The King Must Die (The Isabella Books) (35 page)

Tears filled her eyes. But tears of what?

“Father has long since ceased wanting to be a part of the world that you and I know. His birthright—the Crown of England—he reviled it. He was glad to be free of the burden. The life he lived, he said, was merely a test of his faith—a faith that often wavered. Truly, he is at peace now. I want you to be at peace, too, Mother. He forgave you long ago, and I came here to tell you that I forgive you, and Mortimer, for all that has been done or misunderstood between us.”

I knelt before her, my head bowed. “It is me who begs your forgiveness now. Should you deny me, I’ll love you no less, for I have been guilty of arrogance and presumption. Ambition blinded me. It was a trait Mortimer and I shared.”

“I loved him so much.” She said it so plaintively that it struck me hard and heavy.

I placed my head in her lap, as I had when I was a very small boy, begging for a story to stave off bedtime.

“Do not hold Roger as the villain in all this, my son. He was not. There was more good in him than you know. More than you know.”

“Then I was wrong—about both of you.”

Mother stroked my hair, winding a loose curl around one of her fingers. Her voice was husky, roughened by a sea of tears that had long since been wept dry. “I forgive you ... for everything.”

I looked up at her. It was not easy to abandon the past, to let go of an anger that was so familiar that without it, I felt as if I were bereft of both weapon and shield. But with her words, she vanquished it, for both of us. She had set us in the present, to live for today, to go forward.

“You will come to Windsor to see our newest son—Lionel?”

“I will.” She encircled me in her arms and laid her head on top of mine. Then ever so faintly, I heard the murmur of a lullaby rising from her throat.

“Lionel—he has the colic. Philippa is distraught. Like you, she refuses to abandon her children entirely to nursemaids. You must tell her what you did for my brother John. I remember you saying once that he was impossible as an infant.”

She gave a short laugh. “There was nothing I could do. It was his nature. It passed. All things do.” She hummed again and I sensed myself drifting away, weary from my journey.

“Windsor,” she said. “So much of your childhood spent there. Take me there, will you, and tell me more of the children on the way?”

“Tomorrow,” I promised.

Today I would simply be with her.
Today
.

What is done cannot be undone, but what will be done tomorrow ... has yet to be done at all.

Author’s Note

For centuries, Queen Isabella has been maligned in both history and literature. One well known fictionalization of events is Christopher Marlowe’s late 16
^th
century drama: Edward II or
“The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer”
; this play may have contributed to prior beliefs regarding Isabella’s involvement in the conspiracy to murder Edward II. Although I have chosen to present quotes within my story from Marlowe’s play, I have strayed far from his version of events.

Readers are advised to keep in mind that, while based on extensive research and set within the framework of actual events, this novel is a work of fiction. The dialogue and internal motivations assigned to the characters are entirely my own invention. The chroniclers of Isabella’s time, such as Jean le Bel, Geoffrey le Baker and later Jean Froissart, have provided us with many details of the era, but not all the answers. In 1878, the discovery of the letter from Manuel de Fieschi eventually caused scholars to re-examine events. Modern historical biographers (of Edward II, Isabella, Roger Mortimer and Edward III) have studied and written about the death of Edward II and also Isabella’s relationship with Roger Mortimer. For those who wish to explore the era further, many works of non-fiction may be read for various interpretations of documented facts—although even historical accounts may contain elements of bias.

Whichever theory one chooses to believe, the thing that has always spurred my imagination is pure and simple curiosity. Did Edward indeed love his ‘favorites’ in a way that he could never love his own wife? There is no dispute that he both relied on Despenser and gave him his unconditional loyalty. He had lost a close and trusted friend once before with the execution of Piers de Gaveston, so it is no wonder that in the case of Despenser he would defend him even more steadfastly.

Once Isabella decided to separate from her husband and take control of matters, how much of the invasion and the deposition of her husband was her idea and how much was the machination of Roger Mortimer? I have no doubt that in some ways both Isabella and Mortimer used each other to achieve their revenge. I do believe, however, that Isabella was wholly enraptured with her lover and received from him a degree of affection that Edward was unwilling, or unable, to offer. Had she lived today, she might have sought a divorce. As a woman in the 14
^th
century, though, she did not have that option. It has been speculated by some historians that she was, at one time, pregnant with Mortimer’s child; however, no proof of such a child exists.

