0:07

Before we start, just a quick warning that

0:09

this episode contains descriptions of violence

0:11

or sexual content that may not be

0:13

suitable for all listeners.

0:19

It's a bitterly cold mid-winter

0:21

in the Alps and there's thick snow

0:23

on the ground. The white powder

0:26

squeaks and crunches beneath the feet

0:28

of freezing men and animals as

0:30

they trudge along the passes that lead

0:33

through the mountains. When

0:35

the wind picks up, it howls and bites,

0:37

whipping a painful mixture of sleet, dirt

0:40

and ice into their faces. The

0:45

travellers are well attended to by servants

0:47

and soldiers. They are prepared

0:49

for the conditions, wrapped up in thick

0:52

woollen cloaks and soft, warm animal

0:54

furs the best that money can buy.

0:58

All the same they've been on the road for

1:00

weeks trekking halfway across

1:02

Europe in this miserable weather. It's

1:06

been agonisingly slow progress,

1:09

the frozen passes, thin air

1:11

and steep slopes reducing the pace

1:14

to a handful of miles a day. The

1:18

wood fires at night

1:19

are barely enough to keep warm and

1:21

after a while the cold gets

1:24

into their bones.

1:26

It's a tough journey for anyone to make,

1:29

not least a 66-year-old grandmother.

1:32

But Eleanor of Aquitaine has never been

1:35

ordinary. She's

1:37

crossing the Alps at Christmas time 1190 because

1:41

she's on a secret mission. A

1:43

mission of the highest diplomatic

1:45

significance. A mission with

1:47

the potential to change history.

1:51

Because Eleanor is not travelling

1:54

on her own. When

1:56

she set off from her duchy of Aquitaine

1:58

back in the autumn she r- down

2:00

to the little northern Spanish kingdom of

2:02

Navarre to meet with its king, Sancho

2:05

VI.

2:07

Sancho was expecting her

2:09

because for a while now he's been

2:11

in contact with Eleanor's son, Richard

2:14

the Lionheart, King of England.

2:17

The two men have entered into a stunning

2:19

alliance. Sancho will

2:21

lend his support to Richard's military

2:24

campaigns in the most southerly part

2:26

of the Plantagenet Empire.

2:28

In return, Richard will

2:30

abandon his decades-old

2:33

promise to marry the sister of

2:35

the French king, Philip Augustus,

2:37

and he'll marry Sancho's 25-year-old

2:40

daughter, Berengaria.

2:44

This may not sound like much. After

2:46

all, we know that the daughters of medieval

2:48

kings are shunted around the chessboard

2:50

of Europe like pawns when they're barely

2:53

out of childhood.

2:55

Yet two things make this

2:57

marriage unusual.

2:59

One is the mismatch in status

3:01

between Richard and Berengaria. It's

3:04

not totally bananas for a plantagenet

3:07

to marry a Spanish royal. Richard's

3:09

own sister, young Eleanor, was wedded to

3:11

Alfonso VIII to become Queen of Castile

3:14

more than 20 years earlier.

3:17

But

3:17

Castile is an A-list

3:19

kingdom, Berengaria's home,

3:21

Navarre, is very much C-list,

3:24

barely more than a glorified city. So

3:27

Richard is definitely doing Sancho

3:30

a favour here rather than vice

3:32

versa.

3:34

Even more unusual than that

3:36

are the circumstances of the wedding

3:38

itself.

3:40

If Berengaria had been expecting to be gently

3:42

chaperoned to one of Richard's plush

3:45

castles so she could chill watching

3:47

Netflix while awaiting his return from the crusade,

3:50

then she must have been crushingly disappointed.

3:54

Instead, having dodged marriage

3:56

until the age of 32, Richard

3:58

has decided that he wants to get married

4:01

right now.

4:02

So that's why he sent his dear old mum,

4:05

the only person he really trusts, to

4:07

Navarre.

4:09

Her job was to collect Berengaria

4:11

and take her to find her husband

4:13

to be. But as we

4:15

heard last episode, Richard isn't

4:18

exactly easy to pin down

4:20

at the moment. The

4:22

Lionheart is currently on his way

4:24

to the Holy Land via southern

4:26

France, the western coast of Italy

4:29

and Sicily. On route, he's

4:31

been fighting with peasants, Sicilians

4:34

and, well, pretty much anyone

4:36

who looks at him funny.

