The Young Lion Read Online Free PDF Page A

Perhaps you would be so gracious as to explain to the court?’
    ‘Certainly,’ Henry replied. He turned to the courtiers and addressed them loudly and clearly in Latin, a tongue he spoke perfectly. ‘On my mother’s side I have no title but FitzEmpress and, as such, am the son of the legitimate heir to this throne,’ he began.
    He declares war on Prince Eustace . The whisper slid from mouths like vipers slithering from holes. The chamber felt tight.
    ‘On my father’s side, I am son of the Count of Anjou and Maine and Duke of Normandy. My father has dispossessed many of you of your estates. You broke your sacred oath of fealty to the great King Henry. You vowed to him not once, but three times, to accept my mother as his heir.’ He stared at them, unflinching. Suddenly his face flared with anger and he burst into French, a language all of them understood. ‘Faithless vassals! Oath breakers!’ he shouted. ‘Dishonour on you! Nothing is sacred if vows to the King are overturned! You invite chaos. You’ve brought the disaster of civil war on your own heads!’
    The uproar was so loud bishops and some elderly earls had to cover their ears. Stephen signalled to the palace guards who stood around the hall. They crashed halberds against their shields to call for silence.
    ‘So, my nobles: how do you vote on the request from this creature who brings such disgrace upon his ancestral house? Do we give him gold?’ the King asked.
    ‘Get him out of England!’ people shouted.
    ‘He’s from the devils of Anjou! It was prophesied!’
    From the door Eustace called, ‘Ransom him! Make his parents pay to get him out of irons.’
    Stephen beckoned to the prelates. Canterbury and Winchester rose and although they loathed each other, walked in a measured,brotherly pace towards the throne. ‘Your advice?’ Stephen murmured. The Bishop of Winchester was the King’s brother and the second-richest man in England. He had once supported his cousin Matilda – for despite her sex, she was the true heir and in some earlier times sex had been no bar to the throne. But he had turned against her when her domineering temperament revealed itself: she’d set up in Winchester a German court, with German formality. The Archbishop of Canterbury, however, was still firmly of the Matilda faction. Political differences aside, these princes of the Church were of one mind diplomatically.
    ‘He’s too young to punish or ransom without bringing dishonour on yourself, Highness,’ Winchester said. ‘I’m sure he calculated his risk in coming here today on that basis. He’s shrewd, it seems.’
    ‘Give him the gold,’ Canterbury urged. ‘You’ll appear magnanimous.’
    ‘My Crown Prince sees this as our opportunity for a final victory over Matilda. If we put the FitzEmpress in irons we can make the condition of his release surrender of her claim to the throne,’ Stephen whispered.
    ‘Harming the boy does not guarantee an end to the war, sire. Until now his father has declined to join Matilda in her struggle for England. But he may fight for his son,’ Canterbury said. ‘As we saw when he took Normandy, Geoffrey of Anjou is ruthless and skilled in the arts of war. And he is now very rich.’
    Winchester noticed that the sceptre trembled in his brother’s hand. How heavy a stolen sceptre weighs, he mused. Stephen Blois was not even a count at his birth and virtually penniless, but he was a nephew of the Lion. King Henry had treated him with majestic generosity and given him an education and vast tracts of land. ‘I shall explain to Prince Eustace our reasoning,’ Winchester said.
    They returned to their seats and stared at the rushes on the floor; their deacons followed their example. Henry noticed oneelegant young man look at him with a slight smile, a courageous act, given the hostility of the court.
    ‘Approach me,’ Stephen said.
    As Henry stepped up to the throne, the King grasped the front of his dirty tunic and in a voice