So they swore allegiance to the new King.
Henry, with his mother and brothers and sisters, spent Christmas in Bristol. William Marshal was with them and Henry found himself the centre of controversy. All the important men who came to the castle must be received by him and he was never allowed to forget for a moment the terrible responsibilities which had fallen on him.
Richard envied him while Joan watched him with a kind of awe. She took to calling him King, which in a way he liked, because now that the first shock had subsided and all he had to do at first was listen to the Earl and do what he told him, it was not difficult.
Their mother was with them more often than she had been and that pleased them. They were all conscious of her beauty and found pleasure in merely looking at her, as so many people did. Moreover she was a little more respectful to Henry than she had been and he enjoyed this. He had been inclined to feel that Richard was much better liked than he was which made him hang back behind his younger brother, but now that he was King and Richard so clearly envious, all that was changed.
Isabella always liked to break news to them before it was formally announced by the council which assembled in the Bristol castle and which Henry had to attend whenever it assembled. At first this had frightened him, then bored him and afterwards he began to take an interest because they were discussing the affairs of the kingdom … his kingdom.
Isabella summoned the three eldest children to her because she had news for them.
‘You know your new responsibilities, Henry,’ she said. ‘You have been crowned a king.’
‘With your necklace,’ giggled Joan.
Isabella gave her a light slap on her arm. Joan’s frivolity was irritating and she was so pretty with her violet eyes and dark hair – growing like her mother, although of course she could never be quite so beautiful.
‘Attend to me,’ said Isabella sternly. ‘The lords are going to choose William Marshal as Regent and they are going to put you in his charge.’
Richard grimaced and Joan looked at him, hunching her shoulders.
‘Now, Henry,’ said Isabella, ‘we will take no heed of these foolish children. This is a matter of the King. You will have a tutor who will be Philip of Albini. He is a good man I know and a great scholar. You will enjoy learning with him.’
Henry was not alarmed. He was good with his books. Sometimes he wished that was all there was to kingship.
‘You will have to study and be worthy of your crown. As for you Richard, you are leaving at once for Corfe Castle.’
Joan’s face puckered. ‘I don’t want them to go.’
‘Be silent, you stupid child. Richard has to learn even though he is not a king. He will be under the charge of Peter de Mauley at Corfe and his tutor is to be Sir Roger d’Acastre. The Earl of Pembroke has chosen the men he considers best for these important tasks.’
The boys were a little dismayed but Joan’s lips were beginning to quiver.
‘I like it as it was when our father was the King … instead of Henry.’
Isabella looked at her coldly. ‘Do not imagine that you will be here for ever.’
‘What will happen to me, my lady?’
The Queen smiled slowly. ‘You are betrothed, you know.’
Joan nodded. ‘To an old man.’
‘Oh come, he is not as old as that. I knew him once … well, very well.’
‘So he is as old as you, my lady.’
‘Older,’ she said sharply. ‘But he was then a very handsome man. I never saw a handsomer in all my life.’
‘People don’t stay handsome,’ said Richard.
‘Some of them do,’ retorted Isabella.
‘Is he still the most handsome man?’ asked Joan anxiously.
‘That you will discover … soon I think.’
‘Oh, am I going away, too?’ Joan looked round the room as though she were seeking something to cling to.
‘Yes, you will go away.’ Isabella smiled secretly. ‘You will have a governess to conduct you to your bridegroom. You will not be entirely alone, you know. Who knows … I myself might decide to take you to him.’
The Queen began to laugh and her children joined with her, without quite knowing why.
Throughout the country there was rejoicing because the tyrant was dead, but all must realise that being rid of John did not solve their difficulties. Many of them had welcomed Louis to England, certain that any ruler was preferable to John; but now that there was a new king supported by men such as William Marshal and Hubert de Burgh, they were eager to turn out the aliens. This was easier said than done. Louis was young; he was anxious to prove his valour and skills to his father, and he was as determined to succeed as many of the English were to turn him out. Moreover he had a foothold in England and his men were already in London.
It was disturbing to Louis to find that since young Henry had been crowned, the English who had supported him were now slipping away to the other side. Louis understood. The whole world had been aware of the misfortune which had overtaken England in such a king as John and, distracted by his injustices, the English were determined to be rid of him; now a higher power had intervened and mercifully for England, the tyrant was dead. It was naturally the time when Englishmen were asking themselves: What are we doing with foreigners on our soil? Why are we welcoming England’s enemy? The need to do so is miraculously removed. We have a young king supported by great men. Let us drive out the invader … No, they could not call him that. He was the guest, invited by many of them. Come rid us of this John and in return you shall have the crown of England. How they hated John! But he was dead, and that changed everything.
Yes, Louis was very uneasy.
He returned to France to spend Christmas with his wife, Blanche. Because of the deep love and trust between them – rare in royal marriages – she was a wife with whom he could discuss state matters. That she was anxious about the English expedition, he was in no doubt; and he had agreed with her that now a new King had been crowned, it was time to make the final settlement. They must raise a new army – a force which the English would not be able to resist. Louis must capture the young King and hold him as prisoner – hostage, while he himself was acknowledged as King of England.
It was April before Louis had perfected his plans and returned to England, full of confidence that this would be the final phase and that England was ready to fall into his hands. He and Blanche had even made plans for their coronation in England but Louis did not know that during his absence in France loyalty to the crown of England was growing fast. Men were now talking disdainfully of the foreigner on English soil, forgetting that many of them had invited him there. There were some who were asking themselves how England could ever have come to such a pass and were determined to drive the French from the country.
Louis’s first setback was at Lincoln, where the castle was in the hands of Nicole de la Haie, a Norman woman of forceful character, said to be as good and better than any man in her determination to save England for the English. Already she had sent out a proclamation that any of those barons who had rebelled against John were invited to her castle if they now were eager to be loyal to John’s son, that they might discuss plans for restoring England to its rightful king. The boy was not responsible for his father’s sins, she declared; and the spirit of the great Conqueror and the two Henrys would haunt them for the rest of their lives if they allowed the country to pass into the hands of the French. Nicole was eloquent. Under John the country had been humiliated beyond endurance, but those days were over and they must start to rebuild an England which would be as great as it had once been.