The Courts of Love: The Story of Eleanor of Aquitaine by Jean Plaidy Page B

cannot have a scandal at Court.”
    “It would seem we have that already,” I said. “Louis, listen to me. This is regrettable but it has happened. Petronilla is my sister         .         .         .         yours now. Raoul of Vermandois is your kinsman. Let us face facts. There is only one thing to do. We have to accept this marriage. After all, Vermandois is divorced from his first wife. These things have happened before. It is of the utmost importance that we stand with them in this. If you give your approval, who can raise his voice against that?”
    “I can imagine there are some who will.”
    “Louis, you have to remember that you are the King. Your will is law.” I went to him and put my arms about him. “You only have to stand firm, Louis. All must obey you.”
    He said: “You are right. There is nothing else we can do.”
             
    When the marriage was announced there was a great deal of gossip throughout the Court. What of Vermandois’s first wife? What was to become of her? Was this a precedent? When a man wanted to be rid of his wife, did it mean that all he had to do was to arrange for a divorce through obliging relatives? Of course, everyone did not have such relatives. Everyone was not related to the King and Queen.
    I was astonished by Raoul and Petronilla. They were quite blissful, seeming oblivious of the storm they were raising.
    I heard that Raoul’s first wife had taken her children to her uncle Thibault of Champagne, and I knew then that it could not be long before there was real trouble.
    I was right.
    He did what I expected. He took the case to the Pope. His niece had been cursorily cast out by her husband because he wished to take a younger woman to be his wife. There had been a bogus annulment arranged by a relative of the Count of Vermandois, and two priests had been bribed to assist in this. Moreover the whole dastardly scheme had the approval of the King and Queen, whose sister was the new wife. Thibault begged the Pope to intervene on behalf of his wronged niece.
    Louis was, of course, still in trouble with the Papacy, so we could expect Innocent to come down heavily on the other side. This he did. He answered Thibault’s plea without delay by sending his legate to judge the case. A verdict was soon arrived at: Raoul was still married to his first wife, and he and Petronilla were living in sin. They were excommunicated and so were the bishop and the priests who had granted the annulment.
    I was furiously angry with Thibault of Champagne.
    “There lies our enemy,” I said. “You are too lenient, Louis, with those who work against you. This man should have been punished long ago for refusing to send troops to Toulouse.”
    Toulouse was an unhappy subject with Louis. He knew he had behaved in an unkingly manner, and if ever I wanted to get my own way I could do so by subtly referring to it.
    “He is our enemy,” I persisted. “He has done this to discountenance us.”
    “Well,” murmured Louis, “one would have expected him to be angry, Raoul’s first wife being a close kinswoman.”
    “I would she had been anyone else.” That was a point on which we could agree. “But it is as it is,” I cried. “And now he has done this. What a scandal! What when the child is born? There will be those to say it is a bastard.”
    “Which it will be if the marriage is invalid.”
    “We are not going to accept this, Louis.”
    “I do not see what can be done.”
    “Something has to be done.”
    He looked at me fearfully.
    “We could march,” I said.
    “March?”
    “On Champagne.”
    “You mean
war
?”
    “What else is there to do? Sit meekly here and accept their insults?”
    He was silent. I could see the fear of war in his face. I despised him. Raoul was a rogue, but at least he had courage to act as he wished and face up to the consequences.
    “You will have to take up arms against him,” I insisted. “You cannot allow him to