he died. He was about the middle height, had a pleasant face, and talked well. He was very fond of exercise of all sorts, particularly hunting, and was a most active man. We have seen what his plan was in ruling England. He wanted to increase the royal power, and to rule over a happy and contented people. He did all he could to bring down the power of the great barons, and to protect the people from them. The people could not see at first how much he had done for them, but they found it out in after years. As Henry was son of the Count of Anjou, he is often called the first of the Angevin Kings. During his reign the distinction between the Norman and the Englishman died out, and the whole people became united. 6.-RICHARD I. 1189-1199. 1. Although Henry had never proclaimed Richard as his heir, Richard was received as Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, and King of the English, as soon as his father died. Before the death of his elder brother, Richard had been educated as Duke of Aquitaine. Born in England, he had left it when quite a child. He had been brought up in France; and it is doubtful whether he could speak a word of English at the time he became King. When Henry was dead, Richard was very sorry for his bad conduct towards his father. After he became King of England, it was some time before he came over from France; but one of the first things he did was to release1 his mother, Eleanor, from prison. She had been imprisoned by her husband, Henry II., who was very angry with her for the assistance she had given her sons in their rebellion against their father. Eleanor ruled England for some time, while Richard was in France making peace with Philip, King of France; for though Philip was Richard's friend as long as Henry II. lived, he became Richard's enemy as soon as Richard became King of England. 2. Richard was thirty-two years old when he became King of England. He was a tall and very strong man, with a florid2 face, and brown hair. Like, his father, he was very fond of exercise, and was a great soldier. He liked fine dress, and was very prodigal3 of money. In these things he was different from his father, for Henry II. used to dress very quietly, and was sparing with his money. 3. Richard came to England with his brother John in the month of August, and he was crowned at Winchester with very great pomp. On the day he was crowned, a very disgraceful riot took place against the Jews. The people everywhere hated the Jews, and they killed them in many parts of the country. One of the first acts of Richard, when he became King, was to take away from Ranulf Glanvill the office of Justiciar.4 Glanvill had been one of the best friends of Henry II., and perhaps Richard suspected that he wanted to put John on the throne. Richard was a very impulsive man, and 7.-THE THIRD CRUSADE. 1. At that time a great war was going on in the Holy Land between the Christians and the infidels.1 These wars between the Christians and the infidels were called Crusades, and this was the third which had been fought. Two years before, a great Saracen3 chief of the East, called Saladin, had driven the Christians out of Jerusalem, and a number of Christian princes were going to the East to try and expel Saladin from the Holy Land. Richard was very zealous for religion, and his chief desire was to join the Crusade as soon as possible. 2. But before he left, the King wished to raise money, and to leave the country properly settled. So he held a council, and began to sell everything he could. He sold the offices of sheriffs and justices, and he sold lands, and all sorts of offices in the Church. Many of the clergy paid the King large money for lands which were already theirs. Richard even sold to the King of Scotland some great fortresses, and allowed him to buy back the advantages gained in war by Henry II. By these means he raised large sums of money. As he intended to leave England for a long time, he tried sums of to settle the government before he went away. He gave many estates and several castles to his brother John, but he would not give him any share in the government. He left the real power in the hands of a man called William Longchamp, to whom he gave many honours. He made Longchamp Chancellor and Justiciar, and by his desire the Pope appointed Longchamp as Papal legate in England. To leave Longchamp quite free, Richard made John promise that he would stay away from England for three years. Then Richard left England, and started for the East to fight the infidels. 3. Richard spent a short time in Normandy and Poitou, and then joined Philip of France with his army on the plain of Vezelay in France. From Vezelay the two Kings went to Messina in Italy, where they stayed all the winter. Richard and Philip were very jealous of each other, and at one time it seemed as if there would be fighting between them. But the quarrel was smoothed over, and the two crusading Kings set sail with their armies in March, 1191. They arrived at Acre, which had been besieged for a long time. It was not long before the city was captured, and Philip almost immediately returned to France. Richard then made a splendid march from Acre to Joppa, fighting all the way, and at one time he was within sight of Jerusalem, but could not take the city on account of the constant jealousies and quarrels between the different crusading armies. 5 4. Richard was bitterly disappointed at this failure of the expedition, but as he was anxious to return to England, he made a truce with Saladin for three years, and started homewards in disguise. On the way he met with many adventures, was shipwrecked, and at last taken prisoner at Vienna by Duke Leopold of Austria, who had formerly assisted him in the crusade, but whom he had insulted at Acre. Leopold sent Richard to the Emperor Henry VI., and for more than a year the King of England was a prisoner in the hands of a foreign monarch. KING RICHARD IN PALESTINE. 1. Sound the glad note of triumph loud and high, |