Dispensation of Death

Chapter Six

Friday before the Feast of St Julian¹

Outside Salisbury

Baldwin looked about him with a faint smile on his face, and Simon noticed and gazed around in his turn. To his eye, the area around Salisbury had something altogether too flat and dismal about it.

‘What are you grinning about?’ he asked.

Baldwin shrugged. ‘I knew this area when I was younger. I came here when the fair was on, about the Feast of the Assumption. That used to be a great fair, Simon. Ten whole days it lasted.’

Simon did not enquire further. He knew that this must have been during Baldwin’s life as a Knight Templar, and that was a subject that was unfit for discussion — at least while others could overhear them. ‘It is very boring, though.’

‘At last you voice your feelings!’ Baldwin laughed. ‘Your face has grown blacker and blacker with every mile we have travelled since the Blackdown Hills, and that was three days ago.’

Simon could not argue with that. Leaving his own lands had made him feel odd, like a snail which had left its shell behind. He felt exposed and threatened. All the sounds and noises seemed similar, but strangely different at the same time. The landscape was the most obvious manifestation of just how alien things were, this far from home.

‘You find the countryside here curious?’ The Bishop had ambled up on his old mare, and was peering about himself with the gently enquiring expression of those with failing sight. ‘I rather like it. Does it not give you more of a sense of God’s magnificence? With the openness all about me, I always feel more of an affinity for His works. Just look at the sky!’

Simon had to murmur agreement with that. The absence of real hills made the sky appear more vast than usual — although he was sure that it loomed just as large from Higher Willhayes or Cawsand Beacon. Those two hills were so high, to climb to their summits was like ascending to heaven, almost.

‘What are they saying?’ piped up a voice.

‘Rob, whatever they — we — are saying is none of your concern. Just try to keep quiet!’ the Bailiff hissed to his wayward servant. He had no proof, but he was sure that on the second night out from Exeter, Rob had snared some of the Bishop’s guards into a game of hazard. Rob looked only to be some twelve years old, but he had learned his gambling and language from the sailors of Dartmouth. It was thought that he was the bastard son of one. For all that he had a wide-eyed innocent appearance, his speech was as filthy as any whore’s from the Bishop of Winchester’s stews, and his ability to palm or move a dice was unequalled by any felon Simon had encountered.

‘I was only asking. Is that London, then?’

In the distance they could already see the smudge of a great city. Its fires were belching smoke into the clear wintry sky, and Simon grunted.

It was Baldwin who responded. ‘No, lad. That is still many miles away. This city is Salisbury. Soon you shall see the great spire of the Cathedral.’

‘Yes. We shall stay overnight with the good canons of Salisbury,’ Bishop Walter said. ‘I am sure that we shall be made welcome there.’

Baldwin cast a glance in his direction. The Bishop did not sound convinced of their reception, and Baldwin wondered at that, but not for long. A Bishop should be able to expect his brother-Bishops to be courteous and friendly, but he knew as well as any in the Church that such men could be fiercely competitive. They often resented other Bishops, were jealous of their lands and profits.

They had travelled only another mile or two when suddenly through the trees the mighty spire became visible, its structure supported by the poles of larch that comprised the builders’ scaffolding. ‘Look, Simon. Is it not immense?’

Bishop Walter sniffed. ‘If I were not a man of God, I could be jealous of this. My cathedral rebuilding was begun what — fifty years or more ago? And we have only come halfway. Yet this was all constructed in less than that. I cannot hope to see the finish of my cathedral. It began around my birth, and I shall be long dead before it is complete. Yet this marvel has been created in only some forty years or so.’

‘The spire is not finished, my Lord Bishop,’ Baldwin said.

‘No, but even now a man can see what it will be like,’ the Bishop said with sadness. ‘And I shall never see so much as the roof on my cathedral, I sometimes think. The plans I have for the west front are wonderful — but what chance will I have to see them executed? I shall have to console myself with the reflection that at least others may enjoy what I have worked to achieve.’

He rode on, and his guards, three men-at-arms from his personal retinue, kicked their mounts into a canter to keep up with him.

‘What was all that about?’ Rob demanded as they hurried after the Bishop.

‘He is a man who is suddenly grown aware of his mortality,’ Baldwin said wonderingly. ‘I have never seen it before in him.’

