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10 - Normans in European History by Charles Homer Haskins · Normans in European History

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  Speaker 1: Section nine of the Normans in European History by Charles
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  Speaker 1: Homer Haskins. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
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  Speaker 1: recording by Pamela and Agami, Chapter five Normandy and France,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. In July eleven eighty nine, Henry the Second
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  Speaker 1: lay dying in his castle at Chino, abandoned and attacked
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  Speaker 1: by his sons, driven from l Mon and tour by
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  Speaker 1: Philip of France, and forced to a humiliating peace. Sick
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  Speaker 1: in body and broken in spirit, the aged king made
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  Speaker 1: his way to the old stronghold of the Ongovin courts
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  Speaker 1: in the valley of the Vienne, cursing the faithless Richard
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  Speaker 1: as he gave him the enforced kiss of piece. At Columbiere,
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  Speaker 1: he had fixed his hopes on his youngest son, John,
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  Speaker 1: till the schedule was brought him of those who had
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  Speaker 1: thrown off their allegiance, Sire, said the clerk who read
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  Speaker 1: the document to the fever tossed king, may cry, help me.
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  Speaker 1: The first here written is count John, your son, What
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  Speaker 1: cried the King, starting up from his bed, John, my
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  Speaker 1: very heart, my best beloved, for whose advancement I have
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  Speaker 1: brought upon me all this misery now let all things
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  Speaker 1: go as they will. I care no more for myself
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  Speaker 1: nor for anything in this world. Two days later he died,
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  Speaker 1: cursing his sons, cursing the day he had been born,
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  Speaker 1: repeating constantly shame on a conquered king, deserted by all
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  Speaker 1: save his illegitimate son, Jeoffrey, who received his father's blessing
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  Speaker 1: and his signet ring marked with the leopard of England.
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  Speaker 1: Henry was plundered by his attendants of gold and furnishings
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  Speaker 1: and apparel, just as William the Conqueror had been despoiled
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  Speaker 1: in the hour of his death at Rouen, till some
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  Speaker 1: one in pity threw over the royal corpse, the short
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  Speaker 1: cloak or curt mantle by which men called him. Two
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  Speaker 1: days later he was laid quietly away in the nunnery
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  Speaker 1: of Fontevreaux, where a later age was to rob his
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  Speaker 1: tomb of all save the noble recumbent figure by which
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  Speaker 1: it is still marked. Thus passed away the greatest ruler
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  Speaker 1: of his age. Thus began the collapse of the Norman Empire.
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  Speaker 1: Strikingly dramatic, both in his public and private aspects. The
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  Speaker 1: end of Henry the Second offers material fit for a
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  Speaker 1: Greek tragedy, and we may, if we choose, imagine a
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  Speaker 1: Eschylus or Esophocles painting the rapidity of his rise, the
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  Speaker 1: hubris of his splendor, the crushing nemesis of his fall.