It would have been no stretch to think Isabella believed her son would be a better king than his father, but even that assumption generates more questions. Why did she govern so sternly in his minority and seek to increase her own wealth and that of Mortimer’s? Did she foresee a split between Edward III and Mortimer? Or had her treatment at Despenser’s hands hardened her to the opinions of others and fired worldly ambition in her in an age when women were discouraged from holding power outright?

Also, at what point did Edward III learn the truth of his father’s whereabouts? Some accounts put that discovery at a much earlier date than what I have depicted. If such is the case, then we would have to view Edward III’s actions in a vastly different light.

It was after his receipt of the de Fieschi letter and a trip to the continent that Edward III appears to have extended more liberties to his mother. During her aging years, Isabella was allowed to travel more freely and was often later in the royal household. She seems to have developed a fairly close relationship with her daughter-in-law, Queen Philippa. Isabella did live to see each one of Edward and Philippa’s children born—thirteen in all.

After a prolonged illness, Isabella died at Hertford Castle in August of 1358. She was sixty-three—a respectable age for that harsh period in time. She had suffered the neglect of her husband and the ill-will of his avaricious favorite, experienced the guilt of a scandalous love affair and bore the blame that her own son heaped upon her for his father’s death. Yet to pity, or despise, Isabella for all of that is to overlook her strength, much of which she wielded tacitly throughout her life.

Edward III lived to be sixty-five. History views him as one of England’s greatest warrior kings—the victor of Halidon Hill in 1332 against the Scots, and ten years later against a French force four times the size of his own at Crécy, and then again along with his son Edward at Poitiers in 1356, where he took as his prisoner, King John of France. Another of Edward III’s royal prisoners was his own brother-in-law David of Scotland, whom he kept under close guard in London for eleven years. During David’s absence from Scotland, his nephew Robert Stewart, son of Walter Stewart and Marjorie Bruce, presided over the kingdom of Scotland and later ascended to the throne at the age of fifty-four.

Edward III is also remembered for having begun the Noble Order of the Garter, the motto of which was
“Honi soit qui mal y pense”
(Evil to him who thinks evil). But, like his father and mother before him, even this noblest of kings was not without flaw. His reign ended not with the intrigue which marked its beginning, nor the glorious triumphs that accentuated its height, but rather with disgrace. Following Philippa’s death in 1369, he began to openly parade his love affair with the unsavory Alice Perrers—a mistress whom his aging wife had been painfully aware of. Even though the relationship brought him much public condemnation and the remonstrance of barons and clergy alike, he was impervious to their judgment.

Then in 1376, his beloved son and heir Edward, later known as the Black Prince, died. Edward III, some say by then bereft of his wits and most certainly sick at heart, followed in death one year later. Alice Perrers, with the king until his dying breath, stole the jewels from his dead body and fled.

Edward III was succeeded by his ten-year old grandson, Richard II—whose reign was plagued with its own troubles.

Acknowledgments

No book ever reaches the final stages without outside help. My eternal gratitude goes out to Team TKMD for their professional expertise, honesty and insight: Lance Ganey (cover artist extraordinaire), Derek and Paula Prior (for their keen editing and attention to detail), Sarah Woodbury (who reminded me to keep the creative speech tags in check), and Rebecca Lochlann (who helped me work through the pivotal scene by repeatedly posing the question ‘Why?’).

And to my many readers who have written and shared kind words—you are the reason I continue to tell stories. Thank you, a thousand times over.

About the Author

N. Gemini Sasson
holds a M.S. in Biology from Wright State University where she ran cross country on athletic scholarship. She has worked as an aquatic toxicologist, an environmental engineer, a teacher and a cross country coach. A longtime breeder of Australian Shepherds, her articles on bobtail genetics have been translated into seven languages. She lives in rural Ohio with her husband, two nearly grown children and an ever-changing number of animals.

Isabeau, A Novel of Queen Isabella and Sir Roger Mortimer
(2011 IPPY Silver Medalist in Historical Fiction) is the prequel to
The King Must Die
. Sasson is also the author of a trilogy about Robert the Bruce:
The Crown in the Heather (The Bruce Trilogy: Book I)
,
Worth Dying For (The Bruce Trilogy: Book II)
and
The Honor Due a King (The Bruce Trilogy: Book III)
.

For updates on N. Gemini Sasson’s books as they happen:
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For more details about N. Gemini Sasson and her books:
www.ngeminisasson.com

Books by N. Gemini Sasson (click on the cover image to go to the book at the Amazon US site):