Rebellion (28 page)

All that summer rumours flew about like birds
in the wind.

Margaret's husband had been summoned to
parlia ment in May and Margaret had insisted on travelling with him, because it was not
usual for him to be summoned and because she did not want to stay at home, waiting for
news. So they stayed together at the Mitre in Cheapside.

It was at this parliament that King Edward
made his startling announcement. He would need £60,000 to invade France.

Disturbances followed, for the king had
promised to impose no more taxes. And some of the people thought it was madness to wage
war with the most powerful country in Europe when you could choose to ally yourself with
it, as Warwick had said. Others, however, thought that the king should reclaim the old
kingdom that had once stretched as far as the Pyrenees. The deposed king, Henry, had
inherited the crowns of both England and France at his birth and until King Edward had
both he was only half a king.

The first part of his campaign would consist
of sending an armed force to Brittany to help Duke Francis oppose his French
oppressors.

So this was worrying enough, because
Margaret and Henry had to wonder whether, having been summoned to parliament, Henry
would now be recruited to fight. But the weeks passed
and no summons
came. And despite taxing the people so heavily, the king showed no sign of raising an
army. The wedding of his sister, however, that had caused such controversy between the
king and the Earl of Warwick, was to go ahead as planned in July.

People said that Warwick would sweep down
with a vast army from the north, as Queen Margaret had done eight years before. But
then, unexpectedly, Warwick came to court. On the first day of July he escorted Margaret
of York as far as Margate, before returning to London to try those traitors against the
king who had refused to pay the tax.

But there was hardly any time to wonder
about that before news came that Jasper Tudor had invaded Wales.

And Margaret surrendered herself wholly to
anxiety.

Her former brother-in-law had sailed all the
way from France to the Dyfi Estuary. He had marched from there to Denbigh, gathering
more than 2,000 Welshmen on the way, and had burned both the castle and the town. Then
he'd held trials and assizes in King Henry's name, summarily executing those who
supported King Edward. So rapid and successful was his campaign that rumour had it Queen
Margaret was on her way from France to join him.

He was marching towards the Lancastrian
garrison at Harlech, which for seven long years had been under siege, to free the men
and invade England with them. But then King Edward ordered William Herbert to raise the
biggest army he could to take Harlech. Some said the army he raised was
10,000-strong.

Two wings of it converged on Harlech from
the east and south, scaling the great cliffs with pickaxes and ropes, raining arrows of
fire over the walls. For one month they subjected Harlech to the bombardment of great
guns and boulders, blockading it by sea so that aid could not come from Ireland. And so
in one month, after seven years of resistance, Harlech surrendered to William
Herbert.

No one knew where Jasper Tudor was. Margaret
waited avidly
for news, but only rumours came. He was dead, she heard,
then taken alive, then that he had escaped dressed as a peasant, with a bale of hay on
his back.

The captains of Harlech were beheaded,
except for Richard Tunstall, who had made his way there after King Henry had been
captured, and for three years had led the garrison against the siege. For him,
unexpectedly, Herbert had procured a pardon.

News followed shortly of the names of the
dead, but Jasper's was not among them. And if he had been killed, the Yorkists would
surely have proclaimed it far and wide.

But he might as well be dead. Dressed as a
peasant, living as a fugitive; all his men scattered and Harlech lost. Jasper had reaped
a bitter harvest that year.

She did not care; in fact, she was angry.
Furious with him for putting her son's future in jeopardy again. She had not seen her
son since the visit to Raglan last year, although there had been some discussion by
letter of her proposal that he should come to visit her. But her most recent letters had
gone unanswered.

If Jasper had won, war would have broken out
again between King Edward and Queen Margaret. But he had not won, and King Edward might
decide to take retribution on Jasper's family. He might send her son into exile or
imprisonment, where he would be out of reach of the Lancastrians because he was the last
link in England to the Lancastrian line.

She had sent a stream of messages to Lady
Herbert expressing concern for her son's welfare and her hopes that this recent strife
would not come between them. She hoped that her son's visit to Woking could go ahead as
planned.

Nothing.

When she heard the news of Jasper's defeat,
it brought back all the old memories of Edmund, who had also been defeated by Herbert,
but still she wrote again, congratulating them and suggesting that now at last her son
could visit her at Woking.

Finally in September the messenger came. A
youngish man,
bearing Herbert's insignia and an unlikeably cocky
assurance. He came in and sat at her table without being asked, then looked up at her
expectantly.

She sent her servant for refreshments in
response to his unspoken demand then looked at him in some trepidation. ‘Well?' she
said.

‘My Lady Herbert sends you greetings,' he
said, ‘and her assurances that your son is quite safe.'

She sat at the table facing the messenger
and clasped her hands. ‘I am most grateful,' she said. ‘Most grateful indeed to Lady
Herbert.'

‘He has been safely returned to her care,'
he said, and for no reason her heart began thumping irregularly.

‘Returned?' she said.

‘From accompanying Lord Herbert to
Harlech.'

She gripped the table with both hands. ‘He
was at the siege?'

‘Along with Henry Percy and Lord Herbert's
own son. But he was kept quite safe.'

‘Safe?' she said.

‘No harm came to him. He was surrounded by
Lord Herbert's men. And now he is safely returned.'

‘He is – so young,' she said.

‘Not too young for a first taste of battle.
I myself was only ten years old when I was first taken to the field.'

She didn't care how old the messenger had
been. ‘Anything could have happened!'

‘Lord Herbert would not allow any harm to
come to him,' the messenger said. ‘He was kept quite safe at all times.'

She was about to say that this was not her
definition of
safe
. How
safe
was it possible to be among all the
arrows and gunshot and fighting men? But at that moment her servant arrived with a tray
of wine and cakes.