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  Speaker 1: Even the Promethean touch is not lacking in the withdrawal
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  Speaker 1: of Henry's unconquered soul from God. As he looked back
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  Speaker 1: in flight at the burning city of Lemn, my God,
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  Speaker 1: since to crown my confusion and increase my disgrace, Thou
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  Speaker 1: hast taken from me so vilely, the town which on
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  Speaker 1: earth I have loved best, where I was born and bred,
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  Speaker 1: and where my father lies buried, and the body of
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  Speaker 1: Saint julian Io. I will have my revenge on thee. Also,
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  Speaker 1: I will, of a surety withdraw from thee that thing
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  Speaker 1: that thou lovest best in me. Footnote Giraldis Combrehensus, Rolls, Series,
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  Speaker 1: Volume eight, page two, eighty three end footnote. Henry's life
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  Speaker 1: needs no blasphemous closing in order to furnish inexhaustible material
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  Speaker 1: for moralizing, and in a period like the Middle Ages,
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  Speaker 1: given over as none other to moral lessons, it served
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  Speaker 1: to point many a tale of the crimes and fate
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  Speaker 1: of evil doers that vain in entertaining Welshman Gerard de
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  Speaker 1: Baris or Giraldis comprehensis in whom a recent writer thinks
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  Speaker 1: he has discovered the proto journalist footnote Saltzman Henry the
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  Speaker 1: second page, two hundred and fourteen end footnote found in
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  Speaker 1: Henry's career the basis for a considerable book devoted to
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  Speaker 1: the instruction of princes. But whereas the ways of the
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  Speaker 1: gods are dark and unsearchable to the Greek tragedians, they
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  Speaker 1: have no mystery for Gerald. Henry's punishment was due to
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  Speaker 1: his violations of religion, first in his marriage with Eleanor,
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  Speaker 1: the divorced wife of his feudal lord Louis the Seventh,
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  Speaker 1: second in his quarrel with Archbishop Beckett, in the oppression
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  Speaker 1: of the church which followed in third, and worst of all,
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  Speaker 1: in his failure to take part in a crusade the
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  Speaker 1: hammer of the Church. Henry was born for destruction. The
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  Speaker 1: modern world is more cautious in the matter of explaining
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  Speaker 1: the inexplicable, and more prone to seek human causes when
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  Speaker 1: they can be found. Yet the collapse of the Plantagenet
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  Speaker 1: Empire is not the hardest of the historian's problems, something
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  Speaker 1: he will ascribe two larger forces of development, something he
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  Speaker 1: can hardly fail to attribute to the character of Henry's
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  Speaker 1: sons and to his policy in dealing with them. Henry
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  Speaker 1: the second is not the only case in history of
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  Speaker 1: a king who could rule every house but his own,
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  Speaker 1: of a father who was shrewd and stern in his
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  Speaker 1: dealings with the world, but swayed by unrequited affection and
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  Speaker 1: ill timed weakness in dealing with his children. Knowing other men,
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  Speaker 1: he did not know his sons, and his grave errors
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  Speaker 1: in dealing with them were errors of public policy, since
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  Speaker 1: they concerned the government of his dominions and the succession
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  Speaker 1: to the throne. Even those who had no sympathy for
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  Speaker 1: Henry had little to say to excuse the character and
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  Speaker 1: the unfilial conduct of his sons. From the devil we come,
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  Speaker 1: and to the devil we return, Richard was reported to
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  Speaker 1: have said, and none cared to contradict him. Of the
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  Speaker 1: four lawful sons who grew to maturity, the eldest was Henry,
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  Speaker 1: crowned king by his father in eleven seventy and hence
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  Speaker 1: generally known as the Young King, handsome and agreeable, prodigal
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  Speaker 1: and largesse, a patron of knightly sports, and especially of
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  Speaker 1: the tournaments which were then coming into fashion. The Young
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  Speaker 1: King enjoyed great popularity in his lifetime, and after his
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  Speaker 1: early death was mourned as a peer of Hector and Achilles,
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  Speaker 1: and enshrined as a hero of courtly romance. Yet for
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  Speaker 1: all this there was no substantial foundation. He was faithless, ungrateful,
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  Speaker 1: utterly selfish, a thorn in his father's side, and a
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  Speaker 1: constant source of weakness to the empire. Married at the
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  Speaker 1: age of five to the daughter of Louis the seventh,
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  Speaker 1: he became the instrument of the French king in his
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  Speaker 1: intrigues against Henry the Second, and the rallying point of
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  Speaker 1: feudal reaction and personal jealousy. King in name, though not
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  Speaker 1: in fact. Having been crowned merely as a means of
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  Speaker 1: securing the succession Prince, Henry craved at least an under
