Queen Of Four Kingdoms, The (31 page)

‘Madame,’ Pierre informs her, ‘La Trémoille referred to it as an act of treachery, and pointed the finger at Arthur of Richemont as the prime mover’.

‘If this is so, then why has no complaint, or even mention, been made by La Trémoille to Charles VII of my having done the same, and with his father’s sanction! It is becoming clear to me that the young king is already under the spell of his new favourite!’ No sooner said than she hears to her consternation that Charles has banished the good Richemont from the court.

During her absence over the past four years, these powerful lords, La Trémoille and Richemont, have devastated their province of Poitou with their private war. Since her return, Yolande has daily become more aware of the number of the king’s nobles pursuing their own interests throughout the country, some behaving no better than robber barons: minting false coin, kidnapping heiresses, robbing peasants and raping their wives.

It doesn’t take her long to assess the court and its courtiers, and what she sees and hears does not gladden her heart. It is plain that even those men whom she put in place to guide and help Charles have been corrupted by power and an easy life. Apart from the despised bully La Trémoille, one of the worst is Jean de Louvet, whose wife is one of Marie’s ladies, and whose daughter – known mockingly as ‘Louvette’ – is said to be Charles’s mistress. Louvet, she hears, was deeply involved at Montereau, and has become immensely rich – too rich, too soon, for an honest man. Further, it is commonly known that Charles has presented him with a magnificent flat diamond called ‘Le Miroir’ as a gift. The court gossips that this was the price of his daughter’s virginity.

Then there is Pierre de Giac, who with his wife was also culpable in the conspiracy at Montereau, arriving there with the Burgundians and lending the duke his wife to reassure him. Giac has become particularly close to Charles and is thought to be the worst influence of all. It is rumoured that he has made a pact with the devil, offering him his right hand in return for a successful career at court. Yolande has met Giac several times; although forty-four years old, he is still attractive and charming. Like many fraudsters, he is entertaining and good company, and has managed to ingratiate himself thoroughly with the king – and, she knows from Pierre de Brézé, it is Giac who is responsible for the infamous
Pages’ House
and has the role of Director of Entertainments there.

Nor has Charles grown out of his childhood habit of playing favourites; worse, she realizes that he is making his chosen ones spy on each other. His aim may be to show that no matter what he owes to his friends, he is bound to no man, but the result is a court that fosters suspicion and intrigue. The atmosphere is rife with bad blood – hatred – and in the middle of it all, the king ensures his personal security by surrounding himself with his Scots archers.

Only now does Yolande fully realize how confused Charles has become. Here is a young man who no longer knows whom to believe or even who he is. At times he seems almost to be two different people. When he was young, she never knew him to have a bellicose nature – if anything, the opposite – and yet he has proved his courage in the past by confronting not only his own father and the King of England, but even the terrible Jean-sans-Peur. Despite this, she knows from Marie and René among others that Charles still has moments of great timidity, trusting no one except his
bonne mère
and Marie. Then, when he does take someone into his confidence, he makes the wrong choice. Some decisions he takes too quickly; at other times, he cannot take any decision at all.

Worst of all, it does not take her long to discover that all her hard work to surround Charles with steadying influences would appear to have been in vain, as one by one, the men she chose so carefully have been corrupted by the power they wield. To her shame, she realizes how often she has mistaken the character of those she selected for Charles.
How can I have been so wrong – I who have always believed I can read the most secret desires of men’s hearts and minds?
The situation is such that Yolande feels as if her labours of the past five years in Charles’s interests have been for nothing.

She visits his chambers to find his staff half asleep, not springing to attention as hers do. She asks for certain documents; they cannot be found. Everyone gives the Queen of Sicily her due, but only just – as if they are not quite sure who she is, and yet they know full well. She asks for his personal administrative staff and they are not in their places despite the lateness of the morning. When Tanneguy du Chastel arrives, she finds herself turning on him in anger. ‘Tanneguy – where is everyone? It is past ten o’clock in the morning. Why are the secretaries not at their desks? Surely there is a great deal of work to be done, especially in the new circumstances?’ To her amazement, even her dear, loyal Tanneguy shrugs his shoulders as if to say,
That is the way things are at this court
. ‘Well,’ she exclaims furiously, ‘it is not good enough – and before I leave again for Provence, I will have to make some changes.’ With that, she strides angrily out of the new king’s chambers.

