LAWS OF RICHARD I. CONCERNING CRUSADERS WHO WERE TO GO BY SEA (1189).
Source.—Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, p. 135. Henderson. G. Bell & Sons.
Richard by the grace of God, King of England, and Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou, to all his subjects who are about to go by sea to Jerusalem, greeting. Know that we, by the common counsel of upright men, have made the laws here given. Whoever slays a man on shipboard, shall be bound to the dead man and thrown into the sea. But if he shall slay him on land, he shall be bound to the dead man and buried in the earth. If any one, moreover, shall be convicted through lawful witnesses of having drawn a knife to strike another, or of having struck him so as to draw blood, he shall lose his hand. But if he shall strike him with his fist without drawing blood, he shall be dipped three times in the sea. But if any one shall taunt or insult a comrade or charge him with hatred of God: as many times as he shall have insulted him, so many ounces of silver shall he pay. A robber, moreover, convicted of theft, shall be shorn like a hired fighter, and boiling tar shall be poured over his head, and feathers from a cushion shall be shaken out over his head—so that he may be publicly known; and at the first land where the ships shall put in he shall be cast on shore. Under my own witness at Chinon.
THE ABBOT AND THE JEWS (1190).
Source.—Jocelin de Brakelond, Chapter 6. King's Classics. Chatto & Windus.
The lord Abbot sought from the King letters enjoining that the Jews should be driven away from the town of St. Edmund, he stating that whatever is within the town of St. Edmund, or within the banlieue thereof, of right belongs to St. Edmund: therefore the Jews ought to become the men of St. Edmund, otherwise they should be expelled from the town. Licence was accordingly given that he might put them forth, saving, nevertheless, that they had all their chattels and the value of their houses and lands. And when they were expelled, and with an armed force conducted to divers towns, the abbot gave order that all those that from henceforth should harbour or entertain Jews in the town of St. Edmund should be solemnly excommunicated in every church and at every altar. Howbeit it was afterwards conceded by the King's justices that if the Jews should come to the great pleas of the Abbot, to demand their debts from their debtors, on such occasion they might for two days and two nights lodge within the town, and on the third day be permitted to depart freely.
THE KINGS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND AT MESSINA (1190).
Source.—Chronicles of the Crusades, Chap. XIII., pp. 163-4. Bohn's Libraries. G. Bell & Sons.
It is a general custom, that when any particular king or prince of the earth, conspicuous for his glory, might, and authority, comes forth in public, his appearance of power shall not fall short of that with which he is actually invested,—nay, it is but right and becoming that the greatness of a king should be shown in his display and the homage which is paid him; for a common proverb says, "Such as I see you are, I esteem you." Moreover the general style and manner is taken from the disposition of the chief. When, therefore, the King of France, of so high renown, whose edict so many princes and nations obeyed, was known to be entering the port of Messina, the natives, of every age and sex, rushed forth to see so famous a King; but he, content with a single ship, as if to avoid the sight of men, entered the port of the Citadel privately, while those who awaited him along the shore conceived this to be a proof of his weakness, and spoke upbraidingly of him as one not likely to be the performer of any great actions, who thus slunk from the eye of man, and being frustrated in their hopes of seeing him, they returned indignant to their homes. But when the report was spread of the arrival of the noble-minded King of England, the people rushed out eagerly to behold him, crowding along the shore and seating themselves wherever they were likely to catch a glimpse of him. And lo! they beheld the sea in the distance covered with innumerable galleys; and the sound of trumpets and clarions, loud and shrill, strike upon the ear! Then, as they approached nearer, they saw the galleys as they were impelled onward, laden and adorned with arms of all kinds; their pennons and standards floating in countless numbers in the breeze in good order, and on the tops of their spears; the prow of the galleys distinguished from each other by the variety of the paintings, with shields glittering in the sun, and you might behold the sea boiling, from the number of oarsmen who plied it, and the ears of the spectators rang with the peals of the instruments commonly called trumpets, and their delight was aroused by the approach of the varied crowd, when lo! the magnificent King, accompanied by the crowd of obedient galleys, standing on a prow more elevated and ornamental than the others, as if to see what he had not seen before, or to be seen by the crowds that densely thronged the shore, lands in a splendid dress, where the sailors whom he had sent before him, and others of his equipage, receive him with congratulations, and bring forward the chargers and horses which had been committed to their care for transportation, that he and his suite might mount. The natives crowd round him on all sides, mixed with his own men, and followed him to his hostel. The common people conversed with each other in admiration of his great glory; and agreed that he was worthy of Empire, and deserved to be set over nations and kingdoms, "for the fame of him which we had before heard fell far short of the truth when we saw him." Meanwhile, the trumpets blew, and their sounds being harmoniously blended, there arose a kind of discordant concord of notes. Whilst the sameness of the sounds being continued, the one followed the other in mutual succession, and the notes which had been lowered were again resounded.