Jean Plaidy - The Plantagenet Prelude

The King visited her now and then for old time’s sake and had always retained an affection for her.

Now at Stafford he sent for her. She was delighted to come, always hoping that she could regain her old position with him.

He decided to spend the night with her, and when they were together an idea came to him. It so amused him that he could not stop himself laughing.

‘Now, Avice,’ he said, ‘I want you to do something for me.’

‘Anything I can do for my lord shall be done,’ she assured him.

‘I want you to see if you can lure my Chancellor into bed with you.’

‘My lord!’ Avice was a little hurt. What greater proof could there be of a lover’s indifference than when he suggested she should be turned over to someone else. ‘You cannot mean Thomas Becket?’

‘None other.’

‘But the man is a cleric is he not?’

‘My dear Avice, clerics have been known to enjoy a woman now and then.’

‘Not this man, surely.’

‘So he would have us believe.’

‘You think he is deceiving you?’

‘I don’t know. But I should like to find out. Oh, if I could surprise him in bed with you, Avice, I would reward you well.’

‘I would not ask for rewards, my lord, to serve you.’

‘Nay, you are a good wench and pleasant times we have had together - and shall have more I doubt not.’

‘Yet you would wish me to … to entertain this man?’

‘I would wish you to prove to me that he is not the virtuous fellow he pretends to be. You are a beautiful woman, Avice. Do this for me and I shall not forget it.’

‘What would you have me do ?’

‘He will be coming to Stafford to join the court. I will send for him. When he arrives I wish you to show friendship to him. Ask him to come and see you. Feign religion if you wish. Visit him at his lodging. My dear Avice, you will know how to go on from there.’

‘And then?’

‘He will be staying in the house of a clerk called Vivien. He has stayed there before. I will speak to Vivien and he will play his part. I want him to surprise you in bed with Becket. Then he will be so over-wrought, knowing you have been my mistress, that he will come at once to me and tell me what has happened. It is a simple enough plot.’

‘I doubt from what I know of Thomas Becket that it will succeed.’

‘That is what everyone would say. But you don’t know Thomas. I know the man well. I would know him better. You will do this for me, my dear Avice. I shall regard it as a great favour to me.’

‘I would rather entertain you, my lord.’

‘So you shall. Do this and I will never forget you.’

He studied her appraisingly. She was a very beautiful woman, voluptuous, irresistible.

We shall see, friend Thomas, he thought.

Thomas arrived in Stafford and went straight to the house of Vivien where he had stayed many times before. He was warmly welcomed by the family and taken to his chamber.

He was tired and still feeling weak; moreover he was beset by anxieties. The King would not easily let him refuse the post of Archbishop and Thomas was beginning to think that he would have no alternative but to take it.

It will be the end, he thought. The King and I will be enemies. He will never fall into step and walk beside the Church. There will always be differences of opinion, always conflict. And yet the King was insisting. Although he did not say outright: ‘I command you to take this post,’ it was in his mind.

Vivien came to his chamber to say that a message had arrived for him. It was from Mistress Avice of whom he may have heard.

Thomas wrinkled his brow. ‘I think I have heard the King speak of a lady of that name.’

‘Very likely,’ said Vivien, ‘she was at one time the King’s very good friend.’

‘What can she want of me?’

‘She is asking for an audience.’

‘She may come here.’

She came immediately. She was a very beautiful woman. Thomas could understand the attraction she had once had for the King.

She told him that she had sinned greatly during her life and was now eager to repent.

‘Men go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land to take part in crusades. What can a woman do?’

‘You could go into a convent.’

‘I fear that would be too easy a way out. You must forgive me for taking up your time but something told me that only a man such as you could give me the advice I need. Will you promise me to think of the matter?’

‘The answer is in yourself,’ said Thomas. ‘Only you can save your soul.’

‘Yet such a man as yourself can best advise me. You are a man of God and yet you live at court. You share much of the King’s life. You yourself must have had temptations.’

