A Child Upon the Throne Read online

  A Child Upon the Throne

  The Knights of England Series

  Book Four

  by

  Mary Ellen Johnson

  Published by ePublishing Works!

  www.epublishingworks.com

  ISBN: 978-1-947833-34-0

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Copyright © 2018 by Mary Ellen Johnson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

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  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Map of Fourteenth Century England

  Plantagenent Family Tree

  Main Historical Characters

  Fictional Characters

  Characters from Previous Books in the Series

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Meet the Author

  Main Historical Characters

  Edward II (1284-1327): first English king since the Conqueror to be deposed; later murdered.

  Piers Gaveston (d. 1312) and Hugh Despenser (d. 1327): Edward II's favorites. Showered them with lands, titles and other honors. Both murdered by unhappy lords.

  Queen Isabella of France: (1296-1358) bore Edward II four children, including Edward III. In 1326 invades England to overthrow her husband with lover Roger Mortimer.

  Roger Mortimer: (1287-1330) powerful Marcher baron and warrior. After deposing and possibly murdering Edward II, Mortimer and Isabella repeated Edward II's mistakes by rewarding themselves with riches. Killed by Edward III in 1330.

  Edward III: (1312-1377) Edward of Windsor: Oldest son of Edward II. Reign often compared to that of the mythical King Arthur; ranked among England's greatest monarchs.

  Philippa of Hainault: (1311-1369) King Edward's wife. Bears thirteen children. Happy marriage.

  Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales and Aquitaine (later known to history as the Black Prince) (1330-1376) King Edward's oldest son and heir to England's throne. He wins his spurs at Crecy at age 16 and overcomes the far superior French in the Battle of Poitiers. Even enemies call him the "flower of chivalry of all the world."

  Joan of Kent: (1328-1385) Black Prince's wife. Married twice before the prince, and mother to five previous children.

  Richard II/Richard of Bordeaux: (1367-1400) Son of the Black Prince and Joan of Kent. Ascends England's throne at age 10. Hero during the Peasants' Rebellion of 1381, he reneges on promises to commons.

  John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (1340-1399) King Edward's third son. Richest man in England. Hated by many of the commons.

  Henry of Bolingbroke: (1366-1413) John of Gaunt's oldest son. Born within three months of Richard II. In 1399 he will depose Richard II and become Henry IV.

  John Ball: (1338-1381) a hedge-priest—priest without a parish—who wanders England for more than two decades, decrying the plight of the common man and pushing for a better life. The spark that ignites the Peasant's Rebellion/Great Rising.

  Fictional Characters:

  Maria d'Arderne/Rendell (1300-1380): woman who starts it all! Marries the knight, Phillip Rendell, and has an affair with Richard, Earl of Sussex, which helps change the course of Edward II's kingdom.

  Phillip Rendell: Maria's moon. Black-haired blue-eyed husband who is inflicted with a discontent and wanderlust that forever frustrates his wife.

  Richard of Sussex: Maria's sun. Edward II's illegitimate half-brother, who is torn between loyalty to his vassal and friend, Phillip Rendell and his love for Maria.

  Characters in A Knight There Was, Within a Forest Dark, and A Child Upon the Throne:

  Margery Watson: daughter of Maria Rendell's oldest son, Thomas Rendell, and peasant woman, Alice Watson, who is murdered during the Black Death.

  Matthew Hart: Earl of Cumbria. Margery's lover. Matthew has fought in most of the major battles of Edward III's reign—Poitiers, Najera, Limoges, The Great Chevauchée—which have turned him from eager warrior to weary survivor.

  Thurold Watson: Margery's radical stepbrother who, along with John Ball, seeks a more just England. He vows revenge against Lawrence Ravenne, who was their lord during the time of the Black Death and who murdered Thurold and Margery's mother.

  William Hart: Matthew's beloved father. Dies in 1373, after Matthew returns from the Great Chevauchée.

  Elizabeth Ravenne nee Hart: Matthew Hart's sister. Marries Lawrence Ravenne. Mother of eight sons, all with names from the Arthurian romances.

  Harry Hart: Matthew's younger brother. Indifferent knight. Marries Matthew's former lover, Desiderata Cecy, and dies during John of Gaunt's Great Chevauchee of 1373.

  Sosanna Hart: Matthew's mother.

  Thomas Rendell: oldest son of Maria and her husband, Phillip. Margery's father as the result of a dalliance with peasant woman Alice Watson.

  Lawrence Ravenne: Matthew Hart's brutal brother-in-law. During the time of the Black Death, Ravenne murders Margery Watson's mother, (Thurold Watson's stepmother), which earns Thurold's lifelong enmity and quest for revenge.

