Queen Of Four Kingdoms, The by HRH Princess Michael of Kent

hand and says: ‘I sincerely pray that you will be spared a future like my past. May the chimera of Naples never reach out and touch your precious life.’
    Not long after this conversation, Marie de Blois takes to her bed. Yolande visits her daily but knows that she has no great will to live much longer. Telling her daughter-in-law her life story was important to her; she wanted to advise Yolande how to help her son,
her
Louis, to survive his own destiny, especially if it included Naples.
    But it is not Marie who dies; to their shock and anguish, it is her second son, Yolande’s enchanting brother-in-law, Charles d’Anjou, who falls prey to a sudden illness. Charles, who met her as she entered France, who lightened her nerves with his charm and wit. Charles, her Louis’ greatest supporter, and to Yolande the brother she never had. Charles, who has never been long from her hearth or her side, constantly explaining, reassuring, positive and entertaining, her companion in Angers during Louis’ absences. How can he be gone?
    For Marie de Blois it is, perhaps, the final blow. She has completed her silent promise to her husband. His heir is married, with an heir of his own. The duchy of Anjou is in good and capable hands. She suffers the death of her second son, grieving silently. There is no more for her to do. She has no particular illness, but is simply worn out by a life of struggle. One evening, some months later, after she has finished her light supper on a tray in her room, which she has not left since the death of Charles, Marie de Blois sends for them.
    ‘My dears, I have called you to say goodbye. To you Louis, my beloved first-born, I go to my Lord above in the same knowledge that I leave you in the loving and capable hands of Yolande, the wife I chose for you.’
    She takes their right hands in hers and holds them together. ‘Hold each other close to your hearts, and bind your children together so that they too will support and love one another as you do. You are young and have still not experienced the great trials that will surely come your way. But you can survive anything – the greatest heartbreak and loss – as I have – if you live your lives with care for your own and others, with honesty, loyalty, patience, fortitude and common sense. Do not grieve for me my darlings. I am happy to join my beloved husband at last.’
    With that she kisses the palms of their right hands and they kneel and kiss hers. Neither Louis nor Yolande are surprised when she dies that night in June 1404, at the age of fifty-nine.

Chapter Eight
    F ollowing the death of Marie de Blois, Yolande is based at Angers alone with the children. Louis’ absence is hard. She no longer has the good and wise counsel of Louis’ mother to rely on, nor the strong and reassuring presence of Charles d’Anjou by her side. But she does thank God for Juana’s familiar, comforting presence. No longer the young bride, no longer the protected wife, with Louis in Paris at the Royal Council, she has new duties at home now, and must pursue them with vigour. With her husband’s consent and encouragement, Yolande must rule both Maine and Anjou, head his council, take decisions on his behalf, and receive regular couriers from him in Paris to advise her how to run his business at home and to keep her aware of events as they develop at court and on the King’s Council. Looking in her mirror now, what she sees is no longer a girl whose realm is the hearth and the home, but a woman who must steel herself to be her husband’s effective regent, to wield his power justly when he cannot. When Juana helps her dress each morning, she feels she is donning her armour for the day’s battle ahead.
    Meanwhile, the political strife deepens. Anjou, Berry and Bourbon, all with the best of intentions, have done little to defuse the worsening situation in Paris. The enmity between the two factions, led by the rival cousins and royal dukes – Orléans and Burgundy – is