The siege is over!

Richard allowed me to have a day for football while he was off visiting Sherwood Forest. I needed the rest after our assault on Nottingham; okay, he did the heavy lifting, but I helped. It is rather interesting to hear what William Marshal’s Histoire had to say about the aftermath of the siege.
“When the prisoners arrived, they were given far better conditions of imprisonment than they had thought they would, for they feared they would lose life and limb. But nobody should have any doubt on this point: the more a worthy man has the advantage, the more he should show his worth by desisting from doing harm and from acts of cruelty. And so much do I say to you, in a word, that when a bad man has the advantage, cruelty and outrage are the consequences.”
He then goes on to praise Richard for his compassion and mercy. To me, that philosophical passage was directed at John, who tarnished his greatest triumph by putting his nephew to death and starving some of the prisoners he took at Mirebeau. Of course Richard did not always show mercy and his war with Philippe would be poisoned with bitterness and vengeful behavior on both sides. But I find it telling that William Marshal obviously respected Richard, for he praises him often, and had nothing good to say about John. Of course, speaking strictly as a writer, I just love writing about John!
On to today’s events. On October 1, 1189, Gerard de Ridefort, the Grand Master of the Templars, was slain at the siege of Acre. He will not come off very well in my novel about the Kingdom of Jerusalem, for he was partly responsible for the kingdom’s calamitous defeat at the battle of Hattin. Its beleaguered king, Guy de Lusignan, was talked into continuing their march into the trap Saladin had set for them by Reynald de Chatillon and Gerard, with disastrous results for the Franks. So I doubt that Gerard was much mourned.
October 1st, 1207 was the birth date of Henry III, who ruled for fifty-six years, but who has been eclipsed in history and public opinion by his father, John, and his son, Edward I. Henry was not a good king, although he was a devoted husband and father, and he did leave a magnificent legacy, Westminster Abbey.
And October 1st, 1553, was the coronation of Mary Tudor, another unsuccessful ruler whose religious zealotry earned her the name Bloody Mary.