  Serill Hart: Margery and Matthew's illegitimate son.

  Simon Crull: influential goldsmith who tricks a young Margery into marrying him. Margery mistakenly believes that Matthew Hart, who even then is her lover, betrayed her by not stopping the marriage. This leads to six years' separation and lingering distrust between Margery and Matthew.

  Desiderata Cecy: Matthew Hart's former lover who marries Harry Hart in order to punish Matthew, who she'd tricked into leaving Margery Watson and becoming her lover. Only to fall in love with Harry and mourn his death following John of Gaunt's Great Chevauchee in 1373.

  Ralph Hart: Desiderata Cecy and Harry's son.

  Preface

  I like to think of my five-part series, Knights of England, as the bookends that encompass fourteenth century England. (At least my version!) The Lion and the Leopard begins with the disastrous reign of a king, Edward II, who is deposed and murdered. My final installment ends with the disastrous reign of a king, Richard II, Edward II's great grandson, who is deposed and murdered. Between that we have one of the most a
ccomplished of England's kings, Edward III, who guides his kingdom through a golden age—at least for himself and his fellow members of the nobility, if not always for his less favored subjects—before it all crumbles into ruin. I always think of Edward of Windsor as the King-Who-Ruled-Too-Long. Like so many, he was not blessed enough to exit the stage when he would be lamented, but after he'd outlived most of his contemporaries, several of his children, and his beloved wife. As he'd outlived his health, his capacity to rule, and his faculties. But, while so many leap over the fourteenth century to dig around in the War of the Roses and dear God, the Tudors forever and ever, the roots of many of those conflicts begin here in the kingdoms of these Edwards. (And before of course. We could trace some things, such as the vagaries of human nature, back to the beginning of time.)

  In 1348, the Black Death descended upon England, as it descended upon much of the rest of the world, with devastating results that directly led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. (A revolt that has been referenced throughout history, including during our own American Revolution.) Grand and doomed it was, as was the French Jacquerie of 1358. As is so often the outcome for the poor and powerless. But the oppressed keep fighting, in fits and starts, and will continue their quest for a just world, however they define it.

  Mid-century marks the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, of so many grand and glorious campaigns when Edward III and his son, later known to history as the Black Prince, were the colossi who straddled the European continent. When England was burning its way through France, claiming that Edward III was rightful sovereign of both France and England. When the merchant class was expanding, often to the lamentations of their superiors, for what good was a society when merchants were sometimes richer than their lords and sometimes their lords were reduced to making a tradesman's living—or just as inappropriately—marrying into that lower class?

  It goes without saying that everyone has a favorite period of history and can make an impassioned argument for their choice. Revolutionary... Most important... Most brutal... Most enlightened... I don't make any such claims to my tiny slice of the fourteenth century, other than to say that knights, castles, chevauchées, courtly love and all the rest ignite my passion. And, when researching kings and queens and political intrigues, I don't find much difference between their behavior and that of today's newsmakers. Regardless of what century, human nature doesn't change. We can pretty it up in the telling, but whether you're contemplating Edward II's favorites or Richard II's vindictiveness, so much seems to come down to the quest for power. Material goods. Titles. Prestige. More. More. You could transplant Roger Mortimer, ambitious lover to Edward II's Queen, into the twenty-first century, dress him up in an expensive suit and he would fit flawlessly into many corporate boardrooms or government cabinets. So, even when I'm writing about the demands of John Ball and his yeomen followers, the devastation of war, the depositions of Edward II and Richard II, I see parallels in the contemporary world. ("Of course," you say. "For man ever searches for meaning." And you're right.)

  When creating the Knights of England series, my primary goal has always been to tell an interesting story. While I tried to be historically accurate and true to what we know about kings and knights, battles and politics, religious beliefs and cultural assumptions, I chose to create fictional main characters primarily because there are actual scholars out there who have already revealed everything that is known about the Kings' Edward and their satellites. I always feel presumptuous when putting thoughts into the heads of actual people. I have no such problems with my fictional characters and hope that the occasional expert who picks up my books might find something universally relatable—while simultaneously glimpsing themselves in the distant mirror that is fourteenth century England—via the lives of Maria d'Arderne, Phillip Rendell and Richard of Sussex in The Lion and the Leopard and Matthew Hart, Margery Watson and Thurold Watson in A Knight There Was, Within a Forest Dark, and A Child Upon the Throne. A theme that runs through all my work is the transitoriness of life, an echoing of the saying, "Life though pleasant is transitory, even as is the Cherry Fair." (Needless to say, I've tried unsuccessfully to name at least one of my books The Cherry Fair.) Fortune's wheel is another. Inequality, the discontent of the common folk. It reaches its crescendo in the Peasants' Revolt, which closes A Child Upon the Throne. Also, my lord Matthew Hart's transformation from a callow youth to a disillusioned warrior is addressed and resolved. As is Margery Watson's conflict over the matter of her "blood" and her loyalties. While my favorite parts of writing historical fiction always involve chevauchées and battles—the courage, stupidity, insanity and brutality that comprise England and France's "war of a long season"—I also enjoyed writing about the Great Rising/Peasants' Revolt. I only wish it had a happier ending.

