Виктория Холт - The Hammer of the Scots

The King hesitated as though putting off the uncomfortable moment and Joanna was alarmed. ‘Pray tell me,’ she said quickly.

‘He is a good deal older than you. But one of your temperament needs an older man. He is deeply enamoured of you.’

‘Please, Father, who?’

‘The Earl of Gloucester – Gilbert de Clare.’

‘Gloucester? But he is an old man.’

‘Older than you certainly but he is not yet fifty.’

‘Not yet fifty. But he has a wife. He is married to Alice of Angoulême.’

‘There has been a divorce. For long he has sought it. That has been no marriage for years. I can tell you he is deeply enamoured of you. He likes your spirit, your beauty. He admires you so much that nothing will satisfy him than that you shall be his bride.’

She was astounded. The most important man in England. She could see that. She began to weigh up the advantages against the disadvantages. She would not leave England. That was the first and most important. Poor Margaret had to marry that rake John of Brabant and go to a foreign land which she might hate and in which she might be a prisoner. An old man who would adore her youth! The most important man in England!

The King was watching her closely.

‘There are many advantages,’ he said. ‘He is a man of great influence. I need him, Joanna, I need him to be on my side. The barons have always presented a danger to the monarchy. You know what they did to your grandfather and your great-grandfather. They ruined one and almost ruined the other.’

‘They could not harm you, Father.’

‘Nay, I do not intend that they should. But I should like to know that the most powerful of them was bound to me … by family ties.’

‘Is the Earl of Gloucester likely to turn against you?’

‘He has turned his coat once. He was with de Montfort for a time you know. But he has fought for me. He did well in Wales against Llewellyn.’

‘Yet you do not trust him enough. For this reason you would give him one of your daughters?’

‘My dear Joanna, I know him to be a steadfast knight where he gives his loyalty. The prospect of marriage to you would make him my friend for life. He is deeply enamoured of you and has been for some time. You will be so beloved that you cannot fail to be happy. To him you will always be young.’

‘As he will always be old to me.’

‘He is rich … there is not a richer man in the land. He will be ready to indulge you. You must marry. You are of an age to marry. I cannot have all my daughters single. He has fine estates … and one in Clerkenwell. If you marry Gloucester, my love, you need never be so far from your mother and me, we can be together at the smallest inconvenience to ourselves.’

‘You are making me like this marriage.’

‘You are making me very happy.’

‘Dear Father, you have been so good about the accounts. You will settle them then?’

‘Could I be so churlish as to refuse my daughter such a request when she is determined to make me happy?’

She kissed him solemnly.

Then she left him. She was longing to tell the news to Eleanor.

* * *

Now the preparations for the royal wedding which was to take place on the thirtieth day of April were in full swing.

Joanna was delighted that she would be the first of the princesses to marry. She felt no apprehension. She was going to live in England; she would be close to her family; her bridegroom was old but he was delighted with her youth which would not have impressed him so much had he been her own age.

She commented to Eleanor that marriage was a tremendous undertaking; if one’s partner was so old that he could not have so very long to live one had a chance of a second choice and if a princess had married once to please her family it was only fair that in her second marriage she should please herself.

Eleanor was horrified, but then Joanna, from her superior experience, would know so much more of the world.

She delighted in being the centre of attraction. Adam, her father’s goldsmith, had made her a magnificent headdress offset with rubies and emeralds. A beautiful robe was being made for her. Her bridegroom was by no means distasteful. He was old it was true; but he emanated power and the fact that even her father was wary of him aroused her admiration. She believed that she could rule him though. He gave signs already that this would be so. Yes, an ageing bridegroom for a while, and then some man of her own choice, if she found marriage sufficiently to her taste that she wanted to embark on it again.

She comforted Margaret who was less happy about her coming marriage. And small wonder. John of Brabant was no doting old Earl of Gloucester. By no means so. What would he want of a child of fifteen when, if rumour was to be believed, he had the most flamboyant mistresses in his own country? Poor little Margaret! How lucky was Joanna!

