I’m Irene. England/France. A fangirl with passion for the Middle Ages, the Tudor period, and the Renaissance times. In life, a crazy, fun person who loves life beyond measure!
The peace treaty between Richard the Lionheart and Sultan Saladin was signed on the 2nd of September, 1192. It reestablished the Kingdom of Jerusalem, although without the holy city. The Third Crusade was officially over, and Richard set out on a long journey back home.
Unfortunately, King Richard’s return to England didn’t go as planned. He didn’t take a direct route to Marseilles, which was the shortest way back home. At that time, the monarch couldn’t know that soon he would become a captive king.
Awful weather conditions caused him to land at Corfu which belonged to the Byzantine Emperor, Isaac II Angelos. From Corfu, Richard could still sail for Marseilles, but he didn’t. Maybe he was informed that if he had landed at Marseilles, his adversary, Count Raymond of Toulouse, might take him prisoner.
At Corfu, the King of England embarked on another perilous adventure. He hired a pirate ship to carry him and his followers along the Dalmatian coast, in modern Croatia. But storms were so severe that the vessel was wrecked near Aquileia in the Northern Adriatic. As a result, Richard and his companions were forced to take a dangerous route through Central Europe.
At first, the Lionheart and his men traveled disguised as pilgrims through Italy. However, their masquerade was quickly proven ineffective because of their refined manners and of their extravagant spending. When Richard and his men arrived at Dubrovnik, the monarch made a generous contribution to build a grand church in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary (today it is Dubrovnik Cathedral). Unfortunately, this revealed the true identities of the disguised pilgrims.
As his journey progressed, Richard also posed as a merchant, but this disguise was as ineffective as the previous one. He and his men successfully traveled to the town of Friesach before being tracked down by a knight hired to intercept and capture Richard. This time, luck was on the king’s side as the man turned out to be secretly loyal to him and warned him about the danger.
To avoid capture, the English ruler hastily departed from Friesach to Vienna together with only one knight, William de l’Estang, and a serving boy. They left behind Baldwin of Bethune so that he could try to delay those pursuing Richard by posing as the king. After the king’s escape, Richard’s enemies were hunting him in the town and its surroundings, and soon they managed to capture Baldwin.
At that time, Richard and William were about one hundred and forty-five miles away from Friesach; they were both exhausted and became less vigilant. Richard sensed danger after his servant boy’s sudden disappearance, but he and William needed rest and couldn’t flee again. Meanwhile, the servant boy was interrogated and compelled to disclose the monarch’s location.
The consequences were disastrous for Richard the Lionheart. Duke Leopold V of Austria sent his men to surround the local tavern, where his English rival was resting. On the 10th of December, 1192, Richard had no choice but to surrender himself.
King Richard’s Captivity
The duke accused Richard of arranging the murder of his cousin, Conrad of Montferrat, although there was no proof of the king’s involvement in the crime. The real reason for the duke’s animosity towards the English monarch seems to have been Leopold’s inability to forgive Richard for the grievous offense caused to him in Acre, when the Lionheart had cast down his standard from the walls of the city.
While being Leopold’s prisoner, the captive king was kept at Dürnstein Castle under the care of Hadmar of Kuenring, Leopold’s trusted man.
Ruins of Dürnstein Castle, where King Richard was kept captive
Leopold of Austria entered into negotiations with Henry VI, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor. On the 28th of March, 1193, Richard the Lionheart was brought to Speyer and handed over to the emperor. Later, the English king was imprisoned at Trifels Castle in Western Germany.
Henry VI held a grudge against the Lionheart for Richard’s support of Henry the Lion’s family and for his recognition of Tancred in Sicily. Moreover, many of Richard’s allies were Henry’s enemies. At that time, the emperor urgently needed funds to raise an army in order to assert his rights over the south of Italy, so it was beneficial for him to hold the king for ransom. King Philippe II of France proposed to pay handsomely for the prolongation of his English counterpart’s captivity, as he intended to attack Normandy and Richard’s other continental lands.
Trifels Castle, where King Richard was kept after being handed over to the emperor
Together, Leopold of Austria and Emperor Henry created a long list of the concessions they hoped to wring from Richard. Nevertheless, the English king proudly refused to show deference to the emperor. Richard admirably defended himself against the accusation of Conrad de Montferrat’s murder and also refused to agree to all the unfair conditions Henry offered. It is known that Richard declared to the emperor:
“I am born of a rank which recognizes no superior but God”.
