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On Sunday, the 11th of November, A. D. 1100, or little more than three months after the accession of the Beauclerc, the marriage was celebrated, and the Saxon queen was crowned with great pomp and solemnity. According to the chroniclers, both Norman and English, she proved a loving and obedient wife, as beautiful in mind as in person, being distinguished by a love of learning and great charity to the poor. Her elevation to the throne filled the hearts of the Saxon part of the nation with exceeding great joy. No son of the gentle Maud lived to succeed Beauclerc, and through this misfortune England was visited by the miseries inseparably connected with disputed successions and civil wars. Yet this union between the blood of the Conqueror and the blood of King Alfred had a beneficial effect: it served as an example to some of the Norman baronage, it gave the court of the Beauclerc more of an English or Saxon character, and contributed to do away with many invidious distinctions.

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RICHARD I., King of England, surnamed Cœur de Lion, the "Lion-hearted," was the second son of Henry II., and Eleanor of Guienne, who had been divorced from Louis VII. of France. He was born at Oxford in 1157, and succeeded to the throne by the death of his father in 1189. His haughty and rebellious spirit had contributed to lay the aged king in his grave, and although he showed some regret for the loss of his father, he evidently thirsted too much for the exercise of royal power

and independent dominion, to feel real sorrow. He remained a short time on the Continent, to take formal possession of his foreign territories, and to settle the differences between the crowns of France and England.

On the 13th of August, 1189, Richard landed at Portsmouth; the chief of the nobility met him at Winchester, and on the 3rd of September, he was crowned with great pomp and magnificence at Westminster. The day was, however, disgraced by an inhuman massacre of the Jews, who at that period were the principal bankers. They had been protected by Henry; but as Philip, the French King, had banished them from France, they feared that similar measures might be adopted by Richard; to obviate which the Jews had hastened to London on the coronation-day with splendid offerings. Their presence roused the mob, and the cry spread that the

king had proclaimed a massacre. Every Jewish dwelling was soon ablaze, and the streets were slippery with Jewish blood. But York Castle was the scene of a darker tragedy. Five hundred Jews had there taken refuge with their wives and children, and were besieged by the citizens. They offered money, but in vain; and, to baulk those who thirsted for their blood, they hurled their treasures into the flames, slew their dear ones, and then stabbed one another. A few cried for mercy, and opened the gates; but the rabble rushing in put them to the sword. It was in vain that Richard, by proclamation, took the Jews under his protection; Lynn, Norwich, Stamford, Edmondsbury, Lincoln, also echoed the dying groans of God's ancient people.

Richard's adventurous spirit sought an outlet in a new Crusade. His earliest measures were undertaken to raise money for this purpose. To it he devoted the hoards of his father, sold the honors and offices in his own gift, and even gave up for 10,000 marks the homage wrested by his father from the Scottish King. On the 1st of July, 1190, Richard met Philip Augustus of France in the plain of Vezelai, and agreed upon the terms of a mutual expedition to the Holy Land, forming the third Crusade. Richard was then accompanied from Marseilles by the English barons, and the kings rejoined company at Messina, the appointed rendezvous of the two armies, numbering altogether 100,000 men. Here they remained during the winter. Another delay took place at Cypress, where Richard was married to Berengaria of Navarre. He stayed to conquer the island; and, having captured the King, Isaac, cast him into prison, loaded with fetters of silver.

In the middle of 1191, the armament arrived before Acre, which had already been, for two years, besieged by the German crusaders under the Emperor Frederic. The English monarch immediately became popular among the knights, and took a leading part in the operations of the siege. Notwithstanding the valiant efforts of the famous Saladin to raise the siege, the fortress surrendered on the 12th of July. Soon afterwards Philip Augustus departed for France, pretending sickness, but really disgusted with the supremacy of Richard,

who far outshone him in feats of arms. Richard now marched from Acre at the head of 100,000 men, and defeated Saladin in a general engagement on the road towards Ascalon. This victory put the Crusaders in possession of the principal towns along the sea-coast, and furnished such a basis of operations that Richard was enabled to press forward to the capture of Jerusalem. At last the walls of that city rose before the soldiers of the Cross; but their ranks were so thinned by war, hunger and disease, and their energies so weakened by disunion and national jealousy that Richard, even with the prize glittering before him, was forced to turn away. He concluded a truce with Saladin and embarked for Europe on the 9th of October, 1192.

Richard, on taking a last view of the shores of Asia, is said to have exclaimed, "Most holy land, I commend thee to the care of the Almighty! May He grant me life to return and rescue thee from the yoke of the infidels !" On the passage home he was shipwrecked near Aquileia, on the coast of Italy. Disguising himself as a merchant, he endeavored to reach England by way of Germany. When near Vienna, his real character was discovered through the imprudence of his page, who going into the town to buy provisions, wore gloves, then a mark of the highest rank. Leopold, Duke of Austria, caused his arrest, both in revenge of his brother-in-law, the King of Cyprus, and of the contempt that Richard had shown him at Acre. At first the royal prisoner was confined in the castle of Tyernstein; but the Emperor, Henry VI. of Germany, who purchased the chained Lion for £60,000 about ($292, 200), flung him into a castle in the Tyrol.

Richard's captivity was concealed as long as possible, and popular tradition declares that even after the fact was acknowledged, the place of his incarceration was still hidden. At last the faithful search of his devoted servant Blondel, who wandered as minstrel from castle to castle, was rewarded by the discovery of his sovereign. Richard was ransomed by his subjects at the price of 100,000 marks, and arrived in London on the 20th of March, 1194. His contemptible brother, John, had been in connivance with Philip to usurp the kingdom, and that monarch advised him of Richard's

return with the pithy warning to "take care of himself, for the devil had broke loose." Richard, however, generously forgave him, and having been crowned again at Winchester, crossed over to France to chastise Philip. Hostilities were interrupted by a truce, and being resumed again, a second truce was agreed upon.

In 1199, Richard was preparing to return to England, when Vidomar, the Count of Limoges, discovered a treasure, part of which he sent to Richard as his feudal superior. Coeur-de-Lion, who had been at great costs in his recent wars, claimed the whole. Provoked at the refusal of the Limousan, Richard invested the castle of Chaluz, and haughtily refusing all overtures, threatened to hang the whole garrison as soon as he had taken the place. While reconnoitering this stronghold, he was shot in the shoulder with an arrow by a crossbowman, named Bertrand de Gourdon. The garrison in the meantime had been defeated, and the King displayed his usual magnanimity by ordering that Gourdon should be set at liberty. On the contrary, the hapless man was flayed alive and then hung, by order of Marchadee, the leader of the Brabantine soldiers in Richard's army. The King's wound proved mortal, and he expired on the 16th of April, 1199. He was buried at the feet of his father at Fontevrand: his heart was bequeathed to the citizens of Rouen.

Richard I. was the very model of a feudal knight. His skill in music, his accomplishments in the poetry of the Troubadours, his daring valor and great muscular strength have made him a favorite hero of historians and novelists. Armed with a heavy battle-axe, he never hesitated to rush single-handed into the midst of the enemy, and such deeds are recorded of him as would be incredible if they were not well attested by eye-witnesses. Out of his reign of ten years, he spent but six months among his people, and his brilliant victories brought only poverty and distress to English homes.

RICHARD COUR-DE-LION IN THE HOLY LAND.

On the 10th of June, 1191, an astounding clangor of trumpets and drums and horns, and every other instrument in the Christian camp, hailed the arrival of Richard and his

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