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displaying open insolence to the king and went on in August by refusing to leave London or to allow John and his men to enter the city. Geoffrey made no comment on the news. He gave his time to drilling his men-at-arms in the techniques of battle and to refining and completing his mastery over the three gray war stallions that Alinor had given him to replace his own lost destriers. |
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He did this with a bleak, grim intensity that wrung Joanna's heart. Geoffrey had always enjoyed every aspect of the art of war and, in particular, he loved training horses. Now, nothing seemed to give him pleasure. Certainly the news that he had even been right about John's intention of overturning Magna Carta drew no spark from him. They learned of that in September, although the first hint of it came at the end of August with a letter from the pope that strictly enjoined the barons to obey the king and give him his due in whatever he demanded. |
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Appalled by this intrusion into what he believed could still be worked into a basis for a permanent peace between the king and his vassals, Langton set off for Rome to explain the situation to Innocent in person. On the way he found he was too late. Even before Magna Carta had been signed, John had written to appeal to his overlord, the Holy Father, to annul the agreement forced upon him by his disloyal subjects. The letter that fulfilled John's wish met Langton before he crossed the Alps. |
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That was all that was necessary. When this information burst upon them, the rebels cried aloud of betrayal and flew to arms. They took Rochester, a key point. The same letter that Salisbury wrote to give this news also requested that Geoffrey come with about one hundred men, but no vassals. The king would not call levies, Salisbury wrote, being too much in doubt as to the loyalty of his subjects. He would use mercenaries. With a face of stone and dead eyes, Geoffrey went to make ready. |
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If Joanna had felt fear for her husband before, it was nothing to what she felt now. It was useless to beg Geoffrey to refuse. From his looks and his manner, Joanna could only |
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