Katharine, The Virgin Widow - Plaidy Jean (книга регистрации .txt) 📗
“There are times,” Katharine murmured, “when I believe that kings and ambassadors do not think that it is necessary for a princess and her household to eat. She is merely a figure to be used when the state needs her. She can marry. She can bear children. But eat! That is not considered at all necessary.”
Maria de Salinas was startled to hear the bitterness in Katharine’s voice. It was well, she reflected, that the new ambassador was here and that it was possible he would bring the negotiations, which had been going on for so many years, to a satisfactory end.
* * *
WHEN HENRY RECEIVED the Spanish Ambassador, the King was wrapped in a long robe and sat huddled near a blazing fire.
“My dear Ambassador,” said Henry with more warmth than he usually displayed. “You find me in ill health. I cannot move easily, so you must sit beside me and give me news of my dear brother, the King of Aragon.”
“My master sends his greetings to Your Grace,” answered Fuensalida, bowing with courtly grace.
“I pray you be seated,” said Henry; and, his alert eyes looking out from the wrinkles which pain had set about them, he summed up the character of the new ambassador. Here was one of the Spanish grandees, a man with a great opinion of himself. That was not displeasing. Henry liked weakness in the ambassadors of other countries.
When Fuensalida was seated, Henry said: “I know that you have come to see me on two matters of great importance and interest to me. They are also matters of great happiness: marriages. How much better it is for Kings to unite through such alliances than to quarrel together! What news do you bring me of Queen Juana?”
“There is no King to whom Ferdinand would rather see his daughter married than yourself.”
“Then why delay…why delay?”
“It is on account of the strangeness of the Queen of Castile.”
Henry frowned. “I have heard of this strangeness, but what does it mean? She has recently been brought to bed of a fine daughter. She has borne sons. I would ask nothing more of a wife than that.”
“It is said that the Queen of Castile is insane.”
“Insane! Bah! She is fertile. We in England would have no objection to a little insanity if a Queen were fertile, as I have already explained.”
“Then the negotiations should go forward.”
“And with speed,” cried the King. “You see me here…”
He did not finish, and Fuensalida spoke for him: “Your Grace is no longer in your first youth. A speedy marriage is a necessity for you that you might get sons before it is too late.”
Henry was astonished. No one had ever dared refer to the fact that it was possible he would not be long for this world. And here was this stranger calmly telling him so. He felt very angry, the more so because he knew the truth of the statement. Had they told Juana that he was an old man and that his eagerness for their marriage was not his regard for her but the immediate and desperate need to beget a son before the grave claimed him?
Surely this ambassador must be the most tactless man Ferdinand could possibly have sent him.
“And there is a matter of great importance to us both,” went on Fuensalida who, since he never considered the feelings of others, was never conscious of wounding them, “and that is the marriage of the Infanta and the Prince of Wales.”
Impudence! thought Henry. He dares to change the subject! Where are his manners? Or does he think that a Spanish grandee takes precedence over a King of England?
Henry did not show his anger when dealing with foreign diplomats. He said calmly: “I have a great regard for the daughter of the King of Aragon. I find her gracious, charming and beautiful. It has grieved me that she must live so long in such uncertain state.”
“Your Grace remembers that he promised that she should marry the Prince of Wales?”
“I do not forget it and I see no reason why this marriage should not take place, providing certain questions can be amicably settled between my friend the King of Aragon and myself.”
“It is precisely that such matters should be settled that I am here with Your Grace.”
“Is that so?”
Still Henry showed no sign of the fury he felt. It was not the marriage of Katharine and the Prince of Wales he was eager to discuss, but his own marriage with Juana.
“Why,” he went on, “I remember full well that these two were betrothed. I am not a man to break my word. I should tell you that the Prince of Wales has had many offers…many brilliant offers of marriage.”
“There could scarcely be a more brilliant marriage, Your Grace, than with a daughter of Spain.”
Insolent fellow! thought Henry. He would see that Ferdinand realized his folly in sending such a man to England. Henry greatly preferred little Dr. de Puebla—a man who lacked this arrogance and certainly realized that the best way to serve his master was not to antagonize those with whom that master wished to make new friendships.
“I am weary,” he said. “My doctors warned me. You will be received by my councillors, and you can lay the terms of the King of Aragon before them.” The King closed his eyes. Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida was dismissed.
* * *
THE COUNCIL were far from helpful. Fuensalida did not know that the King had already told them of his dislike for the new ambassador, and had hinted that no concessions should be made to him.
As for Fuensalida, he was afraid that certain members of this Council were not of sufficient nobility to be on equal terms with him, and he was disgusted that the King was not present that he might address himself to him.
The Bishop of Winchester, who with the Bishop of Ely and the Earl of Surrey formed part of the Council, showed no grace or finesse in dealing with this delicate matter of Katharine’s dowry. They wanted to know how the money was to be paid.
“As previously arranged,” said Fuensalida. “There will be sixty-five thousand crowns and the remainder in plate and jewellery.”
“You have presumably brought the plate and jewels with you?” one of the members of the Council enquired.
“You know full well that the Infanta brought her plate and jewels with her when she arrived in this country.”
“That,” said Surrey, “was in the year 1501; quite a long time ago.”
“You knew that this plate and these jewels were intended for her dowry?”
“How could that be,” asked Winchester, “when the Infanta has been wearing the jewels and using the plate?”
“And disposing of them if my information is correct,” added Surrey.
The Bishop of Ely added slyly: “On the marriage of a husband and wife, the wife’s property becomes that of the husband. Therefore it would seem that the Infanta’s jewels became the property of Prince Arthur and consequently the property of the King.”
“Does Don Gutierre Gomez de Fuensalida then seek to pay the King the remainder of the Infanta’s dowry with the King’s own plate and jewels?” Ely wanted to know.
“This is monstrous!” cried Fuensalida, who had never learned to control his temper.
Winchester was delighted, for he knew that the best way of scoring over the Spaniard was to make him lose his temper.
He went on: “This is the King’s property, into which over a number of years the Infanta has been breaking, selling a piece here, and a piece there, so that much of that which should be in the King’s coffers is now in those of the Lombard Street merchants!”
“This is a matter for your shame!” shouted Fuensalida. “You have treated the Infanta as a beggar. You have dared behave so to a daughter of Spain.”
“Whose dowry was never paid in full,” put in Winchester.
“I shall not remain to hear more of such insolence!” cried Fuensalida; and he left the council chamber to the delight of the English.
In the House of Grimaldi
FRANCESCA DE CARCERES WAS DETERMINED ON ACTION. Something had to be done, and she guessed that the marriage negotiations of the Infanta and the Prince of Wales were as far as ever from reaching a satisfactory conclusion.
