IN the year of our Lord one thousand one hundred and eighty-nine,Richard of the Lion Heart succeeded to the throne of King Henry the Second,whose paternal heart he had done so much to break.He had been,as we have seen,a rebel from his boyhood;but,the moment he became a king against whom others might rebel,he found out that rebellion was a great wickedness.In the heat of this pious discovery,he punished all the leading people who had befriended him against his father.He could scarcely have done anything that would have been a better instance of his real nature,or a better warning to fawners and parasites not to trust in lion-hearted princes.
He likewise put his late father's treasurer in chains,and locked him up in a dungeon from which he was not set free until he had relinquished,not only all the Crown treasure,but all his own money too.So,Richard certainly got the Lion's share of the wealth of this wretched treasurer,whether he had a Lion's heart or not.
He was crowned King of England,with great pomp,at Westminster:
walking to the Cathedral under a silken canopy stretched on the tops of four lances,each carried by a great lord.On the day of his coronation,a dreadful murdering of the Jews took place,which seems to have given great delight to numbers of savage persons calling themselves Christians.The King had issued a proclamation forbidding the Jews (who were generally hated,though they were the most useful merchants in England)to appear at the ceremony;but as they had assembled in London from all parts,bringing presents to show their respect for the new Sovereign,some of them ventured down to Westminster Hall with their gifts;which were very readily accepted.It is supposed,now,that some noisy fellow in the crowd,pretending to be a very delicate Christian,set up a howl at this,and struck a Jew who was trying to get in at the Hall door with his present.A riot arose.The Jews who had got into the Hall,were driven forth;and some of the rabble cried out that the new King had commanded the unbelieving race to be put to death.
Thereupon the crowd rushed through the narrow streets of the city,slaughtering all the Jews they met;and when they could find no more out of doors (on account of their having fled to their houses,and fastened themselves in),they ran madly about,breaking open all the houses where the Jews lived,rushing in and stabbing or spearing them,sometimes even flinging old people and children out of window into blazing fires they had lighted up below.This great cruelty lasted four-and-twenty hours,and only three men were punished for it.Even they forfeited their lives not for murdering and robbing the Jews,but for burning the houses of some Christians.
King Richard,who was a strong,restless,burly man,with one idea always in his head,and that the very troublesome idea of breaking the heads of other men,was mightily impatient to go on a Crusade to the Holy Land,with a great army.As great armies could not be raised to go,even to the Holy Land,without a great deal of money,he sold the Crown domains,and even the high offices of State;
recklessly appointing noblemen to rule over his English subjects,not because they were fit to govern,but because they could pay high for the privilege.In this way,and by selling pardons at a dear rate and by varieties of avarice and oppression,he scraped together a large treasure.He then appointed two Bishops to take care of his kingdom in his absence,and gave great powers and possessions to his brother John,to secure his friendship.John would rather have been made Regent of England;but he was a sly man,and friendly to the expedition;saying to himself,no doubt,'The more fighting,the more chance of my brother being killed;and when he IS killed,then I become King John!'
Before the newly levied army departed from England,the recruits and the general populace distinguished themselves by astonishing cruelties on the unfortunate Jews:whom,in many large towns,they murdered by hundreds in the most horrible manner.
At York,a large body of Jews took refuge in the Castle,in the absence of its Governor,after the wives and children of many of them had been slain before their eyes.Presently came the Governor,and demanded admission.'How can we give it thee,O Governor!'said the Jews upon the walls,'when,if we open the gate by so much as the width of a foot,the roaring crowd behind thee will press in and kill us?'
Upon this,the unjust Governor became angry,and told the people that he approved of their killing those Jews;and a mischievous maniac of a friar,dressed all in white,put himself at the head of the assault,and they assaulted the Castle for three days.
Then said JOCEN,the head-Jew (who was a Rabbi or Priest),to the rest,'Brethren,there is no hope for us with the Christians who are hammering at the gates and walls,and who must soon break in.
As we and our wives and children must die,either by Christian hands,or by our own,let it be by our own.Let us destroy by fire what jewels and other treasure we have here,then fire the castle,and then perish!'
A few could not resolve to do this,but the greater part complied.
They made a blazing heap of all their valuables,and,when those were consumed,set the castle in flames.While the flames roared and crackled around them,and shooting up into the sky,turned it blood-red,Jocen cut the throat of his beloved wife,and stabbed himself.All the others who had wives or children,did the like dreadful deed.When the populace broke in,they found (except the trembling few,cowering in corners,whom they soon killed)only heaps of greasy cinders,with here and there something like part of the blackened trunk of a burnt tree,but which had lately been a human creature,formed by the beneficent hand of the Creator as they were.