[MR] Shocking news of King Richard of England

[Karen Setze]

Citizens of Atlantia:

I, Lady Yseulte Trevelyn, of Bright Hills, am most distressed that I must convey shocking news regarding King Richard of England: he is being held captive by the ruler of a Christian nation! You will recall my telling you that on his journey home from crusade, King Richard disappeared after he sailed from Acre on the feast of St. Denis. A few months later, his mother, Queen Eleanor, received a letter from Hubert Walter, the Bishop of Salisbury, warning of a secret agreement between King Philip of France and Henry VI, the German emperor, which made it too dangerous for Richard to land anywhere on the coasts of Spain, France or Italy. And not long ago the Queen received word that His Grace had been rescued from shipwreck near Famagusta, a city on the Adriatic coast.

But now we know that King Richard has been imprisoned. Let me share with you a most terrible letter, and you shall read of this unholy act from the pen of the criminal himself, Henry of Hohenstaufen, who enjoys the most ironic title of Holy Roman Emperor.

Henry, by the grace of God, emperor of the Romans and ever august, to his beloved and especial friend, Philip, the illustrious king of the Franks, health and sincere love and affection. 

Inasmuch as our imperial highness does not doubt that your royal mightiness will be delighted at all things in which the omnipotence of the Creator has honored and exalted ourselves and the Roman Empire, we have thought proper to inform your nobleness by means of these presents, that while the enemy of our empire and the disturber of your kingdom, Richard, king of England, was crossing the sea for the purpose of returning to his dominions, it so happened that the winds brought him, the ship being wrecked on board of which he was, to the region of Istria, at a place which lies between Aquileia and Venice, where by the sanction of God, the king having suffered shipwreck, escaped together with a few others.

The roads, however, being watched, and guards being set on every side, our dearly-beloved cousin Leopold, duke of Austria, captured the king in a humble house in a village in the vicinity of Vienna. Inasmuch as he is now in our power, and has always done his utmost for your annoyance and disturbance, what we have above stated we have thought proper to notify to your nobleness, knowing that the same is well pleasing to your kindly affection for us, and will afford most abundant joy to your own feelings.

Given at Creutz, on the fifth day before the calends of January.

A copy of this outrageous letter had found its way into the hands of Walter of Coutances, archbishop of Rouen in Normandy, an obviously resourceful churchman loyal to the rightful king of England and duke of Normandy, who immediately dispatched copies to England, including to my confidant, Hugh de Puiset, the bishop of Durham.

Allow me to share with you the archbishop’s letter as well.
 
To his venerable brother in Christ and his most dearly-beloved friend Hugh, by the grace of God, bishop of Durham, Walter, by the same grace, archbishop of Rouen, health in all that is truly healthful. 

Various rumors having been spread abroad relative to the arrival of the king, at length, as the truth could no longer be concealed, everything relative thereto has become known to us. For he, who for the sake of God exhausted all his patrimony, and indifferently entrusted the blood of himself and his subjects to the fortune of war, deserved in all his wanderings to have received the protection of God. But this adversity, which is so opposed to our good wishes, is a test of his virtues, and not a mark of censure.

We have thought proper to transmit to you a copy of a letter of the emperor of Germany, which he sent to the king of the Franks, relative to the capture of our lord, the king of England, folded within this present page.

It is our hope that King Richard may be found and possibly rescued before the feast of the Archangel Raphael, October 24, when Her Majesty, Queen Eleanor has planned to join Baroness Martelle von Charlottenburg, and other faithful subjects at Nottingham Castle for feasting and tournaments.  

Farewell.

Given on this, the eve of the feast of St. Macarius the elder, at the cathedral of Rouen.