Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
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.”
