Richard commandeered lodging in full view of the castle, close enough that a man in his retinue was struck and killed by archers from the castle. And that meant bodies, time, and money, none of which King Richard wanted to expend. Impregnable? Perhaps, but certainly a bloody fight and long drawn out siege might be needed to bring the castle garrison to its knees. The chronicler Roger De Hoveden writes “that those who were in the castle…were astonished, and were confounded and alarmed, and trembling came upon them but still they could not believe that the king had come, and supposed that the whole of this was done by the chiefs of the army for the purpose of deceiving them.”įoulds tells us that the size of Richard’s retinue is difficult to estimate, but his forces likely included William Marshal’s men, and those from the earls of Chester, Ferrers, and Huntingdon, from the bishop of Durham, and the archbishops of York and Canterbury, to name a few. King Richard arrived in Nottingham on March 25 with great fanfare. Michael’s Mount in Cornwall supposedly died of fright when he heard the king had landed.
#1194 SHERRIFF OF NOTTINGHAM VERIFICATION#
Several of the castellans immediately laid down arms, and others, upon verification that King Richard was on English soil, capitulated. Acting on Richard’s behalf whilst he had been absent, Queen Eleanor and the king’s justiciars ordered sieges against John’s men in early 1194. Upon hearing news of Richard’s impending release, John, who had fled to France in January, had ordered his vassals to defend his castles against the king’s men. With his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine at his side, he finally set sail and arrived in Sandwich on March 13. Richard was finally released on the 4th day of February. With the majority of Richard’s ransom raised and partially delivered by late 1193, Henry was advised to accept the ransom agreed upon. John and Philippe went so far as to offer Henry VI a deal if he would keep Richard imprisoned.
He tried to convince barons in Normandy to swear fealty to him as king. John appealed to his mother, Queen Eleanor, and to the Council that Richard was dead. Sieges against his castles that spring finally ended in a truce to last from May to November. John’s mercenaries attempted an invasion of the southeast Kentish coast in March 1193 his men ravaged the countryside near Windsor. When he learned of Richard’s capture, John plotted with Philippe Capet, King of France, to usurp the throne. He and his supporters stood against the king’s chancellor and troops sent against them, and John took control of the strategic castles at Tickhill and Nottingham. Richard had left his younger brother in good stead, with lands and income that made him one of the wealthier barons in the kingdom, but John consolidated his powers further in 1191-92. John (of future Magna Carta fame) had not been idle whilst Richard was on crusade. By late January, word arrived: Richard had been captured by Duke Leopold of Austria shortly before Christmas, and was being held by Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor. Other returning soldiers arrived in England by that December, but there was no sign of the king. The Third Crusade was not successful in that respect, and aware of troubles back home – the French invading his lands on the continent and his brother John stirring trouble - Richard signed a truce with Saladin and started back to England in October 1192. Having taken the Cross in 1187, Richard had been committed to the crusade to re-capture Jerusalem and left for the Holy Land in 1190. He had last touched English soil in December 1189, a few months after his coronation. On the fourth day of February 1194 King Richard I, the Lionheart, began what would be his final journey to England.
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