indignation and hatred, it was told him, that the king of France had sent the above message relative to him to the king his brother. In consequence of this, the said earl of Mortaigne sent two knights in his behalf to the court of the king of France, who offered in every way to make proof that he was innocent of the said charge, or to defend him, according as the court of the king of France should think proper. But in this court there was not found a single person, either the king, or any one else, who was willing to receive this proof of the matter, or challenge of defence. In consequence of this, from this period the king of England received his brother John into greater favour, and gave less credit to the messages of the king of France. In the meantime, Richard, king of England, by the advice of Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, took away from Savaric, bishop of Bath, the abbey of Glastonbury, and gave it to Master William la Pie, on which he was made abbat thereof. At this period, Guidomar, viscount de Limoges, having found a great treasure of gold and silver on his lands, sent to Richard, king of England, his liege lord, no small part of the same; but the king refused it, saying that he ought in right of his grant to have the whole of the said treasure; a thing that the said viscount would on no account agree to. Accordingly, the king of England repaired with a large force to his territory, for the purpose of attacking the said viscount, and laid siege to his castle, the name of which was Chalus, in which he hoped that the said treasure was concealed; and when the knights and men-at-arms, who were in the castle, came forth and offered him the castle, on condition of safety to life and limb, and of retaining their arms, the king refused to receive it, but swore that he would take them by storm and hang them all. Accordingly, the knights and men-at-arms returned to the castle in sorrow and confusion, and prepared to make a defence. On the same day, when the king of England and Marchadès were reconnoitring the castle on all sides, and examining in which spot it would be most advisable to make the assault, a certain arbalister, Bertram de Gurdun25 by name, aimed an arrow from the castle, and struck the king on the arm, inflicting an incurable wound. The king, on being wounded, mounted his horse and rode to his quarters, and issued orders to Mar24 As lord of the demesne. 25 He is called Peter Basil by some writers. chades and the whole of the army to make assaults on the castle without intermission, until it should be taken; which was accordingly done. After its capture, the king ordered all the people to be hanged, him alone excepted who had wounded him, whom, as we may reasonably suppose, he would have condemned to a most shocking death if he had recovered. After this, the king gave himself into the hands of a physician of Marchadès, who, after attempting to extract the iron head, extracted the wood only, while the iron remained in the flesh; but after this butcher had carelessly mangled the king's arm in every part, he at last extracted the arrow. When the king was now in despair of surviving, he devised to his brother John the kingdom of England and all his other territories, and ordered fealty to be done to the aforesaid John by those who were present, and commanded that his castles should be delivered to him, and three-fourths of his treasures. All his jewels he devised to his nephew Otho, the king of Germany, and the fourth part of his treasure he ordered to be distributed among his servants and the poor. He then ordered Bertram de Gurdun, who had wounded him, to come into his presence, and said to him, "What harm have I done to you, that you have killed me?" On which he made answer, "You slew my father and my two brothers with your own hand, and you had intended now to kill me; therefore, take any revenge on me that you may think fit, for I will readily endure the greatest torments you can devise, so long as you have met with your end, after having inflicted evils so many and so great upon the world." On this, the king ordered him to be released, and said, "I forgive you my death." But the youth "stood before the feet of the king, and with scowling features, and undaunted neck, did his courage demand the sword. The king was aware that punishment was wished for, and that pardon was dreaded. 'Live on,' said he, although thou art unwilling, and by my bounty behold the light of day. To the conquered faction now let there be bright hopes, and the example of myself." And then, after being released from his 26 This is an adaptation from the Pharsalia of Lucan, where he describes the surrender of Domitius Ahenobarbus to Cæsar at Corfinium, B. ii. l. 510 -516. The following is the version in the text :"Constitit ante pedes regis, vultuque minaci, Nobilitas rectâ ferrum cervice proposcit; Sensit rex pœnamque peti, veniamque timeri; Vive, licet nolis, et nostro munere, dixit, 26 chains, he was allowed to depart, and the king ordered one hundred shillings of English money to be given him. Marchadès, however, the king not knowing of it, seized him, and after the king's death, first flaying him alive, had him hanged." The king then gave orders that his brains, his blood, and his entrails should be buried at Chalus, his heart at Rouen, and his body at at Fontevraud, at the feet of his father. He departed this life on the eighth day before the ides of April, being the third day of the week before Palm Sunday, and the twelfth day after he had been wounded; on which his people buried him in the above-named places, as he had commanded. In relation to his death, one writer says: "In this man's death, the lion by the ant was slain. O evil destiny! in a death so great the whole world fell." 729 Another wrote to this effect: "Valour,30 avarice, crime, unbounded lust, foul famine, unscrupulous pride, and blind desire, have reigned for twice five years; all these an archer did with art, hand, weapon, strength, lay prostrate.' 