Lionheart Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER 1 - JULY 1189

  CHAPTER 2 - AUGUST 1189

  CHAPTER 3 - NOVEMBER 1189

  CHAPTER 4 - MARCH 1190

  CHAPTER 5 - MARCH 1190

  CHAPTER 6 - MARCH 1190

  CHAPTER 7 - JUNE 1190

  CHAPTER 8 - JULY 1190

  CHAPTER 9 - SEPTEMBER 1190

  CHAPTER 10 - OCTOBER 1190

  CHAPTER 11 - OCTOBER 1190

  CHAPTER 12 - FEBRUARY 1191

  CHAPTER 13 - MARCH 1191

  CHAPTER 14 - MARCH 1191

  CHAPTER 15 - MAY 1191

  CHAPTER 16 - MAY 1191

  CHAPTER 17 - MAY 1191

  CHAPTER 18 - MAY 1191

  CHAPTER 19 - JUNE 1191

  CHAPTER 20 - JUNE 1191

  CHAPTER 21 - JUNE 1191

  CHAPTER 22 - JULY 1191

  CHAPTER 23 - JULY 1191

  CHAPTER 24 - AUGUST 1191

  CHAPTER 25 - AUGUST 1191

  CHAPTER 26 - SEPTEMBER 1191

  CHAPTER 27 - SEPTEMBER 1191

  CHAPTER 28 - OCTOBER 1191

  CHAPTER 29 - DECEMBER 1191

  CHAPTER 30 - JANUARY 1192

  CHAPTER 31 - APRIL 1192

  CHAPTER 32 - MAY 1192

  CHAPTER 33 - MAY 1192

  CHAPTER 34 - JULY 1192

  CHAPTER 35 - JULY 1192

  CHAPTER 36 - AUGUST 1192

  CHAPTER 37 - AUGUST 1192

  AFTERWORD

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Acknowledgements

  ALSO BY SHARON KAY PENMAN

  ALSO BY SHARON KAY PENMAN

  THE HISTORICAL NOVELS

  The Sunne in Splendour

  Here Be Dragons

  Falls the Shadow

  The Reckoning

  When Christ and His Saints Slept

  Time and Chance

  Devil’s Brood

  THE MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

  The Queen’s Man

  Cruel as the Grave

  Dragon’s Lair

  Prince of Darkness

  A MARIAN WOOD BOOK

  Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons

  Publishers Since 1838

  a member of the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA • Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) •Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Copyright © 2011 by Sharon Kay Penman

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions. Published simultaneously in Canada

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Penman, Sharon Kay.

  Lionheart / Sharon Kay Penman.

  p. cm.

  “A Marian Wood book.”

  ISBN : 978-1-101-54787-8

  1. Richard I, King of England, 1157–1199—Fiction. 2. Crusades—Third, 1189–1192—Fiction.

  3. Great Britain—History—Richard I, 1189–1199—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3566.E474L

  813’54—dc22

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Jill Davies

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  As of 1189

  ROYAL HOUSE OF ENGLAND

  HENRY FITZ EMPRESS (1133–1189) , King of England, Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou

  ELEANOR (b. 1124), Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, Henry’s queen and former consort of the French king, Louis VII

  Their children:

  WILLIAM (1153–1156)

  HENRY (Hal in the novel) (1155–1182)

  RICHARD (b. September 1157), Duke of Aquitaine, Count of Poitou, crowned King of England in September 1189

  GEOFFREY (1158–1186), Duke of Brittany upon his marriage to Constance JOHN (b. December 1166), Count of Mortain, also known as John Lackland MATILDA (Tilda) (1156–1189), Duchess of Saxony and Bavaria, mother of Richenza

  ELEANOR (Leonora) (b.1161), Queen of Castile

  JOANNA (b. October 1165), Queen of Sicily

  ENGLISH ROYAL COURT

  GEOFFREY (Geoff), Henry’s illegitimate son, Archbishop of York

  WILLIAM MARSHAL, one of Richard’s justiciars, wed to Isabel de Clare, Countess of Pembroke

