The feast and Stinging Humiliation.
The Royal feast celebrating of Epiphany in the early 1325 was a blinding spectacle of waste. The tables laden with a number of meals under the weight of gilded peacock pies, the delicious boar brawn which is glazed with honey.
The presence of silver ewers dispensing wine from Gascony. Yet, amidst the opulence of Westminster Hall, the Queen Isabella of England felt the coldness of abandonment and real poverty.
Under the gathering her spot was seen in many matters, despite her weird feelings of abandonment and poverty she has to sit beside her husband the king Edward II. Although the closer they look in the eyes of the public but they have been separated by a continent.
The king Edward II, a handsome man still cought in a clinging youthful and wilful petulance wouldn't give a look at his wife Isabella but rather spent his entire evening whispering to his most favorite among them all, Hugh Despenser the younger. Despenser slick and radiating with a possessive confidence, wore a doublet embroidered with pearls that easily crush with that of Queen Isabella own.
The Queen Isabella traced the edge of her gold goblet which is made of cold metal which shows as a sing of her rising fury. Every connection shared between the king Edward and Despenser was a poison directed straight to her heart, which servers as a reminder to her been irrelevant. She was the Queen consort a daughter of the king of France despite that she held less power in that room than a stable boy Despenser had briefly favored.
She has spent her last ninety years as a wife but her dower lands income which she intended to use to support her court and children has been systematically taken by the Despensers leaving her financially aggressive. As the event was carried on with much joy expect for the Queen Isabella which found no joy after her ninety years of marriage. Her loyalty was misunderstood and the king was blind by the Despensers.
Not so long a courtier approached with a request of seeking a minor land grant for his son. Queen Isabella began to split out her gracious reply but Despenser interfer with his honeyed voice that ecos enough to be heard by the surrounding nobles.
He said "The Queen Isabella is mistaken my king Edward II". Despenser interjected without a second thought or a look in the eyes of the Queen. He continued "That parcel of land by the King's favor is now part of the March family holdings and due to that it's profits are directed to the King's own comfort"
In his speech there was a pause which felt as a laced with implication. Hearing the land has been honoured to the courtier as he wished for, he bowed hastily to Despenser and retreated without daring to make a contact with Queen Isabella's eyes. Her inner felt a heavy amount of sadness. Her body feeling hot and the mood of shame around her neck.
She could feel the nobles staring her with their expressions of mix pity and veiled amusement.
They witness the harsh humiliation of the Queen, spectacle orchestrated by the man who was truly ruling them all.
The gilded cage is what this chapter is particularly based on.
Beautiful, secure and utterly irresistible. Queen Isabella saw her self a little more than a necessary breeding mare. Having been able to fulfil her duty by baring the heir to the throne Prince Edward III. Now she has become an obstacle in the eyes of Despenser because that was the drain of treasury he wanted for himself.
The kings delight and obsession in his favorite made him too blind to see his throne dismantled piece by piece.
As the laughter from Despenser's talk grew louder and brittle, Queen Isabella made a breath catching vow to her self saying " I will not die in this cage. I will not be broken"