  Some notes on accuracy: I appreciate having mistakes pointed out to me for future correction. However, research is as frustrating as it is fascinating, for there isn't universal agreement on a whole host of things, including something as basic as how many legitimate children were sired by Edward III. Often, as in the death of Edward II, which was most likely murder but maybe not, I chose the most dramatic narratives. (Many thanks to Ian Mortimer, whose knowledge of the period is matched by his ability to make the reading of it such fun!) The extent of John Ball's participation in the Peasants' Revolt. Or the Black Prince's siege at Limoges. There is some evidence that there was NO slaughter of townsfolk, certainly not one of sickening proportions. (Many apologies to one of my forever crushes, Edward the Black Prince, who, yes, I know was only referred to by that appellation from Tudor times.) Bottomline, I'm trying to give the feel of the times, and since so much information is contradictory I'm simply choosing what I believe works best for the story.

  Also, a few words on "words." While there is no way I can be accurate in my use of language that was common in that time period, I've tried to be as true once again to the feel as possible. Words like fuck and cunt were used but not as curse words. If a word, such as bloody, was used as a pejorative within a few centuries, I might use it. For references to such things as the tales of Robin Hood, oral forms had been around for centuries so I felt comfortable including them. Medieval man, unfortunately, had not invented the internet, so much original documentation may be forever lost.

  Now we come, specifically, to A Child Upon the Throne: In a series it is always difficult to create a compelling narrative that can be read apart from other related books, while inserting enough background information to make the story comprehensible without boring those who have read the previous installments. Now here I am presenting my fourth book with more than sixty years of characters and events and a thousand preceding pages. I hope the addition of a map, the Plantagenet lineage and a list of recurring characters, both historical and fictional, will help with those who are picking up my work for the first time.

  To summarize:

  Had my knight, Matthew Hart, been a veteran of World War I's horrors, he would have been described as "shell-shocked." Today we speak of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Did medieval man just call this shattering of the psyche madness? Weakness? I don't know. But whatever the label, Matthew retreats into the wilds of Cumbria to come to terms with the atrocities he's committed. His relationship with long-time love, Margery Watson, has ended more in sadness than acrimony, though she is determined to forget him. Thus her very fun-for-me-to-write tryst with Fulco the Smithy. But of course Margery and Matthew are reconciled, just as England lurches toward full-blown rebellion. The boy king, Richard II, and his counselors have overseen French raids along the coasts of England and watched vast tracts of land won by his grandfather, Edward III, being returned to their ancient enemy. Commoners long for the good old days of Crecy, Poitiers, Najera—when England was winning and English soldiers returned home with all manner of booty, which in turn increased their prosperity. Why should Englishmen (women did not count) now have their taxes raised to finance wars that bring no profit and a government that cannot govern?
Just as Margery and Matthew are riding north to the earldom of Cumbria and their wedding, the Great Rising begins. John Ball, who Margery has always considered her lodestar, leads the rebellion, along with her stepbrother, Thurold Watson. During the final hours of the Rising, Thurold finally achieves revenge against Lawrence Ravenne, the hated knight who murdered their mother. But as is so often the case events end with the oppressed being slaughtered by their oppressors. And with the oppressed slinking back into their individual miseries... until enough time passes and enough injustices are heaped upon them that they rise up and try once again.

  As far as my hero and heroine, will these tragedies finally doom Matthew and Margery and their love?

  If not, what future awaits them in a kingdom ruled by a narcissist (a contemporary diagnosis), who seems doomed by fate (and temperament) to repeat the errors of his great-grandfather, Edward II?

  Which leads me to my final question, which is also a persistent theme throughout, and is embodied in the haunting refrain from "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?"

  "When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn??"

  When will we?

  Chapter 1

  London, 1377

  "Look behind you to All Hallows-by-the-Tower," said the wayward priest, John Ball, addressing a surprisingly large audience. "'Tis a fine church, dating back to the time before the Normans, and grand enough to impress the noblest worshipper. But who constructed it? Not a king or his ministers or his knights or his bishops."