Do you want me to spend all my time in the awkward state of pregnancy?’
‘Nay, nay,’ he said. ‘I was not thinking of another for us, though doubtless there will be more. It is a boy in whom I have an interest.’
‘You have an interest!’ Eleanor had sat up. She threw back her long hair and there was bright colour in her cheeks.
‘Aye,’ he answered firmly, ‘a very special interest.’
‘Why so?’ she demanded.
‘I do not intend to be interrogated.’
‘Perhaps not. But I intend to interrogate.’
‘You forget, Madam, that you speak to the King.’
She had leaped from the bed. She stood facing him, her arms folded across her breasts.
‘Are you telling me that you want to bring one of your bastards into my nursery?’
‘I am telling you, Madam, that I shall bring one of my bastards into my nursery.’
‘I’ll not have it.’
‘The boy will be arriving in a few days.’
‘He shall not stay.’
‘He will stay with his half-brothers. That good woman Hodierna will be told that he is to have the same treatment as the others.’
‘How old is he?’
‘Some three years.’
‘A little younger than William would have been. So …’ She stared at him incredulously. ‘You … you lecher!’
He laughed at her. ‘A fine one to talk. A woman who lay with her own uncle.’
She lifted her hand to strike him, but he caught it and flung her from him.
‘Know this,’ he said. ‘I am the master here. You are a subject no less than any other.’
‘I … your subject! What were you but a mere Duke of Normandy! I brought you Aquitaine.’
‘That is in the past. I am the King of England now.’
‘And I am the Queen.’
‘Through my good grace. Remember it. I could have you imprisoned this very night had I wished it.’
‘How … dare you!’
‘You will find that the King
of England dares much.’
‘So you were not faithful to me … not even at that time … in those early days!’
‘I was away a long time. How did you expect me to keep from women? She was a woman of light morals. There was nothing more than that.’
‘And I must have the bastard of a woman of light morals brought up with my children!’
‘He is of the King’s blood.’
‘Do you think I will have him in my nursery?’
‘Yes, Madam, I do. And I swear to you that should you try to harm him in any way I will take my revenge on you and such will it be that you will wish you had never lived to see the day.’
‘Do you think I am of a kind to take revenge on babies?’
‘Nay I do not. I think you are sensible enough to see reason.’
‘Henry, I am a ruler in my own right. I will not be treated in this way.’
‘You will be treated in what manner I think fit.’
‘I have done much for you …’
‘And I for you. Did I not marry you … a divorced woman twelve years older than myself!’
‘I shall hate you for this.’
‘Do so. We will beget more sons in hate. Come, we will begin now.’
She tore herself away from him but he would not release her. He was exultant. The difficult task which he had dreaded was over. She knew there was a child and that that child was coming to her nursery and she accepted this fact just as she accepted him now. He was still irresistible to her.
She would grow out of her romantic fantasies. She would forget the songs that were sung by her troubadours. Life was not like that.
Men such as he was when away from their wives took other women. He had thought she would have been experienced enough to know that. There would be separations in the years to come and other women … legions of them. She must learn to accept it and if there was a bastard or two whom he wanted brought up at court then that bastard should be brought up at court.
She did accept it. She was too much of a realist to stand against that which was inevitable. But her feeling for him changed from that time. She would no longer consider what was good for him; she would think of her own will and pleasure.
The bastard Geoffrey came to the nursery. He was an engaging little fellow and, the King was particularly interested in him and determined that he should not be made to feel inferior to his half-brothers.
As for the Queen she ignored the boy, and for her son Richard there grew up within her a tenderness of which she had not thought herself capable.
The relationship between them having changed they began to see in each other faults which they had not noticed before. To Eleanor Henry seemed often crude in his manners; his style of dress was unimaginative; she disliked his rough hands. Although he could be overbearing where his will was concerned she often thought he lacked the bearing of a king. That was not true exactly. His manner was such as to command immediate obedience. What she objected to was his lack of grace, his simple clothes and the manner in which he rarely sat down to eat but took his food standing as though eating was a habit he had little time for. When she thought of the gracious banquets which had taken place at her father’s court and that of Louis too, she was impatient. His rages too had increased. He made no attempt to control himself in her presence. She had seen him lie on the floor and gnaw the rushes in his fury. There were times then when she thought he would go mad, for his eyes would be wild, his nostrils would flare and he would indeed resemble the lion to which people compared him. It was these violent rages which held so many in awe of him. Yet she had to admit he was greatly respected, and he bound men to him in a manner which was surprising for he thought little of lying or breaking promises. His one idea was to make England great and to hold every bit of land which had come into his possession. He wanted people to regard him as they had his great-grandfather, the mighty Conqueror. There was a difference though. Great William had been single-minded in his conquests. He had married his wife and in spite of long separations had been almost entirely faithful to her. William had been a cold man sexually; Henry was hot. Eleanor knew this and it was a sadness to her that her feelings had changed, for he was still important to her. She could not regret her marriage. She despised herself for having endowed it with an idealism which she should have known it could never possess. She was a romantic; Henry was a lusty earthy man. The quality they shared was a love of power and it had wounded her proud spirit that she should have to accept his infidelity. What hurt most was that while she had been faithfully dreaming of him he had been sporting with harlots, and one in particular he must have thought of with affection, since he brought her child to the royal nursery. How many bastards of his were scattered round the country? she wondered.