‘Please,' she said, nodding at the tray to
indicate that he should eat. ‘You must excuse me – one moment –' and she hurried from
the room to her husband's study.

It took Henry some time to
make sense of what she was saying, that her son had been taken to fight against his
uncle. ‘Herbert must have wanted him as hostage – yes – in case Harlech did not
surrender!' she said.

Nausea rose in her at the image of her son
being strung up before the castle walls, having his throat cut by one of Herbert's
men.

‘You do not know that,' her husband
said.

‘Why else would he be there?'

‘To give him experience of battle?'

‘But he is just a
child
!'

‘And he is safe. You have heard that at
least.'

‘
Safe!
' she said. ‘Herbert would
have sacrificed him – without a thought –' She could not continue. ‘I will go to them,'
she said.

‘No,' said her husband.

‘They cannot use my son as their shield
without consulting me – but of course they would not consult me – they know I would
never allow it!' Her voice rose and she lifted her hands to the side of her head as if
to contain the awfulness of her thoughts.

‘You cannot go to them,' her husband
said.

‘Then I will write.'

‘No.'

‘I will write to the king.'

‘Listen to me,' her husband said. Gently he
took her hands away from her head and pressed her into a seat. ‘You cannot write to the
king now. He will be in no mood to grant any favours to Jasper Tudor's sister-in-law.
For all he knows you aided the invasion.'

‘I did not!'

‘He doesn't know that. You don't want to
attract his attention right now. Who knows what may follow.'

She tried to get up, but he held her
hands.

‘But what can I do?' she said.

‘Do nothing – say nothing. Your son's
inheritance and title are
probably safe as long as Herbert still wants
to marry him to his daughter.'

She was silent. That was another aspect of
her son's situation she had planned to challenge. Before all this.

‘Is the messenger still here?' her husband
asked. She nodded.

‘Go back to him. Thank him for his news.
Pass on your gratitude. Say that you are grateful indeed to them for taking such good
care of your son.'

Tears welled in her eyes but she did not
cry. After a moment Henry released her hands.

The messenger had finished the cakes and
there was a broad scattering of crumbs across the table. He rose, wiping his moustache
as she entered.

She repeated what her husband had told her
to say. Her lips felt as though they were hardly moving. Then, unable to help herself,
she added, ‘Tell Lady Herbert that I am grateful for her reassurance, but I would like
to see my son myself – at her earliest convenience.'

The messenger moved his head slightly,
expressing doubt. ‘My lord and lady are extremely busy at the moment,' he said, ‘with
the new earldom.'

She looked at him.

‘Pembroke,' he said, as if she should have
known. ‘King Edward has taken it from the old lord, Jasper, and given it to my
master.'

She managed to smile. ‘Then more
congratulations are due,' she said. He bowed, then stood waiting until she realized she
had not given him any money. She took some silver from her purse. Then at last he was
gone, and she was able to sit down at the table and moan aloud.

But her husband was right. There was nothing
to be done except to lie low, and return to the prosecution of their case in Kendal,
which involved the Earl of Warwick and his supporters, the Parrs.

Margaret had inherited two thirds of the
lordship of Kendal
from her father. After his suicide, this portion
had reverted to the crown. In 1453 the king had granted it to Edmund Tudor, so that
Margaret could inherit it in the case of his death. And she should have inherited it,
but Warwick was claiming that the inheritance was void, because Edmund had been
posthumously attainted. All his estates should have reverted to the crown. Now the earl,
who owned the other part of the lordship of Kendal, wanted to create a barony there and
give the whole estate to his liegemen, the Parrs.

Margaret could not ignore this, of course,
because it meant that both she and her son would lose their inheritance. So they had
consulted lawyers, investigated all the old deeds, going back more than a hundred years.
And they had challenged Warwick's claim that Edmund had been attainted – in fact, only
Jasper had been attainted after Towton.

They had been advised to submit their case
to the Court of Exchequer, where it would wait until the king had time, in this eventful
year, to consider it. And the timing could hardly be worse now, after Jasper's invasion
of Wales. Even so, they had assembled the documents – deeds, writs, bonds, titles to
estates, claims and counter-claims – and sent them off. And fortune took an unexpected
turn in their favour, as a new rumour rocked the land. The Earl of Warwick had obtained
a papal dispensation for his daughter to marry the Duke of Clarence.

The king at once dispatched his own emissary
to Rome to prevent this. Edward was furious with his brother, with the Earl of Warwick
and with the earl's brother, the Archbishop of York, who, as it was well known, aspired
to the office of cardinal. He confiscated several of the lands of the Archbishop of
York, granting many of them to his own brother-in-law, Lord Scales, and insisted that
the office of cardinal be given to the Archbishop of Canterbury instead.

And the proposed invasion of France was put
off until the spring, while this business was settled.

Perversely, the people were not happy about
this. Rumours
spread that no invasion had ever been intended. The
money collected from the tax had all been used up, they said, on the wedding of the
king's sister to Duke Charles of Burgundy.

And then a series of Lancastrian plots were
discovered that autumn. Many people were arrested and interrogated, including the Earl
of Oxford, who was married to Warwick's sister.

It seemed to Margaret that, despite what her
husband had said, there was a good reason for her to write to the king after all.

‘I think we should invite him to visit,' she
said.

Henry looked at her over his spectacles.

‘He has given us this beautiful home,' she
said, ‘and we have not invited him yet.'

Henry put his documents to one side. ‘The
king,' he said, ‘has other matters on his mind.'

‘Exactly,' she said. ‘And he needs to know
that we support him in them.'

When Henry did not reply to this she said,
‘Now is the time for us to prove to the king that we are not in league with those who
have acted against him – with Jasper, or with any of these other conspirators. He needs
to know that we are above suspicion – that he can count on us – on you – for
support.'