The Queen from Provence

Chapter XVI CONSPIRACY IN THE BEDCHAMBER

Edward was in France; Beatrice had gone; there was frustration over Edmund’s accession to the crown of Sicily which the people of England were so much against; and Henry longed to raise the Queen’s spirits.

He had an idea and without telling Eleanor, for if it failed he did not want disappointment to make her more melancholy than ever, he sent a messenger to Scotland with the suggestion that the Scottish King and Queen should come to England.

He knew that if it were possible Margaret would agree immediately; and he was right. His messenger brought back a letter from Margaret in which she said that they were preparing to set out at once.

Gleefully he went to Eleanor.

‘News from Scotland,’ he said carelessly.

‘Margaret is well?’ she asked quickly.

‘It seems she is very well.’

‘Thank God.’

‘And very eager to see her mother … and I believe she takes some pleasure in her father’s company.’

‘What do you mean, Henry?’

‘I mean, my love, that our Margaret is coming to see us. At this very moment she is on her way.’

‘Oh, Henry!’

‘I knew that would please you. That is why I arranged it.’

‘And said nothing to me.’

‘Because I feared it might not be possible. I could not bear that you should be disappointed.’

‘Henry, you are so good to me.’

‘No more than I should be, my love.’

To go home! Margaret’s spirits leaped at the thought. To leave grim old Edinburgh for beloved Windsor, Westminster or even York. What mattered it as long as it was England. The South was better though because it was farther away from Scotland.

To go home again! To be with those beloved parents. To talk over everything with her mother …

To talk over everything! Oh, what good luck that she had not told anyone, for if she had they would have done everything they could to have stopped her going.

She had almost told Alexander, but she had wanted to be sure. She had not wanted him to be disappointed. Now she was sure and had been on the point of telling but mercy of mercies she had not.

She could imagine those grim old lairds. ‘The bairn must be born in Scotland. In view of her condition the Queen must not travel.’ They would enjoy stopping her pleasure. She knew them well. So thank God, she had told no one.

There was a lot of dour shaking of heads over the proposed visit. They would like to shut her and Alexander up as they had when she had first come here. But they were taught a lesson then. Her dear parents would not allow her to be treated like a prisoner. The Scots knew it and it was important that they did not offend the English.

What joy to turn the head of her horse southwards. How she laughed to herself when they crossed the border. Soon she would be home.

They passed through York where she had half expected her parents would be waiting to greet her. No matter. State affairs kept them in the South. Only a short while and she would be with them.

As they came near to Windsor, Alexander sent messengers ahead of them to herald their approach and so it happened that both the King and Queen with a royal party came to meet them.

What joy there was in the reunion! The Queen must study her daughter, to see if she was plump enough, well enough, happy enough.

Margaret laughed. ‘Dearest lady,’ she cried, ‘how could I fail to be happy when we are together!’

So they rode through the forest to the castle. Oh beautiful, noble castle, beloved of the family because the King had had it refurnished when he had married the Queen.

Into the great chamber they went.

‘Nothing is changed,’ cried Margaret. ‘It is as it always was. Dear Father, how is your grassplat?’ She ran to the window and looked out. There was the grassy rectangle which he had designed and of which he had always been so proud. Margaret turned and threw her arms about him. ‘Oh let everything stay the same.’

Alexander was looking at her in some surprise. She did not care. The Scots rarely showed their feelings, but Alexander knew something of the perfections of her parents and the happy childhood she had spent with them so that nothing that ever happened afterwards could compare with it.

‘Oh, it is so wonderful to be home!’ she cried.

Henry could not hide his delight, even though he felt it must be rather disconcerting for Alexander. But then he must not expect to give Margaret the happiness she had found with her incomparable parents.

Margaret was longing to be alone with her mother so that she could tell the secret. How they would laugh together. But first of course there must be certain formalities. After all she was a Queen and Scotland was by no means unimportant if only because it could cause so much trouble on the border.

There were the usual festivals which Henry so loved to give in honour of his family and which the people so hated to pay for. This was just another instance of the extravagance incurred by the royal family.

Already the people were grumbling.

‘They grudge us a little happiness,’ said the Queen.

‘How wonderful it is to be alone together, dear lady,’ said Margaret.

‘I am so happy that you are here, my dearest.’

‘I have thought of nothing since I left England but the joy I should find in coming back.’

‘Alexander is kind to you?’

‘Yes, he is kind.’

‘A good husband.’

‘I suppose you would say so, but you see I compare him with my dear father and no one could compare with him, could they?’

The Queen agreed that this was so.

‘See what you do,’ said Margaret. ‘You make us all love you so much that we have not much room for anyone else.’

It was not in Eleanor’s nature not to be delighted by such a revelation though she told her daughter that she had prayed that she would find the greatest happiness of her life in her marriage.

‘It will be different, my darling, when you have children.’

