Here Be Dragons - 1 by Sharon Penman (best inspirational books txt) 📕

Castle was less than twenty miles from Ewell, and Richard had taken advantage of his proximity to pay a courtesy call upon his young betrothed.He invariably enjoyed his visits to Chilham. It was gratifying to spend a day riding about the manor demesne, to see the green fields and well-fed livestock and know it would all eventually be his. That Rohese de Dover was a gentle, biddable girl, shyly eager to please, only made his marital prospects all the more alluring.But he'd had an ulterior motive for this particular visit to Chilham: to escape, if only for a few days, the oppressive atmosphere of his father's court. What John had most feared was at last coming to pass; the circle was closing.Sparing Gruffydd had not sundered Llewelyn's alliance with the other WelshPrinces. The hangings of the hostages had unified the Welsh as nothing else could have done. Rhys Gryg had fallen into John's hands, was being held captive at the royal castle of Carmarthen. But Maelgwn and Gwenwynwyn were ravaging Norman settlements in South Wales, and Llewelyn had retaken the only two castles still in Norman control; he had now regained all of thePerfeddwlad, regained all he'd been forced to yield up to John at Aberconwy.The Welsh were a God-cursed, stiff-necked, and utterly vexatious people, John said bitterly, but they did have an inexplicable ability to rise phoenixlike from the ashes of defeat, to soar upward on wings too scorched for flight.As troublesome an enemy as Llewelyn was proving to be, he did not pose a serious threat to John's sovereignty. But as winter thawed into a verdant spring, John found himself facing a more dangerous foe, one who had the power to do what Llewelyn could not, to bring his reign and his life to an abrupt and bloody end.At Christmas the Pope had at last invoked his ultimate weapon, dispatchedStephen Langton to the French court with letters formally deposing John asKing of England and freeing his subjects from their oaths of allegiance.Philip was more than eager to show himself a goo son of the Church, and he immediately announced plans to invade t gland and claim John's crown for a more worthy aspirant, his own Louis. (0With a French fleet being rigged at Boulogne, John was force ^ acknowledge that time had finally run out, and he hastened to «e

T411nvoys to Rome. This eleventh-hour capitulation gained him an exten. n of thePope's deadline; the papal legate Pandulf was now in Enland to accept his submission to papal authority.By coming to terms with the Pope, John had thus been able to deny Philip the opportunity to cloak himself in the mantle of the Church, to sanctify his invasion as a holy war of retribution against a renegade King- But if Philip's pretensions had been sabotaged, his ambitions remained intact; the French fleet would sail with or without the Pope's blessings. Which meant, Richard thought bleakly, that his father would soon be fighting a war on two fronts, trying to repulse a French landing in the south whilst Philip's Welsh allies turned the Marches into a wasteland of smoldering manors and charred fields.And if it came to that, how long would John's disaffected barons hold fast?How long ere men like Derby and Huntingdon and de Clare elected to throw in their lot with Philip?Upon his arrival at Ewell, Richard was surprised to find Isabelle walking in the garden with her two youngest children. He had not seen much of Isabelle in recent months, still less of his little half-brothers and sister, for John had become obsessed with fears for their safety. After learning of de Vesci andFitz Walter's intriguing, he'd required armed bodyguards, not only for himself but for his family, too; he'd even gone so far as to give orders that no one be admitted to the presence of his eldest son and heir without written permission.Isabelle greeted Richard with unfeigned warmth, for they were long-standing allies in a conspiracy of self-interest, one dedicated to John's weal."Did my father meet with the papal legate?""Yes, they met yesterday in Dover." Isabelle gestured for the nurses to take the children on ahead. "It did not go well, I fear. Will told me that Pandulf was aloof, unable to conceal his doubts, his suspicions thatJohn was not acting in good faith. And the terms offered were the very ones John had scorned for these five years past. He had to agree to receive Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, to reinstate the er§Y who'd gone into exile when the Interdict was declared, and to recompense the Church for its losses. But what I think John found hard-s to swallow was the Pope's insistence that he pardon Eustace de Vesci nd Robert Fitz Walter, restore them to favor."Fib r°m ^e'r resPecnve exiles in Scotland and France, de Vesci and fiart W^ac^ been loudly and persistently proclaiming themselves Caj ^*s to conscience, Christians who could not serve an excommunispu . n§- Richard had not expected the Pope to give credence to so s a rationale for treason, and he could only shake his head in

432T413wonder, conclude that the name this particular Pope had chosen f himself was uncommonly apt: Innocent In."I thought I knew John so well, Richard, but I've never seen hi like this. Never.""What man would not be distraught, sore crazed with wrath?" "But that is just it; he's not in a tearing rage. Richard, he is ... Weu there's but one way to describe his mood. Do you remember when Regl inald de Dammartin gave John those weighted dice? Remember how he kept winning every toss, until he finally relented and showed us the trick? He is acting now just as he did that day, like a man who knows he cannot lose."Isabelle glanced about, reassured herself that none was within hearing range."He has called a council meeting for this forenoon, and he means to summonPandulf back to Ewell on the morrow. I do not know what he has in mind.