The Kingmaker's Daughter Read online

  THE

  KINGMAKER’S

  DAUGHTER

  By the same author

  The Cousins’ War

  The Lady of the Rivers

  The White Queen

  The Red Queen

  History

  The Women of the Cousins’ War:

  The Duchess, the Queen and the King’s Mother

  The Tudor Court Novels

  The Constant Princess

  The Other Boleyn Girl

  The Boleyn Inheritance

  The Queen’s Fool

  The Virgin’s Lover

  The Other Queen

  Historical Novels

  The Wise Woman

  Fallen Skies

  A Respectable Trade

  The Wideacre Trilogy

  Wideacre

  The Favoured Child

  Meridon

  Civil War Novels

  Earthly Joys

  Virgin Earth

  Modern Novels

  Mrs Hartley and the Growth Centre

  Perfectly Correct

  The Little House

  Zelda’s Cut

  Short Stories

  Bread and Chocolate

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2012

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © Philippa Gregory, 2012

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

  The right of Philippa Gregory to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

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  222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London WC1X 8HB

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney

  Simon & Schuster, India, New Delhi

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Hardback ISBN 978-0-85720-746-3

  Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-747-0

  eBook ISBN 978-0-85720-750-0

  Typeset by M Rules

  Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

  For Anthony

  CONTENTS

  THE TOWER OF LONDON, MAY 1465

  L’ERBER, LONDON, JULY 1465

  BARNARD CASTLE, COUNTY DURHAM, AUTUMN 1465

  WARWICK CASTLE, SPRING 1468

  CALAIS CASTLE, 11 JULY 1469

  CALAIS CASTLE, 12 JULY 1469

  CALAIS CASTLE, SUMMER 1469

  ENGLAND, AUTUMN 1469

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, CHRISTMAS 1469–70

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, JANUARY 1470

  WARWICK CASTLE, MARCH 1470

  DARTMOUTH, DEVON, APRIL 1470

  THE RIVER SEINE, FRANCE, MAY 1470

  ANGERS, FRANCE, JULY 1470

  ANGERS CATHEDRAL, 25 JULY 1470

  AMBOISE, FRANCE, WINTER 1470

  PARIS, CHRISTMAS 1470

  HARFLEUR, FRANCE, MARCH 1471

  HARFLEUR, FRANCE, 12 APRIL 1471

  CERNE ABBEY, WEYMOUTH, 15 APRIL 1471

  TEWKESBURY, GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 4 MAY 1471

  WORCESTER, MAY 1471

  THE TOWER OF LONDON, 21 MAY 1471

  L’ERBER, LONDON, AUTUMN 1471

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, CHRISTMAS 1471

  L’ERBER, LONDON, FEBRUARY 1472

  ST MARTIN’S, LONDON, FEBRUARY 1472

  ST MARTIN’S, LONDON, APRIL 1472

  ST MARTIN’S, LONDON, MAY 1472

  LAMBETH PALACE, LONDON, SUMMER 1472

  WINDSOR CASTLE, SEPTEMBER 1472

  FOTHERINGHAY CASTLE, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, AUTUMN 1472

  WINDSOR CASTLE, CHRISTMAS 1472

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, SPRING 1473

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, JUNE 1473

  FARLEIGH HUNGERFORD CASTLE, SOMERSET, 14 AUGUST 1473

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, SUMMER 1473

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, JULY 1474

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, SPRING 1475

  LONDON, SUMMER 1475

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, SEPTEMBER 1475

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, SUMMER 1476

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, AUTUMN 1476

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, CHRISTMAS DAY 1476

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, JANUARY 1477

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, JANUARY 1477

  LONDON, APRIL 1477

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, MAY 1477

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, SUMMER 1477

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, AUTUMN 1477

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, CHRISTMAS 1477

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, JANUARY 1478

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, FEBRUARY 1478

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, MARCH 1478

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, SUMMER 1482

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, WINTER 1482–3

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, APRIL 1483

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, MAY 1483

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, JUNE 1483

  BAYNARD’S CASTLE, LONDON, JUNE 1483

  THE TOWER OF LONDON, JULY 1483

  A ROYAL PROGRESS, SUMMER 1483

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, OCTOBER 1483

  MIDDLEHAM CASTLE, YORKSHIRE, WINTER 1483

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, NOVEMBER 1483

  GREENWICH PALACE, LONDON, MARCH 1484

  NOTTINGHAM CASTLE, MARCH 1484

  NOTTINGHAM CASTLE, SUMMER 1484

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, WINTER 1484

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, JANUARY 1485

  WESTMINSTER PALACE, LONDON, MARCH 1485

  THE TOWER OF LONDON, MAY 1465

  My Lady Mother goes first, a great heiress in her own right, and the wife of the greatest subject in the kingdom. Isabel follows, because she is the oldest. Then me: I come last, I always come last. I can’t see much as we walk into the great throne room of the Tower of London, and my mother leads my sister to curtsey to the throne and steps aside. Isabel sinks down low, as we have been taught, for a king is a king even if he is a young man put on the throne by my father. His wife will be crowned queen, whatever we may think of her. Then as I step forwards to make my curtsey I get my first good view of the woman that we have come to court to honour.

  She is breathtaking: the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life. At once I understand why the king stopped his army at the first sight of her, and married her within weeks. She has a smile that grows slowly and then shines, like an angel’s smile. I have seen statues that would look stodgy beside her, I have seen painted Madonnas whose features would be coarse beside her pale luminous loveliness. I rise up from my curtsey to stare at her as if she were an exquisite icon; I cannot look away. Under my scrutiny her face warms, she blushes, she smiles at me, and I cannot help but beam in reply. She laughs at that, as if she finds my open adoration amusing, and then I see my mother’s furious glance and I scuttle to her side where my sister Isabel is scowling. ‘You were staring like an idiot,’ she hisses. ‘Embarrassing us all. What would Father say?’

  The king steps forwards and kisses my mother warmly on both cheeks. ‘Have you heard from my dear friend, your lord?’ he asks her.

  ‘Working well in your service,’ she says promptly, for Father is missing tonight’s banquet and all the celebrations, as he is meeting with the King of France himself and the Duke of Burgundy, meeting with them as an equal, to make peace with these mighty men of Christendom now that the sleeping king has been defeated and we are the new rulers of England. My fath