‘He’s an old man,’ Simon said unsympathetically. ‘And right now I expect his piles are playing merry hell with him.’

‘You are a rough, untutored fellow,’ Baldwin said with a chuckle. ‘But you may well be right.’

Hall of the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Straunde, London

It was almost dark when Bishop John of Drokensford heard the horses at his yard, and he sat a moment, his reed still in his hand.

There were many who felt that same anxiety, he knew. The noise of horses could mean many things, but in these sad times, the common fear was that it might be the King’s men, or perhaps Despenser’s, come to grab someone and take him away. And since the visit of Earl Edmund the other day, he felt more than usually uneasy about the risk of such a visit.

No one was safe. Even those who did not plot to curb the King’s powers were at risk, because Edward trusted no one. No one but Despenser, and he was a terror: he was scared of no man. And why should he be? He was rich beyond the dreams of most, with a host of men at his beck and call, with the ear of the King, and the ability to do whatsoever he desired. And this complete power had entirely corrupted him and others.

There were boots on his steps now, and Bishop John leaned back in his chair with a fleeting increase in his heart’s pounding. It made him feel light-headed, as though he had partaken of a vast quantity of wine or ale, and then his mind told him to be calm. There were only a few pairs of boots. If Despenser had learned of the message he had sent to the Queen, he would have come with more men than this.

‘My Lord Bishop.’

‘My Lord Despenser,’ he said suavely. ‘How can I serve you?’

Sir Hugh le Despenser looked about him with that reptilian coldness Drokensford recognised so well, and pulled off his gloves as three men behind him entered the room, gazing about them suspiciously. ‘I would welcome an opportunity to discuss some matters with you.’

‘Please take a seat,’ the Bishop said drily as Despenser sat. He set his reed aside, glancing down at his notes. His guest was not welcome. ‘I suppose you want to protect yourself against me?’ he said, indicating the men at the back of the hall.

Despenser gave a half-grunt, half-smile. Turning, he told the men to wait outside. When they were gone, he said directly, ‘We are not friends.’

‘No.’

‘However, the realm needs all magnates to pull together and discuss what is best for the country and the Crown. Just now, unanimity is crucial in the face of the threat from France.’

‘Yes. I can agree with that.’

Despenser sat back and considered the Bishop for a while. At last he said, ‘The French King demands that King Edward should go to France to pay homage for the lands he holds as vassal to the King.’

‘Yes. We all know that.’

‘I need hardly say to you how dangerous that could be.’

‘You suggest that the French may seek to injure our King?’ Drokensford asked with feigned surprise. That was a subject for open conjecture amongst the Bishops, and he was convinced it must be also for the secular barons.

There was no humour in Despenser’s face, as there was none in the Bishop’s. Both knew how serious affairs were between the English and French.

‘They have already taken the majority of the King’s lands over there, after creating a pretext. That fool, Kent, lost our King his inheritance.’

‘I understood that he received no help from here when he should have been able to count upon it,’ Drokensford said mildly.

‘There were problems with sending and receiving messages, it is true, but he should have acted on his own initiative.’

‘I thought he did.’

‘Perhaps. If so, his best was not good enough. His initiative may well have cost us Guyenne.’

‘So we are agreed, then,’ the Bishop said. ‘At all costs this rift between the two Crowns must be healed.’

‘Exactly. We cannot afford to see relations damaged further.’

‘So we must send more ambassadors.’

Despenser leaned forward. ‘Who, though? You know what they have offered. They want us to send them either the King to make his peace with Charles, or to send his son to make homage. But either could be enormously dangerous. We cannot afford to put them into the hands of this French King.’

‘He would give safe conduct, surely?’

‘What would that be worth? In God’s name, Bishop, how much would you trust that Frenchman? He has Roger Mortimer of Wigmore still in his household, so they say. The worst traitor who ever threatened an English King, and the French give him a home!’

‘Perhaps you think you should go yourself?’

Despenser looked at him coolly. ‘There is no love between me and the French King. If I were to go, I should be slain, and the cause of peace would not be helped.’

‘Then who?’

‘There is one: the Queen herself.’

Drokensford peered at him. The temptation to gape was almost overwhelming, but he refrained. ‘I had thought that you and she did not agree on many matters?’

