Chapter 28
Jeanette arrived at St Paul’s Cross in front of the cathedral with Richard and her household to listen to Thomas Brinton, Bishop of Rochester, preach to the crowd gathered around.
She had invited Brinton to dinner following John’s suggestion and they had had an interesting discourse on various issues, including the King’s mistress.
Brinton had visited Edward’s bedside to give him comfort, and they had discussed various political matters in some detail too, after which Brinton had departed to begin composing a sermon ahead of the opening of Parliament.
Jeanette’s arrival with Richard caused a stir as the crowd parted for her until she was standing at the front where Bishop Brinton was mounting the steps at the base of the cross, dressed in his full episcopal robes, wide-sleeved and embroidered.
A robust, handsome man in his middle years, he possessed a commanding presence, a direct stare and a rich, powerful voice.
He inclined his head to Jeanette, and she curtseyed to him, while Richard bowed.
Drawn by such illustrious listeners, the crowd numbers swelled.
Brinton raised his head and looked around the gathering.
He expanded his chest, raised his crozier, stamped it down twice, and began to speak.
His oratory was like a fire, first kindled, then sparking, and becoming a blaze fuelled by anger at the behaviour of sinners who ate and wiped their hands across their mouths in the face of God.
He spoke of deeds done in the dark and of thieves who stole in open sight and concealed their actions by sleight of hand.
He spread his arms, and the breeze wafted through the pleated sleeves of his alb.
‘It is not safe, it is never safe or fitting, for all the keys of the kingdom to hang from the belt of a single woman!’ he roared.
‘Even more so when that woman is no true wife but a conniving concubine. What will happen if she loses or misuses that key? What then will the man do? What will his household do when there is no food in the larder, no fire in the hearth, and no clothes on people’s backs?
It is an untenable situation! No country should stand for such theft, such lack of wisdom and forethought!
Let the man put the woman aside and let both do penance! ’
Jeanette returned to Edward in a thoughtful frame of mind.
Brinton’s speech had been highly suggestive while not naming anyone; at times it had been uncomfortable.
His harangue might apply to others, including Edward’s brother, although she could not imagine Katherine Swynford conniving in the same mould as Alice Perrers.
Even so, Brinton had revealed he was not necessarily a staunch ally.
Edward had rallied during her absence and was reading yet more documents, his horn spectacles perched on the edge of his nose. His valet, removing an empty platter from the table, informed her that the Prince had eaten two eggs with bread and had a dish of nuts and raisins to pick at.
Edward smiled at her. ‘Did Brinton’s sermon go well?’ he asked.
She sat down at his side and told him what she had seen and heard. ‘I do not think John would have completely approved of what Brinton said – I am not sure I do either.’
Edward shrugged. ‘Perhaps, but his speech is invaluable for Parliament.’ He showed her the documents he had been perusing. ‘Latimer and Lyons are facing arrest tomorrow, and Alice Perrers is likely to be banished.’
‘Will your father consent?’
‘If he wishes the Commons to grant him funds, he has no choice,’ Edward replied, ‘but I know he will try and find a way round. She has bewitched him. He never removes those rings she gave him, and one has a hinged lid. Who knows what manner of potions and spells it might conceal. How else could she have twisted her way around him and bent others to her will? She gives him charms and amulets. She sees to his food and drink. She puts love charms under his pillow – so I hear.’
‘Many women do that,’ Jeanette said. ‘I want her gone as much as anyone but there is a difference between serious sorcery and superstitious charms – the sort of thing practised by young girls.’
‘To ruin a country and turn a king into a fool is not the act of a silly girl,’ Edward said tautly.
‘Whether witchcraft or not, it is still pernicious and must stop. You advise me, you have opinions, some strongly held, but you do not take my will away from me – and that is what she does to my father.’
‘I know what it is to be silenced,’ she answered, thinking of her younger years when she had been locked up and prevented from speaking the truth.
‘I know how others will try and override you. I would never do that to you. Even if your body is failing, you have one of the strongest wills I have known.’
He gave her a humourless smile. ‘“One of”?’
