pipa de roet story

Pipa’s full name is Phillipa de Roet. she is named after her aunt Phillipa d’Asvesnes, Queen of England.  Her father Payne de Roet  works for the English crown as the Guienne master of arms and Constable of Beaufort castle near Muret.

Only the Black Prince, Joan of Kent and the Earl of Salisbury are aware of her connection to the royal family. (her mother is Catherine d’Asvesnes Queen Phillipa’s sister and daughter of Jeanne de Valois a Frankish Princess.)  

Pipa attends the Cathar ‘school run by Lady Eleanor and forms a strong relationship with Ximene.

Pipa becomes involved in the machinations of Joan of Kent whose major preoccupation is to marry the Black Prince and therefore prevent Ximene from marrying him.

Joan is also concerned to provide a love interest for the Earl of Salisbury who had been previously her husband and until recently had been a member of a menage a trois with the Prince and herself. Joan chooses Pipa as a potential partner.

This does not work out as Pipa believes that the Earl is still in love with Joan of Kent and that any relationship with him would be doomed to failure.

Joan only learns of this when The Earl tells her that instead of taking her as a lover he has recruited Pipa as a female Prince’s guard, with her first task to locate Ximene’s whereabouts. She learns that Pipa has left Bordeaux with Don Fernandino to rejoin Ximene in her secret hiding place.

One of the major factors Joan hopes to use to persuade Ximene against a marriage to the Prince is to encourage the relationship between Ximene and John Stanley. However, John’s relationship with Ximene founders. The discovery of treasure leads Ximene to think she must marry the prince to get his help in the recovery of the treasure.  Also, Pipa’s reunion with Ximene creates difficulty.  John’s discovers their relationship and is horrified.

Much later after discussions with both John and Ximene and Pipa, Joan comes to believe she must remove barriers by arranging for and encouraging a menage a trois. She hopes that a mixture of her counselling and acceptance of the relationship by the court of Aquitaine will mean that Ximene again becomes committed to the relationship and diverted from any chance she might marry the prince.

 This also means that Joan has to devise a formula acceptable to the Prince, King Edward and Ximene for recovering the treasure and giving Ximene appropriate compensation.

Joan, therefore,  finally abandons her plans for encouraging a relationship between  Pipa and the Earl of Salisbury. 

Instead she builds on their new relationship by arranging for Pipa to gain a place at the Frankish court, putting her in a position to gain information useful to the Earl and therefore to the Prince.

Ximene centres herself in England but after the capture of the Frankish king at the battle of Poitiers John also acquires a position in Paris and is frequently to be found in Pipa’s bed.

John helps Pipa to escape from Paris at the time of the Jacquerie riots and there is a brief reunion with Ximene in England. Pipa is then asked to join the court of Prince Lionel in Ireland and after the death of Lionel’s wife, bring’s Lionel’s daughter ( also Phillipa) back to the King’s court at Gillingham. King’s court is just at the bottom of the hill from Ximene’s base and home Lavison house in Shaftsbury.

There Pipa meets the Earl of Richmond, Prince John of Gaunt, who makes a suit for her hand which she accepts. Pipa marries Geoffry Chaucer, whom she has met in Ireland to cover her relation with Gaunt.

Gaunt then asks her to coach his wife, Blanche of Lancaster in lovemaking skills. He is, however, less than pleased when mentored by Joan of Kent, a transition is organised in Bordeaux. John Stanly is involved but Gaunt himself is not. Herein lies the base of the enmity between Guant and Stanley which will last for the rest of their lives.

John Stanley has had a previous relationship with both Gaunt’s wife and his mistress, Pipa. In the case of Pipa the relationship has been an open secret.