Second sonne to Henrie the second.
An. Reg. 1.
1189.Richard the first of that name, and second sonne of Henrie the second,Wil. Paruus.began his reigne ouer England the sixt day of Julie, in the yere of ourLord 1189. in the seauen and thirteeth yeare of the emperour Frederikethe first, in the eleuenth yere of the reigne of Philip the second kingof France, and king William surnamed the Lion as yet liuing in thegouernement of Scotland.
This Richard, immediatlie after the solemnities of his fathers funeralswere ended, made hast to Rouen, where he was ioifullie receiued, andproclamed duke of Normandie, receiuing the inuesture according to theMatt. Paris.custome, on the twentith day of Julie. Then studieng to set all thingsin good order on that side the sea, he made search where his fathersStephan de Turnham committed to prison.treasure was preserued, and therevpon attached Stephan de Turnham, whowas seneschall or gouernour (as we may call him) of Aniou, andcommitting him to prison, compelled him to make deliuerie of all suchsummes of monie as he had hid and laid vp in certeine castels by thecommandement of the late king his father.
Matth. Paris. Polydor.Whilest he was thus occupied, his brother John came to him, to whom heioifullie gaue the welcome, and besides all other things which hisfather had bequeathed vnto him by his testament in England, amounting tothe value of foure thousand pounds of yearelie rent, with the earledomeof Mortaigne, he procured a marriage for him (being now a[203]widower) forIsabell daughter to the earle of Glocester married to Johnye kings brother.
She is named by diuerse authors Hauisia. Matth. Paris. R. Houed.his further aduancement with the ladie Isabell, daughter to Robert earleof Glocester, which earle had appointed the said John to be his heire asbefore is mentioned, although Baldwine the archbishop of Canturburieforbad the mariage, bicause they were coosens in the third degree ofconsanguinitie. To Robert earle of Leicester also he restored all hislands which had béene taken from him, and such persons as his father haddisherited, he restored likewise to their former rights and possessions,howbeit those had forsaken his father, and taken part with him againsthis said father, he séemed now so much to mislike, that he remooued themvtterlie from his presence, and contrariwise preferred such as hadcontinued faithfull vnto his father in time of the troubles.
Matt. Paris.At length, king Richard remembring himselfe of his mother quéeneElianor, who had béene separated from the bed of hir husband for thespace of sixtéene yeares, and was as yet deteined in prison in England,wrote his letters vnto the rulers of the realme, commanding them to setThe kings mother set at libertie.hir againe at libertie, and withall appointed hir by his letterspatents, to take vpon hir the whole gouernment of the kingdome in hisabsence. The quéene being thus deliuered, and hauing now the cheefeauthoritie & rule in hir hands, rode in progresse about the realme, tosée the estate thereof; and as she passed from place to place, sheshewed gladsome countenance to the people wheresoeuer she came, dooingalso what she could to pleasure them, that she might thereby win theirgood willes to hir, and to hir sonne: but speciallie remembring by hirlate experience and tast thereof, what an ir