If Wars Were Won By Feasting[1]
Soundtrack: Childgrove - Mr. Lane's Minuet - Up with Aily - Cheshier Rounds - Hunt the Squirrel
*interior* *Eltham Palace* *there’s a party going on* *music* *feasting* *dancing* *led by Edward IV and the pregnant Elizabeth Wydeville[2]*
Antony Wydeville: *smiles at his sister as she passes* *turns back to his wife* you don’t wish to dance?
Elizabeth, Baroness Scales: I don’t see much to dance about. Or sing about, Antony.
Antony: *soberly* I’m afraid you’re right. Warwick in France, meeting with Queen Margaret is concerning.
Elizabeth: and the king makes as though there is nothing to be concerned about
Antony: would you prefer that the king go to war with France? To try and ensure Warwick’s return, my love[3]?
Elizabeth: *looks at Jacquetta of Luxembourg likewise dancing with Antoine, Grand Bastard of Burgundy* it startles me that after what he did to your father that you are not trying to convince the king of this
Antony: *smiles* I have no doubt that his Elizabeth is trying to do that very thing.
Elizabeth: you sound as though you disapprove?
Antony: and had this happened a month ago, two, perhaps, the king might be in a different mind. But Henry VI has a son. God willing, Monsieur Charles and Madame Marguerite[4] will have a son. Louis’ wife has just had a son. The king does not. So…for now…Edward needs to trust that the arrangement he made with Queen Margaret as much as Monsieur Charles needs to trust in the arrangement he and King Louis reached at Péronne.
Elizabeth: the king does not have a son yet.
Antony: God willing, my sister will soon supply him with one.
Elizabeth: and King Louis’ dauphin may follow his brothers shortly to the grave.
Antony: *nods* he may *tune/dance changes*
Elizabeth: *looks at Antoine* seems a bit ominous to me. A king sending an ambassador to announce his wife is pregnant. Why not await the birth?
Antony: it’s a convenient cover to discuss our alliance with Burgundy. *looks at the duke of Gloucester dancing with his niece, Anne, Lady Grey[5]* after all, whether Madame Marguerite has a son or a daughter…her step-daughter would make an ideal match for Milord Gloucester, don’t you agree?
Elizabeth: but that’s absurd, he’s-
Antony: a far better match than the exiled prince of Wales that King Louis is suggesting and who I’m told the Dowager Duchess[6] is in favour of. And if Madame Marguerite has a son, her step-daughter could come live in England. Far less worrying her marrying an ally than the idea of her marrying the duke of Berry, and ending up in Paris, wouldn’t you say?
Elizabeth: alliances change. Look at the king and Milord Warwick. Or Milord Somerset who the king approved to marry Milord Shrewsbury’s daughter[7]-
Antony: as I understand it, that was with Milord Warwick’s approval. Attempting to draw the Beauforts into the Neville orbit[8]-
Elizabeth: shame them, you mean.
Antony: *sharkish smile* it is only fitting that the Milord Somerset take responsibility for his disgraceful behaviour towards Lady Eleanor[9]. Leaving her in the family way and all…
Elizabeth: mark my words, Antony, nothing good will come of this.
*fade to black*
[1] From a song from the OTL Restoration court, The Dutch in the Medway: if wars were won by feasting / or victory by song / if safety found in sleeping sound / how England would be strong.
The line “our king and court, for their disport, do sell the very Thames” is oddly applicable to Edward IV who only left something like £400 in the treasury when he died
[2] Thanks to hearing Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion on my morning commute, all I could imagine was them “doing the locomotion”
Also, Elizabeth would only give birth in November, which means she was unlikely to already be in confinement in June 1470 unless there had been problems with the pregnancy
[3] While no contemporary accounts survive of Antony/Elizabeth’s marriage, things must’ve been – at least – civil to cordial given the fact that she left her title (Baron Scales) to him in her will rather than to a distant cousin (think it was third five times removed or fifth three times removed or something). She would’ve had no reason to do this unless they either did have a “decent” marriage or she really loathed the cousin
[4] The duke and duchess of Burgundy. Hence why Antoine the Bastard is in London: to announce the pregnancy
[5] Elizabeth Wydeville’s son isn’t marquess of Dorset yet, and his grandmother is still alive, so he’s not “Lord Ferrers” either. The “niece” is Anne Holland
[6] Isabel of Portugal, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy
[7] Eleanor Talbot (she’s survived here- making things "interesting")
[8] Not that odd a “idea”. Warwick’s sister, Margaret, was wife to the Lancastrian loyalist, the 13th earl of Oxford – who was pardoned in 1469 – and Oxford’s brother was married to Margaret Talbot (Eleanor’s sister).
