Richard Strongbow. DIED A. D. 1177. RICHARD DE CLARE, surnamed Strongbow, Earl of Strigul, or Pembroke, distinguished himself, during the reign of Henry II., by his adventures and success in Ireland. That country was, at this time, divided into five independent states,-Munster, Meath, Ulster, Leinster, and Connaught, of which the kingdom of Meath, though the smallest in extent, was the most distinguished. Little communication had hitherto taken place between any of these states and the adjacent kingdom of England. The event, which brought them into hostile collision, sufficiently marks the rude character of the times. Dermod, or Dermot, king of Leinster, had, several years before, carried away by force Dervorgil, the wife of O'Ruarc, prince of Leitrim. The lady appears to have been little averse to the transaction; but the insulted husband resented the indignity, by invoking the aid of his brotherchiefs, before whose united forces Dermot fled, and sought safety in exile. Passing through England, he proceeded to Aquitaine, where he endeavoured to engage Henry in his quarrel, by doing him homage for his dominions. The English sovereign received him graciously, and granted him letters-patent, declaring that he had taken him under his protection, and authorizing any English subjects to assist him in recovering his kingdom. With these letters Dermot sailed to Bristol, where he entered into a negotiation with Richard De Clare, a nobleman of ruined fortunes, and lying at the moment under the displeasure of his sovereign. Dermot promised to bestow the hand of his daughter, Eva, upon De Clare, and with it the succession to his kingdom in the event of his reconquering it; and De Clare pledged himself to attempt the enterprise in the ensuing spring. After concluding this treaty, Dermot went into Wales, and there found another needy adventurer, Robert Fitz-Stephen, who was willing to engage with him. The city of Wexford, and two adjoining cantreds, were to be the reward of the Welshman's valour. Assisted by his Welsh allies, Dermot began the enterprise to recover his dominions, and was so far successful, that he soon began to aspire to the sovereignty of all Ireland. A pressing message was sent to Strongbow to accelerate his arrival, accompanied with such representations as could not fail to excite his ambition and cupidity. Giraldus has preserved one of Dermot's epistles to his ally. It is conceived in a tone little indicative certainly of the ferocious and savage character attributed to that chieftain. "We have seen," says he," the storks and the swallows. The birds of the spring have paid us their annual visit; and, at the warning of the blast, have departed to other climes. But our best friend has hitherto disappointed our hopes. Neither the breezes of summer, nor the storms of winter, have conducted him to these shores." The English earl was indeed ready and eager for the enterprise; but, as the object was avowedly no longer the restoration of Dermot, but the conquest of the whole country, he durst not venture to embark in it without the permission of his sover 'Girald. Hib. expugn. c. i. p. 760.-Lingard, vol. ¡i. p. 103. eign, to obtain which, he went over to Normandy; but, in the meantime, he despatched a reinforcement to Dermot, under charge of Raymond, a youth of his own family. Nothing can more forcibly imply the uncivilized state of the Irish at this time, than the success of this small band, consisting of only 10 knights and 70 archers. Though opposed by O'Phelan at the head of 3000 men, they utterly defeated their assailants, and slew above 800 of them. Giraldus describes O'Phelan's force as consisting of naked savages, armed with lances, hatches, and stones, and who were powerless, therefore, before men armed with sword and shield, and well practised in military evolutions. Henry received Strongbow's application with a sneer, and seemed disposed to discountenance the attempt; but, having at length let fall some expression, which might be construed into a kind of permission, the earl eagerly laid hold of it, and, hastening back to England, pushed his preparations with the greatest vigour. Before they were completed, he received positive orders from his sovereign to desist from his enterprise; but, as he had already staked all upon the issue of his enterprise, he resolved to push it to the last, and, sailing from Milford-haven, landed near Waterford, on the 23d of August, 1170, with a body of 1200 archers and knights. Here he was joined by Dermot, and received his daughter in marriage, after which, their united forces marched against Dublin, and took that city by storm. A few months afterwards Dermot died at Fernes, and was succeeded, in the sovereignty of Leinster, by his son-in-law, Earl Strongbow, without any opposition. These successes alarmed Henry, who issued an edict, forbidding more adventurers to go to Ireland, and commanding the victors to return. Among others, Strongbow yielded to a power too great for him to resist, and reluctantly made his peace with his offended sovereign, by laying his conquests at his feet. Henry permitted him to retain a great part of the kingdom of Leinster, to be held of the crown of England, but took the city of Dublin, and all the towns on the coast, into his own hands. Two years afterwards, Strongbow's services to Henry, during the rebellion of his sons, were rewarded by his appointment to the government of Ireland, in room of Hugh De Lacy, which appointment he held until his death, in 1177. Richard E. BORN A. D. 1157.