With a Sword in My Hand by Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem

Author:Jean-Claude van Rijckeghem
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781742690056
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2010-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

The war has been disastrous for France. The English won battle after battle. First at Sluis, then at Crécy, where my grandfather fell, and finally at Poitiers, from where my father came back a broken man. The English king’s in league with Ghent and Bruges, because the wool that keeps the Flemish spinning wheels turning comes from the hundreds of thousands of sheep in England. They graze on the extensive meadows belonging to the Benedictine monasteries. The Flemish guild masters of Bruges and Ghent would sell their souls for a treaty with England. When my grandfather died fifteen years ago such a treaty seemed within reach. This is what happened.

My father was just seventeen when his father fell, killed by English arrows. My father became the Count of Flanders. Then Slicher van Rijpergherste and Frans Ackerman came to Male and informed my father that the guilds of Bruges and Ghent had decided that he was to marry Isabella, the daughter of the King of England. My father refused. He said he’d been brought up among the noblemen of France. He exclaimed he would never marry the daughter of the man responsible for his father’s death. Not even in exchange for half of England. So the Flemish made him a prisoner in his own castle. They refused to set him free until he agreed to the guild masters’ demand that he marry the daughter of the English king. He could go wherever he wanted, but was always followed by five men-at-arms in white hooded cloaks. These White Guards never let him out of their sight. Even when he had to relieve himself, they stood around the shithouse. All this drove my father mad, and after five months of such imprisonment he at last promised to do what they wanted. The guilds were delighted and sent couriers to England with marriage agreements full of wax seals, lead seals and coloured ribbons. Isabella of England prepared for the wedding. A ship was equipped for the triumphal crossing and the glad news buzzed all over Europe. The guild masters relaxed their attention. During a hunting party in the forest of Ichtegem, my father dug his spurs into his horse and rode without stopping to Paris. The French king was delighted and immediately arranged a marriage with the Duke of Brabant’s daughter. My father met my mother for the first time in Paris on the day of their wedding. She was a real beauty. Father thought God had chosen him because of his courage. He thought he would love his wife. He thought she would give him proud sons. He got everything wrong. A year later, I arrived in the world.

This time, the guild masters have no intention of letting themselves be taken in by the Count. Particularly not Frans Ackerman, who has come to Male with a dozen bodyguards in white hooded cloaks. Ackerman is a handsome man in a tall red hat, a blue gown with gold embroidery and shoes with curled-up toes.

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