A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 by Steven Runciman

float next to his own, he forced
the citizens to give him hostages against their King’s good behaviour, and
announced that he was ready to take the whole province. Meanwhile he
constructed a great wooden castle just outside the town, to which he gave the scornful
name of Mategrifon, ‘the curb on the Greeks’.
    Philip was disquieted by this example of
his rival’s temper. He sent his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy, to find King
Tancred at Catania, to warn him of Richard’s intentions, and to offer him help
if worse were to follow. Tancred was in a difficult position. He knew that
Henry of Hohenstaufen was about to invade his lands; and he knew that his own
vassals were untrustworthy. A rapid calculation decided him that Richard would
be a better ally than Philip. Philip was unlikely to attack him now; but the
Kings of France were on good terms with the Hohenstaufens, and Philip’s future
friendship was uncertain. Richard, on the other hand, was the greatest present
menace, but was known to dislike the Hohenstaufen, the enemies of his Welf
cousins. Tancred rejected the French offer of help and entered into
negotiations with the English. He offered Richard twenty thousand ounces of
gold in lieu of the legacy due to Henry II, and Joanna the same sum in lieu of
her dowry.
    Richard’s wrath could usually be assuaged
by the sight of gold. He accepted the offer on his own and his sister’s behalf,
and further agreed that his young heir, Arthur Duke of Brittany, should be
betrothed to one of Tancred’s daughters. When Tancred further revealed the
propositions made to him by King Philip, Richard willingly had the terms
embodied in a treaty, which the Pope was asked to sponsor. Peace was restored;
and, on the advice of the Archbishop of Rouen, Richard grudgingly gave back to
Margaritus and the other leading citizens of Messina the goods that he had
confiscated.
    1190: Negotiations in Sicily
    King Philip was outwitted but made no
public objection. On 8 October, while the treaty was being drawn up, he and
Richard met once more to discuss the future conduct of the Crusade. Rules were
made about the price-control of foodstuffs. Serving men were bound to their
masters. A half of every knight’s money was to be devoted to the needs of the
Crusaders. Gambling was forbidden, except to knights and clerks; and if they
gambled excessively they were to be punished. Debts contracted on the
pilgrimage must be honoured. The clergy gave sanction to the regulations,
promising to excommunicate offenders. It was easy for the Kings to agree on
such matters; but there were political questions that were less readily
settled. After some discussion it was agreed that future conquests should be
held equally between them. A more delicate problem concerned King Philip’s
sister Alice. This unfortunate princess had been sent as a child, years before,
to the English court to marry Richard or another of Henry II’s sons. Henry II
had detained her, in spite of Richard’s unwillingness to agree to the proposed
marriage. Soon there had been ugly rumours that Henry was too intimate with her
himself. Richard, whose own tastes did not lie in the direction of marriage,
refused to carry out his father’s arrangement, in spite of Philip’s reiterated
demand. Nor would his mother, Queen Eleanor, now that Henry’s death had freed
her from restraint, see her favourite son tied to a member of a family that she
hated, and one whom she believed to have been her husband’s mistress. With the
interests of her native Guienne at heart she had determined to marry him to a
princess of Navarre; and he accepted her choice. So, when Philip brought up
again the question of Alice’s marriage, Richard refused to consider it, giving
Alice’s reputation as his reason. Philip was quite indifferent to his family’s
happiness. He never intervened to help his miserable sister Agnes, the widow of
Alexius II of Byzantium. But the insult was hard to bear. His relations with
Richard