The King's Man (The Order of the White Boar Book 2)

by Alex Marchant

  ‘And as ever at his side nowadays, my lord of Buckingham,’ Alys went on. ‘I wonder what we shall see or hear if we remain?’

  The Duke of Buckingham had reined his midnight stallion to a halt a little in front of the other lords. Seeing him, attired in vibrant purple shot through with gold thread, a stranger might have imagined him to be the leading man in the government of the realm. But now the friar at the cross started to speak and what he said soon drove away all thought of Duke Henry.

  First of all the man raised his hands as though to silence the crowd. This was a gesture so unnecessary it made me want to laugh. Here as elsewhere, it was as though everyone was holding their breath, waiting. The silence was broken only by the shifting of horses and the faint cry of a child, hushed as soon as it began.

  He cleared his throat.

  ‘I take as my text this morning a verse from Solomon, chapter 4 verse 3: Bastard slips shall not take root.’

  His voice was strong and distinct and it caught the attention of everyone there.

  Following a brief discussion of the meaning of his biblical text, to my surprise he spoke in glowing terms of the old Duke of York, Duke Richard’s father, of how he had been a great nobleman of England, heir to the true kings of old, before his betrayal and brutal murder by the usurping Lancastrians. And of all his sons, the friar said, only one, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had been born in our great realm, in England itself. He was therefore the most truly English, as well as a man of firm moral standing and authority.

  I glanced at Alys. What did she make of this?

  But like the crowd hemming us in, she was transfixed. Whether she was staring at the friar or at the multitude of lords beyond, I could not tell.

  ‘As for legitimate authority, it seems he alone possesses it,’ the man’s voice rang out. ‘For it has come to the attention of the highest lords of our kingdom that our late King, Edward, the fourth of that name, was intemperate in his ways. Before he married the lady Elizabeth Grey, known as Queen, he had been wed to another, one Eleanor Talbot. And it was while that lady was still living, that he took as his wife also that said Dame Elizabeth Grey who bore him his two sons and numbers of daughters. Therefore in the sight of God and our holy mother church, those children are not fit heirs to the throne of England.’

  He paused and the faintest whisper or a sigh ran through the assembled people. Then the friar spoke once more.

  ‘The late Duke of York’s second son, Edmund of Rutland, died without issue. His third, George of Clarence, having been attainted for his treason to our late King Edward, his offspring are also unable to inherit. So it comes to the final son, Richard of Gloucester, who alone is fit to rule.’

  He continued to speak, praising Duke Richard for his nobility, his honour, his steadfastness to his royal brother, his valour in battle, his love for the church, and again, his father’s descent from kings all the way back to the Conqueror.

  But I couldn’t take it all in.

  I turned to Alys in bewilderment.

  ‘Alys, what does it all mean?’

  She remained staring straight ahead, her face unreadable, as she said softly,

  ‘It means that Duke Richard will be King.’

  I looked across to where the Duke sat unmoving on Storm, but he was too far away for me to make out his expression.

  7 To be a King

  Over the next few days the full story filtered down even to me, a lowly apprentice.

  All London was agog with the news, although many who had been in the city these past weeks had had some inkling of what might happen.

  ‘I knew it, as soon as the coronation was delayed again.’ A woman’s voice had floated up to our ears as we pushed our way through the crowd out of the square. The friar had finished his speech and the lords had turned their mounts’ heads to follow the two Dukes away from the cathedral. ‘I knew something was amiss.’

  And, ‘I had my suspicions after old Hastings lost his head,’ said one groom to another as I left Bess to be unsaddled on my return to Master Ashley’s. ‘They say he’d been keeping secrets for the old King for years. Maybe this was one of them. It was bound to catch up with them in the end.’

  News had travelled through the city faster than summer lightning on that day.

  I accompanied Alys and Elen straight back to Crosby Place, the soldiers preferring to usher them back to the safety of its walls and barred gates after the friar’s pronouncement. Yet the crowd remained calm and drifted away alongside us, barely glancing at us or our escort’s livery as we passed wordless through the bustling streets.

