by David Boyle
He was making for Saxony: a history written twenty-five years later by an author attached to Baldwin of Bethune's family says this was the intention. See John Gillingham, Richard I (Yale, 1999),
Henry the Lion: see A. L. Poole, Henry the Lion (Oxford, 1912).
Note on Bertran de Born: the song is quoted in Ruth Harvey, 'Courtly Culture in Medieval Occitania', in Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay (eds), The Troubadours: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1999),
Pula or Zadar: both Ralph of Coggeshall and Roger of Howden say he landed in Hungary at Zara, though it is not clear — if he did so -why he ended up going so far west. Gillingham, Richard I, suggests that this is in fact where he planned but failed to land.
Aquileia and Tagliamento: for the evidence that he landed between Aquileia and Venice, ibid. William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, ed. R. Howlett (Rolls Series, 1884), confirms that it was on the coast of Istria, which points again towards Trieste. For the Tagliamento, see Gino Vatri, 'Le awenture di Riccardo Cuor de Leone nel Basso Friuli', La Bassa, Vol. 46, June 2003.
Hugo: the disguise is mentioned in Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum,
Gorizia: Ralph of Coggeshall, by far the most reliable witness, says they were heading for Gazara and that this was where they met the count (see below).
'It is not Great Britain who will fail . . .': see Norgate, Richard the Lionheart,
Medieval travel: the classic account of the rediscovery of travel is in Hilaire Belloc's The Old Road (London, 1904). I have also relied on Ohler, The Medieval Traveller. Peter Spufford's Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (London, 2002) is a monumental description of trade and transport, though it concentrates on later medieval centuries (see his discussion of medieval roads,
The importance of bridges: ibid.,
Alpine passes: ibid.,
Emperor Henry IV's crossing: Mary Taylor Simeti, Travels with a Medieval Queen (London, 2002),
The counts of Gorz: the story of Richard's encounter in Gorizia is told by Ralph of Coggeshall but confirmed in German chronicles. See Hermann Wiesflecker, Die Regesten der Grafen von Gorz und Tirol, Pfalzgrafen von Kdrnten, Band I, 957-1271 (Innsbruck, 1949), See also, for the Italian point of view (Gorizia is now in Italy), Sergio Tavano (ed.), I Goriziani nel Medioevo (Gorizia, 2001).
The direction would have to be Bohemia: see Gillingham, Richard I,
Roger of Argentan: see Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum,
The Bavarian chronicler Magnus of Reichersberg: see Gillingham, Richard I,
Val Canale: Aldo Merlo (ed.), Guida del Friuli, Vol. VII, Val Canale (Udine, 1991).
In one inn in Arezzo: see Spufford, The Power and Profit,
The road to Friesach: I am assuming here that Richard and his companions stuck to the most ancient main route through Carinthia.
Friesach: this is the town described in the letter from Emperor Henry VI to Philip Augustus. See Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden, Vol. 111, There is a more detailed description of this incident in Norgate, Richard the Lionheart. For silver-mining in Friesach at the time, see Peter Spufford, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988).
Friedrich III of Pettau: he is mentioned in the emperor's letter.
The road to Vienna: again I have assumed that Richard stuck to the main road.
St Colman: see Ohler, The Medieval Traveller,
The great archipelago: the Danube was not then the culverted series of neat rivers it is today at Vienna; the original navigable stream is now the Donaukanal.
