heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

I 1
4 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
During the whole of the Syrian campaign the two Queens remained at
Acre, and after the final truce between Richard and Saladin was concluded,
we are told, in a fair flowing meadow near Mount Tabor, Richard bade
farewell to his Queen and sister, confiding them to the care of Stephen de
Turnham for their voyage to Naples, while he started on that solitary journey
which resulted in his capture by Leopold of Austria, his imprisonment for
more than two months in the fortress of Tenebreuse, his discovery by his
minstrel, Blondel, and his eventual ransom at 100,000 marks of silver.
The chronicle of Roger Hoveden thus particularises their route :
"Eodem Anno (1193) Berengaria Regina Angliae et Johanna quondam
" Regina Siciliae, et filia Imperatoris Cypri, venerunt Romam sub custodia
" Stephani de Thurnham . . . et moram fecerunt ibi fere per dimidium
" anni spatium propter metum Imperatoris
. . . Et perrexerunt usque
" Pisam, deinde usque Genoam, deinde usque Marsilliam. Apud Marsilliam
" suscipit eas Rex Arragonice et conduxit eas usque ad fines regni sui. Et
" comes de Sancto Egidio conduxit eas per terram suam, et sic pervenerunt
" "
Pictaviam i.e. Poitou where the Castle of Chinon stood on the borders
of Poitou and Tourraine, so that it is sometimes said by the chroniclers to
be in one, sometimes in the other. It was one of the strongest of the
English fortresses in France, and much used as a royal residence for those
provinces a castle, as Gulielmus Armoricus tells us, "non solum munitione,
" verum et asdificiis et habitatoribus, et situ amoenissimo, prceclarum "
(Recueil dcs Hist. xvii. &od).
Hither Henry
II. had retired to die, in the middle of a campaign with
Philip (Chroniques de St. Denis, An. 1190). Here Richard kept his treasure,
which, on his death, Robert de Turnham, the then custodian, handed over
to John and hither, two ;
years later, came Berengaria, again to receive her
dower from John, who was holding his
" Scripfores," pp. 451, 466).
court here {Roger Hoveden, Sarnie's
This, then, was no doubt the very point of safety for which Stephen
had been making with his anxious charge through the whole of their long
and perilous journey and
;
here then they were safe at last on English
territory, in one of Richard's strongest castles, and under the charge of a
Governor whom he could trust for loyalty to his King and fidelity to himself
his own brother Robert. We can well understand that such an occasion
would be one which a Christian knight would, according to the custom of
those days, be anxious to mark with some special offering to the service of
God and ;
amongst the original charters of the Priory of Cumbwell existing
in the archives of Heralds' College, and published by Sir Charles Young,
Garter King of Arms, there is one which evidently bears this character.
It was granted by Stephen de Turnham, about a month after the coronation
of Richard I., on his return from captivity. It makes special mention of