The History of the Holy War, Book 3 · Chapter 13
Chap. 13. King Richard taken prisoner in Austria; sold and sent to the Emperour; dearly ransomed, returneth home.
KIng Richard setting sail from Syria,Octo. 8. the sea and wind favoured him till he came into the Adriatick; and on the coasts of Istria he suffered shipwrack: Wherefore he intended to pierce through Germanie by land, the next way home. But the nearnesse of the way is to be measured not by the shortnesse but the safenesse of it.
He disguised himself to be one Hugo a merchant, whose onelyonly commodity was himself, whereof he made but a bad bargain. For he was discovered in an inne in Austria, because he disguised his person not his expenses; so that the very policie of an hostesse, finding his purse so farre above his clothes, did detect him:Dec. 20. Yea, saith mine Authour, Facies orbi terrarum nota, ignorari non potuit. The rude people flocking together, used him with insolencies unworthy him, worthy themselves: and they who would shake at the tail of this loose Lion, durst laugh at his face now they saw him in a grate. Yet all the weight of their cruelty did not bow him beneath a Princely carriage.
Leopoldus Duke of Austria hearing hereof, as being Lord of the soil,Dec. 20. seised on this Royall stray; meaning now to get his peny-worths out of him, for the affront done unto him in Palestine.
Not long after the Duke sold him to Henry the Emperour, for his harsh nature surnamed Asper; and it might have been Savus, being but one degree from a tyrant. He kept King Richard in bands, charging him with a thousand faults committed by him in Sicilie, Cyprus, and Palestine. The proofs were as slender as the crimes grosse; and Richard having an eloquent tongue, innocent heart, and bold spirit, acquitted himself in the judgement of all the hearers. At last he was *Matth. Paris. in Rich. 1.ransomed for an hundred and fourty thousand marks, Collen weight. A summe so vast in that age, before the Indies had overflowed all Europe with their gold and silver, that to raise it in England they were forced to sell their Church-plate to their very chalices. Whereupon out of most deep Divinity it was concluded, That they should not celebrate the Sacrament in *Lindwood, lib. 1. De summa Tri. sol. 6.glasse, for the brittlenesse of it; nor in wood, for the sponginesse of it, which would suck up the bloud; nor in alchymie, because it was subject to rusting; nor in copper, because that would provoke vomiting; but in chalices of latten, which belike was a metall without exception. And such were used in England for some *Eulogium; a Chronicle cited by Fox, Martyrol. in Rich. 1.hundred yeares after: untill at last John Stafford Archbishop of Canterbury, when the land was more replenished with silver, in knotteth that Priest in the greater excommunication that should consecrate Poculum stanneum. After this money *Epist. 57.Peter of Bloys (who had drunk as deep of Helicon as any of that age) sendeth this good prayer; making an apostrophe to the Emperour, or to the Duke of Austria, or to both together:
Bibe nunc, avaritia,
Dum puteos argenteos
Larga diffundit Anglia.
Tua tecum pecunia
Sit in perditionem.
And now, thou basest avarice,
Drink till thy belly burst,
Whil'st England poures large silver showres
To satiate thy thirst.
And this we pray, Thy money may
And thou be like accurst.
The ransome partly payed, the rest secured by hostages, King Richard much befriended by the Dutch Prelacie, after eighteen moneths imprisonment returned into England. The Archbishop of Cullen in the presence of King Richard, as he passed by, brought in these words in saying masse, Now I know that God hath sent his angel, and hath delivered thee out of the hand of Herod, and from the expectation of the people, &c. But his soul was more healthfull for this bitter physick, and he amended his manners; better loving his *Speed, in Rich. 1.Queen Beringaria, whom he slighted before: As souldiers too often love women better then wives.
Leave we him now in England, where his presence fixed the loyaltie of many of his unsettled subjects; whilest in Austria the Duke with his money built the walls of Vienna: So that the best stones and morter of that bulwark of Christendome are beholden to the English coin. We must not forget how Gods judgements overtook this Duke, punishing his dominions with fire and water, which two elements cannot be Kings but they must be tyrants; by famine, the eares of wheat turned into worms; by a gangrene, seising on the Dukes body, who cut off his leg with his own hand, and died thereof: Who by his testament (if not by his will) caused some thousand crowns to be restored again to King Richard.