4:39

Eleanor and Berengaria have to

4:41

catch up with him, and the most

4:43

direct way to Sicily when

4:45

the winter seas are rough

4:47

is to start on land, going straight

4:49

over two mountain ranges. That's

4:53

how the two women have come to be on

4:55

this long, cold, exhausting

4:57

winter trek from Navarre,

4:59

over the Pyrenees, into the Alps

5:02

and down through Italy towards the

5:04

Straits of Messina, where they can

5:06

cross over to Sicily.

5:09

What's more,

5:10

they know that when they arrive, they're

5:12

going to be right at the centre of

5:14

a full-blown diplomatic incident.

5:17

Berengaria is living, breathing.

5:20

I didn't like it so I didn't put a ring on

5:22

it, proof that Richard is not

5:25

going to marry his official fiancee,

5:27

the French king's sister, Alice. The

5:31

cat will be well and truly out

5:33

of the bag. The Third Crusade

5:36

is about to get spicy.

5:40

I'm Dan Jones

5:42

and from something else in Sony Music Entertainment,

5:45

this is History. Season 2

5:47

of A Dynasty to Die For.

5:50

Episode 3, here

5:52

comes the bride.

6:07

In the long history of Queens of England, Beringaria

6:10

of Navarre is a bit of a nobody.

6:13

Compare her for instance to Anne Boleyn,

6:16

Queen Victoria, or indeed, Eleanor

6:18

of Aquitaine. Poor old Beringaria

6:21

is more of a pub trivia question than

6:23

a national treasure. But when

6:25

you consider the adventure she goes on

6:27

from 1190, she really should

6:30

be better known. A race

6:32

for hundreds of miles, crossing two

6:34

mountain ranges to catch up with a sword-swinging

6:37

warmonger isn't the usual prelude

6:39

to a marriage in the middle ages, or

6:41

for that matter, any other time.

6:44

Yet Beringaria steps up. It

6:47

would be amazing to have the transcript

6:49

of her conversations with Elinor as

6:51

they slog their way over the Alps. Oh,

6:55

what's Richard like? My boy

6:57

Richard? Oh, he's a fine young man.

7:00

I mean, lively, I suppose

7:02

you could say. Lively? Yeah,

7:04

lively. As in, psychobatically driven,

7:07

obsessed to the point of mania with grinding his

7:09

enemies into the dirt, rather arrogant

7:12

and extremely violent. Oh,

7:15

he sounds

7:17

lovely. Sadly,

7:20

such transcripts don't exist. We

7:22

don't know if Eleanor and Berengaria hit

7:25

it off personally, or whether they couldn't

7:27

stand each other. What we do know is

7:30

that when the expedition finally reaches

7:32

the southern tip of the Italian mainland

7:34

in March, they send word across

7:37

to Sicily that they're here, and

7:39

that Richard ought to come and pick them up.

7:42

Then they wait to see what the fallout

7:44

will be.

7:46

As it turns out, the response to Berengaria's

7:49

arrival is surprisingly muted,

7:52

because the the French king Philip Augustus

7:54

has finally accepted the inevitable.

7:58

He's come to terms with the fact that if... If

8:00

Richard hasn't married his sister Alice

8:02

after 20 years of engagement, then

8:05

it isn't going to happen now.

8:07

Philip hasn't totally come to that conclusion

8:09

of his own accord, of course. He's

8:12

been helped along by Richard, who

8:14

finally sat Philip down to have the

8:16

conversation. He's spelled

8:18

out his problem with the marriage in no uncertain

8:21

terms, that his predatory dad

8:24

had repeatedly taken advantage

8:26

of Alice.

8:27

He claims he has witnesses who will

8:29

go public with their testimony if needed.

8:32

And he counts on the French king not

8:34

wanting to drag his poor sister's

8:37

name through the mud in public.

8:39

As a sweetener, Richard offers Philip

8:42

a tasty cash settlement to

8:44

release him from his vow to marry Alice.

8:47

Philip is still far from happy

8:50

about all this, though. By this

8:52

stage, he's just about at the end

8:54

of his tether with Richard. It's

8:57

not just the wedding thing. For

8:59

the last four or five months in Sicily,

9:02

Richard has been driving him bonkers.

