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Itinerarium Regis Ricardi
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General SummaryMANY European chroniclers, English, French, and German, have described the Third Crusade and have related the exploits of its principal hero, Richard the Lion-hearted. One of the most important accounts is the Itinerary of King Richard. It is believed to have been composed by a certain Richard de Templo, canon of Holy Trinity Church, London. The author of the Itinerary declares that the notes for his book were drawn up amid the din of battles and the stir of martial camps. The work professes, therefore, to be a narrative by an eye-witness to the things mentioned in it. This statement must be received with caution, for Richard de Templo appears to have borrowed heavily from an Anglo-Norman poem dealing with the deeds of the English king in the Holy Land.
Historical SummaryThe Third Crusade (1189–1192) was a joint undertaking on the part of the three most powerful states of Europe — Germany, France, and England. The German contingent, under Frederick Barbarossa, followed a land route through the territories of the Roman Empire in the East and reached southern Asia Minor. Here Frederick perished by accident; and of all his fine army scarcely a thousand men succeeded in joining the other crusaders before Acre. The siege of this important city was conducted by the Anglo-French contingent under Richard the Lion-hearted and Philip Augustus. After a two years’ siege Acre surrendered to the crusaders in 1191.
179. Capture of Acre1
By the conjunction of the retinues of the two kings, an immense army of Christians was formed . . . . There was not a man of influence or renown in France who came not, then or afterwards, to the siege of Acre. And when King Richard arrived with an army, the flower of war, and learned that the king of France had gained the goodwill and favor of all, by
giving to each of his soldiers three aurei a month, not to be outdone or equaled in generosity, he proclaimed by mouth of herald that whosoever was in his service, no matter of what nation, should receive four aurei a month for his pay. By these means his generosity was extolled by all, for he outshone every one else in merit and favors, as he outdid them in gifts and magnificence. "When," exclaimed they, "will the first attack take place, by a man whom we have expected so long and anxiously? A man, the first of kings, and the most skilled in war throughout Christendom? Now let the will of God be done, for the hope of all rests on King Richard."
From the day on which the Saracens first got possession of the city of Acre, to that on which it was restored, was a space of four years. . . . The state of the churches within the city was not beheld without horror, and it is not without grief that we relate the unseemly things that had been perpetrated within them. For who could behold, without tears, the countenances of the holy images of the crucifixion of the Son of God, and of many saints, defiled or disfigured in one way or another? Who would not shudder at the horrible sight of altars overthrown, and of crucifixes cast to the earth and beaten in contempt by that insulting and impious nation, the Saracens, and their own rites exhibited in holy places? All the relics of man’s redemption and the Christian religion had been effaced, and the corruption of the Mohammedan superstition had been introduced.
1 , bk. iii, chs. 4, 19.
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Chicago: "Capture of Acre," Itinerarium Regis Ricardi in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), 370. Original Sources, accessed December 4, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=37K1KS33RKKM53E.
MLA: . "Capture of Acre." Itinerarium Regis Ricardi, Vol. iii, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, page 370. Original Sources. 4 Dec. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=37K1KS33RKKM53E.
Harvard: , 'Capture of Acre' in Itinerarium Regis Ricardi. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston, pp.370. Original Sources, retrieved 4 December 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=37K1KS33RKKM53E.
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