‘Dear mother, I have something to tell you.’

Eleanor took her daughter’s face in her hands and looked into her eyes. Margaret nodded, laughter in her eyes and her upturned lips.

‘You have just learned …’

‘I knew before. You are the first I have told.’

‘Margaret! Alexander …’

‘He will know all in good time.’

‘But why this secrecy?’

‘You do not know what they are like up there. I should never have been allowed to travel if they had known I was with child.’

Eleanor began to laugh, but she was quickly serious.

‘We shall have to take good care. My dear, how soon?’

‘It should be in February …’

‘A long time yet. They are right, you know, about your travelling. We shall have to see that you leave in good time. We must take great care.’

‘I am going to take great care, dear Mother, that when the time comes for us to go it will be too late for me to travel. You will help me, won’t you? This is our secret … as yet. Tell no one … but my father. He may know. Let it be our secret. Then when it is too late … we shall tell.’

‘My dear child, what a schemer you are!’

‘If you knew how I longed to be with you. I will not have my visit cut short. I am going to make it as long as I can. Please, dearest Mother, help me.’ Eleanor took her daughter into her arms and laughed.

They clung together until Margaret was almost hysterical with laughter.

Then Eleanor said: ‘We will tell the King. It will amuse him. He has had much of late to frustrate him. Let us tell him something to make him laugh.’

Together they went to the King’s chamber. The Queen signed to him that she wished to speak to him alone and he dismissed everyone. When the three of them were alone together Eleanor said: ‘Shall you tell him or shall I?’

They began to laugh and Henry looked from one to the other in a state of happy bewilderment.

‘Please, my darlings, may I share the joke?’

‘Go along. Margaret, you tell him.’

‘Please, my lady, I had rather you did.’

‘Margaret is with child. It is a secret between us three. The Scots do not know. Nor does she wish them to. She feared they would stop her coming and that she could not endure. She is going to keep the secret and only when it would be unsafe for her to travel back shall it be known.’

The King smiled slowly. Then he too was laughing.

How happy he was. While he had this dear family he could not be seriously disturbed by the troublemakers in his realm.

All would come right. In the meantime there was this delicious secret – shared by the three of them.

It was such a joy to be in England. Wherever the Court was there were Margaret and Alexander.

‘How good it is for the relationship between our two countries,’ said Margaret.

Alexander agreed on this and he had to admit that they could not have been made more welcome.

‘We shall have to think of returning soon,’ he said.

‘We must not leave too soon. That would offend my father,’ Margaret pointed out.

‘Perhaps then we should stay a little longer.’

When she sensed that he was about to broach the matter again she told him she was feeling a little unwell and her mother wished her to see the royal physician.

When she had done this her parents summoned Alexander to her bedchamber and there they played out the little farce which they had arranged between them.

The Queen said: ‘Margaret is with child, Alexander. It is one of those unusual pregnancies. It is only just apparent. It seems that the child is due in February and in view of this the doctors feel that it would be unwise for her to travel.’

Alexander was taken aback.

‘Naturally,’ said the King, ‘this has been a great surprise to you, but an agreeable one, I am sure. The doctors have told us that Margaret will be perfectly all right if great care is taken. I would wish my physicians to care for her. Her mother will not hear that she leaves.’

Alexander, still bewildered, said: ‘It is the custom for the heir to the throne to be born in Scotland.’

‘Of course, of course … but better for the heir to be born in England than no heir at all … and perhaps danger to the mother, who is my daughter.’

Alexander must agree with this. He embraced Margaret and told her how happy he was that at last they were to have a child. He was uncertain about staying in England, though.

Henry laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Do not fret, my son,’ he said. ‘Leave this to the Queen and myself.’

Alexander realised at length that there was nothing else he could do; and in due course he returned to Scotland leaving his wife in her mother’s care.

They were very happy months. There was Christmas at Windsor. What fun they had, for Eleanor said this must be a very special Christmas, since they had the Queen of Scotland with them.

They were together all the time and Eleanor constantly congratulated Margaret on her clever manoeuvre. She certainly had showed herself to be a true daughter of her mother.

Messages came from Alexander. There was great anger and resentment in Edinburgh, he said. It was even hinted that the Queen must have known of her condition before she left and it was suggested that she had deliberately concealed it.

Margaret showed her mother this letter and they laughed together. ‘They are not entirely foolish then,’ said Eleanor. ‘But what matters it? Let them think what they will. All that matters is that your child will be born here and I shall be at hand to make sure all is well.’

‘There could not be a greater comfort in the world,’ said Margaret.

On a snowy February day in Windsor Castle Margaret gave birth to her first child. It was a girl and she was called Margaret after her mother.

There was great satisfaction and rejoicing through the castle.

‘You cannot make the journey back until the late spring or summer,’ said the Queen. ‘Your father would never allow it.’

And Margaret settled down to make the most of the time.