1194.]

RICHARD LEAVES ENGLAND.

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replied with the second verse. Chester fair, in the time of John, was a great resort of vagabonds; for by the charter of the city no one could be there apprehended for any theft or misdeed except it were committed in the fair. Ranulph, earl of Chester, was a prisoner in Rhuydland Castle; and Lord de Lacy, the Constable of Chester, by the help of "the minstrels of all sorts that met at Chester fair, by the allurement of their music got together a vast number of such loose people as, by reason of the before specified privilege, were then in that city." The minstrels and the loose people alarmed the warders of the Welsh castle, and released the earl. We have said enough to show that even in the Norman times of unequal government, the free spirit of the people broke forth in that mingled temper of frolic and kindness which has ever been their characteristic, and that, under the worst rulers, there was no very enduring time to be chronicled when this was not "Merry England."

Had Richard the king chosen to remain in the island after his return from Palestine, it is not impossible that his ardent nature might have taken a generous interest in the brave people, of whom so many had been his companions in danger and suffering. But Richard never saw England after this visit of two months. The record of his proceedings from the 12th of March to the 9th of May, 1194, as given by Hoveden, shows how this energetic Plantagenet employed himself in this limited visit. A fortnight of March is passed in the favourite occupation of fighting for the castles which were occupied by the creatures of his brother John. On the 31st he holds a great council at Nottingham, and dispossesses certain barons of fortresses and shrievalties, and puts them up for sale to the highest bidder. He calls, too, for a judgment against John, who is cited to appear within forty days, or forfeit all right to the kingdom; for he had broken his fealty to Richard, taken possession of his castles, wasted his lands, and made a treaty with his enemy the king of France. The judgment was given. At this council, a land-tax was decreed, and knight's service was demanded to enable Richard to carry an army to Normandy. At the beginning of April, Richard had a meeting with the king of the Scots. They had many discussions about their respective rights, and a charter was finally granted at Northampton, which did much for the dignity of the king of Scotland, though Richard again and again refused to grant him Northumberland, as was desired. On the 17th of April the king of England went through the ceremony of a second coronation. He was now looking to depart; but he first reconciled Geoffrey, the archbishop of York, with Longchamp, the chancellor. With his mother, Eleanor, he stayed at Portsmouth till the 30th, "which appeared to him very tedious.” On the 2nd of May he persisted in sailing in one of his long-ships, but the adverse wind had no compassion for his impatience. He was forced to return to the Isle of Wight, where he was weather-bound for nine days. The royal long-ship of the twelfth century, and the royal steam-yacht of the nineteenth, offer a striking contrast. At length he lands at Harfleur, and his warriors with their horses and arms arrive in a hundred large vessels. John falls on his knees before him, and obtains his pardon. The king of France was besieging Verneuil; but on hearing of Richard's approach leaves his troops. "The king of England being full of activity, and more swift than the discharge of a Balearic sling," hurries to do battle with his great suzerain, and pursues his

VOL. I.

Z

330

WARS IN NORMANDY.

[1194-1199. retreating army with the edge of the sword. Richard is now in his proper line of business. In a few months he drives Philip of France out of Normandy, Touraine, and Maine. In England Hubert, the archbishop of Canterbury, is guardian of the realm, and his chief duty is to raise money for these wars. We shall not attempt to pursue the records of this sanguinary contest, which was continued for six years, with an occasional truce when each of the combatants was exhausted. The horrible cruelties that were inflicted upon prisoners, the desolation of the seat of war, the privations endured by the English people to meet the exactions of their rulers, these are the consequences at which we must steadily look, instead of following the narratives of siege and skirmish, of towns burnt and churches plundered. The modes by which the lion-hearted king, through his ministers, raised money in England, appear to combine the attributes of the tyrant and the swindler. To order the great seal to be broken, and proclaim that no grant under that seal should be valid, unless the fees due to the crown were paid a second time for affixing the new seal, is an act which scarcely accords with the magnanimity which it has been somewhat the fashion to ascribe to this Plantagenet. The mean qualities of his brother John excite no surprise. In the characters of these two sons of Henry II. there were striking points of resemblance as well as of difference. The last scene of Richard's life is an epitome of his qualities. He perished, not fighting for a dukedom, but for a paltry treasure which one of his barons had discovered on his estate. The royal right to treasure so found was asserted by the king. The viscount of Limoges refused to surrender all the gold and silver, though he offered a large portion. Richard, accordingly, laid siege to the viscount's castle of Chaluz; and would allow the garrison no conditional surrender. They asked for safety of life and limb; but the king swore that he would take them by storm, and hang them all, and accordingly the knights and men-at-arms returned to the castle in sorrow and confusion, and prepared to make a defence." ."* Reconnoitring the fortress, Richard was wounded in the arm by an arrow, aimed by Bertrand de Gurdun. The castle being captured, the king ordered all the people to be hanged, one alone excepted-the youth who had wounded him. In those days of the rudest surgery, the barbed iron head of the arrow could not be extracted from the flesh, without the limb being cruelly mangled. For twelve days Richard suffered the agonies of his wound, and saw, at last, that death was approaching. He bequeathed the kingdom of England and all his other dominions to John; and ordered a fourth of his treasures to be distributed amongst his servants and the poor. Hoveden tells the rest of the dying scene:- "He then ordered Bertram de Gurdun, † who had wounded him, to come into his presence, and said to him, What harm have I done to you, that you have killed me.' On which he made answer, 'You slew my father and my two brothers with your own hand, and you intended now to kill me; therefore take any revenge on me that you may think fit, for I will readily endure the greatest torments you can devise,

*Hoveden.

+ In an ancient anonymous account of Richard's death, it is stated that the king had forced his way into the inner court of the castle; but that one tower held out, in which were two knights, and thirty-eight men and women. According to this account, the knight who shot the arrow from the cross-bow was Peter de Basile.