‘My Thomas was another – we fought for nine years to have our marriage recognised. Your father himself is not weak-willed, but he has been caught in a trap and is exerting that will to promote the cause of his entrapper. It is fortunate John is strong too because he will have to convince your father to give up Mistress Perrers in order to receive money from the Commons. I know John is half-hearted about yielding to them. He will do it because he must, not because it is his desire. He has a mistress of his own who is mother to several children. Many will call him a hypocrite, even if circumstances are different.’
She glanced round at the sound of a cleared throat.
‘Sire, Sir Richard Lyons is here and wishing to speak with you,’ said Hannekyn. ‘He said it was an urgent matter and to your advantage.’
Jeanette touched Edward’s hand. ‘You need not see him if you are tired. I do not know why he would come to Kennington except to cause mischief.’
Edward shook his head. ‘I am not too tired – indeed, I want to know what brings him here when he is under threat of arrest, and why it would be to my advantage. Admit him,’ he instructed Hannekyn, ‘but do not bring refreshment. I doubt our guest will be staying for long.’
‘Sire.’ Hannekyn bowed and left.
‘Well, well.’ Edward removed his spectacles and set them aside. ‘The game is afoot.’ The fixed line of his lips did not bode well for their guest.
Lyons was escorted into the chamber, his usual air of urbane superiority noticeably absent.
Sweat dewed his brow in the warm May evening, and his complexion was pallid against his red velvet tunic.
Removing his hat, he fell on his knees to Edward and bowed his head, his scalp glistening through his thinning dark hair.
He was an important official – controller of wool imports, possessor of the only licence in London to sell sweet wine, Warden of the Royal Mint and, from what had been revealed by recent investigation, an extortionist of astonishing proportions and a thief of funds.
A man of cunning and calculation for the best advantage.
Jeanette had never been at ease in his company, although she knew John was more accommodating and on good terms with him.
As far as she was concerned, Lyons and Alice Perrers were like two cats twining their tails together and stalking the room, although not the only ones.
Edward kept Lyons on his knees for longer than the usual protocol but eventually allowed him to rise and approach his couch.
‘Sire, I thank you for granting me this audience,’ Lyons said.
‘It remains to be seen whether your gratitude outstays the length of what we have to say,’ Edward responded frostily. ‘I do not have the patience for pleasantries and excuses, and I am well informed of what has been happening in the Commons and of what you are accused.’
Lyons moistened his lips. Jeanette could smell his fear, which was no surprise since a dungeon awaited him.
‘The accusations are untrue and issued against me by my enemies,’ he said.
Edward looked unimpressed. ‘Perhaps there are good reasons for some men not to wish you well, and I might be one of them when I hear of the accusations made against you of sharp practice and extortion, of price fixing at different ports, and of financial fraud. These matters must be investigated, and some of it might be exaggerated or untrue, but the claims are detailed and your collusion with Mistress Perrers, who is herself to be investigated, is not in doubt. You need to do more than come here and plead your innocence.’
Lyons turned his hat in his hands. ‘The Commons respect you, sire, and you have influence. If you could see your way to putting in a word for me or sending a letter of support, I would be truly grateful.’
‘A letter of support . . .’ Edward’s jaw tightened further. ‘Tell me, Master Lyons, just how grateful would you be for such a thing?’
Jeanette knew from Edward’s stillness that he was furious. He had never been a man to swear and march about a chamber in agitation. His response to displeasure was to become steely and cold.
‘The sum is yours to name, sire, but I have brought you a fine barrel of sturgeon if you will allow me to present it to you as a sign of my great esteem.’
‘A barrel of sturgeon . . .’ Edward’s nostrils flared.
Jeanette blinked. Sturgeon was a highly prized fish – a fine gift for anyone – but it seemed strange. Perhaps it was all that Lyons could rustle up on the spur of the moment in fear of arrest.
‘Shall I have it brought to your chamber, sire?’
Edward eyed him narrowly. ‘Indeed, why not?’ He summoned two of his knights and sent them to go with Lyons’ servant to fetch the gift.
Sweating profusely, Lyons mopped his brow with the edge of his sleeve. Edward said nothing, and the silence drew out like a taut bowstring.
