The King's Dogge (17 page)

The first problem I recalled was a fairly simple one, but in an indirect way it impacted on the second and more major one. In itself the issue was a minor one. It seemed that Clarence, brother to both King Edward and Richard of Gloucester, had once again been plotting. For this he had been imprisoned and subsequently killed. Anne Neville handled the subject fairly. She freely admitted that to her mind Clarence always had been a traitor and that he was indirectly responsible for the deaths of her father and her Uncle Montague at Barnet. But, that said, in this instance she believed that Clarence might just have been the victim of a conspiracy. Her instinct led her to believe that it had been Edward's queen, Elizabeth Woodville, and her lowly born greedy family who had seen Clarence as a threat to their own power and ambitions and had consequently poisoned King Edward's mind against his own brother. I felt anger at the scheming of the Woodvilles, but on the other hand Clarence had always been a traitor. Surprisingly, Richard shared my view about Clarence. He admitted that he could have gone to plead with the king for their brother's life, but duty had to prevail over sentiment and the future of England was more secure with one less traitor. I respected his views and thanked him for his honest opinion.

‘You are totally correct,' Anne interposed, ‘but do you know, Francis, that unkind people are putting it about that my dear husband is cold and unnatural in not going to beg for Clarence's life?'

Her jewelled finger began to tap the side of her carved chair.

‘There are grounds for believing that the Woodvilles are behind these rumours,' she opined, ‘and are using them to try to damage my husband.'

She cocked her head to one side and the tapping became more staccato. Richard and I waited patiently until the drumming stopped.

‘One day I do believe there will be a reckoning with the Woodvilles,' Anne Neville promised, ‘and we can finish poor father's work for him.'

At this juncture, Richard took over to relay to me the second problem, which was of a military nature. Anne deferentially let him take the stage.

The former Duke of Burgundy
¹⁰
had married King Edward and Richard's sister, Margaret, eleven years before. Unfortunately, Duke Charles was an overambitious man and desired to enlarge his territories at the expense of the Swiss and the French. His attempts, Richard continued, had been a complete failure and he had been defeated in three battles, being killed at the last one. He left a daughter from his first marriage as heiress. As a result, the situation in Burgundy was critical. The duchy, wedged between the Holy Roman Empire and France, with a defeated army and Duke Charles's young daughter as its ruler, seemed to be doomed to extinction. To save Burgundy, Mary had married Maximilian, whose father was the Holy Roman Emperor.

‘Effectively the only way that Burgundy could survive against France was to ally itself with the Empire,' Richard concluded.

I stared at his strong face.

‘So what is the issue then? I heard that your sister – the widow of the last Duke of Burgundy – likes her stepdaughter Mary and that, additionally, she works well with her and her husband Maximilian. So with the strength of the Empire behind Burgundy, your sister is safe and Burgundy is secure. What then is the problem?'

Anne Neville rushed instantly to the aid of her husband.

‘The problem, Francis, is this. The French claim that, since the late Duke Charles left no male heir, the duchy should revert to being French territory. Indeed, immediately after Duke Charles was killed, the French took over part of the duchy. Now the Holy Roman Emperor has not provided any assistance and most of the duchy's wealth and manpower was wasted by Duke Charles's defeats at Granson, Morthen and Nancy. The duchy is virtually defenceless.'

She paused and looked at me.

‘If the French swallow up Burgundy, Francis, then not only does my husband lose his sister, but England loses its major market for wool and cloth.'

I had not thought of that, but when Anne made the point I began to grow cold. So much of the country's wealth came from exporting vast amounts of wool and cloth that the loss of a major market such as Burgundy would be a complete disaster. There would be great hardship and possibly starvation among so many of our people here in the North and elsewhere.
¹¹

An obvious question sprung to mind, but I hesitated.

‘Speak freely, Francis!' Richard commanded.

‘Well, given the threat to his sister in Burgundy and the dangers to trade if Burgundy is destroyed, why does the king not ally England to Burgundy?'

Richard and Anne Neville glanced at each other. I imagined that I had asked an awkward question.

‘He cannot, Francis,' Anne Neville murmured confidentially. ‘For some years now King Edward has been secretly in receipt of a pension from France. It is a very generous pension indeed and is largely squandered by the queen and her Woodville relations. But the pension comes with one condition: England must never ally with the enemies of France.'

Her pale blue eyes met mine.

‘So Edward prefers to have the pension and will not help Burgundy. For the sake of the Woodvilles, he is prepared to sacrifice his sister and much of England's trade.'

I could make out the battlements at Middleham now, but if I was closer to the castle I was no nearer to finding a solution to the problems which confronted us. Yet I had to come up with something – Richard and Anne had implored me to do so. How was I, though, supposed to solve a problem that the pair of them could not?

