Laurel
You are correct my hurried translation was in
error. "Au somme d'une falasise abrupte se dressent les ruines de
Chateau-Galliard, forteresse edifiee par Richard Coeur de Lion au retour de
croisade (1196-1197)."
Guide de La Route Selection de Reader's Digest S.A Paris
1997
Sinclair
----- Original Message -----
From: Spirit One Email <laurel@spiritone.com>
To: <sinclair@zilker.net>
Sent: Friday, June 11, 1999 3:40 AM
Subject: Hold the Fort! --Andelys > I have been reading the description of Richard the Lionhearted's > imprisonment in the book "Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings" by Amy > Kelly. This gives almost a day by day discription of the events and at no > time was Richard in French territory. Richard was moved from Trifels to > Hagenau. Then Emperor Henry Hohenstaufen sent for him to be brought to > Worms. There followed a long negotiations that involved many countries, the > Pope and even Eleanor, Richard's mother came. "All wept. Henry of > Hohenstaufen condescdnded grandly; the captive's fetters were unloosed; the > ransom was conveyed; the hostages were given over, among them the Archbishop > of Rouen, who had been the queen's stay in so many crises, her protector on > so many journeyings; and the queen herself, worn with labor and anguish, > fell weeping into the arms of Coeur-de-Lion. She wa, as she had sritten to > Pope Celestine, "worn to a skeleton, a mere thing of skin and bones, the sap > consumed in her veins, tears all but dried in the fountains of her eyes.' > All the bystanders let their tears flow at the spectacle of this aged woman, > the most astute and venerable soverign in Europe, still at seventy-two a > figure of significance in the counsels of men, raining her tears on the > bosom of her glorious son. There may have been in that concourse some > patriarcal bishops who remembered her as the young Queen of France getting > herself and her baggage wains over the Rhine in this very city of Minz a > half-century before on her way to the Holy Land, for she too had been signed > with the cross; for the hyounger generation the mere sight of her would > evoke the airs of troubgadours' and minnesingers' sons that had kept her > name alive in all the intervening time with malice or with praise." > "the queen and her son accepted the invitation of the Bishop of Cologne > to spend the end of the week in the capital of his diocese on their way down > the Rhine to the sea. In Cologne the prelate did hs best with suptuous > banquets and valley wines.....From Cologne.....it is related that after > Richard had passed out of Swabia, Henry Hohenstaufen, stimulated anew by > pressures from Philip of France, repented him of having so lightly delivered > his captive and sent followers to pursue and overtake him; and that Philip > cooperated in this plan by placing ships in the Channel to intercept the > royal party. However this may have been, the king and queen avoided all > these traps and came at last to Antwerp.....Richard's admiral, Stephen of > Turnham, received the travelers on the famous ship Trenchemer.....they made > their way among the islands by day.....and by night for greater comfort and > security lay upon a great galley that came out from Rye. On March 12 ...the > ships bore into the harbor of Sandwich. > > So he was never in France at that time. But then in 1196 he returns to > build a fortress upon a peerless height that should surpass anything yet > seen in Europe. A very mountain of defiance to obstruct the valley of the > Seine by river and by road. 2/3 of the distance, as the crow flies from > Paris to the sea, the river described a deep loop, washing the chalky cliffs > of an abrupt eminence that offered a panoramic survey of the whole region to > its remote horizons. This height, the "Rock of Andelys," had not escaped > the appraising eye of Philip, but it loomed a few leagues beyond his reach. > The Angevin genius for building stirred mightly in Coeur-de-Lion as he > reconnoitered this matchless site. >From the days of his earliest memory he > had prowled about the massy ancient piles reared by Foulques the Black, > William the Conqueror, Henry Beauclerc, Geoffrey the Fair and Henry > Fitz-Empress (Richard's father) on the heights of Loches, Falaise, Chinon, > and many another dominating lookout. In the Latin Kingdom he had explored > with Amazement and delight the newest military construction of the TEMPLARS > and hospitallers at least in Margab and Acre, Ramleh and Ascalon. > (info on the construction) "Behold," exclaimed the architect king to > his amazed liege men at the end of 1196. "how fair my daughter has grown in > a single year." With raillery he named the pile "Chateau Gaillard. Saucy > Castle, or Petulant Castle, it has been called, though the English hardly > renders the mocking challenge of the French. > > ====== > The town of Gisors is nearby and this is said about it. "Gisors, where > once the vast elm had marked the place of parley between Capetian kings and > the Norman dukes" > > Laurel > > > [ This is the Sinclair family discussion list, sinclair@jump.net. > [ To get off or on the list, see http://www.mids.org/sinclair/list.html |