Kitobni o'qish: «Richard I», sahifa 4

Chapter VI.
Preparations for the Crusade

1189

Richard was thirty-two years of age at his accession

At the time of his accession to the throne, Richard, as has already been remarked, was about thirty-two years of age. On the following page you have a portrait of him, with the crown upon his head.

This portrait is taken from a sculpture on his tomb, and is undoubtedly a good representation of him as he appeared when he was alive.

His ardent desires for distinction in crusades

Motives of the crusaders

A strange delusion

The first thing that Richard turned his attention to, when he found himself securely seated on his throne, was the preparation for a crusade. It had been the height of his ambition for a long time to lead a crusade. It was undoubtedly through the influence of his mother, and of her early conversations with him, that he imbibed his extraordinary eagerness to seek adventures in the Holy Land. She had been a crusader herself during her first marriage, as has already been related in this volume, and she had undoubtedly, in Richard's early life, entertained him with a thousand stories of what she had seen, and of the romantic adventures which she had met with there. These stories, and the various conversations which arose out of them, kindled Richard's youthful imagination with ardent desires to go and distinguish himself on the same field. These desires had been greatly increased as Richard grew up to manhood by observing the exalted military glory to which successful crusaders attained. And then, besides this, Richard was endued with a sort of reckless and lion-like courage, which led him to look upon danger as a sport, and made him long for a field where there were plenty of enemies to fight, and enemies so abhorred by the whole Christian world that he could indulge in the excitement of hatred and rage against them without any restraint whatever. He could there satiate himself, too, with the luxury of killing men without any misgiving of conscience, or, at least, without any condemnation on the part of his fellow-men, for it was understood throughout Christendom that the crimes committed against the Saracens in the Holy Land were committed in the name of Christ. What a strange delusion! To think of honoring the memory of the meek and lowly Jesus by utterly disregarding his peaceful precepts and his loving and gentle example, and going forth in thousands to the work of murder, rapine, and devastation, in order to get possession of his tomb.

The preparations

Navies

Armies

Accoutrements

Customs of old times

In preparing for the crusade, the first and most important thing to be attended to, in Richard's view, was the raising of money. A great deal of money would be required, as has already been intimated, to fit out the expedition on the magnificent scale which Richard intended. There was a fleet of ships to be built and equipped, and stores of provisions to be put on board. There were armies to be levied and paid, and immense expenses were to be incurred in the manufacture of arms and ammunition. The armor and the arms used in those days, especially those worn by knights and noblemen, and the caparisons of the horses, were extremely costly. The armor was fashioned with great labor and skill out of plates or rings of steel, and the helmets, and the bucklers, and the swords, and all the military trappings of the horses and horsemen, being fashioned altogether by hand, required great labor and skill in the artisan who made them; and then, moreover, it was customary to decorate them very profusely with embroidery, and gold, and gems. At the present day, men display their wealth in the costliness of their houses, and the gorgeousness and luxury of the furniture which they contain. It is not considered in good taste – except for ladies – to make a display of wealth upon the person. In those days, however, the reverse was the case. The knights and barons lived in the rudest stone castles, dark and frowning without, and meagerly furnished and comfortless within, while all the means of display which the owners possessed were lavished in arming and decorating themselves and their horses magnificently for the field of battle.

Richard's reckless course

For all these things Richard knew that he should require a large sum of money, and he proceeded at once to carry into effect the most wasteful and reckless measures for obtaining it. His father, Henry the Second, had in various ways acquired a great many estates in different parts of the kingdom, which estates he had added to the royal domains. These Richard at once proceeded to sell to whomsoever would give the most for them. In this manner he disposed of a great number of castles, fortresses, and towns, so as greatly to diminish the value of the crown property. The purchasers of this property, if they had not money enough of their own to pay for what they bought, would borrow of the Jews. Some of the king's counselors remonstrated with him against this wasteful policy, but he replied that he needed money so much for the crusade, that, if necessary, he would sell the city of London itself to raise it, if he could only find a man rich enough to be the purchaser.

Richard sold lands, offices, and titles of honor

After having raised as much money as he could by the sale of the royal lands, the next resource to which Richard turned was the sale of public offices and titles of honor. He looked about the country for wealthy men, and he offered them severally high office on condition of their paying large sums of money into the treasury as a consideration for them. He sold titles of nobility, too, in the same way. If any man who was not rich held a high or important office, he would find some pretext for removing him, and then would offer the office for sale. One of the historians of those times says that at this period Richard's presence-chamber became a regular place of trade – like the counting-room of a merchant or an exchange – where every thing that could be derived from the bounty of the crown or bestowed by the royal prerogative was offered for sale in open market to the man who would give the best bargain for it.