  Alys’s thanks were muted as we parted at the townhouse entryway and, each wrapped in our own thoughts, we did not speak about what had happened or of meeting again. But a day or two later another note in code arrived, again summoning me to her side.

  ‘Qcas og gccb og dcggwpzs – Ozmg.’*

  By then the talk of my master’s journeymen and servants was all of my lord Buckingham having spoken to certain collections of lords and great men of the city about Duke Richard’s right to the throne. And it was said that on this day the matter would be discussed by a meeting of Lords and Commons in Westminster that would be a Parliament in all but name.

  As before, I walked to Crosby Place after supper.

  Elen met me in the courtyard, this time with nothing more than a simple greeting, and retired with her sewing to a stool by the hearth after showing me in to the parlour.

  Alys was standing staring out of a window, but swung round as we entered.

  ‘Well, is it true?’

  I was taken aback by her abruptness.

  ‘Is what true?’

  ‘What they are saying. What everyone apart from us in his own household knows about. That Parliament will ask the Duke to be King.’

  I sat down, even though she hadn’t invited me to.

  ‘That’s what I’ve heard. Master Lyndsey, my master’s steward, he says all this is why Parliament wasn’t postponed when the coronation was.’ He had been speaking of it to Master Hardyng, the secretary, in the dining hall. Not that I’d been eavesdropping... ‘He says the Bishop of Bath and Wells told the Duke and the Council that the old King had been married before he met the Queen. That he had himself performed the ceremony in secret. So when King Edward married the Queen, he was already married – to someone who was still alive.’

  ‘So poor Edward and the others are...’

  She couldn’t bring herself to say the word, dropping into a chair next to mine with a mixture of emotions chasing across her face. I carried on to save her.

  ‘The King’s second marriage was bigamous, so it wasn’t legal, yes. So Edward can’t become King because he’s not the legal heir.’

  Silence reigned for some minutes, before Alys spoke again.

  ‘So who was she? His first wife.’

  ‘Lady Eleanor? Master Lyndsey says she was the widow of a Lancastrian knight. Her first husband died some time before King Edward took the throne.’

  ‘A widow? Just like Queen Elizabeth was when she met the King. And her first husband was a Lancastrian too.’

  ‘Was he?’ I asked. As usual, the intricacies of the royal family were a mystery to me. ‘How odd. According to Master Lyndsey, both ladies were older than the King too – by five or six years.’

  Alys’s green eyes narrowed in thought.

  ‘And both marriages happened in secret, didn’t they? When the King and Queen married, they didn’t tell anyone for months. Until the Earl of Warwick said he was arranging a marriage for the King with a foreign princess. Then it all came out. It was quite a scandal. The King should have asked the Lords for permission, of course. And the Earl was especially angry. All his plans went for nothing.’

  Another silence. Were we all thinking about how similar the stories were?

  Elen said quietly, ‘There was a rumour too that the Queen had used sorcery to bewitch the King.’

  Alys rounded on her.

  ‘Sorcery – pah
! Beautiful women don’t need to use sorcery to bewitch men. And everyone says the Queen was very beautiful when she was younger.’

  She still is. The words teetered on my lips, as my memories of Christmas surfaced in my mind, but they didn’t spill out. Instead, smiling at Elen, who had shrunk back at the sharp words, I said,

  ‘Master Lyndsey says there were lots of rumours about the King. That he promised to marry several beautiful ladies before the Queen, but he didn’t honour his promises.’

  Alys nodded, as ever taking no more notice of Elen.

  ‘I heard that when he married the Queen, it was because he wanted to show that he could make his own decisions – that he didn’t need the Earl to do it for him.’

  ‘And meanwhile poor Lady Eleanor was in a convent.’

  ‘Why do you think she never said anything?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘Who knows? Though they say she died not long after. But I wonder whether the Queen knew.’

  ‘Well, it might explain a lot if she did.’ Alys sat back again in her chair, her long pale fingers playing absently with a red-gold curl that hung down loose from her linen cap. ‘Why the Woodvilles wanted to keep the Duke away from London. Why the Queen went into sanctuary so quickly. Perhaps they feared it would all come out once the old King was dead.’

