326 RANSOM OF THE KINGS CHAP. Xn. 



of twenty pounds weight of gold and three 

 hundred pounds weight of silver, twenty-five 

 thousand oxen, besides hounds and hawks. With 

 this treasure, whose value amounted in our pre- 

 sent money to no more than about seventeen 

 hundred pounds, Athelstan was rendered so 

 rich, that he was enabled to form family alli- 

 ances with Otho the great, emperor of Germany, 

 with the mayor of the palace in Paris, and with 

 Louis prince of Aquitain. This was, however, 

 a few years earlier than the discovery of the 

 mines of Goslar in Hanover, by which, as has 

 been before noticed, the emperor Otho had been 

 suddenly enriched and elevated 1 . 



In the year 1192, Richard I. king of England 

 was detained by the Duke of Austria in passing 

 through his dominion, on his return from the 

 Holy Land, and delivered up to the emperor, 

 Henry of Germany. In Rymer's Foedera, 

 (page 30) is preserved a letter from that mon- 

 arch to his mother, Queen Eleanor, and to the 

 judges of England, in which he urges them "to 

 raise the money required for his ransom by that 

 sordid emperor, being 70,000 marcs ;" and for 

 the attainment of this object, he desires that 

 " all the money of the churches may be bor- 

 rowed as well as that of the barons." There is 

 no mention made of any application to the citi- 

 zens or merchants, who were, probably, too poor 



1 Anderson, vol. i. p. 92, 



