The Strangled Queen (8 page)

Every silent encouragement that she gave him, all the efforts he made, which certainly had none of the appearance of a prince marching to victory, remained unsuccessful
. At last he sat up, trembling,
defeated, ashamed, hesi
tating between rage and tears.

She tried to calm him. "You have walked a long way today. And you got very cold," she said. "You must also be sad at heart, and it is quite natural upon the evening of the day you have buried your father; it can happen to anyone, you know."

With staring eyes he looked at the beautiful fair, woman,
so
available but so inaccessible, stretched out before him' as if she were the incarnation of some mythological punishment.

She gazed at him with compassion.

"It's all
due to that bitch!
" he said. "It's all her fault." Eudeline drew away from him, thinking that the insult was meant for her.

"I was thinking of Marguerite. I cannot help thinking of her, seeing her in my imagination.
And this bed is accursed too! "
he cried. "To, sleep in it into sleep in misfortune!"

"No, Monseigneur Louis," she replied gently, drawing him to her. "No, it's a fine bed, but it is the bed of a king. I understand very well; to free yourself of your impotence, you must put a queen in it."

She was moved and being modest was not in the he least put out,
since she was a good-natured creature. "Do you
really think so, Eudeline? "
he asked, gazing at her.

"Of course Monseigneur Louis; I am sure of it;
in a King's , bed there should be a Q
ueen," she repeated.

"Perhaps
I shall soon have one. It seems that at she is fair like
you."

"That is a great compliment you are paying me," replied Eudeline.

And she turned her face away to hide the wound that he had just dealt her heart.

"It seems that she is very beautiful went on The Hutin and extremely virtuous: She lives in Naples."

"Of course, Monseigneur Louis, of course. I, am sure that she will make you happy. Now you
must try to go
to sleep."

She had drawn his head down on to her warm, lavender
-
smelling shoulder. She listened maternally to his dreaming aloud of this unknown woman, of this distant princess whose place tonight ht she had so vainly taken. With the mirage a
of the future he consoled himself for the misfortunes of the past
and the disappointments of the
present.

"Of course, Monseigneur Louis, that is exactly the kind of wife yo
u need. You will see how virile
you will be with her."

At last he grew
silent. And Eudeline remained
still, not daring to thinking staring move, wide-eyed at the flickering glow of the night-light, waiting for dawn to release her.

The King of France slept.

PART TWO
DOG EATS DOG

1
. The Hutin'
s first Council

EVERY day for the last sixteen years Enguerrand de Marigny had known that when he went in to the Council Chamber he would find
friends there. But this morning he had hardly entered the room
when he felt with certainty that everything had changed. He stood st
ill for a moment, his left hand
at the collar of his robe, his right hand gripping his file of documents.

There were more or less the same number of people as usual sitting on each side of the long table, while the fire on the hearth crackled and filled the room wit
h the familiar odour of burning
wood. It was the faces that were no longer the same.
11

Certainly, the members of the royal family, who by right and tradition attended the Inner Council, were present; the Counts of Valois and Evreux, the Count of Poitiers and the young Prince Charles; the Constable Gaucher de
Chatillon; but they no longer
sat in their accustomed places, and Monseigneur of Valois had installed himself upon the right of the royal chair, where ordinarily Marigny sat.

Nor were Raoul de Presles, or
Nicole-le Loquetier, or Guillaume Dubious, eminent justiciars, faith
ful servants of Philip the Fair
present. New men had taken their places: Mathieu de Trye, Chamberlain to Louis X, Etienne de Mornay, Chancellor to the Count of Valois, and others besides, whom Marigny knew but with whom: he had never worked.

It was not exactly a change of ministry, but rather, as one would say in the language of today, a remodelling of the cabinet. Of the
former Councillors of the Iron King, only Hugues de Bouville and Beraud de Mercoeur had been kept, doubtless because they both belonged to the great nobility. And indeed they too had been sent down to the bottom of the table. All the Councillors who had risen from the middle class had been eliminated. "I
might at least have been told!" thought Marigny a
ngrily.

Speaking to Hugues de Bouville,: he asked in a loud voice, so that he might be heard by all present, "Is Messire de Presles ill? Have Messires de Bourdenai, de Briancon a
nd Dubois been prevented
from attending, since I see none of them here? H
ave they sent excuses for their
absence?"

Fat Bouville hesitated for a mom
ent and then replied, lowering his eyes
as if he were to blame, "I was not responsible for summoning the Council., M
essire de Mornay attended to it."

Marigny's expression hardened and those present awaited an outburst.

But Monseigneur of Valois quickly intervened, saying slowly and affably, "You have not forgotten,
my good Marigny, that the King
calls whom he will to the Council in accordance with his own
judgment. It is the sovereign's
right."

