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Home  »  Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men  »  Richard I.

S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.

Richard I.

  • [Called Cœur de Lion, or the Lion-hearted; king of England; son of Henry II.; born at Oxford, July 16, 1157; revolted from his father, and allied himself with Philip of France; ascended the throne, 1189; joined the Third Crusade, 1190; captured Acre, July, 1191; made a truce with Saladin, and started homewards, but was wrecked on the coast of Istria, and imprisoned by the Duke of Austria; ransomed, 1194; engaged in wars with Philip of France, in one of which he was mortally wounded, March, 1199.]
  • Those who are unwilling to rescue, are unworthy to view, the sepulchre of Christ.

  • Or, “Those who are not worthy to win the Holy City are not worthy to behold it.” Of the jealousies of the crusaders, which prevented a combined attack upon the Saracens, so that Richard veiled his face when one of his retainers, as they ascended the brow of a hill, exclaimed, “This way, my lord, and you will see Jerusalem.”
  • During his absence his brother John endeavored to seize the kingdom by reporting that Richard had perished; but took the significant hint of his friend, Philip Augustus of France, “Take care of thyself, the Devil is loose!”
  • John was treated with great magnanimity by Richard, who knew his brother well enough to remark, “I hope I shall as easily forget his ingratitude as he will my forbearance.”
  • Richard said to some of his counsellors, on declining to join the Fourth Crusade, “You advise me to dismiss my three daughters,—pride, avarice, and incontinence. I bequeath them to the most deserving,—my pride to the Knights Templar, my avarice to the monks of Citeaux, and my incontinence to the prelates.”