Matilda Empress by Lise Arin

Author:Lise Arin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rare Bird Books
Published: 2017-01-19T23:05:17+00:00

The Matter of

the Crown

Scroll Thirteen: 1141

And so I ask you, you who have been so courtly as to absorb yourself in my story: Who abhorred the empress most? Of course, it was not her falsehearted lover, but his tenacious wife, for the rancor of women is insatiable. The warriors in the service of the two rival queens relished their conflict, perpetrating much wickedness in their names. Now it came to pass that Matilda sank beneath the waves of trouble, and struggled to surface. In her panic, she relinquished her idol.Once again, her history resumed its perverse course, its unending cycle of requited violence and unrequited desire. It is well to remember that God our Father fashioned the night as well as the day.

†

Summer

My brother and I ensconce ourselves in the royal castle of Winchester, hoping to conspire with Henry of Blois to regain the ground that we have lost. But the bishop barricades himself in his decadent palace of Wolvesey, on the other side of the city, refusing to grant us his company. As my political prospects stymie, His Grace apparently regrets my presence in his diocesan capitol.

The bishop begins to hire soldiers and fortify his sumptuous edifice, built more for pleasure than for war. He executes several infamous criminals in the market square, bolstering city business and swelling his tax receipts. How can we not suspect that Winchester worked against us in London? Each day that passes without his appearance before me indicates a reversal of his allegiance.

At the very least, I am now at liberty to ignore his interests.

†

Our spies inform us that Winchester meets in secret with Maud, at Guilford. Reversing course, His Grace now pledges to staunchly support his brother. The sentence of excommunication lowered upon Stephen is lifted, falling instead upon me. While the pretender’s fate rests unsure, the bishop and the countess agree that Prince Eustace shall be endowed immediately with his mother’s personal fief, the County of Boulogne, and his father’s hereditary territory, the County of Mortain.

The Earl of Gloucester urges me to consider providing for Eustace, so that Henry Plantagenet’s eventual succession will have one less adversary. But my antipathy to the scheme persists, implacable; Boulogne and Mortain would make fine reward for Brian FitzCount or for other of the hungry barons who surround me. The usurpers thieve from my heir; I will do no right by theirs.

†

If my prestige suffered a setback in London, my numerous battalions here belie my disappointment. This royal castle swarms with lackeys and adherents, lesser vassals and greater earls, among them Brian, Robert, and David of Scotland. Only Ranulf of Chester absents himself.

As in Westminster, I fill the hours dictating and signing charters. However, I grieve to find that my new Great Seal has been lost in the chaos of our hurried flight from London. Each evening, Gerta draws an eye on the wall of my solar, and drives one copper nail into its center. Still, we do not dream of the stamp’s whereabouts, nor see any one of our retinue suffer some diminution of vision.

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