There was a certain contemptuous condescension in the phrase, "My good Marigny," which did not escape the Rector of the kin
gdom. Never would Valois have
spoken to him in that manner, during Philip the Fair's life. Marigny very nearly replied that, if it was in fact'
the King's right to summon to
his Council whom he pleased, it was also his duty to choose its members from men who understood affairs of state, and that people did not become competent in these matters in twenty-four hours.

But he preferred to reserve his strength for some
more important argument
and sat down, apparently calm, opposite Monseigneur of Valois, upon the chair left empty on the left of the royal seat.

Enguerrand de Marigny was forty-nine years old, had red hair turning somewhat yellow with the years, a deep chest and wide shoulders. His chin was heavy and determined,, his aspect rugged, his nose short with wide nostrils.

He held his head somewhat inclined forward and seemed
always about to charge like a bull with his forehead. His eyes, under heavy lids, were restless, quick and authoritative, and his hands, in their nervous slenderness, were in contrast to the heaviness of his general appearance.

He opened his file of documents, took out papers, parchments and tablets, placing them in front of him. But failing to find beneath the table-top the hook upon which he normally hung his file, he sighed irritably and shrugged his shoulders.

Monseigneur of V
alois had begun talking to his
nephew Charles, whom he was telling that a happy surprise would shortly be announced and that he counted upon his support on all points. Monseigneur of Valois, in spite of Court mourning, or perhaps because of, it, was more superbly dressed than ever. The black velvet of his robe had the richn
ess of, fur and was ornamented
with silver embroidery and miniver which gave him an appear
ance of being caparisoned like
a horse in a hearse. He had no papers before him, nor any materials for taking notes. His Chancellor, Etienne de Mornay, had the subaltern duty of reading and writing: as for himself, he contented himself with
talking.

'There were steps in the corridor.

"Here comes Monseigneur Louis," said Hugues de Bouville.

Valois was the first to get to his feet, which he did with so majestic and obvious a deference for him who entered that his manner became of itself protective.

Louis
X glanced round the standing gathering.

"Messires, forgive my being late
.

He fell silent, annoyed by what he had said.

He had forgotten that the King was never late, since he always entered the Council Room last.

He was seized with the same, sort of, anxiety that he had felt the day before at Sain
t-Denis and during the previous
night.

Now was the time that he must show himself King. But it is not a state
that is miraculously achieved,
and Louis waited, his arms hanging loose, his eyes red from the insomnia for which his too-short sleep had not succeeded in making up. He forgot to ask the Council to sit down, or to sit down himself.

Seconds passed, the silence became painful, and everyone, felt that the King was a prey to irresolution.

Marigny made the necessary gesture; he slightly moved the royal chair as if to make it easy for Louis to sit down.

Louis took his seat and murmured, "Be seated, Messires.

In his mind he saw once more his father sitting in the same place and automatically assumed his usual pose: both hands flat upon the table his glance fixed apparently absent. This gave him sufficient assurance to turn to h
is two brothers and say to them
in a natu
ral voice "You should know, my dear
Brothers, that my
first commands this morning have been on your behalf. Philippe, your Countship of Poitiers is raised to a peerage of the realm and
from now on you are numbered among the peers so that you may stand by my side, as Uncle Valois stood beside a father whom God keep, to assist me in supporting the crown.
Charles, you will receive in
fief and apanage the County of la Marche, which our father bought back from the Lusignan, and
which he had the intention,
I know, of giving you."

Philippe
and Charles rose to their feet and went to kiss their brother's cheek as a sign of their gratitude Monseigneur of Valois looked towards his nephew Charles with an expression that seemed `to say, "You see I have done pretty
w
ell by
you.

The others present nodded their heads with satisfaction; as
a
start, it was not too bad.

But Louis X was displeased with himself, for he had forgotten to begin by rendering homage to the memory of his father and by speaking of the continuity of power.

Moreover, he had had a couple of admirable sentences prepared for him during the morning, but they had escaped his mind in the emotion caused by his entrance, and
now he had
nothing more to say.

The silence soon became unbearable again. There was obviously some
one missing from this assembly:
the dead man.

Enguerran
d de Marigny gazed at the young King, obviously
expecting him to say, "Messire, I confirm you in your duties of Coadjutor and Rector-General of the kingdom, Chamberlain,

Chancellor of the Exchequer and Minister of Works, Captain of the Louvre ... Since nothing happened, Marigny behaved as if it had been
said, and asked, "Upon what matters does the King wish
to be
informed? Of the collecti
ng of the subsidies and taxes,
of the state
of
the Treasury, of the decisions of Parliament, of the growin
g famine in
the provinces, of the dispositions of the garrisons, of the
situation in Flanders, of the claims
and demands of the leagues of the barons in Burgundy and Champagne?

This quite clearly signified, "Sire, these
are the questions about which
I a
m busy, and there
are many
others too,
which I could reel off as I say my beads. Do you th
ink you can, get on without me.

