Richard, as we have seen, was not acknowledged by his father as his heir, nor had he received the homage of the barons as presumptive successor, until he had wrung the concession from the dying Henry on the field of Colombieres. The fact that, without a word of opposition, he was received as Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou, and King of the English, immediately on the news of his father’s death, proves that the doctrine of hereditary succession was, in practice if not in theory, already admitted as the lawful one, and that Henry’s reforms had left the countries subject to his immediate sway in such order that no one even ventured to take advantage of the interregnum to disturb the peace. It also proves that Richard had strong friends. Among these the first was his mother, who, rejoicing in her deliverance by Henry’s death from her long captivity, placed herself at the head of the English government, and, empowered by Richard, ruled as regent until his arrival. One reason for this probably was that Ranulf Glanvill, the justiciar, had been a confidential friend of Henry, and may have been suspected of promoting the design of placing John upon the throne. For more than a month Eleanor reigned, Richard spending the time in making terms with Philip, who had become his enemy as soon as he succeeded to his father’s place, and in receiving the formal investiture of the several dignities which he claimed on the Continent.

Coronation
of Richard.

Persecution
of the Jews.

In the middle of August he came to England, and John with him. After a magnificent progress of little more than a fortnight, he was crowned with exceeding great pomp at Westminster, on the 3rd of September. This is the first coronation the state ceremonies of which have been exactly recorded, and it has remained a precedent for all subsequent occasions; the religious services of course are much older. It was unfortunately disgraced by a riot promoted by Richard’s foreign attendants against the Jews, who, notwithstanding the king’s exertions, were severely handled, robbed and murdered, the example being followed, as soon as his personal protection was removed, at York, Stamford and St. Edmund’s.

Character of
Richard.

Richard at the time of his coronation was thirty-two years old; a man of tall stature, like his father and elder brother, ruddy and brown-haired, and giving already some indications of corpulence, which he tried to keep down by constant exercise. In dress he was very splendid and ostentatious, therein unlike his father. The dissimilarity in character was greater. Richard was foolishly extravagant, as lavish of money as Henry was sparing, and as unscrupulous in his ways of exacting it as his father was cautious and considerate. At this period of his life he had no pronounced political views; he had taken the Cross, and was that very rare phenomenon, an ardent Crusader, but he had not yet conceived a political scheme as King of England or as enemy of the King of France. He had not thought of taking into his hands the strings of that foreign policy for which Henry had sacrificed so much. He despised his friend Philip far more than his knowledge of him or the results of their intercourse justified him in doing; he trusted in himself far more than any man should do who has any sense of the rights or duties of kingship. He was a thorough warrior; personally brave, fearless in danger, politic and cautious in planning, and rapid in executing, exhibiting in battle the very faculties which deserted him in council—circumspection, self-control, readiness. He cared more for the glory of victory than either for the fame or the substance of it; it was his very joy to excel in arms, rather than to win renown or profit; yet for both renown and profit he had an insatiable thirst also. He was eloquent, generous and impulsive. In religion he was perhaps more sincere than his family generally were; he heard mass daily, and on three occasions did penance in a very remarkable way, simply on the impulse of his own distressed conscience. He did not show the carelessness in divine things that marked the house of Anjou, still less the brutal profanity of John. But notwithstanding this he was a vicious man, a bad husband and a bad son; vicious, although his vices did not, like those of his father and brother, complicate his public policy. All one can say about this is that, when he professed penitence, he seems to have been sincerely penitent. His best trait is the forgivingness of his character, and that is especially shown in his treatment of John.

The accession of such a prince might well be watched with interest; but Richard was as yet scarcely known in England. He had been born, indeed, either at Oxford or at Woodstock, and his nurse was a Wiltshire or Oxfordshire woman; but when quite a child he had been taken abroad, and had only visited England two or three times for a month or so since. Hence, although he was a fair scholar and a poet, it may be questioned whether he could speak a sentence in English. He had been educated, in fact, to be Duke of Aquitaine, and it was only since his brother’s death that he had been an object of interest on this side the Channel. No doubt changes were looked for; and in one respect change came, for very early he removed Glanvill from the office of Justiciar and made him pay a very heavy fine before he released him from custody. But this act was probably one of greed rather than of policy, for he wanted money, and did not speculate on statecraft. Glanvill, too, was bound on the Crusade, and was an old man whose days of governing were over.

Council of
Pipewell.

The same want of money led Richard, in a great council which he held at Pipewell in the month of the coronation, to sell almost everything that he could sell; sheriffdoms, justiceships, church lands, and appointments of all kinds. To the King of Scots he sold the release from the obligations which Henry had exacted in the peace of Falaise; to the Bishop of Durham he sold the office of Justiciar, or a share in it, and the county of Northumberland; to the Bishop of Winchester he sold the sheriffdom of Hampshire, and castles and lands belonging of old to his see. Many other prelates paid large sums to secure rights and properties which were their own, but which were deemed safer for the royal confirmation; and so great were the promises of money made to him that, if they had been fulfilled, he would have been richer by far than all the kings that were before him. He filled up the bishoprics with officers of his father’s court. York he gave to his half-brother Geoffrey the Chancellor; Salisbury to Hubert Walter, nephew of the Justiciar Glanvill; London to Richard the son of old Bishop Nigel of Ely the treasurer, and himself also treasurer and historian of the Exchequer.

Provision
made for
John.