by David Elias
Things returned somewhat to normalcy for a time, and I began once again to take interest in matters of state, though none too soon. My husband had always been easily swayed by those nearest to him, and now I saw plainly that he took counsel from the assembled clerics with great reverence, Abraham Scultetus among them. They were not in favour of Frederick bidding for the crown, and it soon became apparent that I should have to summon my resolve and take action if I wanted to see my way to Prague.
My task was made somewhat easier when Countess Juliana announced one evening at dinner that she intended to take up residence at her private estate in the country.
“I think it is best for all of us” — Juliana offered a brief glance in my direction — “that I see my way out of Heidelberg altogether, at least for a while.”
Frederick looked up from his plate. “It has always been your favourite retreat, but do you mean to say you want to go and live there? No doubt you shall miss your entertainments.”
“Perhaps, but I grow ever more weary of court life and welcome the chance to retire from it.”
“There are other considerations. Surely you don’t mean to abandon your interest in affairs of state for the sake of country life.”
“I am content hereafter to leave such matters to others” — she regarded me with a condescending smile — “who can give you counsel as well as I. Besides, it isn’t as though I’m going abroad. It is only a little more than a day’s travel. I shall not be far if you should find the need to summon me.”
“And what of your grandson?” I asked.
“Yes,” Frederick put in, “it is plain Henry adores you.”
“I can attest to as much,” I said, then added: “No doubt he shall miss his grandmother terribly,” a comment which seemed to catch Frederick off guard.
Juliana put down her cutlery. “I was wondering whether I might take young Henry with me.”
“I suppose the country air might do him good,” said Frederick, “and we could come to fetch him in a week or two.”
Juliana and I exchanged a quick glance.
“I had in mind rather a longer period of time.” She played with her napkin.
Frederick put down the cup of wine and looked at his mother, then at me, then back at Juliana.
“You mean to say you want to keep him there?”
“There’s a lot to be said for an upbringing in the country. And you could come to visit him as often as you like.”
“You would take upon yourself the raising of our son.” Frederick was looking at me.
“It would do him good to be away from all this fuss and bother, don’t you think?”
“Elizabeth” — Frederick had not turned his eyes from me — “what have you to say on this?”
“I myself was raised away from the royal court,” I offered, “in a peaceful country home. There is a lot to be said for it.”
“But . . . he is your son.”
“As it is, the boy is seen to in large measure by attendants and nurses,” Juliana said evenly.
“I always thought a child should be with its mother.” Frederick looked down at his plate, then up at me. “You have no objections?” he pleaded.
“We can visit as often as we like,” I said weakly.
“Then you find this proposal agreeable.”
I nodded.
“I feel as though I am being conspired against,” said Frederick.
“I think it stands to be quite an agreeable arrangement, don’t you?” Juliana waited while I pretended to consider my answer.
“After all,” she added, “you are Electress Palatine now, and must see to all the responsibilities that go with the title.”
The bargain would be made all the more palatable by the fact that she truly doted on the boy and he delighted in her constant attentions to him. Juliana would leave her son’s affairs to me and I would leave the raising of Henry to her.
“You must admit it will make things easier,” I said to Frederick. “There’s a great deal to do, and our son would be in the care of someone who loves him.”
“Someone who loves him,” Frederick mumbled to himself.
If my husband thought it cold of me to turn down such a path, it was only that Lady Anne’s passing had stirred me into an unsettling jumble of emotion. I had been both freed and abandoned, felt at once daunted as well as intoxicated. Notions of mother and wife seemed suited for little more than employment as tools to stifle my ambitions. For the first time in my life I had no one to answer to. There was nothing to stop me now.
***
On the morning Juliana took her leave with young Henry, I retired to my chambers and remained there for the rest of the day, but that evening I sought out the privacy of my balcony in the English Wing, which I was often wont to do at that time of day. I leaned over the stone wall that ran the length of the terrace and regarded the town below, already under a cloak of darkness though the castle was still lit by the last rays of the setting sun. The houses below sent lazy spirals of smoke up from their brick chimneys, lights glowing out of the windows as I watched the street lamps being lit. I thought of all the mothers toiling within the walls of those modest homes, tending even now to the endless needs of their children, and after seeing them all to bed at last, the day’s chores completed, left with naught to look forward to but to fall into exhausted sleep before another day dawned. I felt an uncertain mixture of guilt and gladness that I was free not only of my mother-in-law’s meddling but also of child-rearing duties.
I would set myself to redoubling my efforts to counsel my husband upon a course of action that should see us to Prague. I had little doubt he would see fit to carry out my ministrations, and that little stood in the way of success. But as in nature, where the exit of one force predicates the arrival of another, an equally formidable adversary promptly made his appearance in the form of Abraham Scultetus. Having presided over the funeral of Count Schomberg, he had hardly uttered the last prayer than he began to insinuate himself into that same role the Count had played so well. I suppose I might have seen it coming, as Frederick had ever been inclined to such influences, eager to heed the judgments of those in authority. In no time at all Scultetus had managed to become his closest advisor. While Frederick gave me my due, made sure to pay my suggestions and opinions full value, he would make a habit of adding, after I had finished putting my case, that he should thereafter take the matter up with Abraham Scultetus.