-DIED A. D. 1199. RICHARD, trained to war from his earliest years in Poitou, had obtained the epithet of the Lion, expressive of his indomitable courage, before the succession to the throne was opened up to him by the death of his elder brothers. War had become to him his natural element, and the encounter of martial hosts his most keenly relished pastime. Poetry, too, had flung her spells over him, and taught him to seek his best celebrity in the songs of the gay troubadour and the admiration of the young and the beautiful. It is not wonderful then that he soon abandoned the fascination of empire and the luxuries of royalty for the ro 'Neubrigen. 1. ii. c. 26. 6 mantic life of a crusader. He began his reign magnanimously by retaining and rewarding the ministers who, in their fidelity to his father, had most vigorously opposed himself; and loading his younger brother with riches and honours. He also released his mother from her long confinement, and affectionately placed in her hands an amount of power to which she had long been a stranger. Even Geoffrey, his father's natural son, was not forgotten, but rewarded for his faithful services to his parents with the bishopric of York. One event, however, occurred to disgrace his splendid coronation. The prejudices of the age which viewed the lending of money on interest as a base and usurious transaction, had conspired with the chivalrous ethics' of the day to render the Jews, not a by-word and a reproach merely, but objects of unaffected terror and hatred. Richard had already imbibed too much of the feelings and manners of the crusaders not to share in this prejudice; and on the day before his coronation was to take place, had issued an edict prohibiting Hebrew men and women to be present at the ceremony. A few of the leading Jews, notwithstanding, ventured themselves within the prohibited precincts. Their object was to present the new king with an offering from their nation, and perhaps to solicit a continuance of that protection which his father, though often importuned to act otherwise, had always extended towards them. One of the attendants discovered a Jew pressing into the hall and gave the alarm, whereupon the courtiers commenced a general attack on all the Jews whom they could detect within the building, and drove them with blows and contumely from the place. The mob without eagerly caught the example thus set them by their superiors, and animated partly by cupidity, partly by the intensity of their ignorant prejudices, began to wound and kill the defenceless men as they fled along the streets, and to follow them into their houses. The Jews took the alarm, and barricadoed their doors, but the rabble, now-furiously excited, set fire to the houses, and consumed multitudes of the miserable creatures in the flames of their own dwellings. Glanville, the king's justiciary, in vain endeavoured to appease the rioters, and even Richard himself was baffled for a time in his efforts to disperse them.1 The example thus set by the citizens of London was eagerly imitated in other places, as Lynn, Stamford, Lincoln, and York; and so far were the ministers of religion and the monks from disapproving of it, that the compiler of the Annals of Waverley, after relating the transaction, returns thanks to the Almighty for having thus delivered over so impious a race to destruction at the hands of his countrymen.2 The fame of the terrible Saladin was now ringing throughout Europe, and Richard burned with all a hero's impatience to encounter the man who had yet met with no rival able to withstand him in the field. But, for an expedition such as he meditated, immense supplies of money were necessary; and the measures to which he had recourse for raising them were not in every case of the most justifiable or honourable kind. To the mass of treasure found in his father's coffers at Winchester, amounting, according to some writers, to £900,000, he added all that he could raise from the sale of the revenues and manors of the crown; even the highest honours and most important offices Fleming, 517. 2 Gale's Collect. vol. iii. p. 165. were made venal; and when some of his friends remonstrated with him at this dissipation of the royal revenues and power, he is said to have replied, "I would sell London itself, could I find a purchaser!" For the small sum of 10,000 marks, he released William of Scotland from the oath of fealty and allegiance to the English crown, which Henry had extorted from him as the price of his ransom after taking him prisoner at Alnwick. Richard had promised to make his crusade in concert with Philip of France. The place of rendezvous was the plains of Vezelay, on the borders of Burgundy. Hither Richard hastened in the month of June 1190, after having appointed Hugh, bishop of Durham, and Longchamp, bishop of Ely, justiciaries and guardians of the realm in his absence. The assembled forces of the two monarchs amounted to 100,000 men; and profiting by the sad experience of the leaders of former crusades, they wisely agreed to conduct their expedition by sea, instead of marching by land into the east. Philip took the road to Genoa, Richard to that of Marseilles, where he expected to meet his fleet. A storm had retarded the English vessels, but the impetuous monarch instantly put to sea, and sailed without it; leaving directions to his army and fleet to follow him to Sicily without delay. The French reached Messina on the 16th of September, the English six days afterwards. The lateness of the season and the state of the weather suggested the expediency of wintering at Messina. But the resolution proved fatal to the harmony of the royal pilgrims. Tancred, prince of Sicily, saw and secretly fomented the growing jealousy as the best means of preserving the integrity of his own dominions, which both monarchs seemed disposed to use as their convenience suggested. He succeeded too well in his base policy, but the two monarchs, after many scenes of angry recrimination, became at last sensible of the imprudence of their quarrel, and agreed to reconcile differences, and pursue the common cause as brothers in arms.