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Fresh bounties, especially towards Prince John, marked the arrival of Richard in England, and he who had obtained the name of Lackland from the previous distribution of his father's territories, was now invested with some of the richest lordships in Great Britain. The king's affection for his brother had, doubtless, a considerable share in prompting these acts of generosity; but there are some reasons for believing that Eleanor's fondness for John also influenced Richard; and we may likewise suppose that the monarch was moved in a degree by the desire of leaving that prince no reasonable cause of complaint.

That Eleanor had great power over the mind of Richard there can be no doubt; and almost immediately after his arrival in England she endeavoured to exert it for the ungenerous purpose of excluding from the chair of York her husband's natural son, Geoffrey, who had been recommended to that see by Richard, at Henry's express desire. She took advantage, it would seem, of the absence of the Bishop of Durham to instigate an appeal to the Pope against the election of Geoffrey, and induced Richard himself not to interfere till the decision of Rome should be known. The king, nevertheless, continued to treat his brother with great kindness, till an unfortunate quarrel arose between them which I shall have occasion to notice hereafter; but, in the end, the papal judgment having confirmed his election, Richard caused him to be consecrated, and received in York, securing to him all the privileges belonging to that see.

Various other matters occupied the short time which elapsed between Richard's arrival in England and his coronation; and while preparations were being made, on an extensive scale, for the approaching ceremony, the general tranquillity of the realm was interrupted by vehement dissensions between the monks of Canterbury and the primate, upon which we may have to say a few words hereafter, as the firm and decided character of the monarch was thus early displayed in quelling the pretensions of a body possessing vast power over the minds of the people.

In the mean while, Richard caused an investigation to be made into the nature and amount of his father's treasures, which, it would appear, had been deposited in various places. When collected, weighed, and estimated by the commissioners

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appointed for that purpose, the value of the whole amounted to 100,000 marks, an immense sum in those times, considering the price of labour and of the first necessaries of life. The death of the Bishop of Ely without heirs also added not a little to the wealth of the crown; the riches he had amassed during his life falling immediately into the royal treasury.

Though liberal in the extreme, Richard at this period was by no means indifferent to the state of his finances, having constantly in view one great and fascinating object, which could not be attained without vast resources; and in pursuit of his purpose, as we shall soon have occasion to show, he sacrificed many important interests which a just view of policy might have taught him to consider as far superior in magnitude to those for which he was more anxious. After visiting various parts of his dominions, and preparing vessels to carry him from the kingdom which he had just inherited to a distant land and a perilous expedition, Richard proceeded to London for the ceremony of his coronation, accompanied or followed by almost all the nobility of his realm, and by a large body of troops. Everything had been prepared with the utmost magnificence for the solemnity which was about to take place, and men, in the expectation of festivity and enjoyment, but little anticipated the sanguinary and ferocious scenes which were to accompany the consecration of a generous and beloved monarch.

BOOK XII.

RICHARD I., on his accession to the throne, was in the thirty-second year of his age, and endowed by nature with many high qualities of body and of mind. In person he was tall, strong, and active, long in the arms, straight and flexible in all his limbs, graceful of form, and peculiarly powerful in frame. His complexion was fair, his hair approaching red, but not exactly of the colour which is generally called so, and probably of the hue which we name auburn. No man, we are told, possessed more perfect symmetry, or more dignity of air and demeanour. He was famous for every sort of

ADMIRATION OF HIS SUBJECTS.

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martial exercise; and we find the wielding of the sword particularly named as an art in which he excelled at this period. His skill in war, too, had been proved upon various occasions; and that the arts of peace were also cultivated by him, is shown by the fact, that in his own day he obtained much celebrity in what was then called the gay science, or in other words, the composition of small and somewhat rude pieces of verse, the first effort of reviving poetry on the north of the Alps. Beside these qualities, Richard had displayed a degree of moderation and even gentleness in his dealings with all men since he had succeeded to the dominions of his father, which might have been expected, from the clemency which he had generally shown to his vanquished enemies, during the various struggles in Poictou and Aquitaine, but which seems to have taken his subjects by surprise, when, having unbounded power to chastise, he used it, but with two exceptions, to soothe, to recompense, or to forgive.

The feelings of the people then, towards a monarch thus situated and thus endowed, may be very easily conceived;

