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THE LATEST PROGRAMME |
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Jonathan Freedland looks for the past behind the present. Each week, The Long View, recorded on location throughout the British Isles, takes an issue from the current affairs agenda and finds a parallel in our past.
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Statue of King Richard 1 of England and President George Bush.
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 Programme Page
EXTRACTS FROM SOURCES USED IN THE READINGS
From the “Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi”: Philip Augustus returns to France, 1191, after capture of Acre
"When things had thus been arranged after the surrender of the city, toward the end of the month of July [during which the Turks had promised to give back the Holy Cross in return for the freeing of those who were besieged] a rumour circulated all at once through the army that the King of France, upon whom the people's hopes rested, wished to go home and earnestly desired to prepare for his journey. How shameful, how disgraceful it was for him to wish to leave while the task was still pending, unfinished. How shameful, too, for him whose job it was to rule such a multitude of people, to arouse Christian men to this pious and necessary venture, and to see to the continuation of this difficult business...."
"But what could be done about it? The French King professed that illness had been the cause of his pilgrimage and that be had now fulfilled his vow insofar as he could. But, especially since he was well and healthy when he took the Cross with King Henry, this assertion of his does not agree with the witnesses."
On the feast of St. Peter in Chains [Thursday, August 1, 1191] the King of France boarded a ship and sailed toward Tyre. He left the larger part of his army, however, with King Richard.”
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From the “Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi”: Richard the Lionheart makes Peace with Saladin, 1192
As his illness became very grave, the King despaired of recovering his health. Because of this he was much afraid, both for the others as well as for himself. Among the many things which did not pass unnoted by his wise attention, he chose, as the least inconvenient course, to seek to make a truce rather than to desert the depopulated land altogether and to leave the business unfinished as all the others bad done who left the groups in the ships.
When these conditions of peace had been reduced to writing and read to him, King Richard agreed to observe them, for he could not hope for anything much better, especially since he was sick, relying upon scanty support, and was not more than two miles from the enemy's station. Whoever contends that Richard should have felt otherwise about this peace agreement should know that he thereby marks himself as a perverse liar.
Things were thus arranged in a moment of necessity.
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Contributors
Jonathan Phillips - historian of the crusdaes,
Richard Griffiths - actor,
Youssef Choueiri - reader in modern Arab and Islamic history,
Michael Ancram MP - Conservative,
Dianne Abbott MP - Labour,
James Rubin - former US Assistant Secretary of State.
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