After a great deal of thought, Joanna decided that it might be a good idea to set into circulation a rumour that she and Ralph were in love and contemplating marriage. They could see what effect this would have on the King and if he took the matter lightly they could come forth and confess. On the other hand if he expressed his fury they could retreat into silence and let him think the affair had come to nothing.

The King was brooding on his own and his eldest daughter’s predicaments when the news of the rumour came to him.

‘It’s a lie!’ he shouted. ‘She would not dare.’ He was horrified. He had been thinking that Joanna was not the sort of woman who should remain unmarried, and he had for some time been considering an offer from the Earl of Savoy who had been putting out feelers suggesting a match between himself and the King’s widowed daughter.

He remembered that she had prevailed on him to bestow a knighthood on Ralph de Monthermer and his fury increased. Of course there was foundation for the rumour. He remembered how she had cajoled him, how she made him forget her late husband’s debts, how she had seemed so happy to be with him and glean such comfort from his presence. When all the time she had been planning to deceive him!

Eleanor would never have done this. Nor would Margaret, Mary nor Elizabeth. Joanna was different. Born in a foreign land, spending the first years of her life with her grandmother, Joanna was different … a deceiver … a siren. But he would teach her a lesson.

He sent for two of his knights and shouted orders to them.

‘Go forward,’ he cried, ‘and confiscate in my name all the lands and possessions of the Countess of Gloucester.’

The very fact that he referred to her as the Countess rather than the Princess Joanna, his beloved daughter, was significant.

They hesitated.

‘Go,’ shouted the King. ‘Did you not hear me?’

So they went.


* * *

Joanna was in despair. So this was how he behaved when he heard a rumour that she was contemplating marriage. What would he say when he knew that the deed was already done?

‘We must act with the utmost care,’ she told Ralph. ‘Perhaps we should separate for a while.’

Ralph said he would face anything rather than that, and their danger seemed to intensify their passion. She was exultant. This was the lover she had been waiting for all her life. He was ready to face death for her sake and he might well do so, for the wrath of the King – though rare – could be terrible. But she doubted he would ever in any circumstances harm his daughter, though he might well vent his wrath on those who had shared her sins.

It was fortunate that she had friends, for one of the knights at the King’s Court who had always admired her decided that he would risk the King’s displeasure if he ever found out, in order to prepare her for the disaster to come.

This knight secretly left the Court and rode into Monmouth Castle and asked to be taken to the Countess Joanna without delay.

She received him at once, and before she could tell him how welcome he was he blurted out, ‘The King is sending his confessor Walter de Winterborn to you. He is to find out the true state of affairs between you and Ralph de Monthermer.’

‘I see,’ said Joanna, her mind working quickly.

‘He is to report whether there is any truth in the rumour that you are contemplating marriage. And he is to bring news of a match the King is arranging for you.’

‘Arranging a match for me!’

‘Yes, an agreement is being made with Amadeus, Earl of Savoy, and the King declares he is eager for you to be married without delay. It will put a stop to rumour.’

There was no way out. She saw that she could not keep her marriage secret much longer, but she could not face Walter de Winterborn now. She could imagine what his probing questions would be like.

She thanked the knight for warning her and went to find Ralph.

‘This is disaster,’ she said. ‘The King has a husband for me.’

‘He cannot have you,’ cried Ralph.

‘Of a certainty he will not. But you see how my father can be when his wrath is roused. Already he has left me nothing, taken everything I possess. Never mind, I’ll get it back. But I must have time. If Winterborn comes here he will discover at once. He will question the servants in his confessional manner, and they won’t be able to stand out against him however loyal they are.’

‘Then what do you propose, my love?’

‘We are going to leave here at once. I must have time. My father will have to know we are married, but I want to tell him myself … and in my own time. Be ready. We are leaving immediately for the Countess of Pembroke’s castle in Herefordshire. She will help me. She has always been my friend. I want to talk to her of all this. I must be able to think in peace.’

‘I will prepare at once,’ said Ralph.