‘We have all had temptations,’ answered Thomas. ‘We overcome them through prayer. Go away, pray and ask God’s help and the answer will come to you.’

‘Thank you. You have eased my mind considerably. May I come and see you again?’

Thomas said she might and that he would mention her in his prayers.

‘That gives me great comfort. How much more readily will your prayers be listened to.’

When she had gone Thomas forgot her. He had matters of State to ponder on and he could not help but return to the constant question of the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

The next day Avice came again. She found it difficult to pray, she said. Would Thomas teach her?

Thomas, who never turned a supplicant away, said he would pray with her and again advised her to sell her worldly goods and go into a convent.

She used all her wiles, she admitted that she had been the mistress of the King, a fact which aroused Thomas’s interest. She came close to him as she talked and the musk smell with which she scented her clothes was pleasant to him. She was a very attractive woman and cleverly skilled in all the arts of seduction. How easily Henry would have succumbed.

He sighed, thinking of the weaknesses of the King, and marvelled that a man so strong, so able a ruler, so determined on getting his will could yet so easily be tempted.

When Avice left Vivien spoke to her. She was smiling as though well pleased with herself.

She must be coming this night, thought the clerk, for the court was moving on the next day and tonight was the only time it could be.

Thomas returned to his chamber and all was quiet.

It was midnight when the King arrived. He was wrapped in a concealing cloak so that none would guess his identity.

Vivien came to the door holding high a horn lantern. The King stepped into the house.

‘The Chancellor is here?’ he asked.

‘Yes, my lord,’ said Vivien. ‘In his bedchamber. I’ll warrant he is not alone.’

‘Go to his room,’ said the King. ‘Do not knock on the door. Throw it open and see what you find.’

Vivien took the horn lantern and mounted the stairs silently. Gently he opened the door of Thomas’s bedchamber. He shone the light of the horn lantern round the room.

The bed was empty!

Vivien felt exultant. The plot had worked. If Thomas’s bed was empty then he must be sleeping elsewhere and where? In Avice’s bed.

How delighted the King would be.

Henry was standing behind him.

‘What?’ he whispered.

‘He is not here, my lord. He is sleeping elsewhere this night.’

‘I know where,’ cried the King and then he stopped short. For kneeling at the bed in a deep sleep, his face pale and drawn in the light from the horn lantern, was Thomas.

The King stared at him for some moments and a great tenderness came over his face.

He put his finger to his lips and with a nod of his head ordered Vivien to proceed downstairs.

‘He has fallen asleep over his prayers,’ he said. ‘Why did I ever think I could catch a man like Thomas? He can never be caught for this simple reason, that he would never fall into temptation.’

Richard de Luci with the Bishops of Exeter and Chichester called on Thomas.

They talked to him long and earnestly.

They believed that his duty lay clearly before him. He had the King’s confidence. Henry would listen to him as to no other man. The Church needed him. The See of Canterbury had remained vacant too long. Clearly it was the duty of Thomas Becket to take the robes of office.

The King had determined that he should; and now the members of the clergy were in agreement with the King.

Thomas knew that the easy happy friendship with the King must decline. His mode of life must change. Yet the challenge had come and he knew he must take it.

Thomas gave his promise that he would accept the King’s offer and become the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In his castle of Falaise the King talked with his wife and mother and the subject of their discourse was the new Archbishop of Canterbury.

Matilda, now showing her age but as fiery as ever, was repeating what she had said many times before which was to the effect that her son had made a great mistake when he had chosen Thomas Becket.

Eleanor shrugged her shoulders. Becket did not greatly interest her but she did deplore Henry’s obsession with the man which was now spreading to their son Henry. When she had last met the child he had shown his adoration for the Archbishop and seemed to look up to him as a divine being. It was all very tiresome, but better, she thought, that the King should spend his time with a man like Becket than to be sporting with all kinds of women.