‘She is indeed virtuous and beautiful,’ agreed the King. ‘As for her lowly station, praise be to God that is a matter which can easily be remedied.’
George was trying to divine what his brother was thinking. He knew that he could have had no idea that the King was going to announce this.
He stammered: ‘I know her mother was the Dowager Duchess of Bedford but she is not the daughter of a duke...nor an earl even. How would such a marriage be received, my lord? What would other rulers think?’
‘They shall be at liberty to think what they will. I will have Elizabeth Woodville or no one.’
‘My lord!’ Everyone was intent on Warwick who had now risen to his feet. ‘I know well your jovial nature. You are amusing yourself at our expense. You do not mean this, of course...’
Edward was still smiling but there was a strong note in his voice.
‘I mean it,’ he said. ‘I mean it with all my heart. Stop your efforts to persuade me. In any case they are too late. Elizabeth Woodville and I were married at Grafton Regis...’
Warwick sank to his chair. He said nothing. The beats of his heart were like hammer strokes. He could have struck that smiling, handsome face.
He said nothing, but he knew it was over.
The puppet had turned into a man and was no longer his to control.
When Warwick left the council chamber he had a great desire to be alone to think. In all his life he had never felt so shattered. That Edward had acted so was bad enough but it was some time since that May day at Grafton Regis and he had been keeping his marriage secret all this time...and meanwhile he, Warwick, had been negotiating with the King of France. Edward had humiliated him in the extreme. Not only had he broken free but he had actually kept this all important secret from the man who had made him.
Warwick was not sure how to act.
His brother George came to him in great anxiety. For some moments they looked at each other, unable to express their thoughts. George was very worried.
At length he said: ‘What shall you do?’
‘He is determined to act as he fancies. It is this woman. She must be a witch.’
‘He is easily bewitched by women.’
‘He has had so many he must feel very deeply to have been dragged into this by this one. Think what it means. He allowed me to negotiate with Louis while he was actually married. I shall be the laughing stock of all France and England.’
‘Not you, brother. Louis will understand that we have a feckless stallion to deal with.’
‘I shall never forget the way he stood there smiling at me...with that look in his eyes. "I will do what pleases me. I shall take no heed of the needs of my country, of the efforts the man who put the crown on my head made to do just that." Oh George, what base ingratitude!’
‘Indeed it is so,’ agreed George.
‘And think of the implications.’
‘I am thinking of that and wondering how you will act. Do you think it would be better to say nothing just at first? After all the deed is done. They are married. Nothing can change that...save divorce. You behaved with admirable calm at the Council.’
‘I was shocked into silence.’
‘That is not such a bad thing for it might have been dangerous for you to have spoken your thoughts.’
‘By God if I had...’
‘Yes...And we all were with you. This is an act of folly which I doubt not the King will learn to his cost and when he does it is to you he will turn, brother. He will wish that he had listened to you.’
Warwick was silent. George was right, of course. George had a clear, incisive mind. He would have to accept this low-born woman as the Queen. And in time it might well be that having seen his folly the King would turn back to him. He sighed deeply. Then he said: ‘You are right, George. I must be calm. I must say nothing. I must appear to accept this woman as Queen.’
Thus when Edward came to him smiling as though there had been no rift between them he agreed to present the Queen to the lords in Reading Abbey.
‘My brother Clarence will walk on one side of Elizabeth and you, Richard, on the other. That pleases me. My brother and my closest friend to welcome her. She will be so happy...and so shall I.’
Swallowing his rage, suppressing his rancour Warwick did it but it needed iron control of his feelings to perform the exercise with a good grace.
To keep up this attitude was easier to contemplate than to put into practice.
Elizabeth Woodville was an ambitious lady and she was surrounded by impecunious members of her family. She was determined to advance them and such was her power over the King that she had little difficulty in doing this.
Warwick was glad to see that many of the nobles were growing more and more disgruntled by the elevation of the Woodville family. The Queen married her sister Margaret to Lord Maltravers, son of the Earl of Arundel; her sister Mary was married to the son of Lord Herbert who was heir (o the Pembroke title; and there was outraged indignation when her brother John, aged twenty, became betrothed to the Duchess of Norfolk who was nearly eighty years old.
It was easy to see the motives behind these marriages. No one could realize the tremendous importance of the right marriage more than Warwick. He owed his vast wealth and titles to his. He could see that in a short time the Woodvilles would be of greater importance than the Nevilles through these advantageous marriages.
The people did not like it. They deplored the marriage. Even the most humble in the land criticized the low birth old Elizabeth Woodville—which was amusing if it were not so very useful.
It began to dawn on Warwick that if he were not careful he would be ousted from the realms of power. All that he had clone would be forgotten; there would be a new ruling family in the country—that of the Woodvilles.
The time had come (or him to do some deep thinking. What did a King-Maker do when his puppet refused to respond to the strings? He found a new puppet.
It was an exciting project. There’ was another. At the moment he was a poor neglected prisoner in the Tower.
‘This needed a great deal of thought.
There came a day when he found himself face to face with Edward and because his plans were now taking real shape in his mind he no longer felt the need to cloak his feelings.
Edward noticed the strange brooding expression on his face and when he asked what ailed him, Warwick’s rage broke out.
‘Need you ask, my lord? I am suffering from a surfeit of disloyalty. I have given my life to what I believed was a good cause. I have squandered men and money in giving England a ruler whom I thought would serve her well. And what does he do? He makes a marriage which is suicide to his political advantage. He has destroyed the hope of an alliance with France. As for myself I have had indignity heaped upon me. While I was negotiating with the King of France you, my lord, were making a mockery of those negotiations...of not only your faithful friend but the King of a powerful country. Do you wonder I am sick at heart?’
Edward expressed no surprise that he should be addressed in this manner by a subject. He had always recognized Warwick as a specially favoured one. He laid an arm about his shoulders.
‘You distress yourself unnecessarily,’ he said. ‘I know the people don’t like my marriage. But Elizabeth is different from all other women I have ever known...and I speak of one who knows the sex well. It was the only way, Richard. It was marriage or nothing...’
‘And you were duped by that tale?’
‘Oh come, she meant it. She was a virtuous widow.’
Warwick threw off the King’s arm. ‘It was an act of folly and I promise you it is one you will regret.’