[9] Eleanor was apparently engaged to Edmund, 4e Duke of Somerset, but according to various accounts, the later events of the 1460s and death intervened. Also, the Talbot girls were running in the same circles as Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Wiltshire and Richmond, the duke of Buckingham and the rest of the Beauforts at the time, so a marriage between them doesn't seem ASB IMO
*interior* *Eltham Palace* *there’s a party going on* *music* *feasting* *dancing* *led by Edward IV and the pregnant Elizabeth Wydeville[2]*
Antony Wydeville: *smiles at his sister as she passes* *turns back to his wife* you don’t wish to dance?
Elizabeth, Baroness Scales: I don’t see much to dance about. Or sing about, Antony.
Antony: *soberly* I’m afraid you’re right. Warwick in France, meeting with Queen Margaret is concerning.
Elizabeth: and the king makes as though there is nothing to be concerned about
Antony: would you prefer that the king go to war with France? To try and ensure Warwick’s return, my love[3]?
Elizabeth: *looks at Jacquetta of Luxembourg likewise dancing with Antoine, Grand Bastard of Burgundy* it startles me that after what he did to your father that you are not trying to convince the king of this
Antony: *smiles* I have no doubt that his Elizabeth is trying to do that very thing.
Elizabeth: you sound as though you disapprove?
Antony: and had this happened a month ago, two, perhaps, the king might be in a different mind. But Henry VI has a son. God willing, Monsieur Charles and Madame Marguerite[4] will have a son. Louis’ wife has just had a son. The king does not. So…for now…Edward needs to trust that the arrangement he made with Queen Margaret as much as Monsieur Charles needs to trust in the arrangement he and King Louis reached at Péronne.
Elizabeth: the king does not have a son yet.
Antony: God willing, my sister will soon supply him with one.
Elizabeth: and King Louis’ dauphin may follow his brothers shortly to the grave.
Antony: *nods* he may *tune/dance changes*
Elizabeth: *looks at Antoine* seems a bit ominous to me. A king sending an ambassador to announce his wife is pregnant. Why not await the birth?
Antony: it’s a convenient cover to discuss our alliance with Burgundy. *looks at the duke of Gloucester dancing with his niece, Anne, Lady Grey[5]* after all, whether Madame Marguerite has a son or a daughter…her step-daughter would make an ideal match for Milord Gloucester, don’t you agree?
Elizabeth: but that’s absurd, he’s-
Antony: a far better match than the exiled prince of Wales that King Louis is suggesting and who I’m told the Dowager Duchess[6] is in favour of. And if Madame Marguerite has a son, her step-daughter could come live in England. Far less worrying her marrying an ally than the idea of her marrying the duke of Berry, and ending up in Paris, wouldn’t you say?
Elizabeth: alliances change. Look at the king and Milord Warwick. Or Milord Somerset who the king approved to marry Milord Shrewsbury’s daughter[7]-
Antony: as I understand it, that was with Milord Warwick’s approval. Attempting to draw the Beauforts into the Neville orbit[8]-
Elizabeth: shame them, you mean.
Antony: *sharkish smile* it is only fitting that the Milord Somerset take responsibility for his disgraceful behaviour towards Lady Eleanor[9]. Leaving her in the family way and all…
Elizabeth: mark my words, Antony, nothing good will come of this.
*fade to black*
[1] From a song from the OTL Restoration court, The Dutch in the Medway: if wars were won by feasting / or victory by song / if safety found in sleeping sound / how England would be strong.
The line “our king and court, for their disport, do sell the very Thames” is oddly applicable to Edward IV who only left something like £400 in the treasury when he died
[2] Thanks to hearing Kylie Minogue’s Locomotion on my morning commute, all I could imagine was them “doing the locomotion”
Also, Elizabeth would only give birth in November, which means she was unlikely to already be in confinement in June 1470 unless there had been problems with the pregnancy
[3] While no contemporary accounts survive of Antony/Elizabeth’s marriage, things must’ve been – at least – civil to cordial given the fact that she left her title (Baron Scales) to him in her will rather than to a distant cousin (think it was third five times removed or fifth three times removed or something). She would’ve had no reason to do this unless they either did have a “decent” marriage or she really loathed the cousin
[4] The duke and duchess of Burgundy. Hence why Antoine the Bastard is in London: to announce the pregnancy
[5] Elizabeth Wydeville’s son isn’t marquess of Dorset yet, and his grandmother is still alive, so he’s not “Lord Ferrers” either. The “niece” is Anne Holland
[6] Isabel of Portugal, Dowager Duchess of Burgundy
[7] Eleanor Talbot (she’s survived here- making things "interesting")
[8] Not that odd a “idea”. Warwick’s sister, Margaret, was wife to the Lancastrian loyalist, the 13th earl of Oxford – who was pardoned in 1469 – and Oxford’s brother was married to Margaret Talbot (Eleanor’s sister).
[9] Eleanor was apparently engaged to Edmund, 4e Duke of Somerset, but according to various accounts, the later events of the 1460s and death intervened. Also, the Talbot girls were running in the same circles as Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Wiltshire and Richmond, the duke of Buckingham and the rest of the Beauforts at the time, so a marriage between them doesn't seem ASB IMO