931 Another wrote thus, "If birth and prowess could have escaped the confines of death, I should not have entered on the path of fate. But think you the man exists, to whom, from the very first, death has announced his end, and repeats aloud, 'He is mine! he is my own!' Long is the hand of death; than mighty Hector is death more mighty; man takes cities, death, man.' 1932 Another has written these words: "His valour could no throng of mighty labours quell, whose way and onward progress no obstacles did retard, no roaring, no rage of the sea, no abysses of the deep, no mountain heights, no bold and steep ascent of the lofty range, no roughness of the path by rocks made rugged, no windings of the road, no devious unknown track, no fury of the winds, no clouds with showers drunk, no thunders, dreadful visitations, no murky air." 33 [None of Cerne diem. Victis jam spes bona partibus esto 27 The chronicle of Winchester says that this ruffianly Routier surrendered Gurdun to Joanna, the king's sister, and that she tore out his eyes. and put him to cruel tortures, in the midst of which he expired. 28 V. r. "ninth." 29 An hexameter and pentameter couplet. 30 Virtus" seems to be a more likely reading than "virus." this severe critic could hardly deny him the quality of valour. 31 This censure is conveyed in four leonine or rhyming lines. 32 Three elegiac couplets. 33 Eight hexameter lines. Even these dangers prevented him] from making trial of the prowess of the Sicilians, of Cyprus, of Saladin, of the pagan nations, in arms. "And with no lagging foot does the result follow upon the aspirations, together do they onward speed; at the same moment that the will is born, the result is born as well.” On the decease of king Richard, Savaric, bishop of Bath, immediately urged his claims against Master William La Pie, abbat of Glastonbury, and asserted his right before our lord the pope Innocent, in presence of all the cardinals, saying that Richard, king of England, had given him the said abbacy of Glastonbury, to hold the same for life, and that afterwards, listening to bad advice, he had unjustly taken it from him; he also constantly affirmed, being prepared in every way to prove the same, that in ancient times there was at Glastonbury an episcopal see, which is the one now at Bath; and he demanded restitution to be made to him thereof, that he might be enabled to transfer thither the episcopal see which is now at Bath. Immediately on the death of king Richard, Philip, king of France, made a hostile attack on the city of Evreux, and took it, and subjugated the whole of that county. In the same year, on Saint Patrick's day, that is, on the sixteenth day before the calends of April, being the fourth day of the week, Jocelyn, the venerable bishop of Glasgow, departed this life, at Melrose, of which place he had been the revered abbat; and was buried there, in the choir of the monks, on the northern side of the church. He On the death of pope Celestinus and the election of pope Innocent in his place, Canute, king of the Danes, sent envoys to Rome, to wait upon pope Innocent, and to complain to him of Philip, king of France, who had unjustly repudiated his wife Botilda, his sister, and taken another wife in her stead. also made complaint to our lord the pope, against William, archbishop of Rheims, and the other bishops, counts, and barons of France, through whom this divorce had been effected between the king of France, and queen Botilda, after appeal made by her to our lord the pope. Accordingly, at the instance of Canute, king of the Danes, our lord the pope Innocent gave orders to Peter of Capua, the cardinal, and legate of the Apostolic See, to use every possible endeavour to induce the king of France to put away his adulteress, and to take again his wife Botilda, and if he should not do so, to pronounce sentence of interdict upon the kingdom of France. KING JOHN. On the decease of Richard, king of England, John, earl of Mortaigne, his brother, who was then staying in Normandy, immediately sent to England, Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, and William Marshal, earl of Striguil, in order to preserve the peace in England, together with Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, the justiciary of England, and other barons of the kingdom. John himself then proceeded to Chinon, where the treasures of his brother were; which Robert de Turnham, who had the charge thereof, delivered up to him, together with the castle of Chinon, the castle of Saumur, and others of the king's castles of which he had the charge. Thomas de Furnes, however, the nephew of the before-named Robert de Turnham, delivered to Arthur, duke of Brittany, the city and castle of Anjou. For the chief men of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, had met together, and given in their adhesion to Arthur, duke of Brittany, as their liege lord, saying that it was their opinion and the custom of those parts, that the son of the elder brother should succeed to what was due to him as his patrimony, namely, the inheritance which Geoffrey, earl of Brittany, the father of Arthur, would have had if he had survived Richard, king of England, his brother; and, consequently, they delivered up to Arthur, Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. On this, Constance, countess of Brittany, the mother of Arthur, came to Touraine, and delivered to Philip, king of France, her son Arthur; whom the king of France immediately sent to Paris, to be placed in the charge of his son Louis, and seized the cities, castles, and fortresses that belonged to Arthur, and gave them in charge to keepers appointed by himself. John, earl of Mortaigne, however, came to Le Mans, and captured the castle and the city; after which, he levelled the walls of the city, the castle, and the houses in the city that were built of stone, and made the citizens prisoners, because they, against the fealty which they had sworn to himself, had received Arthur as their lord. John, earl of Mortaigne, was at Beaufort, in Anjou, on Easter day, which fell on the fourteenth day before the calends of May. The said earl then proceeded to Rouen, and, on the Lord's day, being the octave of Easter, and the seventh day before the calends of May, and the feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist, was girt with the sword |