In Roman times the town was known as Regina Castra and was probably one of the more important of the places along the frontier of Illyricum or those provinces of the Danube which, says Gibbon, were esteemed the most warlike of the empire. According to tradition it was the port at which many of the Western Crusaders commenced their voyage to the Holy Land, in evidence of which we have ballad testimony:-- “There came a bold crusader With fifty harnessed men, And he’s embarked at Ratisbon To fight the Saracen. This gallant knight, Sir Gottfried hight, Leads forth a noble band, Whose flag shall wave triumphantly In Judah’s hallowed land.” After the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Ratisbon was by no means allowed to fall back into a centre of peace, for history tells us, as has been said, that fourteen times was it besieged during something less than a thousand years. In the Thirty Years’ War its position made it a frequent storm centre, and thrice within eight years did it undergo bombardment. The wonder is that so much of the old place survives after such a record. The last of the fourteen attacks on it (21 April, 1809) is probably the best known, thanks to the mnemonic value of poetry, for it was then that the “Incident of the French Camp,” of which Robert Browning wrote, is supposed to have occurred. “You know we French stormed Ratisbon: A mile or so away On a little mound, Napoleon Stood on our storming day.... Out ’twixt the battery smokes there flew A rider, bound on bound Full-galloping; nor bridle drew Until he reached the mound.... ‘Well,’ cried he, ‘Emperor, by God’s grace We’ve got you Ratisbon! The Marshal’s in the market place, And you’ll be there anon To see your flag-bird flap his vans Where I, to heart’s desire, Perched him!’ The chief’s eyes flashed; his plans Soared up again like fire. The chief’s eye flashed; but presently Softened itself, as sheathes A film the mother-eagle’s eye When her bruised eaglet breathes: ‘You’re wounded!’ ‘Nay,’ his soldier’s pride Touched to the quick, he said: ‘I’m killed, Sire!’ And his chief beside, Smiling the boy fell dead.” Before leaving Ratisbon it may be recalled that it was here that Richard Cœur de Lion was sent as captive to the Emperor Henry the Sixth to be re-delivered to his captor and arch-foe Duke Leopold of Austria, who duly incarcerated him in a lonely Danube castle more than two hundred miles further down the river.