Images of Histories by Ralph Diceto. Mercardier,1 surrounded by the nefarious bands of the Brabançons, sent the bishop of Beauvais, William de Merlo, and many others who had been lawfully captured in war and bound with the harshest chains, to Rouen on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June [19th May 1197].
Marchadeus, nephariis Brebantinorum vallatus catervis, episcopum Belvacensem, Willelmum de Merlou, multosque cum eis jure belli captos et durissimis constrictos in vinculis, transmisit Rothomagum XIIII kalendas Junii.
Note 1. Mercardier, a leader of a group of Brabançon mercenaries in the service of King Richard I.
Chronicle of Roger de Hoveden. In the same year, John, earl of Mortaigne, the king's brother, and Mercardier, the leader of the infamous tribe of the Brabanters, on the fourteenth day before the calends of June [19th May 1197], being the second day of the week, made an excursion before the city of Beauvais; and while they were intent on the capture of booty, Philip, bishop of Beauvais, and William de Merlo, together with his son and many knights and armed people, came forth from the city, being themselves in arms; but they were very quickly worsted in the combat, and the said bishop of Beauvais, and William de Merlo and his son, and several knights were taken prisoners, and of the common people the greater part was slain. On the same day, after this capture, the earl John and Marchades proceeded to Milli, the castle of the said bishop of Beauvais, and took it by assault, and levelled it with the ground: and then, gloriously triumphing, they returned to Normandy, and delivered to the king of England the bishop of Beauvais, and Walter de Merlo and his son, and many others who had been taken prisoners.
Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. The relentless discord which had long since arisen between the king of England and the king of France could in no way be ended by any treaty of peace, nor appeased by any conference held between them; rather, each army laid waste the provinces with sword and fire, gave itself over to plundering, and utterly destroyed cities, castles, and churches, so that the land, left without inhabitants and emptied of cultivators, in many places seemed to present the appearance of a wilderness. Nor was such impiety lacking the punishment of divine vengeance, which scourged the lands of both princes most dreadfully with famine, pestilence, and excessive unseasonableness of weather, for seven years. Yet in the parts of Gaul the calamity of famine seemed the greater. But in all these things their wrath was not turned away, and their hands were still stretched out to plunder and to kill. Nevertheless, though the battles of both armies were alike, the cause of battle seemed unlike: for whereas the king of France, partly by deceit and the treachery of certain men, and partly by sudden invasion when none defended them, had unjustly seized and occupied lands, the king of England, returning from captivity, strove to recover them and to wrest them by force from the hands of the violent invader. Wherefore, in almost every conflict, more favourable fortune smiled upon him, and he joyfully carried off the longed-for trophy of victory. For from the time that he returned free from the emperor, not only did he recover the castles that had been taken away (except Gisors and a few others), but by storming and besieging he also subdued to himself far more castles than he had lost. Moreover, the bishop of Beauvais1, who, having forsaken the warfare of the heavenly King, had wholly given himself over to the warfare of the earthly king, and appeared more hostile than the rest, and also Lord William de Merlo, while they were riding incautiously, were captured by King Richard's household troops, and were consigned to prison custody.
Inexorabilis discordia jampridem inter regem Angliæ et regem Galliæ exorta, nequaquam potuit ullo pacis fœdere terminari, aut aliquo colloquio inter eos habito sedari; quin utriusque exercitus provincias ferro et flammis devastaret, rapinis indulgeret, urbes, castella, ecclesiasque solo tenus everteret; in tantum ut terra absque habitatore relicta, et cultoribus evacuata, solitudinis speciem multis in locis præferre videretur. Nec defuit tantæ impietati divinæ ultionis animadversio, quæ utriusque principis terras fame, peste, ex nimia aeris intemperie, per septem annos dirissime flagellaret. In Gallicanis tamen partibus major famis calamitas esse videbatur. Sed in omnibus his non est aversus furor eorum, sed adhuc manus eorum extentæ ad rapiendum et interficiendum. Verumtamen in utriusque exercitus simili pugna, dissimilis pugnæ causa geri videbatur, cum terras, quas rex Francorum partim dolo et quorumdam proditione subjugaverat, partim subitanea invasione, nemine defendente, injuste præoccupaverat, rex Anglorum de captivitate regrediens nitebatur auferre, et de manibus violenti invasoris violenter extorquere; unde et in omni fere decertatione sua prosperior ei fortuna arridebat, et optatum decertationis trophæum lætus reportabat. Ex quo enim liber ab imperatore rediit, non solum ablata castella (absque Gisortio et quibusdam aliis,) recuperavit, verum etiam et multo plura quam amiserat castella assultu et obsidione sibi subegit. Episcopum insuper Belvacensem, qui, relicta cœlestis Regis militia, terreni regis militiæ se omnimodis tradiderat, et infestior cæteris apparebat, necnon et dominum Willelmum de Merlo, incautius obequitantes, familia regis Ricardi comprehendit, quos custodiæ carcerali mancipavit.