  GUILLAUME LONGCHAMP, Bishop of Ely, Richard’s chancellor

  ROYAL HOUSE OF FRANCE

  PHILIPPE II (b. 1165), King of France

  ISABELLE, his queen, daughter of the Count of Hainaut

  LOUIS CAPET, Philippe’s father, former husband of Eleanor, deceased

  ALYS CAPET, Philippe’s half-sister, betrothed to Richard in childhood

  AGNES CAPET, Philippe’s sister, wed in childhood to the heir to the Greek Empire, today known as Byzantium

  MARIE, Countess of Champagne, half-sister to Philippe and to Richard, daughter of Eleanor and Louis, mother of Henri

  BRITTANY

  CONSTANCE, Duchess of Brittany, widow of Geoffrey, now wed to the Earl of Chester

  Her children by Geoffrey: ARTHUR and ELEANOR (Aenor)

  NAVARRE

  SANCHO VI, King of Navarre

  SANCHO, his eldest son and heir

  BERENGARIA, his daughter (b. c. 1170)

  SICILY

  WILLIAM II DE HAUTEVILLE, King of Sicily

  JOANNA, his queen, Richard’s sister

  WILLIAM I, William’s father, deceased

  MARGARITA OF NAVARRE, William’s mother, deceased

  CONSTANCE DE HAUTEVILLE, William’s aunt and heir, wed to Heinrich von Hohenstaufen, King of Germany and heir of Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor

  TANCRED, Count of Lecce, illegitimate cousin of William

  SYBILLA, Tancred’s wife

  ROGER, Tancred’s son

  CYPRUS

  ISAAC COMNENUS, self-proclaimed emperor

  SOPHIA DE HAUTEVILLE, his empress, illegitimate daughter of the late king, William I of Sicily

  ANNA COMNENA, Isaac’s daughter

  SARACENS

  AL-MALIK AL-NASIR SALAH AL-DĪ̄N, ABU’ AL-MUZAFFAR YUSUF IBN AYYUB, Sultan of Egypt, known to crusaders and history as Saladin

  AL-MALIK AL-’ĀDIL, SAIF AL-DĪ̄N ABŪ-BAKR AHMAD IBN AYYUB, Saladin’s brother

  BAHĀ’ AL- DĪ̄N IBN SHADDĀD
, a member of Saladin’s inner circle and author of The Rare and Excellent History of Saladin

  OUTREMER

  BALDWIN IV, the “Leper King,” deceased

  SYBILLA, his sister, Queen of Jerusalem

  GUY DE LUSIGNAN, King of Jerusalem, her husband

  ISABELLA, Sybilla’s half-sister

  HUMPHREY DE TORON, her husband

  BALIAN D’IBELIN, Lord of Nablus, wed to Maria Comnena, former Queen of Jerusalem and mother of Isabella

  CONRAD OF MONTFERRAT, Italian-born Lord of Tyre, cousin of the French king, Philippe

  AMAURY and JOFFROI DE LUSIGNAN, Guy’s older brothers and vassals of King Richard

  GARNIER DE NABLUS, Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller

  ROBERT DE SABLÉ, Grand Master of the Knights Templar

  JOSCIUS, Archbishop of Tyre

  CRUSADERS WITH RICHARD

  HENR I, Count of Champagne, nephew to both Richard and Philippe

  ANDRÉ DE CHAUVIGNY, Richard’s cousin

  ROBERT BEAUMONT, Earl of Leicester

  HUBERT WALTER, Bishop of Salisbury

  PRÉAUX BROTHERS, Guilhem, Jean, and Pierre, Norman knights

  JACQUES D’AVESNES, Flemish lord

  CRUSADERS WITH PHILIPPE

  HUGH, Duke of Burgundy, cousin to Philippe

  PHILIP, Bishop of Beauvais, cousin to Philippe

  ROBERT, Count of Dreux, brother to Beauvais

  MATHIEU DE MONTMORENCY, young French lord

  GUILLAUME DES BARRES, renowned French knight

  JAUFRE, son of the Count of Perche, wed to Richard’s niece Richenza, a.k.a. Matilda

