King Richard I of England (the Lion-Hearted) composed this song at the end of the 12th century, while imprisoned by the Duke of Austria during the Third Crusade. He wrote it in his first language, an Old French dialect, with another version in a related Romance dialect that still maintains a precarious existence in Provençe and the Catalan areas of Spain. Richard's enemies claimed he didn't even know English, but he probably did, though it's true that he exhibited almost no attachment to the country that revered him, preferring instead to live in France.
No prisoner can tell his tale well without expressing his pain,
But to console himself he can write a song.
I've many friends, but all their gifts are poor;
They'd be ashamed to know how for two winters I've been held for ransom.
My men-at-arms and barons know full well:
The English, Normans, Poitevins, Gascons.
I would not abandon the poorest companion in prison,
And I don't say this merely to reproach, but still, I am a prisoner.
Richard did finally win his release, through the help of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, despite the connivances to the contrary by his brother John and King Phillip II of France, the son (by a later wife) of Eleanor's ex-husband Louis VII.
9 comments:
I'm glad you liked it.
According to a bishop who lived some time after him, Richard had an even longer prison stay ahead of him. He supposedly calculated that Richard needed to spend 33 years in Purgatory before he could be cleansed of his sins.
That seems harsh! By regal standards he wasn't half-bad.
There were some accusations of cannibalism.
(Sir Walter Scott explores them in his introduction to The Talisman, if you're interested.)
Well, yeah, but besides that. Anyway, we're comparing him to kings here, not regular people. :-)
Richard needed to spend 33 years in Purgatory before he could be cleansed of his sins.
33 years against eternity? Not so harsh.
Eric Hines
Do you know if more of his compositions survived?
I played one (back in my harp-playing days) but I don't think it was this...I remember it had a triplet like this one's, but it came later in the melody.
(In fact, I think I hear a melody like the one I played in Peter Warlock's Capriol Suite but couldn't swear to it.)
Not that I was able to find out just now in a net search. iTunes has an album called something like "Music of Kings XIth-XVIth Centuries," with a bunch of stuff from Alfonso X and Henry VIII, but only one Richard Coeur de Lion.
There is one other piece he wrote that has survived to us, a sirventes (i.e., a 'service song,' an often ribald genre by fighting men and troubadours). I don't know if it's available online.
Technically the upper north and east of France was supposed to be part of Britain at one time. Or rather England, since Britannia was the island province of Rome.
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