Soon she must leave again for Marseilles and finish the work there for Louis so he can sail for Naples, but she vows that before she goes she will replace a number of the unsuitable, grasping courtiers – and greedy mistresses – installed at the new king’s court. She interviews around six or seven candidates a day for a variety of posts, and by the end of a week she is quite pleased with those she has chosen. Her scouts have done well to select those she screened. By far the more difficult task is to
remove
those courtiers who surround Charles and whom she considers unworthy. Yolande does not take such decisions lightly or based on hearsay or gossip – no, her choices are made from a vast amount of evidence presented to her. But their removal, she knows, will take both tact and patience.

After some months back in Marseilles, by June 1423, everything is ready for Yolande’s beloved eldest son, Louis III d’Anjou, recently returned from his base in Calabria. At last he can sail from Marseilles for Naples, fully equipped to meet with his enemy. There is no more she can do. Everything is in place; all the preparations have been completed. After working for him throughout almost five years, mostly in his absence, financing his trips to Calabria and back in preparation for this major expedition, Yolande will be able to return to the court in Bourges and try to solve some of the problems there.

Once again she embraces her eldest son on the docks of Marseilles. ‘Go well, my son, as your father would have said. Make this expedition to reclaim your kingdom a triumph. Win and rule what is rightfully yours, and then send for me to glory in it!’ She tells him this with as much encouragement and conviction as she can muster, despite her sinking heart.

‘Beloved Maman, any credit there might be from this campaign will be yours, for I know how you have sustained me these past five years here in the south to the detriment of my siblings, and the king. I thank you with all my heart,’ he says solemnly, but with a smile from those so-familiar blue eyes. One more embrace – they cannot bear the pain of another – and he is gone, without a backward glance, just like his father when he left her for Naples so long ago. She prays that he will triumph; what else can she do? Her heart is breaking and she fears the worst. If only the heirs of Anjou were not in thrall to that irresistible siren’s song of Naples.

M
arie is to give birth to her first child. Yolande has been so excited about this event that she has worked harder than ever to complete all her labours in Provence to arrive in time. And she does – on 3 July 1423 she is there to witness her sweet daughter delivered of a healthy boy. He will be christened Louis – what else could they name him but for the father she loved and the uncle who rescued and guided Charles? France has a new dauphin and there is much rejoicing. Isabelle and René arrive to attend the splendid christening in the Great Hall of the palace, conducted by the Archbishop of Bourges. Standing beneath the golden canopy used at Marie and Charles’s wedding, with the arms of Anjou joined to the royal fleur-de-lis of France, the congregation is almost overwhelmed by the intoxicating scent of countless lilies, as well as the glow from hundreds of candles illuminating even that large space.

The country rejoices at the news; optimism is in the air, fires are lit and people make merry. How proud Charles is, and elated, to be feted as the father of a new dauphin. It is the first time Yolande has seen him look at Marie with a semblance of love!

Her grandson is as delightful as Marie’s brother and namesake was at the same age: gurgling, blue-eyed and healthy. For the first time in as long as she can remember, Yolande sees Marie radiantly happy. This is what she lacked more than anything else – her own child to nurture, especially since her influence on her husband is unlikely to grow, no matter how hard she may try.

And there is no doubt that Charles needs some steadying influence. In spite of the air of rejoicing, Yolande regards the court again with a sinking heart. Though her new appointments are in place, the malleable Charles VII is still surrounded by persuasive courtiers vying with one another to influence him for their own benefit – and to his detriment. She decides to remain for some time in Bourges, officially doting on her first grandson while she tries to solve some of the problems besetting her son-in-law.