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  Speaker 1: kingdom of his own, and, on two occasions, in eleven
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  Speaker 1: seventy three and again in eleven eighty three, led serious
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  Speaker 1: and widespread revolts against his dead father. The evil results
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  Speaker 1: of which were not undone by his deathbed repentance in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of the second uprising. In his revolt of
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  Speaker 1: eleven eighty three, he had with him his younger brother, Geoffrey,
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  Speaker 1: Duke of Brittany, the son of Perdition, equally false and
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  Speaker 1: treacherous without even the redeeming virtue of popularity. Fortunately, Geoffrey
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  Speaker 1: also died before his father. The death of the young
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  Speaker 1: king left as Henry's eldest heir, Richard, known to the
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  Speaker 1: modern world as the Lion Hearted. With much of his
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  Speaker 1: father's energy, Richard seems to have inherited more than any
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  Speaker 1: of his brothers the tastes and temperament of his mother,
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  Speaker 1: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Adventurous and high spirited, fond of pomp
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  Speaker 1: and splendor, A lover of poetry and music, be it
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  Speaker 1: the songs of provo sal minstrels or the solemn chance
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  Speaker 1: of the church. He belonged on this side of his
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  Speaker 1: nature to the Dukes of Aquitaine and the country of
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  Speaker 1: the Troubadours. He loved war and danger, in which he
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  Speaker 1: showed great personal courage, and in the conduct of military enterprise,
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  Speaker 1: gave evidence of marked ability as a strategist, but his
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  Speaker 1: gifts as a ruler stopped there. The glamor of his
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  Speaker 1: personal exploits and the romance of his crusading adventures might
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  Speaker 1: dazzle the imagination of contemporaries more than the prosaic achievements
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  Speaker 1: of his father, and his gifts to religious houses might
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  Speaker 1: even predispose monastic historians in his favor. But for all
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  Speaker 1: this splendor, his subjects paid the bills. In spite of
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  Speaker 1: his great income, he was always in need of money
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  Speaker 1: for his extravagances and for his fiscal exactions. There was
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  Speaker 1: never the excuse of large measures of public policy. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: so far as we can see, Richard had no public policy.
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  Speaker 1: His ambition, says Stubbs, was that of a mere warrior.
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  Speaker 1: He would fight for anything whatever, but he would sell
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  Speaker 1: everything that was worth fighting for. Footnote Constitutional History, vou one,
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  Speaker 1: page five hundred and fifty one, and footnote self willed
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  Speaker 1: and self centered, he followed wherever his desires led, with
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  Speaker 1: no sense of loyalty to his obligations or of responsibility
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  Speaker 1: as a ruler. Made Duke of Aquitaine at seventeen, he
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  Speaker 1: sought to ride down every obstacle and bring immediate order
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  Speaker 1: and unity into a region which had never enjoyed either
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  Speaker 1: of these benefits, and he quickly had by the years
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  Speaker 1: the land which he should have best understood. He was
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  Speaker 1: soon in revolt against his father and also at war
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  Speaker 1: with the young king for his own purposes. He later
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  Speaker 1: went over to the king of France and jested with
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  Speaker 1: his boon companions over his father's discomfiture and downfall. Even
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  Speaker 1: as king at the age of thirty two, Richard remained
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  Speaker 1: an impetuous youth. He never really grew up. Haughty and overbearing,
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  Speaker 1: he ate theenated friends and allies. Inheriting the rule of
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  Speaker 1: the vast Plantagenet Empire, he showed no realization of imperial
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  Speaker 1: duty or opportunity. Thus he visited England but twice in
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  Speaker 1: the course of his reign of ten years, and valued
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  Speaker 1: it solely as a land from which revenue might be
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  Speaker 1: rung by his ministers. Nor did his continental dominions derive
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  Speaker 1: advantage from his presence. Impetuous and short sighted Richard yea
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  Speaker 1: and nay had to meet the greatest statesman of his
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  Speaker 1: day and deadly rivalry, And though panegyrists placed him above Alexander,
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  Speaker 1: Charlemagne and King Arthur. He went down ignominiously before Philip Augustus.
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  Speaker 1: Last of all comes the youngest son, John, my heart,
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  Speaker 1: my best beloved. Never did father lavish his affection on
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  Speaker 1: a more unworthy child. False to his father, false to
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  Speaker 1: his brother Richard, John proved false to all men or
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  Speaker 1: women who ever trusted him. He had none of the
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  Speaker 1: dash and courage of Richard, none of his large and
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  Speaker 1: splendid way, and none of his popularity and gift of leadership.