Note 1. Ralph de Decito: "Mercardier, surrounded by the nefarious bands of the Brabançons, sent the bishop of Beauvais, William de Merlo, and many others who had been lawfully captured in war and bound with the harshest chains, to Rouen on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of June [19th May 1197]." Mercardier was a leader of a group of Brabançon mercenaries in the service of King Richard I.
Roger de Hoveden: "In the same year, John, earl of Mortaigne, the king's brother, and Mercardier, the leader of the infamous tribe of the Brabanters, on the fourteenth day before the calends of June [19th May 1197], being the second day of the week, made an excursion before the city of Beauvais; and while they were intent on the capture of booty, Philip, bishop of Beauvais, and William de Merlo, together with his son and many knights and armed people, came forth from the city, being themselves in arms; but they were very quickly worsted in the combat, and the said bishop of Beauvais, and William de Merlo and his son, and several knights were taken prisoners, and of the common people the greater part was slain. On the same day, after this capture, the earl John and Marchades proceeded to Milli, the castle of the said bishop of Beauvais, and took it by assault, and levelled it with the ground: and then, gloriously triumphing, they returned to Normandy, and delivered to the king of England the bishop of Beauvais, and Walter de Merlo and his son, and many others who had been taken prisoners."
Chronicum Anglicanum by Ralph Coggeshall. Therefore, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1199, about the time of Lent, after a conference had been held between the two kings concerning the restoration of peace, at last a truce between them was agreed upon until a certain fixed term. Taking occasion from this, King Richard, having gained an opportunity, moved his private army during Lent against the viscount of Limoges, who, in the time of hostilities, had rebelled against the king his lord and made a pact of friendship with King Philip. Some, however, report that a certain treasure of inestimable price had been found in the land of the viscount, which the king commanded and ordered to be given to him; but when the viscount refused, it inflamed the king's anger against him all the more. And so, while he devastated the land of the viscount with fire and sword, for he knew not how to cease from arms even in that sacred season, at length he came to Châlus-Chabrol and besieged the tower, and fiercely assaulted it for three days, commanding his miners to undermine the tower and cause it to collapse once it had been undercut; which was afterward done. In that tower there were no men of knightly rank or defence, but only certain servants of the viscount, who vainly awaited help from their lord, not thinking that the king himself was present who besieged them, but supposing it to be one of the king's retainers. These the king himself, along with his crossbowmen, so assailed, while the others were undermining, that scarcely any dared appear upon the battlements of the tower or in any way attempt its defence. Yet from time to time they hurled down enormous stones from the highest battlements, which, rushing down with great force, terrified those standing around, but could by no means strike down the miners nor hinder their work, for they were protected on all sides by their customary devices. Now, when the third day was drawing to evening, on the eve of the Annunciation of Blessed Mary, the king, after dinner, unarmed save for an iron cap, confidently approached the tower with his men, and, as usual, assailed the besieged with missiles and arrows. Behold! A certain man-at-arms, who for almost the whole day before dinner had stood upon a certain battlement of the said tower, and had caught unharmed in a frying-pan all the iron missiles shot at him, and had carefully observed all the besiegers, suddenly appeared again; and bending his crossbow, he launched a bolt violently at the king, who was looking on and shouting at him, and struck the king upon his left shoulder near the neck bones1. The bolt, entering with a slanting wound, slipped downward and lodged in his left side, because the king did not bend low enough beneath the square shield that was being carried before him. For this wound, when it was inflicted, the king, ever renowned for boldness, uttered no sighs of the heart, no cry of lamentation, showed no sadness in face or gesture at that moment, lest he make his men sorrowful or fearful, or give the enemy greater courage because of the wound inflicted. Afterwards, as though he had suffered no harm, and many being ignorant of what misfortune had happened, he entered his lodging nearby, and, drawing out the wooden shaft that was fixed with the iron into his body, he broke it off; but the iron, of a hand's breadth in length, remained in his body. When therefore the king lay down in his chamber, a certain surgeon, of that accursed household of the most impious Mercardier, cut into the royal body and sorely, indeed mortally, injured it. With lamps lit in the house, he could not easily find the iron buried deep in the overly fleshy body, nor, once found by cutting, could he draw it out without great violence.
