The King Without a Kingdom. Морис Дрюон

       5

       The Beginnings of the King they call The Good

      

      KING JOHN’S BIRTH chart? Indeed, I know it; I have turned my attention to it on many an occasion … Had I foreseen it? Of course, I had foreseen everything; that is why I worked so hard to prevent this war, knowing full well that it would be disastrous for him, and consequently disastrous for France. But try and get a man to understand reason, particularly a king whose stars act as a barrier precisely to understanding and to reason itself!

      At birth, King John II saw Saturn reach its highest point in the constellation of Aries, at the centre of the heavens. This is a dire configuration for a king, one that foretells deposed sovereigns, reigns that come to a natural end all too hastily or that tragic events cut short. Add to that, his moon rising in the sign of Cancer, itself lunar by nature, thus marking an overly feminine disposition. Finally, and to give you just the most striking features, the traits that are most obvious to any astrologer, there is a problematic grouping of the Sun, Mercury and Mars which are closely linked in Taurus. There you have a most threatening sky making up an unbalanced man, masculine and even of a thickset appearance, but for whom all that should be virile is as if castrated, up to and including understanding; at the same time a brutal and violent man, possessed by dreams and secret fears that provoke sudden and murderous fits of rage, incapable of listening to advice or of the slightest self-control, hiding his weaknesses under an exterior of grand ostentation; yet at the core, a fool, the exact opposite of a conqueror, his soul the opposite of the soul of a commander.

      For certain people it would seem that defeat was their main preoccupation, they have a secret craving for it, and will not rest until they have found it. Defeat pleases the depths of their souls, the spleen of failure is their favourite beverage, as the mead of victory is to others; they long for subordination, and nothing suits them better than to contemplate themselves in a state of imposed submission. It is a great misfortune when such predispositions hang over the head of a king from the moment of his birth.

      So long as John II had been Monseigneur of Normandy, living under the thumb of a father he didn’t care for, he had seemed an acceptable prince, and the ignorant believed his reign would be a happy one. For that matter, the people and even the court, forever inclined to succumb to delusion, always expect the new king to be better than his predecessor, as if novelty intrinsically carried miraculous virtue. No sooner did John have the sceptre in his hands than he began to show his true colours; the stars and his nature, in their unfortunate alliance, were bent on defeat.

      He had only been king ten days when Monsieur of Spain, in the month of August 1350, was defeated at sea, off the coast of Winchelsea, by King Edward III. Charles of Spain was in command of a Castilian fleet, and our Sire John was not responsible for the expedition. However, since the victor was from England, and the vanquished a very close friend of the King of France, it was a poor start for the French monarch.

      The coronation took place at the end of September. By then Monsieur of Spain had returned, and in Rheims they showed the vanquished man a good deal of sympathy, thus consoling him in his defeat.

      In November the constable of France, Raoul II of Brienne, Count of Eu, returned to France. Though he had been taken prisoner four years earlier by King Edward, as a captive he had been free to do almost as he pleased, even to travel between the two countries, since he was involved in the negotiations for a peace treaty. We had been working very hard for this in Avignon and I myself had corresponded with the constable. On this occasion he had returned in order to raise money for his ransom payment. I certainly shouldn’t need to tell you that Raoul of Brienne was a high-ranking, great and powerful character, and one might say the second in command in the kingdom. He had taken over his father Raoul V’s charge, upon the latter’s death in a tournament. He held vast fiefs in Normandy, others in Touraine, including Bourgueil and Chinon, others in Burgundy, still others in Artois. He possessed land in England and in Ireland, but that was for the time being confiscated; he owned other land in the Barony of Vaud. He was the cousin by marriage of Count Amadeus of Savoy. Such a man one treats with a certain respect, when one has only just sat oneself upon the throne, wouldn’t you think, Archambaud? Well, our John II, after hurling furious but wholly unclear reproaches upon Raoul on the night of his arrival, immediately ordered that he be taken prisoner. And on the morning of the next day but one, had him decapitated, without trial … No; no grounds were given. We weren’t able to find out anything more, even at the Curia, no more than you heard in Périgueux. And yet, this was not for want of effort; certainly we went to great lengths to shed some light on the affair, believe me! To explain away this hasty execution, King John claimed to have in his possession written proof of the constable’s treachery; but he never produced it, never. Not even the pope, who urged him, in his own interests, to reveal the famous proof, was offered anything but stubborn silence.

      It was then that the whispering began in all the courts of Europe, assumptions were made … The talk was of love letters that had fallen into the hands of the king upon the death of Madame Bonne of Luxembourg, love letters from the constable, to which his queen evidently had responded in kind … Ah! You too have heard this fable! A strange liaison indeed, and one where it is difficult to see any opportunity, in any event, for it to have taken a criminal turn, between a woman who was forever pregnant and a man who was almost constantly in jail for four long years! Perhaps there were some painful things for the king to read in the letters of Messire of Brienne; but if this were true, they would certainly concern his own behaviour and not that of Madame Bonne … No, nothing of any substance could have explained the execution, nothing except the new king’s murderous and hateful nature, somewhat akin to that of his mother, the lame and wicked one. The real motive was revealed shortly after, when the constable’s charge was passed on … you well know to whom … indeed! To Monsieur of Spain, with part of the deceased’s estate … all the land and possessions of Raoul of Brienne were shared out amongst the king’s closest friends and allies. That is when Count John of Artois obtained the County of Eu, a large part of the estate.

      Such largesse makes fewer friends than it creates enemies. Messire of Brienne had any number of friends and relatives, vassals and servants; he had a whole circle of supporters who had been sincerely attached to him and instantly became a network of malcontents when he was beheaded. In addition to them, in the ranks of the alienated, we should include those of the royal entourage who received neither bread nor crumb of the spoils, and became bitter and jealous.

      Ah! We have a good view from here of Châlus and its two castles. How beautifully those two tall keeps match each other, separated by such a slender stream! And the countryside is pleasant on the eye, under these fast-moving clouds …

      La Rue! La Rue, if I am not mistaken; it was before the tower on the right, up on the hill, that Messire Richard the Lionheart was struck most sorely by an arrow that took his life? It is nothing new for the people of our country to be attacked by the Englishman, and to defend themselves …

      No, La Rue, I am not at all tired; I am only stopping to admire the view … And I most certainly do walk at a brisk pace! I will walk on a little further, and my palanquin will pick me up ahead. We are in no particular hurry. If my memory serves me well there are fewer than nine leagues between Châlus and Limoges. Three and a half hours will suffice without straining the horses … So be it! Four hours. Let me enjoy these last days of fine weather that God has granted us. I will be long enough closed up behind my curtains when the rain comes …