Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/125

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

RICHARD CCEUR DE LION 71 these hundreds of years divide his time from theirs, is shown by a dozen legends. Most of these profess an utter disbelief in the death of their loved emperor ; one of them tells how, in a rocky cleft of the Klyfhauser Mountains, Barbarossa still sleeps calmly and peacefully ; he sits before a marble table into which and through which his red beard has grown ; his head is bowed on his folded hands, and though he from time to time lifts it and opens his eyes, it is but to shut them again quickly, for the right time of his awakening is not come ; he has seen the ravens fly- ing round the mountain, and his long sleep will only end when their black forms are no longer visible, when he will step forth and avenge the wrongs of the oppressed. Another story says that he is lying in the Untersberg near Salzburg, and that when the dead pear-tree which, thrice cut down, plants itself afresh, shall bud forth and blossom, the gallant " Rothbart " will come out into the bright daylight, hang his shield on the pink-flowered bough, throw down his gauntlet as a gage to all evil-doers, and, aided by the good and chivalrous few who will still be in- habitants of this bad world, will vanquish cruelty and wickedness, and realize the dream of a golden age they have for so long anticipated. RICHARD CCEUR DE LION (1157-1199) R' ICHARD I., King of England, surnamed Coeur de Lion, was the third son of Henry II. and his queen, Eleanor, and was born at Oxford, in the king's manor house there, afterward the monastery of the White Friars, in September, 1157. By the treaty of Montmirail, concluded on January 6, 1169, be- tween Henry and Louis VII. of France, it was stipulated that the duchy of Aquitaine should be made over to Richard, who should do homage and fealty for it to Louis, and should espouse Adelais, or Alice, that king's youngest daugh- ter ; and in 1 1 70 King Henry, being taken ill at Domfront, in Maine, made a will, by which he confirmed this arrangement. In 1 1 73 Richard, with his younger brother, Geoffrey, and their mother, joined their eldest brother, Henry, in his first rebellion against their father. On the submission of the rebels, in September, 1 1 74, Richard received two castles in Poitou, with half the revenue of that earldom, and, along with Geoffrey, did