'That Warwick believes himself to be too high and mighty for consultation with the King to be necessary.'
'By God, there shall be no marriage. I want Clarence to strengthen the Burgundy alliance. I want this match between my sister Margaret and Burgundy's heir to go forward and I thought Clarence could have the Count's daughter Mary.'
'Of course she is only a child.'
'Clarence is not old. He can wait, I daresay. But Clarence and Isabel Neville . . . never! For one thing they are second cousins. They need a dispensation from the Pope. I'll see they don't get that.'
Edward was so incensed that he completely forgot the case of Lord Desmond.
But Elizabeth had not forgotten. She had promised herself revenge for that remark of his and she would not be content until his head was parted from his body.
She awoke one morning early. The King lay beside her sleeping. She looked at him critically. He had lost a little of those outstanding good looks he had had when she had first met him. There were slight pouches under the fine eyes and a tendency to corpulence. She shrugged her shoulders. He was still a handsome man but his looks were not important as long as he retained his power and she must keep her hold on him.
She slipped off the bed. On a small table lay the King's ornaments which he had put there the previous night before disrobing.
She went to it and immediately found what she wanted: his signet ring.
His papers were in an adjoining chamber and she had made sure that the one she wanted was among them.
It was all done in a few moments.
She had sealed the death warrant.
She hid it in a drawer and went back to the bed.
The King was still sleeping. She lay there watching him. Then she moved closer to him and he put out an arm and held her close to him.
He had no notion that she had left the bed.
The Queen was pregnant once more.
There was no question of her fertility. This time, said the King, it must be a boy.
News came that Lord Desmond had been executed—more than that, Worcester had seen fit to kill his two younger sons with him. This had shocked many people because the boys were still in the schoolroom and it was hard to see how they could have been implicated in their father's treason. There was a story that one of the boys had a sore place on his neck and he had pathetically asked the executioner to be careful of it when cutting off his head. This story was repeated and people were beginning to hate the Earl of Worcester and to say that he had learned his cruelty in Italy and it would have been better if he had stayed there and never brought his wicked ways to England.
Edward was distressed that Desmond had been executed and was especially so when he heard what had happened to the boys.
'Worcester is too harsh,' he told Elizabeth.
She did not agree nor disagree; she just sat with her eyes downcast.
'/ did not give my signature to the death warrant,' he said.
'He is dead now,' was all Elizabeth answered.
And so he deserved to be, she was thinking. How dared he advise the King that it would be a good thing for the country to rid himself of his Queen.
He had paid dearly for that remark. And so must all pay who tried to harm Elizabeth Woodville.
The King shrugged the matter aside. Whatever he did now
Desmond was dead. At least he had not been forced to make a decision.
At the end of the year Elizabeth gave birth to another child. Once more it was a girl and they called her Cecily.
Three girls in a row was disconcerting when each time they had believed there would be a boy. But the King loved his children and to the astonishment of everyone he continued to be devoted to his wife. He was perhaps straying more to other women but he always went back to her and he did not appear to regret his marriage in any way; and cool, aloof, more regal than any of royal birth, Elizabeth held sway.
IN SANCTUARY
Warwick was growing impatient. He had endured enough. He had seen the Woodvilles rise from their humble station to become the most powerful family in the land. The King had insulted him by marrying this upstart widow while he, Warwick, was actually in the process of arranging a match for him with the French King.
Nothing could have been calculated to wound him more. Yet with superhuman control he had buried his resentments. He had attended the Queen; he had not reproached the King.
But what he would endure no longer was the power of the Woodvilles.
Almost immediately after the marriage he had sounded the King's brothers. Richard was a young idealist and Warwick quickly realized that there could be no shifting him from loyalty to his brother. It was different with Clarence. Clarence was shifty, envious, grasping and it would not be difficult to make him change his allegiance; on the other hand he would be an untrustworthy ally, ready to turn his coat according to which way the wind blew. But even a momentary betrayal of his brother would be worth while.
He had tempted Clarence by offering him marriage with his elder daughter. His two girls, even dividing the vast Warwick estates between them, would be the richest in the kingdom.
Clarence thought of what marriage with Isabel would mean and he liked what he saw. Moreover he liked Isabel. Neither of the Warwick girls was as physically strong as their father would have liked them to be, but they were attractive, both of them. Anne and Richard of Gloucester were close friends; and George and Isabel had always had a fondness for each other. The girls were worthy brides for the two dukes, and before the Woodville
marriage Edward would have agreed with the Earl on this. Now he was trying to stop Isabel and George marrying. That should not be so. Warwick had decided on the match.
Moreover the King wanted marriage between his sister Margaret and Charles Count of Charolais, the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Burgundy. This of course was the last thing Louis King of France wanted because he did not want a firm alliance between England and Burgundy. Louis had been Warwick's friend and if Warwick took action against Edward, it was from Louis that he could look for help.
He had not let Edward know that he was doing all he could to prevent the Burgundy marriage. Indeed he had ceased to confide in Edward and although he kept up a show of friendship, it was nothing more than a facade. Warwick had finished with Edward. He would never forgive him for his ingratitude, and was determined that one day Edward was going to be filled with regret; he was going to see the great mistake he had made in thwarting Warwick, humiliating him, and setting up the family of Wood-ville to out-rival that of Neville. Edward would have to learn that Warwick was still a power in the land.
In the meantime the great Duke of Burgundy had died and Charles of Charolais had become the Duke. Edward declared that there was no reason why the marriage should be delayed and the Earl of Warwick should conduct his sister on the first part of her journey to France.
Still keeping his own counsel Warwick agreed and on a June day he set out for Flanders. There had been a ceremony at St Pauls and Margaret seated on the same horse with Warwick rode through the city of London.
The people were pleased, believing this was a sign that Warwick and the King were as good friends as ever. They did not know that even as he rode to the coast with Margaret Warwick's head was teeming with plans to take the crown from Edward.
Margaret said a farewell to Warwick at Margate and crossed the sea to Sluys where she was greeted by the Dowager Duchess of Burgundy and a splendid company.
The Duke met her and they were married at a place called Damme. After the ceremony the celebrations were so grand that those who partook in them declared that they had only been rivalled at the Court of King Arthur. The bride and the bridegroom appeared to be well pleased with each other and the only