  ‘And maybe that’s why they were so keen to get Edward crowned as quickly as possible,’ I added, thinking back to those days before we reached London.

  Then I remembered with a start what else had been spoken of at Northampton. Should I mention it? Perhaps not.

  But Alys’s sharp eyes had somehow caught my thought, even as I bit it back, and she stared at me now, expectant.

  ‘And what?’

  ‘And – well, the Duke of Buckingham said then that there was a rumour the King had been poisoned.’

  ‘Poisoned?’

  ‘I know he’d blame the Queen’s family for anything,’ I hurried on, ‘but he said it wasn’t a coincidence that the Marquess had just taken charge of the Tower and treasury.’

  ‘Really?’ Alys didn’t appear shocked by the notion. Her calm face recalled that of Duke Richard as he had listened to my lord of Buckingham bluster on. She said thoughtfully, ‘Well, whether or not he was poisoned, perhaps they believed that everything was in place for a smooth, fast takeover if they hurried Prince Edward on to London. That he was young enough to be controlled while they hung on to power. No one would have dared to question his right to the throne once he’d been crowned.’

  ‘But surely they must have known Duke Richard wouldn’t be happy about it all – particularly if he was to be in charge as Protector. And isn’t it well known that he doesn’t like the Woodvilles? I remember Roger mentioning it – something to do with the death of another brother.’

  ‘The Duke of Clarence?’

  ‘I think that was it.’

  ‘He rebelled with Warwick against King Edward, but it was only years later that he was executed for treason. Some people think the Queen persuaded King Edward not to pardon him, because he’d spoken up against their marriage – and that was when the marriage was believed to be legal. And they also say that Duke Richard stayed so much in the north later to avoid her.’

  ‘Did she and her family hope he’d stay in Middleham out of the way?’

  ‘I suppose it’s possible. Maybe they didn’t know he’d be named Protector and would have to come down to London.’

  I cast my thoughts back to the days after news of the King’s death had reached us.

  ‘Didn’t the Duchess say the Queen would have expected to be regent? When we heard her and the Duke speaking about it. They sounded surprised at the Duke becoming Protector instead.’

  ‘I do remember Master Kendall saying after we arrived in London that the King changed his will just before he died. Perhaps that was when he appointed the Duke as Protector.’

  ‘So it might have come as a surprise to the Queen and her family as well, if they thought she’d be ruling the country through her son,’ I said. ‘But – but, really, do you think it’s possible? That anyone would kill a King? Especially his own wife.’

  It was Alys’s turn to shrug.

  ‘I don’t know, Matt. But they do say power and wealth do strange things to people.’

  ‘I don’t suppose I’ll ever find that out,’ I tried to joke. Our talk had become serious – treasonous even, with mention of killing a king.

  But Alys didn’t laugh.

  ‘The Queen’s family had all their power and rich appointments direct from the King too. Perhaps they feared losing them.’

  ‘Would Lord Hastings have been worried about that too? I heard someone say that maybe he knew about the first marriage, that he’d helped keep it secret. Did he think that if Duke Richard discovered he knew all about Lady Eleanor...’

  ‘That the Duke might not want him on the Royal Council?’ Again Alys read the notion that was only just half-forming in my mind. ‘That’s possible. He’d never been the Queen’s friend, but maybe that pushed him to plot with her and her family – the fear that they’d all lose everything because of the Duke.’

  We sat in silence once again, but from a tightening of her lips and the fingers twining in the lock of hair it was obvious something more was gnawing at Alys. It wasn’t long before she spoke up.

  ‘And then there’s my lord Buckingham. Master Kendall says he’s been acting like another Kingmaker this past week or two – pushing the Duke to take the crown if it’s offered to him.’ A shadow passed across her face, like a stray cloud veiling the moon. ‘But I can tell you – each time I’ve seen the Duke since we’ve been here, he’s looked very unhappy. Not as though he’s in any hurry to get any more power. Money, now – Master Kendall says he could certainly do with more of that.’