‘I shall take the children with me,’ she went on. ‘My father dotes on the little girls and he will see that no harm comes to them, which means that he cannot send their mother away from them. I shall win him round eventually, but it will take time.’

‘You would always win anyone round,’ replied Ralph admiringly.

She smiled in agreement and in a very short time they were setting out for Goodrich Castle, the home of the Pembrokes, in Herefordshire.

The Countess had always been a friend of Joanna’s although considerably older and she had been recently widowed. Joanna had often confided in her and had complete trust in her. The Countess’s daughter Isabella, wife of Hastings, who was one of the claimants to the Scottish throne, was now with her mother at the castle, and they endeavoured to show Joanna how delighted they were that she should visit them.

Joanna sought an early opportunity to be alone with the Countess. The rumours had already reached her, but she did not know, of course, that the marriage had already taken place. When she was told this she was overcome with horror.

‘But, my dear Joanna,’ she said, ‘the King will be enraged!’

‘I know, and I want to talk over with you what I must do.’

‘Could you not have asked his permission?’

‘No, because it would have been refused.’

‘And it was so important to you?’

‘My dear friend, you have seen Ralph. Is he not a king among men?’

‘He is very attractive, I agree.’

‘I married an old man to please my father. I believe I now have a right to please myself.’

‘But not to marry without the King’s consent.’

‘I have married without his consent, and nothing can change that. What I want to talk about now is not what I should have or should not have done, but what I am going to do now. There is something else, which only Ralph knows. I will tell you …’

The Countess looked at her incredulously.

‘Yes,’ went on Joanna, ‘you may stare. It’s true. I am with child.’ Joanna began to laugh. ‘You see there is nothing he can do now … nothing.’

‘He can imprison your husband and confiscate your lands.’

‘The latter he has already done. Tell me, Countess, what can I do?’

The Countess was thoughtful. ‘There is only one thing,’ she said at length. ‘Go to him. Ask his pardon. Tell him how much you love your husband. Tell him you are to have a child.’

‘He will know that before long. He is angry because I persuaded him to give Ralph a knighthood and told him it was in payment for services to my husband.’

The Countess shook her head. ‘I am sure the storm will pass. The King loves his family dearly as we all know, and I am sure he will not allow more than a passing conflict. He will be angry for a while so perhaps it would be better for you to keep away from him until he is calmer.’

‘I think you are right. But I shall be sent for and I cannot disobey the summons. I think I will send the little girls on ahead of me. He loves them so much as he does all children, and particularly little girls. They will soften his heart. He will never bring himself to be unkind to their mother.’

‘That,’ agreed the Countess, ‘might be a good idea.’

She sent the little girls to St Albans where the King was at that time and news came to her that the King had received them with as much affection as he ever had, that they had been allowed to scramble over him and pull his hair and he had been delighted when they kissed him unasked.

A good augury! thought Joanna.

It was a shock therefore when the King’s guards arrived at Goodrich with orders to arrest Ralph de Monthermer and imprison him in Bristol Castle, where he was to be kept as the King’s prisoner. Joanna – he referred to her as the Countess of Gloucester – was to pay immediately the outstanding debts of the Earl of Gloucester which previously she had persuaded the King to forgo.

It was a sign that Edward was in an unforgiving mood, and more angry with a member of his family than she had ever known him before.

For a month or so the King refused to see his daughter, and she remained as though in haughty indifference to his coolness towards her. But meanwhile Ralph was imprisoned in Bristol and she could not allow that to go on.

Continually she discussed the matter with the Countess of Pembroke and her daughter Isabella.

‘I must do something,’ she declared. ‘I cannot let Ralph stay in Bristol. My father knows that this is the greatest revenge he can take on me … to rob me of my husband. I am going to see him and plead with him.’

The Countess shook her head and Isabella reminded her of the King’s great anger against her. He had been made to look foolish because he had been arranging a marriage for her when she was already married. It was difficult for a proud King to stomach that, said the Countess.