ow wish to carry his marriage
with Alice into effect was that, in the mean time, while his father
had been withholding Alice from him, he had seen and fallen in love
with another lady, the Princess Berengaria. Richard first saw
Berengaria several years before, at a time when he was with his mother
in Aquitaine, during the life of his father. The first time that he
saw her was at a grand tournament which was celebrated in her native
city in Spain, and which Richard went to attend. The families had been
well acquainted with each other before, though, until the tournament,
Richard had never seen Berengaria. Richard had, however, known one of
her brothers from his boyhood, and they had always been very great
friends. The father of Berengaria, too, Sancho the Wise, King of
Navarre, had always been a warm friend of Eleanora, Richard's mother,
and in the course of the difficulties and quarrels that took place
between her and her husband, as related in the early chapters of this
volume, he had rendered her very valuable services. Still, Richard
never saw Berengaria until she had grown up to womanhood.

He, however, felt a strong desire to see her, for she was quite
celebrated for her beauty and her accomplishments. The accomplishments
in which she excelled were chiefly music and poetry. Richard himself
was greatly interested in these arts, especially in the songs of the
Troubadours, whose performances always formed a very important part of
the entertainment at the feasts and tournaments, and other great
public celebrations of those days.

When Richard came to see Berengaria, he fell deeply in love with her.
But he could not seek her hand in marriage on account of his
engagement with Alice. To have given up Alice, and to have entered
instead into an engagement with her, would have involved both him and
his mother, and all the family of Berengaria too, in a fierce quarrel
with the King of France, the father of Alice, and also with his own
father. These were too serious consequences for him to brave while he
was still only a prince, and nominally under his father's authority.
So he did nothing openly, though a strong secret attachment sprang up
between him and Berengaria, and all desire ever to make Alice his wife
gradually disappeared.

At length, when his father died, and Richard became King of England,
he felt at once that the power was now in his own hands, and that he
would do as he liked in respect to his marriage. Alice'