  ‘Why? Surely the Duke is not short of it.’

  ‘It’s because the royal treasure has disappeared. Duke Richard’s been paying for everything out of his own purse – and that includes arranging the coronation – until it was postponed of course... Though they’ll be arranging another one soon, if all they say is true.’

  In the quiet that followed, Murrey, curled up as normal on my feet, whimpered as she twitched in her sleep. Was she chasing rabbits in her dream, or being chased herself?

  Nudging her with my toe to rouse her, it occurred to me that something was missing.

  ‘Where’s Shadow? I haven’t seen her.’

  ‘Have you only just noticed?’ Alys replied with some scorn. ‘She’s back home in Middleham. The Duchess said she wasn’t a suitable dog for a lady at court. I don’t see why. But at least she’s company for Ed. He’s desperate for a hound of his own, especially since you left with Murrey.’

  ‘The Duke said he probably wouldn’t come for the coronation.’

  ‘He wasn’t pleased. I heard him shouting at his mother when she told him, then sobbing. But she promised she and the Duke would be back before summer’s end.’ She hesitated. ‘Though that may not be likely now.’

  Yet more of Duke Henry’s words at Northampton came back to me.

  ‘Perhaps they thought he’d be safer at home. My lord Buckingham hinted...’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Well, he hinted that not only Duke Richard, but Ed and the Duchess might be at risk from the Woodvilles’ plotting.’

  ‘Then it’s just as well that the Duke and other lords in the Council and Parliament have taken charge and removed them from power. I hear that Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are to be tried for treason. If they’re found guilty, they’ll be executed like Lord Hastings.’

  The Earl’s handsome, courteous face forced its way before my mind’s eye, and Lord Grey’s, contorted by hatred as he tried to strike Duke Richard. As I rose to take my leave, aware from the creeping twilight that the evening was growing late, my thoughts were in turmoil. How complicated were the lives of great men and women – and how dangerous could be the roads that they chose.

  *

  The
next day Master Ashley did not appear at dinner, having left the house during the morning formally dressed in scarlet robes. When he returned to supper, it was to a house abuzz with talk and rumour of events that day in Westminster.

  We apprentices were waiting in line to wash our hands before entering the dining hall when Mistress Ashley bustled out to greet her husband.

  ‘So, is it done?’ she asked without ceremony, as a servant helped him off with his mantle.

  His face grave, he nodded.

  ‘Aye, wife, it is. And done well. His Grace is no longer Protector, but King.’

  And after he sluiced the city dust from his face and hands in the bowl held up for him, he spoke to all of us now thronging about him, apprentices, journeymen and servants.

  ‘This morning Parliament called on His Grace the Duke of Gloucester to ascend the throne. In front of a large gathering of lords and citizens, he agreed and at once was hailed as King Richard the Third.’

  A murmur arose from the assembled household and Simon, standing next to me, whispered something in my ear. But I had attention for no one but my new master as he continued his tale.

  ‘Then His Grace, followed by all the nobles and men there present, rode to Westminster Hall, to the King’s Bench, to take the royal oath. He was a sight to behold – seated in that great marble chair surrounded by all the justices and great men of the kingdom, with the cheers of all of us gathered there ringing in the very rafters. He spoke those words so solemnly, and called for all persons, rich or poor, lord or commoner, to be treated equally in the law. Then he summoned Sir John Fogge, the Queen’s cousin, from sanctuary and clasped him by the hand, swearing to be his friend.’

  Master Ashley paused, running his eyes around all the eager, listening faces, then nodded as though answering a silent, but important question.

  ‘To me, wife, boys, that is the mark of the man who is now to be our king. And let us hope that Queen Elizabeth hears and herself comes out of sanctuary before long.’

  With that, he strode into the dining hall. In a few moments we were all seated at the tables, our heads bowed as grace was said, followed by a prayer for this special day. Though my mind still raked over the confusing events of recent weeks, my voice joined with fervour in the call for our Lord to protect our new sovereign.