  LEOPOLD VON BABENBERG, Duke of Austria

  PROLOGUE

  Theirs was a story that would rival the legend of King Arthur and Guinevere, his faithless queen. He was Henry, firstborn son of the Count of Anjou and the Empress Maude, and from an early age, he’d seemed to be one of Fortune’s favorites. Whilst still Duke of Normandy, he’d dared to steal a queen, and by the time he was twenty-one, he’d claimed the crown that had eluded the Empress Maude. She was Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, a great heiress and a great beauty who trailed scandal in her wake, her tragedy that she was a woman born in an age in which power was the preserve of men. The French king Louis had rejected Eleanor for her failure to give him a male heir. She gave Henry five, four of whom survived to manhood. They ruled over an empire that stretched from Scotland to the Mediterranean Sea, and for a time, their union seemed blessed.

  Henry loved his sons, but not enough to share power with them. Nor would he give Eleanor a say in the governance of her beloved Aquitaine. The result would be the Great Rebellion of 1173, in which Henry’s three eldest sons rose up against him, urged on by their mother, his own queen, an act of betrayal unheard of in their world. Henry won the war, but at great cost. His sons he could forgive; Eleanor he could not, for she’d inflicted a wound that would never fully heal.

  Henry sought to make peace with his sons, but they were bitter that he continued to hold their mother prisoner and resentful that he kept them under a tight rein. Because he felt he could no longer trust them, he tried to bribe or coerce them into staying loyal. A great king, he would prove to be a failure as a father, for he was unable to learn from his mistakes.

  His eldest and best-loved son, Hal—beguiling and handsome and utterly irresponsible—died in another rebellion against his sire, repenting when he was on his deathbed, when it was too late.

  Upon Hal’s death, the heir apparent was his brother Richard, who’d been raised in Eleanor’s Aquitaine, meant from birth to rule over her duchy. Geoffrey, the third brother, had been wed to a great heiress of his own, Constance, the Duchess of Brittany. And then there was John, called John Lackland by his father in jest, for by the time he was born, there was little left for a younger fourth son. Henry was bound and determined to provide for John, too, and he unwittingly unleashed the furies that would bring about his ruin.

  Henry demanded that Richard yield up Aquitaine to John, reasoning that Richard no longer needed the duchy now that he was to inherit an empire. But Richard loved Aquitaine, as he loved his imprisoned mother, and he would never forgive Henry for trying to take the duchy from him.

  Henry made the same mistake with Geoffrey, withholding a large portion of his wife’s Breton inheritance to ensure Geoffrey’s good behavior. He only succeeded in driving Geoffrey into rebellion, too, and he’d allied himself with Philippe, the young French king, when he was killed in a tournament outside Paris.

  The king who’d once jested about his surfeit of sons now had only two. When he stubbornly refused to recognize Richard as his heir, his son began to suspect that he meant to disinherit him in favor of John. Following in the footsteps of his brothers Hal and Geoffrey, Richard turned to the French king for aid, and it eventually came to war. By then, Henry was ailing and did not want to fight his own son. Richard no longer trusted him, though, and Henry was forced to make a humiliating surrender. But the worst was still to come. As Henry lay feverish and wretched at Chinon Castle, he learned that John, the son for whom he’d sacrificed so much, had betrayed him, making a private peace with Richard and King Philippe. Henry died two days later, crying, “Shame upon a conquered king.” Few mourned. As was the way of their world, eyes were already turning from the sunset to the rising sun, to the man acclaimed as one of the best battle commanders in all of Christendom, Richard, first of that name to rule England since the Conquest.

  CHAPTER 1

  JULY 1189

  Aboard the Galley San Niccolò

  ��

  Alicia had been fearful long before she faced death in the Straits of Messina. She’d been afraid since the spring, when she’d lost her father and the only home she’d ever known. Even the arrival of her brother Arnaud did not ease her anxiety, for he was ill equipped to assume responsibility for a little sister. Arnaud was a warrior monk, one of that famed brotherhood-in-arms known as the Knights Templar, returning to Outremer to join the struggle to free the Holy City of Jerusalem from the infidels known as Saracens or Turks. Unable either to provide for Alicia’s future or to abandon her, he’d felt compelled to take her with him. Alicia was grateful, but bewildered, too, for she did not know what awaited her in the Holy Land, and she suspected that her brother did not know, either. As he was her only lifeline, she had no choice but to trust in Arnaud and God as they left France behind.