The Hutin, anxious and apparently taken aback, turned towards his uncle Valois as if asking for support.

"Messire de Marigny, the King has not called us together to deal with these matters," said the Count of Valois. "He will listen to them later."

"If I am not advised
of the agenda of the Council,
Monseigneur, I cannot be expected to guess it," replied Marigny.

"The King, - Messire," continued Valois as if he had not heard the interruption, "the
King
wishes, to hear our views upon the most, important anxiety which, as
a good sovereign, he can have
that of his posterity and the succession to the throne."

"That is precisely it, Messire,"" said The Hutin, trying to assume a tone of grandeur in order to express a desire from which it was lacking by its very nature. "My first duty, is to provide for the succession to the throne and for that I need a wife

He stopped short.

"The King, therefore, has come to the conclusion that he must marry again," went on Valois. "And
his attention is fixed, after
long consideration, upon; Madame Clemence of Hungary, niece to the King of Naples. We wish to have the benefit of your advice before sending an embassy."

The phrase "we wish" sounded disagreeably in the ears of many of those present. Was it Monseigneur of Valois who reigned?

Philippe of Poitiers inclined his long head on one side. "That is why," he thought, "they have begun by buttering me up with a peerage of the realm! As long as Louis did not marry again, I was second in the line of succession after the little Jeanne, who is suspected of being a bastard. If he takes another wife, and she gives him further children, I shall count for nothing.
An
d they have decided this without consulting either Charles or myself, who are in the same position as Louis, with imprisoned wives."

"
What is Monseigneur de Marigny's opinion of this proposal? " he asked in order to be disagreeable to Valois.

At the same time, he was knowingly committing a gross breach of etiquette towards his elder
brother,
because in principle it was the sovereign, and the sovereign alone, who asked the councillors to give their opinions. There would have been hell to pay if such a breach had occurred at a Council of, King Philip's.

But today everyone seemed to be taking individual command, and since the new King's uncle was taking it upon himself to dominate the Council, the brother might well take the liberty of doing as much.

Marigny leant forward with his bull-like, forehead, and it was clear that he was about to charge.

"Since the King's consideration has turned in the direction of Madame of Hungary, she must naturally have great queenly qualities," he said. "But apart from the fact that she is Monseigneur of Valois's niece, which naturally suffices to make us love her, I do not clearly see how this alliance will profit the kingdom. Her father, Charles Martel, has been dead a long time, having been King of Hungary only in name; her
brother Charobert, unl
ike Monseigneur of Valois, who affected the Italian pronunciation of these names, Marigny said them in
French,
has at last achieved a year or two
ago, after
fifteen years of fighting and intriguing, the Magyar crown which still sits rather loose
ly upon his head. All the fiefs
and principalities of the House of Anjou have already been distributed among the family, which is so numerous that it spreads across the world like oil upon a cloth, and it might soon be thought that the royal family of France was but a branch of the line of Anjou. One can certainly not expect
from such a marriage an enlargement of the kingdom, as King Philip always desired, nor any help in war if it were to become necessary, since' all these remote princes have enough to do to retain their own, possessions. , In other words, Sire, I am certain that your father would have opposed a union in which the dowry was nebulous rather than assured."

Monseigneur of Valois had gone crimson with anger; his knee began shaking under the table. Everything that had been said was directed against him, each phrase had a perfidious tendency.

"It is all very fine, Messire de Marigny," he cried, "to make the dead speak from the tomb. I shall reply that a que
en's virtue is worth a province
! The splendid alliances you wove so cleverly with Burgundy; and to which you so craftily persuaded my brother, have not turned out so well that you can set yourself up as a judge in these matters; or that you can expect to be consulted once again. Shame and sorrow resulted for, everyone concerned."

"That is the truth!" cried' The Hutin sharply.

"Sire," replied Marigny with almo
st imperceptible contempt, "you
were still very young when your marriage was decided upon by your father, and Monseigneur of Valois did not seem so opposed to it then. He made all haste, and without too close an investigation, to marry off his own son to Madame Marguerite's - sister, in order to relate himself more nearly to her and to you."

Valois
was forced to admit the impeachment and found no answer. His face be
came more blotched than ever.
He had, in fact, believed himself extremely clever to marry his elder son, Philippe, to the younger sister of Marguerite, who was known as Jeanne the Little, o
r Jeanne the Halt, because she
had one leg shorter tha
n the other. And now Marguerite
was in prison, and the cripple a me
mber of his family."

"Women's virtue, like, their beauty, is a passing thing, Sire," went on Marigny. "But provinces
are permanent. And Monseigneur
of Poitiers cannot dispute the fact that we possess the Franche-Comte."

"Is this Council," asked Valois roughly, "to be devoted to listening to Messire de Marigny praising himself, or to the a
dvancement of the King's wishes
"