‘I believe it was his father’s greatest wish, if he had a son, to name him after his brother, Madame. Perhaps he thought it a small but enduring way of expressing his gratitude to the king.’

‘A small way as yet,’ Marguerite observed dryly, ‘but the boy will grow, if he is healthy. Is he?’

‘Yes, so I am told, but Lady Margaret and her son have yet to emerge from her confinement. It was a lengthy birth and fraught with danger for them both. I thank Almighty God daily for their deliverance.’

‘Lady Margaret is so very young,’ King Henry broke in, frowning. ‘We must find her someone wiser and less headstrong than Edmund for her next husband.’

I could not argue with that. Nevertheless the thought of Margaret re-marrying caused me pain I found hard to conceal.

‘What do you think of Buckingham’s younger son, Sir Henry Stafford?’ This bolt from the blue came from the queen. ‘His elder brother still suffers grievously from wounds he received defending the king at St Albans but at least he has a young son to inherit the dukedom. The Staffords are a powerful family and staunch Lancastrians and the king and I think Sir Henry would make a good husband for Lady Margaret. He is a kind and considerate man, still young enough to father a family and he would be a worthy lord of the Somerset estates. Do you know him?’

I had to clear my throat to release my strangled voice. ‘Yes, Madame, I too fought at St Albans, if you remember.’ Sir Henry was not a regular at court but I recalled him as a good reliable knight and a gentle, unassuming man who was unlikely to use marriage with the Somerset heiress to elbow him to the forefront of power, a situation that would clearly suit Queen Marguerite in her assumed role as the king’s mouthpiece.

‘I think you should consult with Buckingham before you return to Pembroke, Jasper.’ Queen Marguerite voiced this as an order rather than a suggestion. ‘Sir Henry and Lady Margaret are second cousins so a papal dispensation will be needed.’

‘I could not commit Lady Margaret without a meeting between them,’ I responded, bristling under her brusque tone. These days I found it hard to detect in Marguerite the alluring teenager who had married the king.

Henry roused himself to exert his authority. ‘Let them meet,’ he urged, ‘as soon as she is strong enough. I will have the Chancellor apply to the Holy Father for a dispensation. Nothing will be lost if it is not used.’