The following Reign is too full of the business of the Holy War, with which Richard was, above all men, most infatuated, to afford much matter for our purpose. Henry had, by the good government and direction of his revenues, left behind him great treasures; but these, or ten times as much, would not answer the purpose of his Successor, who ransacked every corner of his Kingdom for money to carry on this work of zeal, which had seized all Christendom, whereby Richard, on the Throne of a great and opulent Kingdom, thought he saw so fair a prospect of reaping honour and renown.
Henry left in his treasury at Winchester more than nine hundred thousand pounds[139], besides jewels, and other valuable things[140]; but this would go but a very little way towards recovering Jerusalem, which had been taken, and was now in the hands of the Saracens. Before the death of Henry, Richard had bound himself in a vow to Philip of France, to join in this undertaking; and every one, ad Regis exemplum, strove either to go in person, or to supply money towards the expence of the expedition. Nothing, however sacred, could withstand Richard, in his schemes to raise money for this purpose. Most of the Crown lands which Henry had, with so much prudence and address, but a few years before, recovered out of private hands, and annexed to the State, were again put up to public sale, to be purchased by such as were able. Every expedient was devised, to create a fund for this enterprize; and among the rest, he obtained of the Pope a power to dispense with the vows of such who had rashly engaged in the Crusade, by which he raised very large sums. The Bishop of Norwich paid him 1000 marks, to be excused. Where he could, he borrowed; and where he could not borrow, he compelled. The people murmured at his oppression, and the alienation of the estates of the Crown; but Richard told them, he would sell London itself, if he could meet with a purchaser. So great, however, was the general infatuation, that he had less difficulty in raising men than money. The Clergy laboured as zealously to procure him soldiers, as he himself had been active in raising subsidies; his army soon became very numerous, and at a cheap rate, for every officer and private soldier provided himself with necessaries. One would think the great wealth that Richard had amassed would have answered all his purposes; but in a few years after, he had occasion for fresh supplies, to carry on a war with Philip of France; not to mention the ransom which was paid for his release, on his being taken prisoner by the Emperor Henry, amounting to 150,000 marks, which were raised for the occasion by his subjects in England. Philip of France had so maltreated Richard, by leaguing himself with his Brother John, and bribing the Emperor to detain him prisoner, that, as soon as Richard returned home, he could no longer deny himself the satisfaction of revenge. His Kingdom was already drained, and little able to furnish out supplies for a war with France; but Richard was resolved, and money must be had at any rate, let the means be ever so dishonourable. For this purpose he revoked all the grants of the Crown lands, which he had made before his expedition to Palestine. The pretext for this was, that the purchasers had enjoyed them long enough to re-imburse themselves out of the profits, and therefore he did them no injury by taking the lands back again. This was one device; the next was, to avail himself of the loss of the Great Seal, by ordering a new one to be made; and obliged all who had commissions under the old one, to renew them, and have them resealed, by which he must have raised a considerable sum[141].
King Richard I. having no child of either sex, there was not an opening for demanding the two common Aids; but the third, in the order they are usually placed, viz. for the ransom of the King's Person, was exercised for the first time in this Reign. Other taxations, heavy and enormous, on frivolous and nugatory occasions, not to our immediate purpose, were copiously extorted from the subject, and even in a shameful manner[142]. If ever the Latin adage, "Quicquid delirant Reges," &c. could be properly applied, it belonged to Richard.
The favourite system of this King was the Holy-War, and his intemperate zeal led to the point before us. Failing in the attempt to recover Jerusalem from the Saracens, he concluded a truce of three years with Saladan their King; and, on his return towards England through Germany, was made prisoner by the Arch-duke of Austria (upon a pretext that he had killed the Margrave Conrade at Tyre); who delivered him into the hands of the Emperor, where he remained a captive full fifteen months, till he was ransomed[143].
The sum demanded for the King's release is generally allowed to have been 100,000l.; though some writers reduce it a third part, and call it 100,000 marks; but, let it be either of them, it was, in those days, a sum not to be raised without the greatest extortion; and I am justified in saying, it was not done without what, eventually, almost amounted to sacrilege[144]. The church was ransacked for plate, which was pretended to have been only borrowed for the moment—but the debt was never repaid.