  The overland journey had been hard upon a young girl unaccustomed to travel. Arnaud had been kind in a distracted sort of way, though, and his fellow Templars had done their best to shield her from the rigors of the road, so some of her anxiety had begun to subside by the time they reached Genoa. But her fear came rushing back as soon as she set foot upon the wet, quaking deck of the San Niccolò.

  Arnaud was pleased that he’d been able to book passage on a galley, explaining to Alicia that it would not be becalmed like naves and busses that relied solely upon sails, showing her the two banks of oars on each side of the ship. Alicia saw only how low it rode in the water, and she no longer worried about her uncertain prospects in Outremer, sure that she’d never survive the sea voyage.

  She’d become seasick even before the Genoese lighthouse had receded into the distance. During the day, she huddled miserably in her small allotted space on the deck, obeying Arnaud’s orders not to mingle with the other passengers, trying to settle her queasy stomach by nibbling on the twice-baked ship’s biscuits. While some of the passengers had brought their own food, Arnaud had not, for he took seriously his Templar vows of poverty, obedience, and abstinence. The nights were by far the worst, and Alicia dreaded to see the sun sink into the sea behind them. She slept poorly, kept awake by the creaking and groaning of the ship’s timbers, the relentless pounding of waves against the hull, the snoring of their neighbors, and the skittering sounds made by rats and mice unseen in the darkness. Each passenger was provided with a terra-cotta chamber pot and, with every breath she took, she inhaled the rank smells of urin
e and vomit and sweat. Lying awake as the hours dragged by until dawn, scratching flea bites and blinking back tears as she remembered the peaceful and familiar life that had once been hers, she yearned for the comfort of her brother’s embrace, but Templars were forbidden to show physical affection to women, even their own mothers and sisters.

  While most of the passengers were males, merchants and pilgrims and swaggering youths who’d taken the cross and boasted endlessly about the great deeds they’d perform in the Holy Land, there were several women returning to Tyre with their husbands after visiting family back in France, and even a few female pilgrims determined to fulfill their vows in the midst of war. One kindly matron would have taken Alicia under her wing, touched by the girl’s youth, but Alicia was too shy to respond, not wanting to displease Arnaud.

  She did listen to the other woman’s cheerful conversation, though, marveling that she seemed so blithe about coming back to a land under siege. The port of Tyre and a few scattered castles were all that was left to the Christians in the Holy Land. Acre, Jaffa, and the sacred city of Jerusalem had all fallen to the infidels. On their journey, Alicia had heard her brother rant about the wickedness of the Saracens, bitterly cursing the man who led them, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria, Salah al-Dīn, known to the Christians as Saladin. Every time Alicia heard the name of Arnaud’s godless nemesis, she shivered. Arnaud’s courage was beyond question. He didn’t even seem afraid of the perilous, hungry sea. If he died fighting the infidels, his entry into Paradise would be assured. But what would happen to her?

  Arnaud had told her that their voyage to Tyre would take about thirty-five days, explaining that the prevailing winds blew from the west and they’d make faster time with the wind at their back. Voyages from the Holy Land took much longer, he said, since ships were sailing into the wind. When he added casually that it mattered naught to them since they’d not be returning to France, Alicia felt a pang of dismay, for she did not know if she wanted to live out her life in the alien, war-torn kingdom known as Outremer—the Land beyond the Sea. She’d overheard Arnaud talking about her to one of his Templar companions, saying that he knew the abbess of Our Lady of Tyre and she might be willing to take his sister in as a boarder and later as a novice. Alicia realized she could not stay with Arnaud in Tyre, for women were banned from their temples and commanderies, even orphaned little sisters. But she was not sure she wanted to be a nun. Shouldn’t that be a free choice, not a last resort? Wouldn’t it please the Lord Christ more if His brides came to Him willingly, not because they had nowhere else to go?