9:07

First there was the conquest of Messina and

9:09

the bullying of Tancred, King of Sicily,

9:11

which we heard about last episode. Philip

9:15

was outraged that Richard started

9:17

treating Messina like it was an English

9:20

conquest and demanded that Richard's

9:22

flags be taken down from the city

9:24

walls. Then there's Richard's

9:27

annoying way of handing out cash,

9:29

food and treats to all the crusaders

9:31

who were in Sicily. He raised

9:34

vast sums for his crusade and

9:36

now he's determined to flash it

9:38

about in a way that Philip simply

9:41

isn't. It makes Philip look

9:43

like a tightwad rather than the more

9:45

experienced and senior king

9:47

he likes to think he is. On

9:50

top of that, Richard has fallen

9:52

out with one of Philip's favourite French knights.

9:55

It sounds almost funny. In fact,

9:57

it definitely is funny.

10:00

One day they're all out for a

10:02

ride in the country and they bump into a

10:04

peasant carrying bundles of sticks.

10:07

Knights being knights, they grab the

10:09

sticks and organise a mock tournament,

10:12

bashing each other and messing around.

10:16

Except Richard isn't capable of having

10:18

a mock fight. He

10:20

gets into it with this knight of Phillips whose

10:22

name is William De Baar. There's

10:24

a bit of previous between them and

10:27

their play fight quickly turns nasty.

10:30

Richard loses his rag and starts

10:32

screaming at William, calling him every

10:34

name under the sun and then telling him

10:36

he's banned from the crusade.

10:38

He'll only back down when all Phillips

10:41

knights and the French king

10:43

himself agree to grovel on

10:45

their knees and apologise to

10:47

him.

10:50

Thanks to fiasco's like this, by

10:53

the time news breaks that Berengaria

10:55

is in the area, Philip is well

10:57

and truly done with Richard.

11:00

He briefly tries to block their passage

11:02

from the mainland, asking Tankred to

11:04

stop them from landing on Sicily.

11:07

But Tankred won't play ball.

11:09

He was both thoroughly bullied by Richard

11:12

and then buttered up with a gift, supposedly

11:15

the legendary sword of Excalibur,

11:18

so he's determined to stay well on

11:20

the English King's good side.

11:23

And by the way, if you want to hear more

11:25

about fact and fiction when it comes to Excalibur,

11:28

do tune in to this week's bonus episode.

11:31

Out of options,

11:33

the day before Berengaria gets

11:35

to Sicily, Philip jumps

11:38

on a ship and leaves. This

11:40

isn't an episode of keeping up with the the Crusaders,

11:43

he's not waiting around to endure an

11:45

embarrassing and dramatic showdown.

11:49

He's going to go on ahead to the Holy Land

11:51

without Richard and take his chances

11:53

with Saladin, even that monster

11:56

can't be worse than the Lionheart.

12:00

this means that when Elena and Berengaria

12:02

get to Sicily on 30th March 1191, the air is

12:07

clear.

12:08

Richard is there to meet them both off

12:10

the ship. He throws his arms around

12:12

his mother Elena and immediately

12:14

dives into a long conversation with her.

12:17

He reintroduces her to her own

12:19

daughter Joan, the one he rescued

12:21

from Tankred.

12:23

Elena hasn't seen Joan since she was sent

12:25

off to be married at 12 years old.

12:28

But Eleanor doesn't get long to catch

12:31

up with her family. After

12:34

her 100-mile mountainous odyssey, she

12:36

only gets three days of rest

12:39

before she has to jump on another ship

12:42

and head back north. She's

12:44

slated to pop into Rome to

12:47

represent Richard at a major

12:49

double whammy.

12:51

coronation of a new pope who

12:53

will in turn then crown a new

12:55

German Emperor, Henry VI. But

12:58

even more pressingly, Ellen has

13:00

got wind that her youngest son John

13:03

is doing what he does best and

13:06

stirring up trouble in her and

13:08

Richard's absence.

13:10

She needs to get back to the Plantagenet

13:12

Empire, Pronto.

13:15

So she leaves young Berengaria behind

13:17

with with her new husband to be.

13:20

It's not totally clear what Richard

13:22

makes of her, or what she makes of Richard.

13:25

Presumably the whole thing is a bit

13:27

of a blur. And it's

13:30

about to get even blurrier.

