CHAP. xii. RICHARD AND LEWIS. 



to offer a prospect of obtaining any contribu- 

 tions from them. This sum in our present 

 money would amount to 140,000. Other ac- 

 counts make the ransom amount to 200,000, 

 and one to 280,000 ; but the authority of Ry- 

 mer is undoubtedly to be preferred to that of 

 any other. 



Arnoldus, abbot of Lubec, in his continuation 

 of the Chronicon Sclavicum of Helmoldus, (lib. 

 iii.) says, "that when in January, 1194, King 

 Richard of England was discharged from his 

 imprisonment, his ransom was raised with great 

 difficulty throughout all his dominions; so that 

 even the gold and silver cups and other vessels 

 used in the holy Eucharist were melted for the 

 purpose ; and that over and above that a tax 

 was laid upon all persons, both ecclesiastical and 

 civil, of a fourth part of their income for one 

 year. Twenty shillings were required on every 

 knight's fee; one year's clip of wool was bor- 

 rowed of the cistercians ; and the clergy of the 

 king's dominions in France contributed very 

 largely to effect the monarch's deliverance." 



In 1248, during the contentions for the pos- 

 session of the holy land, Lewis, King of France, 

 was made prisoner in Egypt by the Saracens, 

 and his ransom was effected at the price of little 

 more than fifty thousand pounds of our present 

 money. 



Near one hundred and twenty years later, 