For some time, no one was aware what had happened to Richard the Lionheart. After his disappearance, Prince John, Richard’s younger and vile brother, spread rumors throughout the English realm that the monarch was dead or permanently lost. Seizing the opportunity, John arrived at the French court and met with King Philippe II of France, making an alliance with him. In exchange for the French support, he agreed to cast aside his spouse, Isabella of Gloucester, and wed Philippe’s sister, Alys, who had once been betrothed to Richard.
Soon the fate of the captive king became widely known, and everyone in Christendom learned that the emperor was holding the King of England captive. As a Crusader returning from the Holy Land, Richard was a pilgrim, and, hence, he was under the protection of the Catholic Church. Therefore, Pope Celestine III excommunicated Henry VI and Leopold of Austria for the wrongful imprisonment of the English monarch.
Subsequently, in England, friction broke out between King Richard’s loyal subjects and treacherous lords, who switched their allegiances and supported Prince John. The king’s loyal councilors sent two abbots to find their king and to establish communication with him; these envoys succeeded with great difficulty, but they were able to see their liege lord.
Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine rescued her favorite son from the German captivity. Unfortunately, when Richard had raised funds for the Crusade several years earlier, he had drained the country’s coffers, so it was not easy to collect the necessary amount of money. Eleanor worked hard to raise the ransom for the captive king, taxing both clergy and laymen and confiscating gold and silver treasures from churches. Money was also obtained from the scutage and the carucage taxes. Chests of silver were stored in St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Eleanor supervised the collection.
Eleanor of Aquitaine’s despair and depression are expressed in her letter to Pope Celestine:
“Pitiful and pitied by no one, why have I come to the ignominy of this detestable old age, who was a ruler of two kingdoms, mother of two kings? My guts are torn from me, my family is carried off and removed from me. The young king [crown prince Henry, died in 1183] and the count of Britanny [Prince Geoffrey, died in 1186] sleep in dust, and their most unhappy mother is compelled to be irremediably tormented by the memory of the dead. Two sons remain to my solace, who today survive to punish me, miserable and condemned. King Richard [the Lionheart] is held in chains [in captivity with Emperor Henry VI of Germany]. His brother, John, depletes his kingdom with iron [the sword] and lays it waste with fire. In all things the Lord has turned cruel to me and attacked me with the harshness of his hand. Truly his wrath battles against me: my sons fight amongst themselves, if it is a fight where one is restrained in chains, the other, adding sorrow to sorrow, undertakes to usurp the kingdom of the exile by cruel tyranny.”
The release of the captive king
Eventually, England paid an enormous ransom for King Richard the Lionheart – 150,000 marks (100,000 pounds of silver). Although King Philippe proposed to pay the emperor 80,000 marks to hold Richard prisoner until Michaelmas 1194, the English ransom was transferred to Germany by the imperial ambassadors. Eleanor of Aquitaine also successfully defended Richard’s interests against Prince John and his ally, Philip of France.
The depiction of King Richard being pardoned and released by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Before his release, Richard the Lionheart had to take part in the formal ceremony, where he swore the oath of allegiance the Holy Roman Emperor. In fact, it meant that the English ruler became nominally a subject of Henry’s, and he also consented to annually pay a sum in homage to the empire.
To give him credit, the emperor ceased all communication with King Philippe and Prince John, and he even threatened them with military retribution if they would not return the lands they had taken from Richard during his absence. At last, after official ceremonies and celebrations, the King of England was released on the 4th of February 1194.
Philippe sent a message to John, Richard’s brother:
“Look to yourself; the devil is loose.”
Richard’s ordeal of captivity was over, and he returned to England. His long absence left his empire in disorder, but at that time, the king still intended to return to the Holy Land to finish the Crusade he had started, for his dream was to liberate the holy city from the infidels. Unbeknownst to Richard, the mission of restoring his realm to order and of defending his continental territories would be at the center of the rest of his reign.
