The Autobiography of Henry VIII_ With Notes by His Fool, Will Somers - Margaret George [99]
Here the friar paused and looked around fiercely, like an owl perched and searching for rodents.
“And what did she do? She arranged a ceremony in which Naboth was given the seat of honour—then paid two liars to come in and charge him publicly with cursing God and the King. The crowd, believing this, dragged him outside the city and stoned him to death. Thus did Jezebel make a ‘present’ of the vineyard to her husband.”
The congregation was silent now, hanging on every word.
“But Elijah went to the King and said, ‘This is the word of the Lord: where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, there dogs shall lick your blood. And Jezebel shall be eaten by dogs by the rampart of Jezreel.’ ”
By now one could hear the wind whistling outside, through the thick stone walls, so silent had it grown in the chapel.
“Now there is in this land a similar thing. A King who has turned his back on God and God’s true vicar, and has gone whoring after false gods!
“A King so greedy for money and worldly things that he will rob not only Naboth, but God Himself! A King who is besotted with his own Jezebel, a woman who is bringing about his ruin, and that of the Church.
“I say unto you, as Elijah said unto Ahab: The dogs shall lick your blood!”
Anne was pale. The congregation broke out into murmurs. The friar stared balefully at me. He expected me to stamp out, guiltily. I intended to disappoint him, and continued to sit calmly in the royal box.
Later, in her apartments, Anne broke down and sobbed. She flung herself against me and begged me to hold her, in a manner I had never seen before.
“Now, now, sweetheart,” I said. “If you are to be Queen, you must learn composure. You must not let every little thing any fool says upset you so. He was but a self-appointed prophet.someone answer him from the same pulpit; you’ll see. Cheer up, sweetheart. Look. I have brought you—”
“There’s more—more—I did not want to tell you—it would worry you —but I must—”
She was babbling. Clearly the Scriptural references had upset her. Gently I took her hand and led her over to the fireplace, where we seated ourselves. Then I poured out a cup of wine for each of us and handed it to her. She took it with trembling hands.
“Now, what possible stock can you put in what he said? He was a fanatic, wishing to frighten us. Like that absurd ‘Holy Maid of Kent’ with all her ‘prophecies’ who has been wandering round the countryside, proclaiming our doom.”
“They hate me,” she said. “They hate me, they hate me—oh, it was dreadful!”
“Not so dreadful. I have heard worse.”
“No. Not the sermon. The ... incident. They tried to kill me.”
“Who?”
“A mob of women. Last week. I was alone for supper in one of the small royal river-houses near the Tower. Then one of the house-servers came and told me there was a mob of seven or eight thousand women coming, armed with sticks and stones. They meant to set upon me as I left and kill me!
“I looked out the window and saw them approaching. It was true! I rushed to my boatmen and got across the Thames just as they arrived. They set up a great howling and threw stones after me, screaming and cursing me!” She shuddered. “Everyone curses me. With so many curses, how can I hope to escape them all?”
“Why did you not tell me this?”
“Because... I did not wish to add to your worries. And because, in a peculiar way, until I told you, I could believe that it did not truly happen. Now it is real.”
“A mob of demented women, nothing more. The kingdom is full of them. Remember that one out of every ten men is probably half-mad, and there are more than three million men in England. That makes for many madmen. It means nothing,” I assured us both. “It means nothing.”
XLIV
But of course it did. What she said was true. The people did not like her. This was partly because they were still so loyal to Katherine, and partly because they disliked for a King to marry his subject. My grandfather Edward IV had done so, and there was great resentment over it, even though he had not had to put aside another wife to do so. Yet such was my love and determination