Great Britain -- History -- Plantagenets, 1154-1399; Plantagenet, House of
He also made great provision for John. He had him married, as soon as
he could, to the heiress of Gloucester, to whom he had been so long
betrothed, although the archbishop protested that they were too near
akin. He gave him the counties of Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset,
Derby, and Nottingham, with divers other castles and honors; but he
would not recognize him as his heir or leave him with a settled share
in the government. The real power he placed in the hands of a man whom
he had found for himself, William Longchamp, who had gone through
the usual training in the Chancery, and whom he now made Chancellor
and Bishop of Ely. To him also he committed the justiciarship, in
partnership with the Bishop of Durham, after the death of William de
Mandeville, whom he had meant to leave as lieutenant-general of the
kingdom; and before his final departure on the Crusade he made him sole
Justiciar, and obtained for him the office of legate from Clement III.
[Sidenote:
Richard
starts on the
Crusade,
1190.
]
In order to remove the two greatest obstacles to peace he bound his two
brothers John and Geoffrey to stay away for three years from England,
so as to leave a clear stage for Longchamp. He then prepared for
his departure. He left England in December. After arranging matters
in Normandy and Poictou, he proceeded to Vezelai, whence he started
with Philip soon after midsummer. It may be said that, in spite of
good intentions, he took away with him the men whom it would have
been wisest to leave behind, Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury, Ranulf
Glanvill, and Hubert Walter, and left behind him the uneasy spirits
whom he might have made useful against the infidel, John, Geoffrey, and
Longchamp. And this the later history proves. At present we will follow
Richard.
[Sidenote:
The Third
Crusade.
]
The third Crusade, in which he was the foremost actor, is one of
the most interesting parts of the crusading history; the greatness
of the occasion, the greatness of the heroes, and the greatness of
the failure, mark it out especially. And yet it was not altogether
a failure, for it stayed the Western progress of Saladin, and Islam
never again had so great a captain. Jerusalem had been taken in the
autumn of 1187. The king had been taken prisoner in the summer. Before
or after the capture almost every stronghold had been surrendered
within the territory of Jerusalem. Saving the lordship of Tyre and
the principalities of Antioch and Tripoli, all the Frank possessions
had been lost, and only a few mountain fortresses kept up a hopeless
resistance. The counsels of the crusaders were divided; the military
orders hated and were hated by the Frank nobility; and these, with an
admixture of Western adventurers like Conrad of Montferrat, played fast
and loose with Saladin, betraying the interests of Christendom and
working up in their noble enemy a sum of mistrust and contempt which he
intended should accumulate till he could take full vengeance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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