shield. Despite wearing no armour himself, the king applauded his first shot: the man fired again and hit him in the left shoulder, fatally, as it turned out. The peasant claimed that Richard had killed his father and two brothers, but as a last act of chivalry, the dying king pardoned him and asked that he be released after his death. Afterwards Richard’s men had the longbowman flayed alive.
Richard is usually remembered in stark contrast to his younger brother John. Though extremely violent, he always stuck by his word – he was nicknamed ‘Richard yay-or-nay’ – and was forgiving. John, meanwhile, broke every promise he ever made. Even before his brother’s death, his rule as regent was unforgiving and harsh, leading the people of London to revolt, and conditions worsened.
Drunkenness had always been a common feature of life in the Realm. As far back as the eighth century St Boniface, the Devonian who converted the Germans, complained that it was ‘a vice peculiar to the heathens and to our race, and that neither Franks, Gauls, Lombards, Romans nor Greeks indulge in’. Twelfth-century writer William of Malmesbury said of the English that ‘Drinking in parties was an universal practice, in which occupation they passed entire nights as well as days.’ In the early 13th century England went through one of its periodic booze epidemics, so that ‘the whole land was filled with drink and drinkers’, and leading the way was the drunken King John, whose fondness for booze and lechery inadvertently gave the world its most important legal document – Magna Carta.
By the end of the 13th century there were 354 drinking establishments in London, and everyone drank heavily, although they did so among their own class – the wealthy drank in inns, the middle ranks in taverns, while at the bottom of the social ladder there were the alehouses, where violence was almost guaranteed. During this period court rolls, which began in the reign of the Lionheart (before 1189 in English law is literally ‘time immemorial’) xvii are filled with accounts of drink-fuelled incidents, often involving ill-judged horseplay with axes, swords and farmyard animals.
At ‘church ales’ money was raised for the upkeep of the parish by hosting marathon drinking sessions in which parishioners were encouraged to drink as much as possible. These events could go on for three days, and after a certain time bachelors still able to stand up were allowed to drink for free. Weddings were also extremely drunken, so much so that in 1223 Richard Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, was forced to make a proclamation that marriages must be sober, and without ‘laughter or sport or at public potations or feasts’. The worst drink-related incident occurred in 1212 when London Bridge burned down, with up to 3,000 charred or drowned bodies turning up on the banks of the river the following morning. The fire started in Southwark at a bring your own bottle party, or ‘Scot-Ale’ as they were called.
John certainly led the way in the drinking stakes. He kept 180,000 gallons of wine at his personal disposal, a slight hint at alcoholism, and drank anything he could find. His drunken antics were famed, and no woman was safe.
John also displayed signs of a violent temperament from an early age. As a boy he once lost his temper while playing chess, and smashed his opponent over the head with a heavy piece. He had been nicknamed Jean sans Terre, or Lackland, after being left out of his father’s inheritance, and to his enemies – that is most of the population – he was also called ‘Softsword’ for his lack of military prowess. He had broken his father’s heart by his betrayal, so that as his life ebbed away the old king commissioned a portrait of an eagle being pecked to death by its offspring, pointing out the most vicious one to a visitor with the words ‘that’s John’. He could also be ruthless even by the standards of the age; he once took hostage 28
Richard is usually remembered in stark contrast to his younger brother John. Though extremely violent, he always stuck by his word – he was nicknamed ‘Richard yay-or-nay’ – and was forgiving. John, meanwhile, broke every promise he ever made. Even before his brother’s death, his rule as regent was unforgiving and harsh, leading the people of London to revolt, and conditions worsened.
Drunkenness had always been a common feature of life in the Realm. As far back as the eighth century St Boniface, the Devonian who converted the Germans, complained that it was ‘a vice peculiar to the heathens and to our race, and that neither Franks, Gauls, Lombards, Romans nor Greeks indulge in’. Twelfth-century writer William of Malmesbury said of the English that ‘Drinking in parties was an universal practice, in which occupation they passed entire nights as well as days.’ In the early 13th century England went through one of its periodic booze epidemics, so that ‘the whole land was filled with drink and drinkers’, and leading the way was the drunken King John, whose fondness for booze and lechery inadvertently gave the world its most important legal document – Magna Carta.
By the end of the 13th century there were 354 drinking establishments in London, and everyone drank heavily, although they did so among their own class – the wealthy drank in inns, the middle ranks in taverns, while at the bottom of the social ladder there were the alehouses, where violence was almost guaranteed. During this period court rolls, which began in the reign of the Lionheart (before 1189 in English law is literally ‘time immemorial’) xvii are filled with accounts of drink-fuelled incidents, often involving ill-judged horseplay with axes, swords and farmyard animals.
At ‘church ales’ money was raised for the upkeep of the parish by hosting marathon drinking sessions in which parishioners were encouraged to drink as much as possible. These events could go on for three days, and after a certain time bachelors still able to stand up were allowed to drink for free. Weddings were also extremely drunken, so much so that in 1223 Richard Poore, Bishop of Salisbury, was forced to make a proclamation that marriages must be sober, and without ‘laughter or sport or at public potations or feasts’. The worst drink-related incident occurred in 1212 when London Bridge burned down, with up to 3,000 charred or drowned bodies turning up on the banks of the river the following morning. The fire started in Southwark at a bring your own bottle party, or ‘Scot-Ale’ as they were called.
John certainly led the way in the drinking stakes. He kept 180,000 gallons of wine at his personal disposal, a slight hint at alcoholism, and drank anything he could find. His drunken antics were famed, and no woman was safe.
John also displayed signs of a violent temperament from an early age. As a boy he once lost his temper while playing chess, and smashed his opponent over the head with a heavy piece. He had been nicknamed Jean sans Terre, or Lackland, after being left out of his father’s inheritance, and to his enemies – that is most of the population – he was also called ‘Softsword’ for his lack of military prowess. He had broken his father’s heart by his betrayal, so that as his life ebbed away the old king commissioned a portrait of an eagle being pecked to death by its offspring, pointing out the most vicious one to a visitor with the words ‘that’s John’. He could also be ruthless even by the standards of the age; he once took hostage 28
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