THE RELEASE OF RICHARD (1192).
Source.—Roger de Hoveden, Vol. II., pp. 281-2. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
Accordingly, upon hearing of the confinement of the King, Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, and the other justiciaries of our lord the King, sent the Abbot of Boxley and the Abbot of Pont Robert to Germany, to seek the King of England. After having passed through the whole of Germany, and not finding the King, they entered Bavaria, and met the King at a town, the name of which is Oxefer, where he was brought before the Emperor, to hold a conference with him, on Palm Sunday. On hearing that the before-named abbots had come from England, the King showed himself courteous and affable to them; making enquiries about the state of his kingdom and the fidelity of his subjects, and the health and prosperity of the King of Scotland, in whose fidelity he placed a very strong reliance: on which they testified to what they had heard and seen. A conference accordingly taking place between them, the King made complaint of the treachery of his brother, John, earl of Mortaigne, on whom he had conferred so many favours and boundless honors, and who had thrown himself into the hands of the King of France against him, and, having broken the ties of brotherhood, had made a league with death and a compact with hell. The King, though greatly afflicted upon this subject, suddenly broke forth into these words of consolation, saying, "My brother John is not the man to subjugate a country, if there is a person able to make the slightest resistance to his attempts."
During his journey of three days, while on the road to meet the emperor, it was the admiration of all how boldly, how courteously, and how becomingly he behaved himself, and they judged him worthy of the imperial elevation who so thoroughly understood the arts of command, and how, with uniform self-possession, to rise superior to the two-faced events of fortune. On a day named, after he had held a conference by messengers with the emperor, they were unable on that day to have an interview with him, because the Emperor had made of him many demands, to which the King had determined not to yield, even though his life should be perilled thereby. On the morrow, however, while all were despairing, with joyous success ensued joyous consolation.
For, on the emperor accusing the King of many things, and charging him with many misdeeds, both with his betrayal of the land of Sulia, and with the death of the Marquis of Montferrat, as also with reference to certain covenants made between them and not observed by him, the King made answer with such frankness, such self-possession and such intrepidity, that the emperor thought him worthy, not only of his favour and pardon, but even of his praise. For he raised the King when bending before him, and received him with the kiss of peace, and made a treaty of friendship with him, and, loading him with honors and succour (the people standing round and bursting into tears for very joy), made a promise that he would reconcile the King of England with the King of France. After this, with the mediation of the duke of Austria, the King of England promised that he would pay to the Emperor for his liberation, by way of ransom, one hundred thousand marks. The emperor also promised that, if by his means the King of England and the King of France could not be reconciled, he would send the King of England home without exacting the money.