Today I hiked the 400+ crumbling stairs that lead to the castle where
Richard the Lionhearted was imprisoned a few hundred years ago in
Austria.
Eleanor of Acquitane's son. For everyone else, he was the "Good King
Richard" from Robin Hood fame. I remembered learning in Robin Hood that King Richard was imprisoned
after the Crusades while his brother John sat on the throne. The
actual story is a little more involved, and is a very cute story of
friendship and silly Austrians. Apparently Richard got in a fight with the King of Austria because he
tried to take credit for something the Austrian King conquered. The
King of Austria said that if Richard ever came through Austria again
he would capture him and hold him for ransom. Richard basically said
"Fine - I hate Austria anyway." Things were good until Richard's boat shipwrecked over by Greece and
he was forced to walk across Austria to get back to London. He and his
mates dressed as monks to sneak through the country, but apparently
Richard's vanity got the best of him and he insisted on wearing his
King's ring and eating roast chicken every night . . . not very
monk-like. Not surprisingly he was captured, and held in a tower until England
paid one and a half times the annual income to get him back! This was
only a problem because Richard didn't like England, and the feeling
was mutual. His brother John was in charge while he was away, and
since the English people weren't really in a hurry to get him back,
Eleanor eventually had to get involved to get him released. So that's how you get that "Prince John" character from the movie, but
apparently its sort of an unfair comparison. The end of this story was what got me. Eventually, Richard's minstrel,
a luteist, missed Richard so much that he walked all over the
countryside playing songs they sang together in childhood. When
someone from a tower called back that he knew the songs, the minstrel
was finally able to rescue him. Ah, Austrians are so ridiculous.
