JUDITH KOLL HEALEY The Canterbury Papers Dedication To my husband, MICHAEL Epigraph On the imagination: The truth of the imagination leads us to compassion. These two, imagination and compassion, are the only possibility of salvation. —W. S. Merwin Joseph Warren Beach lecture University of Minnesota March 26, 2001 Contents Cover Title Page Dedication Epigraph Map Note on the Twelfth Century Prologue Book I The Journey Out 1. The Courier 2. The Letter 3. Tales of the Deaths of Children 4. An East-West Encounter 5. Canterbury Ghosts 6. Evening Supper with the Prior and the Abbess 7. An Enlightening Interview 8. A Curious Luncheon 9. Sailing into Darkness Book II The Heart’s Search 10. Old Sarum Tower 11. Entertainments in the Keep 12. A Ioust with Isabelle 13. Out of the Keep and Back on the Road 14. The Safe House 15. The Dinner Party 16. Across the Channel and Heading South 17. A Minor Adventure 18. Misunderstandings 19. Letters, Lies, and Secrets 20. Storms over France 21. Against All Odds 22. The Jewel’s Value 23. Eleanor at Last 24. Opportunities Afterword Historical Note Acknowledgments About the Author Praise Credits Copyright About the Publisher Map Note on the Twelfth Century F rance was still a small kingdom, even at the end of the twelfth century when this story opens. The French kings controlled the Île de France and some surrounding areas. Powerful Burgundy lay to the east, the broad lands of Aquitaine to the southwest, and Brittany and Normandy to the north and northwest, independent dukedoms or counties all. An attempt had been made in 1137 to broaden the French kingdom when the French king, Louis VI (le Gros), and William, the ninth Duke of Aquitaine, agreed to the marriage of their children—just before each of the rulers conveniently died. Louis VII, called le Jeune, was seventeen at the time, and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, was only fifteen years old. The royal couple eventually had two daughters, but no sons. This remained a sore point with Louis’s advisers and counselors, who feared for the succession. The other power on the continent at that time was Normandy. It was from Normandy two generations earlier that Duke William (later called the Conqueror) had sailed to defeat King Harold at Hastings and to assume lordship of England. William I’s granddaughter, Mathilda, vied with her cousin Stephen for the crown of England following the death of William’s son, Henry I. Stephen was the victor. After a stormy civil war, and the death of Stephen’s only son, Eustace, Stephen agreed to accept Mathilda’s son, young Henry of Anjou, as heir to the English throne. Meanwhile, the marriage of Eleanor and the pious Louis fared badly. In 1152 Eleanor and Louis divorced and she immediately married Henry of Anjou, who was about to become king of England. Eleanor brought with her to her new marriage a dowry of the broad and fertile lands of Aquitaine. Henry and Eleanor thus formed a formidable alliance against Louis. This caused years of intermittent wars, notably over land in Normandy and the Vexin, although periodic attempts were also made on both sides to reach some kind of peace. Louis married again, and again, until he had the son he so desired. From his second marriage to Constance of Spain, Louis produced two more daughters, Marguerite and Alaïs. In one of the rare moments of détente, Thomas à Becket arranged for the marriage of these two daughters to Eleanor and Henry’s eldest sons. Marguerite married young Henry, called “the Young King” to distinguish him from his father, and Alaïs was betrothed to Richard, who came to be known as “the Lion Heart.” The marriage of Alaïs and Richard never took place. Eventually, much of the land of the northern continent and all of Aquitaine, Normandy, and Brittany became part of France. England went its own way, ruled for several centuries by descendants of the Plantagenet family of Anjou. But for one century politics and power were dominated by a score of interesting, determined, and dramatic people, whose destinies seemed interwoven as if by divine design. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry of England, Louis of France, Richard the Lion Heart, John of England, Philippe of France, and Thomas à Becket were unforgettable characters. And so, if you believe this story, was Alaïs, forgotten princess of France.