When diligent medicines and poultices had been applied, afterwards the inflicted wounds began to worsen and to blacken, and from day to day to swell all the more, and finally to threaten death, the king meanwhile being disobedient and disregarding the commands of the physicians. All his attendants were kept away from entering the chamber in which he lay, except for four of the more noble men, who were freely allowed to visit him, lest the report of his illness should more quickly be spread abroad. The king, being very uncertain about regaining health, summoned by letter his mother, who was dwelling at Fontevraud. He prepared for his end by receiving the life-giving sacrament of the Lord's Body, first making confession to one of his chaplains, although, out of reverence for so great a mystery, he is said to have refrained for nearly seven years from receiving that sacrament, because he bore mortal hatred in his heart against the king of France. He also freely forgave the man who had struck him with the fatal blow. And so, on the seventh of the Ides of April [6th April 1199] namely the eleventh day after the wound was inflicted on him, anointed with holy oil, when the day was drawing to a close, he closed his last day. His body, disembowelled, was carried to the nuns of Fontevraud, and on Palm Sunday was buried with royal honour beside his father by the bishop of Lincoln.
Igitur anno ab Incarnatione Domini MCXCIX, circa tempus quadragesimale, habito inter utrumque regem colloquio de pacis reformatione, tandem treugæ inter eos usque ad quoddam tempus præfinitum captæ sunt. Ex hac autem occasione rex Ricardus nactus opportunitatem movit privatum exercitum suum in Quadragesima contra vicecomitem Lemovicensem, qui, tempore hostilitatis, contra regem dominum suum rebellaverat, et foedus amicitiae cum rege Philippo pepigerat. Nonnulli vero referunt quod quidam thesaurus inæstimabilis pretii in terra vicecomitis sit repertus, quem rex mandat et jubet sibi dari; quo a vicecomite negato, amplius regis animositatem erga eum exacuit. Cumque terram vicecomitis ferro et flammis devastaret, utpote ab armis infra illud sacrum tempus feriari nesciens, tandem devenit apud Chali Cheperol, turrimque obsedit et atrociter per tres dies expugnavit, præcipiens fossoriis suis ut turrim subfoderent atque subfossam subruerent; quod postmodum factum est. In turri vero prædicta non erant alicujus militiæ vel defensionis viri, nisi quidam ex famulis vicecomitis, qui frustra præstolabantur auxilium domini sui, non æstimantes regem fore præsentem qui eos obsederat, sed aliquem fore ex familia regis. Hos igitur rex ipse cum arcubalistis ita aggressus est, dum cæteri circumfoderent, ut vix aliquis auderet circa propugnacula turris apparere, aut eam quolibet modo defensare. Attamen aliquoties lapides prægrandes de summis propugnaculis præcipitabant, qui magno impetu deorsum ruentes, circumastantes terrificabant, sed fossorios minime poterant prosternere nec ab incoeptis impedire, quippe qui consuetis ingeniis suis undique erant protecti. Jamque die tertia advesperascente, in crastino videlicet Annunciationis Beatæ Mariæ, cum rex, post prandium, inermis, excepto capello ferreo, cum suis ad turrim confidenter accessisset atque obsessos telis et sagittis more solito impeteret, ecce quidam armatus, qui fere per totam diem illam ante prandium in quodam propugnaculo turris prædicta astiterat, atque omnia tela ferrea sartagine opposita illæsus exceperat, omnesque obsidentes diligenter exploraverat, iterum subito adveniens tetendit arcubalistam atque quoddam quarellum violenter direxit ad regem, ipso inspiciente et acclamante, percussitque regem super humerum sinistrum juxta colli spondilia, sicque arcuato vulnere telum dilapsum est deorsum ac lateri sinistro immersum, dum rex se non satis incurvaret sub quadrato scuto quod ante eum præferebatur. Pro quo vulnere inflicto rex, audacitate semper prædicabilis, nulla cordis suspiria, nullam plangentis vocem emittebat, nullam tristitiam in vultu aut in gestu tunc ad præsens præferebat, ne suos tristes aut timidos redderet, atque inimicis de illato vulnere majorem audaciam præberet. Postea vero, quasi nil mali perpessus fuisset, pluribusque ignorantibus quid infortunii accidisset, hospitium suum, quod e vicino erat, ingreditur, lignumque ferro infixum de corpore extrahens confregit, sed ferrum, unius palmi longitudinem habens, in corpore remansit. Rege itaque in conclavi procumbente, quidam chirurgicus, ex nefanda illa familia impiissimi Marchadei, corpus regium secando, graviter, immo lætaliter, sauciavit, lucernis in domo accensis, nec potuit ferrum in corpore nimis obeso immersum leviter reperire, aut secando repertum sine magna violentia extrahere.
