The Royal Succession Read Free

footing with sovere ign princes. 1 *
    * The numbers in the text refer to the Historical Notes at the end of the book,
    ''We kings have enemies who are less hostile to our persons than to the decisions of our power; and there are many people who might have an interest in making you a widow. There are the Templars, whose order; as I said at the time, it was a great mistake to suppress. They formed a secret conspiracy and swore to kill my brother and his sons. My brother is dead, his eldest son has followed him. There are the Roman cardinals. Do you remember Cardinal Caetani's attempt to cast a spell on Louis and your brother-in-law of Poitiers, both of whom he wished to destroy? The attempt was discovered, but Caetani may well have struck by other means. What do you expect? One cannot remove the Pope from the throne of Saint Peter, as my brother did, without arousing resentment. It is also possible that supporters of the Duke of Burgundy may still feel bitter about Marguerite's punishment, to say nothing of the fact that you replaced her.'
    Clemence looked Charles of Valois straight in the eye, which embarrassed him and made him flush a little. He had had some hand in Marguerite's murder. He now realized that Clemence knew it; through Louis' rash confidences no doubt.
    But Clemence said nothing; it was a subject she was chary of broaching. She felt that she was involuntarily to blame. For her husband, whose virtues she boasted, had nevertheless had his first wife strangled so that he might marry her, Clemence, the niece of the King of Naples. Need one look further for the cause of God's punishment?
    `And then there is your neighbour, the Countess Mahaut,' Valois hurried on, `who is not the woman to shrink from crime, even the worst...'
    `How does she differ from you?' thought Clemence, not daring to reply.`Nobody seems to shrink much from killing at this Court.'
    `And less than a month ago, to compel her to submit, Louis confiscated her County of Artois.!
    For a moment Clemence wondered if Valois were not inventing all these possible culprits in order to conceal the fact that he was himself the author of the crime. But she was immediately horror- struck at the thought,, for which there was indeed no possible basis. No, she refused to suspect anyone; she wanted Louis to have died a natural death. Nevertheless, Clemence gazed unconsciously out of the open window towards the south where, beyond the trees of the Forest of Vincennes, lay the Chateau of Conflans, Countess Mahaut's summer residence. A few days before Louis' death, Mahaut, accompanied by her daughter, the Countess of Poitiers, had paid Clemence a visit; an extremely polite visit. Clemence had not left them alone for a single, instant.' They had admired the tapestries in her room.
    `Nothing is more degrading than to imagine that there is a criminal among the people about one,' thought Clemence, `and to start looking for treason in every face.!
    'That is why, my dear niece,' went on Valois, `you must return to Paris as I asked you. You know how fond of you I am. I arranged your marriage. Your father was my brother-in-law. Listen to me as you would have listened to him, had God spared him. The hand that struck down Louis may intend pursuing its vengeance on you and on the child you carry. I cannot leave you here, in the middle of the forest, at the mercy of the machinations' of the wicked, and I shall be easy only when you are living close to me.'
    For the last hour Valois had been trying to persuade Clemence to return to the Palace of the Cite, because he had decided to go there himself. It formed part of his plan for assuming the Regency and facing the Council of Peers with the accomplished fact. Whoever was master in the palace had the trappings of power. But to install himself there on his own might look as if he were usurping it by force. If, on the other hand, he entered the Cite in his niece's wake, as her nearest relative and protector, no one could oppose it. The