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She was laughing to think of what he would say and feel when he heard that his sons Richard and Geoffrey had joined their brother Henry against him. And that would not be all. Aquitaine was ready to rebel against him. Brittany was doubtless the same. What of Anjou? Normandy she supposed would be loyal to him.
It was so exciting. She could not stay in the castle. She sent a messenger to her uncle, Raoul de Faye, begging him to come to her as she was in need of his advice.
Eleanor was very fond of this uncle though not quite in the same way as she had been of that other uncle, Raymond Prince of Antioch who had been her lover; but she had relied very much on Raoul de Faye who pleased her by his dislike of Henry Plantagenet and who had done a great deal to arouse young Henry’s antagonism against his father.
Raoul quickly arrived in answer to her summons. He was delighted when she told him what had happened.
‘This will be the end of that arrogant husband of yours,’ he declared. ‘There is scarcely a man living who does not hold him guilty of Becket’s murder. This will be remembered against him and even those who have been his most loyal supporters until now will begin to change their tune.’
How pleasant it was to walk in the gardens with Raoul, a charming and handsome man. She forgot when she was with him – for he paid her the most delightful compliments – that she was no longer young and that her notorious beauty was considerably faded for she felt young in the company of such a man, and because she could gloat over her hatred for her husband she was happy for a while.
This would give him little time to dally with his Rosamund, she told Raoul.
‘I doubt not he will find women here and there to amuse him in the ma
‘He will do that, but he will not rest in peace long.’
‘I have heard that the people of England are murmuring against the heavy taxes he imposes.’
They always did. But they remember the reign of Stephen when brigands roamed the country and took from them their possessions. They prefer to be robbed by the King with his taxes than that their money should be taken from them by roaming robbers.’
‘They will forget the robber brigands and remember only the robber king.’
‘He has staunch friends in England.’
‘Never mind England. We will drive him out of Aquitaine, Anjou and Normandy.’
‘My dear uncle, you will help in this?’
‘You may be assured that I shall do my best to stir up rebellion against him from all sides. Louis will be with us. We ca
‘Then my son Henry shall have England, Normandy and Anjou, Richard Aquitaine and Geoffrey Brittany in very truth.’
‘The writing is on the wall for Henry Plantagenet,’ said Raoul de Faye.
When he had gone Eleanor could not settle. She remembered the days when she and Louis had set out on their crusade to the Holy City. What excitements there had been then – discomforts too, but they only brightened the high lights. Wonderful days of youth and vitality!
But she was not so old. At least she did not feel old. She could not expect to go into battle, but she could join her sons; she could advise them. No one could say she was not a woman of experience.
Why should she not?
The more she thought of it the more she liked the idea. She would go to the Court of France. It was ironical that she should be turning from Henry to Louis when once it had been the other way round. But Louis was turning out to be more astute than she had ever believed possible. He had fathered several children so was not so much of a monk and since the birth of his son he had been quite ready to go to war for the good of his kingdom.
It would be amusing to see Louis again.
When she made up her mind to do something she became obsessed with the need to accomplish it. Now she had decided that she would join her sons.
It would not be wise to let people know that she had left Aquitaine. There might be a revolt in the Duchy so she would slip away quietly. But even then she might be seen.
Then the idea occurred to her. She would disguise herself as a man and leave Aquitaine with a party of knights. She would be dressed as one of them.
When Henry heard that Richard and Geoffrey had joined Henry he shrugged his shoulders. Foolish boys, all of them. What did they think they were going to do? Young Henry was peevish, thinking because he had been crowned King he could replace his father. If the boy had stayed with him he would have learned something of what it meant to be a king, then perhaps he would not be so ready to take on the responsibility. As for Richard and Geoffrey they had been goaded by that she-wolf of a mother of theirs. They were all children really. He would summon them and give them a few lessons in what he expected of them.
He was soon to realise the matter was more serious than he had believed. The rebellion of his sons was regarded as a call to arms to all those discontents throughout his dominions. The shadow of Becket hung heavily over him. Superstitious men believed that the martyr who was capable of performing miracles would surely help those who took up arms against his murderer.
Henry was fully aware of this and when he heard that Count Philip of Flanders had captured Aumâle and, after a siege, the castle of Driencourt he could no longer remain complacent.
Louis had marched forth with young Henry and they were besieging Verneuil. Those loyal and faithful supporters, Hugh de Lacy and Hugh de Beauchamp, could be trusted to hold fast, but when after a month’s siege food became short in the town the inhabitants threatened to surrender.
The King then decided that he must take action.
He led his considerable army to Verneuil.
The reputation of the King of England as the greatest living general still existed, and many of the men in the opposing army, particularly those who had deserted him in favour of his son, trembled at the thought of his approach. If God and Becket were not on his side then the Devil would surely be.
Louis realised that in a face-to-face fight with Henry he could not win. From a hilltop he saw the approach of Henry’s army and he was greatly disturbed. All his distaste for battle returned to him and he sent messengers asking for a truce until the following day.
Normally Henry would not have accepted this, but his son was with the army of the King of France and he wished to teach him a lesson rather than that any harm should befall him. After all he understood the boy’s desire for power. Hadn’t he had similar desires when he was his age?
So he agreed to the truce. That night, Louis’s soldiers – out of control as they had been on the notorious occasion of Vitry-the-Burned – sacked the town; and when morning came they were already in flight.
When Henry saw the burning town his fury was great. He set off immediately in pursuit of Louis’s army but although he inflicted great slaughter on its rear he did not catch up with Louis and young Henry.
Now it became clear that revolt was springing up all over his dominions. It was necessary for him to send a force without delay to Brittany where fortunately he was quickly able to put down the insurrection.
It was a great blow to him to hear that Robert, Earl of Leicester, the son of the man who had been one of his most loyal supporters, and his Chamberlain, William de Tancarville, had left England for France and had joined young Henry.
This was serious, and when Louis, who had been greatly upset by the affair at Verneuil, suggested that they meet to discuss peace, Henry was ready.
He was considerably hurt to hear that his three sons had accompanied Louis to Gisors, the spot where the conference was to take place, and that they had come to support the King of France against their own father. He wanted to be on friendly terms with his sons and to start again to build up a pleasant relationship with them. His offer was generous considering that they had taken up arms against him. It was true, he recognised, that there was some justice in their demands, but it was none the less depressing to sit with his own sons on one side of the conference table and himself on the other. Young Henry had become defiant – perhaps he always had been – but now with the backing of the King of France he was not afraid to show it. Richard gave him cool looks of hatred; and his two elder sons were training their brother Geoffrey to follow their example. Life had indeed become sour, when those who should have loved him and worked beside him had turned against him.