At last the men returned, rolling an oak barrel into the chamber and setting it on its end before Edward.
‘Show me,’ Edward said. ‘Shall I summon my cook to see what he thinks?’
Lyons swallowed hard. ‘I do not think when you see inside that it will be necessary, sire.’
Advancing to the barrel, he prised off the lid, to reveal not pieces of fish but a length of deep purple velvet, and under that the gleam from the depths of the barrel was not of fish scales but of gold coins – nobles of the realm.
Lyons put his hand in and trickled the money through his fingers in a shining stream.
The mention of sturgeon had only been to throw others off the trail of what was really being offered.
Edward stared, unable to mask his astonishment.
Lyons bowed deeply. ‘Sire, I give this gift to you freely as a sign of my deep esteem of your judgement.’
Edward stood icily still but eventually drew as deep a breath as he could manage.
‘How dare you come to me with your ill-gotten gains and think you can bribe me into saving your miserable hide,’ he said in a voice of stone.
‘I shall neither help you nor favour your dishonourable misdeeds. I am in close counsel with the Commons to put right in this country what you and your cohort of cronies have wrought. I am tempted to order my men to take this tainted cargo and empty it in the river. Remove it from my sight now and do not darken my door ever again. Get out, and thank Christ that my sword is not within reach, or I would flay your hide from your body and nail it up in the marketplace!’
Whey-faced, Lyons backed from the room while his henchman capped the barrel and rolled it out in his wake. In their haste they left the purple cloth behind and a scatter of coins gleaming on the floor.
Edward collapsed, shaking, and Jeanette shouted for his physician and hurried to his side.
His chest was heaving as though he had run a race, and his face was grey.
‘The audacity of that man,’ he panted, waving her away.
‘He has escaped with so much before that he thinks he can bribe his way to exoneration. Well, it will not happen this time.’
‘Perhaps you should have taken the money,’ she said. ‘You could have used it to pay your knights and arrested him anyway. It is yours in the first place, and how much more are he and his cronies sitting on?’
‘No!’ Edward folded himself on to his bed. ‘My heart is glad I did not take it from him, for my soul would have been soiled. He shall be arrested with the others in due course and know the taste of fetters. Let that be his fate.’
Two days later, John of Lancaster came to Kennington and sat down at Edward’s bedside, casting his soft velvet hat on to the coverlet.
‘It is done,’ he said. ‘Lyons and Latimer have been impeached and thrown into prison, and Alice Perrers has been banished from court and from our father’s presence.
She is not to see him or go near him. She has already packed up her apartments at Westminster and been escorted out with her children, and will be investigated in due course. ’
‘What did my father say?’ Edward asked hoarsely. Jeanette swiftly moved to plump up his pillows and brought him a drink. ‘How did he take it?’
‘Not well, as you would expect, but he eventually accepted it with some persuading. He raged and he wept and accused us both of trying to overthrow him and interfere. I said it was not my choice, but that the Commons would not grant him any funds unless he banished the lady from court and from his side – we had to be pragmatic. I showed him the financial dealings that had been happening behind his back under her auspices with the proofs of her profiteering and meddling. He was unhappy and angry – and still reluctant, but I eventually got him to consent and she has gone. I made him take off the rings she had given him, and Bishop Brinton is going to cleanse them of any pernicious influences.’
‘Where did she go?’ Jeanette asked.
‘To her house on Thames Street, so I understand,’ John replied.
Edward snorted. Alice’s house on Thames Street was almost a palace, stuffed with goods and furnishings, where she could dwell in comfort and still rule her empire. ‘That’s a half measure if ever there was one.’
John grimaced. ‘He only agreed to give her up if she was allowed to leave with her household and goods and all that he had given her. He begged me with tears in his eyes to deal kindly with her and I agreed. It was the most I could achieve – indeed that I would want to achieve. I have no love for the lady, but I respect my father, who is still the King. The crucial thing is that she is not at court and no longer at his side.’
Edward sighed. ‘It is better than nothing, I suppose, and we can continue and prosecute. Perhaps in the meantime my father will come to his senses.’
John made a noncommittal sound. ‘Perhaps,’ he said, but his expression was sceptical.