Paul Doherty - The Poison Maiden

‘Mathilde, what I said to Marigny is true. Everything is changing. This is a time of weeping and waiting. Yet I’ll confess this to you. One day my Lord Gaveston must go. He cannot remain dancing on the green for ever.’

‘You oppose him, mistress?’

‘No, Mathilde, I do not. I have studied Edward most closely; I must control him as any woman must a man. Edward and Gaveston,’ she locked two fingers together, ‘they are not two but one: one body, one soul, one heart. Some day, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, the Great Lords will seize Gaveston and kill him. Once he dies, Edward will retreat like a hermit into his cell. He will hide deep within his soul and plot vengeance. Anyone who had anything to do with Gaveston’s fall or destruction will rue the day. When that happens. .’ Isabella half smiled, ‘I want to ensure that my name is not on that list of those who caused his fall.’

‘So you will not move against the favourite?’

‘I did not say that, Mathilde. All I will ensure is that my name is not on that list. Now come.’ She got to her feet. ‘What is that magpie riddle? Let’s dance to it. How does it go, Mathilde?’

‘One for anger, two for mirth. .’

‘Ah, that’s right.’ Isabella took it up. ‘Three for a wedding, four for birth, five for rich, six for poor, seven for a bitch, eight for a whore, nine for burying, ten for a dance, eleven for England, twelve for France. You see, Mathilde, I have learnt it well. Now come. .’ She spread her hands. ‘Show me the dance.’

My mistress was in a strange mood. When we had finished, she collapsed on the bed, laughing, begging me to bring some fresh water. She straightened up, drained the cup and handed it back to me.

‘Mathilde, let us go to St Stephens’ Chapel and pray for your mother. After that,’ she gestured across the tables strewn with manuscripts, ‘my lord wishes to entertain me and the Lord Gaveston. I will be absent this evening. You need not be in attendance.’ She peered at me. ‘I will leave you to your own thoughts. Perhaps it is time, yes, we try to thread this maze.’

Later that evening, my mistress left to join the king and Gaveston for a private supper party. I was always excluded from such meetings. The Evangelist be my witness, Isabella rarely talked about what happened there. On that night, I recalled what she’d said about staying close to the king. God knows how she did that. Perhaps Edward welcomed unreserved support for his favourite when no one else gave it. Perhaps her friendship for Gaveston confirmed the king’s perception of his own morality. If Isabella, his beautiful young queen and wife, accepted the favourite, then what fault was there in it? The chroniclers have written about Isabella as the Virago, the Jezebel. They talk of her arrogance, her adultery, her wickedness — that is only monks feeding on their own pleasures. Isabella had many virtues; chief amongst these was her patience, tried and tested long before she ever came to England. She could wait and watch. She would accept insults and jibes with the sweetest smile, then smile and smile again. ‘A time and place under heaven for everything,’ so says Ecclesiasticus; it could well have been Isabella’s personal motto.

On that particular evening, once the queen had left, I was closeted in my own chamber, warm and secure, the doors and shutters locked, a brazier crackling, a copper chafing dish fiery with charcoal nearby. I wrapped a cloak about me, prepared my writing tray and reflected like any good student of physic on the symptoms I had observed.

Primo: the Poison Maiden, Ancilla Venenata, La Demoiselle Venimeuse. Who was she, he or it? An actual person, or more than one? An event, as Guido had suggested, such as the king’s marriage to Isabella, or even Gaveston’s liaison with Edward? The old king had certainly fulminated against the Poison Maiden, raged about her very existence, but why? Was she a spy or some hideous obstacle or weakness at the English court that Philip of France could exploit? The connection between the Poison Maiden and the Louvre Palace was definite. Edmund Lascelles, commonly known as Pax-Bread, had fled from France bringing privileged information, perhaps about the Poison Maiden, which had eventually proved to be his death warrant. The same was true of Chapeleys. He might have had his own theories about the Poison Maiden, and he too had died. The Poison Maiden, however mysterious, certainly existed. The old king, Edward, Philip of France, Isabella, Pax-Bread and Chapeleys had all made clear reference to this.

Secundo: the King and his idol. Edward and Gaveston were literally besieged at Westminster. The exchequer was empty. They had some troops but little support amongst the Great Lords. Were they waiting for the earls to exhaust themselves, to utterly deplete their treasures? But then what? How would the stalemate be broken? Did Edward anticipate help from some unexpected source? Yet where would such assistance come from?

Tertio: the Great Lords. They were camped in Westminster and its surrounding fields, but for how long? Did they have a spy at the royal court? Did they know more than they pretended? Who was secretly supporting them? Philip of France, the papacy? How could they continue to sustain the swollen retinues they had brought south?

Quatro: Philip of France and his Spiders. The French king was certainly fishing in troubled waters. Ostensibly to protect the interests of his beloved daughter, but what else? To provoke Edward to turn in fury on his lords? To weaken the kingdom with civil war? Was Philip hoping eventually to abandon the Great Lords and force Edward to rely solely on him, as well as force the English king to support his own cruel attack on the Templars? Or was there something else? Did Philip hope to create civil war in England so as to seize the wine-rich province of Gascony and bring it under Capetian hegemony once and for all. Did he plot to remove both Edward and Gaveston? But that would jeopardise Isabella and, surely, weaken French influence. And Philip’s present alliance with the Lords, would that last, or was he simply playing a game? Had the Poison Maiden assumed a role in this? Would the king’s enemies eventually move into open warfare? That reference to assassins: les ombres , or the Tenebrae? Had the king’s enemies hired killers, professional assassins to deal with Gaveston? If so, who were these, and where were they? When would they attack and how?

Quinto: Pax-Bread’s letter. Most of it simply confirmed the real dangers confronting the English king as well as the existence of the Poison Maiden, but those references to Jean, Haute and Mont : what did they mean? Was the ‘Jean’ mentioned in that letter the person Pax-Bread had referred to in his conversation with Alvena about ‘old Jean’ and the hymn he sang?

Sexto: Pax-Bread’s murder. According to Alvena, Pax-Bread was anxious and fearful. He had fled from France and sheltered in London, but someone had hunted him down. He had lodged at the Secret of Solomon but left the safety of that noisy tavern to meet a mysterious Agnes, allegedly sent by Gaveston, who in turn claimed to have no knowledge of such a messenger. Why had Pax-Bread, so openly fearful, gone out into the dark to meet that stranger, and why was his chamber stripped of any trace of him? The doors and shutters all locked from within? Who was Agnes? How could she kill a man like Pax-Bread, already wary and vigilant against any attack? I studied my cipher and wrote on. Pax-Bread could have gone straight to Westminster but delayed at the Secret of Solomon, which meant French agents might have been scouring the city for him. Pax-Bread, I concluded, had made a hideous mistake — he must have thought he was safe as long as he never approached the palace.