Richard leaves England

Population Migration / Travel

Richard sails from Dover and reaches Calais on December 11. Many say that he will never return to England.

"It was thought he would never return to his country: for he was said also to be already broken down and languid through the premature and immoderate use of arms, in which he had indulged more than was prudent from his youth upwards, so that he seemed likely to be speedily exhausted by the labor of the Eastern expedition. Others said that his system was so corrupted and consumed by a quartan ague, which he had endured for a long time, that he could not long exist in that disorder, and especially amidst labor so great. An argument in favor of this view was a certain unbecoming symptom that appeared in him, together with paleness of the face and swelling of the limbs. Others even said that he had more than a hundred issues on his body, to carry off the corruption of the humours. Such were the reports concerning the king that flew about in the ears and through the mouths of almost all men; and his indiscreet and immoderate donations and sales gave the appearance of truth to them; and, as if he understood that he would finish his career soon, he was supposed to care very little for the kingdom, because he divided or disposed of it in such a manner... "Almost all men were enraged against him, on seeing so noble a king, when about to set out for distant countries, leave his own kingdom with so little ceremony; and at his departure evince less care than became him, in committing, without the advice and consent of the nobility, the direction of affairs to a man who was a foreigner of obscure name, and whose industry and fidelity were not much approved; but whether they undervalued, justly or otherwise, this appointment made by the king, was shown clearly by the events of the time that followed."   The History of William of Newburgh, trans. Rev. Joseph Stevenson, 1856, p562