The tiny village of Erdberg: the site of Richard's arrest was identified as Erdberg by a Bavarian chronicler with ties to Hadmar II (see below). See Gillingham, Richard I, Ralph of Coggeshall calls it Ganina. For details of the archaeology of Erdberg, see Michaela Mtiller, Romische und neuzeitliche Funde aus Wien, Vol. 3 (Vienna, 2000), and Helmut Kretschmer, '800 Jahre Erdberg: Kleinausstellung des Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv', Wiener Geschichtsblatter, Beiheft 1, 1992,
Where Leopold kept his hounds: the exact location of the capture is not really known, although there is a plaque in the corridor of the house Erdbergstrasse 41 about 'the hunting lodge ("Riidenhaus") in which Richard I, King of England was captured' — now shared with a sushi bar. When I visited there in 2003, one of the older residents explained to me that they had been taken to see it on a school trip many years before, but told me that the original site was nearer the river. The Dietrichgasse 16 address is given in A. W. A. Leeper, A History of Medieval Austria (London, 1941), It is true that the Babenbergs had a hunting lodge in Erdberg, which they also used as a residence from at least the thirteenth century, though the location of the Riidenhaus at the time was probably not near Erdbergstrasse 41, but in today's block of buildings between Gollner-, Haidinger-, Hagenmiiller- and Riidengasse. This Riidenhaus was actually one of the oldest and most important buildings in the area. The building, in the shape of a long, four-sided figure, housed the court hunters, the hound masters and hound servants of the sovereign, and was demolished in the 1870s. But most sourcessuggest that Richard was not captured in such an exclusive house but in a simple inn or hut nearby.
The boy in the market: the story is in Ralph of Coggeshall's Chronicon Anglicanum and Roger of Howden's Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden.
Loldan de la Pumerai: see Thomas Grey, Scalacronica: A Chronicle of England and Scotland from 1066 to 1362, trans. Herbert Maxwell (Glasgow, 1907), Grey was imprisoned in 1355 in Edinburgh Castle and wrote this history while he was incarcerated.
What happened next: Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden, Vol. 111, says he was sleeping. French chroniclers emphasize the story about him cooking at the spit, because of his descent to the level of kitchen skivvy. I have followed the account given by Kate Norgate in Richard the Lionheart.
French chroniclers: see Bradford B. Broughton, The Legends of Richard I Coeur de Lion: A Study of Sources and Variations to the Year 1600 (The Hague, 1966), Otto of St Blaise emphasizes the terrible indignity of the arrest. Other chroniclers, such as Bernard le Tresorier and Alberic of Three Fountains, also mention the kitchen disguise.
Richard handed over his sword: Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum,
Leopold V: see Leeper, A History of Medieval Austria,
Soldiers with drawn swords: a bitter account of the circumstances of Richard's captivity can be found in Ralph of Diceto, The Historical Works of Master Ralph of Diceto, Deacon of London, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876), Vol. II,
Medieval Vienna: see the various works of Reinhard Pohanka in particular — for example, Hinter den Mauern der Stadt — Eine Reise ins mittelalterliche Wien (Vienna, 1987).
Berengaria and the jewels: see Agnes Strickland, The Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest, Vol. I (London, 1840; republished Bath, 1972).
Berengaria's loan in Rome: see Ann Trindade, Berengaria: In Search of Richard the Lionheart's Queen (Dublin and Portland, 1999),
7; BlondeVs Song
The proposition that the legend of Blondel is a distant memory of medieval intelligence is mine, but the best source of information about this area is probably J. O. Prestwich, 'Military Intelligence under the Norman and Angevin Kings', in George Garrett and John Hudson (eds), Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy (Cambridge, 1994). An invaluable source for the details of dates and places is Lionel Landon, Itinerary of Richard I (London, 1935).
The Northern Lights: see William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum, ed. R. Howlett (Rolls Series, 1884), Book IV,
His extraordinary sense of balance . . .: see note for.
The Kuenrings: the family was the subject of a major exhibition, mainly dealing with later generations, in Vienna in 1980. The catalogue includes some information about Hadmar II: Herwig Wolfram, Karl Brunner and Gottfried Stangler, Die Kuenringer: Das Werden des Landes Niederosterreich (Vienna, 1981).
Diirnstein: see Fritz Dworschak and Willi Schwengler (eds), Diirnstein (
Diirnstein, 1966).
The only surviving picture: see Wolfram, Brunner and Stangler, Die Kuenringer, Abs 65.
They already knew each other: see Dworschak and Schwengler (eds), Durnstein.
The north-eastern corner of the castle: there is a useful plan of the castle in Josef Kallbrunner and Oskar Oberwalder, Durnstein an der Donau (Krems, 1910).
Christmas: see G. Newcomb, A History of the Christmas Festival, the New Years and Their Peculiar Customs (Westminster, 1843).
