'This is the moment for which I have longed since I first set eyes on you/ said Henry.
And Katherine was content.
DEATH OF THE CONQUEROR
Katherine lay at Windsor, awaiting the birth of her child. The King of course was still at war. The marriage had not brought the peace all had prayed for. The new Dauphin perhaps could not be expected to relinquish his rights and determined to stand against the treaty. Moreover it was hardly likely that all Frenchmen would calmly stand by and see their land handed over to the English even though their mad King was to retain his title until he died.
So Henry was now in France awaiting the news of the birth of their child.
She was happy. She was meant to be a wife. She and Henry were well matched. She laughed to hear of the adventures he had had in his youth when everyone thought it would be disaster when he came to the throne. He was a man of passionate desires—whether it was in the bedchamber or the battle field. He was a man who could become obsessed by an ideal; to her he was a conquering hero. She did not care that he had subdued her father and her country. She regarded her brother, the Dauphin, as an enemy because he was Henry's.
Thus had Henry claimed her as his own and they were both delighted with the marriage.
He had given her a magnificent coronation and she had been crowned in Westminster Abbey by Archbishop Chich-eley on a cold February day. The banquet that followed was
the most sumptuous that had ever been served in the great hall at Westminster.
Henry was determined to do her honour.
And soon afterwards to the delight of them both she had become pregnant.
Her baby was to be born in December.
'You must be with me when our baby comes into the w^orld,' she told Henry; but he laughed at her and she knew that if he felt it necessary to go into battle even she could not detain him.
Conquest w^as his life. He was a great lover but a soldier first. The prosecution of a war meant more to him than anything else. Her kinswoman Joanna who had been Queen to Henry's father was still imprisoned in Pevensey.
Henry believed in witchcraft and he told her that Joanna had practised it against him. He only half believed it to be so for he had always liked his stepmother until he needed her money to help him to make w^ar.
He was ruthless. She knew^ that. But he was a man ... every inch of him; and she was gratified to have him as her husband.
When she had ridden out beside him she had been thrilled; when his eyes had sought hers in an assembly her heart leaped with pleasure. There could be no doubt of the love between them.
He w^as going away again. She could pout and express her displeasure but he took no notice. His presence was needed in France.
'And you wall not be here for the birth of the child,' she complained.
'You will bear it without me,' he said.
'Then as soon as I am able to I shall come to you. You will not be able to prevent that.'
He laughed at her. 'It may well be that I have no wish to,' he answered.
She was amused ^vhen he began to have suspicions about the birth of the child.
He had been listening to astrologers.
'There is a cloud over Windsor,' he said. 'They predict it will be there in December. Katherine, our child must not be born in Windsor. It is an ill omen.'
'Stop here and make sure it is not born there.'
He laughed again and kissed her.
But all the same he had gone away to war.
And now here she lay ... in Windsor. He would not stay with her while her child was born. Very well, she would deliberately disobey him.
He would not be angry; once the child was born he would forget its birthplace.
It was a magnificent castle; fitted to be the birthplace of Kings. She wanted a boy—a King to follow Henry. It was what they both wanted. And why should it not be born in Windsor?
Henry's favourite ancestor, Edward the Third, had been born here. They had called him Edward of Windsor, and if she had a son she w^ould call him after his father. He should be Henry of Windsor.
And so she was brought to bed and in due course her son was born.
She called him Henry after his father.
*A plague on their prophecies, my son,' she said. *My little Henry the Sixth, you are going to be another such as your father.'
When the news was brought to Henry he was filled with delight. A son! Was that not what every King desired? He had his fair and passionate Katherine and how like her to add to her perfections by giving him a son!
*The Queen insists on calling him Henry,' he was told.
*That does not displease me,' he said with a smile. 'Long live our young Henry the Sixth.'
*And may he not come to the throne for many a long year, my lord.'
The King was silent suddenly. He said: 'Where was he born?'
They hesitated to tell him knowing his uneasy feelings.
When he would have it from them he turned white—not with anger but with fear.
Then he said slowly as though someone else was speaking through him:
'Henry born at Monmouth
Shall small time reign and much get
But Henry of Windsor shall long reign and lose all.'
He looked with astonishment at those who surrounded him. And then he added: 'But as God will, so be it.'
*My lord/ said his brother Gloucester. 'Are you well?'
Henry put his hand to his brow. *A strangeness came over me,' he said. *It was the news that the boy had been born at Windsor. I asked the Queen not to lie-in there.'
'Windsor, my lord? It is a right fitting place for the birth of a Prince.'
Henry clapped his brother on the shoulder. 'You are right, brother. What matters it? A fine boy, eh. And a Henry.'
Six months after the birth, Katherine prevailed on Henry to allow her to join him. The baby was left in the care of his nurses and she set out, accompanied by the Duke of Bedford and an army of twenty thousand.
Thus as a queen should she travelled across France sending messengers on in advance to tell her husband of her coming.
When Henry heard that she had arrived in France he was filled with mingling joy and dismay. For some months he had been feeling ill and he could not forget how rapidly his father had been attacked by disease.
His was not an illness of disfiguration. He was suffering from the dysentery which he had seen ruin so many of his soldiers. It left him limp and exhausted. He was advised to rest but he would not do so, assuring himself that he would throw off the indisposition which he refused to believe was anything but temporary.
He sent to the Queen to tell her of her daughter's arrival and as the King was enjoying one of his lucid periods the two of them joined Henry and rode with him to meet their daughter.
Katherine was shocked to see the change in Henry and declared that it was time she came to him for it was clear that he needed looking after. He smiled wanly, and declared that he had far too much to do to become an invalid.
They travelled on to Senlis and there Katherine insisted that he rest.
'Nay,' he answered, 'I cannot rest. Nor can I dally with you, sweetheart. Your brother, who calls himself the Dauphin, is about to battle with my ally the Duke of Burgundy. I know Burgundy expects and needs my help.'
'Forget it for a while,' pleaded Katherine. 'The doctors say you need to rest.'
He smiled at her. 'You are a temptress, my dear Queen, but I am not to be lured from my duty/
'When do you leave Senlis?*