Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 5: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
emperor, and hostages given for the payment of thirty thousand more. The
English king had also engaged to release both Isaac of Cyprus and his
daughter, and he had besides, at the persuasion, it is said, of his
mother, Eleanor, the more effectually to conciliate Henry, formally
resigned his crown into the hand of the emperor, who immediately
restored it to him to be held as a fief of the empire, and burdened with
a yearly feudal payment to his superior lord of five thousand pounds.
This strange transaction rests on the authority of the contemporary
annalist Hoveden. Richard, descending the Rhine as far as Cologne,
proceeded thence across the country to Antwerp, and, embarking there on
board his own fleet, landed at Sandwich on March 13th.
Most of John's strongholds had been wrested from his hands before his
brother's return, and now the rest immediately surrendered and he
himself fled the country, and with his principal adviser, Hugh, Bishop
of Coventry, having been charged with high treason, and not appearing to
plead after forty days, was outlawed and divested of all his
possessions.
Meanwhile it was thought necessary that Richard should be crowned again,
and that ceremony was accordingly performed at Winchester by Hubert,
Archbishop of Canterbury, on April 17th. Then, leaving Hubert guardian
of England and grand justiciary, on May 2d, following, having, with his
characteristic activity employed almost every moment since his arrival
in raising an army and procuring funds for its maintenance by all sorts
of exactions and the most unscrupulous use of every means in his power,
he again set sail from Portsmouth, his whole soul bent on chastising the
King of France. Owing to adverse winds he was a fortnight in reaching
Barfleur, in Normandy, where, as soon as he landed, he was met by his
brother John, who professed contrition and implored his pardon, which,
on the intercession of his mother, Eleanor, was granted. Richard now
marched against Philip, and several engagements took place between them,
in most of which the English king was successful. But the war, though it
lasted for some years, was distinguished by few remarkable events. A
truce for one year was agreed to on July 23d, and although hostilities
were resumed some time before the expiration of that term, a peace was
again concluded in the end of the following year, which lasted till the
beginning of 1197.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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