Great Britain -- Kings and rulers -- Biography; Richard I, King of England, 1157-1199
1. Sixty thousand measures of wheat.
2. The same quantity of barley.
3. A fleet of a thousand armed galleys, equipped and
provisioned for two years.
4. A silken tent large enough to accommodate two hundred
knights sitting at a banquet.
These particulars show on how great a scale these military expeditions
for conquering the Holy Land were conducted in those days, the above
list being only a complimentary contribution to one of them by a
friend of the leader of it.
Richard now maintained that, though his father Henry had died without
going on the crusade, still he himself was going, and that he, being
the son, and consequently the representative and heir of Henry, was,
as such, entitled to receive the bequest; so he called upon Tancred to
pay it.
After much negotiation, the dispute was settled by Richard's waiving
these claims, and arranging the matter on a new and different basis.
He had a nephew named Arthur. Arthur was yet very young, being only
about two years old; and as Richard had no children of his own, Arthur
was his presumptive heir. Tancred had a daughter, yet an infant. Now
it was finally proposed that Arthur and this young daughter of Tancred
should be affianced, and that Tancred should pay to Richard twenty
thousand pieces of gold as her dowry! Richard was, of course, to take
this money as the guardian and trustee of his nephew, and he was to
engage that, if any thing should occur hereafter to prevent the
marriage from taking place, he would refund the money. Tancred was
also to pay Richard twenty thousand pieces of gold besides, in full
settlement of all claims in behalf of Joanna. These terms were finally
agreed to on both sides.
Richard also entered into a league, offensive and defensive, with
Tancred, agreeing to assist him in maintaining his position as King of
Sicily against all his enemies. This is a very important circumstance
to be remembered, for the chief of Tancred's enemies was the Emperor
Henry of Germany, the prince who had married Constance, as has been
already related. Henry's father had died, and he had become Emperor of
Germany himself, and he now claimed Sicily as the inheritance of
Constance his wife, according to the will of King William, Joanna's
husband. Tancred, he maintained, was a usurper, and, of course, now
Richard, by his league, offensive and defensive, with Tancred, made
himself Henry's enemy. This led him into serious difficulty with Henry
at a subsequent period, as we shall by-and-by see.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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