Paris: The Novel

would discuss his business with her, or the events of the day. It was especially enjoyable for him because she not only grasped matters quickly, but her questions were probing. She asked not what had occurred, but why. He remembered one conversation in particular. It had been a little before her thirteenth birthday.
    “Why is it,” she’d asked him, “when the land of France is so rich, that the king is always short of money?”
    “For two reasons,” he told her. “First, because he likes to go to war. Second, because he likes to build. When he’s finished enlarging the royal palace on the Île de la Cité, it will be the envy of all Christendom. And nothing in the world costs more than war, and building.”
    “But why does he do this? Is this for the good of his country?”
    “Not at all.” Jacob had smiled. “You must understand, Naomi, thatwhen a simple man, a merchant let us say, inherits from his father, that inheritance is his personal property. He seeks to enlarge his fortune and to become more powerful. Often, he also wants to impress his neighbors.”
    “This may be foolish.”
    “Undoubtedly, but it is human nature. And kings are the same, but with this one difference. Their inheritance is an entire country. But they still view it as their property, to do with as they please. So, King Philip desires to enlarge his kingdom, especially at the expense of his family’s rivals, the Plantagenets of England. Down the generations, his family have pushed the Plantagenets out of Normandy, in the north, and both Anjou and Poitou, in the west. Now he hopes to press farther down the Atlantic coast of Aquitaine, and push them out of the great wine-growing lands around Bordeaux in Gascony. The king has also done very well in his marriage. His wife has brought him control of the rich plains of Champagne. This is a wonderful addition to his realm. But beyond Champagne he sees the lands of Flanders, with their rich towns, and he hopes to get some of Flanders as well.”
    “This is all for his personal glory, then?”
    “Certainly. He is just a man. In fact, rich kings often behave no better than spoiled children.”
    “You think that wealth and power make men childish?”
    Jacob laughed.
    “I had never formulated the thought in quite that way, but you may be right.”
    “So these things are not done for the good of his people?”
    “Kings always say they are. But it’s not true. Or if it is, then it’s purely by chance.”
    “But what of God?” she demanded. “Shouldn’t kings serve God? Aren’t they afraid for their immortal souls?”
    “Intermittently.”
    “I think that rulers should be good men.”
    “And it does you credit,” her father replied. “But I will tell you something. A good man may not be a good king, Naomi. It all depends on the circumstances. There is something better than being good, in a ruler, and you will find it in the Bible.”
    Naomi frowned, and thought for a moment.
    “You mean King Solomon?”
    “Exactly so. When Solomon became king, the Lord asked him whatgift he would like to have. And Solomon asked for wisdom. I am happy if a ruler is a good man, but I would rather he were wise.”
    “You do not think many kings are wise?”
    “Not that I have observed.”
    Jacob could see that the conversation had saddened his daughter, and he was sorry for it. But he wasn’t going to lie to her.

    Looking back, however, he sometimes wondered whether he’d been wrong to speak to her so frankly on that day. Had this been the start of that disillusion that was to lead to tragedy?
    It might be so. But there had been no sign of it for more than a year after that.
    During that time King Philip of France, as usual, had been trying to raise money. He’d tried all the usual expedients. He’d taxed the Jews. He’d even debased his own coinage. But nothing had been enough. So he’d tried another ruse, sudden and unexpected.
    “We’ll tax the clergy,” he declared.
    There had been an uproar. The bishops had protested. The pope himself had told King Philip to remove the tax at once.
    “Why did he do it?” Naomi had asked.
    “The simple answer is because the Church has so much money,” her father replied. “Perhaps a third of the entire wealth of France is owned by the Church.”
    “But the Church doesn’t pay taxes?”
    “The Church may make a voluntary contribution to the king. But it is exempt from the usual taxes.”
    “Because the Church serves God.”
    “This is