Extortion under pretense of public justice

Another of the modes which the king adopted for raising money, and in some respects the worst of all, was to impose fines as a punishment for crime, and then, in order to make the fines produce as much as possible, every imaginable pretext was resorted to to charge wealthy persons with offenses, with a view of exacting large sums from them as the penalty. It was said that a great officer of state was charged with some offense, and was put in prison and not released until he had paid a fine of three thousand pounds.

One of the worst of these cases was that of his half-brother Geoffrey, the son of Rosamond. Geoffrey had been appointed Archbishop of York in accordance with the wish that his father Henry had expressed on his death-bed. Richard pretended to be displeased with this. Perhaps he wished to have had that office to dispose of like the rest. At any rate, he exacted a very large sum from Geoffrey as the condition on which he would "grant him his peace," as he termed it, and Geoffrey paid the money.

Creating a regency

Richard's regents

John's acquiescence

When, by these and other similar means, Richard had raised all that he could in England, he prepared to cross the Channel into Normandy, in order to see what more he could do there. Before he went, however, he had first to make arrangements for a regency to govern England while he should be away. This is always the custom in monarchical countries. Whenever, for any reason, the true sovereign can not personally exercise the supreme power, whether from minority, insanity, long-continued sickness, or protracted absence from the realm, a regency, as it is called, is created to govern the kingdom in his stead. The person appointed to act as regent is usually some near relation of the king. Richard's brother John hoped to be made regent, but this did not suit Richard's views, for he wished to make this office the means, as all the others had been, of raising money, and John had no money to give. For the same reason, he could not appoint his mother, who in other respects would have been a very suitable person. So Richard contrived a sort of middle course. He sold the nominal regency to two wealthy courtiers, whom he associated together for the purpose. One was a bishop, and the other was an earl. It may, perhaps, be too much to say that he directly sold them the office, but, at any rate, he appointed them jointly to it, and under the arrangement that was made he received a large sum of money. He, however, stipulated that John, and also his mother, should have a large share of influence in deciding upon all the measures of the government. John would have been by no means satisfied with this divided and uncertain share of power were it not that he was so desirous of favoring the expedition in every possible way, in hopes that if Richard could once get to the Holy Land he would soon perish there, and that then he should be king altogether. It was of comparatively little consequence who was regent in the mean time. So he resolved to make no objection to any plan that the king might propose.

The time for sailing appointed

Richard was now ready to cross to Normandy; but just before he went there came a deputation from Philip to consult with him in respect to the plans of the crusade, and to fix upon the time for setting out. The time proposed by Philip was the latter part of March. It was now late in the fall. It would not be safe to set out before March on account of the inclemency of the season, and Richard supposed that he should have ample time to complete his preparations by the time that Philip named. So both parties agreed to it, and they took a solemn oath on both sides that they would all be ready without fail.

Richard crosses the Channel

Soon after this Richard took leave of his friends, and, accompanied by a long retinue of earls, barons, knights, and other adventurers who were to accompany him to the Holy Land, he left England, and crossed the Channel to Normandy.

Fears of treachery

The treaty of alliance between Richard and Philip

In such cases as this there are always a great many last words to be said and a great many last arrangements to be made, and Richard found it necessary to see his mother and his brother John again before finally taking his departure from Europe. So he sent for them to come to Normandy, and there another great council of state was held, at which every thing in relation to the internal affairs of his dominions was finally arranged. There was still one other danger to be guarded against, and that was some treachery on the part of Philip himself. So little reliance did these valiant champions of Christianity place in each other in those days, that both Richard and Philip, in joining together to form this expedition, had many misgivings and suspicions in respect to each other's honesty. Undoubtedly neither of them would have thought it safe to leave his dominions and go on a crusade unless the other had been going too. The one left behind would have been sure to have found some pretext, during the absence of his neighbor, to invade his dominions and plunder him of some of his possessions. This was one reason why the two kings had agreed to go together; and now, as an additional safeguard, they made a formal treaty of alliance and fraternity, in which they bound themselves by the most solemn oaths to stand by each other, and to be faithful and true to each other to the last. They agreed that each would defend the life and honor of the other on all occasions; that neither would desert the other in the hour of danger; and that, in respect to the dominions that they were respectively to leave behind them, neither would form any designs against the other, but that Philip would cherish and protect the rights of Richard even as he would protect his own city of Paris, and that Richard would do the like by Philip, even as he would protect his own city of Rouen.

