The Courts of Love - Jean Plaidy [205]
He looked more handsome than ever. The English must be proud of him. The people like a handsome king.
I told him what progress I had made and how I had prepared the way for his popularity.
He said: “I knew you would do well. What a fool my father was not to appreciate you.”
“Oh, he had to have his Alais . . . his Rosamund. He needed docile women and he certainly got what he wanted in those two.”
“What of Alais?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I suppose she will go back to France in due course. You will not have her.”
“Most certainly not. My father’s leavings! Never!”
“It would be most repulsive,” I agreed. “But do not let us concern ourselves with her. She is quite insignificant now. We have to think of your coronation.”
“Yes, I suppose that is necessary.”
“Indeed it is. A king is not a king until he is anointed.”
“Then we will get it over as soon as we can.”
“We shall do it as it should be done. The people need to be wooed, Richard. You do not know them. You have seen so little of them. They need treating with care. With the people of Aquitaine one saw the way they were going. Their anger or their love was apparent the moment they felt it. These people are different. They show nothing though they are filled with rage. They must be watched. You have to woo them, Richard, and you must begin with a grand coronation.”
“As soon as it is over, I shall make my plans to go to the Holy Land.”
“Now that you have become King?”
“I have taken the cross. So has Philip Augustus. We are going together.”
“But it is different now, surely. You have a kingdom to govern.”
“I am blessed with a mother who can do that better than I.”
I was gratified but disturbed. It was unwise to leave the country. Henry had made that mistake. No, that was not quite the truth. There had been little else he could have done, for he had had his dominions overseas to keep in order. I often thought how much easier it would have been for him if he had been merely King of England. But that was not the case with Richard. He would be leaving his country to go to the defense of another.
He said: “I shall have to raise money.”
“How?” I asked.
“There is only one way. Taxation.”
“The people will not take kindly to that from their new King.”
“But this is a holy cause. Any who cannot undertake the crusade should be glad to help those who can.”
“They don’t see it like that. The Holy Land is far away. They do not like paying taxes to keep Normandy safe. How do you think they will feel about faraway places?”
“It is our Christian duty.”
There was nothing I could say. He was determined and I had always known that once Richard had made up his mind there was no changing it.
The coronation was to take place on September 3, which some people said was unlucky. But I wanted to get it over as quickly as possible. A king is not truly a king until he is crowned.
Just before the coronation John returned to England. He was married to Hadwisa of Gloucester on August 29. In spite of the fact that their father had tried to set John up in that place which rightly belonged to his brother, Richard received him graciously when he came to England. He granted him the county of Mortain, gave him 4,000 a year from land in England and agreed to the marriage to the heiress of Gloucester, which would greatly enrich him. Richard was determined to be magnanimous, thinking, I suppose, that, if he bestowed his bounty on John, his brother would be loyal while he, Richard, went off on his crusade. He was most generous, giving him the castles and honors of Marlborough, Ludgershall, Lancaster, Bolsover, Nottingham and the Peak among others. John expressed his delight, but even so, it occurred to me that he would have to be watched.
There was a slight hitch for a time when it seemed that the wedding might not proceed, for Archbishop Baldwin brought up the point about the couple’s being related in the third degree. This however was overcome