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Page 191
Unaware of the cross-currents swirling around him, Richard considered the conflict between his need to be crowned on schedule and his need to enforce the King's influence in Wales. He knew the response to the rebellionhe still thought of it as rebellionmust be made at once. He knew too that a coronation was not a one-day affair. After the crowning came the feasting, and then the barons and prelates must be summoned to do public homage in a grand concourse where all would be witness to the oath of fealty of each.
The solution was for a representative of the King rather than a Marcher lord to lead the force sent to chastise the Welsh. Naturally enough Richard thought first of William the Marshal. No, that would not do. William was still not well, and, worse, Isobel of Clare was Countess of Pembroke, a considerable shire in Wales. Before the male line of her family had died out, the Clares were a great power in Wales. Richard did not for a moment think that William would take advantage of his assignment to set himself up as a rival to his King. Unfortunately the people would see William as the heir to the Clare influence regardless of what William himself wanted. They would look upon William as Lord Pembroke, even though he did not yet have the title, rather than as an embodiment of the King.
Richard's eyes flicked over the group of noblemen. Of those with no Welsh connections, a few were too old, a few too dangerous, a few simply incompetent. Then his eyes fixed. "Simon," he said, "since all seem to agree that I must not go myself, do you go and wipe out the affront to my honor."
Not a muscle of Simon's face moved, but there could be no doubt of his pleasure and satisfaction. "Yes, my lord."
Alinor saw the Queen's body relax and thought resentfully, "her son is safe and my love goes to war." She had no romantic notions about war or its results, having been too close to it for a whole year. Still the

 
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