The main meal in the twelfth century: see Morris Bishop, The Penguin Book of the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth, 1971),
It would be an explosive letter: the letter is in Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1868-71).
Letters: the details of when and where these letters were sent are in Landon, Itinerary of Richard I,
Longchamp: see Douglas Boyd, Eleanor: April Queen of Aquitaine (Stroud, 2004),
Walter of Coutances: see John Gillingham, Richard I (Yale, 1999),
'They are savages . . .': Ralph of Diceto, The Historical Works of Master Ralph of Diceto, Deacon of London, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876), Vol. II,
Even before the emperor's letter: see Landon, Itinerary of Richard I,
A miraculous opportunity: see Gillingham, Richard I,
Having sent their own special emissary: the main source for the political response in England and the dispatch of the abbots is Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden, Vol. 111,
The Minstrel of Reims: I have taken the translation from Robert Levine, A Thirteenth Century Minstrel's Chronicle (New York, 1990).
Ancient Chronicles of Flanders: Istore et croniques de Flandres, ed. Mervyn de Lettenhove (Brussels, 1879), quoted in Bradford B. Broughton, The Legends of Richard I Coeur de Lion: A Study of Sources and Variations to the Year 1600 (The Hague, 1966),
Claude Fauchet: see Prosper Tarbe, Les Oeuvres de Blondel de Neele (Reims, 1862).
The song: see L. Wiese, Die Lieder des Blondel (Dresden, 1904).
'Your beauty, lady fair . . .': the source of this was the introduction to Marie-Jeanne L'Heritier de Villandon, La Tour Tenebreuse et les Jours Lumineux (Paris, 1705). See Thomas Percy (ed.), Reliques of Ancient Poetry (London, 1765).
Song contests and note about Raimbaut d'Aurenga: see Ruth Harvey, 'Courtly Culture in Medieval Occitania', in Simon Gaunt and Sarah Kay (eds), The Troubadours: An Introduction (Cambridge, 1999),
Guillem de Bergueda: see Catherine Leglu, 'Moral and Satirical Poetry', in Gaunt and Kay (eds.), The Troubadours,
Raymond of Toulouse's war song: see Harvey, 'Courtly Culture in Medieval Occitania', in Gaunt and Kay (eds), The Troubadours,
'When I see in the gardens . . .': Leglu, 'Moral, and Satirical Poetry', in Gaunt and Kay (eds), The Troubadours,
Troubadours were inveigled: see Harvey, 'Courtly Culture in Medieval Occitania', in Gaunt and Kay (eds), The Troubadours, For their role in the reputation of lords, see Christopher Page, The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in Medieval France 1100—1300 (London, 1989),
Disguised himself as a bedouin: see Gillingham, Richard I, This was an Arab story, and may say more about their belief in Richard's powers than his actual behaviour. See also J. O. Prestwich in George Garrett and John Hudson (eds), Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy (Cambridge, 1994).
Nuncios Regis: Mary C. Hill, The King's Messengers 1199—1377:A Contribution to the History of the Royal Household (London, 1961),
Edward I and John: ibid.
'Diplomacy and theft . . .': see Richard Deacon, A History of the British Secret Service (London, 1969),
William Longspee and Talbot: see John Thomas Canner, A History of Chitterne (private publication, 2002).
The Duke of Lothringe (Lorraine) and other stories: Wiese, Die Lieder des Blondel. Wiese suggests that the Japanese version was the earliest, and I'm sure he is right.
8: Prison
I have relied on three sources in particular for this chapter. For the negotiations it is John Gillingham's invaluable Richard I (Yale, 1999). For the French point of view, and especially the saga of Philip's marriage, it is Jim Bradbury's Philip Augustus, King of France 1180—1223 (London, 1998). For the legends of Richard's imprisonment, the best source is Bradford B. Broughton, The Legends of Richard I Coeur de Lion: A Study of Sources and Variations to the year 1600 (The Hague, 1966).
Barbarossa's letter: see James Reston Jr, Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade (London, 2001),
Chronicle of Melrose: see Broughton, The Legends of Richard I Coeur de Lion,
Emperor Henry VI: see Peter Csendes, Geschichte Wiens (Vienna, 1981).