* On the 10th of April, Richard sailed from Messina with a fleet of 55 galleys and 150 ships. A storm overtook them, and the ship which conveyed his sister, and the princess Berengaria of Navarre, his espoused, was driven into Cyprus, then governed by Isaac, a prince of the Comnenian family, who received the ladies with open marks of discourtesy, and afterwards treated Richard's remonstrances with contempt. Richard instantly landed his whole army to chastise the insolence of the petty chief, and having surprised Comnenus in his camp, compelled him to pay 3500 marks of gold, and to swear fealty to the English crown. On his subsequently manifesting a disposition to violate his engagements, Richard ordered him to be bound in chains of gold and silver, and confined in a castle on the coast of Palestine.5 While thus engaged in Cyprus, Richard received a visit from Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, whose claim to that crown was now disputed by Conrad, marquess of Montferrat. Richard instantly espoused Guy's cause, and gave him 2000 marks to relieve his present necessities. Before the armament quitted Cyprus, Richard celebrated his nuptials with Berengaria, who was anointed and crowned queen of England on the same day, by the bishop of Evreux. The siege of Acre had now lasted the greater part of two years; and both the attack and defence had been conducted with the most determined bravery. The garrison, animated by the presence of Saladin himself, who, from the neighbouring heights, watched the motions of the besiegers, and receiving frequent supplies by sea, had hitherto baffled every effort of their assailants, of whom, we are told, upwards of 12,000 perished in the course of one year in this memorable siege. Six archbishops, twelve bishops, forty earls, and five hundred barons, had fallen before this single stronghold, yet still fresh forces appeared to carry on the deadly struggle against the sword, famine, and pestilence The arrival of the kings of France and England decided the contest. God say the historians of the time-blessed the holy pilgrimage of these wise and pious kings; their pedereroes, their mangels, and their trebuchets, battered the walls of Acre so well, that a breach was made in a few days, and the garrison, consisting of 5,000 Saracens, obliged to capitulate. Saladin agreed to release 2,500 Christian prisoners, and, in two months, to pay 200,000 byzants as the ransom of the Turkish prisoners, and to restore the holy cross. The crusaders took But possession of Acre, and Saladin removed his camp to a distance. this success, though hailed by all Christendom as a prelude to the delivery of Jerusalem, did little to cement the friendship of the crusaders themselves. Not only Richard and Philip, but all the other chiefs, were divided among themselves by ambition, avarice, and pride. On the day of the capture of Acre, the two kings divided the town between them, and each of them planted the royal standard on his own portion. Leopold, duke of Austria, made the like attempt, but Richard immediately tore down his banner and threw it into a sewer. The duke immediately withdrew from the town, treasuring up his revenge for a favourable opportunity. Some time after, the marquess of Montferrat was assassinated at Tyre, in open day, by two Arabs, and the king of England was accused of having hired them. In the midst of these contentions, the king of France falling sick, believed or pretended to believe that he had been poisoned by the king of England; and on this and other pretexts relinquished the undertaking which he had vowed to complete, and sailed for France. The massacre of his prisoners at Acre, has stained the memory of Richard. It would appear that Saladin had delayed the first instalment of the ransom, and a rumour had reached the Christian camp that he had consummated his perfidy by putting to death all his prisoners. The Christian soldiers demanded permission to revenge the fate of their comrades, and their leaders assented to the proposition. The gallant garrison of Acre was divided into two bodies of 2,500 men each, one of which was led to the summit of a hill in sight of the Saracen camp, and there put to the sword by Richard's troops; and the other massacred on the walls of Acre by the troops of the duke of Burgundy. It sufficiently marks the character of the age, that a deed so bloody and barbarous as this was contemplated wholly without remorse by its perpetrators. "We have, as became us," says Richard in a letter to the abbot of Clairvaux, “ put to death 2,500 of them." "It was done," says Vinesauf, "with the assent of all.” Richard now conducted his army, reduced to 30,000 men, from Acre to Jaffa. Nothing could exceed the privations and sufferings of • Vinesauf, 347. L ? D Hoved. 398. |