Sarum - Edward Rutherfurd [305]
“Madame,” he replied, with frank admiration, and using the same terms of formal courtesy, “I should have been proud had you expressed an interest in my poor manor of Avonsford.”
“Then I wish you to know, seigneur, that your manor and its occupant were of great interest to me,” she replied graciously. “But after twenty years with a man whom I loved, but who was from the start my senior by a generation, I decided to try to bring happiness to the merchant whom I had deserted for him when I was young. It seems that instead I have brought Shockley only a great misfortune, and I am sorry that it should come from a man whom, if circumstances had been different, I might have loved.” And with a graceful curtsey, she swept out of the room.
That evening, after visiting his little grandson, Jocelin de Godefroi went to the garderobe where he kept his books and took down from the wall the sheet of burnished steel that he liked to use as a mirror.
“You’re too old for her,” he told himself frankly. “But what a woman.”
The next day, to his surprise, Peter Shockley received a message from Avonsford manor that Godefroi had changed his mind and that the mill should remain in his hands. He never discovered why.
Through that summer, although great events were taking place in the island, many at Sarum chose to ignore them: Peter Shockley because he was concerned with his mill and his marriage, Godefroi for sound reasons of politics.
“The business between the king and Montfort could still go either way in the end,” he judged. “If I’m to preserve the estates for my grandson, we must stay out of trouble.” Sarum with its garrison remained quiet, and although Montfort’s party knew that he had been opposed to them, his only son had died in their cause and they did not disturb him.
The events of 1264 were fraught with danger and opportunity. Montfort was in control again; the king and his son Edward, in whose name he was governing once more, were safely in his hands. But he was threatened on every side; the supporters of Henry gathered across the Channel and threatened to invade with Louis of France; the friends of Prince Edward, the great lords from the border with Wales, were preparing to attack again, and across the Channel, another powerful voice, the legate of the pope, still refused to accept the new arrangements in England. In October he excommunicated Simon and all those who supported the Provisions.
Despite the uncertainty, however, most of the island was still with Montfort: the freemen of England had a government bound by Magna Carta and the Provisions. They had no wish to turn the clock back.
It was at the end of the year that the great event took place which made Godefroi shake his head with surprise and Peter Shockley clap his hands together and exclaim to Alicia: “At last! Now we shall see the king get some good advice.”
For it was in December that Simon de Montfort summoned his most famous parliament to meet in London at the end of January.
This famous assembly was by no means a parliament of the nation. Barons loyal to Simon were summoned by writs at once while others, who were loyal to the king, were summoned late. As before, knights were called from the shires. And as well as the Bishop, the Dean of Salisbury was summoned. But it was a single, tentative innovation that gave the gathering its fame and caused Shockley such excitement. For from London and a small selection of boroughs, chiefly in the north, Montfort summoned burgesses.
“It’s time they heard some of the men who run this country’s trade,” Peter cried.
Alicia watched her husband fondly. She had lived with men like Geoffrey de Whiteheath and Godefroi for too many years to suppose that they would listen to a mere merchant.
“The merchants will be present to reassure the towns which might be trouble spots,” she said calmly. “They’ll stand about and be flattered to be there, that’s all.”
Peter nodded.
“That may be so,” he replied shrewdly, “but the point is that once they’ve been summoned,