*The description of Richard given by Vinesauf, though not a little exaggerated, may not be uninteresting to the reader, as showing the excess of admiration, and somewhat servile reverence, by which he was viewed by his people at this period:"Huic autem virtus Hectoris, magnanimitas erat Achillis, nec inferior Alexandro, nec virtute junior Rollando, imo nostri temporis commendabiliores facile multifariam transcendens, cujus velut alterius Titi dextra sparsit opes, et, quod in tam famoso milite perrarum esse solet, lingua Nestoris, prudentia Ulissis, in omnibus negotiis vel perorandis vel gerendis aliis merito reddebant excellentiorem, cujus nec scientia strenue agendi voluntatem refugeret, nec voluntas scientiæ inopiam accusaret, quis (si quis forte præsumptionis æstimaverit arguendum) noverit ejus animi vinci nescium, injuriæ impatientem, ad jure debita repetenda, innata generositate compulsum non inconvenienter excusarit, quem ad quæque gerenda effecerat successus elegantiorem, quoniam audentes fortuna juvat, quæ licet in quolibet suis fungatur moribus, fuit tamen iste adversis rerum immersabilis undis. Erat quidem statura procerus, elegantis formæ, inter rufum et flavum medie temperata cæsarie, membris flexilibus et directis, brachia productiora, quibus ad gladium educendum nulla habiliora, vel ad ferendum efficaciora, nihilominus tibiarum longa divisio totuisque corporis dispositione congrua, species digna imperio, cui non modicum competentiæ mores addebant et habitus, qui non tantum à generis dignitate, sed virtutum ornamentis summam possit consequi laudem. Sed quid tantum virum laudum immensitate laborem extollere? nou eget externo commendatore, quod amplum laudis habet meritum, laus comes ipsa rei est. Fuit nimirum longe præstans cæteris, et morum bonitate et potentia virium; belloque et potestate memorandus; ejusque opera magnifica omnem quantumvis claræ gloriæ illustrationem obumbrantia. Felix profecto, secundum hominem dico, reputandus, si gloriosis ejus gestis invidentibus caruisset æmulis, quorum fuit hoc solum odii seminarium, quia magnificus erat, quia nimiter nunquam torquebis in vitio quam virtuti serviendo."

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and we find that his coronation was anticipated with a degree of pleasure, and accompanied by a display of feudal pomp, such as is not recorded respecting that of any of his predecessors. On his arrival in London, on the 1st of September, he was met by the citizens, the clergy, and the nobles, and conducted in procession to the palace of Westminster, where he remained till the day appointed for the ceremony, which was the third of the same month. The superstition of the period beheld, with some surprise, that the sovereign had appointed that solemnity to take place on a day marked as unfortunate in the calendar; and there is no historian of those times who does not particularly point out the fact, though in general they endeavour to show that the inauspicious influence of the third nones of September was confined in its effects to the Jews.

Richard, however, paid no attention to evil auguries, and the ceremony took place on the day appointed. It is to be remarked, that previous to his coronation the greater part of the historians of the time do not bestow upon him the title of king, some continuing to call him in their writings Count of Poictou, and others, Duke of Normandy. This would not be deserving of notice, as the sovereign power of the monarch was universally acknowledged in England from the period of his father's death, but the words of Diceto render the fact worthy of consideration, that historian distinctly stating, that previous to his consecration some form of election took place by the clergy and people assembled. He does not describe the manner in which this election was conducted, but he declares that it was solemn, and hints that it was customary. I do not find the fact mentioned by any other contemporary writer; but as Diceto himself was present, taking part in the ceremony, and his statement was written for persons who must have known the facts, there is no possibility of doubting that some proceeding of the kind which he mentions actually did occur.*

Everything having been prepared, and the nobles and people assembled, the clergy, headed by the archbishops and

* I conceive this ceremony to have been different from the ordinary form of presenting the sovereign to the people used at present. The words of Diceto are: "Comes itaque Pictavorum Ricardus hæreditario jure promovendus in regem, post tam cleri quam populi sollempnem et debitam electionem, involutus est," &c.

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bishops of the realm, together with the abbots and heads of the monastic orders, proceeded from the abbey, in which they had met, towards the king's bedchamber, having a large cross, with censers and vessels of holy water, borne before them. The monarch received them, surrounded by his nobles; and, the procession to the abbey having been formed, Richard issued forth from his chamber, supported by the Bishops of Durham and Bath, and, walking upon cloth, which had been laid from his bedchamber to the altar, advanced to the church amidst the chants of the choristers and the acclamations of the people. First came the clergy, in their silken copes, bearing the cross, the holy water, the lighted tapers, and the incense; then appeared the priors and abbots of the various monastic orders, followed by the bishops, in the midst of whom were seen four barons, each carrying a large candlestick of gold; next came side by side Godfrey de Lucy and John Mareschal, the one bearing the cap of maintenance, the other, two large golden spurs. These were followed by William Mareschal, Earl of Striguel, and William, Earl of Salisbury, the first carrying the sceptre surmounted by the golden cross; the latter, the golden rod with the dove. After them appeared Prince John, having on his right and left David Earl of Huntingdon, brother of the King of Scotland, and Robert Earl of Leicester, each bearing one of the three swords covered with its sheath of gold. This party was succeeded by six earls and six barons, supporting on their shoulders a large table, on which were placed the royal vestments. Then appeared William Mandeville, Earl of Albemarle, carrying a heavy crown of gold, decorated in every part with precious stones. Richard himself came next, with his two supporters, having the royal canopy borne over his head upon four lances by four of his barons. The rest of the nobility and clergy followed, and entered the church according to their rank.

Passing through the nave, the king, with his chief officers and the dignified and beneficed clergy, proceeded into the choir, where he knelt before the high altar, on which were placed the holy evangelists and the principal relics belonging to the abbey. On these the monarch swore, first, that he would honour and reverence God and the holy Church all the days of his life; secondly, that he would dispense justice and