the king of France. From all these charges Richard defended himself with spirit and dignity; his eloquence drew tears from some of those who were present, and the emperor embracing him promised him his friendship. He was assigned an abode at Mentz befitting his rank, and on the 29th of June his ransom was agreed on. He was to pay down one hundred thousand marks of silver, and give sixty hostages to the emperor and seven to the duke for the payment of a further sum of fifty thousand, of which twenty thousand were to go to the duke, to whose son he was to give his niece Eleanor of Brittany in marriage. To raise the money a scutage of twenty shillings was imposed on every knight's fee in England, a tallage was laid on the towns, and the clergy gave their plate and otherwise contributed largely. Before Christmas, queen Eleanor and the bishop of Rouen set out with the money for Germany; but new difficulties were raised by the emperor, to whom the king of France and prince John had made the most lavish promises to induce him to detain his captive for another year. But Eleanor appealed to the princes of the empire, and on the 4th of February 1194, after more than a year's captivity, king Richard was set at liberty, and on the 13th of March he landed at Sandwich in his own dominions. When the king of France heard of his liberation he wrote to prince John in these words, "Take care of yourself; the devil is unchained."

On king Richard's entrance into London, the citizens, we are told, made such a display of their wealth to testify their joy, that one of the Germans who were with him could not help saying, "If our emperor had known the riches of England, thy ransom, O king, would have been far greater." After passing but three days in London, Richard went to lay siege to prince John's castle of Nottingham; and on its surrender he held there a great council, in which all that prince's possessions were declared to be forfeited if he did not appear within forty days to justify himself. It was

further resolved, that to wipe off as it were the stain of captivity the king should be crowned anew. The ceremony was performed at Winchester (Apr. 17.) Richard then embarked his troops on board one hundred ships for the war against the king of France, and landed at Barfleur.

The war, like most of those of the time, consisted merely of skirmishes and taking of castles on both sides. Prince John, who was at Evreux, resolved to throw himself on his brother's mercy. Ever base and treacherous, he invited the officers of the French garrison to dinner, and massacred them while at the entertainment, then with the aid of the townsmen he fell on and slaughtered the garrison. He threw himself at his brother's feet imploring forgiveness; queen Eleanor interceded, and Richard pardoned him, saying, "I forgive him, and hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as he will my pardon." He did not however as yet restore him his possessions.

The war was terminated by a truce (July 23, 1195), on the expiration of which it was again resumed, and during the short remnant of king Richard's reign it was only occasionally intermitted. That monarch's death occurred in the following manner (1199): Vidomar viscount of Limoges, who was his vassal, having found a treasure of ancient coins, sent the king a part as a present; but Richard as superior lord claimed the whole, and on the viscount's refusal to surrender it he placed himself at the head of a body of Brabançons and laid siege to his castle of Chaluz. As he and Marcadee, the leader of his mercenaries, were one day (Mar. 26) taking a view of the castle, one of the garrison, named Bertram de Gourdon, discharged a bolt from his crossbow which hit the king in the left shoulder. Richard returned to his tent and gave orders for the assault; the castle was taken, and, as the king had menaced, all its defenders were hanged except Gourdon, who was probably reserved for a more cruel fate. But the want of skill of his surgeon had rendered the king's wound mortal, and feeling the approach

of death he summoned Gourdon to his presence. "Wretch!" said he, "what have I ever done to thee that thou shouldst seek my life?" "You have killed," replied he, "with your own hands my father and two brothers, and you intended to hang me; I am now in your power, and you may torment me as you will; but I shall endure with joy, happy in having rid the world of such a pest." The king, struck with his reply, ordered him a sum of money and his liberty; but Marcadee unknown to him seized the unhappy man, flayed him alive, and then hanged him. Richard died on the tenth day, in the forty-second year of his age, expressing great penitence for his vices, and having undergone a severe flagellation at his own desire from the clergy who attended him.

The epithet of Lion-heart (Cœur de Lion) which his courage procured for him, has apparently been the cause of investing this prince with qualities to which he had little claim; as we (erroneously we believe) couple magnanimity and generosity with an idea of the courage of the monarch of the woods. But Richard was in reality selfish, passionate, cruel, revengeful, and capricious; he had all his father's bad and few of his good qualities. Like him, however, he had a fondness for the Gay Science, or lyric poetry of the South of France, and he even practised that art himself; and like him too he had a ready wit* and could express himself with eloquence. No monarch drew larger sums from his subjects' purses, and for this purpose he scrupled at neither violence nor meanness.

In the latter part of this king's reign (1196) a riot took place in London excited by one William Fitz-Osbert, surnamed Longbeard, "the patriarch," as Hallam says, "of a

* In his war with the king of France, the bishop of Beauvais, who fought against him, was made a prisoner. The pope wrote requiring him to pity his dear son. Richard sent him the prelate's coat of mail with these words, "This have we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat or not." "No, not my son's," said the pontiff, "but of some son of Mars, who may deliver him if he can."

long line of city demagogues," styling himself the "advocate of the People." The cause was the heavy taxes imposed by the king for his war in France, which Longbeard asserted to be necessary, but maintained that they were eluded by the rich and great and thrown entirely on the poor. He went over to France to the king: on his return he resumed his agitation, and so inflamed the people by his speeches from St. Paul's Cross, that no less than fifty-two thousand persons bound themselves to obey his orders. Archbishop Hubert however assembled the citizens and prevailed upon them to give him hostages. Fitz-Osbert clove with an axe the head of the officer sent to arrest him, and then took refuge in the tower of the church of St. Mary le Bow; but the church was set on fire, and as he attempted to escape he was stabbed by the son of the man whom he had slain, and was then dragged to Tyburn, and there hung from the Elms. Miracles were, as usual, said by his partisans to have been wrought at his grave.

183

CHAPTER III.

JOHN (LACKLAND.)*
1199-1216.

Accession of John ;-his marriage.-Capture and murder of Prince Arthur.Loss of Normandy.-Contest with the pope.-John becomes a vassal of the Holy See.-Magna Charta.-War between John and his barons ;-his death. KING RICHARD, it is said, left his dominions to his brother John, though Arthur duke of Brittany, as representative of his father Geoffrey, was, by the feudal law the next heir, and had already been regarded as such by the king his uncle. But, as we have seen, the principles of primogeniture and representation had been hitherto little attended to in the Anglo-Norman line, and Richard may have thought his nephew (who was but twelve years of age) too young, or, as is more probable, he may have been influenced by queen Eleanor, who hated Constance the mother of Arthur, and feared the power she might acquire during the minority.

To secure England John sent thither his fast friends, Hubert archbishop of Canterbury, and the earl-marshal William earl of Strigul, and he induced Robert de Turnham, who held the castle of Chinon, where the late king's treasure was deposited, to yield it up to him. Normandy, Poitou, and Guienne submitted, but Anjou, Maine, and Touraine declared for Arthur, whose side the king of France also took, with the design of embarrassing John, and he sent the young duke to Paris to be brought up with his own son Louis. Meantime the primate and the earl-marshal had held a conference with the English nobility and clergy,

* Authorities: same as before, excepting Bromton, Hoveden, Newbury, Gervasius, and Diceto.