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  Speaker 1: Men saw him as he was, no Charlemagne or Arthur,
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  Speaker 1: but petty, mean and cowardly small, even in his blasphemies,
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  Speaker 1: swearing by the feet or teeth of God, when Henry
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  Speaker 1: the Second had habitually sworn by his eyes, and William
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  Speaker 1: the Conqueror by his splendor Parlors blendor Day. Always devious
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  Speaker 1: in his ways, John's cunning sometimes got him the reputation
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  Speaker 1: for cleverness, and John Richard Greene went so far as
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  Speaker 1: to call him the ablest and most ruthless of the Angabents.
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  Speaker 1: But his ability, particularly in military matters, not inconsiderable, was
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  Speaker 1: of the kind which wasted itself in temporary expedients and
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  Speaker 1: small successes. It was incapable of continuous policy or sustained efforts,
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  Speaker 1: and it everywhere ended in failure. Gerald the Welshman, the
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  Speaker 1: friend of his youth at the end, can only pronounce
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  Speaker 1: him the worst of history's tyrants. John's whole career offers
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  Speaker 1: the most convincing evidence of the futility of talent when
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  Speaker 1: divorced from character, by which is here meant not so
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  Speaker 1: much private virtue, for John's private vices were shared with
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  Speaker 1: others of his family and his time, but merely common honor, trustworthiness,
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  Speaker 1: and steadfastness. Even in his wickedness, John was shifty and false,
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  Speaker 1: and his loss of his empire was due not to
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  Speaker 1: any single blunder or series of blunders, but to the
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  Speaker 1: supreme sin of lack of character. It is thus possible
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  Speaker 1: to see how largely the collapse of the Norman Empire
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  Speaker 1: was bound up with the family history of Henry the Second,
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  Speaker 1: the foolish indulgence of the father, the ambitions and intrigues
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  Speaker 1: of the mother, the jealousies, treacheries, and political incapacit of
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  Speaker 1: the sons, a personal creation. The Plantagenet state fell in
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  Speaker 1: large measure for personal reasons. If it was Henry's misfortune
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  Speaker 1: to have such sons. One may say it was also
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  Speaker 1: his misfortune to have more than one son of any sort,
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  Speaker 1: since each became the nucleus of a separatist movement in
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  Speaker 1: some particular territory. The kings of France, it has often
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  Speaker 1: been pointed out, had for generations the great advantage of
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  Speaker 1: having a son to succeed, but only a single son.
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  Speaker 1: The crowning of the French Air in his father's lifetime
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  Speaker 1: assured an undisputed succession. The crowning of the young King
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  Speaker 1: left him dissatisfied and stirred up the rivalry of his
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  Speaker 1: younger brothers. But this is not the whole of the story.
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  Speaker 1: The very strength and efficiency of Henry's government were sure
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  Speaker 1: to produce a reaction in favor of feudal liberties in
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  Speaker 1: which his son served simply as convenient centers of crystallization.
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  Speaker 1: Only time could unify each of these dominions internally, while
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  Speaker 1: far more time was required to consolidate them into a
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  Speaker 1: permanent kingdom, and these processes were interrupted when they had
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  Speaker 1: barely begun. Such a solution of the ultimate problem of
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  Speaker 1: consolidation was we have seen entirely possible and even natural.