The wedding day arrived. It was to be a private affair conducted in Westminster Abbey by the King’s chaplain, but after that the feasting and the celebrations began. The people cheered and made merry in the streets, drinking the red wine which flowed from the fountains. They were pleased that this was no foreign wedding, and the most astute of them liked to see the most powerful of the barons united with the King through his beautiful daughter.

Joanna had always been attractive and there were some who thought her vitality gave her an advantage in appearance over the more beautiful Eleanor. Now she glowed with a new beauty which startled all who beheld it, and was a source of great delight to her husband.

She was very eager to see his estates and he was anxious to show them to her but the King and Queen wanted her to stay at Court to join in the celebrations for Margaret’s wedding.

That was to be in July. ‘It is only just over two months,’ said the Queen. ‘Your father and I so want you to be here.’

‘A husband and wife should be alone together for the weeks following their marriage,’ said Joanna demurely.

‘My dear daughter, you will have time for that.’

The Queen, knowing her daughter’s love for horses, gave her five beautiful white steeds for her chariot, in which she could ride through London and enjoy the admiration of all who beheld her.

But she liked to talk of her husband’s estates. She longed to see them. Moreover she wanted to test whether he would defy the wishes of the King and Queen to please her.

Gilbert de Clare, the newly married Earl of Gloucester, explained to her that as soon as Margaret’s wedding was over she would go wherever she wished.

‘But I want to go now.’

‘So do I, my sweet wife.’

‘Then, Gilbert, why should we not?’ Her eyes sparkled. ‘Let us slip away … the two of us. Oh we should be alone you know. It is only right that we should.’

Gilbert insisted that it would be unwise to disobey the wishes of the King.

This made her all the more determined. She had thought, she said a little sadly, that she was the one he wished to please … not the King.

He did. He longed to please her, but the King …

‘My father will forgive me. He always does.’

She had her way as she was determined to. They slipped away early one morning before the Court was awake.

What an adventure riding through the morning with her husband beside her, so besotted with love for her that he was ready to defy the King. Not that there was anything meek about him. It was not the first time he had defied the King. In fact that was the very reason why he had won his Princess.

This gave her a wonderful sense of power and that was what Joanna enjoyed.

The King was angry. He knew this was his daughter’s show of defiance and that Gilbert had acted as he had to please her. In a sudden outburst of temper he said that her wedding outfit should be confiscated. He knew how much she loved her clothes and ornaments.

In the stronghold of her husband’s castle at Tunbridge Wells Joanna snapped her fingers. She had a rich and doting husband. Whatever she wanted – fine silks, velvets, brocades and jewels, and horses for her chariot – she only had to ask for.

Now that he was home Edward became energetically involved in state matters. He had married Joanna to the chief of the barons; he must now give his mind to the union of England and Scotland which he planned to do through the marriage of his heir to the little Queen of Scotland who was still with her father in Norway; there was another matter which seemed of the utmost importance to him and that concerned his Jewish subjects.

After the Norman conquest England had become prosperous and this attracted the Jews who were soon settling in large numbers throughout the country. They specialised in banking and usury and as they were shrewd and energetic with a genius for business they soon became very rich. They were in addition infidels, a fact which people claimed to use against them, but in truth it was their wealth which was envied. The traders and citizens of the big cities would have liked to see them turned out of the country, stories were circulated about them; it was easy to work up hatred against them which could result in riots, the main purpose of which was to loot their places of business and rob them of their possessions. There was a favourite rumour which was brought out every now and then which accused them of kidnapping Christian boys and crucifying them as they had once crucified Christ.

This was usually the preliminary to riots. There was a demand that they should be expelled from the country but a good proportion of their money came to the King, usually through fines or bribes, and if they were no longer in England the exchequer would suffer considerably. To Henry III they had been a source of income and his love of money and the need to satisfy his wife’s insatiable demands meant that he took little action against the Jews.