Financially tried as he was in holding onto
his lands in northern France, Richard the
Lionheart undertook the additional great expense
of a crusade to the Holy Land.
Richard was inaugurated as duke of Normandy
at Rouen on 22 May 1189.
In England, Queen Eleanor carried out her
son Richard's wishes conveyed from Normandy,
by proclaiming an amnesty for all criminals
held in jails, and forgave infractions of
the forest laws. Richard was welcomed in London
soon after, particularly for the release of
those folk who had broken the vicious forestry
laws. We shall encounter these laws as we
get nearer to Magna Carta.
The new king also took the popular step among
the baronage of restoring men like Robert
de Montfort as earl of Leicester, whose lands
and titles Henry II had seized. Roger of Howden
tells us that everyone - by which he probably
meant the higher caste - got all their property
back.
Those lords and officials who had stayed loyal
to his father were rewarded. The only ones
who were excluded were those who had been
in rebellion at Henry II's death. The new
king shunned them, no matter that Richard
had led the rebellion against his father in
the first place.When Richard came to England,
his brother John was by far the greatest recipient
of the new king's favour: from the Annals
of Roger of Howden:
'He gave to his brother John the county of
Mortain, and the earldoms of Cornwall, Dorset,
Somerset, Nottingham, Derby, Lancaster, and
the castle of Marlborough and of Luggershall,
with the forests and all the appurtenances;
the honor also of Wallingford, Rickhill, and
Eye; he also gave him the earldom of Gloucester,
together with the daughter (and heiress) of
the late earl, and caused her to be immediately
married to him; Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury,
forbidding it, because they were related by
blood in the fourth degree.'
The new king gave the archbishopric of York
to his illegitimate brother Geoffrey, a focus
of trouble for many years to come. He gave
William Marshal the daughter of Richard de
Clare, known as Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke,
who had led the English invasion of Ireland
in 1169-70. William had recently returned
from pilgrimage to the Holy Land where the
city of Jerusalem had fallen to the Muslims,
led by Sultan Saladin, in 1187.
Instead of staying behind the walls of Jerusalem
and weakening Saladin with a long and costly
siege, the Christians came out, led by Guy
of Lusignan, and were defeated at the unnecessary
Battle of Hattin.
No doubt Earl William Marshal would be useful
to King Richard in advising him of conditions
in the Near East, the best means of getting
there, paying for it all, and much else. Earl
William stood by King John - not uncritically
- at Magna Carta and after.
He saw to it that John's son Henry, aged nine,
would succeed his father in 1216 as Henry
III and served as regent. He pacified the
baronage, who had gone to war with John after
Magna Carta and drove out the French, who
had been called in by the barons in autumn
1215.
On John death in October 1216, the French
were occupying about half of England, including
London. Much was written about him in his
lifetime and later in England and in Europe.
He was an all round 'good egg'.
As king, Richard had all of his father's treasuries
opened and the bullion contents weighed, which
were said to total 100,000 marks, at least
£30,000, a vast sum.
He was preparing for a crusade to the Holy
Land, known as the Third Crusade, and ordered
his servants in England, Normandy, and Poitou
to visit all the seaports to select the best
ships moored in them, together with large
freighters. He then crossed over to England,
landing at Shoreham, Sussex, and made his
way to London where he was crowned king by
Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury.
London Jews appeared at the coronation banquet
bearing gifts, but for reasons not explained
by Roger of Howden, this turned into a form
of pogrom that was emulated at York where
Benedict, a Jew, was so badly beaten that
he converted to Christianity, presumably in
hopes of saving his own life. The next day,
King Richard ordered the arrest of the perpetrators
- not for having attacked the Jews, but for
destroying Christian homes in their rioting.
They were hanged.
Benedict reverted to Judaism and was remitted
to Northampton castle where he died.
Next Richard put up for sale much Crown property,
including castles, vills, and estates. The
bishop of Durham paid 600 marks of pure silver
for the manor of Sedbergh. The money would
be used to finance the crusade.
Even Richard's half-brother, Geoffrey, archbishop
of York, was prevailed upon to part with £3,000
to be 'taken back into favour', as the phrase
was at the time for a bribe. I am minded to
recall the line from John Milton's Sonnet,
which I vary by one word: 'they also serve
who only stand and pay.'
