Curialia Miscellanea, or Anecdotes of Old Times: Regal, Noble, Gentilitial, and Miscellaneous: Including Authentic Anecdotes of the Royal Household, and the Manners and Customs of the Court, at an Early Period of the English HistoryPegge, Samuel
History
Curialia Miscellanea, or Anecdotes of Old Times: Regal, Noble, Gentilitial, and Miscellaneous: Including Authentic Anecdotes of the Royal Household, and the Manners and Customs of the Court, at an Early Period of the English History
Pegge, Samuel
Anecdotes -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Court and courtiers -- Early works to 1800; Pegge, Samuel, 1704-1796
made; and obliged all who had commissions under the old one, to
renew them, and have them resealed, by which he must have raised a
considerable sum[141].
[139] "Numero et Pondere." Brompton.
[140] "Præter Utensilia, et Jocalia, et Lapides pretiosos." Matthew
Paris.
[141] In passing between Cyprus and Rhodes, in his Expedition to
the Holy War, three of his Ships were lost, and among other persons
that perished was the Vice-Chancellor, who had the Great Seal in his
custody, and was afterwards found with it about his neck. Brompton.
This was the manner in which the Seal was formerly carried by the
Chancellor himself--"_circa_ cujus _Collum suspensum_ Regis Sigillum
postea repertum est," are Brompton's words.
King Richard I. having no child of either sex, there was not an
opening for demanding the two common _Aids_; but the third, in
the order they are usually placed, _viz._ for the _ransom_ of the
_King's Person_, was exercised for the first time in this Reign.
Other taxations, heavy and enormous, on frivolous and nugatory
occasions, not to our immediate purpose, were copiously extorted
from the subject, and even in a shameful manner[142]. If ever the
Latin adage, "Quicquid delirant Reges," &c. could be properly
applied, it belonged to Richard.
[142] Sir Richard Baker, p. 73.
The favourite system of this King was the _Holy-War_, and his
intemperate zeal led to the point before us. Failing in the attempt
to recover Jerusalem from the Saracens, he concluded a truce of
three years with Saladan their King; and, on his return towards
England through Germany, was made prisoner by the Arch-duke of
Austria (upon a pretext that he had killed the Margrave Conrade at
Tyre); who delivered him into the hands of the Emperor, where he
remained a captive full _fifteen months_, till he was ransomed[143].
[143] Consult the Monkish Historians.
The sum demanded for the King's release is generally allowed to have
been 100,000_l._; though some writers reduce it a third part, and
call it 100,000 _marks_; but, let it be either of them, it was, in
those days, a sum not to be raised without the greatest extortion;
and I am justified in saying, it was not done without what,
eventually, almost amounted to _sacrilege_[144]. The church was
ransacked for plate, which was pretended to have been only borrowed
for the moment--but the debt was never repaid.
[144] Sir Richard Baker reckons this no more than a voluntary
contribution, forgetting that it was one of the established Norman
_Feudal Aids_, though now first brought forward since the Conquest.
HENRY IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account