I reviewed the facts moodily. As matters stood King Edward had decreed that England would not help Burgundy, so the duchy would be overrun by the French and trade would suffer badly. There would be hardship and ruin in the North as a result, and Richard and Anne Neville would be blamed for doing nothing to prevent this. All this because King Edward and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville, wanted to continue to receive their French pension.

How incredibly greedy and selfish of them, but oh-so-typical.

I frowned as I recalled the countless tales of the Woodvilles' cupidity. Why, according to Anne Neville, they had specialised in using marriage as a way of increasing their wealth and influence.

‘But many men have married for money', I had protested when she told me of this.

‘True, Francis, but at least their wives knew that they were getting husbands who were well born,' she retorted. ‘The Woodvilles, notwithstanding their pretensions, originate from the gutter and have not risen from it.'

‘But you said that no less than seven of them have married into the nobility, my lady. How can that have come to pass? No one can be forced to marry a Woodville.'

‘Not physically of course', Anne Neville said darkly. ‘But it would have been immensely hard for anyone to reject one of that family knowing that such a denial would incur not only the wrath of the king but the everlasting vindictiveness of the Woodvilles.'

I saw her point.

‘But it was not just adult brides or grooms that those self-seeking schemers targeted,' she continued bitterly. ‘They went after young and old alike…'

‘…provided they were well born or rich.' I finished off the sentence for her.

‘Precisely, Francis. Did you know that the Duke of Buckingham was but a child when he had a Woodville bride foisted upon him?'

He would not have been in a position to object, I reflected sadly.

‘But then look at the other end of the scale', Anne Neville cried. ‘My own father's aunt was selected to be the bride for the queen's brother solely because she was extremely rich. It did not matter to them that father's aunt was nearly fifty years older than her husband nor did they care about her frequent bouts of eccentricity. No, to the Woodvilles she was rich and that was sufficient for them.'

‘Your father must have been horrified, my lady.'

‘Of course he was, Francis, and at the first suitable opportunity he had the young John Woodville executed to wipe out the stain on our family's honour. But does not my story show you just how low the Woodvilles will stoop to win wealth and influence?'

She had convinced me of that, I reflected. But while the tragic story had emphasised the venality of the Woodvilles, it in no way reduced the current threat they posed to Richard and Anne. For in this instance Richard would be vilified for doing nothing to help his own sister, and doubtless the malicious Woodvilles would try and use that against him, particularly since he had behaved patriotically and had not begged for Clarence's life. On top of all this, there was a strong possibility that the grasping Woodvilles would look to exploit Gloucester's resultant unpopularity and seek to encroach into the North. The greed and the selfishness of the Woodvilles angered me. As a family not only were they corrupting King Edward, but worse still they were influencing him to make policies that were manifestly bad for England.

How to outwit them and to protect Richard and Anne? For a long time I turned the problem in my mind, as I watched a solitary hawk that circled high above me. As I gazed at it, I suddenly had a thought. It was highly unlikely that I had been asked to join the two of them to merely give advice. Leaving aside Anne's unparalleled intellect, Richard has a whole host of councillors who were older and wiser than me. Was it just possible that both of them already knew the answer to their problem and in some manner expected me to execute it for them? Why could they both not tell me what Anne Neville's plan was? Why did I need to work it out for myself?

I flung myself down onto the springy turf in frustration and watched the lonely hawk on its ceaseless vigil. Surely the obvious thing to do was for Richard to send a force to Burgundy to help his sister's people. But then I halted. Not even the king's brother and royal duke had the power to act contrary to the wishes of King Edward. I jerked up as the solution hit me. King Edward had the authority to prohibit England from helping the Burgundians, but he was powerless to prevent volunteers from going out to fight for what they believed in. I rubbed my hands together in satisfaction. Everyone knew that I was close to Richard and canny folk would quickly guess that it had been his idea to get me to volunteer.

The more I thought about Anne Neville's plan the more I liked it. Once news of my volunteers spread, far from being damaged by the problems with Burgundy and Clarence, Richard was actually going to come out of them looking very good. All those who dealt in cloth and wool would see that Richard, at least, was making an effort to protect their livelihoods. It would be good for Richard that people saw him making an effort to help his sister, Margaret, particularly after that business with Clarence. I saved the best bit until last, as I suspected that this was the part that Anne Neville would have relished most. Not only was Richard going to come out of all this smelling sweet, but, in contrast, the Woodvilles' reputation with their total selfishness and lack of chivalry, would be irredeemably tarnished.

With a harsh cry the hawk suddenly left off its circling and flew south towards Burgundy.