Not off to a good start

Catching up--on April 25th, 1199, Richard’s brother John was invested as Duke of Normandy in Rouen. Unfortunately it did not go well, thanks to the tom-foolery of some of John’s boon companions. We get an eye-witness account from Hugh of Avalon, the Bishop of Lincoln, who would later be canonized as a saint. Hugh did not approve of John and that comes through loud and clear in the following passage from the Life of St Hugh of Lincoln.
“Later, on the octave of Easter, at Rouen during the celebration of high mass, he (John) received the ducal insignia, the archbishop placed the lance reverently in his hand with a pennon, the customary investiture of the dukes of Normandy. He, however, hearing the bursts of applause and the childish laughter of his former youthful companions, and his attention being very little absorbed by the rite, turned round out of levity, and whilst he and they were laughing together, the lance which he was not grasping firmly enough, fell to the ground. Almost the whole assembly declared that this was a bad portent for him.”
John had already offended Hugh by interrupting a high mass, sending one of his companions three times to implore the bishop to wind up his sermon as he was hungry. The bishop’s biographer reported acidly that John “was eager to fill his belly with meat and cared not at all for the emptiness of his mind.”
April 25th was also the birthdate of Edward II in 1284 and in 1214, the French king, Louis IX, who would eventually be canonized, and—a bit out of our range—Oliver Cromwell in 1559. Here is a link to Kathryn Warner’s always interesting blog, which delves into Edward II’s reign and politics in 14th century England. http://edwardthesecond.blogspot.com/