Mary Magdalene's finger: see Jonathan Sumption, Pilgrimage: An Image of Medieval Religion (London, 1975),
The hand of St James and Matilda's jewels: see K. J. Leyser, 'Frederick Barbarossa, Henry II and the Hand of St James', English Historical Review, Vol. CCCLVI, July, 1975.
Leopold and Henry agreed: see Gillingham, Richard I, and Lionel Landon, Itinerary of Richard I (London, 1935), The implication of the crossbowmen and knights was that Henry was treating Richard like a vassal.
Duel between the archbishops: see Joachim Bumke, Courtly Culture, Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages, trans. Thomas Dunlap (Berkeley, 1991),
The trial of Speyer: see Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, ed. J. Stevenson (Rolls Series, 1875), PP- 59-60; and Ralph of Diceto, The Historical Works of Master Ralph of Diceto, Deacon of London, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1876), Vol. II,
He had plotted to kill Conrad: see Gillingham, Richard I, The key Austrian chronicle, the Marbach Annals, does not mention the assassination, so it may be that this was not put to him after all.
'I know nothing . . .': this is from a letter Richard wrote to Henry, but it seems likely that it is also what he said in court. See James O'Hailiwell-Phillipps, Letters of the Kings of England (London, 1848), Vol. I,
'Is foreign to my character . . .': see J. H. Harvey, The Plantagenets (London, 1948),
'The king of France . . .': ibid.
William the Breton: see Gillingham, Richard I,
Trifels: see Ralph of Diceto, The Historical Works of Master Ralph of Diceto, Deacon of London, Vol. II,
The intervention of Longchamp: see Gillingham, Richard I,
'So that we may know how far . . .': Richard's letters are in Roger of Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri Hoveden, ed. William Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1868-71), Vol. 111,
Eleanor and the justiciars: see J. T. Appleby, England without Richard (London, 1965),
'My brother John is not the man . . .': see Gillingham, Richard I,
Gisors: ibid.
Eleanor's letters to the Pope: the longest version of these is in the very dated Agnes Strickland, The Lives of the Queens of England from the Norman Conquest, Vol. I (London, 1840; republished Bath, 1972). I have followed the discussion — arguing that Eleanor was involved in their composition — in Alison Weir, Eleanor of Aquitaine, by the Wrath of God, Queen of England (London, 1999).
'Who made the Germans . . .': see Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World: Europe 1100-1300, trans Janet Sondheimer (London, 1962).
'However many times . . .': see Elizabeth Hallam (ed.), The Plan-tagenet Chronicles (New York and London, 2000).
Bishop of Chester: ibid.
'No tribulation . . .': Ralph of Coggeshall, Chronicon Anglicanum, See also Gillingham, Richard I,
Getting his jailers drunk: ibid.
'Scarlet cloth . . .': see J. T. Appleby, England without Richard (London, 1965).
Palace at Hagenau: see Bumke, Courtly Culture, Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages,
Pie with living birds: for more on food see ibid.
'Lionheart' nickname and legends: see Broughton, The Legends of Richard I Coeur de Lion,
'No one who is in prison . . .': see translations in Gillingham, Richard I, Caroline Bing
ham, The Crowned Lions: The Early Plantagenet Kings (Newton Abbot, 1978); Angel Flores (ed.), An Anthology of Medieval Lyrics (New York, 1962); and Henry Adams, Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (Boston, 1904), which includes the original Old French. There is a recording in The Cross of Red: Music of Love and War from the Time of the Crusades, New Orleans Musica da Camera, directed by Milton G. Scheuermann Jr and Thais St Julien, Centaur (CRC 2373), 1998. Richard's other surviving song, addressed to the Dauphin of Auvergne, is translated in Appendix I of Harvey, The Plantagenets.
'Sister, Countess . . .': there is a quite different interpretation ofthis in Ann Trindade, Berengaria: In Search of Richard the Lionheart's Queen (Dublin and Portland, 1999), which says the lines mean 'whom I love so much'.
'Nothing apart from . . .': see Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, 1865), Vol. 2