It is a curious circumstance that in this treaty Richard should name Rouen, and not London, as his principal capital. It confirms what is known in many other ways, that the kings of this line, reigning over both Normandy and England, considered Normandy as the chief centre of their power, and England as subordinate. It may be, however, that one reason why Rouen was named in this instance may have been because it was nearer to the dominions of the King of France, and so better known to him.

Completion of the preparations

This treaty was signed in February, and the preparations were now nearly complete for setting forth on the expedition in March, at the appointed time.

Chapter VII.
The Embarkation

1190

The plan of embarking the troops

The plan which Richard had formed for conveying his expedition to the Holy Land was to embark it on board a fleet of ships which he was sending round to Marseilles for this purpose, with orders to await him there. Marseilles is in the south of France, not far from the Mediterranean Sea. Richard might have embarked his troops in the English Channel; but that, as the reader will see from looking on the map of Europe, would require them to take a long sea voyage around the coasts of France and Spain, and through the Straits of Gibraltar. Richard thought it best to avoid this long circuit for his troops, and so he sent the ships round, with no more men on board than necessary to manœuvre them, while he marched his army across France by land.

The English fleet

As for Philip, he had no ships of his own. England was a maritime country, and had long possessed a fleet. This fleet had been very much increased by the exertions of Henry the Second, Richard's father, who had built several new ships, some of them of very large size, expressly for the purpose of transporting troops to Palestine. Henry himself did not live to execute his plans, and so he left his ships for Richard.

The French forces

France, on the other hand, was not then a maritime country. Most of the harbors on the northern coast belonged to Normandy, and even at the south the ports did not belong to the King of France. Philip, therefore, had no fleet of his own, but he had made arrangements with the republic of Genoa to furnish him with ships, and so his plan was to march over the mountains to that city and embark there, while Richard should go south to Marseilles.

Richard's rules

Richard drew up a curious set of rules and regulations for the government of this fleet while it was making the passage. Some of the rules were the following:

1. That if any man killed another, the murderer was to be lashed to the dead body and buried alive with it, if the murder was committed in port or on the land. If the crime was committed at sea, then the two bodies, bound together as before, were to be launched overboard.

2. If any man, with a knife or with any other weapon, struck another so as to draw blood, then he was to be punished by being ducked three times over head and ears by being let down from the yard-arm of the ship into the sea.

3. For all sorts of profane and abusive language, the punishment was a fine of an ounce of silver for each offense.

4. Any man convicted of theft, or "pickerie" as it was called, was to have his head shaved and hot pitch poured over it, and upon that the feathers of some pillow or cushion were to be shaken. The offender was then to be turned ashore on the first land that the ship might reach, and there be abandoned to his fate.

The origin of tarring and feathering

The penalty named in this last article is the first instance in which any account of the punishment of tarring and feathering is mentioned, and this is supposed to be the origin of that extraordinary and very cruel mode of punishment.

Command of the fleet

The king put the fleet under the command of three grand officers of his court, and he commanded all his seamen and marines to obey them strictly in all things, as they would obey the king himself if he had been on board.

The fleet dispersed by a storm

A delay in Lisbon

The fleet met with a great variety of adventures on its way to Marseilles. It had not proceeded far before a great tempest arose, and scattered the ships in every direction. At last, a considerable number of them succeeded in making their way, in a disabled condition, into the Tagus, in order to seek succor in Lisbon. The King of Portugal was at this time at war with the Moors, who had come over from Africa and invaded his dominions. He proposed to the Crusaders on board the ships to wait a little while, and assist him in fighting the Moors. "They are as great infidels," said he, "as any that you will find in the Holy Land." The commanders of the fleet acceded to this proposal, but the crews, when they were landed, soon made so many riots in Lisbon, and involved themselves in such frequent and bloody affrays with the people of the city, that the King of Portugal was soon eager to send them away; so, in due time, they embarked again, in order to continue their voyage.

The rendezvous at Vezelai

Devastation by the armies

In the mean time, while the fleet was thus going round by sea, Richard and Philip were engaged in assembling their forces and making preparation to march by land. The two armies, when finally organized, came together at a place of rendezvous called Vezelai, where there were great plains suitable for the camping-ground of a great military force. Vezelai was on the road to Lyons, and the armies, after they had met, marched in company to the latter city. The number of troops assembled was very great. The united army amounted, it is said, to one hundred thousand men. This was a very large force for those days. The great difficulty was to find provision for them from day to day during the march. Supplies of provisions for such a host can not be carried far, so that armies are obliged to live on the produce of the country that they march through, which is collected for this purpose by foragers from day to day. The allied armies, as they moved slowly on, impoverished and distressed the whole country through which they passed, by devouring every thing that the people had in store. At length, after marching together for some time, they came to the place where the roads separated, and King Philip turned off to the left in order to proceed through the passes of the Alps toward Genoa, while Richard and his hosts proceeded southward toward Marseilles.