The king left from Dover for the continent
in December 1189.
In France, Richard and Philip II met at V
Saint Remy to make an everlasting peace, as
they were both about to go on crusade, and
went through the usual Plantagenet and Capetian
mummery of respecting each other's dominions.
These were treaties, sworn on holy relics,
which neither was expected to keep and everyone
knew it.
Richard's campaign in the Holy Land has resonance
for England. In Henry II's time, Richard had
proved himself a good military commander,
and his enemies were frightened of him. This
reputation gained much lustre in the Holy
Land, and must have kept in check any resentment
felt by his English and French barons for
his financial exactions.
No baron, especially those in England, wanted
Richard turning up outside his castle with
an army. It would have been almost certain
death to take on the Lionheart.
Philip II of France arrived outside Acre (now
in modern Israel) in April 1191. Richard did
not arrive until 8 June, being delayed in
Cyprus where he deposed the king and sold
the kingdom to the Templars. Cyprus would
remain a useful Christian outpost until 1699.
Philip was brought on ships belonging to the
Genoese, under Admiral Simone Doria, one of
the ruling family in the oligarchy that was
Genoa. Richard brought a hundred of his own
ships and eight thousand men. Saladin, the
Kurdish Muslim leader, had forged an alliance
of the willing or the conquered which created
an arc to the south (Egypt), east, and north
of Jerusalem.
The Christians were confined to ports along
the Mediterranean littoral, so the kingdom
of Jerusalem, established in 1099, was considerably
attenuated. Duke Leopold V of Austria, with
a small force, had taken command of the Christians
besieging Acre, and was displaced by the arrival
of the two kings from England and France.
When Richard's ships hove into view at Acre,
a large Muslim galley arrived bringing reinforcements
to the city.
Promising his soldiers all the booty if they
disabled this boat, they sank it, though probably
in shallow water as loot was had by the men
and Saladin's relief force was slaughtered,
causing panic among the defenders of Acre.
On 12 July 1191, the Muslims at Acre surrendered
to Richard, and the king's name resounded
around Europe as the great conqueror, as indeed
he was. Royal banners, including those of
Philip of France, fluttered from the walls,
except for the Duke of Austria's.
Richard had had that torn down over some unknown
quarrel. Richard would regret this.
Misunderstandings and mistrust on Muslim and
Christian sides broke a plan to exchange prisoners,
and Richard had the entire Muslim garrison
of the city - upto three thousand - beheaded.
They were also disembowelled for the gold
and silver coins they had swallowed. The English
also cut out their gall bladders for medical
purposes, Roger of Howden tells us. He was
there with Richard. Saladin responded by executing
his Christian prisoners. Both sides spared
their valuable prisoners for ransom.
Using the lame excuse of having to determine
the succession to the County of Champagne,
Philip II returned to France 31 1191 July
and immediately started to plot with Prince
John against Richard. The Lionheart put affairs
in order in the Levant, defeating Saladin
near Joppa, causing the sultan to abandon
that port city and Ascalon.
He captured Haifa and reinforced Tyre, the
pricipal port on the Levant coast after Antioch.
He never re-conquered Jerusalem, which would
remain in Muslim hands until 1918, when Field
Marshal Lord Allenby and T E Lawrence (Lawrence
of Arabia) took it for the British.
To make life more difficult for his adversary,
King Philip had all French ports on the French
Mediterranean, closed to Richard.
Foolishly, Richard took ship up the Adriatic,
disembarking somewhere near modern Rijeka
(formerly Fiume, Croatia), and hoped to cross
through Austria, then through southern Germany,
probably to Flanders, north-east of Normandy.
He was captured near Vienna by Duke Leopold's
soldiers and taken prisoner.
How Richard must have wished he had not publicly
humiliated this 'little pip-squeak' before
thousands of crusaders outside Acre. Leopold
was not strong enough to manage such a king
alone and, in return for a share of the ransom,
conveyed the Richard to the Holy Roman Emperor
Otto.
Richard had arranged for ships to be waiting
for him in Marseille, not then part of France,
together with siege engines and mercenaries,
and then set sail down the leg of Italy, calling
in at various ports, before arriving in Sicily
where his sister was married to King Tancred.
He also married Princess Berengaria, daughter
of the king of Navarre, picking her up at
Brindisi.
