A Dangerous Inheritance

My plans are complete, the Duke wrote.

There had then been a few agonising days without news. Kate was painfully aware of the possibility that her father could be lying dead somewhere, killed in battle, for all they knew. The Duchess was brooding about that too, going about with a drawn face, and spending many hours on her knees in the castle chapel, praying for her lord’s safety and gazing heavenwards through the soaring tracery windows in near despair. Sometimes Kate would join her before the altar, and they would beseech God together to spare the man they loved.

The news, when at last it came, was sensational. Gloucester and Buckingham had intercepted the King’s party at Stony Stratford; they had been forced, for safety’s sake, to arrest Rivers and Grey, and they had taken the boy Edward into custody. They were now on their way with him to London.

Not a single drop of blood was shed, the Duke assured them, in a letter written at an i

That sounded like her father! He might have fallen from grace in his youth, but he was now the most moral of men, upright and God-fearing, and quick to condemn those who fell short of his high standards.

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‘They would not dare, surely?’ Kate cried in alarm.

‘He says the ambushes were revealed to him by their accomplices, so we may hope that the threat has been dealt with. The King stood up for his kinsfolk, as one might expect, but your father told him that he did not know everything that had been going on, and that he himself could better discharge the duties of government, and assured him he would neglect nothing of the duty of a loyal subject and diligent Lord Protector. The King defied him, saying he had great confidence in his mother the Queen and her blood, but my lord of Buckingham answered that it was not the business of women to govern kingdoms, and his Grace should place all his hope in his barons, or those who excel in power and nobility. And so King Edward has perforce surrendered himself into the care of the Duke your father.’

‘It was a wise decision,’ Kate declared. ‘He will not regret it.’

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She sank distractedly into her chair as Kate read what her father had written.

I have separated the King’s Grace from his household, and ordered all his servants to go to their homes. Many are saying that it is more just and beneficial for the King to be with his father’s brother than with his Wydeville kin. The news from London is that the Queen, hearing that we have gained charge of his Grace, has taken sanctuary in Westminster Abbey with the Duke of York and the princesses, as if she needed protection from me. Lord Hastings writes that she believes we are all labouring to destroy her and her blood. Yet she has nothing to fear from me if she ceases her meddling. I have ordered a watch to be made on all who visit her in sanctuary. In London, the citizens are arming, thinking that there will be fighting, but I will do all in my power to prevent any bloodshed. Whatever rumours you hear, pay them no heed, for they are saying in London that I have brought my nephew the King into my power rather than my care, so as to gain the crown for myself. You will be gratified to hear that my Lord Hastings has assured the King’s council that I am fast and faithful to my prince, and that I had arrested his kinsmen only out of fear for my own safety. He himself told the councillors of the plot to murder me.

Her father, her dear father, could so nearly have died, slain at the hands of the unscrupulous Wydevilles! Small wonder the Duchess was looking so anxious. But the final lines of the letter brought comfort. The councillors had praised the Duke for his dutifulness towards his nephew and his intention to punish his – and the King’s – enemies. Rivers and Grey and their associates had been sent north to be held securely at Pontefract Castle. Her father had also commanded that the Great Seal of England be given into the safe keeping of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Now he was on his way to London, and would write further as soon as he could.

The next messenger brought a summons to London. The Duchess was to join the Duke and bring Kate and John with her. A date had been set for the young King’s coronation: it would be on 24th June, the feast day of St John the Baptist. The Duke wanted them present at the great solemnities that were to take place in Westminster Abbey. But they could not look forward to it as they should. The coronation might be the end of everything.

‘I have to tell you, Kate: I am in fear for your father,’ the Duchess confessed, with tears brimming in her light blue eyes. They had set out on their journey and were seated in a private parlour of a priory guest house near Stamford, with several tempting dishes laid out on the table before them. But A

Kate embraced her stepmother. Disarmed by this, A

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‘Certainly he will seek to restore them and the Queen to power,’ Kate said, realising what that would mean for her father.

‘Aye, and their first thought will be to exact vengeance on my lord. And the King, I fear, will not lift a finger to stop them. The Duke can expect no favours from him, nor mercy at the hands of the Queen. My lord makes no secret of his fear of the Wydevilles; and yet he is only fulfilling his brother’s dying wishes in taking up the reins of government during this minority.’