13:33

Because now she's told that in fact,

13:36

after all that, they're actually

13:38

not getting married. Or at least,

13:40

not yet. Richard tells

13:42

her that it'll be boring getting married

13:45

here during Lent. The

13:47

church basically bans all fun

13:49

for 40 days, so they won't be able

13:52

to organise a proper knees up to celebrate.

13:55

No,

13:56

he's got a better plan.

13:59

There's no need for her to even unpack

14:02

because in a few days he and

14:04

she and her soon to be sister-in-law

14:07

Joan are going to get on a ship

14:09

and sail a thousand miles east

14:12

to an island called Cyprus.

14:14

They can have the wedding there, it'll be a laugh

14:17

assuming they don't get shipwrecked or kidnapped

14:20

or raided by pirates along the way. Come

14:23

on girl don't look so miserable this is how

14:25

a real crusade goes down. Baron

14:29

Garia must be wondering

14:30

what the hell she's got herself

14:32

into, and she hasn't seen the

14:34

half of it yet.

14:47

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14:52

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14:57

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15:01

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15:03

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15:05

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15:08

and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

15:10

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15:12

podcasts.

15:16

When Richard's massive fleet sails out

15:18

from Sicily on 10th April 1191, it's an impressive sight.

15:24

Ropes creak, sailors bellow

15:26

to one another, and a gentle spring

15:28

breeze ruffles the passengers' hair.

15:31

There are more than 200 ships carrying 17,000

15:34

people, along with siege

15:37

engines, horses, weapons, food,

15:40

water and piles of gleaming

15:43

treasure.

15:44

Richard's bride-to-be, Berengaria

15:47

of Navarre, and her new chaperone,

15:49

his sister Joan, are given births

15:52

on one of the biggest and most stable

15:54

transporterships.

15:56

Richard himself is is a board, a different

15:58

vessel,

15:59

which has a great lantern burning on it during

16:01

the night so that the rest of the fleet can

16:04

follow. But after just

16:06

three days at sea, disaster

16:08

strikes.

16:10

Huge storms blow up and scatter

16:12

the ships, meaning that when Richard

16:14

arrives to the first scheduled stop,

16:17

the island of Crete, he finds that his sister

16:20

and Berengaria are, well,

16:22

missing, along with two dozen other

16:24

ships.

16:26

On top of that, Richard hasn't quite

16:28

found his sea legs. He's feeling

16:31

awful. And when his ship moves onto

16:33

roads, 12 days after they originally

16:36

set out from Sicily, he's in a

16:38

thoroughly foul mood.

16:40

This doesn't get any better when he finally

16:43

hears news about what's going on

16:45

with his missing ships.

16:47

They've

16:47

managed to get to Cyprus, but

16:50

not all in one piece.

16:52

Several have been wrecked on the southern

16:54

coast of the island. Their

16:56

passengers are drowned and their

16:58

cargo is raided by the locals.

17:01

Mercifully, the ship with Joan and

17:03

Berengaria aboard is still afloat.

17:07

But the ruler of Cyprus, a petty

17:09

tyrant called Isaac Dukas Komninos,

17:12

promptly announces that he will not let

17:14

them land.

17:16

What's more, he's fortifying the beach

17:18

at Limassol, giving a strong impression

17:21

that he's going to forcibly resist anyone

17:23

who tries to come ashore.

17:26

The Cypriots and the Crusaders are

17:29

nominally on the same side. After

17:31

all, everyone's a Christian.

17:33

But Isaac Dukas Komninos is

17:36

a nasty piece of work,

17:37

known for raping, mutilating

17:40

and torturing his people.

17:42

And what he's saying sounds very

17:44

much like fighting talk.

17:47

How does Richard respond to fighting talk? He

17:50

goes into beast mode,

17:56

which in this case means sounding the horns

17:59

of war and leading his troops in

18:01

an amphibious invasion of the beach,

18:03

saving Private Ryan style. His

18:06

men, who'd been kicking their heels all

18:08

winter, now charge off landing

18:10

craft through the shallow waters and

18:13

up onto the sand. The

18:15

opposing forces try to fend them off,

18:18

but are overwhelmed by the crusaders,

18:20

who lay into them with swords and

18:23

lances, crossbow bolts and

18:25

arrows. The

18:27

defenders try to resist, but

18:30

the crusaders have huge numbers

18:32

and a very strong example to follow.