In history, the misfortune to become a captive king is a one-of-a-kind fate. King Richard the Lionheart is one of the few monarchs who was taken prisoner by a foreign ruler. Several centuries later, King François I of France would become another captive king who would spend more than a year in the Spanish prison after the defeat of his troops at the Battle of Pavia in 1525.
Source: Richard the Lionheart: A Life From Beginning to End (Royalty Biography Book 8) by Hourly History
Now I’m looking at #NatalieDormer, who played the seductive and doomed Anne Boleyn on Showtime’s The Tudors. I often do this for inspiration. Natalie is #AnneBoleyn for me! I think she was the most exotic and alluring queen out of all Henry VIII’s wives.
In 1526, Shrove Tuesday (the 7th of February) was celebrated with a traditional solemn joust at Greenwich Palace.
Jousting was one of Henry’s favorite sports. The Shrovetide joust was a special event for Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII, as the English monarch’s motto tentatively reflected that he had found a new love.
Edward Hall, a famous Tudor chronic, wrote of this day:
“This vere the kvn on Shrouetewesdaie, kept a solempne lustesathis Manour of Grenevviche, he hvmself and. xi. wer on the one part, and the Marques ot Excester with, x, were on the other parte: the Kynges barcle and base and all his bende, wer of cloth of gold and sillier richely embraudered, with a mannes harte in a presse w.th flames about ,t, and mete were written, Declare ie nose, in Englishe, Declare 1 dare not, the Marques and his bend wer in Grene Veliiet, & crimosyn sattynembrodered with hartes burnyng, and ooeieuery we a Ladies hand commyng out of acloude, holdyng a garden water pot, which dropped iuer droppes on the hitl”.
It is not easy for us to read and understand contemporary chronicles written in old English, but I often do this for educational purposes.
The most important takeaway from Hall’s writings (in modern English) is that King Henry rode out in cloth of gold and silver, richly embroidered and displaying the device of ‘a man’s heart in a press, with flames about it’, and the motto ‘Declare I dare not.’
The Marquis of Exeter and his men and their horses were caparisoned in green velvet and crimson satin, embroidered with burning hearts. Above these hearts, there was a female hand appearing out of a lovely cloud and holding a watering can, dropping small silver droplets on them. My creative imagination conjures pictures of the cooling passion in these hearts.
Eric Ives writes of the Marquis of Exeter on this day:
“At the Shrovetide tilt in 1526 {which Anne would have attended} the recently remarried Marquis of Exeter announced that his amours were now over by displaying the device of a burning heart being sprayed from a watering can held in the hand of a woman. And, of course, unless the European fashion for courtly posturing had really existed, Don Quixote makes no sense”.
Edward Hall describes that many spears were broken at the Shrovetide joust, and that this was the occasion when Francis Bryan lost one of his eyes.
The Shrovetide joust of 1526 can be considered the first indication of the monarch’s growing feelings for Anne Boleyn. She had first joined the English court in 1522 upon her return from France. It had taken Henry several years to notice her among other ladies, and Anne’s exotic looks and her sophisticated personality definitely helped her caught the king’s eye. The ruler had noticed her, and he quickly became enamored with her and was longing for her affection, perhaps pursuing her for over a year before she reciprocated.
Henry VIII’s jousting armor
It seems that, in February 1526, Henry felt very strong emotions for Anne. ‘Declare I dare not’… no mortal and immortal force would have dared try and extinguish the vivid flame of love in the king’s heart which was strong, overwhelming and even dangerous. His first letter, accompanying the gift of the buck he had killed on hunting trips would belong to the autumn of 1526.
More than a year later, about Easter 1527, Henry would offer Anne to become his maîtresse-en-titer, in spite of the fact that he would already make moves to divorce Catherine of Aragon in order to remarry. Anne would vehemently refuse his proposal, considering it degrading for herself, and Henry would accept that she would give her maidenhead only to her husband. As Anne could solve both his sexual and his matrimonial frustrations, their courtship would flourish into a beautiful romance and later short and tumultuous marriage.
Matilda (the Latin form of Maud) is known as Empress Matilda. She is a legendary woman who could have been England’s first queen regnant in her own right. But the terrible wheels of fate were in motion, and she was never crowned Queen of England. She is a woman who caused bloody civil war in England, as she endeavored to attain her rightful inheritance – the English throne. She was titled the Lady of the English, but she always preferred to be called Empress.