My efforts to move things along became increasingly thwarted and I determined to settle the matter with Scultetus himself. I arranged one evening to intercept him on his stroll through the grounds of the Hortus Palatinus, where he daily made a great show of walking in solitude, stopping now and then at a bench or grotto or fountain to engage in the most ostentatious contemplation, at one time with hands clasped in prayer, at another with his eyes cast heavenward, so that anyone watching should see how devout he was and with what gravitas he considered all matters pertinent to his counsel.
Perhaps another woman might have determined that she should see to the matter in the privacy of her bedchamber, where she might apply her charms and by such means get her husband to do her bidding, but that was never going to work with Frederick. Though I was content to grant his conjugal visits, he never stayed long and discussion regarding matters of state was entirely out of the question. The blame fell as much to shyness as inconsideration. He was timid to the point where, even after years of marriage, he would not let me see him naked. I think on it now and I cannot say for certain that I ever saw him entirely in his God-given flesh. For his part he was always eager to look upon mine at his leisure, lift off the covers that he might feast upon my nakedness. Having done so he would douse the lights, take off the rest of his clothes, and jump under the covers, making sure to pull them up around me as well, before he launched into the business of shaking the sheets without further ado.
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I should have welcomed the chance for some small variation in the routine but there was little to be had. Though I hinted at a more vigorous engagement now and then, not once did Frederick take it upon himself to ravage me. How could I explain to him there might be times when I wanted to be taken with the full force of a man’s need, considering that in such imaginings it was Sir Raleigh who enraptured me in the frenzy of his passion? On the whole, Frederick being that most considerate of lovers made things easy for me, but it was far from enough.
I tried on occasion to inject a little mischief into the affair, perhaps only to reach under the covers and say, “What now that this member should rise to full address . . .”
“Madam?”
“. . . and seek to gain admittance to the inner chamber?”
“You jest.”
“There to penetrate the lusty loins.”
“I am ready, if that’s what you mean.”
For Frederick’s part he did not lack enthusiasm. My body excited him tremendously and when he was about to penetrate me, hovering over me with arms planted on either side, his breath would come in short bursts, his body shivering with anticipation. Having spent himself, he would withdraw almost immediately, but not before holding me very tight and whispering in my ear, “You are so precious to me.” Then he was up out of bed, pulling his robes about him to make his way back to his own bedchamber.
“You are always so quick to leave,” I said one evening after a particularly short coupling, “but no matter, I am eager to see myself through to completion.”
“Beg pardon, Madam, but what can be left to accomplish?”
“Naught but that same ecstasy you just now enjoyed.”
“What God gave a man to do with his wife I have done, have I not?”
“Yes, and I shall see to the remainder in my own way.”
Frederick looked at me with an expression of stony disapproval. “It falls to needless indulgence.”
“You think my pleasure gratuitous. Surely you satisfy yourself from time to time when you are in solitude.”
“I am determined to exercise the utmost restraint in that arena.”
“But why should you have need to do so?”
“To indulge in pleasure for its own sake is sinful in the eyes of God. Abraham Scultetus would attest to as much.”
“Do you mean to say you’ve never taken matters, as it were, into your own hands?”
“Those times I have indulged myself have always been followed with prayer and penance.”
“Then I shall be sure to do the same when I have finished.”
By such means did I inadvertently make matters worse when it came to the amount of time my husband spent in my bed. After that he seemed even more anxious to remove himself, lest he might have to witness me writhing about under the sheets and moaning.
If I was going to make any headway in my ambitions to Prague, I would be better off devoting my energies to seeing what influence I might exert over Abraham Scultetus. If I could get him to endorse my plan, it should go a long way to bringing my husband down the same path.
***
One evening I made my way through Elizabethentor, the gate Frederick had so lovingly erected for me, and headed into the Hortus Palatinus, hoping to come upon Abraham Scultetus and intercept him. I walked straightway to the retaining wall and ascended the first set of stone stairs leading up to the second terrace, from which vantage point I hoped to spot him more easily. The evening was peaceful and the sun low, its last rays still lighting up the side of the mountain above the castle. I had not walked for long when I saw him emerge from the grotto next to the fountain of Father Rhine, where he proceeded to seat himself upon a stone bench and enter into a state of deep contemplation. I made my way straight there, and as he saw me draw near he rose from the bench and bowed.
“Your Highness, I bid you a good even.”
“And I you, Sir.”
“I hadn’t thought to see you walk about here at this late hour. It will soon be dark.”
“I have little to fear from the dark. It is those who sometimes linger about in’t that we must needs be wary of.” I gestured along one of the paths that led away from the fountain. “Will you walk with me?
