Read Online The Archer's Gold: Medieval Military fiction: A Novel about Wars, Knights, Pirates, and Crusaders in The Years of the Feudal Middle Ages of William Marshall ... (The Company of English Archers Book 7) by Martin Archer - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Martin Archer
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the bowl. "If there's one thing we know is that it's costly to buy a favorable decision from the pope. Who was the unfortunate man who lost you and your lands?"
"Why, King John, of course."
I knock over my bowl of ale and Thomas gasps.
@@@@@
Our meal is finished and we are all filled up and belching politely from an elegant sufficiency of food and ale. That's when Lady Isabel leaves temporarily with one of two candle lanterns to go outside to relieve herself and then walks up the narrow stone staircase to the room where she and her one and only servant have been living.
She needs, Lady Isabel explains, to make sure Mathilde, her servant, has been provided with sufficient food and ale.
While she is gone we send the boys to their bedding along one of the walls of the castles great hall and light two more candles. They can listen from there until they fall asleep.
A few minutes later Isabel, Lady Isabel, comes back to sit with us once again. And more of her story all comes out as we sip on fresh bowls of the castle's ale and quietly listen.
Isabel is the daughter of a long-dead minor Norman lord from Gloucester and the ex-wife of King John. Her marriage was the annulled without ever being consummated based on their blood relationship as very distant cousins.
Her two remaining male relatives, cousins almost as distant as the king, brought her and her one and only servant south with them. They came to plot with some of the southern barons to take John’s throne and install her as queen - and then quickly marry her off to whichever one them will then become England's king.
My cousins think, Isabel explains, that if King John is dead they can find someone to marry me who will pay the pope enough to have my annulment canceled. Then, because her marriage to John was initially recognized by the church, she'll be the queen and they can marry her off to make her new husband the king.
“We are distant cousins by blood, you know, John and I, even if my grandmother was not married to John's grandfather. Betrothed to John is what my father did for me just before he died. That was when I was but four and John ten; we wed when I was fifteen and my father already gone."
"As soon as my father died, John's mother wanted him to get on with marrying me to get my lands. She promised my cousins, the only men left in my family, that they could stay on their fiefs if they agreed."
"The Pope was paid by John's mother but apparently not enough by my father - he agreed we could marry so my lands would go to John, but only on condition that our marriage never be consummated."
"It was all done, of course, so the lands I would inherit from my father would pass to John. It wasn't much but he needed them. He was initially only a prince with four older brothers at the time, so far down in the line of succession that he wasn't even given any lands of his own. So him getting my land was very important to John and his mother."
"I, of course, had no say in the matter and neither did my father when he betrothed me. He was only a minor lord without sons."
"But then the unexpected happens and John's older three brothers die of various poxes and Richard is killed. John becomes king and suddenly has lots of land and richer marriage prospects."
"So now he no longer needs me - and he has enough money to buy an annulment from the Pope and, damn his eyes, enough power to keep my lands instead of giving them back as he should if our marriage wasn't proper."
"That’s why my cousins brought me here, of course - they were desperate to have my lands restored so they can stay on them. Also because I have a claim if John dies, if enough money can be raised to buy the Pope's agreement, to still
"Why, King John, of course."
I knock over my bowl of ale and Thomas gasps.
@@@@@
Our meal is finished and we are all filled up and belching politely from an elegant sufficiency of food and ale. That's when Lady Isabel leaves temporarily with one of two candle lanterns to go outside to relieve herself and then walks up the narrow stone staircase to the room where she and her one and only servant have been living.
She needs, Lady Isabel explains, to make sure Mathilde, her servant, has been provided with sufficient food and ale.
While she is gone we send the boys to their bedding along one of the walls of the castles great hall and light two more candles. They can listen from there until they fall asleep.
A few minutes later Isabel, Lady Isabel, comes back to sit with us once again. And more of her story all comes out as we sip on fresh bowls of the castle's ale and quietly listen.
Isabel is the daughter of a long-dead minor Norman lord from Gloucester and the ex-wife of King John. Her marriage was the annulled without ever being consummated based on their blood relationship as very distant cousins.
Her two remaining male relatives, cousins almost as distant as the king, brought her and her one and only servant south with them. They came to plot with some of the southern barons to take John’s throne and install her as queen - and then quickly marry her off to whichever one them will then become England's king.
My cousins think, Isabel explains, that if King John is dead they can find someone to marry me who will pay the pope enough to have my annulment canceled. Then, because her marriage to John was initially recognized by the church, she'll be the queen and they can marry her off to make her new husband the king.
“We are distant cousins by blood, you know, John and I, even if my grandmother was not married to John's grandfather. Betrothed to John is what my father did for me just before he died. That was when I was but four and John ten; we wed when I was fifteen and my father already gone."
"As soon as my father died, John's mother wanted him to get on with marrying me to get my lands. She promised my cousins, the only men left in my family, that they could stay on their fiefs if they agreed."
"The Pope was paid by John's mother but apparently not enough by my father - he agreed we could marry so my lands would go to John, but only on condition that our marriage never be consummated."
"It was all done, of course, so the lands I would inherit from my father would pass to John. It wasn't much but he needed them. He was initially only a prince with four older brothers at the time, so far down in the line of succession that he wasn't even given any lands of his own. So him getting my land was very important to John and his mother."
"I, of course, had no say in the matter and neither did my father when he betrothed me. He was only a minor lord without sons."
"But then the unexpected happens and John's older three brothers die of various poxes and Richard is killed. John becomes king and suddenly has lots of land and richer marriage prospects."
"So now he no longer needs me - and he has enough money to buy an annulment from the Pope and, damn his eyes, enough power to keep my lands instead of giving them back as he should if our marriage wasn't proper."
"That’s why my cousins brought me here, of course - they were desperate to have my lands restored so they can stay on them. Also because I have a claim if John dies, if enough money can be raised to buy the Pope's agreement, to still
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