When he reached Marseilles, Richard found that his fleet had not arrived. The delay was occasioned by the storm, and the subsequent detention of the crews at Lisbon. And yet this was very long after the time originally appointed for the sailing of the expedition. The time first appointed was the last of March; but Philip could not go at that time, on account of the death of his queen, which took place just before the appointed period. Nor was Richard himself ready. It was not until the thirtieth of August that the fleet arrived at Marseilles.

Richard goes to the East in advance of his fleet

When Richard found that the fleet had not come he was greatly disappointed. He had no means of knowing when to expect it, for there were no postal or other communications across the country in those days, as now, by which tidings could be conveyed to him. He waited eight days very impatiently, and then concluded to go on himself toward the East, and leave orders for the fleet to follow him. So he hired ten large vessels and twenty galleys of the merchants of Marseilles, and in these he embarked a portion of his forces, leaving the rest to come in the great fleet when it should arrive. They were to proceed to Messina in Sicily, where Richard was to join them. With the vessels that he had hired he proceeded along the coast to Genoa, where he found Philip, the French king, who had arrived there safely before him by land.

The rendezvous at Messina

Joanna

Richard's visit

From Marseilles to Genoa the course lies toward the northeast along the coast of France. Thence, in going toward Messina, it turns toward the southeast, and follows the coast of Italy. The route may be traced very easily on any map of modern Europe. The reason why Messina had been appointed as the great intermediate rendezvous of the fleet was two-fold. In the first place, it was a convenient port for this purpose, being a good harbor, and being favorably situated about midway of the voyage. Then, besides, Richard had a sister residing there. Her name was Joanna. She had married the king of the country. Her husband had died, it is true, and she was, at that time in some sense retired from public life. She was, indeed, in some distress, for the throne had been seized by a certain Tancred, who was her enemy, and, as she maintained, not the rightful successor of her husband. So Richard resolved, in stopping at Messina, to inquire into and redress his sister's wrongs; or, rather, he thought the occasion offered him a favorable opportunity to interfere in the affairs of Sicily, and to lord it over the government and people there in his usual arrogant and domineering manner.

King Richard's excursions

Ostia

After waiting a short time at Genoa, Richard set sail again in one of his small vessels, and proceeded to the southward along the coast of Italy. He touched at several places on the coast, in order to visit celebrated cities or other places of interest. He sailed up the River Arno, which you will find, on the map, flowing into the Gulf of Genoa a little to the northward of Leghorn. There are two renowned cities on this river, which are very much visited by tourists and travelers of the present day, Florence and Pisa. Pisa is near the mouth of the river. Florence is much farther inland. Richard sailed up as far as Pisa. After visiting that city, he returned again to the mouth of the river, and then proceeded on his way down the coast until he came to the Tiber, and entered that river. He landed at Ostia, a small port near the mouth of it – the port, in fact, of Rome. One reason why he landed at Ostia was that the galley in which he was making the voyage required some repairs, and this was a convenient place for making them.

A quarrel

Why Richard quarreled with the bishop

Perhaps, too, it was his intention to visit Rome; but while at Ostia he became involved in a quarrel with the bishop that resided there, which led him at length to leave Ostia abruptly, and to refuse to go to Rome. The cause of the quarrel was the bishop's asking him to pay some money that he owed the Pope. In all the Catholic countries of Europe, in those days, there were certain taxes and fees that were collected for the Pope, the income from which was of great importance in making up the papal revenues. Now Richard, in his eagerness to secure all the money he could obtain in England to supply his wants for the crusade, had appropriated to his own use certain of these church funds, and the bishop now called upon him to reimburse them. This application, as might have been expected, made Richard extremely angry. He assailed the bishop with the most violent and abusive language, and charged all sorts of corruption and wickedness against the papal government itself. These charges may have been true, but the occasion of being called upon to pay a debt was not the proper time for making them. To make the faults or misconduct of others, whether real or pretended, an excuse for not rendering them their just dues, is a very base proceeding.

As soon as Richard's galley was repaired, he embarked on board of it in a rage, and sailed away. The next point at which he landed was Naples.