One thing Yolande knows for certain: if she is to succeed in winning Burgundy over to the side of the king, she must first find a way of removing Georges de la Trémoille. This venal, sophisticated favourite is totally opposed to reconciliation with the duke, and for this among a number of other reasons he must go. But to rid the court of La Trémoille will be a delicate and complex manoeuvre. He is clever, crafty and devious. After much thought, Yolande decides to use the fast-developing skills of her young equerry, Pierre de Brézé. She takes him aside and they work together on a plan. It takes a little time, but with Yolande’s guidance Pierre lays a trap for the favourite, one his venal and greedy nature cannot resist. With clear evidence writ in his own hand, Pierre exposes La Trémoille as a liar and a thief – especially in the way he manoeuvred to have the innocent Arthur of Richemont exiled for treason. Confronted with irrefutable proof, the king banishes La Trémoille and his colleagues from the court.

Following this successful exercise, Yolande judges the time has come to bring Pierre de Brézé to the king’s attention. At her request, her youngest son, Charles d’Anjou, now aged twelve and the king’s godson, has been appointed to his staff. As a royal prince, he is able to confer a knighthood, and does so on Brézé. Thereafter, Pierre is eligible to attend the Royal Council and be admitted into the king’s presence: another able ally to add to his circle at court.

Acting as regent for her eldest son Louis during his absence in Italy, Yolande visits Anjou to help her people organize their defence against the English, who are advancing once again. On 19 August 1423, the Queen of Sicily makes her official entry into Angers, accompanied by René, who hopes to be of some use.

The situation in Anjou is not much better than in Bourges. The Duke of Suffolk’s army is almost on the doorstep, and although the Angevins do not have anything like a substantial army with which to confront the English, everyone who is able-bodied has volunteered and rallied around the standard of the Count d’Aumale, Anjou’s most capable soldier. René is still too inexperienced to be given a command, but after the inevitable confrontation with the English as they attack Anjou and are driven back, his commanding officer informs the regent that her son played his part and fought with energy and verve defending his homeland. She smiles graciously, but inside how proud she is! Somehow the Angevins have managed to defeat Suffolk’s army, but how much longer can their forces succeed against such a powerful enemy? Yolande’s revenues, primarily from Provence as well as from Maine and Anjou, have been poured into young Louis’ efforts to regain his distant kingdom, and there is simply not enough left for her to hire mercenaries.

The most pressing problem hindering a defeat of the English is still the division between the French dukes. Yolande realizes that the time has come for her to become a true queen: to dazzle, be subtle, beguile and use her intelligence to try to dissolve the coalition of French dukes supporting the enemy.

Her first target is the wavering Duke of Brittany, who has changed sides so often; surely she can persuade him once again. A new obstacle has arisen in that his brother, her acolyte, Arthur of Richemont, has recently married the Duke of Burgundy’s sister Marguerite, creating a solid connection with the enemy. Undaunted, Yolande has invited herself to stay with her old accomplice Duke Jean at his capital, Nantes. René will accompany her, and learn from her the art of diplomacy.

Nantes is no more than a full day’s ride from Angers towards the coast of Brittany, a huge fortress castle of similar proportions to Angers. Constructed around the same time, it has seven towers protruding from its rough-stone curtain walls. But inside the fearsome defensive perimeter sits an elegant ducal palace built of white tufa stone earlier in the century, striking in its elegance and in complete contrast to the formidable exterior. Duke Jean is a fine-looking man in his fifties, with the weather-beaten face of someone accustomed to outdoor life and the wind from the sea. Elegantly dressed in a pleasing shade of ultramarine blue, he is outside waiting to welcome his guests, and does so warmly.

‘Madame, my dear friend, what a pleasure it is to have you and your son come to sojourn with me here in Brittany. You will find the sea air bracing and, I hope, the comfort on a par with Angers.’

Yolande and her son dismount and he leads them along the serried ranks of his staff, who curtsey or bow. Yolande knows that her riding habit of dark green becomes her, as does her large green hat with its long white ostrich feather. At her throat she wears white lace and a large emerald brooch. Somehow she has managed to persuade René to be a little less flamboyant in his dress than usual, and he wears a flattering shade of cinnamon. She can tell from the murmuring as they pass that mother and son make a pleasing impression.