“By all means, Highness. It will be my privilege.”
We made our way over the stones, walking side by side. In the past our exchanges had invariably turned into each taking the measure of the other, a wary game of words to determine whether we might become formidable opponents or conspiring allies.
“This is the best time of the day, I often think,” I said.
“Perhaps, like me,” Scultetus answered, “you rather enjoy the fading of the light.”
“Light will have its uses,” I replied, “for that which would remain hidden under cloak of night cannot fail to find itself exposed in the broad light of day.”
“I come to take advantage of the solitude and quiet.”
“The Bible says it is not good for a man to be alone.”
“Forgive me, Highness, but you apply the passage improperly. Those words of scripture were meant to convey a different meaning.”
“That a man may benefit from the companionship of a woman. I am well aware of such.”
“That would constitute only a portion of the teaching.”
“Another might be that it allows for a wife to offer advice to her husband.”
“He would be wise to take counsel as well from those others who have his trust in such matters.”
“Just as you, for example, might counsel my husband in the matter of his ambitions to the Bohemian crown.”
Scultetus folded his hands solemnly across the front of his dark robes. “Those opinions I might offer come only after careful consideration, and always accompanied by prayer.”
“My husband values your counsel greatly. Tell me, how is it you advise him where this matter of the crown is concerned, now that he has seen it offered to him?”
“I take neither one position nor the other, only caution him that it must be a matter of prudent judgment, one in which haste should play no part.”
“But what if hesitation be the very thing to bring about trouble?”
We had come to stand before a low stone wall overlooking the town below, the lights coming on here and there, the river a ribbon of darkness. The Pastor turned to look up over his shoulder. “Look there how the woods high up on the mountain capture yet the last rays of the sun, even as that which lies below has already fallen into darkness.”
“Then it would be better to seek the mountain top.”
“Not if all there is to look down upon lies in the gloom.”
“Light will come again.”
“Just so. It only needs patience to wait for morning.”
“Yet sometimes waiting allows for those who would act under the cloak of darkness to do their worst. My husband has every right to ascend the throne, and there are many who would see him do it sooner rather than later.”
“And who stand to gain a great deal, a fact like as not to cloud their judgment.”
“Yet you yourself would be among those who benefit much.”
“And so with you.”
“Then how is it we are not of the same mind?”
“Where there is much to gain there is much to lose. If your husband takes the throne, it shall be seen as an affront, indeed a threat, to the sanctity and security of the Holy Roman Empire, a provocation impossible to ignore and full of danger. You must agree in this.”
“But surely we can prepare ourselves for what will come of it.”
“War. That is the only outcome.”
“Then it means war.”
“I hadn’t thought Your Highness to be so fierce.”
“I would not shy away from battle.”
“But it is your husband wh
o will have to fight.”
“Then he will fight.”
“And if he should lose?”
“You will enlist the help of our Lord, to whom you pray daily with such devotion and piety, and in this you can be a powerful ally to help him win.”
“The Catholics will do as much for their side.”
“Then God will have to choose.”
“Prayer notwithstanding, it is soldiers that are needed. It will take a very great many of them to see it through. War is simple mathematics, and if the Hapsburgs should wish it so, they can produce numbers from Spain that do not bode well for us.”
“But what if by this gesture to take the crown for the region we spark courage in those of our side? Would you not have it so?”
“He will make as many enemies as allies, I fear.”
“He has both now.”
“I beg pardon, Highness, but it is time for vespers, and so I take my leave. Perhaps we may talk of this again at some future time.”
“I mean not to intrude upon your duties, but can we meet here again tomorrow evening, that I might to seek further counsel from you?”
“Highness, I am at your service, and would see you satisfied.”
“Until tomorrow, then.” I put my hand out and he bent to kiss it, hovered over it at length, then with lips pursed, kissed it with an unbecoming delicacy that made me withdraw my hand rather abruptly and wish him a good evening.
I decided next day to consult with Captain Hume, all that was left to me now in the way of counsel I could trust. I thought him capable of some sway in the matter and hoped he might offer some insight into the man Scultetus. The Captain, though unbound by the lesser protocols of courtly propriety, disdainful of its gossip and backbiting, nevertheless did not shrink from sticking his nose into affairs when he felt the need to. He was the best kind of pariah, one who disdained pretense and piety yet seemed to have a talent for exposing it in others. I found him one afternoon upon the grounds of the artillery garden, where he engaged almost daily in physical contests of one sort or another with the young men of the castle eager to take instruction from him. His reputation as a formidable adversary in hand-to-hand combat was by that time well known, and when I approached on this day he had before him a group of men in armour wielding sword and shield. When the Captain saw me he put up a hand to stop the proceedings immediately, but I insisted he carry on, that I might play the part of spectator for a while. My presence seemed to bring the young men into a state of increased energy as they puffed out their chests, redoubled their efforts, and made a great show of grunting and shouting as they engaged the adversary.