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  Speaker 1: But another was possible, and also natural, namely the union
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  Speaker 1: of these territories under the King of France. Geography, as
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  Speaker 1: well as history, favored the second alternative. The geographical unity
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  Speaker 1: of France is one of the most obvious facts on
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  Speaker 1: the map of Europe. The Alps and the Pyrenees, the
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  Speaker 1: Mediterranean and the Atlantic are its natural frontiers. Only on
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  Speaker 1: the northeast are the lines blurred by nature and left
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  Speaker 1: to history to determine. Within these limits, there are, of course,
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  Speaker 1: many clearly marked subdivisions, the valleys of the Rhone, Garonne,
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  Speaker 1: Luire and sen Gascony, Brittany, Normandy, Flanders and the rest,
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  Speaker 1: which formed the great fiefs of the Middle Ages and
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  Speaker 1: the great provinces of later times. Sooner or later, however,
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  Speaker 1: as populations increased, as trade and commerce developed, and as
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  Speaker 1: the means of communication were strengthened, these divisions were certain
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  Speaker 1: to draw together into a single great state. Where the
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  Speaker 1: center of the new state would lie was not a
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  Speaker 1: matter of accident, but was largely determined by the great
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  Speaker 1: lines of communication, and especially by the commercial access which
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  Speaker 1: runs from the Mediterranean to Flanders and the English Channel.
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  Speaker 1: On this line are situated the Roman capital of the Gauls,
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  Speaker 1: Leon and the modern capital Paris. This fact, combined with
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  Speaker 1: the central and dominant position of the Paris basin in
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  Speaker 1: relation to the great valleys of the Seine, the Loire
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  Speaker 1: and the Meuse, established the region about Paris, the Eu
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  Speaker 1: La France of history, as the natural center of this
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  Speaker 1: future nation. Such a state might grow from without toward
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  Speaker 1: its center, as the modern Kingdom of Italy closed in
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  Speaker 1: on Rome. But the more natural process was from the
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  Speaker 1: center outward, as England grew about Wessex, or Brandenburg about
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  Speaker 1: the region of Berlin. In the great contest between capit
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  Speaker 1: and Plantagenet, the caption held the inner lines shut off
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  Speaker 1: from the sea on the side of the Loire as
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  Speaker 1: well as on the side of the Seine. He was
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  Speaker 1: in a position to concentrate all his efforts to break
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  Speaker 1: through the Iron Ring, while the Norman rulers had to
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  Speaker 1: hold together the whole of their far spread territories against
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  Speaker 1: reaction and rebellion at home, as well as against the
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  Speaker 1: French at Tours and Le Mont and in the Vexinne. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: up and down these valleys, the influences of trade, commerce
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  Speaker 1: and travel were at work, breaking down the political barriers
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  Speaker 1: and drawing the remoter regions towards the geographical center. The Rivers,
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  Speaker 1: in their courses fought against the Plantagenets. The personal element
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  Speaker 1: in the struggle was weighted against the Anglo Norman Empire,
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  Speaker 1: even more strongly than the physiographic for the weak links
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  Speaker 1: in the Plantagenet succession ran parallel to the strongest portion
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  Speaker 1: of the Capecian line. Against a knight errant like Richard
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  Speaker 1: and a trifler like John, stood a great European statesman
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  Speaker 1: in the person of Philip Augustus, King of France during
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  Speaker 1: forty four years, and more than any single man, the
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  Speaker 1: creator of the French monarchy. Philip Augustus was not an
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  Speaker 1: heroic figure, and to the men of his age he
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  Speaker 1: was probably less sympathetic than his adversary Richard. Vigorous and enduring,
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  Speaker 1: a generous liver, quick tempered, but slow to cherish hatred,
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  Speaker 1: Philip was preeminently the cautious, shrewd, unscrupulous, far sighted statesman.
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  Speaker 1: He could fight when necessary, but he had no great
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  Speaker 1: personal courage and excelled in strategy and provision rather than
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  Speaker 1: in tactics or leadership in the field, and he preferred
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  Speaker 1: to gain his ends by the arts of diplomacy. The
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  Speaker 1: quality upon which all his contemporaries dwell is his wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout his long reign, he kept before him as his
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  Speaker 1: one aim the increase of the royal power, And by
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  Speaker 1: his patient and fortunate efforts, he broke down the Plantagenet Empire,
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  Speaker 1: doubled the royal revenue, and more than doubled the royal domain,
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  Speaker 1: and made France the leading international power in Western Europe.
