he sent over his fourth son, John, into Ireland with a view of making a more complete conquest of the island; but the petulance and incapacity of this prince exasperated the Irish chieftains, and obliged the king soon after to recall him. The latter years of Henry's reign were embittered by the renewed rebellion of his sons, and their mutual quarrels. In 1183 his son Henry was seized with a fatal illness in the midst of his criminal designs, and died expressing deep sorrow for his filial ingratitude. Richard and Geoffrey made war upon each other; and when this quarrel was accommodated, Geoffrey, the most vicious perhaps of all Henry's unhappy family, levied war against his father. Henry was freed from this danger by his son's death, who was killed in a tournament at Paris (1186).

§ 13. In the year 1187 the city of Jerusalem fell into the hands of sultan Saladin, and a new Crusade was determined on. The French and English monarchs and the emperor Frederick Barbarossa assumed the cross. In the midst of these preparations Richard, supported by Philip Augustus of France (who had succeeded Louis VII. in 1180), again took up arms against his father for detaining certain lands belonging to Adelais, Philip's sister, who was betrothed to Richard (1189). After much fruitless negociation, Henry was obliged to defend his dominions by arms, and engage in a war with his son and with France, in which his reverses so subdued his spirit that he submitted to all the rigorous terms demanded of him. But this was the least of his mortifications. When he required a list of those barons to whom he was bound to grant a pardon for their connection with Richard, he was astonished to find at the head of them the name of his favourite son John. Overloaded with cares and sorrows, the unhappy father, in this last disappointment of his domestic tenderness, broke out into expressions of the utmost despair, cursed the day in which he was born, and bestowed on his ungrateful and undutiful children a malediction which he never could be prevailed on to retract. This final blow quite broke his spirit, and aggravated the fever from which he was suffering. He expired at the castle of Chinon, near Saumur (July 6, 1189). His natural son, Geoffrey, who alone had behaved dutifully towards him, attended his corpse to Fontevraud, where it lay in state in the abbey church. As Richard met the sad procession, he was struck with horror and remorse, and expressed a deep sense of his own undutiful behaviour. Thus died, in the 58th year of his age, and 34th of his reign, the most remarkable prince of his time.

Henry was of a middle stature, strong, and well proportioned; his countenance was lively and engaging; his conversation affable

and entertaining; his speech easy, persuasive, and ever at command. He loved peace, but possessed both bravery and conduct in war; was provident without timidity, severe in the execution of justice, and temperate without austerity. Cruel and false, his abilities were more conspicuous than his virtues. He preserved his health, and kept himself from corpulency, to which he was somewhat inclined, by an abstemious diet, and by frequent exercise, particularly hunting. Restless and energetic, he generally transacted business standing, and was careless how he ate or drank or dressed. In his person were united many of the characteristics of his race, both bad and good. He was a fair scholar, had a wonderful memory, and was more careful of the forms than of the spirit of religion. He had five sons by Eleanor, of whom only two, Richard and John, survived him. Of his natural children the most distinguished were William, who received the surname of Longsword, and married the daughter of the earl of Salisbury, and Geoffrey, already mentioned, who became bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of York.

RICHARD I.

§ 14. RICHARD I., b. 1167; r. 1189-1199.-Richard succeeded his father without opposition. He dismissed his father's minister, Ranulf de Glanville, the justiciary, and released his mother Eleanor from the confinement in which she had long been detained by the late king.

The history of Richard's reign consists of little more than his personal adventures. Impelled by the love of military glory, the sole purpose of his government seems to have been the relief of the Holy Land, and the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracens. This zeal against the infidels was shared by his subjects, and broke out in London on the day of his coronation (September 3). The king had issued an edict prohibiting the Jews from appearing at the ceremony; but some of them, presuming on the large presents made him by their nation, ventured to approach the hall where the king was dining. Exposed by their appearance to the insults of the populace, they took to flight. A rumour was spread that the king had issued orders for their massacre. This command, so agreeable to popular prejudices, was executed in an instant on such as fell into the hands of the multitude, who, moved alike by rapacity and zeal, broke into their houses, plundered, and murdered the owners. The inhabitants of the other cities of England imitated the example. In York 500 Jews, who had retired into the castle for safety, unable to defend the place, murdered their own wives and children, and then, setting fire to the castle, perished in the flames.

Regardless of every consideration except his expedition to the Holy Land, Richard endeavoured to raise money by all expedients, how pernicious soever they might be to the public, or dangerous to the royal authority. He set to sale the revenues and manors of the crown, and the offices of greatest trust and power; sold, for so small a sum as 10,000 marks, the vassalage of Scotland, together with the fortresses of Roxburgh and Berwick, acquired by his father during the course of his victorious reign. Leaving the administration in the hands of the bishops of Durham and Ely, whom he appointed justiciaries and guardians of the realm, Richard proceeded to the plains of Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy, the place of rendezvous agreed on with the French king. Philip and Richard, on their arrival there, found their combined army amount to 100,000 men (July 1, 1190).

§ 15. Here the French prince and the English reiterated their promises of cordial friendship, and pledged their faith not to invade each other's dominions during the Crusade. They then separated; Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard the road to Marseilles, with a view of meeting their fleets, which were severally appointed to rendezvous in these harbours, and met again at Messina, where they were detained during the whole winter. Here Richard was joined by Berengaria, daughter of the king of Navarre, with whom he had become enamoured in Guienne. In the spring of the following year (1191) the English fleet, on leaving the port of Messina, met with a furious tempest, and the squadron in which Berengaria and her suite were embarked was driven on the coast of Cyprus. In consequence of their inhospitable treatment by Isaac, the ruler of Cyprus, Richard landed there, dethroned Isaac, and established governors over the island. Richard then espoused Berengaria (May 12), and early in the next month sailed for Palestine.

