Rebellion Read Free

support.
    â€˜They have turned the hearts of the people
     with their lies and malice!’ said the queen.
    The bulbous end of King Louis’ nose twitched
     once. ‘And where is the king, your husband?’ he said.
    King Henry was in Scotland. But the Scottish
     queen had made it clear that she could not support him indefinitely. Scotland had been
     subjected to threats and harassment from the House of York, and especially from the Earl
     of Warwick, who had led his troops across the border to attack Scottish castles after
     taking several castles in the north of England, so that there was nowhere for the
     Lancastrian court to go.
    â€˜The position would seem to be hopeless,’
     the French king murmured. But Margaret of Anjou protested that it was not hopeless: she
     had many supporters – there were many loyal subjects of the true king. In fact, as his
     majesty knew, the Earl of Oxford had recently led a conspiracy to overthrow the
     so-called ‘new king’
and organize an invasion from Scotland.
    â€˜But that did not end well, I think,’ said
     King Louis, and the queen was forced to admit that, in fact, due to the efforts of a
     Yorkist spy who had intercepted one of the messages from the earl, the uprising had been
     brutally suppressed.
    The Earl of Oxford fastened to a stretcher, disembowelled, castrated, then burned
     alive, and his oldest son executed with him.
    The French king dipped his fingers into a
     bowl. ‘So how would you describe your position?’ he said. An expression of distress
     flitted across the queen’s face.
    â€˜We still have our supporters,’ she said.
     The Scottish queen would give them money to leave Scotland, she believed. And Queen Mary
     had agreed to a marriage between her daughter and Prince Edward, who was the rightful
     prince and heir.
    The French king sat back. She could see him
     thinking that it might suit him to have a member of his own family, half French, on the
     English throne as his vassal. But all he said was, ‘Certainly we could not have two King
     Edwards in England at the same time – that would confuse the people, eh?’
    â€˜Edward of York is not king,’ she said
     clearly. ‘And when I have finished with him he will not be earl either. He will be
     nothing – less than nothing!’
    The French king’s nose twitched again. He
     indicated to a servant to fill her goblet. ‘What other support do you have?’ he
     said.
    So she told him, hesitating only a little,
     that she could count on the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Devon, whose supporters
     were in the south. That was where she thought an invasion might be made – through the
     Channel Islands. Or alternatively to the north – through the lands of the Earl of
     Northumberland, who had died for King Henry’s cause at Towton. The lands no longer
     belonged to him, of course – they had been granted to the Earl of Warwick’s brother –
     but still the family and tenants remained loyal.
    â€˜If we can retake the castles,’ she said,
     warming to her theme, ‘the Scots will support us – I am sure of it.’
    As she spoke, all her energies, all the old
     fire, revived in her. But the French king gave no indication at all of his response. He
     listened impassively, only occasional expressions of doubt or discouragement flitting
     across his face like shadows across a deep pool.

2
Margaret of Anjou Receives a Visitor
    Seen from the palace windows, the meadows
     were a soft gold. Occasionally a bird flitted across the hillside, but other than that
     nothing moved. Sheep stood or sat in absolute stillness, each one depositing an imprint
     of shadow to the right.
    As the day passed the heat would become
     unendurable; the grass parched, sheep and horses seeking the shade afforded by a rare
     tree or shrub. But in the early morning the world seemed saturated in stillness, as if
     holding its