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  Speaker 1: As we have already seen, Philip had made substantial headway
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  Speaker 1: even during the lifetime of Henry the Second, crowned in
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  Speaker 1: eleven seventy nine at the age of fourteen, a year
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  Speaker 1: before the death of his paralytic father Louis the seventh,
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  Speaker 1: Philip was naturally treated as a boy by Henry, whose aims, however,
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  Speaker 1: to have acted throughout with due regard to Philip's position
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  Speaker 1: as king and his feudal suzerin In the complications of
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  Speaker 1: those early years we find Henry constantly arranging dispuse with
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  Speaker 1: the king's vassals, and more than once saving him from
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  Speaker 1: a tight place. But as time went on this relation
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  Speaker 1: became impossible. Philip openly abetted the revolts of the young
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  Speaker 1: king and of Richard, and in the war which broke
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  Speaker 1: out at the end, Richard fought openly on his side
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  Speaker 1: as soon however, as Richard succeeded to the throne, Philip
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  Speaker 1: began hostilities with him, and he soon used John against Richard,
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  Speaker 1: as he had used Richard against his father. Divide and
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  Speaker 1: rule was clearly Philip's policy, and he always had on
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  Speaker 1: his side the fact that he was the king in
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  Speaker 1: France and the Plantagenets on the continent were his vassals.
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  Speaker 1: The first phase of the contest between Richard and Philip
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  Speaker 1: comes as a welcome inter in the tale of border
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  Speaker 1: disputes and family rivalries, which make up the greater part
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  Speaker 1: of the tangled story of Philip's dealings with the Norman Empire.
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  Speaker 1: It takes us over the sea to the fair land
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  Speaker 1: of Sicily and on to the very gates of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy City. In eleven eighty seven, the capture of Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: had crowned the long efforts of the Great Saladin, and
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  Speaker 1: where a century before Christian knights had ridden up to
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  Speaker 1: their bridles in the blood of the slaughtered Moslem, a
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  Speaker 1: procession of knights and priests and poorer folk passed out
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  Speaker 1: of the Gate of David and left the Holy sepulcher
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  Speaker 1: to the Infidel, to the Saracens, a certain sign that
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  Speaker 1: they were the only people whose doctrine was agreeable to God.
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  Speaker 1: The fall of Jerusalem killed the aged Pope, plunged Europe
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  Speaker 1: into prayer and fasting, and brought on the Third Crusade
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  Speaker 1: under the leadership of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Philip of France,
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  Speaker 1: and Richard of England. Richard, then merely Count of Poitou,
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  Speaker 1: was the first Western prince to take the cross in
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  Speaker 1: this holy war. His father and Philip soon sealed their
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: crusading vows with the public reconciliation under a great elm
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: on the borders of Normandy and France, and the chroniclers
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: tell us that every man made peace with his neighbor,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: thinking no more of tournaments and fine raiment, the lust
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: of the flesh and the pride of the eye, but
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: only of the recovery of the Holy City. Such great
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: waves of renunciation and religious enthusiasm are peculiarly characteristic of
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, but their force was soon spent. Then,
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: as at other times, there were few who could live
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: as on a mountain top. In spite of all that
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the Church could do Henry and Philip soon came to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: open war, and the cause of Jerusalem was swallowed up
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in a struggle for the Loire and the Aquitanian fortresses. Richard,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: as we have seen, was a central point in these conflicts,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and his accession to the throne simply continued the struggle
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: in another form. Nevertheless, a peace was patched up, and
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: the unwilling Philip was unable to hold aloof from the crusade,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: which fired the military ardor of his chief vassal and rival.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Large sums of money were raised by every means, and
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the two kings made an agreement to divide equally all
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the spoil of their expedition. They also arranged to go
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: by sea to the east after they had assembled their
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: ships and followers at Messina, thus avoiding the usual complications
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: with the Eastern Empire and the fatal march through the
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: barren and hostile interior of Asia Minor, which now claimed
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: another victim in the gallant German emperor. At the best, however,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: a crusade was not an organized campaign under efficient direction,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: but merely a number of independent expeditions which found it
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: convenient to go at the same time and by the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: same route, there was no supreme command, and there was
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: constant jealousy and friction between feudal lords who were ever
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: impatient of restraint and careful of points of dignity and precedence.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: The presence of a king was of some help. The