She could not hate the child in the nursery, but Henry, to subdue her, made much of the boy. He had made it clear that he was to be treated no differently from Henry or the baby Richard or young Matilda. It would be a different matter when they grew up. Young master Geoffrey would learn the difference then between the heirs of the King and his bastards. She knew that Henry made much of the boy chiefly to annoy her and refused to let him see how much it did.
Her baby Richard was a great comfort to her. He was going to be handsome. Already he showed signs of his spirit, screaming for what he wanted and charming everyone in the nursery at the same time. Henry ignored the child. Sometimes she thought Richard was aware of it, for whenever his father came near him he yelled in anger.
Henry, too, considered their changed relations. She was a virago, he decided, and all kings should have meek wives who obeyed unquestioningly. Stephen had been lucky with his Matilda, for although she had been a clever woman, quite a strategist it had turned out, and had done so much to further her husband’s cause, she had never criticised him and always wished to please him. Had he married my mother, thought Henry, he would have noticed the difference. Henry laughed remembering the fierce quarrels between his father and mother. Whenever they were together there had been conflict. He could remember hearing the shouts of abuse which they had flung at each other. What hatred there had been between those two! His mother had been ten years older than his father. And he was twelve years younger than Eleanor. Was it a pattern in their families - young husbands, older wives, and stormy marriages?
But he could not compare his marriage with that of his parents. Theirs had been one of pure hate and contempt from the start. How his father had ever got his mother with three sons was hard to imagine. But they had done their duty and here he was - thank God the eldest, for he had little respect from his brothers Geoffrey and William.
And his feelings for Eleanor? Well, he did not regret his marriage. She had brought him Aquitaine and she was a queen to be proud of. No woman ever looked quite as elegant as Eleanor. She knew what clothes she should wear and she knew how to wear them. Wherever she was she caught people’s eyes and that was what a queen should do. The people of England were wary of her as they would be of all foreigners but they liked to look at her and she was well worth looking at.
But she was a proud woman. A meek man would be overawed by her. He thought of poor Louis of France. All those years she had been married to him she had treated him badly and still he had been reluctant to let her go. He laughed to himself to picture her arriving at Antioch and setting eyes on her handsome uncle. And in a short time she was sharing his bed and that of an infidel it seemed! He had much to hold against her if ever she questioned his behaviour.
Life with Eleanor would henceforth be a battle. He was excited by the prospect, so he could not regret his marriage. Moreover she had brought him Aquitaine. How could he ever regret Aquitaine?
Eleanor was fitted to be a queen in every way providing she had a husband who knew how to subdue her. When she had learned that the King’s will was law he would be happy enough in his marriage. They would have more children. She had proved she could get sons and he would not be adverse to a daughter or two. They made such excellent counte
rs in the game of politics. A marriage here and there could cement an alliance far better than any written contract.
But she had to realise that he was the King and that he would be obeyed. She was his Queen and a certain amount of respect was due to her, but what was given her came through his grace, and she must be grateful to him for it.
To expect that of Eleanor was asking a good deal and that was what made the battle between them exciting.
Child-bearing had had its effect on her. Although she did not feed her children herself, fearing to impair her beautiful high firm breasts, the bearing of so many children in so short a time had slightly changed her figure. She had borne him four children and then there were Louis’s two girls. A woman who had given birth to six children could scarcely be the sylph she had been when a young girl. She no longer attracted him physically as she had done. The intense desire he had experienced when he first knew her was replaced by a passion which had its roots in the desire to subdue her.
Yet deep within him there was hope for a different sort of relationship. The ideal woman would have been one who adored him, submitted to him, was faithful to him in every way, whose personal egoism was overlaid by her desire to serve him. There were such women. The late King Stephen had found one. To such a woman he would have been kind and tender. He would not have been faithful to her. Had Stephen been faithful to his Matilda? It was a well-known fact that he had not. Yet her feelings had never swerved and she had proved herself a clever woman in her desire to serve her husband. There were very few women in the world like Matilda of Boulogne, and Eleanor was certainly not one of them.
He was glad that Eleanor realised he had no intention of being faithful to her, that he was going to live like a king taking his pleasure where he would and that all his subjects - be they his Queen or his most humble serving-man - must realise that this was the King’s way and none should dare question it.
He could never rest anywhere for long. When he was in the South he must wonder what the people of the North were doing. He had made a habit of travelling about the country without warning which way he was going. This meant that everywhere they must be prepared for him to descend on them at any moment and woe betide any of them who were not carrying out his orders. This habit was applauded by the ordinary people, who had seen the immediate effect it had had on law and order. No robber baron now dared to carry out his cruel tricks. The King would hear of it and his word was law.