[MR] King Richard faces his accusers

[Karen Setze]

Fellow Atlantians:

For those who have shared my concern over the fate of King Richard of England, imprisoned on his journey home from crusade by the German emperor, I have news, from those who have seen the king and seen how regally he conducts himself. The abbots sent to find the king have returned and reported to the court when my confessor, the bishop of Durham, was in attendance and he has told me about it in a letter. Allow me to share his words with you:

After having passed through the whole of Germany, and not finding the king, the abbots entered Bavaria, and met the king at a town, the name of which is Oxefer, which is a few days journey from the place where he was to be brought before the emperor, to hold a conference with him, on Palm Sunday. On hearing that the abbots had come from England, the king showed himself courteous and affable to them; making enquiries about the state of his kingdom and the fidelity of his subjects, and the health and prosperity of the king of Scotland, in whose fidelity he placed a very strong reliance: on which they testified to what they had heard and seen.

A conference accordingly taking place between them, the king made complaint of the treachery of is brother John, the earl of Mortaigne, on whom he had conferred so many favours and boundless honors, and who had thrown himself into the hands of the king of France against him, and having broken the ties of brotherhood, had made a league with death and a compact with hell. The king, though greatly afflicted upon this subject, suddenly broke forth into these words of consolation, saying,

“My brother John is not the man to subjugate a country, if there is a person able to make the slightest resistance to his attempts.”

During his journey of three days, while on the road to meet the emperor, it was to the admiration of all, how boldly, how courteously, and how becomingly the king behaved himself, and they judged him worthy of the imperial elevation who so thoroughly understood the arts of command, and how, with uniform self-possession, to rise superior to the two-faced events of fortune.

On Palm Sunday, after he had held a conference by messengers with the emperor, they were unable on that day to have an interview with him, because the emperor made of him many demands, to which the king had determined not to yield, even though his life should be perilled thereby. On the morrow, however, while all were despairing, with joyous success ensued joyous consolation. But it began with the king on trial before the princes and nobles of the empire.

The emperor accused him of many things, and charged him with many misdeeds, both on his own behalf, and also that of the king of France. The king, they said, betrayed the Holy Land (because of the peace he had made with Saladin), arranged for the death of the marquis of Montferrat on the eve of his coronation as king of Jerusalem, treacherously destroyed the defences of Ascalon, and broke agreements with the emperor, because of the king’s alliance with Tancred of Sicily). 

The king spoke in his own defense. Of the anger of the king of France, he said,

	"I know nothing that ought to have brought on me this ill -- except for my having been more successful than he."

Our king told the court the full story of the crusade, from the attack on Messina to the final agreement with Saladin, leader of the Saracens, and the reasons for his return.

	"Murder," he said, speaking of the death of Conrad of Montferrat, "is foreign to my character. I have not hitherto evinced such a dread of my enemies as men would believe me capable of attacking their lives otherwise than sword in hand."

Of the gifts exchanged with Saladin, he said,

	"The king of France received some as well as myself. These are civilities which brave men during war perform towards one another without ill consequences."

He also explained his restraint in refusing to take Jerusalem while he was there.

	"It is said I have not taken Jerusalem. I should have taken it, if time had been given me; this is the fault of my enemies, not mine, and I believe no just man could blame me for having deferred an enterprise (which can always be undertaken) in order to afford my people a succor which they could no longer wait for. There, Sire, these are my crimes."

He ended his speech by walking towards the emperor's throne and kneeling before him. And with tears streaming down his face, the emperor rose, lifted up the king and gave him the kiss of peace. And many of those in attendance wept also for joy.

The next day, the terms of the king's release were revealed. In London, the abbots reported the terms were that the king of England shall give to the emperor of the Romans one hundred thousand silver marks as his ransom, and shall find fifty galleys, with all their equipments, and twenty knights for his service for one year.

And now, Lady Yseulte, while the king believes he may borrow this sum from the Cathedral at Canterbury, and therefore may be back in England in time to join his mother in traveling to Nottingham Castle, where Baroness Martelle of Bright Hills has planned games and a feast, I am not so sanguine. There is no church in all of England that could, of its own resources, raise such a sum. 

So now, we, like England , must wait for word from her king on how his release shall be effectuated.

Lady Yseulte Trevelyn, of the barony of Bright Hills