The Queen's Pawn

Table of Contents

 

 

 

 

“The Queen’s Pawn
is a powerful portrait of two dynamic royal women and the men who controlled their lives—or is it the other way around? Treachery, betrayal, lust—and an unusual and compelling love story, beautifully told.”

—Karen Harper, author of
The Queen’s Governess

“The Queen’s Pawn
by Christy English resurrects from misty legend Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry II, Princess Alais, and Richard the Lionhearted. I knew the outlines of their stories, but now I have come to know them as fully, emotionally human, both flawed and magnificent. The French Princess Alais comes as a child to England to be raised by Eleanor for marriage to Richard, the queen’s favorite son. But the child becomes a beautiful woman and catches Henry’s eye, starting an ever- escalating palace war of intrigue, betrayal, and passion. Almost 850 years have passed, but Christy brings the complex time of unrest and deceit to full, lyrical life for us. A captivating love story of Richard and Alais beyond the story I thought I knew of a young woman trapped between Eleanor and Henry in their lifelong struggle for mastery over the English crown and each other. A jewel of a novel.”

—Jeane Westin, author of
The Virgin’s Daughters

“Told with simple grace and from the heart, The Queen’s Pawn is a moving evocation of two women, deep friends but destined to a tragic rivalry for royal power and two men’s love.”

—Margaret Frazer, author of
A Play of Treachery

“What a promising debut! With deft strokes, Christy English transforms Alais from the innocent child her father sends to England into the cunning woman her surrogate mother, Eleanor, teaches her to be—while the crafty and sophisticated Eleanor is ensnared and nearly brought down by helpless love for her adopted daughter. The complex love-hate quadrangle between Eleanor, her husband, Henry, her son Richard, and the ever more wily Alais is a fascinating and original take on this juicy historical footnote.”

—Ellyn Bache, award-winning novelist of
Safe Passage
and
Daughters of the Sea

“An astonishing debut! Christy English spins an unforgettable tale of dangerous splendor, evoking the stone and tapestry of the Plantagenet era, and the fierce rivalry of two equally fascinating and determined women, whose ambitions threaten to overturn their world.”

—C. W Gortner, author of
The Last Queen

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First published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc

 

First Printing, April 2010

Copyright © Christy English, 2010

Readers Guide copyright © Penguin Group (USA) Inc, 2010
All rights reserved

 

REGISTERED TRADEMARK-MARCA REGISTRADA

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

 

English, Christy.
The queen’s pawn/Christy English.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-18644-2

1. Alix, de France, 1160-ca. 1220-Fiction. 2. Eleanor, of Aquitaine, Queen, consort of Henxy II,
King of England, 11227-1204-Fiction. 3. Great Britain-History-Henry II, 1154-1189-Fiction.
4. France-History-Philip II Augustus, 1180-1223-Fiction. I. Title.
PS3605.N49Q84 2010
813’.54-dc22 2009040457

 

 

 

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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My thanks to all who read and critiqued my work in various drafts from the eighth grade onward: LaDonna Lindgren, Laura Creasy, Tammy Monfette, Ellyn Bache, Hope Johnson, Audrey Forrester, Amy Pierce, Philip Drew, Kat Vernon, Alice Osborn, Alisa Roost, S. J. Stratford, and Beth Seltzer. Special thanks must be given to my fabulous agent, Margaret O‘Connor, who believed in this book from the first time she laid eyes on it. I thank my brilliant editor, Claire Zion, who took an early draft into her experienced hands and, with the clarity of her vision, helped me to discover the novel as it was meant to be written. I would like to thank all the wonderful people at New American Library, especially Jhanteigh Kupihea for her insight during the revision process, Michele Alpern for the excellent copyediting, the publicist Kaitlyn Kennedy for spreading the word, and Maureen O’Boyle and her team for the amazing cover art. I thank all who believed in me from the day I first picked up my pen: Karen English, Carl English, Barry English, Vena Miller, Susan Randall, Marianne Nubel, Chris Nubel, Ellen Seltz, Susan Hurst Alford, Jenny Morris, Nicole Garrett, Janie Lam, and my Internet consultant, Andrew Seltz. And I thank Eleanor of Aquitaine and Alais of France. Though it has been my honor to convey one possibility of who these women were, I have no doubt fallen short. Alais and Eleanor live on when we remember them, no matter how imperfectly.

 

 

My mother died the day I was born. I now know that this was in no way unusual, but for the first years of my life, I felt quite singled out by the hand of God. She was a great loss to me, my first loss, though I never knew her. My nurse often told me that I have her bright eyes.

On the day I was born, the King of France gained only me, another daughter who was useless except for the alliance my marriage might bring. The day that brought me also brought the death of his queen, so that after a decent period of mourning, my father had to go about the tedious business of finding a new one, and starting all over again.

My mother was Spanish, and a great lady, or so everyone said. Of course, they would have told me no different, even if she had been a shrew. My father, King Louis, the seventh of that name, never spoke of her.

So my nurse, Katherine, brought me up on stories of my mother’s beauty, of her graciousness, of her unyielding courtesy. According to my nurse, my mother was a sort of saint on earth, a woman who never got angry, who never spoke a harsh word, neither to man nor woman nor servant. A woman who bred quickly and died quietly, her only fault delivering my father two girls, who could inherit nothing but pain.

This paragon was held up before me always, so that I, too, learned silence and stillness. I learned that quiet in a woman is prized above gold, and that obedience was not only my duty but my honor. For in obedience, I best served my father and my king.