Elizabeth of Bohemia by David Elias

Author:David Elias
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ECW Press
Published: 2019-06-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

After Lady Anne died I took myself daily to the mountainside behind the castle to wander the trails aimlessly for hours on end. Frederick worried that I was inconsolable, but the truth was that I had no wish to be consoled. I suggested he direct his concern to Count Schomberg, whose grief had crippled him entirely, to the point where he lost all capacity to see to his own needs, let alone those of his infant son. For my part I took little interest in my own Henry, suffered intensely the same affliction in which that black-fisted darkness threatened to smother me, and which I was powerless to defend against. I only wanted to be alone. Then came news that Count Schomberg had taken ill and been confined to his bed, and soon after that he succumbed to a raging fever and was lost as well, until it seemed to me that tragedy had become my most reliable companion and sorrow my natural state.

I had the need to acquire the services of another lady-in-waiting, for which there were any number of young women eager to apply. I granted a small number an informal audience that they might demonstrate to me their suitability for the position, but there was not one among them I was eager to employ. It was more of a necessary evil than anything. If I thought I could have managed on my own I should have been glad to do so, but there was simply too much I could not accomplish by myself. I couldn’t even dress myself on some occasions. A French Farthingale, for example, required an entire orchestration of manoeuvres to get into. There’s as much of chattel as privilege in the accoutrements of royalty, and so I was resigned to be fussed over daily, to the point where patience lost its battle with decorum.

In the case of my lady-in-waiting, the secretarial tasks alone were formidable, from sifting through correspondence to composing replies on my behalf, for I made it always a point to keep very much abreast of any developments that might prove advantageous to my ambitions. I already knew that whomever I chose, the two of us should never enjoy that degree of intimacy Lady Anne and I had indulged in. In the end I chose Amalia von Solms, a woman of little means some six years younger than I, not because she was ambitious, self-important, and scheming, which all of the candidates were, but because in addition to all these traits she promised to be the most efficient, and this turned out to be the case.

Things returned somewhat to normalcy for a time, and I began once again to take interest in matters of state, though none too soon. My husband had always been easily swayed by those nearest to him, and now I saw plainly that he took counsel from the assembled clerics with great reverence, Abraham Scultetus among them. They were not in favour of Frederick bidding for the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.