The Secret Diary of Eleanor Cobham

August 1450 ~ Fratre regis

The summer has fortunately been dry and hot in Beaumaris. The sun has warmed the stones of this old castle so I can keep the shutters open, even at night. It is good to feel the salty air fresh from the sea and remember to be grateful I still have my health. Lady Ellen has not been to see me for some weeks but sent a servant with one of her gowns for me. The plain style and dull material is far from the beautiful dresses I once wore, yet it was a simple matter to alter so it fitted my more slender form. I doubt Ellen realises the worn blue dress it replaces was all I had to wear or that my cotton shifts are threadbare from washing as often as I am able. 

At least I look like a lady of some value again, although the poor food in this place has made me thin. When first imprisoned I ate so well and exercised so little I put on weight. Now I can feel my ribs and have little appetite for the rough bread and salty stew the Welsh cook brings me almost every day. I have learned they call it ‘cawl’ and I suspect it is made from kitchen scraps. I use my little Book of Hours to note the saints days in advance and ask for special meals to be prepared, or a jug of wine instead of milk. One day Lady Ellen sent me a bowl of delicious strawberries, which I hadn’t tasted since I was at Greenwich. 

When her husband, my jailer William Bulkeley, visited me and enquired in his usual way if I was well, I asked if he could kindly tell the cook to make me something else to eat. Bulkeley seemed dismissive but sent a servant carrying half a fine cured ham and a dozen sweet green apples, so he may have some pity for me after all. I must keep on the right side of him, as it is within his power to make my life more bearable or most miserable. I shall wait until I know him better but my dearest wish is for a visit from my precious daughter Antigone.

# # #

Now I must explain how I became a lady-in-waiting to Jacqueline, Countess of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland, Dauphine of Viennois, Duchess of Touraine, Duchess of Brabant and then Duchess of Gloucester, wife of one of the most powerful men in England. The countess had sought sanctuary and arrived in England at the personal invitation of the king, as an honoured guest of his court. Jacqueline was glad to escape the threat to her life from civil wars in her home countries of Holland and France. She also needed to prove her marriage to her dislikeable husband John, the Duke of Brabant, illegal on the grounds he was also her first cousin. 

In the year 1423, following the death of my mother, my father decided it was time I joined London society. He was concerned to find some way to improve my prospects of marriage and see me become a respectable lady. The fortunes of my family were to be inherited by my brother, so my father thought it unlikely I would find a wealthy suitor. Instead he sought a place for me as a lady-in-waiting. Fortunately, he was at court and heard talk of the imminent arrival of the Countess of Hainault from France. Her husband had replaced her ladies-in-waiting with those of his own choosing and Jacqueline arrived with only a few servants and the most essential items, such was her haste. It was not a simple matter to arrange an introduction, as there were many others wishing to join such a powerful woman who enjoyed the protection of the king.

Before I was invited to meet the countess, I spent long hours preparing with a tutor paid for by my father, to learn as much as I could of her family. I found out she had not had an easy life, as her father died horribly before she was sixteen, making her the sovereign of Holland and Hainaut before she was prepared for the responsibility. Her father’s death, quite likely from poisoning, was soon followed by that of her husband, whom she had been engaged to since she was four years old. My tutor explained that they had been betrothed as children and her husband was the son of the French King Charles, so the boy had the title ‘dauphin’ as the heir apparent to the crown. The marriage had been arranged by the Duke of Burgundy, at the suggestion of his sister Margaret, Countess of Holland, who was of course Jacqueline’s mother.