A Dangerous Inheritance: A Novel of Tudor Rivals and the Secret of the Tower by Alison Weir

Author:Alison Weir
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2012-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

KATE

February 1484, Palace of Westminster

“Madonna, last summer there was an Italian visitor to court, Dominic Mancini,” Pietro Carmeliano said in hushed tones, although he and Kate were quite alone in the royal library. “He was my friend. He was in the train of the French ambassador, and his task was to send home reports of affairs in England. Thus he made it his business to know what was going on.”

“What was he like, this Dominic Mancini?” Kate asked.

“He was a monk, a very devout and compassionate man, and wise too. He wrote an account of the rise of your father the King to the throne, but I never saw it completed, for it was unfinished when he left England last summer.” Pietro hesitated.

“Please speak freely!” Kate urged. “Whatever the truth, I would rather hear it.”

“Very well, Madonna. I will tell you everything.” And he did.

“Dominic got his information from several people at court, including Dr. Argentine, who was physician to your cousin, King Edward. Forgive me, Madonna, but Brother Dominic was suspicious of your father’s intentions from the start. He thought him ambitious and cunning. He knew Edward had been well served by Earl Rivers and Sir Richard Grey, and was shocked when my lord of Gloucester had them executed.”

“But they were a danger to my father,” she protested.

“Yes, Madonna, Brother Dominic knew that; he knew too that your father hated the Wydevilles and blamed them for his brother Clarence’s death. He found much to praise in Gloucester for governing the North well, for his renown in war, and for his exemplary private life. But even though Brother Dominic was appalled at the power wielded by the Wydevilles, he was impressed by the young King Edward, and praised him to the skies.”

Again Pietro hesitated. “Knowing that Gloucester hated and feared the Wydevilles, my friend came to believe that, from the moment he heard of King Edward’s death, the duke determined to take the throne for himself.”

“No, that was much later,” Kate insisted, “when Edward V was proved to be illegitimate.”

“Forgive me, Madonna. You asked me to tell you what I know, and I am only repeating what Dominic Mancini showed me in his book. And that was just his opinion, based on what he learned at court. I do not—how you say—comment on the truth of it.”

“I am sorry, Pietro,” Kate apologized. “Please go on.”

The Italian continued with Mancini’s account of the events following King Edward’s death, most of which was familiar to her. But she was disturbed to hear Mancini’s view of her father.

“Brother Dominic was convinced that the duke was in haste to remove all the obstacles that stood in the way of his plans. He believed he was driven by ambition and lust for power, and that he had set his thoughts on eliminating everyone who stood in the way of his mastering the throne.”

“Everyone who was a threat to him, you mean!” Kate interrupted. “He was trying to do things honorably, as he made plain at the time, but he was beset by enemies.

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