The Death of a King Read Online Free PDF Page B

father’s lieutenant and custodian of the castle. He has been accused of being involved in the murder but Guerney and Ockle kept the king even from him. In fact, this precious pair kept themselves and their captive from public view and only spoke to the messengers Mortimer sent from Westminster. No one in the castle even knew that the king had died until it was announced a few days afterwards that he had expired from natural causes, and then Guerney ordered us all to leave the keep while the royal body was prepared for burial in Gloucester Cathedral.”
    “Were the preparations for burial carried out there?”
    “No, here,” Berkeley explained, jabbing his finger at the floor, “in the great hall itself, but no one was allowed admittance. Not even the royal clerks who brought the shroud, coffin and other materials for the burial.”
    “Then who dressed the corpse?”
    “Ah, now that’s strange. Not any court physician, but an old woman, a witch from the Forest of Dean. She was hired by Queen Isabella to prepare her husband’s body for burial and then disappeared.”
    “So no one saw the corpse?”
    Berkeley laughed drily. “For a clerk, you have a fanciful imagination, Master Beche. No, the old woman was probably hired because a skilled physician would soon recognize that the king had died violently. However, we all saw the corpse before its burial. It was taken from here to Gloucester, where it lay in state, its face uncovered for days, before being buried with great pomp in the cathedral.”
    “Do you know how the king actually died?” I asked.
    Berkeley shrugged. “You’ve heard the stories,” he replied. “I’ve never heard anything different. The king was abused before he died, he had a reputation as a sodomite and Guerney and Ockle were spiteful, twisted bastards.”
    Even though a great deal of his story tallied with what I had already learnt from the records in the Tower Muniment Room, I thought that Berkeley’s narrative contained many valuable items of information. The most important were the reasons for the great secrecy which had surrounded the king’s death. Naturally, his assassins would only be too eager to hide any evidence of the crime.
    After a moment’s reflection, I asked Berkeley why Edward had been so closely guarded. I pointed out that he was far from popular, which accounted for the success of his wife’s invasion.
    “There were rumours,” the man replied, “that some fanatics were plotting to free him. There were reports of groups gathering in the Forest of Dean and all along the Welsh March. Strangers were seen and reported in the surrounding hamlets, many armed contrary to the government’s instructions. One group, led by a monk Dunheved, actually attacked the castle and managed to get down to the old king’s cell, where they murdered one of the guards, a Gascon called Bernard Pellet. Anyway, most of the attackers were killed or captured before being beaten off. The rest, including Dunheved, got away. I believe he and his band were later rounded up by Mortimer’s agents and disappeared for ever.” Berkeley paused and smiled wryly, “I remember all these details for I was 16 and all agog with curiosity.”
    After that, Berkeley began to ask for news from London and the court. He said that he had been serving with the army abroad and was eager to return. When I asked why he had not joined the court in London, he shrugged and explained that he had been at Berkeley since the previous June when the king had visited the castle.
    “Did he inspect his father’s dungeon?”
    Lord Berkeley shook his head. “No, he showed no interest in the place. In fact, he and Sir John Chandos spent most of their time in Gloucester, inspecting the cathedral.”
    Berkeley then chatted freely about the king’s wars before he cut himself short with an apology and offered to show me where the king’s father had been imprisoned. I quickly accepted and Berkeley, taking a torch from the wall, led