Appositis igitur diligenter medicaminibus et emplastris, postmodum coeperunt vulnera inflicta deteriorari et nigrescere, atque de die in diem amplius intumescere, tandemque mortem minari, rege incontinenter se habente et præcepta medicorum non curante. Arcebantur omnes sui ab introitu cubiculi in quo decumbebat, exceptis quatuor de nobilioribus, qui ad eum visitandum libere introibant, ne fama ægritudinis ejus citius per publicum divulgaretur. Rex autem de sospitate consequenda nimis incertus, matrem, quæ apud Fontem Ebraldi morabatur, literis accersivit; exitum suum vivifico sacramento Dominici corporis inunivit, confessione præmissa a quodam suo capellano, a cujus sacramenti perceptione, ob tanti mysterii reverentiam, fere per septennium, ut dicunt, abstinuerat, eo quod mortale odium erga regem Galliæ in corde gestaverat. Mortem etiam sibi illatam percussori suo libenter indulsit; sicque septimo idus Aprilis, scilicet undecimo die a vulnere sibi illato, oleo sacro inunctus, cum jam dies clauderetur, diem clausit extremum. Cujus corpus exenteratum, et apud sanctimoniales Fontis Ebraldi delatum, Dominica in Palmis, juxta patrem suum regio honore ab episcopo Lincolniensi humatum est.
Note 1. Roger Hoveden: "On the same day, as King Richard I and Mercadier (his captain of mercenaries) were riding around the castle, examining from where it would be best to attack, a certain crossbowman, named Bertran de Gourdon, shot an arrow from the castle. The bolt struck the king in the arm, inflicting a mortal wound. Though wounded, the king mounted his horse and rode back to his quarters. There, he ordered Mercadier and his entire army to continue the assault relentlessly until the castle was captured. And so it was done. Once the castle was captured, King Richard ordered that all its defenders be hanged, except for the man who had wounded him. For, as one might expect, had the king recovered, he would have sentenced him to the most disgraceful death. Then the king entrusted himself to a surgeon in Mercadier's service. When the man attempted to extract the arrowhead, he only removed the wooden shaft, leaving the iron tip embedded in the flesh. As the butcher of a surgeon carelessly cut around the king's arm, he finally managed to extract the arrowhead. Realizing he was beyond hope, King Richard bequeathed the Kingdom of England and all his other lands to his brother John. He ordered all those present to swear fealty to John and instructed that his castles be surrendered to him. He divided three-quarters of his treasure among John and Otto, his nephew and King of the Germans, and the remaining quarter was to be distributed to his knights and the poor. Then, he had Bertran de Gourdon, the crossbowman who had wounded him, brought before him and asked: 'What wrong have I done to you, that you have killed me?' To this, Bertran replied: 'You killed my father and my two brothers with your own hands, and you sought to kill me as well. Take whatever revenge you will; I will gladly suffer whatever tortures you devise, as long as you die for you have brought so much evil to the world.' Then the king ordered that he be set free and said: 'I grant you your life.' And thus, with his bonds loosened, he was allowed to depart, and the king ordered that he be given one hundred shillings of English money. However, Mercadier, without the king's knowledge, seized him and, after the king's death, had him flayed and hanged."
Ralph de Decito: "King Richard of the English, when he had reigned for nine years, six months, and nineteen days, in the duchy of Aquitaine, in the territory of Limoges, at the castle of Châlus, was struck on the seventh day before the Kalends of April [26th March 1199] by an arrow from Peter Basileus; and afterwards, on the eighth Ides of April [6th April 1199], on a Tuesday, this man destined for martial deeds closed his last day at the aforesaid castle. He was buried at Fontevraud, at the feet of his father, King Henry II."
On 10th April 1200, Easter Monday, Mercardier was assassinated while on a visit to Bordeaux to pay his respects to Eleanor of Aquitaine. His murder was at the hands of six men-at-arms employed by Brandin, a rival mercenary captain in the service of King Richard's successor King John.