Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 48.djvu/179

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commanded jointly with Henry the left of the army. In the fierce fight Richard got separated from his brother, and took refuge in a mill. He was soon surrounded and forced to surrender amid the jeers of the soldiers at the sorry plight of Cæsar Augustus (Political Songs, p. 69; Chron. Melrose, p. 196). All his lands, including the earldom of Cornwall, were seized by Simon de Montfort. Richard was kept under close custody by Henry de Montfort (Wykes, p. 153), being taken to the Tower and thence to his own castle at Wallingford (Liber de Ant. Leg. p. 63). He was finally immured ‘minus honeste quam regiam deceret honestatem’ (Wykes, p. 175) with his younger son Edmund at Kenilworth. When the news of the battle of Evesham reached the garrison, the soldiers were for murdering him on the spot. After Evesham Richard and his son were unconditionally released by the younger Simon de Montfort. On 9 Sept. 1265 Richard reached Wallingford, where friends and family joyfully celebrated his release. His lands were of course restored (cf. Wykes, p. 179). Despite the hard treatment he had experienced, Richard still counselled moderation. In December 1265 he requited the younger Simon by procuring for him decent terms of surrender in Axholme and spoke warmly in his behalf before the king at Northampton (Rishanger, Chron. p. 51). In 1266 he joined the legate in mediating the surrender at Kenilworth, though his name does not occur in the Dictum de Kenilworth in which his son Henry is associated with the legate (Select Charters, p. 421). He disliked the wild schemes of disinheritance and pressed for that scheme of redeeming the rebels' lands which the Dictum contained (Ann. Waverley, p. 367). He supplied Henry III with money and provisions to enable him to keep on foot the army that, in 1267, conquered the isle of Ely (Wykes, p. 204). In return Henry petitioned the barons to do something for Richard, now loaded with debt (Fœdera, i. 466). The Londoners paid him one thousand marks compensation for his losses at Isleworth (Liber de Ant. Leg. pp. 94–5). He also helped to pacify Llywelyn ab Gruffydd [q. v.] (Royal Letters, ii. 312). When the affairs of the realm were finally settled, Richard started on his fourth and last visit to Germany on 4 Aug. 1268.

Richard now showed great activity in maintaining order in Germany. At first he stayed at Cambray (Böhmer-Ficker, Acta Imperii Selecta, p. 312). On 22 Sept. he was at Aachen (ib. pp. 313–14), and on 15 Dec. at Cologne. On 7 March he reached Worms, and summoned a diet which met on 14 April. Edicts were promulgated declaring a Landfriede for the Rhineland and denouncing the robber castles and the excessive tolls of the Rhine (Wykes, pp. 222–4; Ann. Wormatiensis, p. 68; Böhmer-Ficker, Regesta, v. 1019; Mon. Germ. Leges, ii. 381–2). The result was increased peace and trade. Richard afterwards attended a church council at the same place. He spent the latter part of May at Frankfurt. On 15 June he married his third wife, Beatrice of Falkenstein, at Kaiserslautern, and, after great festivities, reached Mainz by 9 July. Thence he proceeded to England with his wife, landing at Dover on 3 Aug. (Wykes, p. 225). He was present on 13 Oct. at the translation of St. Edward's remains into the new church built by Henry III at Westminster (ib. p. 226), and successfully mediated between Earl Gilbert of Gloucester and his nephew Edward.

Richard's health was already declining when the great shock came of the murder of his eldest son Henry at Viterbo by the younger Montfort. The young man with his brother Edmund had joined their cousin Edward on a crusade. Richard procured the removal of Henry's body to England, and buried it at his own foundation at Hayles. He also recalled Edmund, his other son, fearing that he might meet a similar fate. In September 1271 Richard visited Yorkshire, returning to the south in the winter. On 12 Dec. he reached Berkhampstead. The next night he was smitten with paralysis of the right side, and almost lost his speech and reason. He lingered on until 2 April 1272, when he died. His body was buried beside his son and second wife, Sanchia, at Hayles. His heart was buried in the choir of the Franciscan church at Oxford (Monasticon, v. 699).

Richard was the only Englishman who attempted to rule the holy Roman empire, and the task proved beyond his strength. He was at all times bountiful to the church, and was the founder of several houses of religion, including, in 1256, a convent of Trinitarian or Maturine friars at Knaresborough in Yorkshire (ib. vi. 1565–1567), and in 1266 the Austin nunnery of Burnham in Buckinghamshire, with which Dugdale has confused a small Benedictine nunnery at Brunham or Nunburnholme, east of Pocklington in Yorkshire (Monasticon, vi. 545–6, cf. iv. 278–9). His greatest foundation was, however, that of the Cistercian abbey of Hayles, near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. He began the building about 1246, in fulfilment of the vow he took when in danger of shipwreck, and on 9 Nov. 1251 caused the church to be ceremoniously dedicated in the presence of the king. The first