Read Online Plantagenet 1 - The Plantagenet Prelude by Jean Plaidy - Free Book Online

or the fulfilment of revenge. She was so sure that ere long Toulouse would be theirs. She would have subdued not only the Count of Toulouse who had refused to hand back that to which he had no right, but also the insolent Theobald. And when he heard that his sister was to be divorced from the Count of Vermandois he would be doubly humiliated!
    He would see what it meant to defy the Queen of France - and so would others. It would be a lesson.
    Alas, for Louis and Eleonore. Toulouse was well defended, and it soon became clear to Louis that even those who had rallied to his banner had no heart for the fight.
    As he encamped outside the castle occupied by Raymond Saint-Gilles, group after group of his followers reminded him that they had agreed to fight with him for only a specified time. Time was running out and they must return to their estates.
    Louis was disturbed.
    ‘Command them to stay!’ cried Eleonore.
    But Louis had given his word. He was not a man to break that. He must stand out against Eleonore for the sake of his honour.
    Thus it was the King found himself before the castle with scarcely any supporters, and it was either a case of retreat or ignominious defeat. As it was he must retire in humiliation.
    There was nothing for it but to return to Paris and shelve the conquest of Toulouse, until the King and Queen could find some means of bringing it to the Crown.
    Such a situation was galling to the Queen. She imagined Saint-Gilles and Theobald of Champagne sneering at the royal ineptitude.
    She must be revenged and the first blow should be struck through Theobald’s sister. Her bishops had found that there was a blood relationship between Raoul and his wife. Therefore the marriage was no true marriage and Raoul was free to marry again.
    ‘It is a good thing,’ said the Queen to the King, ‘that your cousin should marry with my sister.’

    The Count of Champagne was amazed one day to see his sister with a few of her attendants ride into the courtyard of his castle. He hastened down to meet her.
    ‘Why Eleonore,’ he cried, ‘what brings you here?’
    For a moment she could not answer him. She threw herself into his arms and clung to him.
    ‘I did not know where to go.’
    ‘Where is your husband?’
    ‘I have no husband.’
    ‘Come into the castle,’ said Theobald. ‘Tell me what this means. Raoul is dead?’
    ‘Nay,’ she answered. ‘It is simply that he is no longer my husband.’
    ‘But this makes nonsense. You were married to him. I myself attended the ceremony. Come, sister, you must calm yourself.’
    He took her to his private chamber and she poured out her story. A blood tie had been discovered that meant her marriage to Raoul was not valid. She was not married to Raoul; had never been married and the ceremony she had gone through with Raoul was no true one at all. Moreover Raoul had married someone else. There had been a grand wedding and the King and Queen had attended.
    ‘Who was the bride?’ asked Theobald blankly.
    ‘The lady Petronelle.’
    ‘What! The Queen’s sister?’
    ‘Indeed yes, the Queen’s sister.’
    ‘This is monstrous. It is a plot.’
    Eleonore nodded sadly.
    Theobald was furious. It was not only the dishonour to his sister that he raged against; it was an insult to his family. The Queen had arranged this he knew. She had insisted that the bishops prove the marriage invalid and they had done so on pain of her displeasure. And why had she contrived this? To be revenged on him. Because he had refused to support her and the King over the annexation of Toulouse, she had arranged for his sister’s dishonour.
    ‘I will not endure this,’ he said. ‘This day I will send a messenger to Rome. I shall put my case before the Pope and it will be proved that this was a plot to discredit me through you, sister.’
    ‘And you think the Pope will not agree to the dissolution of the marriage?’
    ‘How can he? The reasons put forward are groundless. I will make Raoul take you