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: presence of two only made matters worse. If the causes
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: of rivalry at home and the slighting of Philip's sister
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: could have been forgotten, there was still the fact that
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Richard was Philip's vassal as well as his equal, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Richard was not of the type to spare Philip's susceptibilities.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Rich and open handed, fond of display, lion Heart loved
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the limelight in His overbearing nature and lack of tact
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: made it impossible for him to cooperate with others. He
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: characteristically went his own way, paying scant attention to Philip
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: and acting as if the leadership of the expedition belonged
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: to himself. As a matter of course, relations became strange
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: during the sojourn at Messina, and grew worse in Palestine,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: where the affairs of the Latin kingdom and the rivalries
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: of lesser princes added fuel to the flame. The two
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: kings and peoples, says an English chronicler, did less together
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: than they would have done separately in each set, but
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: light store by the other Sick of the whole enterprise.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: After four months in the East, Philip seized the first
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: excuse to return home, departing in August eleven ninety one.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Richard stayed a year longer in Palestine, yet he never
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: entered Jerusalem, and had finally to retire with a disappointing truce,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and to spend another year and more languishing in German prisons.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: The events of these months do not concern the history
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: of Normandy. But if we would behold Richard in his
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: fairest light, we must see him as he rushed to
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: the relief of Joppa on the first of August eleven
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: ninety two, wading ashore from his red galley with the
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: cry perished, the man who would hang back covering the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: landing of his followers with his crossbow, making his way
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: by a winding stair to the house of the templars
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: on the town wall, and then sword in hand, clearing
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the town of three thousand Turks and pursuing them into
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the plain with but three horsemen. Or four days later,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: repelling a Marmelook attack in force by a most skillful
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: tactical arrangement of his meager army, directing the battle on
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the beach, while he also kept the town clear, slaying
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: innumerable Turks with his gleaming sword, here cleaving a man
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: from the crown of his head to his teeth, there
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: cutting off with one blow the head, shoulder and right
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: arm of a saracen emir, his coat of mail, and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: his horse bristling with javelins and arrows like a hedgehog,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: yet remaining unconquerable and unwounded, in accordance with the divine decree. Footnote.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: See the extracts from the chroniclers translated in t. A
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: Archer the Crusader Richard the First London, eighteen eighty eight,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: pages two hundred eighty five and following end footnote. What
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: most concerned the Norman Empire was the king's absence since
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: the summer of eleven ninety, prolonged by his captivity in
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Germany until the spring of eleven ninety four. Although Philip
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: had taken an oath before leaving Palestine to respect Richard's
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: men and possessions during his absence, and even to protect
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: them like his own city of Paris. He sought release
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: from this engagement as soon as he reached Rome on
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: his homeward journey, and once back in France, he soon
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: began active preparations for an attack on the Plantagenet territories.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: With Richards safe in a German dungeon, he seized a
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: large part of the Norman border and made a secret
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: treaty with John which secured the surrender of all the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: lands east of the Seine and important fortresses in Anjou
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: and Tourain. He offered huge sums of money to secure
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Richard's custody or even his kinds continued detention in Germany,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: and when early in eleven ninety four he warned John
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: that the devil was loose at last he was besieging
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: the great fortress of Vernois on the Norman frontier. When
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Richard landed at Barfleur in May, amid the ringing of
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: bells and processions singing God has come again in his strength.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: It is small wonder that he came breathing vengeance and slaughter,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and that the rest of his life is a record
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of scarcely interrupted war against the King of France. For
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: many years. He is said to have refused the sacrament
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: lest he might have to forgive his enemy again and
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: again he had Philip on the run. Once Philip lost
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: all his baggage and saved himself by turning aside to
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: hear a mass while Richard rode by. On another occasion,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Richard drove the French into Guisaurs, so that the bridge
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: broke under them, and the King of France drank of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: the river, and twenty of his knights were drowned. End
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: of Section nine.