Princes of Ireland - Edward Rutherfurd [320]
Walsh had prepared the boy himself, teaching him every day that he could spare and driving him on firmly. And Richard had applied himself manfully and made such progress that after a year his father had told Margaret, “He’s ready.” And hiding her tears behind a smile, Margaret had watched him sail away to England. He had not returned. From Oxford, he had proceeded to the Inns of Court in London, to train as a lawyer like his father. “If he can make his way in London, so much the better,” William told Margaret. “And if not, he’ll return with excellent prospects here.” Margaret hoped he would return. It was hard, never to see him.
But these successes brought one problem. As William rose to a higher position in society, he spent more time in Dublin, and it was sometimes necessary for Margaret to accompany him. He dressed more expensively; he bought Margaret new clothes—things that were necessary, but did not come cheap. Richard in England was also a greater drain upon the family resources than Margaret had expected. As a poor scholar at Oxford, he spent a lot; but once he went to the Inns of Court, his letters requesting money had become frequent. To Margaret, who sometimes worried that her husband was working too hard, it had seemed strange that he should need so much, but William would shake his head with wry amusement and tell her, “I remember how it was when I was there. Living with those young bloods …” When she had wondered if her favourite child couldn’t lead a quieter, less fashionable life, her husband would only say, “No, let him live as a gentleman. I wouldn’t wish it otherwise.” There were hints in his letters that he was popular with the ladies, and Margaret remembered how, even as a boy, he had so quickly charmed Joan Doyle. But such things involved expense. Shouldn’t he be paying for himself now, she asked? “It’ll be a while before he earns much,” William explained. “Meanwhile he must have decent lodgings and be seen in the world.”
How like her own dear father he sounded when he said that. She could almost hear her father declaring that her brother John should not go to England as a common foot soldier. Poor John, who never returned; poor father, with his desire to be a gentleman. And looking at her husband now, she understood that Richard in London was an extension of himself, and she felt a wave of affection for them both. “He could live as a gentleman and be a credit to you in Dublin, too,” she pointed out, “for less expense.”
So great was the flow of money out that, although Walsh was doing well, she knew that their income could not possibly be meeting their expenses. Once or twice she raised this with William, but he assured her that he had matters under control; and since he had always been a careful manager, she supposed it must be true. Yet it seemed to her that her husband was more preoccupied than usual. One hope for increasing their income would have been to acquire another Church estate on easy terms. Walsh was well placed to do this, and he had already let it be known that he was looking for something. But here a new difficulty had arisen. It came from no less a person than the Archbishop of Dublin.
Now that King Henry had made himself Supreme Head of the English Church, his eye had soon fallen on its huge, underused wealth. The Church needed reform, he declared, by which he did not mean a move towards Protestant doctrines—for King Henry still considered himself a better Catholic than the Pope—but that it should be better organised and yield more revenues. The rumour was that the royal servants were also casting hungry eyes at some of the rich old monasteries whose huge revenues were used to support only a handful of monks. So it was not surprising if Archbishop Alen, an English royal servant who also held the post of Chancellor, and who was naturally eager to please his royal master, should have announced, “No more of these easy leases. Whoever they are, Irish tenants must start paying the Church the proper rents for their land.”
“Of course,” Walsh conceded to his wife, “he has a