‘To be blunt, I do not like the woman, but she is the sister to the French King, and we must use any lever we may. She could, perhaps, exert some beneficial influence on her brother and save the realm from losing a vast territory.’

‘It would surely be a grave humiliation for you?’

‘Perhaps, a little. But better that, than a war or the simple loss of so much of our Lord the King’s lands. It must be immensely worrying for him to have this matter drag on so.’

‘So what do you ask of me?’

‘Two things: that you let your friends know that I would seek to let Queen Isabella go to Paris and negotiate with her brother; and that you support me in parliament when it comes to a debate on the matter. Could you do that?’

‘I shall have to consider, but … yes, I am sure I can support you in this.’

‘Good! Good. That is what I hoped to hear.’

He stood, bowed, and strode from the room.

Picking up his reed again, Drokensford sat for a long while, staring at the door with a mild frown on his face.

‘So, my Queen, I hope this shall prove satisfactory for you. I wonder what you intend next, eh, my Lord Despenser?’ he said aloud, quietly, and then he glanced down at his hand. It was trembling like a drunkard’s after missing his morning whet, and as he watched, a gobbet of ink fell from the tip and smudged the parchment beneath. ‘Christ save me from that spawn of the devil,’ he muttered, and crossed himself.

Salisbury

Roger Martival, Bishop of Salisbury, could have been a brother to Walter Stapledon of Exeter. Both had the same slight stoop, the same slender frames, and the same intensity of intellect. The key difference between them was in age — where Stapledon was some sixty years old, Martival was only some five-and-thirty, in Simon’s estimation.

Still, he proved to be a cheerful host, and within a short time of arriving, the whole cavalcade was within the Cathedral’s close, the horses being groomed by a small army of ostlers, the guards taken to a small tavern near the main gatehouse together with Rob, while Baldwin, Simon and the Bishop were escorted to the Bishop’s palace for a meal with their host.

‘Only fish, I fear, my friends, but I hope that your appetites may be tempted by the skill of my cook.’

It was after their meal that the two Bishops chatted for a while, and then Baldwin and Simon were given to understand that there were matters of some delicacy which the two must discuss. Nothing loath, the two friends left them to their deliberations and went to their chamber to sleep.

Later, much later, Simon found himself woken. He lay in the pale light of the sickle moon, wondering what it was that had stirred him. There was no sound of rats about the floor, nor in the ceiling overhead. When he glanced across, he could see Baldwin lying on the bed beside him, chest rising gently with his breath, and that sight itself was almost enough to send him back to sleep. If a warrior who had been forced to live on his wits for much of his adult life had not been jerked awake, whatever the noise was, it was probably natural and of no concern.

Only then did he hear the voices.

‘They are doing untold damage to us all!’

‘So who would you have in their place?’ Two voices, both raised in anger. The first the Bishop of Salisbury, the second Simon’s friend Walter of Exeter. He had no wish to eavesdrop on them both, but when they shouted at each other, it was impossible not to hear every word.

Simon could hear Stapledon’s voice, dropped to a murmur now, but insistent. Then there was a moment’s quiet, before Roger Martival burst out: ‘She has had her children taken from her, do you call that rational? … I know, but you say she might force her own children to be traitors to their father? Her husband? … Bishop, do not insult my intelligence! I may be younger than you, but my mind is perfectly able to function. This is not a marital dispute, it is systematic persecution of the lady. She’s had her income taken from her, her properties confiscated, her lands — even her household has been dispersed and all the Frenchmen arrested … Annul the marriage? Could they do that? For expediency? In God’s name, I deny it! Support this? I should rather support a goat as my chaplain!’

There were more soothing noises then, and the voices calmed, to the extent that Simon could make out little more. He frowned over what he had heard, but it made no sense to him. Ecclesiastical courts occasionally had to consider difficult cases of marriage breakdowns, when the only possible solution appeared to be a divorce, he knew, and he wondered briefly whether they were talking about a couple in the Bishop of Salisbury’s See, but then he shrugged to himself. It was nothing to do with him.

He rolled over, and would have gone straight to sleep, had he not caught sight of Baldwin.

The knight was still breathing silently like a man asleep, but now as Simon looked, he saw that Baldwin’s eyes were wide, and frowning with deep contemplation, as though he was struck with a new and terrible thought.