Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/51

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RICHARD I.
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RICHARD II.

he made his peace with Richard by giv- ing up to him his sister and her posses- sions, and by betrothing his little daugh- ter to the boy Arthur (son of Richard's dead brother Geoffrey), whom Richard now declared to be his heir.

On his way to Palestine in the spring of 1191, part of the fleet of the English king was driven on to the island of Cy- prus, and the crews were most inhospit- ably treated by the reigning sovereign, Isaac Comnenus, a nephew of the Em- peror of Byzantium, who had revolted from his liege lord. Richard sailed back from Rhodes, routed Isaac in battle, de- posed him, and gave his crown to Guy of Lusignan. In Cyprus, too, he married Berengaria of Navarre, whom his mother had brought to him at Messina. At last, on June 8, the English king landed near Acre, and shortly afterward that strong- hold surrendered, the siege having lasted two years. Richard took his full share of the jealousies, animosities, and dis- agreements, though not of the treacher- ies, that made the Christian crusading host a hotbed of commotion. The glori- ous exploits of Richard the Lion-hearted — his march to Joppa along the seashore, his approach on Jerusalem at Christmas, his capture of the fortresses in the S. of Palestine, his second advance in the summer of 1192 on Jerusalem (the city he never beheld), and his relief of Joppa — made his name ring throughout the East and excited the wonder and admi- ration of Christendom, but brought no real advantage to the crusading cause.

Richard, in September, concluded a peace with Saladin for three years, three months, and three days, and in his im- pulsive, impatient way started off home alone, without waiting for his army and fleet. A storm shipwrecked him near the N. end of the Adriatic. In disguise he began to make his way through the dominions of his bitter enemy, the Arch- duke of Austria. He was recognized, seized, and handed over to the Emperor Henry VI. (March, 1193). The emperor demanded a heavy ransom for his re- lease, but promised to give him the king- dom of Aries in addition to his liberty. Richard's loyal subjects raised the money; and greatly to the chagrin of Philip of France and Richard's brother John, the captive king returned home (March 13, 1194).

In England in the meantime Long- champ had made himself so unpopular that Richard had been obliged to super- sede him, appointing in his place Walter of Coutances, Archbishop of Rouen. It was John, however, who exercised the greatest power in the realm. And though he used his utmost endeavors to prevent Richard's return from his captivity, yet Richard generously forgave him. After distributing judicious rewards and pun- ishments, raising what money he could, making arrangements for the governance of the kingdom, and being crowned again — the emperor is said to have forced his captive to resign his crown and take it back as a fief of the empire — Richard proceeded to France, and spent the rest of his life there, warring against Philip. England was governed in his absence by Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canter- bury, who by the measures he took to raise the vast sums demanded by his master trained the English people in habits of self-government. The most im- portant constitutional advances made under Hubert's rule were the formula- tion of the methods for electing the county grand juries and an arrangement for keeping the pleas of the crown by officers who may be regarded as the forerunners of the modern coroner. Rich- ard was shot, on April 7, 1199, by an archer of the Viscount of Limoges, while besieging that nobleman's castle of Cha- lus-Chabrol, and was buried in the abbey church of Fontevraud.

Richard cannot be called a good king; his only thought of his subjects was how to get money from them. He was not a faithful husband; he was an undutiful son. Yet, on the other hand, he treated his perfidious brother John in the most forgiving spirit, and was not incapable of noble and generous acts. His im- pulsive, hot-headed temperament made him at times cruel, but never vindictive. He was an adventurer, with a passion- ate love for contention and strife; he fought for warlike glory, not for victory or real advantage; he had all the per- sonal courage and self-confidence of the born warrior. A fair scholar, he also had the knack of writing verses, and has been called a poet.

RICHARD II., King of England; son of the Black Prince and Joanna of Kent; born in Bordeaux, Jan. 6, 1367; was ac- knowledged by Parliament heir to the crown on the death of his father in 1376, and succeeded his grandfather, Edward III., on June 21, 1377. The government was entrusted to a council of 12, from which the king's uncles, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Edmund, Earl of Cambridge, and Thomas, Earl of Buck- ingham (afterward Duke of Gloucester), were excluded. Nevertheless the central figure during the early years of this reign, as he had been during the last years of the preceding reign, was John of Gaunt, whose overreaching ambition and inability were a fruitful source of disquietude. He was on bad terms with the clergy and with the Londoners, and