Naples and Vesuvius

The crypt

Richard was greatly delighted with the city of Naples, which, rising as it does from the shores of an enchanting bay, and near the base of the volcano Vesuvius, has long been celebrated for the romantic beauty of its situation. Richard remained at Naples several days. There is an account of his going, while there, to perform his devotions in the crypt of a church. The crypt is a subterranean apartment beneath the church, the floors above it, as well as the pillars and walls of the church, being supported by immense piers and arches, which give the crypt the appearance of a dungeon. The place is commonly used for tombs and places of sepulture for the dead. In the crypt where Richard worshiped at Naples, the dead bodies were arranged in niches all around the walls. They were dressed as they had been when alive, and their countenances, dry and shriveled, were exposed to view, presenting a ghastly and horrid spectacle. It was such means as these that were resorted to, in the Middle Ages, for making religious impressions on the minds of men.

Salerno

Richard's visit there

After spending some days in Naples, Richard concluded that he would continue his route; but, instead of embarking at once on board his galley, he determined to go across the mountains by land to Salerno, which town lies on the sea-coast at some distance south of Naples. By looking at any map of Italy, you will observe that a great promontory puts out into the sea just below Naples, forming the Gulf of Salerno on the south side of it. The pass through the mountains which Richard followed led across the neck of this promontory. His galley, together with the other galleys that accompanied him, he sent round by water. There was a great deal to interest him at Salerno, for it was a place where many parties of crusaders, Normans among the rest, had landed before, and they had built churches and monasteries, and founded institutions of learning there, all of which Richard was much interested in visiting.

The fleet

Richard pursuing his journey along the coast of the Mediterranean

He accordingly remained in Salerno several days, until at length his fleet of galleys, which had come round from Naples by sea, arrived. Richard, however, in the mean time, had found traveling by land so agreeable, that he concluded to continue his journey in that way, leaving his fleet to sail down the coast, keeping all the time as near as possible to the shore. The king himself rode on upon the land, accompanied by a very small troop of attendants. His way led him sometimes among the mountains of the interior, and sometimes near the margin of the shore. At some points, where the road approached so near to the cliffs as to afford a good view of the sea, the fleet of galleys were to be seen in the offing prosperously pursuing their voyage.

Richard's tyrannical disposition

The king went on in this way till he reached Calabria, which is the country situated in the southern portion of Italy. The roads here were very bad, and as the autumn was now coming on, many of the streams became so swollen with rains that it was difficult sometimes for him to proceed on his way. At one time, while he was thus journeying, he became involved in a difficulty with a party of peasants which was extremely discreditable to him, and exhibits his character in a very unfavorable light. It seems that he was traveling by an obscure country road, in company with only a single attendant, when he happened to pass by a village, where he was told a peasant lived who had a very fine hunting hawk or falcon. Hunting by means of these hawks was a common amusement of the knights and nobles of those days; and Richard, when he heard about this hawk, said that a plain countryman had no business with such a bird. He declared that he would go to his house and take it away from him. This act, so characteristic of the despotic arrogance which marked Richard's character, shows that the reckless ferocity for which he was so renowned was not softened or alleviated by any true and genuine nobleness or generosity. For a rich and powerful king thus to rob a poor, helpless peasant, and on such a pretext too, was as base a deed as we can well conceive a royal personage to perform.

Stealing the falcon

Richard flees to a priory to escape the peasants

Richard at once proceeded to carry his design into execution. He went into the peasant's house, and having, under some pretext or other, got possession of the falcon, he began to ride away with the bird on his wrist. The peasant called out to him to give him back his bird. Richard paid no attention to him, but rode on. The peasant then called for help, and other villagers joining him, they followed the king, each one having seized in the mean time such weapons as came most readily to hand. They surrounded the king in order to take the falcon away, while he attempted to beat them off with his sword. Pretty soon he broke his sword by a blow which he struck at one of the peasants, and then he was in a great measure defenseless. His only safety now was in flight. He contrived to force his way through the circle that surrounded him, and began to gallop away, followed by his attendant. At length he succeeded in reaching a priory, where he was received and protected from farther danger, having, in the mean time, given up the falcon. When the excitement had subsided he resumed his journey, and at length, without any farther adventures, reached the coast at the point nearest to Sicily. Here he passed the night in a tent, which he pitched upon the rocks on the shore, waiting for arrangements to be made on the next day for his public entrance into the harbor of Messina, which lay just opposite to him, across the narrow strait that here separates the island of Sicily from the main land.