18:35

Richard, of course, is the first one

18:37

off the boat and gets stuck in

18:39

from the front. In

18:42

the end, the people of Limosol put

18:44

up barely any more resistance than

18:46

the Sicilians did at Messina the

18:48

previous autumn. The crusaders

18:51

take the beach, then they assault

18:53

and take the town. Next,

18:56

for good measure, Richard decides he's

18:59

going to take the

19:00

whole of Cyprus. In

19:02

the first week of May 1191,

19:04

he brings in his entire army

19:07

and sends it swarming across the

19:09

island, putting the fear of God into

19:11

the Cypriots.

19:13

They target every major city and

19:15

start a hunt for the man who dared defy

19:18

them, Isaac Dukas Komninos.

19:22

The tyrant of Cyprus now realises,

19:25

just a little too late, that

19:27

he's made a big mistake. His

19:30

modest forces have no chance against

19:33

the descending hordes of crusaders. Isaac

19:37

sends word to Richard that he's willing

19:39

to surrender, so long as he's not

19:42

clapped in irons.

19:44

Richard replies, surprisingly mildly,

19:47

telling him not to worry, he'd never do

19:49

that to a fellow ruler.

19:52

He waits for Isaac to crawl out from his hiding

19:54

place, while in the meantime riders

19:57

and sailors secure all the major

19:59

coastal sites. cities on the island.

20:02

What all this means is that in just 10

20:05

days, Richard has effectively conquered

20:07

Cyprus and is making plans

20:09

to turn it into a Crusader kingdom

20:12

in its own right.

20:13

From this point on, generations

20:16

of Crusaders will be able to use Cyprus

20:18

as a base from which to attack people like

20:20

Saladin on the opposite coast of Syria

20:23

and Palestine.

20:25

Oh, and it also means Richard's

20:27

sister and his new fiancée can

20:30

finally come ashore,

20:31

which reminds him he's supposed to be getting

20:33

married.

20:37

So on the 12th of May, Richard

20:40

does something he's strenuously

20:42

avoided for his whole life. He

20:46

and Berengaria of Navarre stand

20:48

before the altar at the chapel of St

20:50

George in Limassol, and a

20:52

pronounced man and wife. Berengaria

20:56

is crowned Queen of England.

20:58

Who knows, one day she might

21:01

even go there. Two

21:04

weeks after that, Isaac Dukas

21:06

Komninos is finally captured.

21:09

Despite Richard's assurances,

21:12

he'd try to wriggle out of his surrender

21:14

and hide up in the mountains. But

21:17

Richard, relentless as ever, gets

21:19

him in the end.

21:21

When Isaac's taken by the Crusader force,

21:23

he desperately reminds them of Richard's

21:26

promise not to clap him in irons. Don't

21:28

worry, say the Crusaders, we know all

21:30

about that. They present

21:33

the vanquished Isaac with his chains,

21:35

specially made from silver,

21:38

and clap him in those instead.

21:40

With that, Cyprus is firmly

21:43

in Richard's hands.

21:45

Not that he wants to hang onto it himself. He

21:48

announces a heavy property tax, orders

21:50

all the natives to shave off their beards because,

21:53

well,

21:53

he can, then sells

21:56

the island to the Knights Templar, the

21:58

permanent crack troops of the Cruc-

22:00

world.

22:02

Once Cyprus is dealt with, Richard

22:04

turns his gaze on his next target,

22:06

the hottest war zone in the whole

22:09

region, the city of

22:11

Acre. Located

22:13

on the coast of modern Israel, it's

22:15

the most important merchant city in

22:17

the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

22:19

Saladin's men hold it after

22:22

the Sultan took the city a few years earlier.

22:25

But the Crusaders have it surrounded

22:27

and under heavy bombardment. The

22:30

most senior Western leader there is

22:33

Richard's old pal Philip Augustus.

22:35

It really wouldn't do to

22:37

let the French king conquer it and take

22:39

all the glory before Richard gets there.

22:42

So the crusade bandwagon

22:44

starts up again.

22:48

Richard, his new wife Berengaria

22:50

and his now battle-hardened warriors

22:53

pile back onto their ships and set

22:55

out for their date with destiny.

22:59

At long last, Last, Saladin is

23:01

in their sights.

23:30

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