§ 16. The arrival of Philip and Richard inspired new life into the Crusaders. The emulation between the rival kings and rival nations produced extraordinary acts of valour: Richard in particular drew upon himself the general attention. Acre, which had been attacked for above two years by the united force of all the Christians in Palestine, now surrendered, but Philip, instead of pursuing the hopes of further conquest, disgusted with the ascendancy assumed and acquired by Richard, declared his resolution of returning to France. Richard, with those who still remained under his command, determined to lay siege to Ascalon, and thus open the way to Jerusalem. The march along the seacoast of 100 miles from Acre to Ascalon was a perpetual battle of 11 days. Ascalon fell into his hands, and Richard was even able to advance within sight of Jerusalem, the object of his enterprise, when he had the

mortification to find, from the irresistible desire of his allies to return home, that all hopes of further conquest must be abandoned for the present, and the acquisitions of the Crusaders be secured by an accommodation with Saladin. He concluded a truce for three years with that monarch (1192); stipulating that Acre, Joppa, and other seaport towns of Palestine, should remain in the hands of the Christians, and pilgrims to the Holy City be unmolested.

§ 17. No business of importance now remained to detain Richard in Palestine; and the intelligence which he had received, concerning the intrigues of his brother John, and those of the king of France, made him sensible that his presence was necessary in Europe. As he dared not pass through France, he sailed to the Adriatic; and being shipwrecked near Aquileia, he assumed the disguise of a merchant returning from pilgrimage, with the purpose of taking his journey secretly through Germany. At Vienna he was betrayed by his prodigality; was arrested by orders of Leopold, duke of Austria, who had been offended by some insult whilst serving with Richard in Palestine (December 20, 1192). By the duke he was delivered to Henry VI., the German emperor, in return for a large sum which he paid to Leopold, and was detained by him in a castle in the Tyrol. The English learnt the captivity of their king from a letter which the emperor sent to Philip, king of France.* The news excited the greatest indignation; it seemed incredible that the champion of the Cross should be treated with such indignity. Philip hastened to profit by the circumstance; he formed a treaty with John, the object of which was the perpetual ruin of Richard. Philip, in consequence, invaded Normandy, but was driven back with loss; and John was equally unsuccessful in his enterprises in England. The justiciaries, supported by the general affection of the people, provided so well for the defence of the kingdom, that John was obliged, after some fruitless efforts, to conclude a truce.

§ 18. Meanwhile the high spirit of Richard suffered in Germany every kind of insult and indignity. He was brought before the diet of the empire at Hagenau, and accused by Henry of many crimes and misdemeanours (March 22, 1193); but Richard defended himself with so much ability, that he produced a profound impression on the German princes, who exclaimed loudly against the conduct of the emperor. The pope threatened him with excommunication; and Henry at last agreed, in a conference at Worms, to restore Richard to his freedom for the sum of 100,000

* The well-known story of the discovery of Richard's place of confinement by his

page singing a song under his window rests on no historical authority.

marks paid down, and 50,000 more on security.* Half of the sum was to be paid before he received his liberty, and hostages delivered for the remainder (December, 1193). Making all imaginable haste to escape, Richard embarked at the mouth of the Scheldt, and reached Sandwich, March 20, 1194. As soon as Philip heard of the king's deliverance, he wrote to his confederate John: Take heed of yourself, for the devil is broken loose. The joy of the English was extreme at the appearance of their monarch, who had suffered so many calamities, had acquired so much glory, and had spread the reputation of their name to the furthest East. The barons, in a great council, confiscated all John's possessions in England; and assisted the king in reducing the fortresses which still remained in the hands of his brother's adherents.

§ 19. Having settled everything in England, Richard passed over with an army into Normandy, impatient to make war on Philip, and revenge himself for the many injuries received from that monarch. The incidents which attended these hostilities were mean and frivolous. The war, frequently interrupted by truces, was continued till within a short period of Richard's death. The king was wounded in the shoulder with an arrow by Bertrand de Gourdon, whilst besieging the castle of Chaluz, belonging to his vassal Vidomar, viscount of Limoges, who had refused to surrender the whole of a treasure which he had discovered. The castle was taken, and all the garrison hanged, except the unfortunate archer, whom the king had reserved for a more deliberate and cruel execution. The wound was not in itself dangerous, but the unskilfulness of the surgeon made it mortal. A gangrene ensued, and Richard, now sensible that his life was drawing towards a close, sent for Gourdon, and asked him, "Wretch, what have I done to you to oblige you to seek my life?" "What have you done to me?" replied the prisoner: "you killed with your own hands my father and my two brothers, and you intended to have hanged myself. I am now in your power, and you may take revenge by inflicting on me the most cruel torments; but I shall endure them with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happy as to rid the world of such a plague." Richard, struck with the reply, and humbled by the near approach of death, ordered Gourdon to be set at liberty and a sum of money to be given him; but, unknown to the monarch, the unhappy man was flayed alive, and then hanged.† Richard died on the 6th of April, 1199, in the 10th year of his reign, and the 42nd of his age. He was buried at his father's feet at Fontevraud.

* In all £100,000.

A contemporary French MS. says that Richard was wounded by a knight, Peter

de Basile, and makes no mention of the archer Gourdon his spirited reply, and his cruel fate.