Empress Matilda, the daughter of Henri I of England and Matilda of Scotland
Matilda was born to Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy, and his first wife, Matilda of Scotland (born Edith of Scotland). She was their only daughter, the eldest of the two children they had in their marriage. The exact date of Matilda’s birth is unknown, but it is assumed that she was born circa the 7th of February, 1102, most likely at the manor house at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England.
Her parents had another legitimate child – William Adelin (alternately referred to as Adelinus or Adelingus). Her full-blooded brother was born in August 1103, and his early death in the White Ship tragedy of 1120 without issue caused a succession crisis, known as The Anarchy. Henry I could possibly have had a short-lived son, Richard. In addition, Matilda also had many illegitimate siblings (approximately 22), as her royal father had extramarital relationships with numerous mistresses.
A 14th-century depiction of the White Ship sinking of 1120
Unfortunately, there are little contemporary sources about young Matilda’s childhood. Her mother, Queen Matilda of England (originally Matilda of Scotland) was educated in a nunnery, and she probably controlled her daughter’s spiritual education and her general instruction. Without a shadow of a doubt, Matilda learned literacy from her tutors and was skilled in embroidery. Perhaps she was taught to write, tell stories, and read some poetry; she could also undertake singing lessons, and maybe she was instructed in one or more musical instruments. Of course, the future Empress Matilda was a lady of refinement and was well-schooled in manners and courtesy.
Her most famous grandparent was William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066 and very soon defeated and killed Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England, at the Battle of Hastings. Therefore, Matilda was a granddaughter of the first Norman King of England.
Matilda of Flanders was Empress Mathilda’s granddaughter. Matilda of Flanders was William the Conqueror’s wife and daughter of Adèle of France (who was a daughter of King Robert II of France) and Baldwin V, Count of Flanders. Empress Matilda’s great-great-great-great grandfather on her father’s side was married to Elftrude, the daughter of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (England).
Empress Mathilda’s mother, Matilda of Scotland, was the daughter of the English princess, Saint Margaret, and King Malcolm III of Scotland. Margaret was sometimes called ‘The Pearl of Scotland’.
Anglo-Normal Royal Family
Thus, Empress Matilda could trace her descent from the great Charlemagne, who became a founding father of the French and German empires. She was very high born, and her noble ancestry was very impressive.
When young Matilda turned seven years old, it was confirmed she would wed Henry V, King of Germany and eventual Holy Roman Emperor. Her whole life story, including her two marriages to Henry V and then to Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, will be covered in our other articles.
As Allan’s betrayal places the lives of Marian and the outlaws in terrible jeopardy, Robin takes the matter into his hands and is determined to inflict a retributive punishment on Allan. Only Marian’s plea to spare Allan saves the traitor. Then, Robin’s finagling of his beloved’s attentions makes Marian reward the hero generously.
A canonical scene and canon extension from 2x07 which are written from Allan, Robin, and Marian’s POVs.
This story is a gift for Penelope Clemence (@penelope-clemence), Robinetichek, and Coleen561(@coleen561).
Co-Authors are: Penelope Clemence (@penelope-clemence) and Countess of Sherwood.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BBC’s Robin Hood or any of the show’s characters. I have no rights to the canonical plots and storylines.
It is also posted at FF by Countess of Sherwood/Lady of Knights.
Once again, Guy tries to woo Marian, but she slips away from her unwanted suitor like the proverbial sand is slipping through the hourglass. But when Robin’s life is in peril, Marian may perform any desperate artifice to save Robin without caring about a possible moral indictment.
A canonical scene from 2x08 written from Guy, Marian, and Robin’s POVs.
Tagged with Robin/Marian because Marian is in a relationship with Robin. Guy/Marian is an unrequited and forced relationship.
This story is a gift for Penelope Clemence (@penelope-clemence), Robinetichek, Coleen561(@coleen561), Queen of Vikings, Landofspices (@distinctgoldcalling), and Josephine Bonaparte.
Co-Authors are: Penelope Clemence (@penelope-clemence) and Countess of Sherwood.
Disclaimer: I don’t own BBC’s Robin Hood or any of the show’s characters. I have no rights to the canonical plots and storylines.
It is also posted at FF by Countess of Sherwood/Lady of Knights.
