The Courts of Love - Jean Plaidy [109]
I went on: “He is as unlike our King as any man could be. You will need to be earnest and show that you are deeply religious. That would win his respect. He will be shocked by your mission. I can hardly believe it will succeed.”
“I shall do my best to make it.”
“He is a man who hates war and cares for his people. He ought to be a good king; but good kings are made of different stuff, for it does not seem necessary for a good king to be a good man.”
He agreed with me and thanked me.
I was interested to see what he made of my advice, and it was with amusement and wonder that I watched the procession depart. Becket was certainly going to make an impression.
It was June and, to my chagrin, I was pregnant once more. Henry was an indefatigable lover. I understood now that I had been foolish to expect fidelity from him. Women were a need in his life. Although I could now regard him dispassionately, he still attracted me physically more than anyone I had ever known . . . even Raymond. I found him irresistible, as I believe he found me. But it was different from those early days when I had loved him. I did not anymore. I just had need of him; and that this intercourse should have led to another pregnancy, and so soon, was a source of irritation to me. It was ironic that during the first years of my marriage to Louis I had longed to conceive; now I could not stop doing so.
I had three months to go and was getting unwieldy.
Becket’s entourage was very grand indeed. The procession was led by his servants, who walked in groups of ten or twelve singing as they went; then came his huntsmen with their greyhounds and other dogs, and after that six wagons containing his bed and other furnishings, and two wagons which had been packed with flagons of the best English ale, which he proposed to present to the French. Each wagon was drawn by five horses, all of them magnificent, with mastiffs to guard them. There followed the packhorses on each of which sat a monkey to create a comic effect. Then came the squires with their falcons and hawks, followed by the gentlemen of his household; and finally, in all his glory, the Chancellor himself.
And how he reveled in it.
I wondered what effect he would have on Louis. It might not be the way to win him over, but I was sure the French would be impressed by all the show. Accustomed to Louis’s somber appearance they would say to themselves: If this is the Chancellor, what must the King be like?
I wished I could have seen Becket’s arrival in Paris. I should so much have enjoyed seeing him riding through the streets. I heard later that Louis entertained him in royal fashion and that Becket retaliated by giving an even grander banquet for Louis. Years later I heard the visit referred to, and one item remains in my memory still. It was that Becket paid one hundred shillings for just one dish of eels.
Once again I marveled at this intimacy between him and the King. They were so different—Becket reveling in that ostentation for which Henry had no desire whatsoever.
But there was some magic about Becket for he achieved what I had thought to be impossible. He made Louis see that a marriage between my son and his daughter could be feasible.
Henry was delighted. He came to me in a state of enthusiasm.
“He has done it,” he said. “I knew he would. Only Becket could have brought this off. I shall leave for France at once. I shall get this thing settled.”
His eyes were shining. I could see that he believed the crown of France was within his grasp.
While he was away my child was born. I had three sons now—Henry, Richard and this new one, Geoffrey.
I recovered quickly but I had made up my mind that I was going to have a respite from childbearing. I was tired of all those weary months, and then, when the child was born, almost immediately I was expecting another.
Here I was confined to my apartments while exciting events were taking place in the world. Then I hated to be in one place for long. I started to pine for Aquitaine and knew that it was not good for me to