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

of an outbreak, give advice on hygiene and basic treatment. I join my own staff visiting the villages and bringing them food or medicine where needed. Why, only last week I called on the family of your good foreman at Saumur, and his wife begged me to send yet more help to their town, where there is a serious outbreak of plague. Her children are so small and sweet, I could not bear it if she lost them. Husband dearest – you should know – so many men are affected that harvests are not being brought in even when the crops do grow. I have had several accounts of vessels arriving at Marseilles bringing infection with them – rats are seen running down the ropes attaching ships to the docks . . .’ She would have gone on, but he presses his finger to her lips and hushes her like he would a baby.
    After a long pause, she turns to him.
    ‘My love, I agree with you completely – in the midst of so much misery, these personal family quarrels between the princes cannot be allowed to continue.’
    ‘Then you will understand why I can only remain fleetingly with you. I could not bear another day without reassuring myself that all was well here and with our children, but tomorrow I must return.’ And he takes her in his arms before she can utter a word of protest.
    In the morning he is gone again, and she wonders if she dreamt their wonderful night of love.
    A week later, Louis’ courier arrives.
    ‘Madame, I bring good news. Duke Louis has asked me to tell you that he has succeeded in brokering some sort of peace between the Orléans and Burgundian factions – confirmed and sealed with a High Mass in the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris!’
    Eagerly she reaches for Louis’ letter, certain it contains details of the peace within the family. There is much family gossip and information, and then she reads the words that make her blood run cold:
    To validate this remarkable peace between our cousins, something we have all wished for, so that together, our armies united, we can face with confidence our enemy approaching our threshold once more. With this unity in mind, I have arranged a marriage between our son, Louis III and Catherine, the second daughter of my cousin Jean of Burgundy, to be concluded in seven years’ time. I know you will appreciate the importance of such a strategic union between our two royal houses.
    Reading these words, Yolande sinks to her knees, lost in impotent despair. Every part of her recoils from the idea of this alliance. Short as her acquaintance with Jean-sans-Peur has been, she has never forgotten the loathsome atmosphere he exuded. Nor is she unaware of the trouble he has caused at court. To connect their families may be good politics – Louis may be acting in the interests of France as well as of their family – but she shudders at the idea of joining her family with that of this repulsive man. What can she do? Little Louis may be her adorable son, but his fate, his future, belongs to the world of men.
    I do not know the little girl and have no reason to dislike a child I have never seen, but to be linked by marriage to that man, her father, repels me.
Perhaps she is becoming a little cynical, but she reminds herself that since part of the girl’s dowry will be paid in advance, Louis will also have the necessary funds to mount a new expedition to Naples. Her mind is in turmoil. She knows her duty and it is one she dreads – she knows that she must confront her husband about his decision. Recalling the harmony of his last visit, when their minds seemed as one, she could weep. But face it she must.
    On Louis’ next visit home to Angers from Paris, Yolande steels herself to broach the subject. They are in her favourite corner of her sitting room, dinner was delicious, the mulled wine has relaxed him and they talk of this and that concerning his farms, the workers, their health and, most of all, the children. Since she began managing Louis’ estates during his absence in Paris, her